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513,215 | 3,223,254 | 397,510 | 6 | A Sensitive Documentary | THE LAST VICTORY may appear on the DVD cover to be a story film , but in truth it is a documentary - in other words the story within the film is true and untampered . That fact makes the film even more entertaining , especially to those who love Italy and the traditions about which the casual visitor knows too little .... |
513,134 | 3,223,254 | 354,694 | 6 | A Fairly Good Story Distorted by Extremes | Jeff London ( ' Regarding Billy ' ) seems to be a director and writer who is committed to investigating the various degrees of problems young gay men face as they live in a homophobic society . His films resound with an honest feeling but too often he settles for stereotypes at both ends of the spectrum and that tends ... |
513,713 | 3,223,254 | 251,677 | 6 | Another Look at Pre-Castro Cuba : An Homage to Family and Memory | CUBAN BLOOD , a direct to DVD little film , has a long history . Shot in the year 2000 in the Dominican Republic as the first film for director / writer Juan Gerard ( with writing assistance from Letvia Arza-Goderich ) the film began as a 3 epic about the small town of Holguín , Cuba in the year 1958 , a place where th... |
512,776 | 3,223,254 | 401,445 | 6 | Pablum for a Evening's View | Peter Mayle's popular novel ' A Year in Provence ' has been transferred to the screen by screenwriter Marc Klein under the odd direction of Ridley Scott , best known for such films as ' Hannibal ' , ' Gladiator ' , ' Matchstick Men ' , ' Thelma and Louise ' , ' Black Hawk Down ' , ' Blade Runner ' etc . and the result ... |
513,623 | 3,223,254 | 800,241 | 6 | Train Games and Atrocities | TRANSSIBERIAN is a one note song . Set almost entirely in the claustrophobia of the Trans Siberian Express train that winds from Beijing to Moscow through the snowy terrain of Siberia , the story of deception and drug trafficking chugs along with some significant interruptions . But in the end the film suffers from the... |
512,712 | 3,223,254 | 455,857 | 6 | High Adrenaline in a Nifty House | Director Simon West ( Lara Croft : Tomb Raider , The General's Daughter , Con Air ) seems bent on settling for an unrelenting stream of tension and terror in this little film WHEN A STRANGER CALLS . He selected a cast of actors who , while they are not big box office names , each arrives with a fine resume of work befo... |
513,304 | 3,223,254 | 455,805 | 6 | Bonding : Necessities and Consequences | In a featurette on the DVD release version of THEN SHE FOUND ME writer ( with Alice Arlen and Victor Levin ) / producer / director Helen Hunt shares a ten year journey to have a film made of a novel by Elinor Lipman . Her cast shares in the very sentimental story of Hunt's devotion and seemingly endless charisma and ab... |
513,660 | 3,223,254 | 341,573 | 6 | Variations on the Theme of Relationships | SEX , POLITICS & COCKTAILS is another version of the 30s-something relationship avoiders trying to master the art of partner browsing , ' looking for love in all the wrong places ' . This little shoestring film seems more like a stand-up comedian gig with visuals than a movie . That may be due to the fact that the writ... |
513,329 | 3,223,254 | 134,033 | 6 | Sometimes Silly Is What You Want ! | PLUNKETT & MACLEANE has a purpose : entertainment . And during a season of rush and deadlines this little film provides enough anachronistic pleasures to fill a relaxing evening . The story is simple : two social polar opposites with reasons for distaste for society join forces to rob the rich . And all the rest is fan... |
512,901 | 3,223,254 | 430,919 | 6 | ' And may the best man win . . . ' | UNHITCHED is a fairly well made , generic Hollywood love story that provides a reasonably entertaining evening because of the actors cast in the roles . The story by director Stefan Schwartz and Ed Roe is recycled fluff with nothing new added , yet despite that fact the pacing and acting bring off a fun little film . A... |
512,698 | 3,223,254 | 381,361 | 6 | Another Look and Listen to the Spirits of the Deceased | Hollywood seems increasingly interested in stories that deal with speaking with the dead , from the paranormal scientific approach to the solace for grief stance to the old-fashioned ghost tales . THE LAST SIGN sort of combines all of these approaches but does it with surprising subtlety and restraint and simply uses s... |
513,317 | 3,223,254 | 382,621 | 7 | The Drive for Media Infamy | Crónicas is a terse , highly atmospheric movie that begins with a terrific idea but then doesn't seem to now where to go with it . The director Sebastián Cordero himself admits that the ending was nebulous until one of the actors ( Leonor Watling ) suggested a way to make the film work . The notes for the alternative e... |
513,096 | 3,223,254 | 455,299 | 7 | A Different Approach to a Genre Film | James Vásquez wrote and stars in what seems to be an autobiographical musing on the life of a plain , conflicted , wannabe actor who is trying to cope with his unsuccessful social life as he approaches his 29th birthday . Presented as a movie within a movie , Vásquez speaks as James Sanchez directly to the audience , s... |
513,225 | 3,223,254 | 380,773 | 7 | Misalliances | Gaël Morel ( Wild Reeds , Under Another Sky , Full Speed ) seems to continue to test cinematic minefields and while not every film is a success , they each indicate that there is a reservoir of talent in this writer / actor / director that will eventually galvanize into to a significant voice . This much maligned littl... |
513,032 | 3,223,254 | 795,376 | 7 | Fun Fluff on the Outside , Some Solid Statements on the Inside | ' Eating Out 2 : Sloppy Seconds ' is a sequel that is not really a sequel - unless the common thread of social attitudes and gender dilemmas as an ongoing tale is the source . A low budget , well scripted , tightly directed ( Phillip J . Bartell ) little film about gay relationships , attraction blunders , and pretendi... |
513,565 | 3,223,254 | 466,909 | 7 | THE OMEN : A More Humanistic Approach | Remembering the 1976 new film THE OMEN this viewer recalls someone making a dog growling sound in the parking lot at movie's end and how that effect sent gasps and chills through those who had just witnessed Damien and his dogs - a sign of a thoroughly successful thriller . Now thirty years later ( and having the origi... |
513,132 | 3,223,254 | 448,564 | 7 | The Hurdles Susan Sarandon Can Overcome | IRRESISTIBLE is a little film from Australia with big ideas and a clumsy script . The story itself is good with enough variation from the usual thriller scripts to make it enjoyable , but the writing borders on improvisation and doesn't provide the motivation for the development of the story to flow smoothly enough to ... |
513,428 | 3,223,254 | 407,304 | 7 | Reason to Recall the Impact of H . G . Well's Apocalyptic Book | The real dazzler about this reincarnation of an old story is that it IS the reincarnation of an old story . H . G . Wells published his scary sci-fi novel in 1898 , Orson Welles terrified the country in his 1938 radio drama version of the book , in 1953 the book became a film , and now in the time of terrorism Steven S... |
512,860 | 3,223,254 | 318,649 | 7 | A Dandy Summer Popcorn Movie | SAHARA is one of those films to view when escapism is the goal of the evening . Made along the same lines as the ' Raiders of the Lost Ark ' genre , mixing adventure with comedy , a smattering of love interest , a dollop of social comment , and some pretty fine scenery that creates a stage for likable actors such as Ma... |
513,122 | 3,223,254 | 407,536 | 7 | Pay To Live : Another Aspect of the ' Jewish Problem ' in Nazi Germany | Despite the fact that there have been many good films about the Holocaust , the Nazi manipulated genocide of the Jews in World War II , there is enough room for a new perspective to that hideous period in history to make THE COUPLE a welcome addition to the repertoire . Written by Director John Daly based on a story by... |
512,950 | 3,223,254 | 462,338 | 7 | Ramifications of a Hoax | Clifford Irving ( Fake , Trial , Final Argument , The Spring ) became a sort of national hero when he contrived to publish ' The Autobiography of Howard Hughes ' , a 400 page phony but well researched book that , while it was never published , did cause enough of a stir among the New York publishing cognoscenti and tho... |
513,449 | 3,223,254 | 411,883 | 7 | Unfortunate Title | Sometimes the title of a film has connotations that put people off , preventing them from viewing a film that has a lot of good points just because the title is tacky . Such is the case for SLUTTY SUMMER . This low budget first film by writer / producer / director / actor Casper Andreas may not have the substance or fi... |
513,063 | 3,223,254 | 160,611 | 7 | Robbers and Cops | ORDINARY DECENT CRIMINAL has to be one of the more tongue-in-cheek titles Hollywood has devised for a story apparently based on a real life infamous Irish gangster Martin Cahill whose claim to fame was robbing banks and getting away with it while posing as a preceptor of family values ! Yet in this reincarnation the pl... |
513,144 | 3,223,254 | 424,880 | 7 | Stumbling Toward the Abyss | Stories about the cruel annihilation of physical , emotional and spiritual lives that follow addiction to drugs appear to be constant sources for films . If seeing the destruction of people's lives when they become addicted to drugs helps those who are on the teetering brink of trying heavy drugs to avoid the fall , th... |
513,731 | 3,223,254 | 186,549 | 7 | A Surprisingly Good Film ! | Coming across a movie on the shelf that boasts a cast of fine actors but has a title that seems to have appeared out of nowhere takes a bit of faith to rent / buy it . Such is the case for THE SIMIAN LINE , a film by TV director Linda Yellen ( who also co-wrote story with Michael Leeds and brought in Gisela Bernice to ... |
513,580 | 3,223,254 | 361,411 | 7 | Silly Attempt to Update Jane Austen Succeeds in its Excesses ! | There are so many films like BRIDE AND PREJUDICE that a term has been created for them : Bollywood . The term is not meant to be derogatory but it does designate a certain genre of films from India that harken back to the Hollywood Musicals of the 40s and 50s . The stories are usually rather like recipes : girls meet b... |
512,923 | 3,223,254 | 462,396 | 7 | Toga Epic , Short on Story , Long on Sincerity | THE LAST LEGION , apparently based on the novel of the same name by Valerio Manfredi and cut and pasted together as a screenplay by Jez Butterworth , Tom Butterworth , Carlo Carlei and Peter Rader , may come across as a rather under-budgeted film as directed by an earnest Doug Lefler , but it does seem to have heart . ... |
513,412 | 3,223,254 | 209,933 | 7 | All the ingredients of a superb film . . . just not mixed yet ! | BEAU TRAVAIL is a curious film . It is based on the story ' Billy Budd ' by Herman Melville and on the operatic adaptation by EM Forster of Benjamin Britten's magnificent BILLY BUDD and has all the right pieces in place to make a fine , updated adaptation of the story . Unfortunately the script fails to find the messag... |
512,813 | 3,223,254 | 400,525 | 7 | A Christmas Eve to Remember ! | THE ICE HARVEST is a quirky little film that is very much in keeping with the writing style of novelist Scott Phillips but even more so in the hit ' em where it counts style of screenplay adapters Richard Russo and Robert Benton ! This is one of the better film noir entries into the black comedy version that has appear... |
513,199 | 3,223,254 | 415,856 | 7 | The South , The Fifties , and Emergence | Deborah Kampmeier has written and directed an atmospheric film about life in the South ( Alabama to be specific ) in the 1950s , using this confused period of time to examine how a child can rise out of her squalid surroundings , replacing her disappointments in expectations of family , friends , and trauma with tenuou... |
513,488 | 3,223,254 | 368,709 | 7 | It all depends on your state of mind . . . " I'm Fine " | Even before hitting the screens , the PR machine was wild with rumors about re-writes , cuts , revisions , and doom so that when ELIZABETHTOWN finally entered the theaters it was a short gasp before it was gone . Didn't see it in the theaters , but watching this little film on DVD makes this viewer wonder just why the ... |
512,705 | 3,223,254 | 338,427 | 7 | The Loneliness of Unpartnered Dreamers | SHOPGIRL works on a number of levels . While its focus is an examination between types of romance , it also manages to address many issues of the isolation of living alone in Los Angeles - or any big city for that matter . But Los Angeles , with its sprawl of ill-defined suburbs and neighborhoods searching for a city's... |
513,730 | 3,223,254 | 415,778 | 7 | A Fast Paced Action Thriller That's Not All That Bad ! | Viewers seem to be pretty much against this action flick , seeming to put it down because if IS an action flick , a fact that for this viewer prevents looking for the good parts of a movie that succeeds in making us think . Director Andy Cheng ( also a co-writer for the script ) has a background as a movie stunt coordi... |
513,571 | 3,223,254 | 477,999 | 7 | An Old Song Well Sung | There is a reason this film from the Philippines has garnered so much attention and audience approval at festivals around the world . Yes , it is a very low budget film ( and technically that shows ) , but the message is a sound one . Not just another film about the massage parlor antics created to titillate the viewer... |
513,551 | 3,223,254 | 403,237 | 7 | Nice Little Warm and Fluffy Film | It is becoming more the rule than the exception that movies made for television are the equal if not better than many of the works made for the theaters . Such is the case for this little bit of fluff of a movie - EVERYTHING YOU WANT . Based on a play by Natalie Prado and adapted successfully for the screen by Steven A... |
512,920 | 3,223,254 | 795,426 | 7 | Random Acts of Kindness : A Little Christmas Story | MIDNIGHT CLEAR is an easily overlooked film : the cover of the DVD is bleak , the description of the story sounds a bit corny , and the promotion of the film has been scant . But what is not expected for those viewers able to overcome the above negative aspects is a well-made little series of interlocking vignettes tha... |
512,919 | 3,223,254 | 422,458 | 7 | Fall Out from the Hippie Era | A SIMPLE CURVE is a little Canadian film courtesy of Film Movement that has a nice style and solid cast to relate what happened to the men and women who fled to Canada to avoid the draft for the Vietnam War . Since the Baby Boomer Generation now makes up a large part of the audience this story will resonate with both p... |
512,741 | 3,223,254 | 429,173 | 7 | A Microscopic Examination of Urban Life and the Writer's Mind | THE TENANTS began as a 1971 short novel by the now deceased Bernard Malamud - writer / philosopher - examining the conflicts between Jews and African Americans in the incendiary atmosphere of Brooklyn at the time the book was written . As a novel the story was gut wrenchingly real : as transcribed into a screenplay by ... |
513,705 | 3,223,254 | 429,177 | 7 | Apples and Oranges | Paul Reiser steps away from the standup comedy spotlight to write a warmly humorous and gently tender story about family - what we see and what we don't see , what we expect and what surprises us . THE THING ABOUT MY FOLKS doesn't set any new standards for film , but it is a fine little story well told that reminds us ... |
512,917 | 3,223,254 | 765,120 | 7 | Visual Splendor for a Shuffled Plot and Script | Kar Wai Wong is as much a visual artist as a film director and his forté has always been making beautiful , multileveled images on a screen that is trying to see clearly the outlines of character development . Such is the case in his first English language film MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS , a creation he wrote ( with Lawrence ... |
512,643 | 3,223,254 | 475,944 | 7 | Witch Hunting in the 21st Century : Hunky Molochs ! | THE COVENANT is not a great film by any definition but it is worth seeing for the cast of characters doomed to portray the rather shoddy script : the live Abercrombie & Fitch appearing models make up for allure in screen presence what they may lack in a solid story . In the 1600s , during the witch trials , there were ... |
512,691 | 3,223,254 | 375,104 | 7 | A Rather Surprisingly Good Biography of an Icon | Not being a golfer or a fan of biographies of sportsmen , this viewer found a surprising amount of satisfaction in this recreation of the life of Bobby Jones , whose fame in the game of golf is legendary . So the question arises : " How can a film about golf maintain such a viewer's attention and appreciation ? " The a... |
513,411 | 3,223,254 | 422,491 | 7 | The nonpareil of free association film making | Claire Denis has demonstrated repeatedly that film does not need to tell a story , that it is sufficient to create an experience that allows the viewer to take the ingredients and make of them what they will . Ostensibly the idea within the framework of a most non-linear film is the older man living on the French-Swiss... |
512,938 | 3,223,254 | 488,349 | 7 | Roselyn Sanchez Lights Up the Screen ! | Roselyn Sanchez Lights Up the Screen ! , August 3 , 2007 By Grady Harp ( Los Angeles , CA United States ) - See all my reviews ( TOP 10 REVIEWER ) ( REAL NAME ) YELLOW may be fairly easy to dismiss as a soap opera story of little girl makes good despite a troubling journey , but the presence of Roselyn Sanchez is reaso... |
513,688 | 3,223,254 | 287,986 | 7 | Starts and Stops : A Movie Trying to Find A Story | ' Dieu est grand , je suis toute petite ' is a little film by Pascale Bailly that spends a lot of time trying to tell a story in bits and pieces with numerous characters , interesting in and of themselves but confusing to the viewer , attempting to keep up with the breakneck speed of this French comedy . The saving gra... |
513,163 | 3,223,254 | 470,715 | 7 | Finding Self Through Flashbacks and Fragments | ' Comme un frère ' ( Like a Brother ) is a brief film by writers and directors Bernard Alapetite and Cyril Legann that succinctly examines the development of identity of a young lad over a period of less than a year . The technique of telling the story of the coming of sexual age of a boy is one that may confuse some v... |
512,885 | 3,223,254 | 406,816 | 7 | The Star is the Sea | Some of the most compelling moments in this otherwise dated rehash of the troubled aging chance-taker in a military unit taking on the similar inner demons of a young recruit are the frames that depict the raging sea in middle of storms . The photography and superimposed action shots of rescues in the midst of nature's... |
513,344 | 3,223,254 | 864,918 | 7 | The Pleasures of Film Noir | For those who share a delight in the very French film noir genre , TRIVIAL ( La Disparue de Deauville ) is sure to please . To attempt to outline the plot of this beautifully photographed and acted film would be to deny the viewer the pleasure of unraveling the mysteries that make up this at times obtuse story . But th... |
512,856 | 3,223,254 | 488,120 | 7 | All the Right Ingredients but he Cake Didn't Rise | FRACTURE seemed from the trailer and the ads as though this was a surefire hit , a mystery thriller populated with a strong cast and directed by Gregory Hoblit ( Hart's War , Frequency , Fallen , Primal Fear ) who knows his way around tense drama . But despite this the movie suffers from a script that fails to keep tha... |
513,453 | 3,223,254 | 408,790 | 7 | The Subtleties of Building Atmosphere | FLIGHTPLAN as directed by Robert Schwentke from a screenplay by writers Peter A . Dowling and Billy Ray is excellent on creating tension from the first frames of the film well into the uni-set stage of an impossibly huge airplane . Little things like scenes of isolation , snow , ice , coffins - all set the viewer up fo... |
513,484 | 3,223,254 | 386,751 | 7 | The Mystery : Finding the Multiple Stories and Making Them Relate | THE RIVER KING is a high profile film that went directly to DVD without the benefit of a theater run . It is anyone's guess why a film of this quality should not make it commercially while there are so many less well-made movies that linger on the screens for weeks or months . The film is well acted , well directed , b... |
512,937 | 3,223,254 | 441,774 | 7 | Stepping Back Into the 1950s : An Imitation Film Noir | LONELY HEARTS tries very hard to evoke the feeling of the 1950s and the troubled police officer whose wife's suicide haunts him until he finds revenge in the investigation of a pair of lonely hearts scam artists . But what happens for the most part is a story that looks , sounds and fells like a 1950s crime movie - 3 p... |
512,841 | 3,223,254 | 416,496 | 7 | Turning Spaghetti Westerns into Ebullient Farce ! | BANDIDAS may not set new standards for film-making , whether those standards are for westerns , comedies , action flicks , or slapstick , but it is just as awful lot of fun to watch ! The script by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen is pretty shallow and at times borders on maudlin , but it is also peppered with some lit... |
513,729 | 3,223,254 | 410,400 | 7 | The Struggle to Restore Self Worth | ON A CLEAR DAY is a wee Scottish film that is full to overflowing with heart and fine performances . Writer Alex Rose and Director Gaby Dellal have managed to explore the psyches of the ordinary folk who face the crises of unemployment , of strained family relations and the fear of loss of pride in one's self and have ... |
512,655 | 3,223,254 | 364,955 | 7 | A Smart Little Film That Gets Caught Up In Its Own Mess Of A Story | ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL is yet another comic book comes to celluloid life , this time by writer Daniel Clowes , and in the process creates more subplots than it can comfortably handle . The main premise - that art schools are peopled by assorted types of students all with the goal of becoming a great artist and the man... |
512,879 | 3,223,254 | 449,588 | 7 | An Intrigue Drama from Life | HUNT FOR JUSTICE is a Canadian television drama that has made it to DVD and that is reason for gratitude for those who hunger for educational dramas that inform us about facts of current history that somehow get buried in the media . The film is not a Hollywood production , it relies heavily on footage from court files... |
513,153 | 3,223,254 | 287,364 | 7 | A Sector the Kinsey Report Missed : The World of Genet and Gide | ' La Chatte à deux têtes ' ( PORN THEATER ) is a somber study of a sector of life few know , an aspect of human sexuality that didn't make it into the Kinsey Report , a part of the underbelly of city life most would rather not accept existed . Does that mean it should not be examined , should not provide the impetus fo... |
513,333 | 3,223,254 | 166,287 | 7 | Coming Out Is So Very Hard To Do | ' No Se Lo Digas A Nadie ' ( ' Don't Tell Anyone ' ) is probably a good PR line for this little film trying to be something grand . In excess of two hours director Francisco J . Lombardi makes an attempt to bring to life the autobiography of gay Peruvian talk show host Jaime Bayly and to explore the angst of teenagers ... |
512,913 | 3,223,254 | 888,693 | 7 | The Numb Life of Sleepwalking | New director William Maher and writer Zac Stanford previously worked together in THE CHUMSCRUBBER and the similarity of vision is apparent in SLEEPWALKING : both films deal with the empty shells of hollow people aimlessly seeking connection in a world that has become foreign territory . It is a dark , cold , brooding f... |
512,733 | 3,223,254 | 375,911 | 7 | In Many Ways , This is Yesterday's Lunch - But a Fun and Endearing Replay ! | Director Sherry Horman and writer Benedikt Gollhardt have not introduced any new ideas in ' Männer wie wir ' ( ' Guys and Balls ' ) - team sports dependent on camaraderie , outsiders getting the last laugh , coming out stories with sports as a background , homophobia to the max , and stereotypical depictions of gay men... |
513,029 | 3,223,254 | 410,626 | 7 | The Rewards and Perils of Bonded Kids Who Never Grow Up | SLINGSHOT explores the ups and downs of the lives of two boys , close friends since childhood , both from homes where they were unwanted , who made it through reform school and remain as a unit into an adult life as petty scam artists - living on the edge of crime and a life of desperate need for belonging . The script... |
513,373 | 3,223,254 | 404,030 | 7 | Schreiber Makes Foer Visual | Jonathan Safran Foer's widely read novel ' Everything is Illuminated ' was a zany concoction of story , standup comedy , and fantasy that worked well as a diversion because of Foer's very apparent rough style of writing : everything is forgiven if the words play with the imagination . But as a film the book seemed a fo... |
512,970 | 3,223,254 | 397,405 | 7 | Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome in Peru | Peruvian writer / director Josue Mendez has made a brave little low budget film that deals with a subject currently burgeoning our hospitals in this country as the fallout of the war on Iraq and still plagues the veterans of the Vietnam War - Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome ( aka Battle Rattle ) . This is a difficult to... |
513,183 | 3,223,254 | 443,632 | 7 | An Oft-Told Tale But Good Entertainment | THE SENTINEL will not create any new ideas for movie plots for the viewer , but it is filled with some fine actors who manage to keep the pace of this rather predictable ' inside the White House ' story of intrigue moving for all of its 108 minutes . The story revolves around the protection of the President of the US (... |
513,446 | 3,223,254 | 419,766 | 7 | The Embryo of a Fine Film Defuses | Though most reviewers and viewers are putting this film down as a waste of time , this particular viewer sees many redeeming factors here that , given some further time in the editing room and a bit of script doctoring , could have resulted in a moving story . Young Swiss filmmaker Lionel Baier has both written ( with ... |
513,255 | 3,223,254 | 71,219 | 7 | Some Insights into the Creative Process of David Hockney | Jack Hazan's quasi-documentary A BIGGER SPLASH is an unfocused examination about the creative life of David Hockney and supposedly about the effect of his past relationship with his pupil Peter Schlesinger ( an artist , sculptor , and photographer who Hockney not only enjoyed as a lover but as a disciple ) . The précis... |
513,012 | 3,223,254 | 837,803 | 7 | Means to an end | Though many will avoid this little film because the title and DVD cover suggest a mindless mélange of sexual encounters , those who can get past these flaws will find a well written ( Miles Brandman ) examination of young people's concepts of relationships and how to keep them . Brandman also directs this stylish charm... |
513,542 | 3,223,254 | 317,919 | 7 | Mission Impossible III goes more for Noise and Effects than Cunning Intelligence | The reason for the success of MI I and MI II , for this viewer , was the sophisticated , scientific devices and plans used to manipulate evil by good . It was always a pleasure to watch the superior minds win . But somehow MI III seems far more interested in pyrotechniques and mass explosions and derring-do than for sm... |
513,316 | 3,223,254 | 381,717 | 7 | A Lovely Avant-garde String of Pearls Searching for its Clasp | YES is film you want to love and most people who watch it probably know they are in for a Sally Potter ride , so little quirks like an iambic pentameter script shouldn't shock . There are so many gorgeous moments in this lushly painted canvas , so many isolated portions of dialog that are thought-provoking or just simp... |
513,353 | 3,223,254 | 432,402 | 7 | Revisiting the 1960s : Was it really that strange ? | FACTORY GIRL is a film that divides viewers into those who love it and those who dismiss it as trivial trash . For this reviewer there are some strong points in this film about an almost indescribable time in our history that helps clarify points about Andy Warhol and his significance on the art scene . And one of thos... |
513,090 | 3,223,254 | 407,998 | 7 | Visuals 5 , Story 3 , But a Pleasure to Watch | THE MISTRESS OF SPICES has some of the most beautiful use of color and texture in the form a magical Spice Bazaar that has graced a DVD . It also has as its protagonist the very beautiful Aishwarya Rai and the love interest of the always-reliable Dylan McDermott . The story was created and directed by Paul Mayeda Berge... |
513,335 | 3,223,254 | 419,026 | 7 | Posing | ' Partner ( s ) ' turns out to be a far better little film than expected . Not that there is anything original about this oft told variation of posing to be something you're not in order to take advantage of career development only to have that posing backfire . But Dave Diamond's script and direction and the presence ... |
513,538 | 3,223,254 | 374,294 | 7 | Eric Rohmer as an Acquired Taste | Eric Rohmer will undoubtedly sustain in cinema history as a unique writer and director of French films . He is far more interested in dialogue , conversation among his characters , and ideas than he is in plot or storyline development . His films affect many as too didactic , too much like a lecture series on current e... |
513,442 | 3,223,254 | 430,650 | 7 | Recollections of Oz | Charles McDougall's resume includes directing episodes on ' Sex and the City ' , ' Desperate Housewives ' , Queer as Folk ' , ' Big Love ' , ' The Office ' , etc . so he comes with all the credentials to make the TV film version of Meg Wolitzer's novel SURRENDER , DOROTHY a success . And for the most part he manages to... |
513,155 | 3,223,254 | 436,524 | 7 | Alienation in Many Guises | First time screenwriter David Patterson adapted his own play ' Finger Painting in a Murphy Bed ' for the film LOVE , LUDLOW making the onus of the success of the film rest heavily on his shoulders . Fortunately the producers found first-time director Adrienne J . Weiss who has capably transformed a delicate triangle in... |
513,031 | 3,223,254 | 472,043 | 7 | National Geographic Visual Splendor without the Historical Depth Needed | Viewing APOCALYPTO is a visual and visceral experience : some of the most beautiful cinematic depictions of skies , jungles , raging rivers and extraordinary recreations of Mayan temples and peoples fill the screen for a very long two and a half hours . The images include excessive violence ( beheadings , punjee stake ... |
512,922 | 3,223,254 | 379,265 | 7 | Confessions and Sequelae | OUTING RILEY may feel a bit self serving , as though Bobby Riley , the main character of the film , is sitting in a Confessional Booth revealing his secret , and in fact that is certainly the case as the film was conceived , lived , written , directed and stars Pete Jones as Bobby . This may account for some of the awk... |
513,609 | 3,223,254 | 428,856 | 7 | Look at Me , See Me , Do I Exist ? | LA MOUSTACHE is a very well acted and conceived Belgian film that starts with a terrific premise that could be the opening for either a comedy or a drama and ends up wondering which path to take . Writer / director Emmanuel Carrère ( with co-script writer Jérôme Beaujour ) takes us on a mind trip that becomes increasin... |
513,168 | 3,223,254 | 853,096 | 7 | Ex Post Facto | DEATH OF A PRESIDENT is most assuredly a film that will cause boisterous anger among those who are reacting to the title . It is an ' imagined documentary ' about the assassination of President Bush on October 19 , 2007 , using this ' event ' to explore the manner in which the US government copes with such a proposed e... |
513,223 | 3,223,254 | 421,239 | 7 | A Tense , Fast Paced Thriller | Who would expect a screenplay / story by Carl Ellsworth ( ' Buffy the Vampire Slayer ' ) directed by horror master Wes Craven to be an intelligent thriller ? Yet RED EYE is precisely that . This a tight conversational duet for two actors with accompaniment that slips up on the viewer so surely that the terrifying clima... |
512,689 | 3,223,254 | 357,054 | 7 | Proof that a Seed of Truth is Stranger / Funnier than Fiction | THE LAST SHOT is best viewed with a bit of info to let the patient viewer understand what is coming . The opening titles are clever , dealing with movie paraphernalia that serve as matrices for the stars and production staff names and should give a sense of what is to come . But it isn't until the first 20 or so minute... |
512,793 | 3,223,254 | 385,752 | 7 | A Fantasy with a Strong Cast of Humans and Animated Animals ! | Not being one who seeks out the seemingly endless line of Harry Potter / Narnia / Lord of the Rings tropes ( a little computer generated monster realm goes a long way ) , THE GOLDEN COMPASS came somewhat as a pleasant surprise . Yes , this is still a fantasy film , but the emphasis is more on stylish creation of variou... |
512,924 | 3,223,254 | 907,657 | 7 | Ad lib | There is much to love about the quirky little film ONCE : it is honest , simple , transparent , and made with a low budget and lots of love . The leading characters are gentle people who happen to sing as well as act and the love story they create is a fragile little tale that remains in the air as a nice memory after ... |
513,586 | 3,223,254 | 363,504 | 8 | There is no ' I ' in me . . . | BIGGER THAN THE SKY has the feel of an Indie that was made out of a lot of love and commitment from all concerned . That's a good thing , but at the beginning of this little film the viewer questions whether or not the actors can make the story fly - and if you actually want to take the trip with them . But stick it ou... |
512,966 | 3,223,254 | 390,384 | 8 | A Peek Into The Mystery of the Moment of Discovery | A strange , creative little film , this . One that manages to make visual the chaos of quantum physics in the form of human permutations of the disorder and bizarre combination of marvel and fear that confront the mind upon a moment of discovery of a new fact / concept . This is a film that should be viewed by an audie... |
513,667 | 3,223,254 | 372,784 | 8 | A Comic Book Hero Transformed into a Credible Hero | Not at all being one for the comic book fantasies that continue to flood the screens and gobble the dollars , camouflage weak scripts with tacky overblown computer graphics , introduce bizarre meanies and barely clothed wonder women , etc , I approached this BATMAN BEGINS with a big bag of prejudices . And in no time a... |
513,555 | 3,223,254 | 493,327 | 8 | A Tense , Well-Scripted Thriller Pertinent to our Times | Great literature its not , but Robert Ludlum is hard to beat as a writer of suspense thrillers and COVERT ONE : THE HADES FACTOR is no exception . Writing the screenplay with Ludlum is Elwood Reid and together they have created a very fast moving tale of the threats of bio-terrorism , found in Mick Jackson a perfect ma... |
513,545 | 3,223,254 | 116,684 | 8 | A Moody , Evocative JANE EYR | Oddly enough the Charlotte Brontë's classic novel ' Jane Eyre ' has had more cinematic transitions than almost any of the old novels . The story is powerful but with the frequency of film adaptations , even the story grows tired , unless someone breathes new life into the interpretation . In this case that breath comes... |
513,569 | 3,223,254 | 462,504 | 8 | ' If it is full , empty it . If it is empty , fill it ' ! | So speaks Dieter Dengler when asked for comment at the end of his journey of jungle captivity in Laos . RESCUE DAWN is as much about the courage and fortitude of a captured soldier during wartime as it is about a true incident . From the inherent optimism of pilot Dieter Dengler ( played with commitment and finesse by ... |
513,207 | 3,223,254 | 889,588 | 8 | A Nearly Impossible Story to Tell or Believe : True Heroism | THE CHILDREN OF HUANG SHI is a long ( greater than two hours ) epic tale that happens to be a true story of an extraordinary hero's life and gift to humanity during World War II . If as a film the telling of this story is a bit shaky in spots , it is probably due to the episodic series of events that happened very quic... |
513,342 | 3,223,254 | 1,059,786 | 8 | Fast Paced Thriller with a Sappy Ending | EAGLE EYE is not a great movie but it is an entertaining one . Granted , leaving reason at the door is a prerequisite to plugging into the plot , but the style of the film and the premise that in the midst of all of our government's supposedly first class intelligence agencies such amazing programs can be staged opens ... |
513,624 | 3,223,254 | 466,816 | 8 | Stalking Life | MISTER FOE ( aka HALLAM FOE ) is another dark film about buried pain and insecurities , much like director David Mackenzie's YOUNG ADAM . Mackenzie is also responsible for the crackling screenplay adapted from the novel by Peter Jinks , the story of a young lad named Hallam ( Jamie Bell ) damaged by his mother's death ... |
512,851 | 3,223,254 | 231,281 | 8 | A Little French Who-Done-It with Twists and Spice | ' Le Boiteux : Baby Blues ' is a sassy little French mystery made for French television in 1999 and is just now showing up on the shelves of local DVD rental stores . It is a fun little diversion with lots of French flavor and has a cast that is not only secure but plays this little tale with a sense of flair and tongu... |
512,714 | 3,223,254 | 418,484 | 8 | A Dimly Lit View into the Dark Life of a Dying Poet | ' Un Ano sin amor ' ( A Year Without Love ) is a brave little Argentine film by young Buenos Aires director Anahi Berneri , a film that takes a different look at people with AIDS in the era of 1996 when the AIDS cocktail was just becoming a beacon of hope suggesting that afflicted people could survive . Though some may... |
512,890 | 3,223,254 | 382,628 | 8 | A Film Noir with Panache | Walter Salles has proved himself a formidable director with his successes in ' Central Station ' , Behind the Sun ' , and The Motorcycle Diaries ' : he is an artist unafraid to approach unfamiliar terrain in his growth as a director , yet always proving that the most important element in making a good film is to explor... |
513,371 | 3,223,254 | 338,097 | 8 | World War II from the European View | Writer and Director John Duigan has added to his cinematic stature with this recent film about the interrelated responses of three countries - England , France , Spain - to the early phases of WW II and in doing so gives some inadvertent insight into how the continent was so endangered by the little known bad boy Hitle... |
513,410 | 3,223,254 | 382,625 | 8 | The Da Vinci Code : The Movie | After all the hoopla and controversy parting the waters between the religious right and Catholic Church and the avid devotees of Dan Brown's multi-million dollar success book , the movie version is finally here . THE DA VINCI CODE makes a good movie - and that is enough . Director Ron Howard has assembled a good intern... |
512,757 | 3,223,254 | 390,323 | 8 | Tadeo Garcia : A Voice to Hear , A Talent to Applaud | Gradually movie audiences are turning more serious attention to the little Independent films for quality and meaning in story and in style and in brave confrontation with issues outside the perimeter of the Hollywood style films . A fine example is this remarkable film by student Tadeo Garcia whose first year in film s... |
513,013 | 3,223,254 | 345,855 | 8 | An Intelligent Script from a Pulitzer Prize Novelist Delivered by a Top Cast ! | THE REPUBLIC OF LOVE is yet another fine film from Canada based on Canadian Pulitzer Prize Winner ( for ' The Stone Diaries ' ) Carol Shields ' novel by the same name , and written for the screen and directed by the gifted Deepa Mehta ( ' Earth ' , ' Fire ' , ' Water ' , etc ) . It is a satisfying story about the human... |
513,293 | 3,223,254 | 795,368 | 8 | Hilarious Romp Through Unlikely Subject Material | Like so many others this viewer waited for the DVD release of DEATH AT A FUNERAL , thinking that a comic take on a potentially morbid subject might not be very entertaining . Couldn't have been more wrong ! This is the kind of humor the Brits do so well - intelligent , expertly delivered dialog and action that can make... |
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