Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 20th, 2006
Synopsis
Duane Hopwood (David Schwimmer) works as a casino pit boss in Atlantic City, and is an alcoholic. His drinking has already cost him his marriage, and now ex-wife Janeane Garofalo is having to face the possibility of curtailing his visitation rights after he drives drunk with his young daughter in the back seat. After he makes a bad call at work, his job is in jeopardy as well. But there is hope for redemption still.
Roger Ebert calls this a “career-transforming performance.” Hardly...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 20th, 2006
Before we get into it, just a quick recommendation to check out "Making Movies" by Sidney Lumet, the director of Network, Dog Day Afternoon and 12 Angry Men. While it's a quick read at 220 pages, it talks about dealing with the actors, rehearsal, a day on the set, and other various forms of a production, and includes stories that happened on his sets also. It's an intriguing book, worth checking out at your local bookstore. A "Ryan's Book Club" pick, if you will.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 19th, 2006
In the first season review of Hill Street Blues I talked about the Steven Bochco family tree of producers and show runners that got their start on this show. This season does a lot to remind us that a great many actors made their mark with this program. Such future stars as Danny Glover, David Caruso, Brent Spiner, and Dennis Dugan all made their first heavy mark on Hill Street Blues. Dugan’s Captain Freedom episodes are some of the most remembered shows of the series run. This particular arc is a great example of how the show could be funny, emotional, and action packed, and still have more heart than any show on at that time.
Posted in: 2.35:1 Widescreen, Disc Reviews, Dolby Digital 2.0 (English), Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), Drama, DVD, New Line by Archive Authors on May 19th, 2006
Synopsis
Virginia, 1607. English ships arrive and a colony is set up, but with considerable difficulty. Famine and disease take their toll. Captain John Smith (Colin Farrell) heads off to seek help from the Powhatan. He is captured, sentenced to death, but saved by Pocahontas (Q’orianka Kilcher, whose character is never actually given that name). So begins a fateful relationship.
Terence Malick has something of the Stanley Kubrick around him: he only puts out a movie about once a decade, hi...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 19th, 2006
The world of politically charged films has certainly grown in the past few years. Films like Farhenheit 911 have seen big success, while other films like Rupert Murdoch’s OutFoxed have seen more of a critical success. Both of these films had extreme media attention, one obviously more than the other, prior and after their releases. Both asked questions and demanded answers to topics and issues we, as people, wondered about but never really asked about as a simple person can’t really enact a high success...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 18th, 2006
Synopsis
Adam Sandler plays Robbie Hart, wedding singer in 1985, making a living covering other people’s songs, but happy with his life, until he is dumped at the altar. Total professional meltdown then ensues (in the big money scene that everyone saw in the trailers). Hope for romance still exists, however, in the person of Drew Barrymore, a waitress about to be married to a total jerk.
This is the film that demonstrated that Sandler was more than a one-trick pony, that the man could act i...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 18th, 2006
Carla (Yuliya Myarchuk) is a Venetian in London, looking for a flat in which she and her boyfriend Matteo can live once he actually arrives there. In the meantime, she has been in London for a month, and he is in Rome, pining for her. Both of them are getting a bit sexually frustrated, but Carla works that issue out with a series of affairs, and for some reason, Matteo seems to have a problem with this.We are once again in the of Tinto Brass' ass-worship and cheerful infedelity. The tone is established by Carla's opening credit stroll through Hyde Park (a walk which Matteo will recreate later to transformative effect), which is depicted as a carnal wonderland.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 17th, 2006
One reviewer accurately described The White Countess as having "echoes of Casablanca." More than that, this last production from Merchant-Ivory seems like it lifted its premise entirely from the classic Bogart film. But at the same time, there is enough different about this colorful and mesmerizing piece to distinguish it as something original - or original enough. With murmurings about that Hollywood may one day remake Casablanca (as it seems they have everything else), I hope and pray the gods ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 17th, 2006
Kim Cattrall has had a long and storied career in both television and movies. In the 80's she hit a streak of cult comedies with parts in such as Porky's, Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China and even Turk 182. Of course, even with a resume like that, we would never be talking about her today were it not for her work as Samantha on Sex and the City. In 2005, Cattrall wrote a book Called Sexual Intelligence that explores various areas of sex, such as arousal, desire and...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 17th, 2006
The Producers has taken an almost cinematic storyline of its own. In 1967 Mel Brooks filmed this tale with one of his mainstays, Gene Wilder. The film was a modest success. It was as a Broadway production that this material reached a wide audience. The play has been a hit for decades now. It only seems inevitable that a new film would surface. This 2005 version of the story is closer to the stage production than the original film. There are quite a few more musical numbers, and that’s essentially where this film goes wrong.
