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The Proposition (2005) R 104min 2007-10-07 01:55:44 Not a perfect, but definitely memorable film. Photography of Australian outback with it’s desolate beauty and gorgeous sunsets was superb. I could almost feel blood and dust in my mouth. I wish I’d seen it on the big screen. Great cast. Pretty violent at times, getting over the top sadistic toward the end. The actors in supporting roles were more dominiant and in other ways better the the focus of this film, Guy Pierce, who should’ve been in a supporting role where he’s best. With exception of Momento, he doesn’t seem to be able to carry the weight in other movies. The film was also slow at times. It doesn’t explain why any of the characters are the way they are or how they’d become that way.
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The Kingdom (2007) R 110min 2007-10-08 01:24:48 A clone of “Clear and Present Danger” set in Saudi Arabia in present days. Not very deep, but the action and suspense of the second half of the film is quite good. The film makes the point is there’s more to the price of oil then Dollar amount, but it’s more of a background, a set up for another Hollywood movie.
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The Fall Of Fujimori (2005-2006) NR 83min 2007-10-05 14:10:38 Anyone can use archive footage and narate it with dramatic voice and music, but this documentary feels like a college-grad’s essay. Worth watching but don’t expect much.
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Michael Clayton (2007) R 119min 2007-10-16 14:53:33 An intelligent high-powered legal thriller, this is not a action film, so it’s a departure from shaky camera of the Bourne films. Very realistic. The title is appropriate: a story of a man who’s a great lawyer, not such a good friend, and an unsuccessful family man. There’s a little of The Firm, Civic Action and Erin Brokovich - a crusade of individual against an evil corporation, but for the most part the focus of the movies is drama of human beings who just happen to be lawyers.
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, Clayton
Seventh Horse of the Sun’s Chariot - Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda (1993) 130 min 2007-10-25 23:09:43 Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda (The Seventh Horse
of The Sun’s Chariot
) is considered one of the Art Film masterpieces by Shyam Benegal, an acclaimed Indian director. I saw it about 10 years ago, and it popped in my mind again after I saw Zubeidaa (2001) recently, also directed by Shyam Benegal.
This is a yeat another
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Dan in Real Life (2007) PG-13 2007-10-29 00:44:51 If you liked the 40 Year Old Virgin, you will love this funny, sweet and touching movie. Steve Carell plays a widower with three girls, who dedicates all his life to them, while two of his elder teenage daughters give him hard time. His character meets a woman (Juliette Binoche) in the bookstore, and love chemistry begins to work over cup of tee and muffin. But he find out that the woman is dating his brother. Great family movie about love and family and “for all the people who are making life plans - expect to be surprised”.
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Related reviews and articlesOctober 13, 2007 -- The Heartbreak Kid (2007) R 115min (0) Read more:Real Life
Cars come out on Blu-Ray on Nov 6 2007-11-06 16:43:02
Pixar animated feature is coming out on Blu-Ray disk on November 6 - same date that Disney also chose to release Ratatouille on.
Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is a hot-shot popular race car with a lot of trophies behind his belt and huge sponsorhip support, but one day he takes a wrong detour and gets stranded in Radiator Springs, a forgoten town on famous Route 66. There he meets other cars, Sally, Mater, ex-champion Doc Hudson (Paul Newman) and other cars who help him discover that there’s more to life then trophies and fame.
Watch the entire feature including final credits, where Pixar added a sort of a short film, where all characters from their previous movies such as Toy Story, Incredibles and Finding Nemo are represented as cars.
BD features include deleted scenes, Pixar animated shorts, behind the scenes experience, Radiator Springs featurettes and more!If you liked this post, buy me a beerShare This
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Ratatouille comes out on DVD on Nov 6, 2007 2007-11-06 12:45:26 The Pixar animated feature comes
out on DVD and Blu-Ray Disk on November 6.
Read the film review and stand by for DVD release review.
Cool Blu-Ray features include 1080p High Definition 5.1 surround sound with English, French and Spanish dubbing and subtitles, Gusteau’s Gourmet Game, behind-the-scenes look, deleted scenes, several animates shorts.If you liked this post, buy me a beerShare This
Related reviews and articlesNovember 6, 2007 -- Cars come out on Blu-Ray on Nov 6 (0)June 30, 2007 -- Ratatuille (2007) (0)September 28, 2007 -- Wordplay (2006) PG 94min (2)
Bee Movie (2007) PG 90min 2007-11-12 02:15:33 Jerry Seinfeld and Spike Feresten wrote this funny script and Steve Hickner and Simon J. Smith directed it.
Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) has just graduated from school, but he’s disappointed by the choice of jobs in the bee hive: “you pick a honey-making job for the REST OF YOUR LIFE”. On one of the trips outside the hive into New York City, his life is saved by a florist girl, Vanessa Bloome (Renée Zellweger). Barry falls for her. But soon he discovers that humans eat honey by enslaving other bees and stealing their honey. With Vanessa’s help he decides to sue the humanity.
I went to the theatre with very low expectations because I have seen so many 3D animated movies that are really bad and not interesting (and not made by Pixar) that I thought this will be just a time waster. But the weather was bad and spending few hours in the theater would be a good idea. To my surprise, this turned out to be a funny and interesting movie. Weird movie too. What wer Read more:Bee Movie
The U.S. vs John Lennon (2006) PG-13 96min 2007-11-12 02:06:28
Documentary written and directed by David Leaf and John Scheinfeld about the part of life of John Lennon
when he was more and more separating himself from Beatles and becoming a political peace activist. Yoko Ono also is interviewed in this movie. Lots of archive footage from the Vietnam War era, including footage and photographs from personal archives of Yoko. Documentary provides background of the peace movement in the 60s as well as what John Lennon
and Yoko were going through at the time, all leading to confrontation between him and the Nixon administration. The government was threatened by the peace activists and mobilized FBI, CIA and secret service to deal with the threat with methods that included assassinations. Lennon is openly followed by the Secret Service agents. Government tries to deport him under any pretence. They found out that he had a previous marijuana possession charge that Lennon plead guilty to - back in England, and they decided to use it as a pretence
Beowulf (2007) PG-13 113min 2007-11-17 01:17:05 Just came out of the theatre. Saw it in both regular and 3D. This movie should only be seen in 3D! Completely different experience.
The plot is based on the only known surviving Anglo-Saxon poetry manuscript about a warrior Beowulf, hero of Geats (a.k.a. Goths, Swedes) in 6th century A.D. who defeated three antagonists: the demon named Grendel who was terrorising a Danish mead hall called Heorot and its inhabitants; Grendel’s mother who began killing people in revenge, and later in life after returning to Geatland (Sweden) and becoming a king, a dragon. He was mortally wounded in the battle.
Robert Zemekis directed this animated version of the poem. Wow, where can I start? The story is sort-of following the poem, but it’s a funnier and more sexed up version with nice action sequences. There were no jokes except public urination, the partial public exposure when Beowulf (Ray Winstone) is fighting the monster naked (the monster doesn’t have any weapons, so the r
New on DVD this week (Nov 16, 2007) 2007-11-16 19:14:59
CIA: Exiled (2007) R - An ex-CIA operative consulate security guy and his buddy go after South-African spies.
Ocean’s Thirteen (2007) PG-13 - Third installment of Ocean’s Eleven. Better then the second but worse then the third. Ocean (Clooney) and the crew are back in Vegas with a vengeance for another mega-hit on a casino.
Duck Tales (1988) NR - 3 Disks of Disney’s animated series.
Shrek The Third (2007) PG - Shrek tries to install a new king on the throne to enjoy his life on the Swamp with princess Fiona, while Prince Charming is preparing coup-de-tat.
Amazing Grace (2007) PG - 18th century drama about an English politician fighting for abolition of slavery.
Paris, Je T’aime (2007) R - A collection of five-minute films about the City of Lights brings Paris to life with a unique patchwork of 20 stories. Starring Gérard Depardieu, Steve Buscemi, Juliette Binoche, and more.
Rise of the Dead (2007) NR - A flesh eating frenzy
Welcome To The Jungle (2
Movies to see this weekend (Nov 16, 2007) 2007-11-16 12:25:21 Opening everywhere:
Beowulf (2007) - yet another Robert Zemeckis’s motion capture fantasy tale about warrior Beowulf who must defeat the demon Grendel… and his mother. Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Angelina Jolie at al gave the characters their voices and some likeness.
Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (2007) - as holiday season approaches, Natalie Portman is the manager and Dustin Hoffman stars as the 243-year-old owner of the strangest, most fantastic, most wonderfully magical toy store in the world.
Love In Time Of Cholera (2007) - based on novel by Gabriel García Márquez, it’s a love story set in Colombia covering some 5 decades in the end of 19th and beginning of 20th century.
Opening in select theatres:
Margot at the Wedding (2007) - Margot (Nicole Kidman) and her son crash at her sister wedding, messing up the relationship, yet when everything goes wrong the family is the only thing to hold on to.
Redacted (2007) - based on real
Hitman (2007) R 100min 2007-11-23 03:29:21 The plot: The Hitman
, Agent 47, the “creation” of the secret organization called “The Agency”, was sent to assassinate the [fictional] Russian president (Ulrich Thomsen - ehm, Danish actor) who was involved in trade of drugs, prostitution, arms trades etc. Instead, hitman kills the president’s double. Realizing he was set up he threatens his “organization” to get to the bottom of this and punish those who set him up. One of the witnesses of his assassination attempt that he was also supposed to “take care” of is young and pretty Russian prostitute Nika (Olga Kurylenko). Since she was part of the setup he drags her along (in the trunk of the car, mostly) - ”for her own protection”. An INTERPOL cop and Russian security forces are following his every move. Bullets fly, bad guys go down.
It was pretty entertaining, but overall weak. It’s a cross-over between “Bourne” and “Ultra-Violet&rdquo
Iraq In Fragments (2006) 94min 2007-11-22 01:47:10 This powerful Oscar-nominated documentary from director James Longley is a depiction of stories of modern-day Iraq
is as they try to cope with the war, with life without Saddam, without law and order, occupation, violence and division of country into sectarian regions. Finally a documentary that talks about Iraqis and their suffering, unlike many documentaries recently that focused on U.S. troops and U.S. government (which is fine). The most heartbreaking part of the movie is interviews with children. One of them is 11-year old Suni boy from Baghdad, who lost his father because he was imprisoned for speaking outloud badly about Saddam. His story is in the first third of the movie. The next two parts are about Shia Muslims in Southern Iraq, particularly followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, and a Kurdish family in Northern Iraq.
The movie is very visual. There’s no narration. I loved the long close-ups of faces: you can tell so much about people’s life and feelings and what they hav Read more:Fragments
DVD releases of this week (Nov 19-25, 2007) 2007-11-21 20:38:20 Anime/Animation
Death Note (2006) NR - 2-disk series about a boy who found a notebook with magical properties: a person who’s name is written in it would die. The boy turns it into a crime fighting tool.
Garfield Gets Real (2007) NR - Garfield jumps our of his comic strip and attempts to live in the “real world”, but becomes disapointed and tries to come back to his world before the next issue of the comic is out in print.
Comedy
Bill Maher: The Decider (2007) - Bill Maher is a comedian and a host of “Politically Incorrect” TV show. A furiously funny attack on Dubbya’s “achivements” as the president.
Santa Clause 3 (2006) - Tim Allen… And Jack Frost (Martin Short) is trying to take over the Christmass holiday.
Documentary
Ardennes Offensive (2007) - Detailed examination of one of the important battles of World War II in Belgium. Also see Saints and Soldiers.
Farewell Israel (2007) - retraces history is Islam since th
Arthur and the Invisibles (2006) PG 103min 2007-11-28 03:17:01
This film comes from a great French director Luc Besson, who is the king of French action movies. Here in the U.S. of A. we know him for creating “The Fifth Element“, which he conceived when he was a teenager, for [briefly] being married to Milla Jovovich, and producing such action flicks as Leon with Jean Claude Van Damme back in the days, Kiss of the Dragon with Jet Lee, The Transporter 1-2, Crimson Rivers, Revolver as well as Taxi 1-4, Nordeste, Love and Other Disasters and more. For some reason he decided to try himself in a movie for kids and animation. Arthur
And The Invisibles
, a.k.a. “Arthur et les Minimoys” (the French-dubbed version) is this movie.
The plot: Arthur is a 10-year-old boy living with his grandmother in the rural part of Illinois (or was it Connectucut). It’s probably the Great Depression era (but could also be 60s), and Arthur’s parents are in the city on the lookout for a job. Arthur’s grandfather had disappeared
Awake (2007) R 84min 2007-12-03 01:09:01 This movie from the first seconds seemed to be a hospital drama ala “ER”. It began with a message: “Every year 3,000,000 anesthesias are performed. One in 700 people ends up awake during the surgery - a condition known as “anesthetic awareness” when patient is paralyzed but is still awake”. So it appeared that at least part of the movie will be about some poor person being opened up on the surgen’s table, feel the pain, but not being able to do anything about it. But to everyone’s surprise it actually turned out to be a thriller.
The plot: immediately after the opening scene where doctors are not able to revive the patient after an unsuccessful heart surgery we go back in time a few days. Oh, forget it. The best description of the plot is the tag line: “when they decided to kill her husband they didn’t know he’d be awake”.
Hayden Christensen plays Clay Beresford, the owner of some New York-based 100 million doll
Movies to see this weekend (Dec 21, 2007) 2007-12-19 22:34:33 This is going to be a great week for movie goers: with a long weekend ahead, there’s a great movie for each day of the week!
Opening in theatres nationwide:
Charlie Wilson’s War (2007) R 97min - Comedy/ Drama/ Adaptation/ Biographical. Based on the true story of how Texas congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), known for being an alcoholic and womanizer, persuaded the CIA to covertly train and arm resistance Mujahedin fighters in Afghanistan to fend off the Soviet Union in the late 1979. With the help of renegade CIA agent, Gust Avrakotos (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), and a Houston socialite (Julia Roberts) who leads Wilson to the cause, the two men supplied money, training and a team of military experts that turned the ill-equipped Afghan freedom-fighters into a force that brought the Soviet Army to a stalemate… and set the stage for conflicts in the Middle East that still rage to this day: the Pakistanis and Israelis.
National Treasure: Book Of Secrets
My first photo of Mars 2007-12-16 23:33:06 This weekend I tried to photograph Mars. This is a perfect time to make pictures because Mars is in the opposition and closest to Earth as it’s ever been in the past 130 years or so. Around midnight it’s roughly overhead and the Moon sets by that time - it’s light won’t interfere and when the Mars is directly above you you are looking . I set up my Meade ETX-125AT telescope with 26mm eyepiece and pointed it to the planet. Adjusted focus, and Mars appeared like a little orange dot, or more like a tiny orange circle. Still to small to see any features. I tried to add Barlow 2-3x lens. This should have boosted magnification from 94x to three times that: 288 times. Since focal length changes too, I had to readjust the focus. Now the problems began. First of all I was not using the GOTO function or tracing feature of the telescope. The Earth rotates so fast, and Mars would move out of the within 30-40 seconds. But the biggest problem is that at almost 300x magnificat
Juno (2007) PG-13 92min 2007-12-16 03:04:26 *** WARNING: This review contains spoilers. ***
This is a funny, witty and sweet comedy from director of Thank you for smoking Jason Reitman and 29-year-old writer Diablo Cody.
The plot: Juno McGuff (Ellen Page) is a Mid-Western girl in high-school. One day she decided to have sex with her boyfriend Polly Bleeker (Michael Cera or Superbad). She soon explains that she did it out of boredom or curiosity, but late in the movie she figures out some things about herself and life that yield a different explanation. Alas, because of this encounter she got pregnant. Since she is only 16, with help of her best girl friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby) she decided to give up the baby for adoption and go on with her life. After browsing ads for adoption in the Pennysaver, Juno picks a seemingly nice, if not perfect, young childless couple, Mark and Vanessa (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner).
The good: Ellen Pages performance is Oscar-worthy. Just her facial expressions are worth an Oscar - you
Movies to see this weekend (Dec 14, 2007) 2007-12-13 23:55:08
Opening in theatres (wide release):
Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) - Comedy/Kids/Family - Three chipmunk brothers, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore are adopted by a man named Dave.
I Am Legend (2007) - Action/Drama/Horror/Sci-Fi - A brilliant scientist (Will Smith) may be the only survivor of the virus in the city of New York and may be the entire planet. He turned out to be immune to the virus and plans to reverse the virus by using his own blood, but the virus turned the victims into carnivorous zombies and now they are after him.
The Perfect Holiday (2007) a.k.a. The Perfect Christmas - Comedy/Romance/Holiday - a Christmas romance story between a divorced mother of three and an office supply salesman/struggling songwriter.
Opening in select theatres:
The Kite Runner (2007) - Drama/Adaptation - based on best-selling novel with the same title, story about an unlikely friendship that develops between the son of a wealthy Afghan businessman and a servant to the boy and h
Shrek The Third (2007) PG 92min - DVD 2007-12-12 10:51:34
The plot: when the frog-king ‘croaks’, Shrek
(Mike Myers) is looked at as the next successor to the throne of the Far, Far Away. Shrek, however, believes he is not the right candidate for wearing the crown, and dreams of returning to his Swamp to live with Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) there happily ever after. Together with his friends, Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas), they set on a journey to retrieve the last surviving hair to the throne, prince Arthur (Justin Timberlake), to install him as a new king. While they are gone, envious Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) attempts to seize the opportunity by organizing the evil fairytale characters in a coup d’etat. Fiona and her royal girlfriends try to fend him off. To add to Shrek’s and Fiona’s worries, Fiona is pregnant.
The good: There were some genuinely funny moments and some sweet moments too. I also liked that the animators made all babies look cute - regardless of who
Who is winning the format war: Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD 2007-12-10 18:31:39 In the middle of holiday season, electronics seem to be one of the gifts of choice. HD TVs are almost half cheaper then a year before. Cable and Satellite compete for HD content viewers. Rental companies offer movies in high definition. When DVD became media of choice 7-10 years ago and replaced VHS, DVD players were a no-brainer as far as Christmas gifts go. But what about movies in high-definition? There are two major format
s trying to win the eyeballs, and for many consumers two formats is one too many. The consumers are smart and they were sitting on the sidelines waiting for the format war to be over before they commit to buying the hardware to play the high definition DVDs in their home theatres. We hope this article will help you to make the right choice this season.
Brand. BD (Blu-Ray) is technology from Sony, an electronics and entertainment company. HD-DVD technology was developed by Toshiba and NEC, and is largely supported by Microsoft, a software company. Some cal
The Golden Compass (2007) PG-13 113min 2007-12-10 01:41:03 A major disappointment.
The script by Chris Weitz (”About a Boy“) is based on first story of Philip Pullman’s 1995 bestselling (in UK) trilogy novel, His Dark Materials: The GoldenCompass
.
The plot: The story is set in an alternative world where people’s souls manifest themselves as animals (a.k.a. “daemons”), a 12-year old orphan girl Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) is at the center of it. A mysterious organization known as Gobblers kidnapped Lyra’s friend Roger (Ben Walker), and she sets out to try to rescue him, but winds up on an epic quest to save not only her world, but ours as well. Her uncle Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig) is a scientist, a scholar at Jordan College, Oxford, England. He believes he discovered a gate into other dimensions and solicits the powerful Magisterium to subsidise an expedition to the Magnetic North to verify his theory. Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott and Ian McShane headline an all-star cast.
Toshiba HD-A35 HD DVD player 2007-12-25 02:18:12
As I promised when I wrote “Who is winning the format war: Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD“, I am reviewing Toshiba
HD-A35 HD DVD player
.
Why HD DVD and not Blu-Ray? Despite a seeming stalemate between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD in the war for the eyeballs, I did not want to buy a proprietary technology from Sony, especially considering most of their previous attempts to create new standards have failed miserably. Also, HD-DVD players tend to be cheaper then Blu-Ray disk players, with a sub-$200 HD DVD player already on the market. The proprietary technology is most bothering - I don;t want to be bound to a single manufacturer - I prefer more open standards.
What I wanted? An HD-DVD player with 1080p output and 24fps (cinema mode). Preferably black to match my other components and furniture, as thin as possible and quiet: since I had a bad experience playing Blu-ray movies on Sony PlayStation 3 I wanted to be sure the player is quiet.
What I got? Since Toshiba is the biggest proponent and
Charlie Wilson’s War (2007) R 97min 2007-12-24 02:35:37 Pretty good!
The plot: CharlieWilson
(Tom Hanks) is a congressman from Texas. He’s been known for being a womanizer and alcoholic. In 1979 the policy of US regarding Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was to stay out of the conflict. While the government officially morally supported the Afghans, they were not helping practically because they were afraid that in the time when the Cold War was at it’s peak, it would mean a direct armed conflict between US and USSR. Charlie Wilson was the only politician in Washington who, lead to the cause by the ”richest woman of Texas” and a socialite Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), turned to a rouge CIA agent Gust “Gus” Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman) for help and was able to covertly provide Mujaheddin with weapons including “Stinger” missiles. He was able to ramp up the covert support to the budget of roughly one billion dollars from the budget of 5 million dollars before his intervention. This
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