Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 14th, 2005
Let’s face it. Hollywood isn’t taking enough chances these days. In the era of film franchises, sequels and remakes, Hollywood has become too predictable, leading to mediocre reviews for most big releases and even worse box office returns. Many film goers have looked to independent and foreign films to challenge them, and for good reason. Foreign films march to the beat of their own drum, use complex themes and imagery to tell their story, and they usually keep you guessing until the very end. The same can be said f...r Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance.
Sympathy hails from Korea, a country not known for its movie making abilities until Chan Wook Park’s Oldboy showed up on the radar last year. Being that Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is part of the “Vengeance Trilogy” that includes Park’s Oldboy and Lady Vengeance, Sympathy is surely going to gain some late momentum as curious fans of Oldboy start digging beneath its surface and find this 2002 film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 13th, 2005
Synopsis
Courtney Cox is a photography instructor struggling to put her life back together. A month earlier, on November 7, her boyfriend (James Le Gros) was gunned down during a convenience store robbery. Cox is unable to move on, and is suffering from crippling headaches. One day, a mysterious slide shows up in her carousel: it is a photograph of the exterior of the store during the actual robbery. Cox brings the picture to the attention of the police, hoping they might track down the photographer....They do. And then...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 11th, 2005
Synopsis
In Antarctica, Godzilla battles the Gohten-go (an earth-drilling/submarine/flying ship familiar from Ataragon), and winds up buried after an earthquake. Flash-forward to the near future after a superb credit sequence by Kyle (Se7en) Cooper, and monsters are suddenly attacking cities all over the world. Humanity is apparently saved by the extraterrestrial Xilians, who zap the monsters away. Of course, it turns out the Xilians are up to no good, and were controlling the monsters ...ll along. When their plan is exposed, and their leadership assumed by a violent hothead, the Xilians unleash the monsters again, and wipe out human civilization. The only hope for the humanity as a species is for the crew of the Gohten-go to awaken Godzilla and hope he defeats all the other monsters.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 11th, 2005
Synopsis
G.W. McLintock (John Wayne, True Grit, Rooster Cogburn) made most of his money by being a cattle baron. He made so much money in fact, the film’s fictional town was named after him. How cool is that? But all is not milk and honey in McLintock’s life. He has an estranged wife who does not live with him (Quiet Man co star Maureen O’Hara), and now wants a divorce.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 11th, 2005
Synopsis
Sometimes studios will hit big on a film, and other times, they’ll be so far off the mark as to miss the boat completely. Take the case of Frostbite. Summarized, as one cast member puts it, as “part Caddyshack meets part American Pie meets part Dude, Where’s My Car? in the snow.” You know, I remember a movie kinda like that, and I rented it back in 1984, when t was called Hot Dog..The Movie.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 10th, 2005
Ben Cross (D.L. Hughley) is a former teacher with a dark past and some anger issues. He still sleeps with his ex-wife, but she’d rather be elsewhere. When Ben gets a call from an old colleague who asks him to teach at a juvenile prison facility, Ben figures it’s a good stepping stone to get back into teaching.
After meeting his unruly class, Ben realizes that a good way to get the kids focused is for them to express themselves through rap and poetry. One student named Gabriel (Jose Pablo Cantillo), with who... Ben connects, is good enough to go toe-to-toe with Eminem in 8 Mile.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 10th, 2005
Every now and then, a film comes along that I really think is something special, but for whatever reason, the movie-going public doesn't agree. For me, The Truman Show is one of those films. Maybe it was because this was Jim Carrey's first serious role. Maybe it was because it felt too gimmicky with the popularity of The Real World at the time, and being released around the same time as the similarly-themed film EdTV. Maybe it was because the premise was just a little too far outside of the norma... summer box office fare.
The fact is, the reasons that I like this movie are pretty similar to the reasons that others may not have. Jim Carrey was simply fantastic in this film, and his bold performance proved my theory that it is much more difficult to be a great comedic actor than most people believe. Carrey was handed the unenviable task of being made to carry a film that was about a lot of things at once. This is a film about big government. About secrets and lies, what it means to love someone and discovering who we are as humans. This is a film about limits, about control, and about the media. It's about knowing what to believe, what not to believe, and how to tell the two apart. It is about the importance of being the same person at work, in the home and everywhere in between.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 9th, 2005
Synopsis
We all know the story, even if we haven’t seen the film. Risk-taking (and potentially criminally irresponsible) documentary maker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) charters a ship and sets off for an uncharted island. On board are first mate Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot) and Ann Darrow (Fay Wray), the woman Denham has tapped for the lead in his film. They arrive at Skull Island, and before long, Ann is kidnapped and offered as a sacrifice to Kong. The giant ape falls for Ann, and a romantic trian...le of truly mythic proportions ensues as Jack and Kong struggle with each other (and other monsters) for possession of the woman.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 8th, 2005
Sometime during the 1990’s, big-budget blockbusters stopped getting by on special effects alone. Even though Independence Day, Godzilla, and Armageddon showed us that ground-breaking special effects don’t translate into quality films, Hollywood kept making them -- and people kept spending their hard-earned money to see them.
Stealth is the newest movie in that mold. Heavy on great visuals and special effects, it fails to deliver any character development, emotion or common sense, result...ng in a lop-sided film. Had Stealth been released 10 years ago, it may have been considered ground-breaking and its shortcomings may have been overlooked. Today it feels old, even though most of the visual technology used in the movie is new, which may explain why it was considered a massive flop in theaters.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 8th, 2005
Film
“This is not a trend. This is us. This is who we are.”
