Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 20th, 2007
Con movies are nothing new to Hollywood. Each has that character who thinks they�re on top of the world behind this bullet proof armor only to eventually realize that they�ve either been played or been watched the entire time. I suppose what makes con films work on the level they do is that these characters (admit it!) are all committing acts we�d love to even THINK about committing. The only problem is that we�re not even that badass of a person to even attempt it. Having never seen this film, I figured I�d get a fairly entertaining film with decent acting and an interesting enough plot. Boy was I mistaken about this one. Oscar awarded 1973 film The Sting has easily become my favorite con film.
Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) is a small-time con man from Joliet, Illinois. Hooker and his buddies Luther Coleman (Robert Earl Jones) and Joe Erie (Jack Kehoe) steal $11K from a victim without the victim ever knowing. After this huge success, Luther tells Johnny that he wants to retire from this gig of crime so he can move to Kansas City, Missouri. He tells Hooker to seek out his old friend named Henry Gondroff.
![The Sting [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-sting-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
Posted in: Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on January 20th, 2007
The next time someone talks about The Sixth Sense having an original twist ending, sit them down and force them to watch Carnival of Souls (1962).
Spoiler warning. If you haven’t seen either of these films, or generally have no idea what I’m talking about, stop reading now. Go away. Come back next week. You don’t want to be hear. God knows, I might spoil the twist in The Crying Game while I’m at it.
Posted in: News and Opinions by Archive Authors on January 19th, 2007
Yes, its coming. And yes, it plays both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs, although apparently for the HD-DVD's you can only watch the movie - no menu access just yet.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 19th, 2007
Having previously only seen the theatrical trailer for Derailed, I was pleased to finally get a chance to watch it. The movie seemed to be filled with a lot of suspense, but the redundancy of this type of affair movie sort of detoured me. Ultimately, I went into this with expectations of an impressive thriller.
Charles Schine (Clive Owen) is a well-off advertising executive married to a school teacher. Together, they have a teenage daughter. Due to complications with diabetes the couple has to be co...stantly on alert with their daughter, causing them continuous stress and leading to what is ultimately a deteriorating marriage.
![Derailed (Unrated) [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/derailed-unrated-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 19th, 2007
Back in 1979 (that's a whole generation ago, kids!) Matt Dillon was appearing in films that would make the average reader of Tiger Beat swoon. He was in plenty of material like Little Darlings, Rumble Fish and The Outsiders that didn't help that idea too much in the eyes of his female fans (of which there are scores). But since the early '80s, he's gone through a bit of a rediscovery, and in the film Factotum, based on the works of author Charles Bukowski, he may have hit his best stride to date.
In the film, Dillon plays Henry, a guy who takes many jobs and loses all of them rather quickly, but still finds enough time to drink while providing dramatic voiceover on his life as an aspiring writer he's always wanted to be. The stories he periodically sends to publishers to read without success is part of his life too. He meets Jan (Lili Taylor, Say Anything) who helps him in a time where he's lonely, but he leaves her and finds another woman in Laura (Marisa Tomei, My Cousin Vinny). In Laura he thinks he's found love, but as it turns out, Laura is one of several barflys that a wealthy Frenchman houses and beds with great frequency. Of note, one of the women is played by Adrienne Shelly (Sleep With Me) in her last film role before her murder in late 2006. Anyway, side notes aside, Henry and Laura eventually split up, and in a stroke of luck, he manages to bump into Jan again, who helps to get him on his feet.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 19th, 2007
The only thing I really knew about The Librarian was that Noah Wyle, previously known for his work in ER was playing in some goofy looking film, and the making of this film was getting in the way of whatever theatrical film I was watching from August-October. Imagine my surprise when I found out that it was more than just a goofy little film, that it was the second in a presumed series, and hey, it's not all that much about a library at all!
Written by Marco Schnabel in his initial outing and directed by Number One himself, Jonathan Frakes, Wyle plays Flynn Carsen, an adventurous academic with 22 Ph. D's who works in a library that's maintained by Judson (Bob Newhart, Elf) and the accountant Charlene (Jane Curtin, Saturday Night Live). He goes to Africa to search for the secrets behind King Solomon, and encounters a myriad of intrigue that few are familiar with.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 18th, 2007
I'm sure we all remember when it was rumored that Brett Ratner was going to direct Superman Returns and Bryan Singer was going to direct the third X-Men film. Well we all know how that one turned out. Ratner made a decent film while Singer made a better film but not without it�s own faults.Superman Returns takes place roughly five years after the events of Superman II. Superman aka Clark Kent (portrayed by Brandon Routh) has left on a journey back to his home planet of Krypton. Upon returning, Superman notices everything is different. Most important to him is that Lois Lane (portrayed by Kate Bosworth) is married (and worse off has a child). Superman learns that Lois was kind of pissed that he suddenly zoomed off without saying goodbye to her and everyone else. In fact she was so angered by his sudden departure that she wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning article on �Why the World Doesn�t Need Superman� (something that obviously hurts Clark).
Superman�s arch enemy, Lex Luthor (this time portrayed with little to no emotion by Kevin Spacey) is out of jail (yes like a common sense world would release a super criminal like Luthor out just because Superman couldn�t testify) and is ready to create more havoc. This time Luthor intends to use a few kryptonite crystals to make cities right in the middle of the ocean. And what is Luthor�s goal in this? Why to make money of course (imagine the cost he asks). Doesn�t Luthor have enough money?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 18th, 2007
Alexandra Holden is a big-time TV reporter who is traumatized when an intruder breaks into her home and kills her fiancé. (Does this set-up remind anyone of The Howling?) She retreats to her old home-town, moves back with her parents (Sid Haig and Leslie Easterbrook!) and starts work at a local TV station. Her first assignment takes her to a house where murders took place years ago, and she promptly has visions of ghosts and the murders, and she feels she is being called on to provide justice for the ghosts. Their still-living killer has other ideas, however.
The counter-casting of Haig and Easterbrook (most recently together in The Devil’s Rejects) as overly protective parents is enjoyable perverse, but the movie itself has the rather plodding, pedestrian feel of a late-70's made-for-TV flick. The dialogue is frequently awkward and excessively expository, and the characters aren’t always consistent. There are a couple of decently assembled jolts, but there isn’t really much here to lift things out of the run-of-the-mill.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 18th, 2007
This is the second volume of Pluto cartoons, here going from 1947 to the end of the series in 1951. The neat thing about these themed collections in the Wald Disney Treasures series is that they highlight particular strengths in Disney’s animation. Thus, if the Silly Symphonies sets focus on the marriage of movement with music, the Pluto cartoons are wonders of pantomime, since the central character doesn’t speak. Pluto is not a jot less communicative for not using words, however, and the sight gags involved in some of his facial expressions (such as when wearing the unwanted “Pluto’s Sweater”) are priceless. Pluto’s frequent sidekick Figaro the cat has the spotlight to himself in three bonus cartoons.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 18th, 2007
Let me begin here by saying that I�ve never found any film based on the Vietnam War good. I assume this stems from that everything I�ve ever known or been taught about the War shows that (I apologize in advance for those who get offended) the War was not necessary (this said by my Uncle who fought in the War). Every Vietnam film I�ve tried to enjoy from Born on the Fourth of July to Platoon I just couldn�t as this little reminder always poked in the back of my mind. I should honestly scratch that last sentence as I�ve found the first Vietnam film that I absolutely found excellent.
I suppose the best way to describe a film like Deer Hunter, even though its predominately towered by the power of the events of the Vietnam War, is a film that takes place over three sections. The first section involves a wedding ceremony attended by honest hard-working fellows who want nothing but their great life to continue. Then we are met with the middle section, which is definitely the most powerful section as it takes anything I�ve known about the Vietnam War (intense horror) and basically showcases it on the screen in front of me.
![The Deer Hunter [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-deer-hunter-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
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