Into the Blu

One of my most cherished Christmas presents as an adolescent was a boxed set of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.  To the fertile mind of a 12-year old, these were the best books ever, igniting a life long affinity for fantasy literature.  What made the books even more special is the prose used allowed a reader to form strong visions in their own mind of the characters, places, and action contained therein.

After reading the books, I was excited to discover that an animated version of the book existed, and lobbied hard to get my buddies to rent it when we were having a movie night.  And after we all sat back and viewed the movie, we looked at each other with the same expression on our faces: “What in heck was that?”

So the question is, after 28 years of watching various forms of animation, have I gained a new appreciation for Ralph Bakshi’s labor of love?  Does being on Blu-ray make the movie any better? Continue Reading

In the early 1980’s, I used to help my Dad do the off-hours cleaning of a major electronics store, with payment for my services being that I could play all the Atari 2600 I wanted.  Unfortunately, some days all of the Atari cartridges were locked up, and I was forced to find other diversions in the store.  This led me to the A/V department, and the original RCA Selectavision Video Disc player.

Although Star Wars IV was always my favourite, one day I found Escape from New York in my favourite Selectavision player.  I was suitably impressed (as most 14-year olds are) with the post apocalyptic artwork on the cover, so on went the player, and into my memory went one of my favourite movie memories of my preteen life. Continue Reading

It is actually quite funny how often one would see Harrison Ford’s visage staring at them from a movie poster or a DVD cover during the late 90’s or early 2000’s.  Clear and Present Danger, The Devil’s Own, Air Force One, Random Hearts, and K-19: The Widowmaker all have a stern Mr. Ford affixing his steely glance on us from the poster/box art.

In many ways, I believe this is why I and many others overlooked this movie during its original release in 2002.  As a viewing audience, I believe we had hit our “Harrison Ford” and “Tom Clancy” saturation point by 2002, and a quick glace at the movie poster or DVD cover gave little indication that it was anything other than another movie of this genre.  That the movie had such a poor title likely didn’t add to its appeal, and it was ultimately a financial mess, failing to recoup its $100 million production budget. Continue Reading

Opportunities lost. I kept coming back to that concept in my head as I watched the subject of this review, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. The film certainly features and interesting and compelling lead character and some excellent acting performances but in the end falls die to the film;s script and direction. it is too bad as there is a kernel of a find film here. Continue Reading

Reviewing one of the most respected films of all time is a bit daunting. I hadn’t seen the Godfather trilogy in years so when it came time to review Godfather II I immediately went out and purchased the trilogy in order to refresh my memory… That’s how important these films are. Do they still hold their ground now though?

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I guess you can say that I am in the very distinct minority in the US when it comes to soccer. I love it, especially English football, which has a rick, deep and at times, crazy history. Teams like Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Everton, Leeds United, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forrest, Reading and Derby Country, just to name but a few. Even the names of the stadiums evoke the richness of that history, with monikers such as Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge, Anfield and Craven’s Cottage immediately coming to mind! Better than the Wachovia Center don’t you think? Continue Reading

Steven Soderbergh’s films are if nothing, very complicated, with layer upon layer of intrigue. From Ocean’s 11,12 and 13 to Traffic it can get to be very difficult to keep up with the action and figure out where the film is heading. Dealing with an actual historical event and the lives of real people, it is a bit easier to follow a film as you already know the actual outcome. Making these characters and these stories into a great film is much more difficult than with works of pure fiction. Which brings us to the subject of today’s review, The Informant. Continue Reading

For reviewing Ben 10: Alien Swarm I enlisted the official kids of this movie reviewer.  Although I normally am very comfortable in critically watching youth-oriented fare, my complete ignorance of Ben 10 necessitated I call in the backup team. Continue Reading

Half a century ago seems like a long time; but it was around that time that one of Hollywood’s most gifted and eccentric directors was in his prime; making classic films that would set the stage for today’s filmmakers. Alfred Hitchcock was one the kind of director that doesn’t really exist anymore; similar to Orson Welles, his films were carefully crafted masterpieces that were so layered that even today there are countless books and websites dedicated to analyzing his works. North by Northwest was screenwriter, Ernest Lehman’s attempt to create the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures, did he succeed? Continue Reading

Michael Mann’s crime epic, Heat, is declared as one of the best heist films ever. Utilizing the chemistry between two superstars from the genre and containing one of the greatest shootouts in cinema history, Heat’s résumé definitely has all the right stuff for being an essential Blu-ray to own, but as with the recent Michael Mann film “Public Enemies” sometimes a poor sound mix or poor video quality might make the disc unworthy of a Blu-ray purchase. How does Heat stack up? Continue Reading

Most of my movie-loving friends have already seen Boogie Nights while I had not.  Considering the film had as much popularity as it did and it’s well over a decade old now, it was high time I sat down for a watch of this flick.  I heard fragments of the content here and there so being the red-blooded male that I am, of course my interest was peaked.  But even a hot, scantly clad (or no clad) woman is not enough in and of itself to make a film good.  How is the acting, the plot, the climax, the believability?  You will find the answers to all these questions in this review of Boogie Nights. Continue Reading

It was with some trepidation that I accepted the responsibility to write a review of the new Star Trek movie.  My experience has been that no film or TV franchise has engendered such a rabid and invested following, with aficionados debating plot and character points like aged Talmudic Scholars.  Therefore, no matter what my review stated, it would attract criticism like a Golden Corral attracts seniors.

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