The Western as a genre has never recovered from the precipitous decline experienced by the seventies and eighties. I believe that most of the viewing audience has been burnt by films in the genre, which tend to be rote recreations of better titles. Blackthorn, starring Sam Shepard, Stephen Rea, and Eduardo Noreiga, is one of the films that looks to restore the Western to its former glory. The title focuses…
kimi ni todoke – From Me to You- Volume 1 (Box Set) / 2012 NIS America / http://www.nisamerica.com / http://store.nisamerica.com kimi ni todoke is a show that can be enjoyed by any age and familiarity with anime. The show tells of Sawako’s life, eir hard times at high school, and how eir classmates can be mean. As Sawako continues eir path through high school, eir feelings begin to grow more…
There is so much to learn about The Doors. The band hit a wall with the death of Jim Morrison, and the different interviews between Ray Manzarek, John Densmore and Robbie Krieger show that. However, the process that the band entered into when they were recording L.A. Woman was nothing different than the norm. One gets into the mind of each of The Doors as they laid some of the…
I must admit that before receiving The Moment of Truth (Il momento della verita), I was not too familiar with the works of Francesco Rosi (Hands Over the City, Christ Stopped at Eboli). The Moment of Truth is Rosi’s 1965 film, and it focuses on the trials and tribulations of an up and coming bullfighters. This is a story of an underdog that ultimate receives fame and riches, all while…
The whole-hog restoration and placement of older films onto the Blu-Ray format is great. It allows different resources to be tapped, while giving viewers a take on the film that is utterly and completely new. Synapse Films has released this 1989 Scott Spiegel title, with luminaries such as Quentin Tarantino and Lawrence Bender tapped to provide this vision. A cast of stars (Bruce Campbell, Renee Estevez, and Sam Raimi) all…
The film is something that requires a few solid views to capture everything that has been presented in its 105 minute run time. Where the film could travel down a path that numerous films have taken, I believe that it provides a fresh take on the horror and suspense genres. Sam Worthington and Brian Heigh do a stellar job in creating the camaraderie that two detectives would have after working…
This film is fantastic, and showcases the fact that period historical pieces can still work. It is the attention to detail that makes this film soar, as one will be transported back to the Spanish Civil War period. While individuals that have taken American history courses will have little information about this event, I believe that Roland Joffe’s (The Mission) skill ensures that a back story is provided. I liked…
Chances are you’ve never heard of the Kashmere Stage Band, but thanks to Jamie Foxx and this stellar documentary, the Houston-based former high school funk band is finally getting the recognition they deserve. The band, from the predominately black Kashmere Gardens neighborhood, ran from the late 60’s to the late 70’s. With robust narration, a story is told through interviews with the former band members decades after taking part in…
The film is something that requires a few solid views to capture everything that has been presented in its 105 minute run time. Where the film could travel down a path that numerous films have taken, I believe that it provides a fresh take on the horror and suspense genres. Sam Worthington and Brian Heigh do a stellar job in creating the camaraderie that two detectives would have after working…
This film is fantastic, and showcases the fact that period historical pieces can still work. It is the attention to detail that makes this film soar, as one will be transported back to the Spanish Civil War period. While individuals that have taken American history courses will have little information about this event, I believe that Roland Joffe’s (The Mission) skill ensures that a back story is provided. I liked…
All that hand wringing about filling The Sopranos void on HBO is finally over and it just took one episode of the brilliant Boardwalk Empire. Created by Terrence Winter (a former writer and producer on The Sopranos) and starring Steve Bushemi (what do ya know, another Sopranos alum), the show is set in Atlantic City on the eve and shortly after Prohibition outlaws alcohol throughout the country. Buscemi plays Enoch…
Arrested Development, though admittedly an amazingly creative TV show that lasted a surprising three season on a network not exactly known for embracing originality, may have created far larger a hurdle for its stars that they ever could have imagine. Since the show went off the air, creator Mitch Hurwitz and his actors, separately and together, have failed to come up with a formula even remotely as successful as Arrested…
This complete collection showcases stellar video and a solid translation, a combination that will have viewers watching all six-plus hours of the show through. Elfen Lied is a show that breaks the anime genre free from its typically younger-leaning moorings. There are darker elements to the story, and Sentai has kept them all in this collection. No matter whether one likes subtitles or straight dubbing, this release has it. I…
I found that one of the drawbacks about the first season of Through the Wormhole was that the concepts that were covered in that season were a little bit on the elementary side. However, I feel that there has been progression towards more complex theories and schools of thought. This means that the second season of Through the Wormhole is more interesting; Morgan Freeman immediately gets to the nitty gritty…
Add alligator trapper to the ever growing list of “Jobs We Never Knew Existed Before Realty TV”. The second season of the History Channel realty show Swamp People follows the lives of several Cajun families who hunt gators in the Louisiana swamps, and pretty much prove just how wussy the rest of us are. One scene in particular where a son has his mom remove bullet shrapnel from under his…
Nature is one of the longest running shows on television, and the different topics that it covers are always interesting. I personally like the diffuse ways that filmmakers make their films germane to a larger audience. In Nature: My Life As A Turkey, Joe Hutto takes the role of a turkey parent. After finding turkey eggs, ey is able to become a surrogate mother. Ey has to show these turkeys…
It is rare to see a film that actually tries to prevent bad behavior, but The Fat Boy Chronicles tries to show viewers abvout the negative effects of bullying. The film can be viewed as any film, with entertainment in mind; it features the story of Jimmy Winterpock. Jimmy is an overweight child and has to endure tremendous amounts of bullying in eir high school. Rather than acting out in…
Two things become pretty clear within the first few minutes of the oft-talked about IFC sketch show Portlandia: Fred Armisen, the sometime musician and current cast member of Saturday Night Live, is far more funny than his network gig on SNL allows him to be and Carrie Brownstein, his partner on Portlandia better known as the singer/guitarist for Sleater-Kinney and Wild Flag, is probably even funnier than Armisen. On paper,…
The video quality of Shark Night is absolutely stellar, with Fox pushing the Blu-Ray format to its limits. The tension present in the movie is further bolstered by this crispness. A similar tightness and quality is present in the audio track for this release, which picks up every noise, scream, and other utterance. Shark Night, for those that hsave not watched the film, is a Corman-esque film that takes on…
Good Morning Vietnam was one of those films that were shown in a severly edited format on Comedy Central throughout my childhood. The film has received a number of releases (VHS, DVD, and now Blu-Ray), but I believe that Touchstone has done a tremendous job in establishing this releases’ value, even for those that already have a prior version of the film. This Robin Williams-led film surrounds Adrian Cronauer and…