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- Catch and Release (2007)
- l-Stars Racing Remembers Crazy Taxi
- The Edukators (2005)
- The requested URL /waydowntow…
- THE MOVIE My, how the marketi…
- The life of the football hool…
- Smart People (2008)
- Charlotte Gray (2001)
- After the Hole review
- The Secret Agent (1996)
Catch and Release (2007)
January 24th, 2010 by hildachoysblog
Instead of being the cluster of attention at her wedding, Gray Wheeler (Jennifer Garner) finds herself at her fiancé Grady’s funeral, after he dies in a bird luck. Overwhelmed by guiltiness from their last quarrel, Gray becomes more and more distressed as she learns her husband to be had fathered a teenager with a knead therapist Maureen (Juliette Lewis). The groom’s three best friends are behaving strangely; Sam (Kevin Smith) takes sleeping pills, Fritz (Timothy Olyphant) has sex with the caterer at the funeral and his business ally Dennis (Sam Jaeger) has appropriate for very attentive to Gray.
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l-Stars Racing Remembers Crazy Taxi
January 22nd, 2010 by hildachoysblog
As an old-instil SEGA groupie, I've tranquillity but to come to terms with Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. On one hand, it's chock full of references to both classic and lesser-known franchises, including (as this new trailer reveals) Foolish Ride on the ground and Range Channel 5.
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On the other hand, these also serve as reminders of the franchises that have thus far skipped the current console generation. I can understand the Shenmue and Space Chanel 5 nods–those aren't really racing-based franchises–but I'm amazed that this is how Crazy Taxi's driving antics debut on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii.
Then again, someone at SEGA obviously remembers Crazy Taxi, so maybe there's still some hope yet. Until then, it seems the closest we'll come is Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, coming to PC, PS3, 360, Wii and DS in February via Sumo Digital.
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The Edukators (2005)
January 20th, 2010 by hildachoysblog
Jan (Daniel Brühl) and Peter (Stipe Erceg) are activists dedicated to exposing the injustices of capitalist union. Occupation themselves “The Edukators”, Jan and Peter stab into the houses of bountiful families and rearrange the equipment in bizarre configurations. When Peter’s girlfriend Jule (Julia Jentsch) moves in with the two friends, she begins a flirtation with Jan. Wary to impress her, Jan proposes they stage an “Edukators” event while Peter is away on holidays. Jule suggests they target Hardenberg (Burghart Klaussner), a rich businessman whose phantom motor was written off by the uninsured Jule. Hardenberg returns unexpectedly, forcing Jule and Jan to seize him. With Peter now returned, the three Edukators and their hostage, who was a radical during his schoolboy in the 60’s, travel to a ancient farmhouse where the mind games begin…..
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The requested URL /waydowntow…
January 18th, 2010 by hildachoysblog
The requested URL /waydowntown.htm was not found on this server.
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THE MOVIE My, how the marketi…
January 16th, 2010 by hildachoysblog
THE FLICK PICTURE SHOW
My, how the marketing for the sumptuous new production of “Pride & Prejudice” fibs! Focus Features describes the film on its Web site as “the first movie version of the story in 65 years,” which is blatantly untrue. Clearly they are trying to make us think we haven’t seen this story over and over again when really we have.
In fact, this is the third movie version of the story just in the past two years. There was a Bollywood version called “Bride & Prejudice,” and another version that retained the title but moved the story to modern-day Utah. There have also been a handful of BBC-produced incarnations (TV movies or mini-series), over the years.
It’s the 1995 BBC production that Focus would most like us to forget, of course. That’s the one with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, the five-hour mini-series that has made countless women swoon and inspired two Bridget Jones novels and movies. To many, Firth’s Mr. Darcy is the epitome of a classical English romantic figure, the standard by which all other suitors must be measured. Many is the man who has been deemed unworthy by a woman for failing to be as dreamy as Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy.
Do not underestimate the importance of that performance! Obviously Focus Features has not, given their vain attempt to make us overlook it. (For the record, a more accurate statement would have been: “The first theatrical film version in 65 years to retain the original title and setting.”)
I’ve never had to watch the Colin Firth version, and I’m no lady, but I can tell you that the new Joe Wright-directed version is splendid, a handsome and romantic retelling of the 1813 Austen novel and a reasonably faithful one, too. If one is willing, one can be utterly swept away by the performances of Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen, who play Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy with no apparent fear of being unable to fill previously worn shoes.
For those unfamiliar with the tale, it is set in England at a time when society was at its most prim and when the most essential thing — indeed, the only reasonable thing — a woman could do was to get married. Her husband was her life: In “Pride & Prejudice,” Mrs. Bennet (Brenda Blethyn) calls her husband (Donald Sutherland) “Mr. Bennet,” yet does so lovingly, not out of coldness or obligation.
The Bennets have five daughters, of which only two, Jane (Rosamund Pike) and Elizabeth, are of marriageable age, but that does not stop the three younger ones from becoming just as excited when a bachelor named Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods) moves into the village. Bingley, a smiling, decent fellow, takes an interest in Jane, while Elizabeth and Bingley’s friend Mr. Darcy have a conversation and instantly clash. An aristocrat, he finds her middle-class family (and indeed the entire town) beneath him, while she finds his elitism repellant. Which can mean only one thing: By film’s end, they will be in each other’s arms.
In the meantime, there is an abundance of chaste, respectable romance in the impossibly lush English countryside, which is gorgeously photographed by cinematographer Roman Osin. The beautiful costumes and production design add a flavor of authenticity, too. You could fall in love with the film based solely on its looks.
Ah, but then you’d be missing the very delightful performances and the film’s twee, pleasant humor. Donald Sutherland and Brenda Blethyn are a perfectly charming pair of Bennet parents, with Mister bemused by his daughters’ man-hungry exuberance and Missus utterly caught up in it. And Judi Dench has a wicked turn as the imperious snob Lady Catherine. She is the sort of character you want to see hit in the face with a pie, though sadly such does not occur in the film.
And what of Elizabeth and Darcy? Matthew MacFadyen seems smoldering and romantic enough, though I highly doubt he will make the ladies weak at the knees the way Colin Firth did, if for no other reason than Firth had five hours to do it while MacFadyen only has two. But he pulls a neat trick, acting-wise: Early on, he is sullen and aloof enough to inspire genuine dislike — a great risk, considering we are eventually supposed to love him. Yet sure enough, when the time comes for him to profess his love to Elizabeth, his stoic demeanor gives way, slightly but perceptibly, and it is possible to see why Elizabeth might love him in return.
As for Keira Knightley, I confess to having mostly disregarded her in the past, but now I am officially onboard as an admirer. Her Elizabeth is a marvelously likable heroine — strong, good-natured and vulnerable, with a toothsome smile that is positively bewitching. It is not hard at all to see why Mr. Darcy loves her. When all the obstacles between them are eventually removed, you’d have to be stone dead not to have your heart melt at least a little bit.
THE DVD
There are alternate language tracks in French and Spanish, both in Dolby Digital 5.1 just like the English track. There are optional English, French and Spanish subtitles, too — including on the extras, which is nice.
VIDEO: The cinematography is one of the film’s strongest elements, and the anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) transfer is positively sumptuous. The colors are deep and natural-looking — not falsely vibrant, like in an Technicolor musical, but realistic and beautiful.
AUDIO: The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is top-notch. Dario Marianelli’s musical score is lush, and even the background elements (like the chickens, horses and dogs that live at the Bennet house) sound crisp. The movie sounds full and rich.
EXTRAS: There are four superficial featurettes:
“A Bennet Family Portrait” (6:02) has cast members, the director and the screenwriter talking about the characters’ personalities. Typical DVD fluff.
In “Jane Austen: Ahead of Her Time” (8:03), people involved with the film and some historians talk about how awesome and timeless Jane Austen novels are. There are no real insights; just the basic “Jane Austen was really awesome and timeless” kind of stuff, and some biographical data.
“Behind-the-Scenes at the Ball” (6:16) has the cast members on-set, talking about how much fun they have and whatnot. There’s some behind-the-scenes footage, too; apparently “the ball” means “the movie.”
The HBO First Look (13:08) episode runs along the same lines as the other featurettes (and even some of the same footage), with more cast interviews and more views of the sumptuous English countryside where the film was shot.
Director Joe Wright’s commentary is one of the disc’s strong points. He demonstrates an impressive familiarity with his own film. That may sound obvious, but you hear a lot of commentaries where the director is regularly a few shots behind the action, commenting on things that passed several seconds ago. Wright, on the other hand, makes his observations on particular shots or moments as they appear. It really makes a difference.
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It helps that most of what he says is enlightening and interesting, too. He shares a wealth of information on everything from costumes to sets to which scenes he had actors read when they auditioned for Mr. Darcy. He clams up now and then for a while, but when he talks, he’s got something to say. Good stuff.
There are no deleted scenes, unfortunately, which seems suspicious. Surely there were some.
IN SUMMARY
For fans of Jane Austen’s novel, this is another stellar version to add to the collection. For novices, it’s a lovely, romantic film that is beautiful in both appearance and spirit. It’s well worth owning.
(Note: Most of the “movie review” portion of this article comes from the review I wrote when the movie was released theatrically. I have re-watched the film in the course of reviewing the DVD, however.)
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The life of the football hool…
January 13th, 2010 by hildachoysblog
The life of the football hooligan is a strange one, at least from the other side of the fence. It’s often completed fueled by alcohol, drug abuse, a thirst for violence—and occasionally, there’s even a bit of football (AKA “soccer”) thrown in for good measure. Often, though, it’s the first three that really keep the motor running; whether they’re fighting with cops or rival gangs (or “firms”, as they’re commonly known), hooligans keep fairly busy with their raucous routine. If you don’t share this particular mindset, though, their actions make about as much sense as trashing your hometown after your local team wins a national title. Call me crazy, but I just can’t wrap my brain around that kind of behavior.
In the world of The Football Factory (2004), director Nick Love’s adaptation of John King’s best-selling novel, rowdiness is very much the norm. Told in the loose, freewheeling style of Snatch and Trainspotting, The Football Factory is a busy, talkative affair with ultimately little to say. It doesn’t present the hooligan lifestyle as glamorous, yet this faux-documentary almost crumbles under its own weight due to the closed-minded, blunt depiction of mob mentality. These “men” don’t really know why they act the way they do. Apparently, neither should we.
But just who are they? There’s Tommy Johnson (played by Danny Dyer), a misogynic office zombie with a black-and-white outlook on life; his best friend Rod (Neil Maskell), who’s barely torn between a “regular life” and the firm; Billy Bright (Frank Harper), a near carbon copy of most any Joe Pesci character; and Albert Moss (John Junkin), who’s one of the only borderline likeable characters in the bunch. There’s more, of course, but many of the supporting characters aren’t much more than faces in the crowd. The film’s excessive narration is provided by Tommy himself, though it’s so similar in tone to the previously mentioned Snatch that you’ll swear The Football Factory was its second cousin, twice removed. Produced in part by Rockstar Games, the guilty parties behind the immensely popular Grand Theft Auto video game series, it’s a bit like GTA come to life, warts and all. Scary, isn’t it?
When viewed as a whole, more or less, Love’s film plays out like Fight Club without all that pesky social satire. What it does have working in its favor, though, is a visually stunning style and a strong sense of urgency: the bleak but colorful world depicted here, as vile and dirty as it is, really bursts with energy—yet more casual viewers may wonder it the energy is focused in the wrong places. All things considered, the raw darkness is enough to hold the attention of more adventurous viewers; though I wasn’t really able to get behind the story at hand, it was told with enough style to keep things fairly entertaining. Unfortunately, The Football Factory doesn’t seem like it’ll offer much more after repeat viewings, but those that enjoyed it the first time around may feel differently.
The DVD presentation by Image Entertainment is slightly flawed but still serviceable, offering a decent technical presentation and a nice mix of bonus features. Even so, the film is the main selling point: it’s not a date movie or for the faint of heart, so those who might be casually interested in The Football Factory should still proceed with caution. Let’s take a closer look, shall we?
Quality Sway Department
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Smart People (2008)
January 12th, 2010 by hildachoysblog
By Prairie Miller
A movie about bungling bookworms who could unequivocally use more than a little help from accompany charge humans with lower IQ's, Pierce People suffers from a kind of inherent apathy unfortunately associated here with knowledge as a skeleton device. This mostly all talk and no action dysfunctional egghead family critical romp, with its au fait and smarter lackluster momentum, is held together more by its occasional stinging humor, than integrity chemistry or drama.
Among those know-it-alls talking their way through this movie as if in serious need of NoDoz, is a synthetically plumped up Dennis Quaid as Lawrence Wetherhold, a down-in-the-dumps drudge teaching literature at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Holding his fractured nuclear family together is high schooler Vanessa (Ellen Page) in her brainy brat pre-Juno mode, showing off for Dad what a swell combo overachiever kid and surrogate housewife she can be, in the absence of her late mom.
Terminally jaded about his job, his students and life in general, Professor Wetherhold has his life shaken up in major ways by two disorienting events: The unwelcome arrival of his ne'er-do-well slacker stepbrother played by Thomas Haden Church - who basically takes over the house while pestering Wetherhold to lighten up - and a chance encounter in an emergency ward with his assigned physician, Dr. Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker). She also happens to be a former student of his way back when, who had harbored an enormous secret crush on the grumpy misanthrope, and got a bad grade in return.
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And Wetherhold's check-in at the hospital apparently occurred following his objection to having his car impounded for violations - again - and making an ill-advised decision to scale a high gate to retrieve his vehicle on the sly, subsequently landing on his head. And no, the head injury did not apparently lower his IQ one iota. Though his newfound flirtation with that attentive doctor may have resuscitated and reinvigorated his brain matter in other ways.
Smart People is plagued by a cast of such sad sacks, that it's pretty astonishing when the lusty sparks begin to fly between any of them, and with an overload of brain power coming across as some kind of mental impairment. Which sorta implicates Sarah Jessica Parker's Sex In The UniverCity here as quite a comedown from her famed small screen zany erotic romps.
Miramax Films
Not Rated
2 stars
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Charlotte Gray (2001)
January 9th, 2010 by hildachoysblog
You get your money’s benefit with “Charlotte Gray”: Its two hours seem similarly to ten. Not only that, I had the sneaking suspicion watching this 2001 publicity that I was in a time warp. Not only does the picture lower place in the mid 1940s during the German occupation of France, it feels like it was made in the 1940s, regard for its perceptible beguile to a more modern feminine sensibility. The result is a movie that lives up at least in contribute to to its title: It’s gray. The uncut movie feels gray and faint and deeply, awfully unpunctual. Perhaps a housekeeper would see it differently, I don’t know. My wife was not up to watching it, interval.
Another feeling I had while sitting into done with the movie was that of reliving a Nancy Drew new. About Nancy, the plucky young supersleuth of so many old teenage adventure novels? The lady of “Charlotte Gray” may be older, but she pacific looks to me like Nancy Drew in disguise. Maybe it’s her romanticized attitude toward tilt against and adventure; maybe it’s her sentimental attitude toward attachment and relationships; or maybe it’s her desire to accomplish something in her otherwise funereal life. In any proves, it gives her an lasting-fashioned persona while pursuing a decidedly contemporary aim, and I’m sure Ms. Drew would be proud.
Cate Blanchett stars as Charlotte Gray, a Scottish char of indeterminate time eon, presumably somewhere between twenty-unified and thirty (the actress was about thirty when she made the film), who is working in London during the War. Her trade is only vaguely alluded to, but because she speaks French, she is persuaded to join the British courier service, where she choice be kind of a secret proxy, dropping into German-occupied France and delivering messages to and from the French resisters. It’s certainly a daring tracing, but she isn’t in it alone for the treatment of the love of adventure, immortality, or state. She joins up because her boyfriend, a British airman named Peter Gregory (Rupert Penry Jones), was downed over France and is missing in action. She figures at the same time in France, she might snoop on all sides of for the treatment of her lost lover.
Once she is parachuted into Southern France, she’s picked up by the local resistance force, headed by a handsome French Communist named Julien (Billy Crudup). Because this is a moderately characteristic fairy tale story, we know something’s got to enlarge on here. I not by any stretch of the imagination, you can’t fitting have a handsome young mock show up for no goal as a major integrity and not need something to come off between him and the heroine. Unfortunately, anything that does start out to straighten out between them is involving as spiritless as watching mortar dry.
Julien’s forebear, Levade, played by actor Michael Gambon, provides the only serious quiddity of involve in the big. He’s a gruff old fellow, who like all good one-time Frenchmen values food above all else. Naturally, his gruffness is largely a short and he directly turns into the contrariwise watchable arbitrary in the story. Charlotte’s protection while in France becomes that of a intact in the father’s quarter. Others in the dash include James Rapid as Richard Cannerly, a government documented who recruits Charlotte into the hush-hush envoy corporation; Ron Cook as Mirabel, Charlotte’s English contact in France; and Anton Lesser as Renech, a suspicious French school fellow and German collaborator.
The report is based on a book by Sebastian Faulk, a book I have not read but one that would take the role to be a curry favour with novel for the modern woman. That the cinema purely makes Ms. Gray look like a vintage lady I suppose is beside the remind emphasize. The music was composed by Stephen Warbeck, and it sounds much like that in “Pearl Harbor” or “Titanic.” It’s satisfactory, exuberant, and gushy by turns and remarkably forgettable. The director is Gillian Armstrong, whose earlier work includes “Little Women” and “Mrs. Soffel,” so you can see where this movie is coming from.
I yen I could say that any of the characters but the father were at all sympathetic reasonably to care alongside, but it isn’t so. Blanchett as Gray seems always cold and distant, her character’s emotions and motivations on no account clean. She joins up with Julien’s recalcitrance fighters in blowing up trains and such, but it’s under no circumstances favourably established why she does this or why Julien even allows her to do it since she merely becomes a liability for them.
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After the Hole review
January 8th, 2010 by hildachoysblog
I suppose Dimension Films and Buena Vista were hoping on some viewer appreciation with the Shameful Rip of Calcutta when they picked up the sharing rights to the 2001 British-made dramatic-thriller “The Hole” championing a U.S. première on DVD. But I’m afraid what they may obtain gotten is a degree of viewer contradiction with two of their other releases, “Holes” and “The Black Oubliette.” To further complicate matters, “The Hole” has also gone under the titles “After the Hole” and “Secluded Empty Intermission.” Nothing helps.
In any crate, while there are very few dramatic thrills in “The Hole,” there are two young actresses whose lionization may be figured on to add suit the picture some credence, Thora Birch (”Ghost World,” “American Beauty”) and Keira Knightley (”Pirates of the Caribbean,” “King Arthur”). Contend as they will with their characters, at any rate, the clichéd screenplay does them in faster than any of the fictional dangers in the story line. And director Nick Hamm, whose antecedent to work has by been in made-for-British-video receiver movies, doesn’t help the situation much. His most-pronounced burly-screen dissatisfaction so pissed was the 2004 bomb “Godsend,” so he’s not yet undeniably on the track to cinematic immortality.
The plot involves four young people from a posh British private school trapped in an old-time, WWII, underground bunker in the interest ten days, with terrible consequences. The wile is that the story is told from three unbroken points of view. But because they are the viewpoints of those people who have survived to swear the fish story, it rather lessens the force about their likely-being. Thus, the movie is not so much a expectancy thriller as it is a whodunnit. Why were the young people down in the bunker, how did they get trapped there, what systematically happened to them during their disaster, and were there inauspicious people and sinister motives involved?
The first experiences is the longest, told by Elizabeth Dunn (Birch) to a psychologist after Liz’s bolt, bloody and bedraggled. She explains that she and three friends–Mike Steel (Desmond Harrington), Geoff Bingham (Laurence Fox), and Francis “Frankie” Almond Smith (Knightley)–were planning to hide out in the bunker for sundry days during Easter break in order to reduction out of their family’s vacation plans for them and go off on their on for the outstanding days. The instigator of the idea is another supporter, Martin Taylor (Daniel Brocklebank). Martin, who closes and locks the door on them, is supposititious to communicate back at an appointed time and discharge them. He doesn’t and debecle results. Is he principal championing the consequences? Did he aim for this circumstance to occur, and why? Or is Elizabeth unambiguously delusional?
But then in the second half of the account, Martin tells his side of the story, followed by another account of the happenings by Elizabeth. These twists and turns might be dressed worked to some advantage if we had even the least interest or sympathy in the characters involved, but, alas, it is not to be. No episode whose story you believe, the characters come off as hollow stereotypes. Elizabeth is pictured either as the keen-minded, shy, outsider field nerd or the conniving, manipulative schemer. Mike is the campus hot jigger, the school’s star athlete, the handsome son of an American rock star, and every girl’s speculation. Geoff is Mike’s fast-blue best old china. Frankie is the glamorous campus queen, lissome and excellent and “in” with the right people. And Martin is the amoral, cerebral snob who looks down on and takes advantage of the students around him.
It’s the kind of scenario that seems typically written by adults (Guy Burt’s novel; Ben Court and Caroline Ip’s screenplay) to emulate what they induce seen in other teen movies or what they think people of all ages want to see in today’s inexperienced people. For instance, no quantity whose assertion you believe, the teens all come off as profane, sex-crazed, cigarette-addicted alcoholics. OK, that’s a Lilliputian harsh, but it’s the general impression solitary gets from their stories, and its typical of the kind of teenage world the writers try to convey in order to spice up their plot. Naturally, all the other expected clichés of a teen thriller are found in the silent picture as well: The actors, whose real ages sweep from about eighteen to twenty-five, look too old in regard to their roles; the association spend the first incessantly in the dark too revealing scary tales; cell phones mysteriously fail to guide when they’re needed; loud rock music greets them at every other turn; and so on.
