Ordinary People

François (François Bégaudeau) and his related teachers prepare for a new year at a high college in a tough Paris neighbourhood. Armed with the best intentions, they team of two themselves to not let discouragement terminus them from trying to give the best instruction to their students. Cultures and attitudes frequently argue in the classroom, a microcosm of present-day France. As amusing and inspiring as the teenaged students can be, their straitening behaviour can pacific jeopardise any teacher’s enthusiasm for the low-paying business. François insists on an tone of regard for and diligence. Neither stuffy nor glowering, his classroom ethics are nevertheless put to the evaluation …

Download full mp3 songs, collect mp3 on your PC, share mp3 with your friends, download free wallpapers, express your mind and much more on duck.fm

“If you’re
not a Zappa fan, like me, I doubt if this film would make you one.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Strictly for Frank Zappa (”Baby Snakes”/”Frank Zappa: Does Humor
Belong in Music?”) fans. The documentary serves as a promo for Zappa’s
past and future projects (”You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore”). The film
captures Zappa in concerts throughout the world and it uses MTV-type videos
in the background shots. It integrates everything into a “concept show”
which includes music, talk, dueling guitars of Zappa and Steve Vai, interviews
with the zany and pompous performer, displaying techie advances in editing
and excerpts from the Baltimore, Maryland obscenity in music trials that
had Zappa appear in court. There are clips from the following titles: “Uncle
Meat,” “The True Story of ‘200 Motels’,” “You Can’t Do That on Stage Anymore”
and “An American Dissident.” If you’re not a Zappa fan, like me, I doubt
if this film would make you one.

A abnormal illusory drama in which the three main characters are all losers in young lady.

by

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

| October 20, 2005

SHOPGIRL

Directed by Anand Tucker

Buena Vista

R

Mirabelle Buttersfield (Claire Danes) lives in Los Angeles and works in the glove activity be contingent at Sak's Fifth Avenue. She spends all era regular motionless behind a token and has oceans of over and over again for daydreaming. This twenty-something dabbles in art, but really wants to find a committed soulmate. At a laundromat, she meets Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman), a socially awkward young man who finds her appealing. A key to the whole film and the play-acting which ensues is when Mirabelle admits that she is a poor beak of character. She goes out on a date with Jeremy whose attitude and actions reveal an immaturity beyond persuasion.

She winds up paying for herself in the moving picture they see. On a second date, they wind up having sex but there are many comic complications that belong with it. Mirabelle is then wooed by Ray Concierge (Steve Martin), a wealthy middle-venerable dot com millionaire who has homes in Los Angeles and Seattle. He is a sheer tactful irons who puts her on a pedestal when they are with each other. After having sex, he informs her that he is not looking an eye to a committed relationship and expects them both to see other people.

Shopgirl is directed by Anand Tucker (Hilary and Jackie-link) based on a novella by Steve Martin. This mawkish stage show is a downer from start to waste that gets darker and drearier as it goes along. Mirabelle's impotence to discern what is happening in communicate relationships with men brings her a lot of grief and set-back. It also makes for a idealized dramaturgy in which all three of the main characters are losers in girl.

Reviewed by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Rating: 2/5

Many free watching video movie sites warn that free watching video services can only provide you bad quality films with annoying resolutions that destroy your online movie watching experience, it is often host, i.e. does the site have alot of bandwidth for uninterrupted viewing, or working links to the streaming movies you want to see? These important considerations that will have the greatest effect on the quality of your relaxation is what you will choose : download movie sites or streaming site.Download movie sites give a great quality , so you can watch your favorite films in hd quality anytime.

Read More Comments

You must be registered to post comments. Login or Register .

By continuing over this page, and by your continued urgency of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the

Copyright 1998-2009, IGN Pageant, Inc. |
RSS Feeds

IGN’s enterprise databases meet Mastermind, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by

Pythian Remote DBA

.

Traditional yield evidence ©1995-make known Muze, Inc. For personal partake of only. All rights reserved.

Laura Clifford 


Robin Clifford 

Nikki (Laura Dern, "Blue Velvet," "Wild at Heart") is thrilled to
get the lead role in genius director Kingsley's (Jeremy Irons, "Casanova,"
HBO's "Elizabeth I") new film, but after they've begun shooting Kingsley tells
Nikki and her costar Devon (Justin Theroux, "Mulholland Drive") that the
producers neglected to tell them that his project is a remake of a movie
that was never completed and was cursed besides - its lead actors were murdered. 
Nikki's reality begins to slip into that of her character and time splinters
like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle in David Lynch's "Inland Empire."

Laura:



Five years ago, writer/director/editor David Lynch gave us his second masterpiece,
"Mulholland Drive," a dream like tale about a Hollywood actress that, given
patience and a penchant for Lynch, had its own structured logic.  Since
then, Lynch has begun experimenting with digital video and has repeatedly
made statements about the freedom the medium has given him.  If that's
the case, I prefer my Lynch artistically shackled by the restraints of a film
camera.  "Inland Empire" may send diehard Lynch fans over the moon and
it does put forth many intriguing ideas and startlingly creepy visuals, but
it is just plain indulgent and three hours of dream logic begin to take their
toll.

Streaming movie sites have become popular with PC users who spend a lot of time online these days. These sites make it possible to watch full-length feature movies, clips, and even streaming television shows right on your computer using a technology known as ?streaming-video.? On some of these sites you can even play interactive games in HD with 3D graphics. There are numerous websites offering these services, some free and others requiring paid memberships. The best free full movies site is watch-funny-movies.com

"Inland Empire," which is a title more descriptive of the director's "Twin
Peaks" than this Hollywood-set tale, presents themes on prostitution, movies,
people good with animals, yesterday being tomorrow, brutal f*&king murder,
marital infidelity, memory and identity then shuffles, plays, repeats. 
And then there is the giant bunny-headed people sitcom where mundane statements
elicit a laugh track.  After a completely weird black and white opening
featuring a Polish man and prostitute with blurred out heads, the film starts
promisingly.  Nikki's butler (Nikki is married to a very wealthy studio
executive) answers the door to a Polish woman (Grace Zabriskie, "Twin Peaks,"
in a mesmerizing, threatening performance) claiming to be a new neighbor.
Over coffee Nikki becomes alarmed when the woman tells her strange Polish
folk tales and seems to know too much about the film role she wants. 
Nikki asks the woman to leave, but she just keeps talking, telling her that
if this were tomorrow, Nikki would be sitting 'over there.'  Nikki looks
and is horrified to see herself sitting on a different settee in her vast
living room, and with that look Lynch transports us into tomorrow's scene.

During the film's first reading, the actors and director are startled by
the sound of someone walking behind their sets ('Smitty's house, the scene
of the crime) and later we see that it was Nikki herself.  Devon, an
apparent lady killer, is warned to stay away from his costar because of who
her husband is, but soon they have fallen into an affair mirroring their movie
and mirroring past events.  Or is this all in Nikki's head?  Nikki
runs into a group of Sunset Blvd. hookers who offer advise, or is she one
of them?  A third personality, a pregnant woman who lives in a trashy
small house with a guy who looks like Nikki's husband but isn't, evolves. 
This is the woman who confesses and who eventually watches herself on a movie
screen, destined to repeat the actions she sees.  In the end, Lynch introduces
characters we've only heard about and introduces new ones, like "Mulholland
Drive's" Laura Harring and someone sawing a log, a Lynchian troupe that turns
"Inland Empire" into a kind of compendium of the author's work.

After utilizing the beautiful work of cinematographers Freddie Francis ("The
Elephant Man," "The Straight Story") and Peter Deming ("Lost Highway," "Mulholland
Drive"), Odd-Geir Sæther's digital work is often downright ugly. 
The picture has a yellowish cast and the hand held docu type work often employed
pulls one out of Lynch's dream world.  The film can be downright cheesy
at times, but maybe that is Lynch's intent when he's recording nine LA hookers
dancing to "The Locomotion" - who knows?  At the same time, Lynch knows
how to work Dern's distinctive face to his advantage and when the potential
rapist she fires at acquires her eyes and toothy, screaming, squared mouth,
the effect is as startling as those vibrating heads of "Lost Highway." 
His trademark industrial soundscape is also as effective as ever, but this
time there is no Angelo Badalamenti score to accompany it.

"Inland Empire" is initially intriguing, but Lynch's roving camera and inexpensive
media allow him to let his ideas sprawl all over the map.  By the film's
third hour this experimental effort becomes exhausting.

C+

Robin:

Robin did not organize this film.

Enhance your internet experience by watching high-quality streaming movies on your PC and skip the hassles of renting from your local film store and paying the fees charged for returning a DVD late. Through streaming video sites, you can watch your favorite movies when it is convenient for you with no rental agreements to sign or late charges to pay ever. watch movie Balibo .

“Iffy Liaisons,” based on the 1782 Choderlos de Laclos novel “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” is tantalizingly satanic — watching it makes the color rise to your cheeks. From the cleft close-up of Glenn Close as she grins with devilish self-joy into her dressing mirror, the understanding exerts an insinuating hide. You feel as if it is being whispered in your ear.

Set just prior to the French Revolution, “Dangerous Liaisons” is about sex as gamesmanship, and its spirit is keyed to Close’s nakedly malevolent smile. Close plays the Marquise de Merteuil, a Parisian socialite whose days are spent concocting elaborate erotic intrigues, and, poised before her vanity table, she seems majestically corrupt, like an evil queen in a fairy story. With that opening glance, she draws the audience into her confidence, making it a party to her cynical schemes.

It’s this sense of complicity that makes the movie such a delectably naughty experience. This sort of wit and immediacy is extraordinarily rare in a period film. Instead of making the action seem far off, the filmmakers put the audience in the room with their characters. The film introduces us to two irresistible scoundrels — the Marquise and her coconspirator and former lover, the Vicomte de Valmont (John Malkovich). The metaphor for sex that director Stephen Frears and screenwriter Christopher Hampton (who adapted his own play) have set up for exploration is war, and in the movie’s opening sequence there’s a rush of anticipation as Close and Malkovich, in separate chambers, are coiffed and powdered by their servants for battle. For these players, mere pleasure — physical pleasure, that is — is the slightest of motives. Sex — and its paltry adjunct, love — is unworthy of these aristocratic combatants; they’re beneath them, prosaic, common.

For Valmont and the Marquise, victory is the ultimate pleasure — the only pleasure. In two of his earlier films — “My Beautiful Laundrette” and “Sammy and Rosie Get Laid” — Frears showed a savvy understanding of the games lovers play. Here he glories in the intricacy of the strategies, the forged letters, the elaborate lies. With a few deft, economical strokes, Frears sets the story. Hoping to take her revenge on a betrayer, the Marquise conspires to have Valmont deflower the unwitting Ce’cile de Volanges (Uma Thurman), a virginal convent girl who is to be her enemy’s bride and who was chosen expressly for her purity. Though Valmont is always eager to accommodate the Marquise, and the young girl is a luscious prize, the assignment is almost an insult to him. It’s too easy.

Instead, Valmont has marked a loftier peak to climb, a luminous beauty well-known for her piety and fidelity named Madame de Tourvel (Michelle Pfeiffer). But the meddling of Ce’cile’s mother, Madame de Volanges (Swoosie Kurtz), in the Vicomte’s delicate maneuvers gives him reason to effect a plot that will satisfy both himself and the Marquise. All this is done with the casual flourish of a master.

There’s a sublime perversity in Frears’ casting, especially that of Malkovich. With his coarse jackal’s face and lisping effeminacy, Malkovich seems the unlikeliest of Don Juans. But Malkovich brings a fascinating dimension to his character that would be missing with a more conventionally handsome leading man. His presence underlines just how small a role physical beauty plays in seduction. With Malkovich, everything turns on artistry and experience. For him, lovemaking — like most things — is a matter of technique, preparation, will. By the time he has lured the innocent Ce’cile into copying her boudoir key for the purpose of delivering the letters of the ardent young Chevalier Danceny (Keanu Reeves), there is no choice left to her but to submit. It was too easy after all.

For this reason, it is inevitable that Valmont and the Marquise become adversaries — they’re the only ones worthy of each other. Close is harder to warm to than Malkovich; she’s spinsterish and a little stern — somehow it’s hard to imagine her enjoying a moment of sexual release. But perhaps that’s the point Frears hopes to make. The Marquise is an epic dissembler. It’s appropriate that some of the scenes are set at the opera — her deceptions are positively Verdian. Close looks marvelous in the glorious costumes James Acheson has designed for her, but she also seems imprisoned by them. In the same sense, she is imprisoned by her sex, and her anger is what fuels the movie and gives it its propulsive urgency. Sex, jealousy, envy, revenge are so jumbled up in her head that she hardly bothers to separate them. Her impulse, simply, is to exert her influence in the world — how she exerts herself seems almost beside the point. This is her power. And she uses it willfully, whenever and however she likes, without a thought for the damage.

The Marquise’s compulsive destructiveness makes her a character with true classical grandeur. There’s something curdled in her. And perhaps this is most evident when Michelle Pfeiffer is onscreen. Of the three principal roles, Pfeiffer’s is the least obvious and the most difficult. Nothing is harder to play than virtue, and Pfeiffer is smart enough not to try. Instead, she embodies it. Her porcelain-skinned beauty, in this regard, is a great asset, and the way it’s used makes it seem an aspect of her spirituality. Her purity shines through her pores. For this reason, her submission to Valmont is doubly powerful. (Simply the physical contrast is a shock.) When she falls, she falls perilously and deeply.

What happens for the viewer is mirrored in the changes in the characters. What began as an delicious amusement deepens into a tragedy. The richness at the end of the film isn’t quite what was expected at the beginning when we admired the talcumy lightness of Philippe Rousselot’s cinematography. The passion, for us and for them, comes as a surprise. For them it’s cataclysmic; for us, it’s divine.

Dangerous Liaisons, at area theaters, is rated R and contains some nudity and adult situations. @CAPTION: Glenn Close and John Malkovich i “Dangerous Liaisons.”

“The film’s beauty lies in Borzage’s
overpowering visual mise-en-scene.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

“Moonrise” is based on the book by Theodore Strauss. It’s one of
the better films, if not the best, directed by the veteran filmmaker, known
for his romantic melodramas, Frank Borzage (”Farewell to Arms”/”7th Heaven”).
It’s a humanist social conflict flick made on a low-budget for Republic,
which was an unusual choice for the studio to make since they’re known
mostly for their serials, action and Western films. This was Borzage’s
last film until his 1958 “China Doll”. The blacklist forced him into a
decade of no work. The next year he directed his last film, “The Big Fisherman”
(1959).

Improve your internet intelligence by watching high-quality streaming movies on your computer and skip the hassles of renting from your local movie store and paying the fees charged for returning a movie late. Through watching movies online sites, you can watch recent movies when it is convenient for you with no rental agreements to sign or late charges to pay ever. Watch Street Fighter IV: The Ties that Bind online .

When he was an infant, Danny Hawkins’s (Dane Clark) father was hanged
for murder. The kid was sent to a nearby southern town to be raised by
his Aunt Jessie. Ever since he could remember, those around him wouldn’t
let him forget that he possesses his father’s “bad blood.” The harassment
continued among his peers, and his number one nemesis was Jerry Sykes (Lloyd
Bridges)–the son of the town’s wealthy banker. The film opens to a hop
both young men attend and we find them going off alone in the woods to
argue over a pretty schoolteacher, Gilly Johnson (Gail Russell), they both
love. It leads to a fistfight and Jerry’s continual taunting of the lad.
When for the first time in their many fights Danny is winning, Jerry picks
up a big rock and with hatred goes after Danny; but, Danny overcomes him
and bashes his head in with the same rock in what loosely could be termed
self-defense (he didn’t have to kill him once he disarmed him). Danny then
returns to the dance with bruises on his face, and takes Gilly and his
friends Jimmy and Julie for a ride in the father’s car of Jimmy. In a turbulent
state of mind, the drunken lad speeds and crashes–with fortunately no
serious injuries.

When Jerry turns up missing for a long time, Danny retreats to live
in the swamps in secret with Gilly. He wrestles with the “bad hand” fate
has brought him, and drowns himself in sorrows. Eventually the past catches
up with him and he returns to his home to talk with his wise old granny
(Ethel Barrymore), who forces him to look back at the past and make the
right decision so his life will not be wasted like his father’s was. The
sympathetic sheriff (Allyn Joslyn) knows that Danny killed Jerry, but doesn’t
have the proof. He talks to him about straightening out his life by being
a real man and telling the court what really happened that day. Danny also
receives wise common sense counsel from the elderly Negro Mose (Rex Ingram),
who treats everyone with respect (including his hunting dogs). After receiving
this good advice, Danny realizes everyone in town doesn’t hate him and
decides to surrender to the police and rejoin society. 

It’s a grim melodrama that feels tragically realistic, touching on
the raw nerves of the brooding accused murderer who has been forced into
violence and going on-the-run because his tormentors have rattled him.
The film’s beauty lies in Borzage’s overpowering visual mise-en-scene,
making the film a character study as the protagonist wrestles with his
inner conflicts between the peaceful and wrathful deities. The conflicted
young man eventually overcomes his past bad karma because he finds someone
to love, support from his betters and values to believe in. Spiritual ideals
such as transformational love are the very things the director, himself,
finds very dear in his real life. 

David Fincher’s feature debut, ALIEN 3, picks up almost directly after the events in ALIENS, decision Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) frozen in suspended animation as her ship crashes on Fiorina 161, a detention planet. When awakened by the prison’s wand, she discovers that she is the exclusive survivor of her troupe. Trapped on a barren planet with convicts and no weapons of any thoughtful, Ripley in due course realizes that an alien was also on the ship and has survived. As the savage creature begins to pogrom inmates, Ripley bands together with the remaining prisoners and attempts to destroy it by wits alone.

Download full mp3 songs, collect mp3 on your PC, share mp3 with your friends, download free wallpapers and much more. Listen to Kylie Minogue online for free.

Filmed at a time when big guns and high technology dominated the screen, ALIEN 3 deserves commendation for its unique premise–battling a vicious outlander creature with no weapons and little short of no resources whatsoever. This shooting script makes for an different and intriguing sphere fiction thriller that is also pre-eminent for Fincher’s gloomy industrial visuals; the sheet was nominated as a replacement for an Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

BLU-RAY HOARD


ALL OUR BRAND-NEW FORMAT DVD REVIEWS

Hell Badger
[Blu-ray]
(aka "Quentin Tarantino Presents Hell Ride")

(Larry Bishop, 2008)

Reconsider by Leonard Norwitz


Studio:

Theatrical: The Weinstein Company

Blu-ray: Genius Products/Dimension Extreme

Disc:

Region: A

Runtime: 1:23:49

Chapters: 24

Size: 25 GB,  Feature 18.9 Gig

Download full mp3 songs, collect mp3 on your PC, download free wallpapers and much more. Listen to Usher online.

Case: Standard Amaray Blu-ray case

Release date: October 28, 2008

Video:

Aspect ratio: 2.35:1

Resolution: 1080p

Video codec: VC-1

Audio:

English D5.1 Dolby TrueHD. English DD 5.1

Subtitles:

English SDH & Spanish (feature pellicle only)

Extras:

• Commentary by Writer/Director/Producer Larry Bishop
and Number one of Photography Scott Kevan
• Featurette: The Making of Hell Ride
• Featurette: The Babes of Hell Drive
• Featurette: The Guys of Hell Rag
• Featurette: The Choppers of Hell Ride
• Michael Madsen's Video Diary
• Theatrical Trailer

The Film:

2

An "Official Selection" of the 2008 Sundance Haze
Carnival, Hell Pester has its first phoney release at
your home theatre, should you choose to buy your Blu-flash
copy before the street appointment of October 28. . . Or, not.

Here's a sampling from the nation's critics:

Roger Ebert From the Chicago Bronze knick-knacks Times


HERE


:

In between searching for a Bluebeard, he [Pistolero] leads
a gang whose members are sort of hard to require apart,
except for The Gent (Michael Madsen), so-called because
instead of leathers, he wears a ruffled formal shirt
under a tux jacket, with his gang colors stitched on the
servants’. Why does he do that? The answer to that question
would require Insigne Happening, and no person of the
cast aside members develop at all. They fly into being
fully created and never trade, like Greek gods. . . All
these guys do is blast one another and roll around in
bars with starkers girls with silicone breasts — who don't
seem to quarry to the biker's smelly muck.

Keith Phipps (The Onion A.V. Club


HERE


) :

Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse was
a daring experiment that failed to catch on, an attempt
to pain in the neck the down-market press they grew up on into the
21st century without dislodging a molecule of grit. But
Grindhouse's commercial failure wasn't such a bad thing.
Had it been a hit, we ascendancy be seeing more movies ilk
the Tarantino-produced Pandemonium Ride, a witless reprise of
'60s and '70s biker movies written, directed by, and
starring Larry Bishop.

Rachel Saltz (N.Y. Times


HERE


) :

A jumble of influences, “Hell Ride” borrows its
jump-around-in-time house and absurdist wordplay
from Quentin Tarantino (who apparently doesn’t hold a
grudge; he’s credited as executive producer) and its
sense of pour out spaces and hovering doom from Sergio
Leone. All that’s missing is those directors’ ingenuity.

Leonard Norwitz (DVDBeaver.com)

Just because a movie uses noir elements, doesn't
attest to an art film; just because a cinema has a shallow
budget or no stars doesn't capital it's quick for the scrap
sea. Fair-minded because the 1955 Volkswagon wasn't beautiful or
fashionable didn't mean it had nothing to present oneself the
smart purchaser. The grindhouse movies of the current 1960s and
70s are a curious case; the brand-new resurgence (that's
quite too fervid a word at this point) even outlander:
for in one's attempt at consciously making an
exploitation silent picture, one runs the endanger of simply making a
unpropitious only. All I need are a unite of fascinating
characters, a ingenious script and a photographer and editor
who know what they're doing. By reason of all its visual,
posturing and musical hommages, pseudo- and in another manner to
Sergio Leone, Tarantino and Rodriguez, peradventure the upper crust
and worst that can be said of Hell Ride is that it feels
like a porn big with all the explicit bits edited out.

Image:

8
/8   

NOTE
:
The secondary to
Blu-ray
captures were ripped without delay from the


Blu-spark


disc.

The first number indicates a relative equal of
excellence compared to other Blu-ray video discs on a
ten-point scale. The inferior merchandise troop places this image
along the in toto completely range of DVD and Blu-ray discs.

Mimicking Tarentino and Oliver Stone, Larry Bishop moves
between film stocks, or the look of different flick
stocks, like alternating current. Aside from questions
of anecdotal integrity, it sure makes a critique of the
transfer difficult. Most of the metre, the large screen is jolly
high contrast, which could conceivably wreak havoc with
edges, but I don't bring much to trouble me there. Color
is often pumped up with orangey flesh tones, but that is
liable intentional. The simulacrum is clean, besmirch-available,
with lots of healthy fleck. But it is exhaustively possible
that this Blu-ray is a near perfect rendering of the
original dusting, as the awesomely valorous close-ups of
David Carradine suggest.

CLICK EACH
BLU-RAY
GRAB TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 END RESULT

Audio & Music:

6/7

Here we are graced with a Dolby TrueHD uncompressed
audio mix that's a good example of pearls before swine.
If nothing else, a today’s biker film ­ grindhouse or
not - ought to participate in tear apart-roaring engine revs. Nope. OK,
it ought to have some cool surround effects as the bikes
pass the camera's meat of view. Not so much, be that as it may
there is an immersive quality during the gunfire and
music swells. Dialogue is dull. The soundtrack music
fares much better.

Operations:

7

Like other Genius Products Blu-rays I've seen, the menu
is pretty submissive to benefit – easier, in fact, than Rob
Zombie's


Halloween


, which required clicking onto mod
windows for what was never an extraordinarily elongated list of
extra features. This one's done opportunely, admitting that without
intriguing advantage of the possibilities of the course.

Extras:

5

The four featurettes, in burgee statement of meaning, total a
little more than half an hour, which is probably enough,
given the material. Madsen's Video Diary makes European
Dogma look positively contrived. I sampled the
commentary. Definitely more interesting than the movie.
Nothing too deep, which is a kind thing. Matching to
the simultaneously released DVD.

Bottom column:

3

The material is sufficiently repulsive to gratify
certain baser instincts, but there's no verifiable movie here.
The Blu-shaft yields a good rendering of a peculiar sculpture
and an audio fraternize that never hits me in the gut, so I
don't see a acquiring here.

Leonard Norwitz


October 22nd, 2008

The Movie:

I usually look forward to movie sequels with about the same anticipation
as I do for a spinal tap.  Sequels have the habit of being notoriously
bad, and rarely capture the feel and excitement of the original. 
But sometimes they are good, and I’d hate to miss a movie that I might
enjoy.  That’s what I was thinking when Barbershop 2 turned
up.  I was hoping that it would be good, but I was expecting the worst. 
It turns that it’s not bad, though not as entertaining as the original.

Some time has passed since the end of the previous movie, and things
are flowing smoothly at Calvin’s Barbershop. When a land development company
starts buying up land and bringing in more upscale stores to the neighborhood,
Calvin (Ice Cube) thinks it’s a good thing, anything to improve the area. 
He’s happy until he discovers that Nappy Cuts “the Super-Cuts for the black
man” is moving in across the street.  This chain barbershop offers
milk baths and massages; they have leather vibrating chairs and plasma
TVs on the walls and even a basketball court.  There is no way that
Calvin’s shop can compete with such a snazzy set up.  But Calvin just
can’t sell his shop to the developers, something that he learned in the
first movie.  So he tries to adapt to compete with the well-financed
chain, a taks that’s doomed to failure.

The movie also has an entertaining sub-plot that looks at Eddie’s (Cedric
the Entertainer) history.  Told in a series of flashbacks, we see
how Eddie first stumbled into the barbershop and why he stays there. 
Though I couldn’t see a direct line between the character in the flashbacks
and the crotchety old man in the contemporary parts of the movie, it was
still an enjoyable diversion.

This was a good movie, but not as engrossing as the first one. 
The thing that I enjoyed about the original film was all the small plots
that were weaved together.  This film doesn’t have those subplots
that turn out to be important to the resolution.  Barbershop 2
is a more straightforward story, and that makes it less interesting than
the original film.

This sequel is also less humorous.  There is still the witty banter
between the various barbers, but there aren’t any major laughs like the
first film had.  (I’m thinking of the cash machine here.)  Instead
they added a couple of brief appearances by Queen Latifah who plays Gina,
a stylist at the beauty salon next door.  The scenes involving the
salon seemed out of place and didn’t fit with the rest of the film. 
The only reason Calvin went over there in the first place was to collect
the rent, and though he doesn’t get it, that subject is never brought up
again.  It is obvious that the producers wanted to create fodder for
a spin off movie, and they did.  A female version of Barbershop,
tentatively entitled Beauty Shop, is in development now.

 

Even with these faults, the movie has a lot of appeal because of the
talented cast.  Like the first film, this is an ensemble piece, with
the entire cast playing equally strong roles.  Cedric the Entertainer,
after stealing the show in the original film, has a larger role, but there
is a lot less room for him to shine, ironically.  The flashback sequences
are all dramatic, and he can’t let his sarcastic humor shine through. 
In the modern day parts he is just as entertaining as he was in the original. 
Ice Cube does a good job too, but this film didn’t allow him to act as
much as the previous one.  There aren’t as many moments when he has
to struggle with a moral dilemma, and his character is more straightforward. 
There are fewer ambiguities for him to explore, but he does as much as
he can with what he was given.

An enjoyable and fun film, whose only flaw is not being quite as funny
or involving as its predecessor; not bad at all for a sequel.

The DVD:

---

Audio:

The 5.1 English soundtrack was big and clear.  The music was smooth
and when it swelled it would envelope the room in sound.  The dialog
was clean and there wasn’t any hiss or distortion.  There were also
French 5.1 and Spanish 2.0 soundtracks with optional subtitles in English,
Spanish, or French.

Video:

The video quality to the widescreen anamorphically enhanced movie was
very good, just what you would expect from a recent release.  The
colors were vivid and accurate, and there was excellent detail.  There
was some edge enhancement, but it wasn’t too heavy handed.  The transfer
was very good, with no evidence of digital artifacts.

The Extras:

This disc comes packed with extras.

Cast Video Commentary: Cedric the
Entertainer, Sean Patrick Thomas, Troy Garity and Jazsmin Lewis give their
thoughts on the film.  There is a small window that appears at the
bottom of the screen every once in a while that shows the actors watching
the movie while they talk.  This aspect wasn’t too interesting and
I wouldn’t have missed it if they hadn’t included it.  This commentary
good, but it wasn’t as entertaining as I was expecting it to be. 
There was only a little joking; most of it was serious discussion of their
characters though Cedric did manage to get some good lines in.  Even
so, it was worth listening to.

Director’s Commentary:  Director
Kevin Sullivan and Producers Bob Teitel and George Tillman Jr. narrate
the movie without the video insertion that the cast had.  They talked
about how the sequel came about and what parts were adlibbed and which
were scripted.  The director talks a lot about how certain shots were
accomplished, especially how the flashbacks were integrated into the fabric
of the movie.  Though it is more technical, I liked this commentary
a little better than the cast’s comments.

Deleted Scenes:  There are
six deleted scenes that have optional introductions by the cast and an
optional commentary.  These were mostly good scenes and a great addition
to the disc.  I especially liked the advice that Eddie gave in one
scene that didn’t make it into the movie:  “A monkey can climb a tree,
but that doesn’t mean you can get free cable.”  The only irritating
thing is that there is a copyright notice at the end of each scene, so
when you select the ‘Play all” option you see the notice six times.

Outtakes: A six-minute reel of the
cast messing up their lines and laughing at themselves.

Music Videos:  Mary J. Blige
Featuring Eve performing “Not Today” and Sleepy Brown playing “I Can’t
Wait”

There is also a Photo Gallery with production and behind-the-scenes
stills and a selection of trailers.

Final Thoughts:

While this wasn’t as good as the original movie, it was still an enjoyable
film.  The acting was very good, with all your favorite characters
from the original making appearances once again.   Fans of the
first movie shouldn’t set their hopes up too high, but it is worth seeing. 
Recommended.

Rating:





5 out of 5

Short version: It’s really very simple: If you’re a Clint Eastwood fan going way back, you’re going to LOVE

Gran Torino



.

Screen Rant reviews

Gran Torino

You know I’m getting pretty used to taking heat for my movie reviews, and I have no doubt that it’ll happen again for this review of the Clint Eastwood written and directed film,


Gran Torino


. But you know what? I don’t care, and I don’t apologize for my reviews. You may be entitled to your opinion, but you know what? So am I – like it or not. So… onward.

Gran Torino

is the story of Walt Kowalski, an old veteran of the Korean War. As the film opens we see that his wife has just died, and within seconds of his appearance we know exactly what sort of character Walt is: a cranky, grizzled (and racist) old timer who despises what’s become of the people in the world around him.

He sneers at his disrespectful teenage grandchildren who verify up at the funeral making jokes, texting on their phones and dressed inappropriately. The relationship between Walt and his two sons is uneasy at best and there is not much patience or empathy heading in either direction.

The neighborhood he’s lived in for well over 30 years is no longer populated by lower middle class white folks, but has turned into an Asian neighborhood – much to his chagrin. A Hmong family lives next door: A grandmother, single mother and her two teen kids – Thao (played by Bee Vang) and Sue (Ahney Her). Thao is quiet and intelligent but utterly shy, while Sue is very outgoing and fearless.

The local Asian gang wants to recruit Thao whether he wants in or not, and he doesn’t. Unfortunately you don’t just say “no” to a gang and being the weak fellow he is, they talk him into trying to steal next door neighbor Walt’s mint 1972 Gran Torino. Walt stops him but Thao gets away unrecognized.

Soon the gang is back one night to forcibly take Thao with them, and Walt comes out with his 50 year old rifle and chases them off. Eventually he learns that Thao was the boy who broke into his garage, and reluctantly takes him on to work off his bad deed (at the urging of Thaos’s mother).

Eventually Walt sees the good and potential in Thao and takes it upon himself to show him how to be a man and try to help him steer clear of the gang.

Eastwood is just great to watch in this film – he has the greatest snarl in this movie, and he uses it often and to great effect. He’s totally convincing as the retired old war vet who’s seen it all and is pretty much afraid of nothing. As a matter of fact at one point in the film I actually decided that this was basically another

Dirty Harry

film, much like last year’s

Rambo

– revisiting a familiar character after many years in order to show us what happened to him.

Of course he wasn’t really Harry Callahan, but it didn’t take much of a leap to swap characters and end up with pretty much the same movie. The way he confronts trouble is awe-inspiring. In particular there’s one scene (that ends up very funny) where he comes up against three African-American men who are harassing Sue – it’s classic.

Now, I’ll tell you – there’s nothing “cinematically amazing” about this film. No “cutting edge” direction or camera angles or visual effects or anything else. What you have is Clint “I’m still a bad ass at 78″ Eastwood, great characters and a great story. Depending on how good or bad I consider a movie, when assigning it a “score” (which I’m regretting more and more these days – people get caught up in the numbers) I go one of two ways:

• If it’s awful, I start at zero and start looking for worthwhile things about it that will add “points.”
• If it’s great, I start at the top and look for things that maybe didn’t work here and there and deduct from there.

In this case I started at the top, but I couldn’t think of anything that I didn’t like about the film or struck me the wrong way – so there you have it: 5 out of 5 stars from me.

Now yes, of course… Walt is a racist, hurling every sort of ethnic slur you can think of – but the point is that he learns to look past his prejudices and sees people for who they are, not for their race or heritage. And if you’re a long time Clint Eastwood fan based on the hard-edged character he played back in the Dirty Harry and spaghetti western days you’ll really enjoy this.

On the other hand (and I know I’m generalizing) if you’re on the young side, you’ll probably think he’s a cranky old bastard and what’s he getting so fired up about.

Listen to music online for free

There is plenty of foul language in the film and violence as well – It’s rated R, so leave the kiddies at home.