Archive for March, 2010
Review of Ace Ventura Pet Detective – The Case of the Serial Shaver Online
Thursday, March 11th, 2010Streaming Warriors of Virtue Online
Thursday, March 11th, 2010 |
Streaming Warriors of Virtue Online.
Movie Title: Warriors of Virtue Warriors of Virtue is available for streaming or downloading. |
The memoir of WOV is about a boy who always wished he was something more. Ryan is a boy who has a crippled knee, and has always dreamed of playing football and fair being normal. His friend gives him a book, telling him it is his plot to “finding himself.” Ryan scoffs at it, but takes it. But when he is sucked into a churning water pool in a freak accident, it transports him to a world unlike any other. There, he must attend the Warriors of Virtue, a band of Roos who stutter the forces of nature. In the extinguish, it becomes a quest to defeat the forces of wicked, and a sprint to obtain his method relieve home.
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This movie greatly focuses on the concept of not what you have on the outside, but what is inside. Ryan’s quest to become stronger on the outside becomes a quest to win home, which can only be done by concept what was inside him.
I have seen this movie several times, and I unruffled rewatch it. After seeing it the first time rented; I immediately went ut and bought it. This movie is not for some because it takes an imagination to truly indulge in. If you truly like fantasy and a movie that makes you consider about the message, this may be one for you.
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Free Download Of Arabian Nights
Monday, March 8th, 2010Streaming God Grew Tired of Us Online
Monday, March 8th, 2010 |
Streaming God Grew Tired of Us Online.
Movie Title: God Grew Tired of Us God Grew Tired of Us is available for streaming or downloading. |
God Grew Tired Of Us gives us a sensitive, human portrayal of the incredible strife the people of southern Sudan endured as they fled northern Sudanese troops entering their villages and killing their people. The footage of the Sudanese conflict does not pull any punches–it is quite graphic and I was truly upset by the needless suffering so many countless people faced. The characters in the United Nations refugee camp are easy to empathize with; and the plot of the documentary unfolds at a good pace that held my interest every step of the way. This is an outstanding documentary about a very long war in Sudan that received not enough attention from the United States and other world powers.
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The documentary starts off showing the footage of the conflict and then we soon zone into a United Nations refugee camp in Kenya. It is touching to see these young men, now referred to as “the lost boys of Sudan” because they had nothing and no families left, forming makeshift families with deep interpersonal bonds. These young men also dream of finding their relatives who they lost when they had to flee their Sudanese villages very abruptly. Specifically, we meet three young men: Panther, John and Daniel. These young men are selected to live new lives in the USA; and the documentary follows them as they journey to America. We see them use an electric light switch for the very first time and they marvel at the ability of a refrigerator to keep food cold or even frozen. They need to be told how to use the restroom instead of a latrine and they receive much kindness and patience from the charities that help them acclimate to life in America.
Over time (this documentary covers a period of a little more than three years), we see them start to thrive. They can get jobs, go to school, buy cars–but they do complain that juggling all those jobs can be rough! However, they never seem to feel sorry for themselves; rather they display enormous personal strength and I truly admire John, Panther and Daniel.
Buy,Download, Or Stream God Grew Tired of Us! Click Here
In addition, with the passage of time the three young men begin to experience ever increasing separation anxiety from their homeland and those they left behind. It moved me greatly to see these young men sending so much money back to the refugee camp in Kenya so that the refugees there could have a better quality of life. One young man, John, finds his parents and his determination to help them financially when they can’t even afford clothing is truly exemplary. The moment when he is reunited with his mother at an airport in America after at least twelve years of separation is one of the most emotional I’ve ever witnessed.
The DVD extras include a commentary and there’s a very well done “making of” featurette as well.
Overall, I highly recommend this well done documentary. It greatly enhanced my understanding of the Sudanese War and on a human level it is very moving indeed.
The American experience takes on a whole new meaning when it is embraced by another culture. If necessity is the mother of invention, then America is the modern inventor of the immigrant nation with open arms. Immigrants have fled their countries out of want and persecution for nearly two centuries. What makes `God Grew Tired of Us’ so captivating is that it traces the footsteps of refugees fleeing war, poverty, and persecution ravaging Sudan since 1983. Due to the keen editing of Johanna Giebelhaar and Geoffrey Richman, this nearly flawlessly paced documentary zeroes in on three male refugees who make their way to America and find a bewilderingly different life. (”The good-hearted people of America asked us to be there.”)
Using footage of the aftermath of the civil war between northern Muslim Arabs and the beleaguered southern Christians, we are shown long lines of refugees taking what little they have to Kenya where ghostly, emaciated figures wait warily in new lines for relief. Displacement adds to their anxiety as relatives become unaccounted for. Always concretely laying down the foundation of history, the film unflinchingly gives one a front seat to their predicament.
Enter Daniel Abol Pach, Panther Bior, and John Bul Dau. They are the movie’s central focus. Like a few others, they are invited to the United States and offered the amenities of an apartment, a chance at employment, and the perks of our material benefits. Daniel and Panther live in Pittsburgh; John lives in Syracuse. It is a fascinating culture shock, one that shows their innocence in the face of our technology and their resolute determination to retain their culture. (As one example we see almost quiet awe as their guide explains indoor plumbing.) Always taking steps forward in opportunity, we see them work, experience bigotry, and come to terms with our way of life. (”America is a very strange place…[but] if you can manage, it`s a land of opportunity.” –John Bul Dau)
While they thrive materially, they also experience separation anxiety. Much of the time is spent showing their efforts to improve conditions for their relatives and countryman of Kenya. Interviewing each man at key times is at the core of the movie. Each man is articulate about his anxieties and aspirations throughout. Visually the men’s testimony is backed up by footage that is poignantly presented.
Writer/Director Christopher Quin has assembled a flowing presentation that lives up to `The National Geographic’ name. ‘God Grew Tired of Us’ is profoundly titled for John’s reflection of the Armageddon qualities of their native plight while he buried the dead at the tender age of ten. It is also our ticket to a broader horizon and better understanding. (Nicole Kidman narrates.) Fascinating.
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Streaming The Cincinnati Kid Online
Thursday, March 4th, 2010 |
Streaming The Cincinnati Kid Online.
Movie Title: The Cincinnati Kid The Cincinnati Kid is available for streaming or downloading. |
You could call him the still one. McQueen had a talent for portraying quite a lot with minimal dialog and that’s the map he liked it. He has maybe 75 lines off dialog in “The Gorgeous Seven” yet his presence is equal to that of star Yul Brynner. You’d be forgiven for being confused about which Steve McQueen boxed area to lift. MGM has recently released “The Steve McQueen Collection” which features four McQueen classics that have previously been available on DVD; “The Thomas Crown Affair”, “The Stunning Seven”, “Junior Bonner” and “The Mountainous Elope”.
Buy,Download, Or Stream The Cincinnati Kid! Click Here
“The Critical Steve McQueen Collection” is a different beast entirely; it does feature 1 title that is no different than the previously issued version -”Papillon”. All the rest have either never been issued or, in the case of “Bullitt”, are now in two disc deluxe editions that do this place a worthwhile addition to any collection.
The crown jewel of this spot is the unusual deluxe edition of “Bullitt”. McQueen plays San Francisco detective Frank Bullitt. He’s been assigned to protect a study for a major trial. The see, though, is murdered. Before the post-mortem has begun, Bullitt hunts for the killers and plans on nailing them. Featuring an extraordinary high hasten perambulate through the streets of San Francisco and shot entirely on position, “Bullitt” was Peter Yates’ first major US film and it crackles with energy.
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“Papillon” tells the sage of a thief nick-named Papillon for the gargantuan butterfly tattooed on his chest. (McQueen) framed for slay in France and sent to Devil’s Island for life. From the moment he steps on the boat headed to the prison he’s planning his run. He agrees to protect a financial thief Louis Dega (Dustin Hoffman) . Schaffner’s film portrays Papillon’s attempt to survive on Devil’s Island until he can figure out an hasten concept. Although this isn’t Schaffner’s best film, it has a number of much moments that equal his classic films “Patton”, “Planet of the Apes” and “The War Lord”. McQueen more than holds his maintain with device actor Hoffman.
“The Cincinnati Kid” features McQueen as Eric Stoner a accelerate playing ace who challenges the best gambler around “the Man” Lancey Howard (Edward G. Robinson) . A terrific performance by Edward G. Robinson allows Robinson to almost select the recount under McQueen’s nose. With a terrific supporting cast, “The Cincinnati Kid” would be one of the most memorable films about gambling until “Rounders” three decades later.
“Never So Few” features McQueen in the third billed role of Bill Ringa a member of the O.S.S. fighting the Japanese during World War II in Burma. Ringa and his Captain Tom Reynolds (Frank Sinatra) are in Burma to converse the Kachin natives in how to fight the Japanese. Reynolds fights dirty when Chinese rebels contemptible over to Burma to ruin and loot the American soldiers stationed there. Although it’s not one of director John Sturges (”The Sparkling Seven”. “Ice Plot Zebra”) best films, “Never So Few” provides McQueen with a role that continued his breakthrough as a actor. It also inspired Sturges to cast McQueen in “The Lovely Seven”.
“The Getaway” almost got away without being made. Originally Peter Bogdanovich was to sing with his girlfriend actress Cybil Shepherd in the lead. When she dropped out so did Bogdanovich. Luckily director Sam Peckinpah stepped in and the rewritten script by Walter Hill was tooled for McQueen. Scandal broke out on the plot when McQueen became fervent with his co-star Ali McGraw (who was then married to Paramount head Robert Evans) . McQueen plays thief Doc McCoy who has been paroled. The only pickle is that Sheriff Beynon (Ben Johnson) expects him to do a immense robbery for him. He plans on killing McCoy afterward but things don’t quite work out the plot that Beynon intended.
“Tom Horn” (McQueen) a tracker and “enforcer” who dispensed justice in the conventional west takes a job to cessation cattle thieves. When things net messy and Horn has to slay some of the rustlers, the ranchers who hired him want Horn stopped. He’s establish on trial for the destroy of a 15 year obsolete boy. The next to last film McQueen made before he died in 1980, is a surprisingly considerable and mammoth western. The screenplay by novelist/screenwriter Thomas McGuane (”The Missouri Breaks”, “92 in the Shade”, “Rancho Deluxe”) and Bub Shrake (”Nightwing”, “J.W. Coop”, “Songwriter”) portrays a character out of time; Horn’s style of dispensing justice faces the gray world of corruption and politics. McQueen gives one of his best nuanced performances in a film that didn’t do all that well at the box office. It’s a pity as it’s a expansive movie that deserves a wider audience. Luckily, for those who catch the boxed space they’ll finally gather a chance to witness this classic western.
The previous DVD edition of “Bullitt” looked quite first-rate but can’t compare to the newly digitally remastered transfer here. Image clarity, color and detail for “Bullitt” is great. The sound is surprisingly spry with a nice 5.1 remix that doesn’t quite expend the format to its best advantage but that’s not a surprise given that the film is nearly 40 years outmoded. “Papillon” comes with the same transfer as it received in 2000. Image quality is obliging but the negative could exhaust restoration and/or digital filtering to neat up the print/improve it. It does feature a original 5.1 remix (which wasn’t advertised on the box of the previous release and I don’t hold if it had it or not on the 1999 release but I suspect not) .The colors aren’t sparkling and vibrant but they fit the general atmosphere of the film and are fairly correct to the recent theatrical exhibition if a bit primitive. “The Getaway” looks terrific again considering the age of the movie. The blacks are rock solid and the colors as incandescent and smart as they’ve ever been. There’s the occasionally soft image but, on the whole, “The Getaway” looks proper. “Never So Few” also looks quite genuine particularly when you think the age of the negative. It receives a solid transfer with lustrous colors and nice image clarity. “The Cincinnati Kid” also looks exceptionally helpful with nice color reproduction and image quality. It’s obvious that some digital restoration was done to the most modern releases here and “Kid” does support from it. “Tom Horn” looks extremely estimable with inviting images, intellectual and shiny colors. Although a tad grainy (like most of the films here) that has more to do with the stock former to shoot the films and the condition of the negative than the transfer. In most cases, the graininess adds to the character of the films. All six films feature 2.0 Dolby Digital Surround soundtracks (in addition to the 5.1 remasters for “Papillon”) . All sound crisp with nice clarity to the dialog and music.
“Bullitt” gets the most attention here. Featuring two aesthetic documentaries on the film and McQueen, we also obtain the fresh vintage featurette on the film. “The Cutting Edge” examines the the art of movie editing with a see into other films during the editing process as well. “Steve McQueen: The Essence of Cold” is a terrific biography on McQueen that provides a lot of information previously unknown about the actor. There’s also the recent theatrical trailer included as well. “The Getaway” features the current theatrical trailer only. “Papillon” has the unusual promotional featurette produced for the film as allotment of the extras as well as the trailer. “The Cincinnati Kid”, “Never So Few” and “Tom Horn” all have only the current theatrical trailer for the respective films. It’s a pity that Warner chose not to do a documentary or at the very least a featurette on “Tom Horn”. Since it’s about a staunch historical figure and making the film was a passion for McQueen, it would have been appropriate and provided remarkable needed information on the historical figure and the production of this stunning overlooked film.
“Bullitt” comes with an genuine commentary by director Peter Yates. “The Getaway” features a “virtual” commentary culled from interviews of McQueen, Peckinpah and McGraw as well as a commentary by Peckinpah biographers/documentarians Sever Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David Weddle. “The Cincinnati Kid” has a apt trivia filled commentary track by director Norman Jewison.
Between this release and “The Steve McQueen Collection”, McQueen fans will have most of his famous films. Although there are a few gems missing from these collections (due to contractual issues no doubt), most of the films here are among the best McQueen made. “The Getaway” and “Bullitt” receive most of the attention here with terrific commentary tracks and extras. “Papillon” probably could have feeble a face catch with a unique digital transfer and a commentary track by a film historian (or Dustin Hoffman) but it looks like we’ll have to wait for this minor classic to regain its due another time. The other missed opportunity in this beneficial station is the lack of extras for “Tom Horn” One of McQueen’s finest later films and a terrific western that presaged films like “The Unforgiven”, “Originate Range” and “Wyatt Earp”, it’s a perfect period share about the transition of the venerable west into civilization and those who were lost along the contrivance.
If anyone deserves a box station it’s Seve McQueen. The greatest of the Hollywood “Mans Man”. McQueen made some vast movies for Warner Brothers as he did for MGM before them, and we are lucky to collect the extraordinary Warner Brothers DVD treatment that they have bestowed on their new box dwelling.
While The Grand Speed is my personal popular McQueen film I am joyful to scrutinize BULLIT, and NEVER SO FEW in the same space. It’s exquisite comic seeing a movie not starring Steve McQueen in his box residence. Never so few was a staring vehicle for Frank Sinatra, but because of his scene stealing co-star Sinatra went on picture as calling NEVER SO FEW a McQueen film. It also had a big Director John Sturges who also made THE Stunning SEVEN, and THE Enormous Rush with McQueen.
PAPILLON, THE GETAWAY, THE CINCINATTI KID, and the very underated TOM HORN are also included in the awesome box region. I was not yet born when Steve McQueen passed away, but I can suppose you this, I have not been on the planet for more than twenty three years, but I can safely say that there has not been a actor/stuntman cooler than Steve McQueen.
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Last Life in the Universe Streaming
Monday, March 1st, 2010 |
Last Life in the Universe Streaming.
Movie Title: Last Life in the Universe Last Life in the Universe is available for streaming or downloading. |
Originally concieved as an excuse for four cinematic talents to combine forces and effect a film together (i.e. “to have some fun”), *Last Life in the Universe (Ruang rak noi nid mahasan) * has moved above and beyond its humble genesis to become an art-house watermark for the burgeoning Thai film industry, the heavenly result of multi-cultural synergistic craft. The first old-fashioned outing for writer/director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, *Last Life in the Universe* concerns itself with two disconnected spheres, slowly orbiting the other, seeking solace against the danger of the past.
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Kenji, a Japanese ex-pat living in Bangkok, spends his days working in a library, reading voraciously and constantly daydreaming about suicide. “They say death is relaxing,” he reflects in the beginning, “no pressure…no responsibilities.” Kenji makes several efforts to fulfill his daydreams, to no avail: either his obsessive-compulsive tendencies interfere (he cannot resist the buzzing of a doorbell, or the ring of a telephone), or else outside events interrupt, one of which brings him into contact with Noi, a wildfire Thai escort and the polar opposite of Kenji’s ultra-neat introvert. Due to circumstances which I will not stammer, the two demolish up at Noi’s stout, filthy house in the rural outskirts of Bangkok, haltingly communicating in Thai, Japanese and English, slowly overcoming the barriers of language and temperament to remove in a languid, touching relationship. In the background, risky elements initiate to emerge and threaten this tenuous connection; but Kenji and Noi, oblivious, continue to drift toward a hazily-imagined horizon of like and contentment.
Ace cinematographer Christopher Doyle (*Hero*) adds his usual smart touch, capturing the integral element of ~space~ within Noi and Kenji’s divergent domains, framing the characters so that all that unsaid speaks volumes. This is important to the film, in that, by the director’s bear admission, the script is “thin.” Definite clues as to the man beneath inscrutable, closed-mouthed Kenji are represented in this manner (a mere moment of revelation – physically – in turn exposes a tall deal of the ex-pat’s backstory), as is the development of the relationship trustworthy. Tadanobu Asano (*Ichi the Killer*) is almost unrecognizable as the stiff, emotionally-repressed Kenji, and Sinitta Boonyasak as Noi is simply a delight, playing well off Asano and exhibiting some staunch talent. Prolific ’shock n’ drang’ film-maestro Takashi Miike makes a brief cameo as a Yakuza, along with a couple of stock thugs (Yoji Tanaka and Sakichi Sato) who have graced any number of Nihon-noir flicks and even Quentin Tarantino’s *Kill Bill* metahomage.
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Others have remarked on the similarity of this film to *Lost in Translation*, and I obtain it enchanting that both were submitted to Cannes at the same time. Both films enjoy characters in transition-phase, struggling with language-confusion and inner trauma; both are slowly paced and scored to dreamy ambience. I judge *Last Light in the Universe* to be the better film, preferring the dissimilarity of Noi and Kenji to that of bored, unfriendly Westerns bouncing around the teflon glamour of Tokyo, sulking and sighing in the problem of their apathy; moreover, *Last Light* contains brief moments of violence, exploitation and surreal visual inspiration that startle the viewer from the languid mood of the pacing, giving the occasionally-cloudy atmosphere a much-needed grounding in reality.
DVD comes with an interview of Pen-Ek Ratanaruang about the making of the film, an insightful commentary track and photo gallery courtesy of Christopher Doyle, and trailers for several art-house flicks. Happily, the ambiguous, multi-interpretive nature of the ending is not spot in concrete by either Pen-Ek or Doyle. I am screech to consider on the parable of the lizard:
“…Without family, friends, even enemies…what was there to live for? ”
Kenji’s emergence from a soul-crushing despondency to retort this distinguished put a question to, be it ‘real’ or simply hopeful fantasy, is enough. Five Stars.
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s 2003 film, Last Life in the Universe, is an intelligently crafted drama of two polar opposites who meet under new circumstances. Kenji, Japanese, is living in Bangkok, and is a suicide-obsessed shapely freak librarian whose brother is a yakuza. The brother, played by none other than Mr. Intensity himself, prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike, comes to the librarian’s apartment to shroud out for a short time but while there, tragedy ensues and Kenji has to leave, snappily.
Noi, a native Thai (the director is Thai) is arguing with her younger sister in the middle of traffic. When they finish in the middle of a busy thoroughfare, yelling at each other, Noi telling her sister to leave, tragedy of a different kind occurs and Noi is left completely numb.
Noi, as it happens, is a total slob. When these two meet–both in their 20s–there’s a halting, push-pull serve and forth that is underscored by lack of familiarity with the other’s language. They utter to each other in hesitant English that gives their attempts at connecting to each other a worthy greater poignance and heartfelt feeling than if they’d been both Thai or both Japanese.
The subtlety of this connection is so sensitively created that it is a actual pleasure to discover this film, to observe two mismatched people try to converge emotionally. In one vivid scene, Noi lies with her head in Kenji’s lap and for a brief moment, we gawk not Noi lying there, but her younger sister, now gone.
Interestingly enough, this film was submitted to the Cannes Film Festival at the same time as Lost in Translation with similar thematic elements and is, in my view, a far better film. Unfortunately it did not bag anything. The director’s previous work, which has garnered strong praise from various sources, is, alas, not available domestically; it definitely should be.
UPDATE: Suited news! The comedy 6ixtyNin9 by the same director will be out domestically in January 2005.
A beautifully made film that should be seen by those tired of American cinematic cliches and want something current, new, and original.
Very highly recommended.
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