DVD Review: In To The Wild (2-Disc Special Collectors Edition)
For centuries, literary figures including Leo Tolstoy, Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain Jack London and countless others have written about the importance of nature and the importance of living off the land. In turn, many people have taken these written works to heart and set off on their own journeys in search of a new […]
DVD Review: 101 Dalmatians: Two-Disc Platinum Edition (1961)
101 Dalmatians is loosely based on the 1956 children’s book The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith. In Smith’s book there are actually four main dalmatians, their “pets” are already married, Roger is a “financial wizard” who has been granted an exemption from income tax for life because he freed England of it’s national […]
DVD Review: Beowulf – The Director’s Cut
Beowulf is the oldest surviving poem in the English language. The epic work was written sometime between the 8th and 11th centuries. In the poem, Beowulf battles three rivals: Grendel who is attacking the Danish mead hall known as Heorot and its citizenry; Grendel’s mother; and later in life after returning to Geatland and being […]
Oscar® Channel Unveiled on YouTube
Beverly Hills, CA — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has launched a branded Oscars® channel on YouTube™ –www.YouTube.com/Oscars – featuring Academy Awards® show highlights and exclusive video interviews with members from each of the Academy’s branches. Participants include Quincy Jones, Alfred Molina, Sidney Poitier and John Travolta.
DVD Review: Margot At The Wedding
Writer/director Noah Baumbach seems to enjoy exploring the dark underbelly of family dynamics and relationships. Baumbach wrote the 2005 film The Squid and the Whale, in which the father (Jeff Daniels) of an intellectual, if slightly eccentric Brooklyn family claims to have been a great novelist but has settled into a teaching job. When his […]
DVD Review: Michael Clayton
Films that center on greed are hardly new. Hollywood has long been fascinated by man’s thirst for money and power. Often in these films, the spotlight shines on someone with one last shot at redemption. Sometimes the struggle is played out in the courtroom, sans Paul Newman’s portrayal of Frank Galvin in 1982’s The Verdict. […]
DVD Review: No Reservations
Watching a remake of the 2002 German film Mostly Martha, No Reservations is like getting up at midnight and raiding the fridge – it feels good while you’re doing it, but you wouldn’t dream of telling your friends about it the next day. Kate (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is the master chef at the upscale New York […]
Trailer for Alfred Hitchcock’s Rare Window
Recently, as part of Turner Classic Movies 31 Days of Oscar, I watched Hitchcock’s Rear Window(1954). The film about a wheelchair bound photographer who spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder. Starring James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter, Raymond Burr, Judith Evelyn, Ross […]
Vanity Fair’s Cover Story on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
I just finished reading Vanity Fair’s February 2008 cover story on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and got much more intrigued about seeing the film. I am a big fan of the previous Indiana Jones movies but am not so sure that at sixty five, Harrison ford is still up to […]
DVD Review: Rocket Science
Writer/director Jeffrey Blitz first gained public notice with his 2002 documentary Spellbound, a fascinating look at contestants at the Scripps-Howard National spelling bee. For his follow-up, Blitz has gone the fiction route, with Rocket Science, a story about a boy with a terrible stutter and a chaotic home life who joins the debate team in […]