Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 9th, 2008
On paper, Rendition looked good. Damn good. It had Reese Witherspoon, hot off her best actress win as June Carter in Walk the Line. It had “it boy” Jake Gyllenhaal from Brokeback Mountain and Zodiac. It also had stalwarts in Alan Arkin and Meryl Streep rounding out the cast. It was directed by acclaimed Tsotsi director Gavin Hood. And it was about post 9/11 hot-button issues such as torture and imprisonment without due process.
The plot: when a bombing occurs in North Africa, Committee Chairman Corrine Whitman commands the CIA to abduct Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) who is on his way back from a conference in South Africa. She has solid evidence that connects him to the bombing but Anwar maintains his innocence, even when he is tortured. American agent Douglass Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) is already burnt out, even at a young age, and looks on while Anwar is tortured by the officials of a North African country where the bombing took place. But will Douglass care enough to help Anwar, even as he comes to believe he’s innocent?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 8th, 2008
Jack Lemmon is a rather meek insurance company employee who is slowly working his way up the corporate ladder by lending his apartment to married executives looking for a place to take their girlfriends. Life is rather inconvenient, as he is locked out of his home at all hours, but things become even more complicated when the big boss (Fred McMurray) takes an interest. The good news is that Lemmon gets another promotion. The bad news is that McMurray’s affair is with Shirley MacLaine, the elevator girl for whom Lemmon is carrying a torch.
Billy Wilder’s follow-up to Some Like It Hot certainly has plenty of funny moments, most involving Lemmon’s doctor neighbour (Jack Kuschen). But the film doesn’t shy away from the darker implications of its storyline (up to and including a suicide attempt). The result is a romantic comedy-drama that is sweet without being sentimental, and hard-nosed without being cynical. And the audience’s emotions are thus sincerely earned.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 28th, 2008
I’m going to be honest with you, I can’t stand the stand up comedy of Robin Williams. Growing up, I used to like it and thought it was pretty hilarious, but two things have changed since then. First off, my voice changed and I grew hair in strange places, but secondly, Williams stopped doing cocaine, which as any artist will tell you, seems to neuter them creatively (Eddie Van Halen, I’m looking at you). But hey, at least in his later years he seems to have mellowed out and Patch Adams seems to be a progression of that.
Steve Oedekerk (Bruce Almighty) adapted the book that Tom Shadyac (Evan Almighty) directs here. Williams plays Hunter Adams, a man who attempts to commit suicide and admits himself to a mental institution, where he finds a connection with his roommate in the ward. He decides to rededicate himself, and goes to medical school where admittedly he’s a little bit older than some of the other students there, including his highly qualified roommate Mitch (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote). His intellect is exemplary, but he seems to throw off the school’s staff and president (played by Bob Gunton of Shawshank Redemption lore), because his personable nature goes against his vision, and Adams’ “excessive happiness” eventually cracks the visage of Corinne (Monica Potter, Without Limits), who becomes the requisite love interest to the film’s protagonist.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 28th, 2008
Beowulf is one of the oldest written stories known. The story began as a heroic tale passed from generation to generation only by word of mouth. Naturally there’s no way to know how much the story changed during those years of oral tradition. The author of the piece is unknown, and it is likely several persons contributed to the work. By the 8th Century an epic poem was written that forms the story as it is remembered today. Several translations have followed over the years, resulting in many variations of the story. This very impressive history makes Beowulf a natural to be filmed. There are so many versions that there is little worry about following a beloved canon. Second, the story is flourishing with wonderfully imaginative creatures that can now be savored ever so much more with the development of CG technology over the last 20 years. I’m honestly quite surprised that it has taken this long for this kind of a movie to find its way into release.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 27th, 2008
I am a huge John Woo fan, especially his earlier classics like Hard Boiled. I’ll admit it’s been several years since I last seen Face/Off, but I don’t have a reason why, as I remember really liking this movie then. At either rate now I have a copy of the movie to call my own, and a special two disc release at that. Let’s just hope that it is what I remember, but as a big fan of Nick Cage I don’t think I’ll be let down.
In order to catch him, he must become him. I couldn’t put it any better myself, Face/Off tells quite the eccentric story of revenge, devotion, and of course crime. Sean Archer (John Travolta, Wild Hogs) is an extremely devoted FBI agent, obsessed with catching terrorist Castor Troy (Nicholas Cage, Ghost Rider). Several years earlier Troy killed Archer’s son, since then it’s been his goal in life to put Troy to justice. He gets the opportunity one day when Troy ends up in a coma after boasting about a massive terrorist attack he has planned on Los Angeles.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 25th, 2008
Written by Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice has been made into a film several times, with varying results. The novel itself is a classic, written by one of the most pioneering woman in literature history. This 2005 film version stars Keira Knightley (Atonement) as Elizabeth “Lizzie” Bennett, one in a family of five sisters, living in Hartfordshire, a small English country town. Lizzie is the second-oldest sister and should already be married, according to her overbearing mother (Brenda Blethyn, Beyond the Sea). However, much like Jane Austen herself, Lizzie wants to marry for love, and not just to please her parents (although her father (Donald Sutherland, JFK) just wants her to be happy). To add to her parents concern, once they die, the girls will have nowhere to live, as back in those days, property and money passed only to males, and in their case it goes to the girls’ cousin, Mr. Collins (Tom Hollander, A Good Year).
The family gets a reason for excitement when they find that the rich and single Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods, Rome) is coming to town. What they didn’t realize is that he has a few people with him—his sister, the stylish and snobby Caroline Bingley (Kelly Reilly, The Libertine), and Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfayden, Grindhouse), his best friend. The Bennett family meets the Bingley’s first at a ball, where Lizzie’s older sister, Jane (Rosamund Pike, Fracture), comes into contact with the handsome Mr. Bingley. They’re both smitten, but Jane is shy and doesn’t show her emotions readily. Lizzie finds Mr. Darcy to be quite rude, and clashes with him and his opinions of “country folk.” Before it seems as though Jane will be offered a marriage proposal from Mr. Bingley, he and his posse leave Hartfordshire, giving essentially no reason except to say that Mr. Darcy misses his sister. They do return, but before that, Mr. Collins comes and stays with the Bennetts, looking for a wife. He has his sights set on Lizzie and offers her marriage, something Lizzie wants nothing to do with.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on February 11th, 2008
The web has a way of delivering some of the most interesting material. Flash animation in particular can produce some very funny shorts. Furthermore, these shorts are unedited and can be downloaded by millions of people on a whim. These viral episodes can be played over and over again, with little care to the quality or the content. But what happens when they take that idea and decide to make into a feature length film? In this case, proof that people will download anything.
Jake is the king of poon nanni. He'll screw anything in a skirt and come back for sloppy seconds. However, Siton is not so lucky in the conquering of young females. In fact, he's never been fortunate enough to get a girl to sit a top of his knob. One night, Jake uses Siton as his wing man in his quest for more tastes of the forbidden fruit. After Siton fails to close the deal, Jake realizes that this character needs a little more help. We also find out that Siton is actually a prince. Thus begins the journey where Jake and Prince Siton go across the world trying to find beautiful women and more importantly one that gives the prince his first taste of that casual sex.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 10th, 2008
It'll be interesting when man travels past the moon to far away places in outer space. The science of it will be reason enough for the rest of the world's population to pay attention, but I want to find out, more than anything, if every deep space crew in real life runs into the same problems that they do in the movies.
In Sunshine, a movie by director Danny Boyle, I thought that the deep space crew in the film would be relatively free of space movie cliches. This just didn't seem like one of those movies. But I'll be damned if at the end of the movie Cillian Murphy wasn't racing panicked through the corridor of his space ship, determined to detonate a nuclear bomb before a clock reached zero.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 8th, 2008
Ever find yourself shuffling around your local video store, eyes glazed over at all of typical genre fare studios churn out year after year, longing for something different? You could head over to the independent/festival section for relief, but it might mean straying farther from your usual tastes than you’d like. Enter The Brave One, an intelligent thriller that takes the usual revenge tale and rearranges its DNA. It offers the unusual perspective of director Neil Jordan (The Good Thief) and Jodie Foster’s finest performance since The Silence of the Lambs.
Foster stars as Erica Bain, a New Yorker whose life is torn apart by a vicious attack that leaves her in a coma and her fiancé dead. When she comes to weeks later, she learns of his death and funeral, and she cannot remember enough from those dark moments in Central Park to help the police track down the killers. Bain, host of an I-love-NY radio show called “I Walk the Streets,” can now hardly bear leaving her apartment. Fear controls her. The city she once loved has become a terrible place where danger lurks everywhere, in dark corners and broad daylight. Giving in to her fear, Bain buys a gun off the street, and like Alice down the rabbit-hole, her life spirals into a disturbing adventure.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 6th, 2008
In the Valley of Elah is the second film I’ve seen recently that addresses the condition of soldiers returning from the Iraq war. Unlike Home of the Brave, however, Elah is actually a strong film with impressive performances and a story that hooks you and holds on to the end. It’s a Paul Haggis production – the two-time Oscar winner wrote, directed and produced the film – so Elah has some serious cred right off the bat, thanks to the success of other Haggis projects. Maybe you’ve heard of Crash, best picture winner of 2004, Million Dollar Baby or Letters From Iwo Jima?
Those credits aside, In the Valley of Elah’s best feature is a masterful performance by Tommy Lee Jones (No Country for Old Men), who’s up for a best actor Oscar for his portrayal of an old-school army veteran searching for his son.
![Face Off [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/face-off-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
![Pride & Prejudice [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/pride-prejudice-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
