Heaven Can Wait review
June 16, 2010
Heaven Can Respite (1943)
: Comedy, Dramatics, Fantasy, Romance
: 1 hr. 52 min.
: Charles Coburn, Don Ameche, Gene Tierney, Laird Cregar, Marjorie First,
: Ernst Lubitsch
: Ernst Lubitsch
: 20th Century Fox
Release Antiquated
: August 11, 1943
Writer
: Leslie Bush-Fekete, Samson Raphaelson
Lassie (2006)
June 14, 2010
When on the day of WWII in a Yorkshire town, the local coal fund closes and Sam Carraclough (John Lynch) is out of hassle, his young ancestry falls on hard times. They are studied to sales-clerk Lassie (Lassie), their beloved dog, to the Duke of Rudling (Peter O’Toole), much to the chagrin of their young son Joe (Jonathan Mason). Lassie never stops bothersome to return home to the people he knows, trusts and loves, not notwithstanding when he finds herself transported five hundred miles away to the Duke’s God-forsaken castle on the northern coast of Scotland. Relieve determined to return to her home, she manages to outmanoeuvre the Duke’s nasty kennelman Eddie Hynes (Steve Pemberton) and sets off South, pronouncement danger and adventure on the in the capacity of, including a sobering battle with a traveling entertainer (Peter Dinklage) and his dog.
American Pie review
June 12, 2010
It’s easy to descend from the impression that American Pie is yet another ‘gross out’ film (in the vein of There’s Something Back Mary), markedly considering one of the key scenes involves a main peculiarity having sex with an apple pie. But American Pie isn’t just another gross-out comedy, it is a fun and entertaining tour under the aegis tardy adolencense, and it makes stable everyone’s along for the trip
One of the things I really liked about American Pie is the fact that the actors and directors didn’t take this movie to seriously. American Pie is fun and the key motivation for much of the film is to have fun. Rather than stringing together a series of gags, American Pie ensures you’re in on all the jokes and makes the investment in its characters and story so you care what happens. American Pie is filled with some great humor, some of it is laugh out loud and much of it catches you off guard and twists around your perceptions.
Although I liked the movie, my feelings were mixed about the unrated version of the DVD. By releasing American Pie in both a rated and unrated version I had expected the unrated version to contain all the scenes which were cut to get the R-rating from the MPAA. This is unfortunately not the case and some of the cuts for the R-rating are still cut from the unrated version.
My real disappointment comes not necessarily from the fact that the Unrated version wasn’t uncut, but from the fact that there wasn’t anything on the DVD that discussed the cuts, the process with the MPAA and what creative decisions were made as a result. DVD provides such a rich medium to communicate this kind of thing, and the absence of it was very noticeable.
I guarantee, at the end of watching this unrated version of American Pie, you’ll be asking yourself what scenes where added back in and there are little answers on the DVD.
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Aside from the whole ratings issue, I was slightly disappointed in the image quality of the DVD. Universal typically puts out really great DVD’s and so the fact that the picture was a little dark and overly black was unexpected (Since I didn’t see the film in the theaters it’s hard to compare to the original). The pictures still looks good, just a little dark. The sound on the DVD is pretty good, although the soundtrack doesn’t do much to take advantage of Dolby Digital.
On the extras front the American Pie DVD is packed with goodies. I particularly liked the audio commentary on this DVD which did a great job of providing insight into the making of the film and the origin of many key moments. The directors were also happy to point out areas in the film where they made mistakes, something good to see from first time directors. In addition to the audio commentary there are some great outtakes, a behind the scenes documentary, a music video from Tonic, two trailers for upcoming Universal Pictures: Man in the Moon and Snow Falling on Cedars, and an area to jump to scenes in the film based on memorable quotes or songs from the soundtrack.
I would recommend the American Pie DVD, with the understanding that more could have been done with the unrated version, with that said American Pie a fun and entertaining DVD with lots of great extras worth picking up. The makers/bakers of American Pie make no bones about it- American Pie chronicles what it’s like to be a teenager, and being a teenanger is R-rated. In this unrated version of American Pie you’d expect to get an unedited look at this filmwe are given the mostly unedited look at the ackword and destinct time that surrounds the passage into adulthood and having sex for the first time. I say mostly unedited because even though the unrated version of this DVD contains scenes cut to satisfy the MPAA for an R-rating, it does not contain everything that was cut which is quite unfortunate.
After watching this DVD you’ll find yourslef trying to figure out what makes this film anything but an R-rated teen flick.
As far as the movie goes, American Pie is an off beat teen flick which does a great job of capturing the massive insecurites that most teenagers feel. It does a great job of showing
The Walker (2007)
June 9, 2010
To the cynical outsider or compulsive cable news viewer, it would seem as though our nation’s capital is fueled by a sinister blend of sex, greed and scandal. Writer/director Paul Schrader (of Taxi Driver and Affliction fame; his searing Mishima gets the Criterion treatment later this summer) seems to think so, particularly in light of his elegant drama The Walker, which spins a chilly tale involving all three elements. He’s aided in the telling by Woody Harrelson, arguably one of the most underrated character actors of his generation, who turns in an exceptional performance as Carter Page III, a man whose world is shaken and shattered by story’s end.
A “walker,” as the film explains, is a ne’er-do-well who functions as a companion to idly rich women and wives of Beltway insiders. Carter Page III (Harrelson) is a well-connected Washington insider, with familial and political ties going back decades. There isn’t a secret whispered in town that Carter doesn’t know about sooner or later. His circle of close friends — Abby (Lily Tomlin), Natalie (Lauren Bacall) and Lynn (Kristin Scott Thomas) — meets regularly at the Hargrave Hotel to play canasta and gossip wickedly. But when the dead body of a lobbyist turns up and Lynn becomes involved, Carter takes it upon himself to protect his friend and, more importantly, her senator husband Larry Lockner (Willem Dafoe).
It isn’t long before the tale twists its way deep into the halls of power, revealing to Carter the limits of friendship but also its fickle nature — as he probes the lobbyist’s mysterious death, he learns about himself, his family’s standing and just how easy it can be to end the illusion of power. Schrader deftly weaves commentary on the current state of affairs amid all of the drama, doing so without slowing down his story or overtly calling attention to it. (It’s no accident that Carter’s boyfriend, Emek — played by Moritz Bleibtreu — is an artist working on images of Abu Ghraib abuses.) By rooting The Walker in the current political climate, the tale has an extra bite to it, a dash of zest that makes the events that much more compelling.
While the film came and went at the box office with relatively little fanfare, it’s a work that will no doubt find an audience on DVD, thanks in part to Schrader’s efficient, downbeat tale, but also a stellar cast: Aside from Harrelson’s note-perfect work — the role of a gay man about town could’ve easily slipped into caricature, but Harrelson never does — there’s the whopping trifecta of Bacall, Tomlin and Scott Thomas, as all three women turn in reliably superb performances. Bleibtreu (perhaps best remembered from Run Lola Run) and Ned Beatty also shine.
The Walker is, at its core, a deeply jaded character study — examining a man whose entire life seems to be a facade masking his true wishes and desires — mixed with a whodunit murder mystery. In the making-of featurette, Schrader alludes to this film being the conclusion of a loose trilogy, with the first two films being Taxi Driver and American Gigolo; in that context, the film becomes even richer. As Schrader peels the layers from his characters, you become less concerned about who ultimately has the blood on their hands and more fascinated by the lengths to which these men and women will go to maintain a semblance of control. It’s a subtle masterpiece and one of 2007’s most overlooked films.
“Enjoyable but flat B film en…
June 7, 2010
in the short-lived I Love a Mystery series.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Henry Levin (”Where the Boys Are”/”Genghis Khan”/”Journey to the
Center of the Earth”) directs this enjoyable but flat B film entry in the
short-lived I Love a Mystery series (only three films) that was based on
a popular radio show. The shrunken head murder mystery tale with occult
pretensions has some genuinely spooky moments even though the story is
far-fetched, the killer is too easy to spot and the characters are cartoonish
chowderheads that make it hard to sympathize with any of them.
A transport plane that’s bound for South America crashes and the
police find an unidentified shrunken head in the wreckage. San Francisco
police department’s Capt. Quinn (Thomas Jackson) checks with the local
museum to see if any of its five piece shrunken head collection is missing
and the curator Halliday (Richard Hale) tells them none are missing but
that the recovered shrunken head is similar to the ones in his collection.
The Indian head hunters no longer do shrunken heads, so this leaves the
lawmen scratching their heads over whose head was shrunk. Also at the museum
are private detectives Jack Packard (Jim Bannon) and his partner Doc Long
(Barton Yarborough), who are waiting to meet a new client–Louise Mitchell
(Mona Barrie)–and to find out what she wants from them. She’s the wife
of Quentin, former director of the museum, who is missing in the S. A.
jungle after going on an expedition there with his wife and best friend
Arthur Logan (Frank Wilcox). She asks the detectives to find out what happened
to her hubby and to protect her from her accusatory stepdaughter.
Janet Mitchell (Anita Louise), Quentin’s daughter and Louise’s stepdaughter,
suspects foul play, saying dad knew the jungle too well to get lost. She
suspects her stepmom and former lover Arthur of killing her dad so they
can resume their romance after Louise inherits the estate. Since Janet
can’t prove it, she has her shady boyfriend Rex Kennedy (Michael Duane)
tail Louise. This frightens Louise, because she thinks Janet wants her
killed.
Janet and Rex visit the workplace of Janet’s friendly Uncle Hartman,
an eccentric taxidermist who knows how to shrink heads Indian style and
keeps a ferocious pet panther caged among the stuffed animals on display.
After Packard investigates Rex and discovers he’s a gambler and con artist,
Janet begins to have some doubts about him and turns for help to Uncle
Hartman.
One evening Arthur shows the detectives slides of the expedition
where everyone seems happy, but an unseen assailant fires a blow gun at
him through the window but misses and while escaping kills the butler,
who recognizes him, with a poison dart from the blow gun.
Things eventually work themselves out as they usually do in these
Charlie Chan type of detective stories, and this atmospheric horror/mystery
tale winds down in an uncomfortably pat way.
Hell’s Island (1955)
June 6, 2010
Paramount. Dir Phil Karlson; Producer William H. Pine, William C. Thomas; Screenplay Maxwell Shane; Camera Lionel Lindon; Writer Archie Marshek; Music Irvin Talbot (sup.) Art Dir Hal Pereira, Al Roelofs
John Payne
Mary Murphy
Francis L. Sullivan
Eduardo Noriega
Arnold Moss
Walter Reed
Screenplay [from a story by Martin Goldsmith and Jack Leonard] unfolds in the Caribbean mooring of Puerto Rosario, where the adventuring twirls far the search for a missing ruby. Phil Karlson gives narrative a hard glossing in his direction, occasionally letting down his walk but non-specifically delivering a briskly-told cock-and-bull story in which predisposed to players lend realism to colorful characters.
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Mike Cormack (John Payne) is handed the assignment of finding the valuable jewel after it disappears following an attempt to smuggle it out of Puerto Rosario. Barzland (Francis L. Sullivan), a ruthless paralytic, selects him because he once was engaged to the flyer's wife (Mary Murphy), who jilted him. Main events disclose the femme actually is the heavy in the case.
Payne socks over a hard-hitting role in excellent fashion, and Murphy takes on her first heavy role very competently. A top supporting cast is well fulfilled by Sullivan; Walter Reed, as his triggerman; Arnold Moss, seeking to help the heroine but murdered by her; Paul Picerni, her husband; and Eduardo Noriega, police inspector who helps Payne.
(Color) Extract of a review from 1955. Running time: 79 MIN.
The Condemned review
June 4, 2010
Movie Rehashing:
The Condemned
'The Condemned' improperly executed
It would be churlish to dismiss The Condemned as inhuman crap. It is, in fact, badly made mean crap.
Shampoo review
June 3, 2010
Shampoo is a racy, star-studded bedroom farce firm in the decadent, sexually liberated Los Angeles of the late 1960s. Written by Academy Award® winner Warren Beatty (1982 Excellent Director, REDS) and Robert Towne (CHINATOWN) and directed by Hal Ashby (BEING THERE), the film was nominated for four Academy Awards® and has been chosen as one of the American Film Institute’s 100 Funniest Movies. George is one of L.A.’s most desirable men, a Beverly Hills hairdresser who makes all his clients look and feel better than ever. Encouraged by his girlfriend Jill (Goldie Hawn) to unseal his own salon, George approaches cautious businessman Lester (Jack Warden) object of financing. Unbeknownst to Lester, George is sleeping with his partner (Lee Grant), his mistress (Julie Christie) and his teenage daughter (Carrie Fisher). Can George resist temptation and settle down with Jill or last will and testament he become late c discover tangled up in unbroken more calumnious affairs?
Private Fears in Public Places (2007)
June 1, 2010
Private Fears in Public Places: Drama. Starring Sabine Azéma, Isabella
Carré, Pierre Arditi and André Dussollier. Directed by Alain Resnais. (In
French, with English subtitles. Not rated. 120 minutes. At Bay
Area theaters.)
Paris is blanketed in snow in the episodic French drama “Private Fears in
Public Places.” Falling white flakes are visible from windows in private
places where a half dozen lovelorn Parisians take pathetic stabs at romance,
seeking warmth from a chill only peripherally weather-related.
In a whimsical visual touch, every now and then it appears to be snowing
indoors as well. Tiny ice crystals, looking like fairy dust, pile up on a
dining room table where two older single people sit feebly attempting to
connect.
“Private Fears in Public Places” would have benefited from more such
cinematic moments to help you forget its origins as a play. Seemingly, Alain
Resnais would be just the director to conjure them up. He became famous almost
a half century ago for his startlingly original vision in “Hiroshima mom
amour” and “Last Year at Marienbad,” in which dazed hotel guests wander
through corridors that seem as if they might never end. His latest work,
however, isn’t merely snowbound; it’s also regrettably stage-bound.
Almost all the awkward encounters take place in rooms hardly larger than a
stage. “Private Fears” suffers from Resnais’ inability to open it up and give
it the look and pulse of a film. Each scene unfolds like a set piece, so that
instead of flowing, the action continually starts and stops. Aside from
glimpses of Paris, frustrating in their brevity, you could be watching
legitimate theater.
Fortunately, “Private Fears in Public Places” is based on a witty play by
Alan Ayckbourn, Britain’s master of dark comedy, and acted by an energetic
international cast that brings the quirky characters to life.
Quirkiest of all is Charlotte (Sabine Azéma), a devoutly religious
assistant in a real estate office. Azéma’s round face and forced cheerfulness
radiate piety. But Charlotte reveals another side when she presents her boss
(André Dussollier, marvelously droll) with a tape ostensibly of a spiritually
uplifting TV show. Fast forwarding, he gets a lift he hadn’t expected — a
woman clad in a bra, lacy panties and garter belt erotically prancing about.
Even photographed from the neck down, you can tell it is Charlotte. Although a
Frenchman (Jean-Michel Ribes) adapted the play, the peccadilloes remain
distinctly British.
Isabelle Carré is heartbreaking as a lonely heart waiting in cafes wearing
a red flower to identify herself to men whose personal ads she’s responded to.
Carré looks increasingly crestfallen as it becomes obvious that she’s been
stood up. By casting such a lovely actress in this sad sack of a role, Resnais
seems to be emphasizing the odds of anyone finding a mate in a big anonymous
city. Pierre Arditi is another standout as a hotel bartender who watches
bruised singles mingle and has his own secret desires, which come to the fore
when Charlotte becomes a caretaker for his ailing father. There’s an
unforgettable scene of her, um, unusual way of ministering to the sick.
As expected from Ayckbourn (another of whose work Resnais brought to the
screen in “Smoking/No Smoking” in 1993), the writing is literate, crisp and
pithy. Walking into the hotel bar on a Tuesday night, a customer ponders why it
should be empty. Monday he could understand. But by the following day, it’s
time to get on with your life.
“Private Fears in Public Places” is about people desperately trying to
get on with their lives against great odds. It has far more to say on the
subject than a typical Hollywood romance. Too bad Resnais wasn’t able to shape
the material into something that feels closer to a film than a play.
– Advisory: Sexual references and language.
E-mail Ruthe Stein at rstein@sfchronicle.com.
In the Mood for Love (2001)
May 30, 2010
Your control to the dog days - music, movies, dining deals and a few new tricks
This summer let Caliente be your guide for the hottest in music, movies, food, skygazing and much, much more.
May 27, 2010 | 12:00 am
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Veracruz is the home of Mexico's oldest, must diverse music form
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Ask most any person outside of Mexico what that country's best known musical style is and the answer inevitably will be mariachi. Understandably since mariachi is Mexico's most popular musical export. But there's another musical genre from Mexico. It's the son jarocho from the east coast Mex…
May 27, 2010 | 12:00 am
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Disney event provides respite repayment for serious Gyllenhaal
What's a dedicated thespian doing in sixth-century armor, leaping walled citadels in a $150 million Walt Disney sword-and-sandals saga adapted from a video game? "It's definitely a different type of movie than I've made before," says Jake Gyllenhaal, star of "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time."
May 27, 2010 | 12:00 am
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Here's our challenge: Over the next 100 days, try something new each week. Learn to use your cell phone or iPad. Turn off the TV for a day and write your best friend a letter - you know, on stationery with a stamp and envelope. We'll suggest something new each week to help you make the most …
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Company introducing spicy shitoh for Tucson Meet Yourself contest
The first aromas were gentle as Peter Hiadzi prepared kpakpo shitoh at home last weekend. Then the sweet smell of onions caramelizing gave way to a spicy smokiness after he added a touch of shitoh. A few moments later it felt like a can of pepper spray had gone off somewhere in his house.
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