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11/29/05 - Serenity: (David Newman) --All New Review-- "When at first you
don't succeed, try, try again, and hopefully the big screen will afford you the success that
witless television studio executives failed to allow
you in their own venue. Such is the story with writer and director Joss Whedon, who was buoyed
by his success of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer on television after it was thrashed in its
initial big screen debut. This time, the equation is thrown the other way around, with Whedon
having created the science fiction action series Firefly for television only to see it
cancelled before the end of its first season (and, to make matters even worse, having the few
episodes made shown out of sequence by the network). Luckily for Whedon, his success on
Buffy (and the subsequent Angel) would give him the opportunity for Universal
Studios to finance a big-screen film based on Firefly. Renamed Serenity, but
retaining most of the cast and concepts..." ** Read the entire review.
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11/27/05 - The Dukes of Hazzard: (Nathan Barr) --All New
Review-- "You really have to wonder how such terrible films like this can
actually turn immensely huge profits. It's frightening to think what people in India
think of America and its inhabitants when this film plays overseas ("these
people currently rule the earth?"), and it's almost as frightful to think what
American city-dwelling liberals with college educations think about it either
("these people still exist?"). Based on the the popular television show of
the same name from 1979 through 1985, The Dukes of Hazzard is about two
cousins who run a moonshine business and another one who waitresses in a bar, all of
which happens in the backroads of Georgia. The whole point of The Dukes of
Hazzard was to exhibit "General Lee," a 1969 Dodge Charger with the Confederate
flag painted on the roof. It flies over ditches, rivers, and ravines, outruns angry
semi-truck drivers, and eludes police in every mind-boggling fashion..." *** Read the entire
review.
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11/25/05 - A History of Violence: (Howard Shore) --All New Review-- "The
collaboration between director David Cronenberg and composer Howard Shore has now spanned four
decades and has surprisingly outlasted Shore's pairing with Lord of the Rings' Peter
Jackson, whose role in the firing of Shore from King Kong in late 2005 is murky at
best. Cronenberg, meanwhile, continues along a familiar path with nearly every film he
directs. Often dark, pervasively glum character stories, Cronenberg's works are profound but
unpleasant, and while A History of Violence falls under the same general category, it
makes some steps in new directions. There is still brutal violence, graphic sexuality, nudity,
foul language, drug use, and Ed Harris' creepy, deformed face. Being a film about dual
personalities, it's no surprise that one of the primary lifestyles of the film's primary
character (Viggo Mortensen) is that of a former criminal in the big city. The odd aspect of
this film is that his new, reformed life is an escape to rural Indiana..." *** Read the entire review.
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11/23/05 - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: (John Ottman) --All New Review-- "It's
hard to describe movies in which the creation of the screenplay actually becomes part of the
story on screen, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is one such entry. Existing in the private eye
genre and borrowing from the works of
Raymond Chandler, the film is a comedic parody that doesn't necessarily want to make sense;
writer Shane Black, known for his sometimes suspect writing for three of the Lethal
Weapon films as well as The Long Kiss Goodnight and The Last Action Hero,
directs for the first time and tells the story of this film through his primary character's
narration. As as conman who moves to Los Angeles to take private eye lessons from a gay
detective, solve a murder mystery, and try to win over an old flame, the characters inevitably
define the
nonsensical plot by simply paying tribute to guns and women (hence, the title of the movie).
Whether the film was meant to make sense or not, its off-the-wall humor is a perfect match for
the similarly weird humor of composer John Ottman, who by his own confession..." *** Read the
entire review.
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11/21/05 - March of the Penguins: (Alex Wurman) --All New Review-- "Not
the first and probably not the last documentary made about the yearly cycle of life for a
penguin, French filmmaker Luc Jacquet's March of the Penguins was originally released
in his own country with a quirky electronic score by Emilie Simon. Picked up for a major
theatrical release in the United Stated, it features the narration of Morgan Freeman and a new
score by Media Ventures product Alex Wurman. With word of mouth publicity that eventually
spilled over into major network news, March of the Penguins became the second-highest
grossing documentary of all time in America and was still raking in theatrical profits six
months after its release. While the quality of the film is very strong, humanity's fascination
with the cute and cuddly penguins persists (even when we see some of those old National
Geographic shows when hundreds of them slide down giant ice mountains over cliffs... sometimes
to their deaths, and people still seem to love it)...." *** Read the entire review.
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11/19/05 - Fantastic Four: (John Ottman) --All New Review-- "The rights
to put the oldest Marvel comics superhero franchise on the big screen have taken a long and
rocky road to reach 2005, when director Tim Story finally puts Jack Kirby and Stan Lee's
original 1961 characters on film. A group of scientists goes up into space to study an
approaching anomaly but are accidentally exposed to its mysterious energy. Fittingly, each of
the four heroes receives a different superpower (it wouldn't have been as fun if they could
all just only turn a shoe into a bottle of beer, would it?), as does the evil guy who used to
be their colleague, so it's up to the four heroes to do their duties for national security
and, of course, the usual fire truck falling off a bridge scenario. The only problem with this
picture is that the adaptation to the big screen for Mr. Fantastic and his gang is extremely
poorly written, with disappointing action scenarios, extremely loose logical jumps, and little
genuine
emotion and intrigue applied to the self-discoveries of the mutated scientists. In a summer
that featured an exceptionally strong Batman entry..." ***
Read the entire
review.
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11/17/05 - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: (Danny Elfman) --All
New Review-- "Despite Tim Burton's best intentions to once again enter the
imaginative world of a child, the release of his remake of the famous Roald Dahl
book happened to coincide with the spotlight of Michael Jackson's 2005 child
molestation court case. And, of course, it doesn't help that Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory is about a reclusive adult who creates a neverland (in the
form of a chocolate factory), invites select kids into his playground, and, oh
yeah, seems to have the same wardrobe designer and make-up artist as Michael
Jackson himself. Nearly everything about Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory was a success, including the faithful adaptation of the book and the
spectacular visuals, and the
film steamrolled to tasty financial delights for the studio. But then there was
Johnny Depp, so suspiciously similar to Michael Jackson in appearance, mannerism,
and setting... No matter how many times he and Burton assured audiences that his
Willy Wonka was only coincidentally similar to Jackson..." *** Read the entire
review.
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11/15/05 - Pride & Prejudice: (Dario Marianelli) --All New Review-- "As
both time and technology continue to barrel forward, it seems to take more and more talent to
do justice to the writings of Jane Austen in their screen adaptations. With her stories
already made for the big screen in most cases, it's even more difficult to both capture the
spirit of Austen's novels and do so in a fashion that doesn't step on the feet of previous
adaptations while performing that delicate dance. In the case of Pride & Prejudice,
it's hard not to forget the BBC adaptation from as recently as the 1990's, not to mention the
renaissance of Austen's work that hit the big screens with much critical success at about the
same time. The newest adaptation by Joe Wright, casting an unexpected group of youth in the
lead roles and peppering bit roles with established actors, has been met with considerable
critical and popular praise, infusing the story with fresh blood while maintaining all the
necessary authenticity required of the story. In the age of institutional marriage in 18th
Century England..." *** Read the entire review.
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11/13/05 - Corpse Bride: (Danny Elfman) --All New Review-- "There must be
some kind
of mental condition that describes the specific derangement that director Tim Burton suffers
that causes
him to be so fascinated with graceful portrayals of death and stark realities. His stop motion
animated
film The Nightmare Before Christmas, considered an anomaly at the time, turned out to
not only be a
rare singularity in modern film, but also a mass cult favorite. Its catering to both the
morbid symbols of
the underworld and boundlessly hopeful worlds of different holidays combined with Danny
Elfman's popular
musical numbers to create, at the very least, a very memorable piece of entertainment. Despite
the great
following that The Nightmare Before Christmas has continued to build, it took Burton
and Elfman a
dozen years before resurrecting the same stop motion/musical formula. While it's by no
means a sequel to the previous hit, the common treatment of macabre underworld elements, as
well as its
existence in various shades of gray, along with Elfman's similarly conceived musical ideas..."
*** Read
the entire
review.
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11/10/05 - SpaceCamp: (John Williams) --Expanded Review-- "When anybody
in the summer of 1986 thought about NASA and the American space shuttles, their memories would
become fixed on the sight of the Challenger exploding tragically against a blue sky on a crisp
morning earlier that year. And yet, in an incredibly bad stroke of luck, the National
Aeronautics and Space
Administration was just finishing up its collaboration with ABC Motion Pictures to release
SpaceCamp, a comedy thriller about a bunch of bratty kids who are accidentally shot up
into space aboard a real shuttle. The real life summer camp teaches bright young kids
everything about flying a shuttle (supposedly this camp really existed) and claims that the
best of the lot could actually do it. The film spends over an hour trudging through endlessly
boring and predictable character conversations between the kids. Kate Capshaw is the
unfortunate leader of this group of twits, and she gets propelled into space along with the
group when a robot conveniently launches them unexpectedly. Anybody who believes that NASA
would actually allow a group of these kids into a shuttle..." ***
Read the entire review.
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11/6/05 - The Accidental Tourist: (John Williams) --Expanded Review-- "A
film about both depression and laughter, The Accidental Tourist reunited director
Lawrence Kasdan with actors William Hurt and Kathleen Turner. Having established themselves in
Body Heat several years earlier, they turned their attention to this adaptation of Anne
Tyler's novel. Hurt's character writes travel books for people afraid of traveling, and upon
his
son's death, he falls into a hopeless depression that causes his wife, Turner, to leave him.
Through his dog, the only connection he has to the outside world is the quirky Geena Davis,
who he meets at a kennel. Davis begins the task of bringing the author back to life, and she
manages to slowly accomplish this through humor and determination. The Accidental
Tourist certainly dwells in the lengthy scenes of Hurt's character's loneliness, and much
of John Williams' score for the film mirrors that introverted reflection. But the integration
of the humor into the story, as well as Kasdan's ability to make the characters likeable even
through their troubles..." ** Read the entire
review.
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11/3/05 - Stanley & Iris: (John Williams) --Expanded Review-- "Nuzzled in
between composer John Williams' lofty and adventuresome scores of 1989 and 1990 was Stanley
& Iris. It was one of Williams' relief efforts from his fully orchestral exercises in
bombast that he would take once every two or three years. Unfortunately, his respite in the
soft warmth of light character drama would not contribute any success to the film itself.
Slammed by critics left and right, Stanley & Iris lost the interest of audiences
almost immediately. With a screenplay written by husband-and-wife team Irving Ravetch and
Harriet Frank Jr., and directed by Martin Ritt, the film reunited the team that brought
Norma Rae and, more recently, Murphy's Romance to the big screen. The purpose
of the film was to make a statement about illiteracy, with Jane Fonda as a working class
widow attempting to befriend and teach Robert DeNiro, a working class illiterate, how to read
and write. With a stock supporting cast of actors typecast from previous films
(Moonstruck, Parenthood, etc)..." ** Read
the entire review.
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