Ending the most popular film epic in history, <I>Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith</I> is an exciting, uneven,...
(04/19/06) Ending the most popular film epic in history, <I>Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith</I> is an exciting, uneven, but ultimately satisfying journey. Picking up the action from <I>Episode II, Attack of the Clones</I> as well as the animated <I>Clone Wars</I> series, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his apprentice, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), pursue General Grievous into space after the droid kidnapped Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). <table align=left cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0"> <tr><td align="center"> <img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/video/stills/star-wars/sw3-famtree.m.jpg" border=0 align=top> <br> <span class="tiny">The <i>Star Wars</i> Family Tree (click for larger image) </span> </td></tr> </table> It's just the latest maneuver in the ongoing Clone Wars between the Republic and the Separatist forces led by former Jedi turned Sith Lord Count Dooku (Christopher Lee). On another front, Master Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz)...See less
available at amazon.com
<i>Batman Begins</i> discards the previous four films in the series and recasts the Caped Crusader as a fearsome...
(04/19/06) <i>Batman Begins</i> discards the previous four films in the series and recasts the Caped Crusader as a fearsome avenging angel. That's good news, because the series, which had gotten off to a rousing start under Tim Burton, had gradually dissolved into self-parody by 1997's <i>Batman & Robin</i>. As the title implies, <i>Batman Begins</i> tells the story anew, when Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) flees Western civilization following the murder of his parents. He is taken in by a mysterious instructor named Ducard (Liam Neeson in another mentor role) and urged to become a ninja in the League of Shadows, but he instead returns to his native Gotham City resolved to end the mob rule that is strangling it. But are there forces even more sinister at hand? <p> Co-written by the team of David S. Goyer (a veteran comic book writer) and director Christopher Nolan (<i>Memento</i>), <i>Batman Begins</i> is a welcome return to the grim and gritty version of the Dark Knight, owing a great debt to the...See less
Deservedly hailed as one of the best films of 2001, <I>Wit</I> makes it clear why top-ranking talents seek refuge in the...
(04/19/06) Deservedly hailed as one of the best films of 2001, <I>Wit</I> makes it clear why top-ranking talents seek refuge in the quality programming of HBO. Unhindered by box-office pressures, director Mike Nichols and Emma Thompson turn the most unglamorous topic--the physical and psychological ravages of cancer--into an exquisite contemplation of life, learning, and tenacious, richly expressed humanity. In adapting Margaret Edson's compassionate, Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Nichols and Thompson open up the one-room setting with a superb supporting cast. But their focus remains on the hospital experience of Vivian (Thompson), a fiercely demanding professor of English literature whose academic specialty--the metaphysical poetry of John Donne--is the armor she wears against the cruel indignities of her cancer treatment. While losing all that she held dear, she reassesses her life as an aloof intellectual, and <I>Wit</I> illuminates her bracingly eloquent and deeply moving struggle for dignity,...See less
This reissue of the second release in a series of DVD anthologies of short films, like its fellow <I>Short</I> titles,...
(04/19/06) This reissue of the second release in a series of DVD anthologies of short films, like its fellow <I>Short</I> titles, is loosely organized around a common theme--in this case, the terrain of the subconscious. The big fish here is Chris Marker's 1962 classic, <I>La Jetée</I>, the forever- haunting, post-apocalyptic story of a man's descent into a time-tripping dream state, where his origins and destiny fold together in one fleeting moment at an airport. If that scenario sounds somewhat similar to a certain Terry Gilliam feature (oh, OK, it's <I>12 Monkeys</I>), you're right, and Gilliam can be heard on an alternate soundtrack here talking about the challenge and fun of being "inspired by" Marker's film. (Yet another alternate soundtrack features commentary by <I>12 Monkeys</I> screenwriters David and Janet Peoples.) Not surprisingly, <I>La Jetée</I> turns out to be a hard act to follow, and there's not much on <I>Short 2</I> that even comes close to its league. Alison De...See less
Twisty brilliance from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze, the team who created <I>Being John...
(04/19/06) Twisty brilliance from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze, the team who created <I>Being John Malkovich</I>. Nicolas Cage returns to form with a funny, sad, and sneaky performance as Charlie Kaufman, a self-loathing screenwriter who has been hired to adapt Susan Orlean's book <I>The Orchid Thief</I> into a screenplay. Frustrated and infatuated by Orlean's elegant but plotless book (which is largely a rumination on flowers), Kaufman begins to write a screenplay about himself trying to write a screenplay about <I>The Orchid Thief</I>, all the while hounded by his twin brother Donald (Cage again), who's cheerfully writing the kind of formulaic action movie that Kaufman finds repugnant. By its conclusion, <I>Adaptation</I> is the most artistically ambitious, most utterly cynical, and most uncategorizable movie ever to come out of Hollywood. Also starring Meryl Streep (as Susan Orlean), Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton, and Brian Cox; superb performances...See less
<I>Friends</I> has matured into television's most beloved comfort show. The peerless ensemble--Jennifer Aniston, a...
(04/19/06) <I>Friends</I> has matured into television's most beloved comfort show. The peerless ensemble--Jennifer Aniston, a pre-Arquette Courtney Cox, Emmy winner Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer--makes a lasting first impression in the first season. The perky "Pilot" introduces unlucky-in-love Monica, runaway bride Rachel, sad sack Ross, New Age ditz Phoebe, wise guy Chandler, and womanizer Joey. The focus of the first season is Ross's unrequited love for Rachel, but we have these moments to remember: the arrival of Marcel the monkey ("The One with the Monkey"); Monica, Rachel, and Phoebe's "cleansing ritual" ("The One with the Candy Hearts"); the escalating game of shower peek-a-boo ("The One with the Boobies"); Joey as Al Pacino's butt double ("The One with the Butt"); Ross taking lessons from Joey in how to "talk dirty" ("The One with the Stoned Guy"); former "Must-See TV" stars Helen Hunt and George Clooney ("The One with Two Parts"); and Cha! ndler spilling...See less
After a string of mediocre movies, director Tim Burton regains his footing as he shifts from macabre fairy tales to...
(04/19/06) After a string of mediocre movies, director Tim Burton regains his footing as he shifts from macabre fairy tales to Southern tall tales. <I>Big Fish</I> twines in and out of the oversized stories of Edward Bloom, played as a young man by Ewan McGregor (<I>Moulin Rouge</I>, <I>Down with Love</I>) and as a dying father by Albert Finney (<I>Tom Jones</I>). Edward's son Will (Billy Crudup, <I>Almost Famous</I>) sits by his father's bedside but has little patience with the old man's fables, because he feels these stories have kept him from knowing who his father really is. Burton dives into Bloom's imagination with zest, sending the determined young man into haunted woods, an idealized Southern town, a traveling circus, and much more. The result is sweet but--thanks to the director's dark and clever sensibility--never saccharine. Also featuring Jessica Lange, Alison Lohman, Helena Bonham Carter, Danny DeVito, and Steve Buscemi. <I>--Bret Fetzer</I>See less
You won't need a bottle of rum to enjoy <I>Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl</I>, especially if...
(04/19/06) You won't need a bottle of rum to enjoy <I>Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl</I>, especially if you've experienced the Disneyland theme-park ride that inspired it. There's a galleon's worth of fun in watching Johnny Depp's androgynous performance as Captain Jack Sparrow, a roguish pirate who could pass for the illegitimate spawn of rockers Keith Richards and Chrissie Hynde. Depp gets all the good lines and steals the show, recruiting Orlando Bloom (a blacksmith and expert swordsman) and Keira Knightley (a lovely governor's daughter) on an adventurous quest to recapture the notorious <I>Black Pearl</I>, a ghost ship commandeered by Jack's nemesis Capt. Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), a mutineer desperate to reverse the curse that left him and his (literally) skeleton crew in a state of eternal, undead damnation. Director Gore Verbinski (<I>The Ring</I>) repeats the redundant mayhem that marred his debut film <I>Mouse Hunt</I>, but with the writers of <I>Shrek</I> he's...See less
"Closure. That's what it is, that's what I need." So determined a drunken Rachel in the season 2 episode "The One Where...
(04/19/06) "Closure. That's what it is, that's what I need." So determined a drunken Rachel in the season 2 episode "The One Where Ross Finds Out." And closure is what this mega-hyped series finale gives loyal and faithful viewers who have been there for Monica, Chandler, Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, and Joey, even when <I>Friends</I> seemed stuck in second gear. Television's most popular and comforting comedy did go gently into that good night, packing off new parents Monica and Chandler to the suburbs to start a family; domesticating the once free-spirited Phoebe, and, yes, finally bringing star-crossed, on-again-off-again Ross and Rachel together ("I got off the plane" will take its place in series lore alongside, "We were on a break").<p> There were some keenly felt absences, most notably Elliott Gould and Christina Pickles as Monica and Ross's maddening parents, and very few surprises, save for one climactic Ross revelation that allowed David Schwimmer's hapless character one of the episode's best...See less
The greatest trilogy in film history, presented in the most ambitious sets in DVD history, comes to a grand conclusion...
(04/19/06) The greatest trilogy in film history, presented in the most ambitious sets in DVD history, comes to a grand conclusion with the extended edition of <I>The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King</I>. Not only is the third and final installment of Peter Jackson's adaptation of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien the longest of the three, but a full 50 minutes of new material pushes the running time to a whopping 4 hours and 10 minutes. The new scenes are welcome, and the bonus features maintain the high bar set by the first two films, <I>The Fellowship of the Ring</I> and <I>The Two Towers</I>.<p> <B>What's New?</B><br> <table align=left cellpadding="5" <tr> <td> <img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/dvd/aplus/lotr/rotk-saruman-2.jpg" border=0 align=top></td></tr></table> One of the scenes cut from the theatrical release but included here, the resolution of the Saruman storyline, generated a lot of publicity when...See less
After creating the last great traditionally animated film of the 20th century, <I>The Iron Giant</I>, filmmaker Brad...
(04/19/06) After creating the last great traditionally animated film of the 20th century, <I>The Iron Giant</I>, filmmaker Brad Bird joined top-drawer studio Pixar to create this exciting, completely entertaining computer-animated film. Bird gives us a family of "supers," a brood of five with special powers desperately trying to fit in with the 9-to-5 suburban lifestyle. Of course, in a more innocent world, Bob and Helen Parr were superheroes, Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl. But blasted lawsuits and public disapproval forced them and other supers to go incognito, making it even tougher for their school-age kids, the shy Violet and the aptly named Dash. When a stranger named Mirage (voiced by Elizabeth Pena) secretly recruits Bob for a potential mission, the old glory days spin in his head, even if his body is a bit too plump for his old super suit.<p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <table cellpadding="5" align="left" <tr="<tr"><p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> ...See less
First sequels are the true test of an enduring movie franchise, and <I>Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets</I>...
(04/19/06) First sequels are the true test of an enduring movie franchise, and <I>Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets</I> passes with flying colors. Expanding upon the lavish sets, special effects, and grand adventure of <I>Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone</I>, Harry's second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry involves a darker, more malevolent tale (parents with younger children beware), beginning with the petrified bodies of several Hogwarts students and magical clues leading Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) to a 50-year-old mystery in the monster-laden Chamber of Secrets. House elves, squealing mandrakes, giant spiders, and venomous serpents populate this loyal adaptation (by <I>Sorcerer's Stone</I> director Chris Columbus and screenwriter Steve Kloves), and Kenneth Branagh delightfully tops the supreme supporting cast as the vainglorious charlatan Gilderoy Lockhart (be sure to view past the credits for a visual ...See less
Congrats! You've reached the maximum number of items you can add to a list.
To add more, please remove some of your items.
one sec please...