|
OVER
1100
REVIEWS INSIDE!
Search The
Movie Database |
Eric's Blog from the
Sundance Film Festival is Here. |
SEVERANCE
In the traditional prologue, the immortal serial killer is
chasing three
people, two scantily clad bimbettes(Judit Viktor and Juli Drajkó)
who speak some
strange Slavic tongue, and a heavyset guy named George(David
Gilliam), who gets
caught in a snare and just as the killer is about to plunge his
huge knife
into our hero's gut…credits.
|
WENDELL
BAKER STORY
 Owen Wilson was nominated for an Oscar® a few years back for
writing Wes
Anderson's “The Royal Tannenbaums” and at the time it seemed
that the brothers could do anything. So brother Luke, who was
getting famous himself managed to get the money to do an
Anderson-less film which would be co-directed by his oldest
brother Zepp |
ONCE
An Irish busker (Glen Hansard) is playing is music on a street
somewhere in
Dublin. Here, after an altercation with a fiend who steals his
hard earned swag,
meets a Czech woman (Marketa Irglova), with whom he has an
interesting
conversation, followed by the usual romance.
|
PROVOKED
 Raj Mundrha is unknown in this country, well that is to
mainstream movies.
The reason is that for the most part he does pornography, which,
while
profitable, is ignored by critics because it's, well, porn, and
in the age of video and
DVD, never gets into theaters. |
 FAY
GRIM
This film serves no purpose. Think about it, a sequel to a film
few have
seen, and was never considered a masterpiece in the first place.
Where is the
demand for that? Well, apparently a few critics with very long
memories, have the
name “Henry Fool” still stuck in the recesses of our minds, and
when the name
was mentioned, a slight interest was peaked.
|
 HIP
HOP PROJECT
The better part of a decade ago, a Bahamian immigrant and
would-be rap star
named Chris "Kharma Kazi" Rolle came into the offices of
ArtStart, a charity
serving impoverished kids with an idea, why not get a bunch of
teenagers from
the 'hood and teach them how to make it in the music business?
They liked the
idea, and decided to have the whole process filmed. |
DUCK
According to the press notes, auteur Nic Bettauer put her house
in hock in order to put this movie on film. I fear she's going
to have to move to smaller digs quite soon, which is rather sad. |
 EVEN
MONEYGambling is an addiction, this has been known for ages. So, why
not make a
preachy, moralistic film about it with a whole bunch of movie
stars who would
work for scale in order to get on the good side of whatever
religion they've
attached themselves to? |
 BRAND
UPON THE BRAIN
With each movie, Guy Madden goes back in time. His previous one,
“The Saddest
Music in the World” was in the style of a 1930s musical, and
this one is a
silent picture, and in order to see it properly, one must shell
out forty bucks
per person to see it with a live orchestra. |
 DAY
NIGHT DAY NIGHT
The Terrorist (Luisa Williams) arrives in New York for her
mission. Where she
came from and why she's doing what she's doing isn't made clear,
all we know
is that she's up to no good. She prays a mantra about how
everyone dies and
foreshadows what's expected to happen. |
|
 SPIDERMAN
3
Superhero movies are always to some extent
absurd. This doesn't make them bad, per se, It's
just that there are different goals for shoot
for and heavy psychological drama isn't one of
them, that's where this thing fails. |
LUCKY YOU
Morons
can be very intelligent people. Curtis Hanson, who wrote and
directed one of the great movies of all time [LA Confidential],
has decided to explore this phenomenon in what might be his
weakest film in years.
|
|
 L'ICEBERG
Dominique Abel, and Fiona Gordon were, for a
time, professional circus clowns, and this
greatly informs and restricts their abilities as
filmmakers. This film proves that editing is
important part of the filmmaking process, and
that what sometimes works on stage or TV doesn't
work on the big screen. |
 AWAY FROM
HER
The term senility is now deemed pejorative for
some reason, and the condition is now called
“Alzheimer's.” But that doesn't change anything.
It still robs the mind of itself, and the
wasting away of the victim is hard to watch
whatever it's called. |
|
 THE
FLYING
SCOTSMAN
When
he was a kid played by Sean Brown, Graeme Obree (Jonny Lee
Miller) was regularly beaten up by the local bullies, something
which heightened his chemical depression. So his father (Niall
Macgregor) bought him a fast bike, and soon the kid was flying
along the streets and winning races. |
 WAITRESS
Last fall, actress and auteur Adrienne Shelly
got into a shouting match with an insane
contractor who was working on her condo. He
murdered her and all show business was shocked
and in mourning, for her career, after many
years of wallowing near the bottom, was about to
take off for the big time. |
|
 SING-NOW-OR
FOREVER-HOLD-YOUR PEACE
In hollywoodese, this would be described as “The Big Chill
Musical.” A cute comedy, this is mostly about the midlife crisis
we all go through sometime between 21 and 60. When they were in
college back in the early '90s, the group in
question were an a cappella group and still sing
on occasion.
|
 SNOW CAKE
Just because something is obviously
Oscar®-bait doesn't mean it has to suck. Sigourney Weaver hasn't
been nominated for one since she got two noms way back in 1989,
to be perfectly frank, she could use one. So, since playing
disabled people is generally considered a call for help by
respected actors who want kudos, this film is on the very early
lists.
It may actually deserve to be.
|
|
 DIGGERS
For some reasons comedians want to do
drama, and this is a case in point. The cast has done quite a
number of comedies in the past, none of which have done very
well at the box office, so I guess they decided that doing a
talky independent film might get them something different in the
future. This is basically a direct to video release with a
nominal theatrical release for reasons of prestige. |
 JINDABYNE
So
when does being an innocent bystander become a crime? If quick
action isn't required to rectify the situation, is quick action
required anyway? That's a moral conundrum, which isn't easily
answered. Jindabyne is one of those towns which was drowned by a
dam a few decades back, and living in its
replacement are a number of dysfunctional
families.
|
|
 After The Wedding
The
problem with melodrama is that if the situation isn’t
compelling, not even the best performances in the world can save
it. This is one of those cases. Fortunately, the cast manages to
wrestle the mediocre script to the ground and made an almost
compelling movie. |
 THE CONDEMNED
Attacking the
intended audience is one of those things that a
filmmaker just doesn't do. World Wrestling
Entertainment has made a lot of money over the
years producing all sorts of inferior
entertainment, including a number of bad films
starring their top wrestlers. |
|
 CIVIC DUTY
Sometimes
a film is so representative of the time when it was made that it
seems obsolete almost from the moment it's released. That is the
case for this thing. It's sooooooooo 2002. |
 PARIS JE
T'AIME
Ah, Paris! How does one present this
schmorgasbord of a city in all its glory?
But of course!, he thought, why not a film that
takes place in one of Gay Paree's twenty districts.
|