This is an interesting and powerful documentary about the destruction of the former Chinese capital of Nanking by Japanese military forces in 1937 and 1938. The story is told from four perspectives: First are interviews with survivors of the attacks, elderly people who were children at the time of the combat. Second is archival news footage of day-to-day life in 1937 that seques into film of the actual fighting and the aftermath of the Japanese invasion. There was a lot of film shot during this war, so footage is plentiful. Horrific reels of 16mm film smuggled out of China, and showing some of the worst atrocities, are also included. Third are subtitles filing in historical facts and bridging gaps. The fourth aspect of the story is told in a bit of a unique way. A group of actors (including Hugo Armstrong, Rosalind Chao, Stephen Dorff, Woody Harrelson, Mariel Hemingway, Chris Mulkey, Michelle Krusiec, and Jürgen Prochnow) take on the roles of real people - all Caucasians - who had been living in Nanking in the 1930's. The actors perform the actual words of these real people, usually speaking right to the camera as if being interviewed. The real people's words have been preserv...

Since its merger with Tech TV, G4 TV has moved away from being about video games and technology and instead has pursued the small hipster-nerd demographic and the larger young male dude demographic; essentially becoming a poor-man’s SPIKE TV, annoying in different ways, but equally irritating. Its original programming is fairly sparse and it’s only animated effort “Code Monkeys” (2007) is about par for the course for the network since it suffers from the same problems as their other programming: it thinks it’s a lot cooler or edgy than it really is. The show follows two friends, Dave (voiced by show creator Adam De La Peña) and Jerry (Matt Mariska) who work for video game company Gameavision in the 1980’s. They go on strange adventures like breaking out of prison and design terrible games, drinking, barfing, going to strip clubs; basically attempting to be “South Park”(1997-Present) centered on post-college screw-ups with jobs. There’s office pranks and fights involving their boss Larrity (Andy Sipes) a Texas billionaire who bought their company from Steve Wozniak, Black Steve (Tony Strickland) Gameavision’s black accountant who has inexplicable rage, and sometimes even Mary (Gretchen McNeil) second wave feminist and game designer who is never given credit and acts as Jerry’s crush. ...

After “You Got Served” (2004) hit the top of the box office and proved that break-dancing movies could be huge box office success, it’s been a barrage of equally terrible movies based off of cheesy and all too predictable concept of dance crew versus dance crew. But as bad as these have been, they’ve been worth a good laugh so when I received “Inside the Circle” (2007) I braced myself for a laugh and was happily surprised with this well put together documentary on b-boy culture from director Marcy Garriott. Most of the documentary centers around two friends from Austin, Texas who grew up dancing together, but have recently grown distant as Omar Davila has joined a new crew while Josh Ayers has been in and out of legal trouble. As time goes on, the two talented b-boys meet in competitions with new crews and their lives begin to go separate ways. Omar becomes more Internationally renowned, being flown out to Europe to perform with other All-Stars from the United States while Josh’s crew continues to prepare for the annual Austin dance competition “B-Boy City” run by Romeo Navarro. The three separate stories are held together particularly well, though the emphasis is more on Josh and Omar, beginning when both are Seniors in high school and continuing as they move more into the real world. Romeo’s struggle to put together the “B-Boy City” competition year after year is a nice add...

It’s a true mark of talent for a director to build up tension in a movie based on true events, simply because if the story has been heard, or especially if it’s summarized at the beginning of the movie, much of the unexpected becomes expected. Director Israel Adrián Caetano’s latest effort does a fantastic job of utilizing a solid visual style combined with great acting in order to make a compelling ‘based on a true story drama’ in “Chronicle of an Escape.” The story centers on soccer/futbol goalie Claudio Tamburrini (Rodrigo de la Serna), who wrote the memoir which the film was based on, who is kidnapped after returning home from a soccer match and whisked away to a secret prison inside a rundown suburban mansion. Claudio quickly learns that he has been falsely accused of conspiracy against the current military regime. Trapped with a diminishing group of fellow supposed conspirators, Claudio and the others are tortured and brutalized over the next 128 days until they finally attempt their escape. First and foremost has to be the talent that Caetano wields behind the camera, the tension he builds is what makes the movie engaging, keeping these men’s survival and desperation constantly at the forefront of the viewer’s eye. His shot selection consistently keeps the focus where it should be, on the desperation and brutality experienced by these men really drawing in the audience. This combines with the cinematography by Julián ...

French “gothic vampire”-auteur, director/writer/producer Jean Rollin started his career like many others before him: with a series of short films. This was originally also the case with his first feature film “The Rape of the Vampire AKA Le Viol du vampire (1967)”, shot in B&W. The first part of the film - “Le Viol du vampire: Mélodrame en deux parties” (…”two part melodrama”) runs approx. 31 minutes and was meant to be shown together with the American film “Dead Men Walk (1943)” in France (since also the American counterpart was relatively short, around an hour). With the help of producer Sam Selsky (who got interested in this new director, making films with pretty much nothing), the film eventually got its “second act” called “Deuxieme Partie - Les Femmes Vampires” (“The Vampire Women”). This second part is often referred as “La Reine Des Vampires” by Rollin, but that is not the on-screen title (both parts have their own credits). Since the latter part of the film wasn´t originally “meant to be”, its connections to the “Le Viol du vampire” were rather vague and often silly. It´s not really a surprise that the audience - let alone the critics, didn´t really “get” the film. Many were even offended and angry in the theatres, since they felt cheated. What was a surprise was the fact that the film was still a minor success in France, partly due to the student riots and turmoil at that time in Paris (there weren´t that many films available). Experimental, incomprehensible and stup...

The movie beings, appropriately enough, with Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger talking about how to start the movie. A few days later, I imagine, a few days before the concert, Martin Scorsese wants to know the concert's setlist to know on whom to concentrate his cameras, while Mick Jagger is still debating and revising the setlist he wants, looking at Mr. Scorsese's suggestions. The day of the big show, Ronnie Wood looks forward to the final setlist, still not knowing what he'll be playing in a few hours, while Charlie Watts is silently annoyed by the lighting tests done for the movie. The concert time gets closer, and band members rejoice that there will be a live audience soon enough. Finally, in his booth, Mr. Scorsese gets the setlist, with the first song being 'Jumping Jack Flash', and so the concert beings with the camera on Keith Richards. The music starts and everything falls into place. Mr. Scorsese has the camera angles he wants, and the camera moves smoothly across the stage and around the audience, capturing the magic that is a Rolling Stones concert. Indeed, the editing and filming are very well done, getting all kinds of small moments the audience sees, but that filmgoers would usually miss due to the limitations of the film frame. Martin Scorsese knows how to capture the special moments that happen on stage ...

Film Movement is a very cool subscription service that sends out a new DVD every month, each containing a complete indie film as well as a short film that often compliments the main feature in some way. "The Violin" is the sixty-second film in the series (it is year 6, film 2). "The Violin" begins with the soldiers of a corrupt and greedy government (we never find out which one) raping and torturing peasants who may or may not have information about the whereabouts of guerrilla revolutionaries. After this grim introduction, we meet Plutarco Hidalgo (Ángel Tavira), and elderly man who is missing a hand. He travels with his son and grandson from their rural village to a small town. While Plutarco plays his violin (with the bow strapped to his stump) in a cantina, his son plays guitar, and his grandson begs for change. It seems as though the impoverished peasants have little going on outside of scraping together a few coins from their music, but there is something bigger going on. Plutarco's son is part of the revolutionary faction, and is involved in the acquisition of weapons to aid in the cause. The Hidalgos are in town on a secret mission to secure arms. Arriving back at their own village, the men discover that the soldiers have taken it over, forced most of the residents to leave, and abducted the wife and daughter of Plutarco's son. Going into hiding in the hills, their revolutonary mission to overthrow the soldiers becomes as desperate as ever. Plutarco hatches a hare-brained solo plan to retrieve som...

This is a three disc set packed with interviews, concert performances, and documentaries about entertainer James Brown, all from his peak in the late 1960's. The centerpiece of the first disc is "The Night James Brown Saved Boston", a well-made documentary about an extraordinary show that Brown performed on April 5, 1968. The documentary begins by discussing the lives of both Brown and Martin Luther King Jr. We also learn about the turmoil of the 1960's, via lots of archival footage. When King is assassinated on April 4, 1968, riots erupt in New York, Detroit, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. Brown is scheduled to play a show in Boston the following night, so the mayor of Boston decides that if Brown's concert were to be televised, people would stay home to watch it instead of rioting. Never has television more truly been the opiate of the masses: the plan worked, and Boston did not burn that night. The documentary continues for a further half hour to detail James Brown's activities during the few months after this historic night. Many people are interviewed, from members of Brown's band, to the former mayor of Boston, to the sound guys who had to figure out how to make the show happen on short notice. About thirty-five minutes into the program, the concert starts, and excerpts from the show are presented as the interviews continue. Rioting at the concert is narrowly avoided by Brown's level-headed attitude, keep...

In an apparent attempt to capture the small ‘widower-curmudgeon-college professor with family troubles’ demographic, Miramax has released “Smart People” (2008) a comedy about a widower curmudgeon college professor who has family troubles. Unfortunatley, not being a member of this fairly specific demographic, there’s almost nothing relatable or interesting in Noam Murro’s directorial debut as the film takes it’s underdeveloped characters far too seriously for it’s own good. “Smart People”’s widower curmudgeon college literature professor protagonist is Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid). If you couldn’t tell by his curmudgeon-y beard and curmudgeon-y expression on the DVD cover, Wetherhold is a curmudgeon and a college professor at Carnegie Mellon whose wife died and now is dealing with family troubles. After suffering a siezure after trying to get his car out of the tow lot at the college, he no longer is able to drive himself forcing his brother Chuck (Thomas Hayden Church) to move in with Wetherland and daughter Vanessa (Ellen Paige). He soon becomes involved with Dr. Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker) his initial doctor following his siesure and former student. While the story is about people who are apparently too smart for their own social good, except for Chuck who is the quirky screw-up, the characters are more frustra...

Hollywood has taken it upon themselves to remake a whole slew of Asian movies in the past few years. However, whether the original is from Japan ('Dark Water', 'The Grudge'), Hong Kong ('The Eye'), or, in this case, Thailand, there's always something lost in translation. I'm not sure what quality wasn't able to be transferred here, and it's a surprise to me considering the talent involved. Making the movie is producer extraordinaire Takashige Ichise, who has been responsible for producing a whole slew of J-horror movies like the 'Ringu' saga, the original 'Dark Water' and 'Infection'. Behind the also behind the camera is director Masayuki Ochiai, who directed 'Infection'. In front of the camera, is the accomplished Megumi Okina, who acted in the theatrical 'Juon' movie ('The Grudge'), and the exceptionally entertaining 'Red Shadow'. The cute scientist from 'Transformers', Rachael Taylor here plays the central character, Jane, and new wife for Joshua Jackson's photographer character, Ben. The newlyweds get whisked to Tokyo thanks to Ben's job. There, strange things start happening, usually centering around pictures and ghosts, sometimes even both at the same time. Hollywood movies directed by Japanese directors usually suffer from a poor script and dialogue; they, however, excel at cinematography. ...

After receiving “Wide Awake” (2007), I was hesitant to watch it at first thinking either A: it is a South Korean remake of the 2007 “Awake” with Hayden Christiansen, or B: it would be another terrible horror movie in the line of “The Wig” (2005) and “Voice” (2005). Luckily neither were completely true, yes it is a South Korean horror movie, but first time writer/director Kyu-Maan Lee has actually crafted a fairly interesting and fun horror movie, leagues ahead of “The Wig” and “Voice.” “Wide Awake” in the title is supposed to imply the major plot device in the film of 'Anesthesia Awareness', an apparently factual medical condition where anesthesia isn’t properly applied and the subject doesn’t become fully asleep and can keep a degree of consciousness during surgery. Already a terrifying enough concept, but Lee’s story begins with a young boy who goes under surgery to repair his heart and doesn’t go fully under, feeling the full force of the operation. The pain he felt combined with the disbelief of doctors and psychologists of his pain turns him into a sociopath, throwing baby chickens at trees, pulling the wings off of flies and suffocating them, and killing a 10 year old girl before disappearing. Flash forward to present day where there are still mysterious deaths of doctors and those connected to that boy’s surgery. Meanwhile a group of doctors and a psychologist...

Before playing Mark David Chapman, the killer of John Lennon, in "The Killing of John Lennon", Jonas Ball had no real claim to fame. He'd provided voices in American dubs of a few Japanese Anime features, and was otherwise unknown. Before writing and directing "The Killing of John Lennon", Andrew Piddington had spent the previous nineteen years directing a grand total of a dozen or so television episodes, and was otherwise unknown. Before killing John Lennon,Mark David Chapman was a twenty-five year old loner from Georgia (by way of Hawaii) who was destined to live and die as a virtually invisible individual, fated to go to his end forgotten by all of humanity and completely unknown. The death of Lennon on December 8, 1980 had a profound effect on the music world, and it also allowed Chapman to succeed in one of his several rather flimsy motives for the murder: he become famous in the only way he would ever be able to. Tragically, it worked. It is also due to this heinous crime that Ball and Piddington will now climb to visibility and fame. Both men have done an admirable job in bringing this story to life, but for both of them it is the first highly visible work that they have been involved in. Were it not for the killing of Lennon, Ball and Piddington might ...

When I first watched 'The Wild One' with Marlon Brando, I found it really funny that he and his gang hassled the local customers in a small-town diner by singing jazz to them. I also find it funny that the 'outlaws' in this movie are pursued by the police for... dancing in the subway! This is done for a few reasons. One, it introduces the centre of the movie, Andie (Briana Evigan), who's part of the gang of dancers. Two, it indicates to the viewers that this gang is not the best group of people to be with; even though they're like a family, they're pursued by the police. Three, it indirectly introduces The Streets competition, which obviously will be the focus of the climax of the movie. The movie centers around Andie, and her decision to go to a prestigious arts school and study while staying in Maryland, rather than moving to Texas to try to go to school. The school is nice, but doesn't look too kindly on 'street dancers', except for the rebel student, who happens to be the son of the school's founders. Through somewhat sketchy characterisation and plot events, Andie has to leave her dance group and form her own. All of this is done to set up the love story and the conflict of the movie. The means by which these are done are not the most intelligent, but the payoff – the dancing – is definitely worth watching. As with 'Stomp the Yard', the best parts of the movie are the dance sequences. They're energetic and electrifying. The performers (thou...

When I first watched 'The Wild One' with Marlon Brando, I found it really funny that he and his gang hassled the local customers in a small-town diner by singing jazz to them. I also find it funny that the 'outlaws' in this movie are pursued by the police for... dancing in the subway! This is done for a few reasons. One, it introduces the centre of the movie, Andie (Briana Evigan), who's part of the gang of dancers. Two, it indicates to the viewers that this gang is not the best group of people to be with; even though they're like a family, they're pursued by the police. Three, it indirectly introduces The Streets competition, which obviously will be the focus of the climax of the movie. The movie centers around Andie, and her decision to go to a prestigious arts school and study while staying in Maryland, rather than moving to Texas to try to go to school. The school is nice, but doesn't look too kindly on 'street dancers', except for the rebel student, who happens to be the son of the school's founders. Through somewhat sketchy characterisation and plot events, Andie has to leave her dance group and form her own. All of this is done to set up the love story and the conflict of the movie. The means by which these are done are not the most intelligent, but the payoff – the dancing – is definitely worth watching. As with 'Stomp the Yard', the best parts of the movie are the dance sequences. They're energetic and electrifying. The performers (thou...

Blurbs on movie posters or the covers of DVDs are known to be bold, vague statements of “amazing” or “spectacular.” So when a blurb proclaims “Lonesome Dove” (1989), a made for network-TV miniseries, to be “The Greatest Western Ever Made” it takes overselling a bit too far, especially considering that the Sergio Leone westerns had been out for years and Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven” (1992) was yet to come. The plot is a very general western about former-Texas Rangers Gus McCrae (Robert Duvall) and Woodrow Call (Tommy Lee Jones) turned ranchers living in Lonesome Dove who decide to head north to Montana after hearing about it from old friend Jake Spoon (Robert Urich) in search of a different life and an old flame. They decide to steal horses and cattle from across the Mexican boarder and leave for Montana with some of their ranch hands and old friends. Along the way they go through troubles dealing with bandits and old enemies. At the same time Spoon is being sought after by an Arkansas sheriff (Chris Cooper) for killing his brother. This journey quickly turns into a sprawling epic, with each installment nearly an hour and a half long it’s definitely in epic length territory. The visual language of the movie is fairly beautiful, and the restored widescreen version of the movie lo...

Some things work better as a team, when a whole group can come together to make something incredible, like the Broken Lizard team that put together some hilarious movies like “Super Troopers” (2001) and “Beerfest” (2006). Together they have the power to wield comic genius, but when one of the team, in this case Paul Soter, goes off to do a solo project it begs the question: is he more of a team role player or a superstar on his own? If “Watching The Detectives” (2007), Soter’s first outing as writer/director, is any indication he may need to stick with Broken Lizard a while longer before he goes back out on his own. The story follows Niel (Cillian Murphy) owner/manager of Gumshoe Video, a store that specializes in rare or cult videotapes. He spends most of his time debating movies with his film geek friends, dressing up in weird costumes to match the genre-rental special of the week, or just imagining a more exciting world like that found in movies. He even goes so far as to break up with his girlfriend since she’s not enough like Katherine Ross in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969). Soon he meets Violet (Lucy Liu) who makes his life more exciting with her off kilter pranks and wild ways that lead him down the path of a wacky romantic comedy. There’s something off about the story and plotting of the movie, maybe it just bothers me that he runs a video store that’s supposed to be a quirky hot spot for film buffs, b...

I try to travel to two new countries every year. Looking at "City of Men", I learned that Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is a breathtakingly beautiful place, but it has also fallen to more or less the bottom of my to-visit list, perhaps just above Iraq and Darfur. As portrayed in this film, it is a place of misery and squalor, a prime example of humanity moving in to a paradise and promptly trashing it. That isn't the story of the flm however; "City of Men" is a more personal tale than that. Wallace (Darlan Cunha) and Ace (Douglas Silva) are best friends living in the gorgeous but impoverished hills of Rio de Janeiro. The two boys are both just shy of their eighteenth birthdays, and as they teeter on the verge of manhood, their futures are uncertain and difficult. Both of them have big problems relating to fatherhood: Wallace has no idea who his father is, and Ace - whose father was murdered - is himself a father, and became one much too young. Ace impregnated his girlfriend Cris (Camila Monteiro) on the same night they lost their virginity, and has been burdened with raising their young son ever since. If nothing else, this situation has given Ace some empathy for the emptiness that the fatherless Wallace feels. The two boys engage in some detective work to find Wallace's father, even as Ace's girl leaves town for a job, putting their son in the reluctant Ace's care. Meanwhile the boys have even bigger problems. A gan...

This Comedy Central series from 2000 is a parody of Saturday morning children's television from the 1970's. A dimwitted host in a series of ill-fitting outfits (cowboy, bandito, hula man) performs skits with a bunch of animal puppets in between cartoons. The difference between authentic Saturday morning television and this particular series, is that "Comedy Central's TV Funhouse" is full of raunchy humor, drugs, violence, sex, and other wholesome topics. One of the cartoons is a parody of the old 1960's "Superman" cartoon, but in this case the hero spends most of is time trying to get his Clark Kent-like alter ego laid. Another cartoon is sort of a Warner Brothers/MGM spoof, with a tom cat getting in to all sorts of trouble every time the lady of the house leaves him alone. A third cartoon imagines Margot Kidder, Robert Downey Jr., and Anne Heche as private investigators. The show also features send-ups of the classic 1940's-1950's "Coronet" school films, or social hygiene films. For example, a "Coronet" film about restraining from masturbation is transformed into a film about not allowing yourself to take a dump. There is more, but this representative sample ought to give you an idea of the tone of the series. The problem here is that the vast majority of the material is supremely unfunny. This is perhaps the reason why it took eight years to get "Comedy Central's TV Funhouse" on to DVD - I am sure that Co...

This is the latest in a series of recent films illustrating the extreme opposition that most Americans, including ones enlisted in the military, have to the war in Iraq. When the majority of the nation woke up to the fact that Iraq had nothing to do with the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, and that President Bush used those heinous and evil attacks as an excuse to launch an equally heinous and illegal attack on a nation that had shown no aggression towards the United States, popular support for the war diminished considerably. It is a small consolation that if nothing else, people are making films about this war, and none of them treat it as being a just or nescessary conflict. No one has yet directly shot a film about the large-scale criminal injustice of this war, but so far there have been a handful of movies dealing with the effects on a more personal level. "Day Zero" (2007) imagined the possible outcome on three men's lives if a draft were reinstated, and now, "Stop-Loss" looks at a single man's life ripped apart when he is called back to Iraq on the very day that he was due to be discharged from the army. Ryan Philippe is Brandon King, a Texas guy with good leadership skills, a caring family, and a strong sense of morality. While on leave from Iraq after a particularly difficult mission (during which some of his squad members are killed), he gets the bad news. Brandon has a relatively good head on his shoulders, but he has been traumatized by his tour of duty (the audience can see this,...

In the latest installment from the Film Movement DVD series, this DVD production company has strangely reunited me with Steve Barron, director of some of the most famous music videos of the 80’s and one of my personal favorite childhood films “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” His latest effort, “Choking Man” (2006) represents the sixth film in the sixth year in the film movement series and is visually pretty interesting despite some lackluster writing. The general plot follows Jorge (Octavio Gómez Berríos), an Ecuadorian dishwasher in Jamaica, Queens who is extremely shy and for the most part has been content to just hide away and wash dishes in the restaurant he works in. When the restaurant owner hires Amy (Eugenia Yuan) as the new waitress, Jorge falls in love and tries to overcome his shyness to talk to her. Unfortunately one of Jorge’s co-workers has also become smitten with the Chinese waitress, but he is far more outgoing than Jorge and the two awkwardly vie for her affections. The plot and characterization itself isn’t so interesting or well orchestrated, many aspects of the love story angle are fairly generic, but the plot idea itself is kind of interesting in terms of the communication barrier that exists between Jorge and Amy in some different ways and how they bond. There are some really interesting scenes in Spanish when Jorge returns to his apartment and his roommate plays the part of his conscious/the devil’s...

With a title like 'College Road Trip', you'd expect the movie to have 'Animal House'-type shenanigans, and with the director of 'Cruel Intentions' and the creator of the too-raunchy-for-TV 'Manchester Prep' show, you'd expect this movie to be filled with raunch and raciness; however, 'College Road Trip', directed by Roger Kumble, has no more shenanigans than what you see in 'The Muppet Show' and is no more raciness than in the typical 'Sesame Street' episode. I want to spend the least amount of time talking about this movie because there's really no use in talking about it. The reason for this is simple – the least amount of time spent on the movie, the better it is. There's not really anything going for it, even for a Disney movie. It's tired, unfunny and, in some scenes, downright annoying. Disney is never known for being subtle or daring in their choice of movies, and this one will never by any stretch of the imagination will ever be described as 'subtle' or 'daring'. Overprotective James Porter (Martin Lawrence) is intent on sending his daughter Melanie (Raven-Symoné) to the nearest college he can, Northwestern, while she has aspirations of going a bit farther, Georgetown. The pair, for reasons that don't need to be recounted here, go on a trip to Georgetown to see the college. En route, they encounter various problems trying to get to Georgetown. After about 3 1/2 minutes of watching this ...

With a title like 'College Road Trip', you'd expect the movie to have 'Animal House'-type shenanigans, and with the director of 'Cruel Intentions' and the creator of the too-raunchy-for-TV 'Manchester Prep' show, you'd expect this movie to be filled with raunch and raciness; however, 'College Road Trip', directed by Roger Kumble, has no more shenanigans than what you see in 'The Muppet Show' and is no more raciness than in the typical 'Sesame Street' episode. I want to spend the least amount of time talking about this movie because there's really no use in talking about it. The reason for this is simple – the least amount of time spent on the movie, the better it is. There's not really anything going for it, even for a Disney movie. It's tired, unfunny and, in some scenes, downright annoying. Disney is never known for being subtle or daring in their choice of movies, and this one will never by any stretch of the imagination will ever be described as 'subtle' or 'daring'. Overprotective James Porter (Martin Lawrence) is intent on sending his daughter Melanie (Raven-Symoné) to the nearest college he can, Northwestern, while she has aspirations of going a bit farther, Georgetown. The pair, for reasons that don't need to be recounted here, go on a trip to Georgetown to see the college. En route, they encounter various problems trying to get to Georgetown. After about 3 1/2 minutes of watching this ...

Neil Marshall blew me away with "The Descent" (2005) it was one of the best horror films of that year and also one of the best full stop. After I saw that film I discovered his previous "Dog Soldiers" (2002) and enjoyed every minute of it. Suffice it to say I was a Marshall convert and eagerly awaited "Doomsday", sadly it's not the best of his films and is rather a disappointment considering the sheer awesomeness of 'The Descent", while "Doomsday" includes some excellent action sequences there isn't a shred of originality here. As far stripped back as the film's script, it's all stuff we've seen before with killer/mutant/zombie viruses taking out mass civilizations etc. To the post-apocalyptic setting of the film, and the many 'homages' to 70's and 80's action specifically the "Mad Max" series (1979-1985). If you're going to write your own homage to these film at least add your own unique brand to the project, don't just borrow/rip-off...oops...sorry, be 'influenced' by them. I was hoping for an intelligent look at the post-apocalyptic virus story but all I got was the same old thing over and over again. Now, having said that, the film is fun for action fans. I was impressed with the action and loved the over-the-top nature of the film's villain. So the film doesn't totally suck. "Doomsday" takes place in the United Kingdom (specifically Scotland) were a virus has spread among the masses and to prevent the spread the government annexes the area by erecting a wall around it monitored by guards a...

Stand-up comedy lives in fairly dangerous territory, something many people can do, something that almost entirely comes down to taste and something few people can do well. Very few people become universally liked in comedy, most comedians say something that someone doesn’t like, but there’s some new trend about being the “ohhhh I said it” comedian. Even some of the un-funniest insult comics don’t spend that much time talking about how extreme they are, while people like Carlos Mencia have made careers about cracking non-funny jokes and just talking about how edgy they are. In his latest special, “Citizen Jimmy” comedian Jimmy Dore comes dangerously close to being too obsessed with his own wit or offensiveness, but thankfully nowhere near the unbearable level of Mencia. Dore runs the gamut of political topics, from Barack Obama to Ronald Reagan, at times playing up his obvious political knowledge and at others playing dumb for comic effect. Overall he comes off as smarmy, but it can be too much. With shows like “The Daily Show” (1996-Present) and “The Colbert Report” (2005-Present) reigning over the fake news and general talk show worlds, especially for college students, Dore tries to hit the same audience, but lacks a lot of the wit or cleverness of those large and genius writing staffs. His presence on the stage is fairly well commanded, and the directing of the special do...

There are some moments of television that rise to such a cultural phenomenon, you can know the spoilers, major scenes or major plot points without having ever watched the show. In its first season “Dallas” (1978) made it’s name on the second season finale ‘Who Shot JR?’ cliffhanger. I’ve heard or seen that phrase dozens of times before, even though the episodes aired nearly 7 years before I was born. The shower scene finale of “Dallas: The Complete Ninth Season” (1985) has also invaded the pop culture mindset, especially through shows like “Family Guy” (1999) where I first saw the shower scene parodied. The Ninth Season of “Dallas” begins with the death of Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) as a result of being hit by a car in the 8th season cliffhanger and his funeral and the whole family reunited in Dallas for the burial. Drama ensues over the course of the season as JR (Larry Hagman) has conflicts over the future of Ewing Oil, a rodeo turns sour and causes problems for the family, nearly everyone is near having an affair, has an affair, or is in danger of having an affair. The season culminates with Angelica Nero (Barbara Carrera) trying to kill both remaining Ewing brothers before Pam (Victoria Principal) wakes up to find Bobby in the shower and the whole season was a dream. “Dallas” set the standard for prime time soap operas, needless character drama, dramatic (at times unexp...

No other TV network in the United States focuses the raw, over the top, absurd, hyper-masculine energy into mindless television like SPIKE TV. The latest DVD release from their network’s macho waves is “MANswers: The Best of Season One” (2007), almost like “Mythbusters” (2003-Present) if it was re-written by Ogre and the rest of the frat boys from “Revenge of the Nerds” (1984). What amounts to research and scientific content is interviews with a few professors or other people with degrees, narrated by someone who seems to be contractually obligated to say ‘dude,’ ‘beer,’ ‘babe,’ or ‘boobs’ once per sentence. The whole macho song and dance could be forgiven if there were something interesting contained in the 25 or so ‘manswers’ contained on the disc. Almost every question posed has something to do with drinking, breasts or sex, sometimes, if you’re lucky, all three. There are some nuggets of advice that are plain ridiculous, not even necessarily because of the information, but the way the show is written and constructed it’s impossible to take seriously. With such scientific assessments as “Babes who never use condoms, are 30% happier,” any and all research that could have been done to try and get the answer seems more like urban legend than fact. “MANswers” is the perfect example of what happens when you skew too heavily towards a demographic. It’s a little insulting to see that the only answers that men apparently want, according to SPIKE TV, are some of the most shallow and trivial questions like “What does the shape of her boob tell you about her personality...

"The Bucket list" is the endearing tale of an odd couple who are thrown together through their imminent deaths at the hands of cancer. The couple consists of Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson); a very rich and abrupt man who has little time for friends or people in general, he has made his money by purchasing hospitals that are having financial problems, privatises them and makes money off the back of it, and Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman); a humble mechanic who at one point dreamed of being a history teacher, but due to a blossoming family that required a financial commitment he could not fulfill while studying he took the first job that he could and 45 years later he has his regrets of opportunities lost. The two meet in one of Cole's Hospitals where Cole has a strict rule 'two beds to a room, no exceptions'. Through the trials and tribulations of cancer treatment the two start to develop a rapport that as a viewer felt genuine and organic. At the end of their treatments they are both given a prognosis that they have a limited amount of time left in their lives. Carter decides that he is going to do an exercise from his college days of writing down the things that he had hoped to do before he 'kicked the bucket'. Cole finds this list and confronts Carter saying that they should do it and so their journey ensues (this is very much a skimming synopsis). The acting is very enjoyable, but with Freeman and Nicholson you would be extremely disappointed if this was not the ...

The perfect scene to show you the overall nature of this movie comes pretty early on in the movie. Inside a pyramid, Rick (Brendan Fraser) and Evie (Rachel Weisz) do something they're not supposed to do, eventually setting off a track whereby the Nile starts to flood the pyramid. The pair run down a hallway, with the water in close pursuit. So close, in fact, that it seeps under their feet while the pair are running, though there's really no physical connection between the actors and the water. The compositing is so bad, it just puts the actors in the middle of the water, in a bad green-screen-type shot. The entire movie seems slapped together, rushed to make the most amount of money before the audiences forgot 'The Mummy'. The filmmakers tried to mask this hollowness by pointlessly tying all characters together, with Evie being from the time of the Pharaohs, and Rick and his tattoo. This is pointless and just enhances the cheapness and lack of thought that went into making the movie. It's about now that I should say that I am a huge fan of Stephen Sommers' 'The Mummy'. Two years after that movie, the sequel finally came out. Why, then, does everything about the movie feel rushed? Maybe director Stephen Sommers was hard at work on 'Van Helsing' or something because something is definitely missing from this movie. For starters, the sense of wonder. Eight years after the events of first movie, all the actors reunite in a plot even thinner than before....

Anachronisms aside (though they speak English some 5000 years ago, at least they don't speak it well), this movie is still kind of enjoyable. On the heels of 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys' (1995-1999) and 'Xena: Warrior Princess' (1995-2001), it plays a lot like one of their episodes then the two movies that inspired it. Change The Rock for Kevin Sorbo, and nobody would ever know the difference. It's kind of cheesy and grungy and brainless, but it's a lot of fun. It's actually a lot better than 'The Mummy Returns'. After all the hoopla about The Rock being in 'The Mummy Returns', it's nice to finally see him in a real acting gig, in a real movie. After the not-more-than-a-cameo appearance in 'The Mummy Returns', I was wondering what the story for this movie would be. It's not exactly the legend of The Scorpion King, as told in 'The Mummy Returns', and as some of the promo material would promise. It's just some typical plot of a good guy trying to defeat a bad guy so a bunch of people can live without fear. There's nothing new in this plot, but that doesn't matter. The movie doesn't aim particularly high to begin with, and it does what it aims to achieve. The Rock has nice charisma, so he can carry this movie. The pretty Kelly Hu helps out by playing a sorceress. Together, they have decent chemistry. They don't spend all that much time together, and Miss Hu is nothing more than eye candy. ...

Some movies live and die by the twist, making their name off of the last minute turn or reveal that’s shocking, exhilarating or intriguing to the audience. Pulling off a twist is an art, if the turn is lacking it’s a letdown, if it’s built up too much and is too plain, also disappointing. First time director/writer Kim Tae-Kyung tries to walk the fine line of the twist in “Puzzle” (2006), but lacks a lot of the groundwork and connections required to make it really engaging, and it’s not something that really sticks with you. The story follows a group of 5 criminals hired by a mysterious benefactor to steal some bonds from a bank. The heist goes down well, until the four who were at the bank return to the warehouse to meet their 5th member to contact their boss, and find him burned alive on the floor. The four criminals start to turn against each other, debating to just split up the money and run or wait for their mystery boss to show up. As the debate goes on, there are “Reservoir Dogs” (1992) style flashbacks and backgrounds on each of the criminals, trying to develop an overall story and connection to the characters, building up to the big reveal. When the big reveal happens and the final decisions are made, the writing hasn’t created enough of a connection with the main characters that I fear for any of their survival, I’m just waiting for the twist that I know is about to come. Then the twist comes, leading to the necessary flashbacks to earlier points in the movie attempting to legitimize the reveal, but these...