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2/24/05 - Mulan II: (Joel McNeely) --All New Review--
"There have been some truly terrible products coming out of the sequel
division at Walt Disney Pictures over the past eight or so years. The quality
of these sequels is so wretched that each one serves as proof that the studio
is about profit first and artistry second, draining every last dollar out of
any and every original idea that someone else at the studio has conjured in
the past. If only Disney would take this money in the sequel division and
pump it into fresh new feature films, then maybe the studio would achieve the
same quality and respect for its product that it received in the early
1990's. Let us not forget that Beauty and the Beast was nominated for
a best picture Oscar. In the string of modern, animated musical features,
Mulan came right at the end of Disney's dominance in the 1990's,
providing a strong Jerry Goldsmith score and popular Matthew Wilder songs
that officially ushered out the Alan Menken era. Most critics would argue to
some extent that it's been down the toilet for Disney's quality in the genre
ever since..." **** Read the entire
review.
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| 2/21/05 - Extreme Prejudice: (Jerry Goldsmith) --All New
Review-- "The name of director/producer Walter Hill is synonymous with gritty
action of the 1980's, born out of the stylistic genre created by Sam Peckinpah
decades earlier and revised for the era of honor exemplified by Rambo and a
rash of cops and western films along a similar vein at the time. Like many of the
films in this genre, Extreme Prejudice is largely forgotten today, its
stars faded and genre largely neglected. Its premise involves a good versus evil
battle of torn love and drug trade in a small Texas town on the Mexican border,
with the drug lord and Texas Ranger standing firm for their convictions until the
obligatory duel of Peckinpah proportions at the end of the film. Relying on the
building of suspense through brooding weight and occasional massive bloodshed,
Extreme Prejudice added a twist of modern military commandos to the
traditional Western setting, updating the genre for Rambo-friendly
audiences. Composer Jerry Goldsmith was, of course, no stranger to this genre..."
*** Read the entire
review.
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2/18/05 - Because of Winn-Dixie: (Rachel Portman) --All New
Review-- "It has been a few years since composer Rachel Portman returned
to the genre of sugar-coated innocence that helped her established her
hopelessly optimistic, upbeat styles in the 1990's. Perhaps a stereotypical
Portman project from the days of old is Because of Winn-Dixie, a
"child befriends dog" film based upon the Newberry Medal-winning children's
novel of the same name by Kate DiCamillo. In a nutshell, a 10-year-old girl
moves with her preacher father (feel-good film regular Jeff Daniels) to a
small Florida town where she doesn't know anyone until she adopts a dog (the
usual: big, old, ugly, stray) and uses her relationship with the animal to
gain acceptance with others in the town and repair her strained relationship
with her own father so that he can finally reveal why her mother ran away
long ago. It may seem like an "oh, jeez" kind of storyline --certainly movies
such as this have been made since the beginning to the industry-- but the
premise continues to sell...." *** Read the entire
review.
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2/15/05 - Man on Fire: (Harry Gregson-Williams) --All New
Review-- "A remake of the 1987 Elie Chouraqui film of the same name,
2004's Man on Fire places Denzel Washington in the role previously
occupied by Scott Glenn. In the most recent of a string of tense crime and
action thrillers, director Tony Scott updates Man on Fire with all the
sensibilities of Bruckheimer-style illogic and a super-artsy, often-blurred
cinematography that will hopefully someday soon be banned from Hollywood. If
you enjoy seeing Washington's enflamed nostrils in close-ups, then Man on
Fire was likely entertaining for you; it fared well at the box office,
partly due to the fantastic performances by the lead actors, and spurred
considerable interest in Harry Gregson-Williams' score. Fitting a similar
mold as other Gregson-Williams' collaborations with Scott, Man on Fire
has all the edgy, modern urban atmospheres that lead naturally to the
rougher, more synthesized angle of Media Ventures projects of the recent
past...." ** Read the entire
review.
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2/11/05 - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: (Jon Brion) "By now,
you
have very likely heard the many praise-filled reviews of Michel
Gondry and Charlie Kaufman's 2004 masterpiece, Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind, and its thought-provoking premise: If you could
permanently erase all memories of one person from your mind, would you do
it? However, for those unfortunate enough to have missed viewing this
splendid film, I will quickly rehash the basic details. The two-hour picture
follows the life of the very introverted Joel Barrish (Jim Carrey) and his
very extroverted girlfriend Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) who have
just hit the abrupt end of a long relationship due to the fact that
Clementine has undergone a procedure at the Lacuna Corporation. Lacuna, as
Joel soon discovers, offers people the ability to literally delete a person
of their choice from their memory. After Clementine suddenly treats him as
a stranger and acquires a new boyfriend, Joel then decides that he cannot
continue living in his current state of misery..." **** Read the entire
donated review.
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2/8/05 - A Very Long Engagement: (Angelo Badalamenti) --All
New Review-- "With critical praise across the world, A Very Long
Engagement is the film adaptation of the Sebastien Japrisot novel about
love lost during the height of the first World War. The film reunites
director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and lead actress Audrey Tatou from 2001's
Amelie and tells the sweeping tale of a young woman who distrusts her
government's insistence that her fiancee was court martialed and sent to the
front lines of the war for what would likely be certain death. She launches
herself on her own lengthy investigation, allowing the audience to live
through the trauma of loss with her, and the film's main appeal exists in the
scenery that contributed to the film's sizable budget. An arthouse film at
its finest, recognition of the merits of A Very Long Engagement have
extended to experimental composer Angelo Badalamenti's score for the project.
Badalamenti is best known for his collaboration with director David Lynch..."
*** Read the entire
review.
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2/5/05 - Assault on Precinct 13: (Graeme Revell) --All New
Review-- "It's not unusual for John Carpenter's original ideas to be
remade and adapted into modern projects, and Assault on Precinct 13 is
Jean-Francois Richet's attempt to better the formula presented in Capenter's
1976 suspense film of the same name. While the original cult classic built
itself on tension and fear, the modern remake has all the fingerprints of
culture clashes and Hollywood cliches. That didn't stop the new Assault on
Precinct 13 from receiving moderately reasonable critical reviews despite
a mad flurry of exposed plot holes, scene contradictions, and ludicrous
characterizations. These are, after all, the types of movies in which you
expect to see Brian Dennehy and Gabriel Byrne play their stereotypical roles,
but you still wish you'd see them somewhere else. With its unrealistic and
outlandish premise granted, composer Graeme Revell goes about his business as
usual, visiting familiar territory of the action/siege drama. Revell seems to
have a good knack..." ** Read the entire
review.
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2/2/05 - Earthsea: (Jeff Rona) --All New Review--
"Attempting to continue drawing on the massive popularity of recent
television hits in the fantasy genre such as Children of Dune and
The Mists of Avalon, Hallmark Entertainment and the Sci-Fi Channel
bring Ursula K. Le Guin's world of Earthsea to the small screen. Known
alternatively as The Legend of Earthsea, the magical, medieval fantasy
universe created by Le Guin is comparable in its wizardry and sorcery to
J.R.R. Tolkien's lengthier Lord of the Rings tales. The basic premise
involves a young, talented, but immature wizard who must do everything from
control his own powers to reunite humanity and bring world peace. The plot is
familiar to fantasy veterans, as are the creatures, locations, and
characters. With material taken from the first two books of Le Guin's classic
series, the four-hour Hallmark/Sci-Fi Channel production is ambitious in the
amount of material it attempts to squeeze into the series, and still omits
plotlines that might disappoint fans of the books...." ** Read the entire
review.
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