Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 24th, 2006
After the transformation of the Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings books into hugely successful films, it was only a matter of time before someone decided to tackle C.S. Lewis’s famous novels The Chronicles of Narnia. Both of the aforementioned books into movies were excellent because, even though they didn’t include every little detail presented in the novels, fans still embraced the films for what they were. They brought a majority of the presented themes and ideas in the books and showed u... them in a live action manner via the film. Similar to the seven part Harry Potter series, would it be possible for the classic seven part Narnia series to have a successful transformation into film?
Both C.S. Lewis, author of the famed Narnia books, and J.R.R. Tolkien, famed author of the Rings books, were said to have been friends who taught at Oxford at exactly the same time. They both enjoyed smoking pipe, drinking in the same pub, taking Christianity seriously, and writing. Lewis loved Tolkein’s style of writing and the universe he created for the Rings books, but Tolkein never seemed to return the same affection to Lewis’s Narnia books. Many say this is because Tolkein actually created a vast universe for his novels, while Lewis just used his native country as the setting.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 23rd, 2006
Synopsis
Above the Zu Mountain range, on floating peaks and the like, live various clans of immortals. They must unite to fight off the attack of a returning enemy: the dreaded demon Insomnia. The united efforts of the clans meet with plenty of problems, including star-crossed lovers, and humans from down below wind up being dragged into the battle, too.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 22nd, 2006
Synopsis
Five years after saving New York City from supernatural destruction, the Ghostbusters have fallen on hard times. Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver have broken up, and he is now the host of a dubious psychic TV show. Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson have been reduced to performing a children’s parties, what with the anti-spook outfit having been sued into non-existence. And so it goes. But then weird goop, powered by New York’s anger, rises from the ground to create havoc anew.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 19th, 2006
The genre of Thrillers and Suspense are usually categorized by types of films that the viewer watches and then wonders what they just watched. Films like Memento and The Machinist are prime examples of this. Both films, after many viewings, are excellent films solely because they require that the viewer think of each scene with careful scrutiny making note of each and everything on the screen. Both films end with the type of ending that doesn’t necessarily satisfy on the first viewing, but ultimately sa...isfies after many viewings. Add the film Stay to this list of films.
Henry Lethem (Ryan Gosling) is an art student at a university who plays to kill himself in three days, that is unless his psychiatrist Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) can figure him out to stop his plan. Foster soon learns that Lethem is starting to hear voices, voices that are telling him to do things. But the enjoyment for Foster doesn’t end here as Lethem starts experiencing horrifying visions of pain. Lethem seems to be able to see the future at least as he knows everything that is going to occur a bit before it does. When Foster asks if they’ll meet again when Lethem informs him that he’ll kill himself, he declares “Yeah, there’s still three more days’. While the concept of seeing into the future before your ‘death’ is nothing new, I always find it to be interesting how every movie plays this angle out.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 16th, 2006
Biographies are nothing brand new. Hollywood has been making these types of films for quite sometime. Some of the more famous biographies are about people like George S. Patton and political leader Ghandi. Most recently, audiences were invited into the world of Truman Capote. The two aforementioned biographies tended to cast actors that seemed not to necessarily play the person, but more so become the character almost channeling him. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, like George C. Scott and Ben Kingsley, channels Capote in a...rare and artful manner.
The film version of Capote tells the story of Truman Capote who on November 15th, 1959, noticed a news item about four members of a Kansas family who had been shot-gunned to death. Capote telephoned William Shawn, editor of The New Yorker, wondering if Shawn would be interested in an article about the murders. It was later said, by Capote, that this was a big mistake of his as this sole event resulted in the occurrence of a lot of bad events for one Capote.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 6th, 2006
Synopsis
The Bennet family is not rich, and when Mr. Bennet (Donald Sutherland) dies, the estate will pass out of the family’s hands and into those of a rather pompous little twit of a parson. There are five daughters, and their future can only be achieved through marriage. Elizabeth Bennet (Keira Knightley) is the second daughter (improbably described as plain). Her path repeated crosses that of Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen), an aloof, brooding gentleman who apparently has little use for her or her ...amily. She doesn’t like him much, either. They are both, of course, in for a surprise.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 6th, 2006
Ever since making the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Director Peter Jackson has almost become a household name that seems to always guarantee success. Don’t get me wrong though, Jackson has not always been successful. Before making the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jackson had the film The Frighteners and a few smaller films where he only produced. The idea of giving this not so successful movie director hundreds of millions of dollars to remake the Lord of the Rings trilogy, made many turn their...heads simply wondering why. But, after the gigantic success of the trilogy, Jackson targeted another remake, a remake to a film he says was the reason he wanted to become a film director. The film in question is the 1933 classic King Kong
When news first arrived of this remake, many fans, including myself, were very excited to see what Jackson could come up with. However, I don’t need to spell out how many remakes, including the recent Pink Panther, are extremely horrid. With the news coming out that Universal wanted Jackson to trim the film down (from the final run time of 182 minutes to 140 for a quicker turn around audience) and that the film’s budget had sky-rocketed forcing Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh to fork over their money, a lot of fans started to worry if Peter Jackson’s King Kong was going to go down in history as simply another poorly made remake. Can a one-time nobody director, now an extremely famous director turn a black and white classic into a modern age epic? Read on to find out.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 3rd, 2006
Synopsis
In the late fifties, Lanny Morris (Kevin Bacon) and Vince Collins (Colin Firth) are a top-rated comedy duo, hosts of a polio telethon. At the height of their career, everything comes crashing down when the body of a young woman is discovered in the bathtub of their hotel suite. They have cast-iron alibis, but the team is dissolved. Fifteen years later, up-and-coming journalist Karen O’Connor (Alison Lohman) lands a sweetheart deal to write a book about Vince, and he is being paid a million d...llars to agree to in-depth interview. What Karen really wants to know is what really happened to that young woman, but she also quickly becomes ensnared in the angled web of guilt shared by the two men.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 28th, 2006
Utter the simple phrase of Harry Potter to any age, and it is nearly guaranteed that they will know what you are speaking about. Since becoming a worldwide phenomenon in 1999, the Harry Potter series have been turned into everything from video games to bathing products. Most notably, the series have been turned into a set of excellent films that are successful, for the most part, in recreating the major elements presented in the novels by author J.K.Rowling.
With this being the fourth film in the series of ...even, I had a few fears going into this film. With this book being the longest of the four books at this point, I was worried that new director Mike Newell would’nt be successful in presenting all the ideas Rowling went over in the book. While the film does not mention every little detail (the most notable gripe is the lack of the Dursley’s), Newell is very successful in bringing the action, suspense, fear, emotion, and growth of the characters to the big screen in stunning style.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 25th, 2006
Synopsis
I think that by revisiting Unbreakable, and looking at it outside of M. Night Shyamalan’s other films (The Sixth Sense and Signs), there’s actually a pretty good movie going on there. I mean, a movie that grossed $95 million domestically can’t be considered a failure, right? It did, however, do amazing overall numbers, the international totals brought the film up to a near $250 million gross. However, I guess when you put them up against Signs ($227 million domestic, $40... million worldwide) and The Sixth Sense ($293 million domestic, $672 fricken’ million worldwide), maybe it can be considered disappointing, but the film itself is pretty good.
