In 1940, in the middle of a Siberian winter, a group of prisoners escape a Soviet labour camp. Only barbed wire to cut through, then losing guards in whiteout conditions and pine forest. They dared this with a few survival skills and scraps of food to sustain them, knowing that staying means dying and there [...]
Read More adventure, blu-ray, David Lean, drama, DVD, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, Peter Weir, PG-13, Russell Boyd, Saoirse Ronan, The Way BackAny of you who are old enough (like me) to remember the heyday of record stores, especially of Tower Records, may remember a classical music recording that was one of the first true crossover phenomenons – A Feather on the Breath of God, by Hildegard von Bingen. At the time, it was quite strange to [...]
Read More Barbara Sukowa, Bruce, drama, DVD, Hildegard von Bingen, Margarethe von Trotta, Unrated, VisionIf I were Jonathan Swift, I’d be turning over in my grave at how my classic novel about a man encountering a race of people less than six inches tall was turned into a somewhat crude and simple-minded comedy starring Jack Black and featuring giant robots and giant wedgies.
Read More adventure, Amanda Peet, blu-ray, Chris O'Dowd, comedy, David, DVD, Emily Blunt, Fantasy, Gulliver's Travels, Jack Black, Jason Segel, PG-, Rob LettermanThe 7 hit movies based off the famous Harry Potter books are now almost to an end. Harry Potter is now 17 years old, and the protection his mother gave him is now gone for life and some want him dead right away. The famous Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and his two best friends, Ron [...]
Read More adventure, blu-ray, Daniel Radcliffe, drama, DVD, Emma Watson, Fantasy, Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, Helena Bonham Carter, PG-13Country Strong. When I heard the title, I had hopes it was about the Incredible Hulk running for president. Then I heard Gwyneth Paltrow was in it. I still had hope. Then I heard that it was about a disgraced country music star, attempting to revamp her career, perhaps bringing some up-and-comers along for the [...]
Read More blu-ray, Country Strong, drama, DVD, Garrett Hedlund, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leighton Meester, music, PG-13, Tim McGrawA woman dies in a car crash and her husband and their two daughters try to get on with their lives. The younger daughter, Mary, has nightmares about her mother’s death, screaming out for her. The father, a professor, accepts a position teaching for a year in Genoa, hoping the change will help them all [...]
Read More A Summer in Genoa, Catherine Keener, Colin Firth, drama, DVD, Michael Winterbottom, Perla Haney-Jardine, R, romance, Willa HollandWhite Material is the only film by French director Claire Denis I have ever seen. A shock, I know, since I work in a video store. But I admittedly do not possess the kind of abstract, art house-film intellect that can fully grasp what a filmmaker like Denis may be trying to say. What I [...]
Read More blu-ray, Christopher Lambert, Claire Denis, DVD, Isabelle Huppert, White MaterialIn an unnamed African nation, child soldiers wield guns and machetes, swallow fistfuls of pills and hunt for a rebel leader called “The Boxer”. A coffee plantation is falling apart with no one to bring in the harvest. Workers are threatened by government soldiers, marauding bands of thugs, and their own liberation movement. In White [...]
Read More blu-ray, Claire Denis, drama, DVD, Isabelle Huppert, Unrate, war, White MaterialI was about 10 years old when the original Tron hit theaters in 1982, so I have a certain fondness for it. It just looked so cool, with the Light Cycle races and giant ships, rendered via very early computer graphics, and the actors clad in glowing costumes with glowing Frisbees strapped to their backs. [...]
Read More action, adventure, blu-ray, Bruce Boxleitner, David, DVD, Garrett Hedlund, jeff bridges, Joseph Kosinski, Michael Sheen, PG-, Sci-Fi, Tron: LegacyYou get exactly what you expect with this silly and sophomoric second sequel to Meet the Parents, which is to say ninety or so minutes of Raging Bull star Robert De Niro embarrassing himself for a paycheck while Ben Stiller mugs mercilessly for the camera. This time ’round, Stiller’s put-upon male nurse must prove to [...]
Read More Barbra Streisand, Ben Stiller, comedy, Dustin Hoffman, DVD, Harvey Keitel, Jessica Alba, Little Fockers, Owen Wilson, PG-13, Robert De Niro, Teri Polo