January 3rd, 2010 admin
2009
Starring: Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits, Verne Troyer, Lily Cole, Andrew Garfield, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, Jude Law
Director: Terry Gilliam
Runtime: 122 Minutes
Distributor: Sony Picture Classics
Rating: PG-13
The passing of Heath Ledger was a tragedy, and with it we mourn the loss of a great and gifted performer coming into his own and standing on the cusp of greatness. But if there is one tiny nugget of positive impact we can salvage from such tragic circumstance it is the effect his untimely death had on his dear friend and director Terry Gilliam. Midway through his dark hearted Faustian saga in which a thousand year-old carnival owner battles The Devil for souls in an unwise wager, Gilliam suddenly found himself without his leading actor.
With much of the real-world action wrapped already, Gilliam hit on a stroke of genius whereby he envisioned that each of the three times Ledger’s character, the enigmatic, amnesia-stricken George, would step through the mirror into the Imaginarium, a surrealist netherworld where temptation battles imagination for the right to consume you or set you free, he would be played by a different actor (first Johnny Depp, then Jude Law, and, finally Colin Farrell). At the time the idea seemed risky to say the least, but having now been realized the notion of a man with no conscious memory being different each time his subconscious is tapped into seems so natural and straightforward it is difficult to imagine how such scenes could have been more effective had Ledger played the parts himself. This unforeseen obstacle jolted Gilliam and sparked within him an explosion of ingenuity, channeled like a diamond bit to the purpose of salvaging his picture from disaster.
Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.
Posted in Drama, Fantasy, Feature Films, Reviews | No Comments »
January 1st, 2010 admin
2009
Starring: Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany, Miranda Richardson, Mark Strong, Jim Broadbent, Thomas Kretschmann
Director: Jean-Marc Vallee
Runtime: 100 Minutes
Distributor: Momentum Pictures
Rating: PG
It’s a testament to the reserved and unobtrusive sense of the direction from helmer Jean-Marc Vallee that no reactionary lips were set a quivering by the realization that this intimate portrait of the eponymous monarch comes not from a Brit, but instead courtesy of (gasp) a French-Canadian. In fact, as evidenced by his poking a little fun at the overblown opulence of the coronation ceremony Vallee understands all too well that the monarchy of that time, tied as it was to Europe’s precarious political situation and various power struggles, was one gigantic circus act that needed little further embellishment from him. Before the pre-teen princess, set to inherit her uncles’ throne, has finished hop-scotching across a manner foyer we’ve already been to Belgium, Germany, and back to England to meet the various aristocracy desperately maneuvering to make a grab for the levers of power.
Chief amongst them is Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong), advisor to Victoria’s mother, The Duchess of Kent (an impressive Miranda Richardson), hoping to rule as regent in her stead. Scheming and purposeful, Conroy is the closest the film musters to an out-and-out antagonist, but his threat is never fully realized as the second Victoria comes of age he his banished from court and spends the rest of the story scuttling about the fringes in frustration. Such is the nature of the rigidly structured political system that the primary conflict is handled so much by proxy, with various players plotting away quietly and avoiding anything approaching a traditional confrontation.
Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.
Posted in Drama, Feature Films, Reviews | No Comments »
December 24th, 2009 admin
A long-running, picturesque television series centered on an all-female workforce who come together in fellowship to revive the fortunes of the flagging Drover’s Run cattle ranch, McLeod’s Daughters is considered something of a national treasure in it’s native Australia. After eight successful seasons culminated earlier this year with the show’s 224th and final episode (how many U.S. shows make it that far?), we are treated to this DVD re-release of the 1996 television movie where the journey first began.
A good old fashioned melodrama set against the gorgeous backdrop of big sky country, McLeod’s Daughters is a wildly uneven affair where some solid performances by the female leads are consistently undermined by poor scripting, an overblown soundtrack, and the sadly all too frequent intrusion by moments of appalling technical incompetence. The story begins with city-girl Tess (Kym Wilson) making the long journey into the heartland to deliver news to her estranged father, Jack McLeod (Jack Thompson) that his ex-wife, Tess’ mother, has died of cancer. Welcomed with open arms by her father, Tess is greeted with suspicion and resentment by her half sister Claire (Tammy MacIntosh) who blames Tess’ mother for driving Jack into the bottle when they left all those years ago. After Jack dies in a riding accident (quite possibly the single worst stunt sequence of all time) Tess and Claire must put aside their differences and work together to save the ranch from financial ruin.
Click here to read the full review at JustPressPlay.net.
Posted in Drama, Feature Films, Reviews | No Comments »
December 20th, 2009 admin
2009
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, Julian Lewis Jones, Langley Kirkwood, Tony Kgoroge
Director: Clint Eastwood
Runtime: 134 Minutes
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Rating: PG-13
These days Awards season just doesn’t seem complete without a Clint Eastwood period drama, and looking at the Oscar-baiters this year it seems clear that Apartheid is the new Holocaust. While we have learned to never underestimate the Old Master this ambitious portrait of the former South African leader Nelson Mandela might at a distance seem a step beyond even him. An adaptation of Jon Carlin’s book Playing the enemy Invictus shows how Mandela risked much of his political capitol in throwing his full support behind the South African rugby team, viewed by the newly empowered black majority as a fierce symbol of the Apartheid regime, in the hope that they could triumph at the upcoming Rugby World Cup.
Cooked up out of such unpalatable ingredients as foreign countries and funny accents, it’s a story that tackles such prickly issues as race (eww!) and politics (ugh!) and this funny sport with complicated rules that most Americans have never seen. Then there is the issue of Mandela himself. Arrested for anti-apartheid activities, imprisoned for twenty-seven years, released and finally elected President, Mandela is of such reverence and stature – considered saintly by some – that you wonder who in the world could ever effectively show us Mandela the man?
Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.
Posted in Drama, Feature Films, Reviews | No Comments »
December 18th, 2009 admin
Starring: Patrick McGoohan, Angelo Muscat, Peter Swanwick, Leo McKern
Created By: Patrick McGoohan & George Markstein
Network: ITV
Original Air Date: 09/29/1967 – 02/01/1968
Do you like Lost? If the answer is yes you might want to take a moment and write Patrick McGoohan a quick ‘Thank you.’ Because without the influence of this groundbreaking series telling of one man trapped in a seemingly idyllic yet sinister locale from which there appears to be no escape you might not have it. From the tranquil setting, the roaring, otherworldly security system, to the sprawling Machiavellian conspiracy to guard its secrets, the influence of The Prisoner on ABC’s flagship drama and shows like it is undeniable.
Modeled after McGoohan’s previous and successful spy drama Danger Man and co-created with former series script editor George Markstein, The Prisoner played like a trippy espionage thriller. Yet the self-contained format of a serialized episodic drama meant that it could diverge each week into some heady, cerebral territory, tackling themes of philosophy, metaphysics, and the nature of ideology. It’s a full on psychedelic Orwellian nightmare. Think 1984 on `shrooms and you’re in the ballpark.
Click here to read the full review at JustPressPlay.net.
Posted in British Television, Reviews | 1 Comment »
December 18th, 2009 admin
Starring: Rebecca Romjin, Lindsay Price, Jamie Ray Newman, Paul Gross, Ashley Benson, Jack Huston, Veronica Cartwright, Sara Rue
Director: Maggie Friedman
Network: ABC
Desperate Housewives meets Charmed was most likely exec producer Maggie Friedman’s pitch to ABC for this latest effort to bring an adaptation of John Updike’s supernatural melodrama to the screen. Previous attempts were made as far back as 1992, and again in 2002 with neither of which were picked up by a network. Perhaps with that in mind Friedman sought out the very best and hired pilot specialist David Nutter, a man with no small hand in launching such hi-concept series as Supernatural, Smallville, and Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles. A decent enough pilot it was too, offering up a playfully comic take on smalltown frustration and thirty-something female angst from the point of view of three deeply unfulfilled women.
Most people will likely know something of the story having caught the star-studded `80’s film adaptation that saw Jack Nicholson’s lothario demon outwitted and sent scurrying back to Hell courtesy of Michelle Pfiefer, Susan Sarandon, and Cher. While the players aren’t quite as eye-catching the characters remain much the same - three New England ladies wish upon a fountain together for the perfect man, get an inkling of magical power, and find themselves inexplicably drawn to a charming, enigmatic new arrival who may, or may not, be The Devil.
Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.
Posted in American Television, Reviews | No Comments »
December 12th, 2009 admin
An environmentalist wake-up call that plays more like a paranoid thriller, this uncompromising, exhilarating expose of the whaling industries dirty little secret, which many are tipping as the frontrunner for next year’s Oscar, is a head striking apple fallen from the “we’re all doomed” branch of documentary filmmaking. Heading up this team of activists and filmmakers is Rick O’Barry, a former dolphin trainer who has dedicated the latter half of his life to blowing the whistle on the barbaric, hushed-up activities of the tiny coastal town of Taiji, where some 23,000 dolphins are rounded up annually so a handful can be chosen by trainers for theme parks and the rest butchered for their meat.
It’s something of a cruel irony for O’Barry that he is perhaps the man most directly responsible for the very practice he is now so desperate to stop, and one he is all too painfully aware of. Formerly the head trainer on the Flipper television series O’Barry had an epiphany when the show’s primary dolphin, “Kathy,” voluntarily stopped breathing in his arms in what O’Barry saw as a desperate act of escape from a miserable existence. Prior to the success of Flipper there were two Dolphinariums in the world, today it’s a multi-billion dollar industry. As Barry painfully surmises with a lump in his throat: “I spent ten years building that industry up, and the last twenty-seven trying to tear it down.”
Click here to read the full review at JustPressPlay.net.
Posted in Documentary, Feature Films, Reviews | No Comments »
December 2nd, 2009 admin
2009
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce, Charlize Theron
Director: John Hillcoat
Runtime: 119 Minutes
Distributor: The Weinstein Company
Rating: R
It’s both ironic and at the same time strangely appropriate that Australian director John Hillcoat should deliver this diligently faithful adaptation of Cormack McCarthy’s relentlessly bleak end-of-the-world parable so soon after the release of Roland Emmerich’s bloated pixel-fest 2012. Where as that disaster picture chose to depict the end of all things as bloated CGI spectacle, pre-occupied with the eye-candy of the event to the exclusion of almost everything else, McCarthy’s story makes the event itself almost an afterthought.
Through a story that begins after everything we know came to and end we find a nameless father (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit McPhee), who is maybe ten-years-old, on a relentless grueling death march through blackened forests and over barren hillside, hoping to reach the coast before starvation takes them. As they huddle together, filthy, amidst the freezing earth, we come know through dreams and flashbacks that at some point there was a cataclysm and everything was laid waste. It’s never made clear what exactly the event was, or whether it was caused by man or some cruel act of nature, and in the context of a hardscrabble existence driven by the unending search for scraps of food and shelter it simply doesn’t matter.
Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.
Posted in Drama, Feature Films, Reviews | No Comments »
November 27th, 2009 admin
2009
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Tom Sturridge, Rhys Darby, Nick Frost, Chris O’Dowd, Katherine Parkinson, Rhys Ifans, Kenneth Branagh, Jack Davenport
Director: Richard Curtis
Runtime: 135 Minutes
Distributor: Focus Features
Rating: R
Richard Curtis - the anti-Ken Loach of British cinema - is a hard guy not to like. Go on, try it. See, you cant. It’s just not possible. Sure, his movies and scripts continue to display a preoccupation with upper-middle class buffoonery, and yes, he perhaps has demonstrated something of a preoccupation with Hugh Grant’s floppy fringe. But in an age where its hip to be cynical there is something undeniably disarming about his rose-tinted view of encroaching middle-age, where real world responsibilities kind of melt away leaving plenty of time for harmless drug use, consequence-free tomfoolery, and inoffensive hell-raising.
Having made his name penning the scripts for such well received hits as Four Weddings and Notting Hill, Curtis takes his second crack at the directorial whip following the crowd-pleasing Love Actually. Loosely based on the Radio Caroline story, the name given to ships broadcasting from international waters in the mid sixties as a way around government regulations, Pirate Radio offers Curtis the opportunity to whip up an ode to counter-culture on the high seas indulging his two favorite subjects - awkward overgrown schoolboys lusting after posh totty, and music. Some might even say (harshly) that the story itself doesn’t matter and is simply an excuse to rock out to some great tunes. Radio Rock, as Philip Seymour Hoffman’s scruffy DJ, The Duke, duly announces, is “Where we count down to ecstasy and rock all day and all of the night!”; cue The Kinks “All Day and All of the Night.” But hey, who can argue?
Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.
Posted in Comedy/Romance, Feature Films, Reviews | No Comments »
November 20th, 2009 admin
Faulty Towers: The Complete Series
Starring: John Cleese, Connie Booth, Andrew Sachs, Brian Hall, Prunella Scales
Created By: John Cleese & Connie Booth
Original Air Date: 09/19/1975 – 10/25/1979
As quintessentially British a show as was ever devised the beloved Fawlty Towers, re-released here in its entirety to celebrate the series 30th anniversary, was in fact born out if simple truth rather than any strokes of comic genius. Co-creators John Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth conceived this fast paced, farce-based sitcom from their own experience. While filming Monty Python’s Flying Circus the troupe had the misfortune to stay in a rundown Torquay hotel managed by a puffed-up grouch named Donald Sinclair, and man Cleese described as being “Gratuitously rude.”
The basis for the now legendarily eccentric Basil Fawlty, the abrasive Sinclair was witnessed, amongst other things, flinging a timetable at one guest who enquired about a bus into town, rearranging the “clearly American” Terry Gilliam’s silverware in the middle his dinner, and hiding Eric Idle’s briefcase behind a wall at the far end of the swimming pool because he was concerned that it might be a bomb brought in by disgruntled staff.
Click here to read the full review at JustPressPlay.net.
Posted in British Television, Reviews | No Comments »