RDRutherford Movie Reviews

The Thief (1997)

2011-11-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

In 1946, a soldier fathers a child then dies before its birth. Jump to 1952: on a train, the child and his mother meet a handsome soldier who makes a play for her. She accepts. Posing as a married family, the soldier finds them a rooming house where he becomes everyone's favorite through his good looks and generosity. Meanwhile he gives the boy, Sanya, lessons in life: to fight back, to win at all costs. The child's mother, Katya, is head-over-heels in love with Tolyan, the soldier, but the relationship becomes rocky when Tolyan's true plans for the rooming house become clear. It starts them on a treadmill of flight that risks Katya's life, Tolyan's liberty, and Sanya's trust. Written by
The Thief (1997)

A cute tale of a young boy growing up although with serious subject matters. Life was certainly hard in Russia after the war, but strangely most of the characters seemed to be either traveling on the train or just hanging out.

Special Features:
1. International Trailer
2. Photo Gallery
3. Behind the scenes: from the 1997 Venice Film Festival

Spider Lilies (2007)

2011-10-14T08:45:00.000-07:00

Director Zero Chou's entry into the 2007 San Francisco LGBT Film Festival tells the tale of a teenage webcam tease who decides that a tattoo will make her more appealing, and the memories that meeting the alluring artist arouses. Jade (Taiwanese singer Rainie Yang) is a cute, young webcam performer who thinks that getting a tattoo will enhance her sexy performance skills. Upon venturing out to the tattoo parlor owned by half-Japanese ink-slinger Takeko (Isabella Leong), Jade recalls a crush she harbored ten years ago. Subsequently entering into a surreal cyberspace seduction that emerges through computer images, flashbacks, and lavish costumes highlighted by lime-green wigs, Takeko finds the lines between reality and fantasy blurring as Jade's teasing slowly chips away at her fragile facade. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 98 mins

Spider Lilies (2007)

Even though the main character (Jade) is lively and cheerful all the time, there is a sadness in her actions especially her on-line activities. She never really exposes herself to strangers but just teases.

The review above is pretty complete, except for the relationship each girl has with a close relative that does not remember them or past experiences. The two girls loneliness keeps them apart but eventually an intimate relationship develops. PG- Muff diving...

Extras include:
1. Deleted scene, nearly 3 minutes of extra love-making with necking and heavy petting.
2. The making of Spider Lilies.
3. Teddy Awards Ceremony.
4. US Trailer/Theatrical Trailers/ and More from Wolfe
2.

Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)

2011-07-20T17:05:00.000-07:00

This is capitalism, a system of taking and giving. ... Mostly taking. The only thing we didn't know wasd when the revolt will begin.

Twenty years after his influential debut, Roger & Me, Michael Moore returns to his roots by pulling back the curtain on capitalism to reveal the insidious role it has played in the destruction of the American dream for many people. Back in 1989, auto workers in Flint, MI, were lamenting layoffs and wondering how they would support their families without jobs to pay the bills, or benefits to ensure their health. Flash forward two decades, when cities all across the country are feeling the same pressures that Flint residents were back when GM left them high and dry. With an average of 14,000 U.S. jobs lost every day and taxpayer money constantly being pumped into failing financial institutions, the question must be asked: how long can this go on before the entire system collapses? Is there really any hope for Americans who are losing their homes to foreclosure and seeing their savings get wiped out at an unprecedented rate? In order to seek out an answer to this question and many more, Moore takes a trip to our nation's capitol, engaging average Americans in conversations about the prospect of repairing America's failing, debt-ridden economy along the way. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)

You have to know that it will be a propaganda hit-piece when it starts off with bank robberies. It immediately goes down hill after that to confuse Roman Empire with the US. He obviously has no clue as to what Capitalism is, even if the word has lost all its meaning. A word promoted by its most vocal opponents of it like Karl Marx. This sums up how the critiques are basically looking at it wrong.

Indeed, it is probably no exaggeration to say that economics developed mainly as the outcome of the investigation and refutation of successive Utopian proposals – if by “Utopian” we mean proposals for the improvement of undesirable effects of the existing system, based upon a complete disregard of those forces which actually enabled it to work.
HT: Quotation of the Day… by Don Boudreaux

Interestingly, he has a clip of Ronald Reagan slapping a woman just as he introduces womens' liberation movement. No implications there, no, not at all...

Earnings
Earnings of aircraft pilots and flight engineers vary greatly depending whether they work as airline or commercial pilots. Earnings also depend on factors such as rank, seniority, and the size and type of aircraft flown. For example, pilots who fly jet aircraft usually earn higher salaries than pilots who fly turboprops. Airline pilots and flight engineers may earn extra pay for night and international flights. In May 2008, median annual wages of airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers were $111,680. The middle 50 percent earned between $81,580 and $150,480.
Aircraft Pilots and Flight Engineers

Salary Snapshot for Commercial Pilot Jobs

The links to pay scales of pilots is because he said that some pilots were getting food stamps and getting paid less than $20k per year. That I find impossible unless it is a pilot working less than 40 hours a month. Since he does not provide enough details, or at least leaves out relevant information, I am not sure how to verify his facts.

Anyway, it is hard to believe that one of the biggest entrepreneurial capitalist around has no idea (or shows no signs that he does) what capitalism is. A complete loser of a film based on faulty ideas of what he thinks capitalism is.

For extras, he includes longer segments of the respective interviews with the commentators.

Zero Patience (1993)

2011-05-10T11:32:00.000-07:00

The surreal and the supernatural join forces in this extremely unusual "AIDS musical." The story features the ghost of the French-Canadian airline steward (played by Normand Fauteux) who, according to And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts' book about the AIDS epidemic, was the origin of one of the largest outbreaks of HIV. Known as "Patient Zero" by the Centers for Disease Control, the handsome and promiscuous steward was basically the "Typhoid Mary" of the AIDS phenomenon. In the story, Patient Zero comes back from limbo as a ghost to see his friends suffering from the syndrome: some dying, the rest protesting at ACT-UP rallies. He realizes that his memory has been vilified as the extremely promiscuous source of all this suffering. However, it is only when he becomes aware of an exhibit being prepared at the Toronto Natural History Museum, one which singles him out yet again as the villain, that he becomes aware that the exhibit's curator is an unusual being in his own right. In fact, the show is being put together the famous nineteenth-century explorer of the upper Nile, Sir Richard Burton (John Robinson), inexplicably still living, working at the museum, and filled with misguided homophobia. Though no one else can see Zero, Burton can, and eventually the two become lovers and the ancient explorer comes to view "Patient Zero" as "the heroic slut who inspired safe sex." Musical numbers include a high-camp underwater ballet production of Tell Me The Story of My Life. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 100 mins
Zero Patience (1993)

Quite the hilarious campy movie for adults only. The general dialogue should make this an R at least especially the two anuses singing. The musical numbers is what made this film enjoyable for myself even if the filming was very amateurish and not fluid especially with the Act-Up meeting.

Homoeroticism to the extreme!

Timecrimes (2007)

2011-03-21T12:51:00.000-07:00

An ordinary guy takes an extraordinary step through time in this science fiction thriller. Hector (Karra Elejalde) is spending a few days in the countryside with his girlfriend, Clara (Candela Fernández), when he sees something that catches his attention while playing with his binoculars. Looking at a nearby house near a wooded area, Hector spies a beautiful woman taking her clothes off, and decides to take a stroll and give her a closer look. However, when he arrives at the house several minutes later, the woman is lying in the grass and appears to either be dead or passed out. As Hector examines her, he's attacked by a strange man and flees on foot. Hector seeks refuge in a building that turns out to be a research facility owned by a mysterious scientist (Nacho Vigalondo), who gives him a place to hide inside a futuristic closet. However, Hector realizes it was actually a time-travel machine when he emerges a few minutes later and looks out the window to see himself standing over the unconscious woman in the distance. Los Cronocrimenes (aka Timecrimes) was the first feature film from writer and director Nacho Vigalondo, who also appears as the scientist. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Timecrimes (2007)

Hector keeps going over the same stretch of time and can not alter the past, as in the first experiences and he continues to play the same scenario as he seems more driven to repeat the same mistakes than to correct the problems. The only thing he seemed to change was who was going to die in the end. We also never do find out how the three Hectors become back to the single one.

The movie was a good attempt at portraying the time travel with overlapping stories from Spain. Needless to say, I did not like the ending, but no one knows what someone would do to get his/her life back to normal.

Timecrimes (2008)

Teorema (1968)

2011-03-03T10:04:00.000-08:00

Terence Stamp is known only as "The Visitor" in Pier Paolo Pasolini's Teorema. The mysterious stranger insinuates himself into the home of a wealthy Italian family, where he exerts a curious, sensual spirituality over everyone in the household. He then proceeds to seduce everyone in the family (male and female) including the maid, which gives each person some sort of unique epiphany. Because he reveals so little about his innermost thoughts, "The Visitor" becomes all things to all people. What it boils down to is this: Is the enigmatic visitor Christ, or is he the Devil? Matching Terence Stamp's multi-textured performance every step of the way is Laura Betti as the family's maid; Betti, in fact, won the "Best Actress Award" at the 1968 Venice Film Festival. Director Pasolini adapted the screenplay of Teorema from his own novel. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 98 mins
Teorema (1968)

Clearly the visitor is the devil as he creates the ruination of a family and its individual components. The family may have had troubles before but it was still functioning. Instead of promoting the best in each individual, it brought out the nihilistic thoughts and then manifested itself in self destructive behaviors, like the father running naked in the desert, the mother whoring herself and ending up in a ditch getting it, and the maid getting buried alive -- although supposedly not to die.

Special features included a long interview by Giuseppe Zigaina entitled "Pasolini and Death: A Purely Intellectual Thriller {52 minutes-dubbed}. Sure enough it explains the life of Pasolini as a communist/Marxist. And this explains his own nihilistic thoughts even through his death by suicide. Truly a troubled self-centered individual with delusions of grandeur. He wanted his death to stand out above all others. In the interview it is brought up that he anguished over his mother that was ill at the time. Of course suicide is a selfish act.

"I observe my massacred self with the quiet courage of a scientist."
P.P.P. - Poesie mondane, 1964 -

--Either from grief, or neurosis
or boredom from a weekend afternoon
a man has finally put death to some good use.--
P.P.P. -Orgia, 1966 -

The Kingdom (1994)

2011-02-16T12:31:00.000-08:00

Originally created for Danish television, Morten Arnfred and Lars von Trier's supernatural thriller The Kingdom chronicles the bizarre occurrences at the title hospital, the largest and most respected hospital in the country. While the series deals with such real-life complications as murder investigations and malpractice suits, a more villainous force may be unleashing itself upon the hospital staff. After a patient (Kirsten Rolffes) sees the ghost of a young girl, many of the staff members find themselves involved in frightening and bizarre situations like an ambulance that appears every evening but then instantly vanishes. Eventually, a female doctor (Birgitte Raaberg) becomes pregnant, but the accelerated development of her fetus could be a sign that the evil forces have found a way to enter more permanently into the world. This film consists of the first four episodes, or the entire first season, of the television series. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 272 mins
The Kingdom (1994)

The Blockbuster series is of two disks with two episodes on each disk with some special features. Have no idea why I picked this one, but it was pretty boring. The one funny part was the attempted abortion that was being performed in the neurosurgery rooms. They had visitors going through the hospital when all kinds of strange things were happening including a patient and some staff holing up a broken out section of the wall in the basement, sex in the sleep studies room, and the abortion.

They tried some drugs on the "foetus" and it did not kill it. The nurse said she had to kill it before it was born because that is the difference between abortions and murder. Ultimately, a man's head came out of her birth canal...pretty funny, I suppose.

The one part I liked was the guy at the end giving a summation of the episode in a way too cheerful demeanor. I watched the first two episodes on the first disk but just skimmed over the next disk, except for the ending with the attempted abortion.

The Story of Marie and Julien (2003)

2011-02-14T13:48:00.000-08:00

Jacques Rivette's Histoire de Marie et Julien (The Story of Marie and Julien) stars Emmanuelle Béart and Jerzy Radziwilowicz as a pair of ex-lovers who get back together after their lives change. Julien (Radziwilowicz) is a clock repairman whose girlfriend has left him. Marie (Béart) is a mysterious woman who does not bleed after being cut. Her boyfriend has died. Marie and Julien had once engaged in an affair when they were each involved with other people, and now that they have no emotional entanglements, they slowly begin a new relationship. This film started decades before as a project in Rivette's "Scenes From a Parallel Life" series and abandons the majority of the formal rules imposed by the filmmaker on the other films in the cycle. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 150 mins
The Story of Marie and Julien (2003)

Extremely slow movie at over 2 1/2 hours with little of plot material. I kept expecting more acts of violence but ultimately only talk about how people had committed suicide. Although it appeared at times of high intrigue with ransom demands along with an attempt at finding the documents in Julien's home, ultimately it was just the private affairs of a woman and her desire to keep the family in-fighting personal.

The special features included interviews with Jaques Rivette and Emmanuelle Beart. Did not watch either.

Sada (1998)

2011-02-10T10:45:00.000-08:00

Based upon the case of Sada Abe, who on May 17 1936 killed and emasculated her lover. These events took place during a period of war, economic depression, public unease and growing militarism, a time of unrest and confusion when public opinion was, at best, unpredictable. Sada, condemned by the law, found herself lionized by the press and hailed as a 'saint' of love. Because she committed murder out of passion, the purity of her motivation elevated her from the status of criminal to that of popular heroine. Written by L.H. Wong
Sada (1998)

Really just a silly story although now I read that it was based on "A True Story of Sexual Obsession". The plot line about the student that fixed up her groin area after being sexually assaulted seemed to be missing some elements to it. All the men just went head over heels when having sex with her and she had an insatiable appetite for sex. The love making scenes were nearly comical although no nude scenes. It was a lot of jumping up and down and floating above the bed.

It was her idea to start choking him with the scarf and then he continued it on until according to the film he asks her to not stop when choking him.

At best just a mediocre film.

The Firemen's Ball (1967)

2011-02-09T19:16:00.000-08:00

Firemen's Ball was Czechoslovakian director Milos Forman's final film in his home country; he was scouting locations in Paris when the Russians moved their tanks into Prague in 1968 causing Forman to decide to remain an expatriate. Because of the supercharged political climate of the era, critics read all sorts of allegory and hidden meanings into the Firemen's Ball. Other critics simply accepted the film as the slapsticky tale of a disastrous small-town celebration in honor of a retiring fire chief, and laughed accordingly. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 73 mins
The Firemen's Ball (1967)

One of the special features on the DVD was a director's discussion about the film and the controversy. In it he does imply and state that he was making fun of the bureaucracy of the socialist system. He clearly was not sympathetic to the socialist causes.

It is true the comedy of the whole movie was foremost his goal. A lot of slapstick comedy with even the start of the beauty pageant. It was more or less a gawk-fest of old men admiring younger although most not very attractive. For example, one girl takes the initiative to go get a bathing suit on under her clothes and thus models in the suit while the men are staring like little boys looking at a chocolate cake. When the time comes for the beauty pageant, only one girl has courage to come up on stage with the rest resisting with all their strength. Ultimately the girls all end up in the women's restroom until one of the fireman hear the fire alarm. After saving a few of the victims items, they go back to the pageant and one old woman is declared the winner.

Chori Chori Chupke Chupke

2011-01-24T11:32:00.000-08:00

Raj Malhotra (Salman Khan) and Priya (Rani Mukerji) are members of high society. They meet, get married and soon Priya falls pregnant. Soon after, Priya trips, miscarries, and becomes permanently infertile. On the doctor's advice, the couple conceal this fact and decide to secretly look for a surrogate mother to bear Raj's child. Raj meets Madhubala aka Madhu (Preity Zinta), a prostitute who agrees to have Raj's baby, for the money. After some much-needed grooming, Madhu meets Priya--who will be left unaware that Madhu was a prostitute--and the three depart for Switzerland together to carry out their plan.

Soon Madhu is pregnant with Raj's child, and he happily tells his family that Priya is expecting. Meanwhile, his business partner is sexually harassing Madhu until she's ready to leave, upset at the thought that Raj told his friend that she is a prostitute (he didn't). Although Priya finds out about Madhu's past, she stiill believes that Madhu should carry their child, and she begs her to stay. Finally the partner assaults Madhu while (he thinks) she's home alone, but Raj saves her. Overwhelmed by Raj's kindness, Madhu falls in love with him.

Raj's family suddenly arrives in Switzerland. While Priya reaches for pregnancy-simulating pillows, the family meet the heavily-pregnant Madhu and Raj tells them that she's a friend who's staying with him and Priya while her husband is business-traveling. Raj's grandfather (Amrish Puri) arranges a religious ceremony and tells Raj and Priya that they are going back to India; this also includes Madhu.

The ceremony is very important so Priya sends Madhu as herself. The emotion at the ceremony is too much for Madhu and she becomes conflicted about giving up her child. Priya finds Madhu's room empty and the money dumped on the bed, and pursues her to the train station, only to slap Madhu when she confesses that she loves Raj. By the time Raj gets there, Madhu has gone into premature labor. The doctor announces that only one--Madhu or her child--can be saved, and Priya asks him to save Madhu. However, both mother and baby survive and seem likely to thrive. Madhu gives the baby to Priya, who quickly settles into a hospital bed with "her" baby. The doctor tells the family that Madhu's child was stillborn.

When Madhu is ready to leave, she promises Raj that she won't go back to prostitution. When he takes her to the airport he realizes that she loved him and kisses her forehead. Madhu leaves happily, ready and able to start fresh, as Raj and Priya start their own new lives as thankful and proud parents.
Chori Chori Chupke Chupke - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A cute romantic comedy dealing with a love triangle and all the misadventures as a wife that can no longer conceive after a miscarriage. They continually have to make up more tall tales as they try to deceive the grandfather that the wife is pregnant. His lifelong wish is to have a grandchild and his heart would not take such disappointment. After both women are said to be pregnant only one live birth can come out so they have to ultimately say the surrogate had a miscarriage also as the doctor makes the announcement.

Other than the prostitute being pregnant, the similarities of scenes with Pretty Woman was over the top. Madhubala aka Madhu (Preity Zinta) plays at first a dancer at a night club, so it was not revealed at first that she was a prostitute until a little later. The film quickly assumed that the two professions overlap and that she was a prostitute. Even following along with the Pretty Woman script I knew that his business partner had to confront Madhu about being a prostitute and to try and force his way on her. Of course the scenes of Rodeo drive was really close. The only difference seemed to be less of a part about the hotel concierge and his noting the "niece" aspects of the hotel guests. Madhu also did not have any friend that she confided in like the roommate in Pretty Woman.

Dust jacket: Chori Chori Chupke Chupke is a unique thriller for the whole family from Abbas-Mustan. Unique because there is no crime committed, no villian, no vamp, not even a single negative character in the film! It is the unusual and intriguing web of human relationships in the film that contribute to the edge-of-the-seat suspense in the film.
Chori Chori Chupke Chupke is also the unique love story of our three main protagonists Raj (Salman Khan), Priya (Rani Mulherjee) and Madhoo (Preity Zinta) but it is not the eternal triangle!
It is a love story of three people, which ends not in tragedy but in the totality of relationships.
It is a love story enhanced by youth and melodious music, it is complete family entertainment that succeeds in arousing your curiosity and keeps you in suspense till the very last scene.

Yes, unique in that there was only one act of misery as the first miscarriage dashes the dreams of a family and especially a mother and father. The love-making with the prostitute is never brought up or shown any hint of it. I even assumed that the love-making and confirmation of pregnancy would have been done before leaving for Switzerland.

The one aspect they fail to realize is that the "business partner" was a villain in that he not only diminished her self-worth by being derogatory but also attempting to rape her after money was enough to become a whore for him. Also though not villains, the people at the "Rodeo shops" were very rude and unfriendly with Madhoo.

Well worth watching this fairly long movie {156 minutes according to Wiki}.

Reconstruction (2003)

2011-01-20T09:31:00.000-08:00

Danish filmmaker Christoffer Boe makes his feature debut with the psychological romantic drama Reconstruction. Set in Copenhagen during a 24-hour period, narrator August (Krister Henriksson) works on his novel while his wife, Aimee (Maria Bonnevie), has a one-night stand with photographer Alex (Nikolaj Lie Kaas). The next morning, Alex appears to have lost touch with his surroundings as his friends, family, and girlfriend Simone (also played by Bonnevie) treat him like a stranger. Reconstruction won the Camera d'Or at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
Theatrical Feature Running Time: 93 mins
Reconstruction (2003)

It definitely is a unique film when the category given above is "psychological romantic drama". I am not sure what it was suppose to "Reconstruct" as Alex tries to piece some of his random thoughts together. If the whole world looks strange then perhaps it is first person that is mistaking fantasy for reality. I kept thinking that Alex was going to suddenly come to grips with his reality but ultimately in the end Aimee just disappears and along with the plot lines with the writer and his cheating wife.

Strangely even his apartment is no longer there, although I wonder then how he gets to change his clothes in the movie. Sadly though the movie just lacks story depth as we never get a good grasp of what the purpose of Alex's life or just the random writings of August.

Reconstruction (2003 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaShooting

The film was shot almost entirely in available light. Using available lighting is not merely stylistic. It may come as no surprise, but Boe doesn't work with storyboards or set schedules. He likes to run and gun.[1]

They shot Super 16 on an Arri SR3 using three different stocks. Then the film was scanned, color-graded, and digitally masked to CinemaScope. The scan was a simple one-light, and the team did no color correction, the opposite of today's trend to perform a digital intermediate. They also pushed the emulsion for extra grain.

I noticed that a lot of the scenes film stock showed an inordinate amount of color picture grain. It was not distracting to the plot line or the quality of the film but from my camera experiences it definitely jumped out at me.

A Very British Coup (1989)

2011-01-11T22:21:00.000-08:00

Based on the speculative political novel by Chris Mullin, this British miniseries starred Ray McAnally as Harry Perkins, a third-generation Communist, lifelong steelworker, and a powerful labor leader. Thanks to strong support from the industrial countries, Harry was elected Prime Minister of England, whereupon he set to work putting his left-wing ideals in action. Harry's efforts were compromised by a vast right-wing conspiracy, fomented by a number of important Conservative money men and set in motion by Britain's' MI5 and America's CIA. The winner of four BAFTA awards, including Best Drama Series and Best Actor (Ray McAnally), A Very British Coup aired in three parts over Britain's Channel 4 from June 19 to July 3, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
A Very British Coup (1989)

A Very British Coup was a made for television 3 part series {mini-series}. For special features it includes an audio interview with Author, of the book the shows were based on, Chris Mullin.

Although the title said "British Coup", it seemed more like a US coup as the evil guys were Americans conspiring to topple the UK government. Production wise it was pretty good considering made for TV and had an overall good script. Well worth watching.

I put this one in the category of "Leftist Dogma" as Harry always had simple answers to complex problems. For example it is completely ironic that the UK government borrowed funds from a Russian bank. History should tell us enough to know that Russia never did before or after the filming of movie including all the debt crisis they have experienced since release of the film. But in all honesty some of his ideas seemed plausible enough to work, although I just wonder if all the workers were striking why didn't the capitalists strike also when the government started implementing some leftist agenda.

A Very British Coup - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Plot (TV version)
Harry Perkins, an unassuming, working class, very left-wing Leader of the Labour Party and Member of Parliament for Sheffield Central, is elected Prime Minister in March 1989. The priorities of the Perkins Government include dissolving all newspaper monopolies, removing all American military bases on UK soil, unilateral nuclear disarmament, and true open government. Immediately, the right wing and allies scheme to depose him, with the U.S. the key, but covert, conspirator.

His move to try to make the government more open is definitely a nice proposal, but as learned from the Wiki leaks, other governments might not like it much. Removing the American military bases did take up a lot of the film time and was reason implied in why the Americans were so up in arms. At one time Harry compares the bases to their own private aircraft carriers. Although it was lost the idea that aircraft carriers' most important trait is their mobility and their rock does not move fast enough.

Since this is after the environmental scares of the 70s, then nuclear power was also on his cutting block.

In the TV version the Prime Minister is presented with forged evidence of financial irregularity following a long running affair, with the suggestion that he should resign rather than see the story made public. He agrees to make a resignation speech on live TV, but instead announces the attempted blackmail to the world along with a new election. As the screen fades to black we hear the sound of helicopters and a radio announcer talking about the "constitutional situation".

It was also pointed out by the author that the closing scene had a close-up of a military jacket and thus portraying a possible coup on Harry's government.

Private Property (2006)

2010-12-28T09:43:00.000-08:00

The sale of a family home causes some ugly truths to be uncovered in this drama from writer and director Joachim Lafosse. Pascale (Isabelle Huppert) is a middle-aged divorcée living in a restored farmhouse in the countryside with her twin sons, twentysomethings Francois and Thierry. After years of bickering with her ex-husband about the estate, Pascale has decided to sell the farmhouse with an eye toward opening a guest house in a resort community, but the twins are vehemently opposed to the idea. Pascale persuades her boyfriend to talk with Francois and Thierry in hopes of changing their mind, but the meeting does not go well and the twins inadvertently discover a long-held family secret that causes them to turn against Pascale, as well as one another. Also starring Jérémie Rénier and Yannick Renier as the twins, Nue-Propriété received its world premier at the 2006 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 89 mins
Private Property (2006)

To me it was more like the older brother being a brat and wanted things his way and only his way. No job to speak of and just smooched off his mother while supposedly attending classes. Although both were lazy at times, Theirry thought he could just take his other brothers bike to go to town without even asking. Ultimately his rage caused his brother harm. The third party certainly did not help the situation also and partly due that the mother was not completely open and truthful about the whole situation to her boyfriend.

The one most weird moments is when "family affairs" become too natural. In the first 10 minutes of the film, does she not only pose with sexy clothes but pees with the bath room door open and then even takes a shower in the same room as the older brother while it looks like he is ogling her.

Overall not nearly as well done as the dust jacket would have us believe.

The Stratosphere Girl (2003)

2010-12-22T12:04:00.000-08:00

In this imaginative independent drama, Angela (Chloé Winkel) is a French art student living in Germany who loves to draw comics and creates elaborate tales drawn in a soft and romantic style. One night, Angela meets Yamamoto (Jon Yang), a club DJ from Japan, who invites her to come to Tokyo with him. Infatuated with Yamamoto, Angela impulsively agrees, and is soon sharing an apartment with a handful of Western expatriates who work at a nightclub where Japanese businessmen drink, sing karaoke, and date the "hostesses" for a fee. When money runs low, Angela signs on to work at the club, but when a customer is murdered in an ongoing mob war, she realizes she's entered a far more dangerous world than she imagined. The frantic pace of the city and the violence of her new environment has a strong impact on her artwork, which loses its serene qualities and becomes increasingly aggressive and mechanical. The Stratosphere Girl was written and directed by German filmmaker M.X. Oberg, who shot the film on location in Cologne and Tokyo. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 85 mins
The Stratosphere Girl (2003)

Even thought this was a relatively short film, it still had a lot of shots of the main actress just reflecting on things and sketching. The intrigue was well done with each character seemingly in turn backstabbing her.

Ultimately, the film was just a reset button technique and the real story was just her writing about her boyfriend and friends into the story. Not really needed on a thriller such as this one.

Insomnia (1997)

2010-11-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

Norwegian filmmaker Erik Skjoldbjaerg makes his directorial debut with the psychological police drama Insomnia. Swedish homicide detective Jonas Engström (Stellan Skarsgård) and his partner, Erik Vik (Sverre Anker Ousdal), arrive in a small Northern Norwegian town to help the local police investigate the murder of a teenage girl. When Jonas finds the girl's backpack, he sets a trap for the killer near a remote shed. While waiting to make an ambush in the morning fog, Jonas accidentally shoots Erik. He knows it was only an accident, but he decides to keep it a secret because he could lose his job. Jonas chooses to carry on with his investigation while trying to cover up the evidence of Erik's death. Meanwhile, he's unable to get any sleep due to the constant sunlight of the Norwegian summer and his increasingly guilty conscience. His only help comes from highly intuitive local police officer Hilda Haugen (Gisken Armand), who begins to form her own doubts about Jonas. As he continues to lose his grip on the case at hand, he becomes dangerously close to the suspects, Jon Holt (Bjørn Floberg) and Frøya (Marianne O. Ulrichsen). Filmmaker Christopher Nolan directed the English-language remake of Insomnia in 2002 with Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 97 mins
Insomnia (1997)

After recently watching all of the Dexter series on DVD, it was natural to see the same aspects with the detective especially with respect of getting too close to the perpetrator. The perp also was meticulous about covering up evidence that could implicate him. He also seemed to confess that he had been doing it for 20 years because fiction became too boring to him and wanted real life situations.

Although this was not one of the best films I have watched recently, it still portrayed the frustration with not getting any sleep and his anguish over killing his partner better than the remake version. Also, there seemed to be a certain sexual tension that the remake did not have, probably due to ratings considerations. Like in one scene the detective fiddles with the teenage girl in his car and we see her having sex with the victims boyfriend later on. The detective watches the scene from behind the door as he was interrupted leaving the murder weapon under his bed.

Nothing special for the special features on the disc, but the disc comes with a small pamphlet which has the following passage:

,Skarsgard creates a man who is outwardly assured while harboring profound insecurities within. He cannot handle any kind of intimacy, nor can he come to terms with his responsibility for the death of Vik. He sustains his identity by adhering to certain moral precepts; once he has broken one of these principles, he becomes truly dangerous...

Sounds like Dexter, or at least some of killers he gets rid of.

Rachida (2002)

2010-11-04T09:56:00.000-07:00

Directed by Yamina Bachir, this French film chronicles the life of Rachida, a young divorcee who lives with her mother and works as a teacher at a local school. Her life is turned upside-down, however, when she goes to work without wearing a veil over her face. This leaves her prey to a band of terrorists, who promptly kidnap her and instruct one of their members to bomb the school. Despite being left for dead, Rachida manages to survive and take refuge in the country side. Rachida was presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002, and features Ibtissem Djouadi, Bahia Rachedi, Rachida Messaouden, Zaki Boulenafed, and Amel Chouikh. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 100 mins
Rachida (2002)

Although the film makes it an issue about not wearing a veil, the terrorists used that purely as an excuse and wanted her to plant the bomb in her classroom. Only an idiot would agree to that!

Dust Jacket:
Rachida, a young and self-assured teacher at an elementary school, becomes the target of terrorists when she refuses to place a bomb in her classroom. This acclaimed debut feature offers a unique glimpse into the lives of ordinary citizens in Algeria, where terrorism was commonplace during the civil conflict of the 1990s.

From reading that it sounds like she was approached in the classroom when she was actually approached on the street in broad daylight. They were accosting her for what seemed like along time while no one came to her defense. Only after the shooting and the terrorists left the bomb next to her, did people come out to help.

That pattern then repeats as for most of the film is after she leaves Algiers and moves into a rural community to also teach in a school. There she also experiences the thugs and brutality of the "terrorists". In the end she does manage to pick up the pieces and to start teaching her remaining students in the broken down school.

All the way through the film, I kept expecting Rambo or an Arnold Schwarzenegger character to jump out and defend the community. No one tries to become the hero and they only flee and coward at the criminal gangs. It seems obvious that they needed neighbor watch programs and an armed militia. Not a single police was observed in the rural areas and the police only showed up after the shooting on the street to dispose of the bomb. There government was corrupt and crooked, but resorting to terrorism to make political statements was not the case but excuses to victimize civilians.

Very good film overall even if it was not a typical American film of good and bad with a Superhero to save the day. Foreign commentators have noted on occasions that many countries do not have the Superman hero to save the day.

Bolivar I Am (2002) {Bolivar Soy Yo}

2010-11-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

Director Jorge Ali Triana attacks political corruption and historical accuracy in entertainment in his satirical 2002 film Bolivar Is Me. Actor Santiago Miranda (Robinson Diaz) is cast in a Latin American television miniseries chronicling the legendary revolutionary Simon Bolivar's life. The hyper-sensitive actor -- whose mental well-being was already questionable -- snaps when forced to perform a revisionist version of Santiago's death. As the actor angrily leaves the set, he also takes leave of his senses and believes himself to actually be Bolivar. Furthermore, he assumes Bolivar's mission to unite Latin America -- which shocks his producers and provides a rather unexpected opportunity for the local political leaders. Bolivar Is Me was viewed at the 2002 Los Angeles Latino Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 112 mins
Bolivar I Am (2002)

Dust Jacket:
An engaging, hilarious and entertainment delusion ("Bolivar is back, Bolivar is in campaign, Bolivar is crazy"). A satire and humorist film that portrays with great irony the violent and strange world in which all Latin Americans of the 21st century live in. The actor, Santiago Miranda, abandons the production set of the popular soap opera "The Lovers of The Liberator" because he doesn't agree with the script considering is a misunderstanding of history and instead flees toward delusion. Balancing between lucidity and madness , Miranda is also determined to finish Bolivar's dream of creating the "The Great Columbia": a strong and unified state consisting of 5 Latin-American countries and ignite the rebuilding of a region that faced 160 years of internal war.

The first part was really on the boring side and the idea of a film about films often comes across as dull and insipid. The ending did finally pick up some momentum {last 15 minutes of film} and slightly more interesting when the rebels took over the ship.

There is a couple of parts when discussing the motives of the particular real people that each person has a different interpretation of history-and sometimes almost diametrical different.

They do use "America" a few times and wonder if it is a snub at the USA or just trying to make a point, that I readily agree with. "America" has become synonymous with the US and thus the other millions of "Americans" are not included in that definition.

The ending was pretty predictable as the opening scenes had a similar leitmotif. Reset button technique was used but then it becomes hard to distinguish between reality and fantasy. I suppose that that was the technique they were trying for, in the mind of Miranda.

Sin Nombre (2008)

2010-10-25T15:35:00.000-07:00

Student Academy Award winner Cary Joji Fukunaga makes his feature directorial debut with this epic dramatic thriller following a Honduran teenager who reunites with her long-estranged father and attempts to emigrate to America with him in order to start a new life. Inspired by the director's firsthand experience with Central American immigrants, Sin Nombre opens to find dejected teenager Sayra (Paulina Gaitan) biding her time in Honduras while dreaming of a brighter future. Upon reuniting with the father she hasn't seen in years, Sayra seizes the opportunity to finally make her dreams a reality. Her father has a new family in the United States, and he's preparing to travel with her uncle to Mexico, where they will then cross the border to freedom. Meanwhile, in Mexico, Tapachula teen Casper (aka Casper, played by Edgar Flores), has gotten caught up with the notorious Mara Salvatrucha street gang. He's just delivered a new recruit to the Maras in the form of desperate 12-year-old Smiley (Kristyan Ferrer), and though the youngster's initiation proves particularly rough, she adapts to gang life rather quickly. As involved as Casper is with the Mara, he does his best to keep his relationship with girlfriend Martha Marlene (Diana Garcia) a secret from the gang. Just as Martha encounters ruthless Mara leader Lil' Mago (Tenoch Huerta Mejía) and suffers a grim fate at the hands of the gang, Sayra and her relatives arrive at the Tapachula train yards and prepare to rush a U.S.-bound freight train with a horde of other immigrants. Rather than attempting to gain access to the cars, Sayra and the rest of the immigrants decide to ride atop the train. Little do they realize that their lives are now in danger, because Lil' Mago has recruited Casper and Smiley to rob the immigrants as they make their way to the United States. When dawn comes and Lil' Mago makes his move, Casper finally decides to stand up to the tyrannical gang leader. Now, as the train winds though the Mexican countryside, Sayra's only hope of surviving the journey and making her way to a new beginning is to align herself with Casper as he flees from the most feared gang in Tapachula. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Sin Nombre (2008)

It was an excellent film. Found no reason to fault it even with a tragic ending, which was foretold already in the film. Character development was quite good and although it was strange even for me to see a Spanish young girl to show such attention and affection toward Casper, it worked for me. She was hesitant but also desiring to find someone to help and be helped by. During the film Sayra shown distance from her estranged father and uncle. She said that her father would not have come back for her except that he was deported back to Honduras.

The only aspect that was strange was that Casper did not save at least the gun the gang leader had on himself after killing the gang leader. In one deleted scene he also dismantles Smiley's one bullet pump action gun into the river from atop the train. I knew that it had to come down to a life and death between Casper and Smiley, but the suspense might have been more if Casper had a gun also.

In addition to about 10 minutes of finished production deleted scenes, the DVD contained directors commentator. The director pointed out some important points about how the gang was like a collective in the sense of a commune where everyone shared the resources of the gang-that included the woman-which Casper did not abide with respect to his girlfriend.

Sin Nombre (2009 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia mentions the fact that the last bit of memory of Casper's girlfriend and one of his only assets he gives to the man to help Sayra across the river. Thus sacrificing everything he had to help her get to the USA.

It might be an interesting film to see how Sayra's life is like in the USA.

Stupidity (2003)

2010-10-23T10:07:00.000-07:00

Take a closer look at the "dumbing down" of contemporary culture in an alternately enlightening and hilarious documentary from filmmaker Albert Nerenberg produced to explore the prospect that willful ignorance has increasingly become a strategy for success in the realms of politics and entertainment. From the Internet to television to popular film and virtually everything in between, stupidity's stronghold over society has reached an all-time high. Despite the vast potential that mass media holds as a tool of education and self-betterment in modern society, why is it that the masses are so determined to simply turn on the television and turn off their brains at the end of the day? In an era where even the mere mention that mass media may be detrimental to our mental development may prove offensive to the vast majority of consumers, director Nerenberg gathers some of the best-known cultural critics, authors, and academics of our generation for a thought-provoking exploration into the potentially damaging effects of film, television, and other forms of media on the modern mind. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 77 mins
Stupidity (2003)

Maybe a little harsh to rate this a one, but it was simply a leftist dogma propagandized film. It started out fairly normal but for a Canadian produced film, it decided to pick on George W. Bush. Of course Bush was not the brightest bulb in the box, but if that was their case study of stupidity then plenty of Libs have their share of stupid politicians.

Bias then shows through on who they choose to interview like Bill Maher and Noam Chomsky. The later blaming all the "stupidity" of society on "business". Their goals is to control the masses and "dumb them down" and create a feeling of futility of the masses. Of course not themselves according to Chumsky. He also says that humans did not "create" language but it was just a random event of evolution which is on the same level of growing arms and legs. I am not sure how someone so intelligent to think that. Humans could have not developed this skills and just treated it like a useless appendage or developed it in much different ways.

Of course by showing "stupidity" in all its glory, they are in fact promoting such stupidity. It is not really an intellectual endeavor to explore the issues but is gratuitous stupidity presented as pseudo intellectualism. It allows the elite intellectuals to consider the unwashed masses as stupid. They even seem to question the aspects of democracy. That is allowing the unwashed masses to make decisions over government.

The one interesting point that was pointed out was that many of the actors on screen do not have a good education and in fact many dropped out of high school. Makes us wonder why we as a culture would in fact consider them as someone worth listening to. The next time I have to listen to some actor telling me how to live my life, I truly will look up his/her education background. Not that it validates that he/she is an idiot, just that it shows that maybe he/she was easily swayed and manipulated in his knowledge.

Marx felt that the three forces of the development of society {"world historical determining forces"} as: 1. Capital, 2. Violence, 3. Stupidity.

Special Features:
1. Extended interviews of the commentators.
2. Directors comments soundtrack.
3. Interview of director on Documentary Channel.
4. Trailer.
5. Reading materials used in the documentary-research.

On second thought, the extended interviews makes this at least a 2.

Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie [Subtitled]

2010-09-21T16:14:00.000-07:00

One of Luis Buquel's masterpieces, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is in beautiful form in this Criterion Collection two-disc DVD edition. The movie has never looked better outside the theater than it does in the pristine 1.66:1 print transferred here; it's as though it were filmed yesterday rather than in 1972. The Dolby Digital Sound is equally excellent, giving bold power to Buquel's disturbing visions and scenarios. The subtitles appear in white text at the bottom of the movie's image, not in the black bar, and can be turned off. Bonus features are spread over an additional DVD. Disc one includes the movie and a 24-minute documentary titled "The Castaway on the Street of Providence," dating back to 1970. The documentary is more voyeuristic than enlightening, as too much time is spent on the personal life of Buquel and his efforts to make the perfect martini rather than his great career. The three-minute theatrical trailer is redundant, and it gives away far too many of the movie's wicked surprises. Disc two features a second, more interesting documentary, "Speaking of Buquel"; running 98 minutes, it encompasses reminiscences by cast and crew from many of Buquel's films, as well as clips of those films. Disc two also includes a Buquel filmography with country of origin and release date information as well. Both the movie on disc one and the documentary on disc two can be navigated by scene access menus that give instant access to the feature's 21 and 28 respective chapters via chapter titles. Given the great supplemental material, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie goes from being a great movie to an essential DVD title. ~ Tim DiGravina, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 101 mins
Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie [Subtitled]

That pretty much summed up what features I got from the library's version. This must be the only movie critique that went into so much detail about the contents of the DVD features, but clearly something that is needed on more movies. A film is either enhanced or seems a let down on certain films when there obviously is a lot of background material to work with. "The Castaway" was not very informative as the critique states. I did not bother to watch "Speaking of Buquel" as this just seems to be too much at around 100 minutes. From “The Discreet Charm of Luis Buñuel” by Carlos Fuentes was part of the pamphlet that came with the discs also.

Every now and then, he gazes at the trees and murmurs: “I’m not afraid of death. I’m afraid of dying alone in a hotel room, with my bags open and a shooting script on the night table. I must know whose fingers will close my eyes.”

Strangely, they are rated differently from the other version that gets a 5 rating at:

In typical Luis Buñuel fashion, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie surrealistically skewers the conventions of society. Buñuel applies his surrealist touch to a mundane event: a dinner party that may never come to pass. A group of well-to-do friends attempt to gather for a social evening, but are thwarted at every turn. The initial problem seems to be a simple scheduling mistake, but the obstacles become more and more bizarre. At one point, the guests are interrupted at the table by an army on maneuvers. Later they learn that they are merely characters in a stage play and so cannot have dinner together. These misadventures are combined with symbolic dreams of the various characters, some of which also involve interrupted dinners. Wicked social satire and one of Buñuel's funniest films. Winner of the Academy Award for "Best Foreign Film" in 1972. ~ John Voorhees, All Movie Guide
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)

But some of the "dinner events" are actual dream sequences and thus the reviewer misses that point {I think}. For example one where all the guests die is clearly another case of reset button technique as the film would end if they all died.

Overall, another disappointing film, especially given that they used the reset button on a movie film. Supposedly it helps build character but on a limited length film then wasting such footage seems odd at best and wasteful at worst.

The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)

2010-09-21T09:54:00.000-07:00

Widely regarded as a masterpiece of Spanish cinema, this allegorical tale is set in a remote village in the 1940s. The life in the village is calm and uneventful -- an allegory of Spanish life after General Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War. While their father (Fernando Fernán Gómez) studies bees in his beehive and their mother (Teresa Gimpera) writes letters to a non-existent correspondent, two young girls, Ana (Ana Torrent) and Isabel (Isabel Telleria), go to see James Whale's Frankenstein at a local cinema. Though they can hardly understand the concept, both girls are deeply impressed with the moment when a little girl gives a flower to the monster. Isabel, the older sister, tells Ana that the monster actually exists as a spirit that you can't see unless you know how to approach him. Ana starts wandering around the countryside in search of the kind creature. The film received critical accolades for its subtle and masterful use of cinematic language and the expressive performance of the young Ana Torrent. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 99 mins
The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)

Maybe it was just too subtle for me but I was deeply disappointed with the film as the title alone held my imagination to such lofty levels. This was not to say the two young stars were not excellent in their roles, it was more like the there was no "spirit" and very little of the actions of the beehive. The only beehive actions I could see was the viewing of the film but the participants were not "busy as bees" but just passive viewers, and also when the towns people found the fugitive and shot him with a hail of gun fire. We never do find out why he was running away or what his crime was.

It is worth remembering the scene taken from Frankenstein (1931 film), and part of the scene description:

It {the monster} then has a short encounter with a farmer's young daughter, Maria, who asks him to play a game with her in which they playfully toss flowers into a lake and watch them float. The monster enjoys the game, but when they run out of flowers, tragedy occurs. Because of his defective brain, the monster thinks the little girl will float, so he picks her up and throws her into the lake, and the girl drowns. Realizing he has made a terrible mistake, the monster walks away feeling troubled and remorseful. This drowning scene is one of the most controversial in the film, with a long history of censorship.

The older of the two daughters tells the other one that the young girl in Frankenstein and the monster were not really killed. It was just fake, but this does little to reduce the fear and anxiety in them.

Even though this was highly rated, I just can't give it more than an average rating. Nothing to really peak my interest. The version I watched had the same jacket cover as Blockbuster shows. It included 2 disks and a small pamphlet. The second disk was for special features including long interviews.
From the pamphlet with link:

The Spirit of the Beehive: Spanish Lessons By Paul Julian Smith
Released in 1973, in the dying days of General Franco’s forty-year dictatorship, The Spirit of the Beehive soon established itself as the consummate masterpiece of Spanish cinema. Yet, strangely, many of the gifted artists who collaborated on Víctor Erice’s first feature, an atmospheric exploration of a child’s experience in a bleak village just after the civil war, have had troubled afterlives. Erice himself, acclaimed by critics as Spain’s greatest auteur, has completed only two features since (The South, another period drama, in 1982, and Quince Tree of the Sun/Dream of Light, a documentary on a painter, in 1983). The career of Luís Cuadrado, the creator of the luminous cinematography, was tragically cut short by blindness. Ana Torrent, the six-year-old star, remains haunted by the role that made her a Spanish icon. In 2003, on the thirtieth anniversary of The Spirit of the Beehive’s release, she posed for the poster for the San Sebastián Film Festival. Re-creating a scene she had shot so many years before, she stood solemn faced on the railway tracks. Erice has said, "When I’ve finished a film, it’s no longer mine—it belongs to the people." Surely few films have had such an enduring effect on both their makers and their audience.

The picture reminded me that the father spent a great deal of time with the two daughters in the fields talking about poisonous mushrooms. Many of the actions seem to portent possible fateful endings for the movie. Ana also goes back and finds one of the mushrooms and looks at it for a while.

On the more close to home aspects, a woman in our complex supposedly killed her daughter yesterday. Ventura mother arrested for allegedly killing 8-year-old daughter | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times
http://www.vcstar.com/photos/galleries/2010/sep/20/child-found-dead-ventura/14995/#section_header
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/sep/21/authorities-try-to-determine-cause-of-childs-in/
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/sep/20/child-found-dead-during-apparent-domestic-in/

The Housekeeper (2002)

2010-09-13T10:54:00.000-07:00

One of France's most respected filmmakers, Claude Berri here brings viewers the story of Jacques (Jean-Pierre Bacri) a middle-aged sound engineer whose wife has just left him. Living on his own for the first time in years, Jacques decides it's high time to clean up his life, literally and figuratively. In short order he hires Laura (Emilie Dequenne, a bright, vivacious young housekeeper, to bring order to his apartment. Laura's presence makes Jacques realize what has been missing from his life, and as their relationship evolves over the subsequent months, both Jacques and Laura gain uncomfortable knowledge of one another, and of themselves. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Theatrical Feature Running Time: 86 mins
The Housekeeper (2002)

It might be more appropriately called "No Rest for the Wicked". It is classic case of girl is the first to fall in love but it becomes transitory and the new love feel is lost by the next good looking thing to come along. In the end Jacques is surrounded by countless people on a French beach but utterly alone, except for maybe his new friend that also recently was divorced which is the mother of the boy that is courting Laura. But the French do love their intermingling complicated relations. A sequel would be just as funny along those lines. The ex-wife does also try to complicate his life in constantly calling and not talking and then finally showing up after Jacques and Laura had made love.

A shallow but funny movie on several levels. Just average at 2.5

The Phantom of Liberty (1974)

2010-09-09T12:09:00.000-07:00

One of Luis Buñuel's most episodic films, The Phantom of Liberty focuses on no one particular narrative. In the beginning, a man sells postcards of French tourist attractions, calling them "pornographic." A sniper in Montparnasse is hailed as a hero for killing passersby. A "missing" child helps the police fill out the report on her. A group of monks play poker, using religious medallions as chips, and in the most infamous sequence, a formally dressed social group gathers at toilets around a table, occasionally excusing themselves to go into little stalls in a private room to eat. ~ John Voorhees, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 104 mins
The Phantom of Liberty (1974)

Technically it seems it should be episodic or not and thus "most" is inappropriate as a adjective in this case. I missed the parts on the "pornographic" postcards, but at one time the small girl gets some pictures of buildings and the parents go through them tearing up the ones they consider in bad taste, i.e. pornographic. Dirty minds find dirty things.

I also missed the monks poker chips, but it was already obvious that the director was having fun with their immodest behavior. As they already were drinking and smoking like chimneys while gambling. But the funny aspect was that they suddenly were offended when one couple in the bed and breakfast got out a whip and the male was being whipped on the bare butt. They both went into the restroom to change-private bath where others shared a common one.

So in one way it was funny that defecating in public was acceptable but eating required a separate room that could be locked. But this was a far cry from the jacket cover as to how funny this film could have been. Some of the "jokes" could have been told in a lot less time. Like the child that was missing in school but then on roll call she says here and then they still proceed to do an investigation for like 18 months.

Bourgeois convention is demolished in Luis Bunuel's surrealist gem The Phantom of Liberty. Featuring an elegant soiree with guests seated at toilet bowls, poker-playing monks using religious medals as chips, and police officers looking for a missing girl who is right under their noses, this perverse, playfully absurd comedy of non sequiturs deftly compiles many of the themes that preoccupied Bunuel throughout his career-from the hypocrisy of conventional morality to the arbitrariness of social arrangements.

Not really demolished and not really bourgeois as do any culture consider excrement as a form of social interaction and eating as something to shun in public?

In hind sight maybe many of the social arrangements are indeed arbitrary but then the analysis would be apolitical and ahistorical. Basically the film had some funny moments including the very perverse nephew that wants to see his aunt naked and at one time tells someone else she is his mother. After much coaxing we get to see the aunt and that was funny enough to see the movie. But overall I could not rate it more than a 2.

When I think back today, The Milky Way, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, and The Phantom of Liberty, which were three original screenplays, seem to form a kind of trilogy, or rather a triptych, as in the Middle Ages. All three have the same themes, sometimes even the same lines; all evoke the search for truth, and the need to flee that truth once we think we’ve found it, and the implacable nature of social rituals. And all deal with the indispensable quest for chance, personal ethics, and the sense of mystery which must be respected.

That was from the introduction to the interview entitled: BUÑUEL ON “THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY”. The library version had a pamphlet which included the interview and also a longer review of the film at The Phantom of Liberty: The Serpentine Movements of Chance By Gary Indiana. Still keeping my rating low for this film but with the variety of information about the ideas behind the film, I will schedule to watch the other two. The purpose more of a thought experiment and research.

Ram Lakhan (1989)

2010-09-02T10:59:00.000-07:00

Director Subhash Ghai also dreamed up the story of the Indian Ram Lakhan. Raakhee plays a widowed mother who lives for revenge. She raises her sons Ram (Jacki Shroff) and Lakhan (Anil Kapoor) with hatred in their hearts. It is her wish that her sons avenge the murder of their father. To that end, both boys become police officers, though one is far more committed to honesty than the other. Like most Indian films, Ram Lakhan is something of an endurance test for western audiences, unfolding its simple tale in an epic 186 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 175 mins
Ram Lakhan (1989)

Only got to see the first hour or so of the movie as the disc did not go past a certain portion of the disc and no matter which new tract I tried it did not play. Maybe rent it again as it was a traditional family on revenge and the effects it has on its members. The self entitled song Lakhan sings is funny and whimsical. A little like Ram Jaane but more humorous.

15 Park Avenue (2005)

2010-09-02T10:37:00.001-07:00

It was most definitely not worth a 5 rating that Seema S. gave the film at Blockbuster: 15 Park Avenue (2005).

15 Park Avenue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The film is the story of the relationship between a woman, Meethi, (Konkona Sen Sharma) who suffers from schizophrenia, and her sister Anjali (Shabana Azmi).

Meethi (short for Mitali) hails from an upper middle class family, fraught with a complex relationship structure. She is the child through the second marriage of her mother, and this is not explored in much detail in the movie since it focuses on other issues. Anu, her older sister, is a professor of physics at a university, who is shown to be intellectual and practical; however, the paradox in her character becomes obvious when she decides to forsake her personal life for her ailing younger sister. This shows her in a different light, and the viewer sees the contradiction throughout the movie.

Meethi is shown to have dormant schizophrenic traits since childhood, as depicted in the scene where Anu tells her doctor Kunal Barva (Dhritiman Chatterjee) that Meethi had always been a loner. Meethi felt everyone could hear her swallowing or gulping and so was embarrassed to go to school. Anu believes that a traumatic gang rape by political goons during Meethi's work assignment has pushed her over the edge and has led to the onset of full-blown schizophrenia.

Meethi lapses into incoherent delusions about a happy family and children which have been her erstwhile dreams. (In reality, her fiance Jojo (Rahul Bose) backed out from the relationship.) Clutching on to these straws, she desperately looks for her home 15 Park Avenue, where she feels she will be at peace. A chance meeting with her Jojo, 11 years after they broke up, gives Meethi a further impetus into her delusional world, as she touchingly trusts him to look for her home since now he is an outsider whom she does not recognise. For Meethi, the world is divided into her imaginary home and the outsiders, who keep her from going to her "family."

Guilt is a predominant colour in the landscape of this movie, depicted in the persona of every character, be it Anu, Joydeep or Mrs. Mathur (Waheeda Rehman). Iit is in the background of this tale of reality, illusion and the thin line between the two.

Very little subtitles as English was the primary language. Strong accents but was acceptable in understanding the cast. But it just did not do anything for us. I rated it as a miserable 1 as this seemed to have little value. The ending seemed weird and in a way, the real world we were exposed to could have actually been the dream and that she returned to the real world after finding her home. The director did not seem to give us enough clues for either conclusion. This makes it a perfect example of reset button technique again, which I consider not a very good technique in films.

The scenes were slow moving and the dialogue tedious at best. Some films work good at building suspense but this was just dead air space...

Things I Left In Havana (1997)

2010-08-23T12:28:00.000-07:00

Veteran director Manuel Gutierrez Aragon provided a portrait of Cubans in Spain with this Spanish film, a winner of the Silver Spike at the 1997 Valladolid Film Festival. Three sisters -- aspiring actress Nena (Violeta Rodriguez), timid Ludmila (Broselianda Hernandez), and motherly Rosa (Isabel Santos) -- travel from Havana to Madrid to stay with their aunt Maria (Daisy Granados). Aboard the same plane is Barbaro (Luis Alberto Garcia), who stays with penniless but streetwise Igor (Jorge Perugorria), a man who thinks sleeping with Spanish women is the route to upward mobility. The impoverished Igor also creates forged passports to help others depart for Miami. The three girls move in with Maria, who lives downstairs from her friend Azucena (Kiti Manver). Minus papers, the trio is employed at Maria's fur shop. Matchmaker Maria brings Rosa together with awkward Javier (Pepon Nieto), but Javier goes for Nena instead. So does Igor after he spots Nena in a Cubano bar. Igor sleeps that night at Azucena's place, and the proximity to the sisters during the long night's journey into day makes a commotion and fracas almost a certainty. The film's music blends rumba, bolero, and tango. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 110 mins
Things I Left In Havana (1997)

Dust Jacket:
Funny, poignant, and refreshing. THINGS I LEFT IN HAVANA sensitively explores the sense of loss felt by immigrants who discover that their dreams come with a high price. Three Cuban sisters come to Spain in search of a better life, but they must contend with exploitation and seduction as they pursue the capitalist dream.

Forced by their aunt (Daisy Grenados) to work in her fur store, they are each in turn seduced by Igor,a dashing gigolo who barters sexual favors for the freedom in America that exit visas provide.

Actually, the movie is more about how to get legal papers so they can work in Spain and I saw no real mention of "America". Igor although a gigolo has serious cash flow problems as the girls do also.

Javier is seduced by the timid Ludmila, after being rudely rejected by Nena in public with Igor. She asks about his experiences in seeing naked women and he finally confesses that he has only seen his mother naked and at which time she slaps him. He remembers the way the breasts swayed back and forth. Ludmila then proceeds to show one breast and let him squeeze it a bit and then plays with his chest.

Basically a cute movie and the reviews are right that there is a conflict on what to do. Although Ludmila refuses to go back and as such she takes on the responsibilities that Rosa fails at to make sure that the family has money, Nena has doubts and thinks about going back after her struggles to get papers and to find rewarding work for an actress. She also is upset with her director as he waters down the script and makes it more pro-capitalistic.

Berkeley in the Sixties (1990)

2010-08-20T12:39:00.000-07:00

Berkeley in the Sixties takes a fond, if not always loving, look back at the epicenter of leftist political activism during the seventh decade of the 20th century. The free speech movement caught national attention in 1964 when the University of California tried to suppress activists distributing literature and making speeches in an outdoor plaza on campus. On December 3, Governor Edmund "Pat" Brown ordered the arrest of demonstrators who had occupied the University's Sproul Hall; over 1,500 protestors were taken into custody in what was then the largest mass arrest in U.S. history. The escalation of the Vietnam War kept the winds of dissent blowing in Berkeley, and TV coverage of the 1964 demonstrations and subsequent clashes with the police fueled similar protests on other campuses. Off-campus, Berkeley was also home to a strong chapter of the Black Panther Party, which offered a more violent alternative to the established civil rights organizations. Vintage clips of the demonstrations and official reactions to them from Brown and his successor, Ronald Reagan, are supplemented by contemporary interviews with activists and observers who offer both reminiscences of and perspectives on the period. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 117 mins
Berkeley in the Sixties (1990)

A more balanced approach of the subject than I originally thought it would be. Maybe one reason that I had not heard it mention as often as the other radical documentaries like The Weather Underground (2003), and Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (2003).

The archival footage is worth just watching that. Including a longer version in the special features of Ronald Reagan giving a speech about the radicals at Berkeley. I think he was right what he said although on some level of course the students had some rights to express their opinions.

Special Features:
There were certainly lots of special features segments but sadly no running commentary. Some of the additional clips did have some small statement about the individual clips in text.

1. Archival Gems:

A. Kennedy Girls-"A clip from the 1960 television news documentary called "Youths in Politics"," singing "High Hopes".
B. Free Speech Movement Victory Celebration. Gloating basically and ironically arranged just before the humbled Hells Angels' clip.
C. Hell Angels' Press Conference. "The Hells Angels attack the first march against the war in Vietnam. A month later, when another march occurs, the Hells Angels are ordered by the court to stay away. So they call a press conference at their bail bonds-woman's office, hosted by Sonny Barger, head of the Oakland Chapter. Pay attention to the line at the end; the picture cuts away but the audio is priceless."
I was unaware of their objection of the anti-war crusaders. They make it appear that the HA were randomly picked out. I am sure that somehow the anti-war groups must have appealed to the courts. "People's have been calling us that for years." in reference to a question about being guerrillas in North Vietnam. Anyway, this does point out the irony that certain groups "free speech" was violated to promote the whims of the "Free Speech Movement". LOL.
D. Friends of Lone Ranger Rally. Idiots talk about "Yellow Submarine".
E. Ken Kesey {leading figure of the counter-culture} @ Acid Test Graduation. Perplexed!? Just a bus with the slogan on side and an interview with reporters. Just publicity stunt and even most in the present time carry it off better with actual "testers" showing up.
F. "Tim Leary's strange journey from Harvard researcher to LSD guru led him to San Francisco and some provocative pronouncements." Which was 22 seconds of "learn from your kids and turn on to LSD".
G. Robert Mitchum {stranger argument?} on Vietnam. "Can't pull out of human race." But then he does say drop the bomb on them if they can't behave.
H. "Grow Up!" "As governor, Ronald Reagan battled student unrest at Berkeley and elsewhere throughout the '60s. His most famous comment- "If it takes a bloodbath, let's get it over with"-we could not find on film. But we found lot of other barbs, including this favorite."
Makes me wonder if he actually said it and if so, what was the context. Certainly agree with "Grow up!" though.
I. Runaway Girls {Haight-Ashbury}. Sandra Smith {14} ran away 3 times and showed that she was a truly confused child.
J. Joan Baez at Stop the Draft Week. Two and half minutes of rough cut outtakes and Joan chewing bubble gum and then being arrested.
K. Black Panthers' Free Breakfast Program. "The Black Panthers ran a free breakfast program for kids. Here you'll see part of a story about it, a taste of Revolutionary zeal or absurdity."
Black is beautiful! But they are not "black" just as I am not "white".

2. Deleted Scenes

A. Beginnings of a Student Movement
B. "Don't Trust Anybody Over Thirty"
C. Continuation of the Anti-War Movement Scene.
D. "A Bunch of Beatniks, Radicals and Filthy Speech Advocates...". Ad homs against Ronald Reagan.
E. The Rise of Black Power.
F. The Mood of '68-A Tale of Two Campaigns. Or in other words the violence and destruction of the Democratic Party from the beatniks, radicals and filthy speech advocates... LOL. It was over 10 minutes of length, and some brief nudity-floppy tits bouncing.
G. First Stab at an Ending. True but when a film about peace using brutal and militaristic language, we have to wonder if it was truly based on peace, no?> Admitting that the movement transformed into "petty bourgeoisie" and petty capitalism as well as the stereotypical drugs, sex and rock and roll-or the description that Reagan gave them. Delusional talk about how they actually changed the direction of the war. If nothing else, I think they actually hurt ending the war. But that is something that I need to analyze that question in more depth.

3. Archival Photo Gallery {Collection of photos around the same places and events as the film.}
4. Original Theatrical Trailer
5. Trailer Gallery:

A. The Trials of Henry Kissinger ***
B. 42UP
C. Fighter

Paris (2008)

2010-07-30T10:56:00.000-07:00

Love and life pose dilemmas for a handful of friends in the City of Lights in this romantic drama from French filmmaker Cedric Klapisch. Pierre (Romain Duris) has enjoyed a successful career as a dancer performing in Parisian nightclubs, but when he's diagnosed with a serious heart condition, his doctor warns him that the strain of his work could kill him. Pierre must reinvent his life, and as he ponders his future and his mortality, he turns to his sister, Élise (Juliette Binoche), a social worker and single mother, for help. Élise is facing some life changes of her own; she's tired of being alone, and has developed an infatuation with Jean (Albert Dupontel), a grocer who sells his wares in the city's open-air market. But Jean is recently divorced and is still preoccupied with his former wife, Caroline (Julie Ferrier). Pierre also finds himself falling from afar for a lovely college student named Laetitia (Melanie Laurent), but he has a rival for her affections in Roland (Fabrice Luchini), one of her professors, who is considerably older than her. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Paris (2008)

Not really a "handful of friends" but more like the lives intertwining and the relationships as they develop. We both felt the professor was clearly overstepping his bounds and did not have reasonable expectations for the relationship. The lives become more intertwined but on superficial levels when Élise pretends to do a survey on Laetitia so that she could find out if she was single and her younger boyfriend shows up. During the interview, Pierre is watching across the street in his flat and how he first saw her.

Basically a nice little film about life, love and death. It was one of the most funny French movies I have seen. The part with the professor and Laetitia is funny but sad.

Rocky (2005)

2010-07-28T13:50:00.000-07:00

No review or much information at Blockbuster{Rocky (2005)} but funny the comment from another member:

Don't be misled by this title like I was, this is not "Rocky" with Sylvester Stallone, this is a foreign film! It may be good, but I didn't even watch it because I thought I was renting Rocky the boxing movie for my son. I didn't know there could be two movies with the exact same name. So beware and read ALL the small print when renting a movie.

Of course, I was just as silly to post a review of Kisna on Rocky. Duh.

I did choose this film based on desire to see more of Isha Sharvani from watching the film Kisna. The biography notes that Rocky was not successful. Maybe they should have used more of Isha's dance skills/physical talents! Some photos of her also at Isha Sharvani Photo Gallery.

Interestingly enough the second heroine of Rocky in the movie is born in the same year as Isha {1985} and is even more beautiful. Her biography is at Minissha Lamba.

It does not do credit for the beautiful dancing but this clip from YouTube is worth a watch: Junoon from "Rocky: The Rebel";. They also had a short 6 second clip of dancing in London at: Rocky Dance Clip - Zayed Khan. And lastly another longer clip: Rocky The Rebel Dil Rang Le Saavn com

Overall a nice film, and presents different sides of what is the role of citizens in a liberal democracy. Even one part presents an Indian that gets too involved for his own good and not knowing the whole story concerning an incidence of violence on the streets. He turns out to be the brother of the first heroine Isha.

Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (2004)

2010-07-24T18:32:00.000-07:00

While the Fox News cable network has promoted itself as a "fair and balanced" news outlet -- so much so that they've even trademarked the phrase -- not everyone believes that they're living up to their slogan, and this activist documentary by filmmaker Robert Greenwald takes a close look at the political perspective of Fox's coverage. Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism examines the right-wing slant of Fox News' reporting, as represented in stories the network chooses to cover and their shoehorning of editorial opinion into stories, revealed in interviews with former Fox employees and several noted journalists (including Walter Cronkite) who discuss the pro-conservative, anti-Democratic views of the channel's management and how they're manifested in their programming. The film also puts talk show host Bill O'Reilly under the microscope and offers potent examples of his frequently abrasive interviewing style. Production of Outfoxed was supported in part by the leftist political action network Moveon.org. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 110 mins
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (2004)

For special features it contains a "Behind the Scenes Featurette" of almost 30 minutes. The producers and people working on the film seem like normal everyday people. I would even say every day working people and capitalists trying to make a buck. For example Michael Moore is the biggest capitalist around, literally and figuratively. But the people that watched and reported on the Fox News channel programs were completely and totally losers. They got together a bunch of libtarded idiots and then had them watch something against their ideology. About as useful as a bunch of ultra conservative ideologues watching MSNBC for 24 hours a day. I do have to admit that I have the same general feelings when I watch the propaganda from MSNBC. And historically, CNN was even more outwardly biased during the 80s and not much was ever mentioned about that at the time-at least from the left wing nuts.

This weekend I had the chance to listen and watched part of the NBC-Meet the Press program. Even though they are suppose to have a couple of conservatives it really was a hate fest of the right. They had Peter Schiff which was reluctant to say anything on the race issues except that all groups of people have racists in their midst as in Democrats and Republicans. And they had David Brooks, which he may be many things but not a true blooded conservative. The part that was most shocking was that "right-wing" or "ultra-right-wing" was thrown about with complete ease and not one "left-wing" was hurled. The conservatives were confined in their dialogue but not so for the Libtards at the meeting. Including one saying that Obama needs more outside advisers and implying more black representations. Obviously those advisers would be considered ultra-left-wing-wackos but was not even brought up.

Anyway, just as I suspected so supposedly my rating is too low at .5 but that was about the usefulness of the movie. One obvious problem with their approach is that while they accuse Fox of blurring the line between journalism and editorializing they also confuse the issues while bringing up the commentary sections without noting it is not even addressed as news. If they had wanted to uncover the differences they needed to get another example such as comparing Fox to MSNBC. It is like the scale then becomes whatever they desire with their liberal talking points and views.

Here is another interesting blog post at: Matthews: The NBA Uses Affirmative Action For Whitey.

McLibel: Two Worlds Collide (1997)

2010-07-24T18:29:00.000-07:00

This documentary tells the story of two ordinary people that dared to take on one of the world's largest corporations. Viewers will see not only how the 1.8 billion dollars that McDonald's spends on advertising affects their bottom line, but how it manages to gloss over the unsavory aspects of their operations. The program also considers the extraordinary lengths a company like McDonald's will go to protect its own image. ~ Rob Ferrier, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 85 mins
McLibel: Two Worlds Collide (1997)

Basically a couple of Libtarded fools expressing their hate for the way society is formed and McDonalds was only a scapegoat and a symbol for their own self loathing. Most definitely not "heroes of our time" as one fat libtard said about them. In several locations they talk about what is happening to society, so to pick one target seems so ironic. The one question that never gets answered for me was, Why McDonalds? Why not all fast food and for that fact most diets in the UK and USA? Why not the hot-dog vendor down the street? He supplies a product that is harmful to the body and has a limited and thus unbalanced diet for a consumer. Heck, it probably is destroying the enviroment and destruction of the rain forest and his customers might not get everything into the garbage cans also. Heaven forbid!!!

The basic win for the two libtards was changes in Libel laws in the UK. Now that might be something to celebrate but the whole case clearly was a win for McDonalds based on the laws as they were at the time when McDonalds filed suit. There really is not freedom of speech in the UK at least at what most Americans would consider it, and similar situations seem to happen in Europe and Canada. All the good "Social Democracies".

The lies are like one after another. For example McDonalds is forcing people to do certain actions against their will. "This is not a battle between the two libtards and McDonalds"-lol. Actually it was as they had no other reason to go after McDonald's. They even brag about not paying the judgement against them of 60,000 £s.

I personally have no loyalty to McDonalds and rarely go there. But there is a something I detest most is biased attacks on "corporations" when all they hate is society. McDonalds will produce whatever their customers want-nothing more-nothing less.

1. Diets {}: Why would it be assumed that consumers would only be eating McDonalds food? Just like the silly movie 30 days {Super Size Me}. Just think of living off a hot dog vendor as mentioned earlier. Nutritious food is not the same as "Healthy food".

2. Advertising at children{}: So what? Adults have complete power as they have the purse-strings. Just grow up libtards. Oh, and ruined their self serving "good deads". "Exploit Children"?

Secret recordings seems a little underhanded and dirty. And allowed grandstanding by the two libtards.

3. Cynically exploit their workers???: That does not even have a logical bases of complaining. Dehumanizing is explained by a fat slob. The libtarded girl explains that she started a job at a bar. Probably no union membership there and just as exploited by the workers at McDonalds. Low wages depresses wages for others in the same industry is another example of the lies. If McDonalds did not hire then there would have been more supply of laborers and not less. Illogical libtards.

4. Detrimental to environment: Again just complaints about corporations and not necessarily any different for McDonalds-which is just a complaint about the society at large. The Libtards stated made the case that they are responsible for the litter of their packages. Destroying rain forests-which actually is right that McDonalds just purchases the raw meat on the wholesale level.

5. Cruel and inhumane to the animals. Again they are not directly involved with the raise of the animals. Here they should have gone after KFC or any other chicken supplier to the society. The judge went against McDonalds but that was pure stupidity.

McDonalds lost on:
Exploit Children.
Misleading advertising-Should have been the same for the Libtards.
Cruel to Animals.
Antipathetic to unions.
Pay low wages. The longer version talks about minimum wage which is a joke since many of the people probably would be unemployed if not for McDonalds.

Won on Libel for 60k pounds:
Heart disease & cancer.
Food poisoning.
Third world starvation. What a fucking joke that they even published such shit!!!
Rainforest destruction.
Bad working conditions.

They even brag about not paying and having no intentions to do so their moral obligations when they lost in court!!! Talk about hypocrisy! If McDonalds refused to pay in a court case, then the libtards would have protested that for decades and it would have ended up in a movie such as this.

As clearly can be shown here, these people are useful idiots...

Tera Naam

2010-07-19T14:49:00.000-07:00

Blockbuster does not have a single bit of information and even the year made is not included in the title, Tera Naam. At Tere Naam - Wikipedia, they also don't have much to say:

Tere Naam (Hindi: तेरे नाम, English: In your name) is an Indian Hindi film. The film was directed by Satish Kaushik and released on 15 August 2003. The film stars Salman Khan and Bhoomika Chawla in leading roles. It is a remake of the 1999 Tamil film Sethu.[1]

The film is about Radhe Mohan (Salman Khan), a rowdy ex-college boy who, after a ragging (hazing) session, loses his heart to first year student Nirjara (Bhoomika), a traditional Brahmin girl. Just when Nirjara reciprocates his love, Radhe is attacked by a gang of thugs, loses his mind and is admitted to an asylum where, it is hoped, the more traditional means of treatment could have a therapeutic effect on him.

It nearly ends as the Shakespeare play "Romeo and Juliet" with at least one of them taking their own life which was needless and unnecessary. They also show the mental hospital as nearly worse than the conditions that Kalki had to suffer under in Matrubhoomi (2003). Living conditions that most people would die in within a short time especially with an open wound. The part that was unforgivable was his friends and family abandoning him there when they knew the conditions he was living under.

He "loses his mind" because they ram his head into a steel beam at the railroad station. We kind of expected the usual revenge and hero comes out on top and most definitely not this time.

Rated lower since it was badly written for reality. One actor said the asylum was a prison where they do nothing to cure and make people worse off and that certainly was the case.

Here is a video of the college where they meet Tera Naam. His dancing is funny especially the hip motions. It reminded us of the Red Fort although it is suppose to be a college campus.

lahorigate

Nada + (2002)

2010-07-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

Juan Carlos Cremata's comic look at how the Cuban government affects its citizens, Nada + (Nothing More), is a film about a female postal worker. Thais Valdes plays the woman who dreams of living with her mother and father in Miami while dealing with her horrible boss (Daisy Granados). She livens up her existence by romantically responding to the correspondence she is supposed to deliver. Nothing More was screened during the Director's Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 88 mins
Nada + (2002)

A cute little film that contains a lot of whispering of the letters she writes-supposedly in a romantic mood. Other than than the ridiculous romantic voice the rest is a funny film with a lot of slapstick comedy including one chase scene close to the end. The film is filmed in B&W with a little colorization for select items in the various scenes. Like her yellow pencil or a dress or a cartoon butterfly that flies around in the scenes. Along with the colorization the side characters are a motley crew of misfits of society including one of her supervisors that is cross eyed crazy lady and one that is a mad scientist and is protected by an overzealous subordinate, and of course her immediate supervisor that is filled with rage when she thinks that Carla is somehow stealing.

I was a little surprised at its portrayal of the run-down condition of Cuba. Maybe they think it is fine but even her job is just merely stamping the letters by hand one at a time at a desk. Clearly a job better suited for any simple machine to do. Carla is clearly bored with this meaningless job and ventures into people's lives to live vicariously through their writings. In the opening scene they show an outside phone that almost looked like it needed a crank to start it. Must have been 50 years old or older.

It is funny that she gets postcards from Miami and it is really fat women on the beach. I wonder if it was to portray Americans as fat slobs???

A nude scene in a bath tub which had little to do with the overall message of the film. Most of the bonus features were just text of the history of Cuba {Film in Context}, Director Biography, and a short photo gallery.

Jacket cover texts:

Carla, a postal worker in Havana, fulfills her romantic longings by opening letters and rewriting them into passionate prose before sending them out again to their intended recipients. After her co-worker Cesar catches her, Carla turns her amorous talents on him.

Beautifully filmed in black and white with accents of brilliant color, Cuba's 2003 Oscar entry combines visual humor, poetry, satire of Cuban bureaucracy and lighthearted love story.

Looks like I might have to check out more films with Thais Valdes. Rating: Rating: 4.5 (/5)

Kisna

2010-07-08T14:29:00.000-07:00

Kisna is a Hindi film that was released in 2005, starring Vivek Oberoi (who plays the title role), Antonia Bernath, and Isha Sharvani. The musical film is set in the British India of the tumultuous 1940s when Indian nationalists fighting for the country's independence rose up as one[dubious – discuss], urging the British Raj to leave. It is a love story about two people who are torn between Karma (the noble deed) and Dharma (the duty). The film has two veteran composers, A. R. Rahman and Ismail Darbar; the lyrics were written by Javed Akhtar. This film also marks Amrish Puri's final performance. The film, however, did not perform well at the box office.
Synopsis
Kisna befriends a British girl named Katherine (Bernath), and then shields her from an enraged mob of nationalists including Kisna's own uncle and brother. Katherine is the young daughter of a ruthless British collector. Kisna takes it upon himself to escort Katherine to the safety of the British High Commission in New Delhi, who will arrange for her to board a ship home. A tender attraction develops between Kisna and Katherine during the journey. Latchmi (Shravani), Kisna's Indian fiancée, forms the third point in an emotional triangle involving the Indo-British romantic pair.
Cast
* Vivek Oberoi ... Kisna Singh
* Isha Sharvani ... Lakshmi
* Antonia Bernath ... Catherine
* Polly Adams ... Lady Katherine
* Amrish Puri ... Bhairo Singh
* Om Puri ... Juman Masum Kishti
* Yashpal Sharma ... Shankar Singh

Kisna: The Warrior Poet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A beautiful love story about sacrifice and love even if the love can not be fully implemented and reciprocated by both parties. In classic Indian self sacrifice motif, Kisna could not partake of the love between them, even though Kisna risked all to save Catherine. He showed not only his Karma side by his stand to rescue Catherine from the mobs and even family members seeking revenge in Catherine's death but also his Dharma side by eventually stating his desire to go back to marry Latchmi.

All the women in the film were pretty and above average but Isha Sharvani was amazingly beautiful and her dancing was superb. The previews shows only her feet twirling on the ground at like a 45% angle. It was done with a rope she holds while twirling. She also does some very outstanding acrobatics including the lotus position with the ropes holding her up. She plays her jealousy well and her relatives try to explain and help her cope with these emotions. She is very devoted to her religion but it avails her little in calming her mad lust.

The older Catherine is used as a story filler and book ends which was similar to movie Titanic.

Kisna

Kisna videos, trailers, songs. Kisna Hindi Movie Film. Kisna Movie Clips, Music Videos and Trailers - SmasHits.com

Bewafaa (2004)

2010-07-08T14:21:00.000-07:00

Anjali, the young, vibrant daughter of an Indian father and Canadian mother moves to New Delhi to marry her late sister's husband. At the time she thinks she is doing the right thing as she can help raise her two nieces. However, in doing so she leaves behind her first love, Raja. Will she be able to live with the personal sacrifices she has made for the good of others, or will her decision come back to haunt her?
Genres: Drama and Romance
Running Time: 3 hrs. 00 min.
Release Date: August 27, 2004 Limited
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Distributors:
Eros Entertainment
Bewafaa (2004) - Movie Details - Yahoo! Movies

Definitely too long of movie again. The late sister's husband turns out to be a manipulator and not a generally nice guy but all Indian women have to suffer in the films so her fate and her decision is beyond her own self interest at heart including the two children she raises for 3 years before fate makes her decide again which direction and which man to follow. Of course the decision becomes easier as Raja also shows his dark side and unwillingness to just let it go...

Overall just an average film.
Nothing from Blockbuster at Bewafaa (2004).

WAQT: The Race Against Time (2005)

2010-06-22T10:46:00.000-07:00

Nirmal K. {3 Stars}
Yes it definitely worth watching once!! Got some foot-tapping tracks and nice choreography!!
----------------------------
Bijal P. {5 Stars}
Excellent, tear jerker, but what a great family story. Amitabh was brilliant as usual. Still thinking about the movie! Classic!
-----------------------------
Samera J. {5 Stars}
This movies will stand the test of time, it is a classic. I cried every time I see it, the actors did a wonderful job!!!!

WAQT: The Race Against Time (2005)

No movie review provided by Blockbuster and the above are comments from Blockbuster members. We both gave it low marks as this film was nothing more than a long soap opera with endless maudlin dialogue. It could have been an interesting film if it was about 75 minutes in length and not so much crying even by the strong son that weeps at nearly every scene. We were like, you are a man, grow up!!!

Wiki treats it more like a comedy at Waqt: The Race Against Time. With nearly the last 20 minutes of crying then I could hardly call it a comedy unless you treat the characters as tragic worthless people. But this in fact is an important issue and how do families raise the next generation in a land of plenty. Not just for the rich but poor alike are getting obese and have an easy life filled with video games and TV.

Laxman was only mildly amusing and clearly no one I would have around as a "servant". I could only assume that at times he deliberately avoided work by being stupid. Thus, even though the father is trying to alter his son to become a man, he also has a problem correcting the behaviors of others including his staff. Thus, it would be hard to imagine that the father could have been as successful as they portrayed him to be. And the in-laws also were very rich. Pooja had a swimming pool in her bedroom. We thought about it and it sounds like a bad idea. They did beautifully contrast that with the "outhouse" the father offers them with not a stitch of furniture. Pooja plays the dutiful wife as willing to sacrifice greatly for her love for the son. She even refuses to either go back to her parents or move in to the father's house temporarily when pregnant. Pooja is the Mother India character in this film.

Matrubhoomi (2003)

2010-06-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

Young Indian filmmaker Manish Jha writes and directs the French-Indian co-production Matrubhoomi (A Nation Without Women). In rural India of the near future, a small village has been reduced to a violent state of barbarianism. Because of the immoral tradition of female infanticide, the town is populated exclusively by brutish men. Nevertheless, wealthy Ramcharan (Sudhir Pandey) still tries to arrange a marriage for his eldest son Rakesh (Pankaj Jha). He manages to purchase the only woman around, Kalki (Tulip Joshi), who ends up serving all five of his sons. The violence only escalates from there. A Nation Without Women was shown at the 2003 Venice Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Matrubhoomi (2003)

Kalki not only has to serve the 5 sons but also serving the father which then in a twist of betrayal reveals her father to be simply a Pimp asking for more money as the number of men getting "servicing" increased. What they end up doing to her is clearly unimaginable and would have meant the death for most people as she was chained up and raped repeatedly.

I give this film high praise for dramatic script and originality. I would truly like to see more Indian films that delved into science fiction. Although this is meant to be in the near future as the villages just started getting cellular phones, it is still sci-fi in that the world has never experienced that degree of misogynistic. The opening scene is an ancient one of a female child that is drown in a tub of milk.

But honestly, although they are making a point about how many women are aborted or infanticide of females in India, it is very unlikely that such a scenario would come to fruition. It was even noted in the film that it was no longer the family of the women that paid dowry but the shortage of women caused the price of available women to skyrocket. Thus the economics would bring the pendulum closer to the natural selection process. There would be increased incentives for people to have women to fill the need for sex and marriage and to even have a son...

Watched any good Sci-Fi Indian films? Let me know.

Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)

2010-06-07T15:27:00.000-07:00

John Ford's fine direction distinguishes this highly fictionalized account of the early life of Abraham Lincoln. The film shows Lincoln (Henry Fonda) as he rises from a country boy born in a log cabin to a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois defending two young men unjustly accused of murder. The film, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, received an Academy Award nomination for "Best Original Screenplay" for its screenwriter Lamar Trotti. Henry Fonda perhaps the most American of actors, is at his best playing Lincoln as the quintessential, compassionate American hero. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 100 mins
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)

One of the most memorable scenes in the movie is the YouTube video: Lynch mob scene from Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford.

Strangely, or just good editing and shooting techniques, I missed who did the murder. So in essence it was just as unexpected as it was to the jury. Of course this meant that Lincoln was playing the part of Perry Mason where the guilty break under pressure of the witness stand, and in this case even out of the box.

Interesting but not sure the worth in political science classes.

The World of Apu

2010-06-04T16:08:00.000-07:00

Apu, a college graduate living alone in an attic apartment in Calcutta, spends his time working on a novel aspiring to become a writer. He marries his friend's sister, as a favor, but his wife soon dies during childbirth. Apu refuses to see his son and, overcome by grief, leaves Calcutta and wanders through the countryside, renouncing everything. His old friend looks for him and finds him working at a remote coal mine and implores him to return and take responsibility for his son. He goes back and finds himself drawn to his 5-year-old who is distrustful of him at first, but eventually, a bond is formed and, together, they set out for Calcutta.
Also Known As:
Apur Sansar
The Apu Trilogy
The Masterworks of Satyajit Ray
Production Status: Released
Genres: Drama and Sequel
Running Time: 1 hr. 46 min.
Release Date: October 4th, 1960 (limited)
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Distributors:
Sony Pictures Classics
Produced in: India
The World of Apu (1959) - Movie Details - Yahoo! Movies

The movie ends as they decide to adventure to Calcutta but the son is not aware of the man being his father. A very delightful film that shows the strong societal influences on the father to do the right thing. The wife also feels emotionally divided as the life they start to live in Calcutta was not what she wanted as her family came from the upper castes. She alone carries this burden not wanting to upset her husband. She shows her love to him but decides to move back to her parents home-presumably to have the child. They state the separation is to be just a couple of months but the next scene has Apu receiving news that the mother died in childbirth. He physically attacks the messenger in his anguish that carries over to his relationship with his son.

The World of Apu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Apu Trilogy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DVD Cover:
"Rich and contemplative and a great, convincing affirmation." -Pauline Kael, The New Yorker

Named the Best Foreign Film of 1960, by the National Board of Review and winner of numerous festival prizes, The World of Apu is the crowning finish to Satyajit Ray's unforgettable Apu Trilogy.

Forced to abandon his education, Apu's prospects look bleak until fate intervenes in the form of an insane bridegroom. To save the abandoned bride from public disgrace, Apu marries her, beginning a new life as husband and father. Like the earlier films in the trilogy Pather Panchali and Aparajito, The World of APu is more than a mesmerizing look at Indian culture; it is a universal look at family love and personal sacrifice. "Rich and contemplative and a great, convincing affirmation." -Pauline Kael, The New Yorker

Although he was a father in the biological sense he was estranged from his son until the son was 5 years old and was not even present at birth.

Appu Raja????

The Americanization of Emily (1964)

2010-06-04T14:18:00.000-07:00

The lively but somehow slightly distasteful The Americanization of Emily stars James Garner as a WWII naval officer who happens to be a craven coward. While his comrades sail off to their deaths, Garner makes himself scarce, generally hiding out in the London flat of his lothario navy buddy James Coburn. Garner falls in love with virtuous war widow Julie Andrews (the "Emily" of the title), but she can't abide his yellow streak. Meanwhile, crack-brained admiral Melvyn Douglas decides that he needs a hero--the first man to die on Omaha Beach during the D-Day Invasion. Coburn is at first elected for this sacrifice, but it is the quivering Garner who ends up hitting the beach. He survives to become a hero in spite of himself, winning Andrews in the process. Paddy Chayefsky's script, based on the novel by William Bradford Huie, attempts to extract humor out of the horrors of war by using broad, vulgar comedy instead of the light satirical touch that would seem to be called for. Americanization of Emily was Julie Andrews' second film; it should have led to a steady stream of adult-oriented roles, but the box-office clout of Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music consigned her to "wholesome family entertainment". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 115 mins
The Americanization of Emily (1964)

Quite an excellent film. I enjoyed it immensely and one of James Garner's best performances. I disagree with it being vulgar-at least by today's standards. But was surprised by the nudity-although only the backs of young women it still has the two men in the room unashamedly looking at them in the nude from their angle. The only part that might be over the top for distasteful dialogue was when Garner's character explained his opinions of war to Andrews' mother with the three of them there.

I liked to see the character development and the back and forth of the romance. Garner's character changed very little but Andrews' showed quite a bit of change in opinion of wars.

While this was portrayed as anti-war and anti-American, it clearly does not meet either criteria from my perspective. First the director even admitted as such on the director's cut commentary. He said that it was not meant as anti-war but over glorification of war, and clearly most good war movies have been that way including most versions of "All Quiet on the Western Front". And even thought the Americans are brass and pompous they still have admirable qualities including generosity. One aspect that might be considered distasteful is the idea of sacrificing individual soldiers for an idea that has no real value. In this case it was to have a Navy soldier be the first to die. I am sure that many died before even hitting the beach as the Germans used mortars, long-range artillery and long barrel riffles that could easily hit and kill soldiers in the open air transports. In real wars many men died as soon as the door of the transport opened up.

This film does a good job in showing the inherent problems of direct authoritarian hierarchical structures when one man decides the fate of an individual or any group of men. If that man is unfit for command because of mental and emotional problems then his/her decisions could be against the welfare of his/her troops.

My wife was right that Garner's character could not die off. I know that most films during that time period could never have a hero die off, I just could not help but think that the anti-war elements would see him die as both the witnesses said he died in battle.

Rodrigo D: No Future (1990)

2010-05-28T13:37:00.000-07:00

Rodrigo D (Ramiro Meneses) is a Colombian youth who aspires to join a punk-rock band. His musical skills are negligible, but Rodgrigo feels sympatico with the punkers: he's angry, alienated and destructive. A member of a motorcycle gang that robs and pillages neighboring communities (several of the "actors" were actual street kids, six of whom were killed after the movie was completed), Rodrigo ends up a "big man" only through use of brute force. He finally ends up in the notorious city of Medellin, where he finds it impossible to escape the drug-and-violence syndrome that he thought he'd left behind in the slums. Rodrigo D: No Future is of historical interest in that it was the first Colombian film to be entered in the Cannes Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 91 mins
Rodrigo D: No Future (1990)

Part of the plot was hard to follow with cuts to seemingly random events. Ultimately this film proves their is no honor among thieves. In his effort to prove his worth he kills a police officer but his new friends quickly abandon him and ultimately actually kill him themselves.

The film also notes how many of the actors had passed away which tragically is the most interesting aspect of the film. Just like many from South America, I find stories like this as predictable and dull. They may have some social justice quality but those facts are not in dispute.

Buffalo Soldiers (2001)

2010-05-26T13:43:00.000-07:00

Australian director Gregor Jordan makes his sophomore effort with this tale about crooked U.S. soldiers based in Germany during the waning days of the cold war. Special Fourth Class soldier Elwood (Joaquin Phoenix) guards against the Soviets while on duty, and rips off the U.S. military while off duty. Handsome, calculating, and thoroughly amoral, Elwood runs a profitable black-market business that operates just below the official radar. He and his associates make drugs to sell to his fellow GIs; steal Army supplies, selling them to a German connection; and a host of other dirty deeds. One day, he and his gang uncover some loot that will land them some real money -- high-tech military weaponry. As they try to quietly offload the stuff, the new sergeant, Robert K. Lee (Scott Glenn), catches on to Elwood's nefarious deeds and sets out to put him out of businesses. Elwood, in turn, catches on to the fact that Lee has a very attractive daughter (Anna Paquin) and sets out to bed her. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
See All Buffalo Soldiers Trailers and Clips

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 99 mins
Buffalo Soldiers (2001)

Watched this with a close relative and she asked if I thought it was anything close to reality. Truly a fictional account but still has elements that appear in any bureaucracy especially government run. Some of the same elements are shown on a more benign level in films like "M*A*S*H" with Radar being similar to efficient Elwood. For example Radar in the last Mash episode I watched he got his CO to sign off a discharge for a sheep that the Greeks has donated to the unit for a party. Radar may have not been doing it for malicious reasons but still he was doing it for personal and not to the betterment of his unit. Stripes also comes to mind about this sentiment of the US military but more with regards to peace time operations.

Before watching the film I came across this: An Interview With Gregor Jordan.

MOVIE CITY NEWS: I imagine that one of the complaints you'll hear about Buffalo Soldiers is that it's just another attempt by Hollywood liberals to slander our proud fighting men and women. Guilty or not guilty?

GREGOR JORDAN: I grew up on an Air Force base in Australia, where my father was a pilot. He fought in Vietnam, so I grew up on war stories and around soldiers.

I don't see this film as anti-American or anti-military. It poses some interesting philosophical questions about warfare, aggression and the need for violence by certain people ... I think that idea really translates well in these characters.

MCN: Obviously, then, you don't see Buffalo Soldiers as being hopelessly dated by the swirl of events in Iraq and Afghanistan?

GJ: It's of its time, yes, but I think the film actually is way more topical now, than it was before. It says that war and warfare are things certain human beings really like and want.

There are warlike people out there who are aggressive and expansionist. Those ideals of the '60s and '70s - you know, "give peace a chance" - seem to be overly romantic.

MCN: That's a fairly extreme notion, especially for a Hollywood movie.

GJ: Warfare is something quite innate in humans ... war was invented way before diplomacy. Today, it is seen as this weird aberration, which only happens when diplomacy breaks down ... and no one really wants war.

This movie suggests that there are people out there who do. This may be a pessimistic viewpoint, but I think it's a fact.

I would say this is anti-military in the least. Mainly for the basic fact that it paints the military as not capable of being just a standing army and has to resort to self destruction. But I put that aside since it does have an important message about failure to value the standing army in peace times as well as war times.

Still worth watching it overall. Rating: 3.5 (/5)

The Cow (1971)

2010-05-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

This highly symbolic Iranian drama (shot in black-and-white) revolves around the most important figure in a remote rural village. That figure is the village's sole cow, owned by Mashdi Hassan (Ezat Entezani). The beginning of the film makes clear just how vital the cow is to the life of the village and how much Mashdi and his neighbors cherish it. When the cow is threatened and then killed by members of a nearby clan, Mashdi becomes so distraught that he is gradually transformed into a cow himself. One highlight of this film is the glimpse it offers into a style of rural life which has gone unchanged for thousands of years. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 100 mins
The Cow (1971)

Dust cover script:

Influenced by Italian Neorealism. The Cow has the beauty and simplicity associated with the great films that movement. In a small village in Iran, Hassan cherishes his cow more than anything in the world. While he is away, the cow mysteriously dies, and the villagers protectively try to convince Hassan the cow has only wandered off. Grief stricken, Hassan begins to believe he is his own beloved bovine.

The Cow won great acclaim at the Venice Film Festival after being smuggled out of Iran in 1971, and was twice voted best Iranian film ever made by a survey of Iranian film critics.

Quite a feat to be voted best especially considering the number of great films I have seen.

At the end, the group watching it will me wondered if the village and Hassan would have been better off if he had been told the truth and allowed a natural grieving process to develop naturally. As not seeing the body, Hassan reacted with disbelief and then the delusions of himself being the cow. If I had been there I would just have asked some questions and if all else fails-try to "milk" his cow.

DVD Bonus Features:
* Interview with Dariush Mehrjui
* Film Notes by Godfrey Cheshire
* Director Biography
* Photo Gallery

A funny little film although I seriously did not find as much substance as the film critics praised it. Not much on social commentary but some may have shown the benefit of showing a culture from the past.

Paths of Glory (1957)

2010-05-24T09:13:00.000-07:00

Adapting Humphrey Cobb's novel to the screen, director Stanley Kubrick and his collaborators Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson set out to make a devastating anti-war statement, and they succeeded above and beyond the call of duty. In the third year of World War I, the erudite but morally bankrupt French general Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) orders his troops to seize the heavily fortified "Ant Hill" from the Germans. General Mireau (George MacReady) knows that this action will be suicidal, but he will sacrfice his men to enhance his own reputation. Against his better judgment, Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) leads the charge, and the results are appalling. When, after witnessing the slaughter of their comrades, a handful of the French troops refuse to leave the trenches, Mireau very nearly orders the artillery to fire on his own men. Still smarting from the defeat, Mireau cannot admit to himself that the attack was a bad idea from the outset: he convinces himself that loss of Ant Hill was due to the cowardice of his men. Mireau demands that three soldiers be selected by lot to be executed as an example to rest of the troops. Acting as defense attorney, Colonel Dax pleads eloquently for the lives of the unfortunate three, but their fate is a done deal. Even an eleventh-hour piece of evidence proving Mireau's incompetence is ignored by the smirking Broulard, who is only interested in putting on a show of bravado. A failure when first released (it was banned outright in France for several years), Paths of Glory has since taken its place in the pantheon of classic war movies, its message growing only more pertinent and potent with each passing year (it was especially popular during the Vietnam era). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 87 mins
Paths of Glory (1957)

Although this film was highly recommend by a friend, and deserves accolades for the film's outstanding portrayal of war {WWI}, it was not the anti-war film from my self appraisal. There is no denying the similarities with the film and book "All Quiet on the Western Front". As such, Paths of Glory was more along the lines of an anti-WWI movie. One that showed the horror of war with a set of strategic paradigms when the weapons of war had changed but the general's approach had not.

Throwing good men after a hill worth nothing proved the war was not worth the costs in young men's lives. When the Americans arrived, they set out to not be boxed by the paradigms currently employed. According to my history class. some strategists had assumed that when their side lost so many that they could calculate the amount lost on the opposing side without a complete assessment.

Ultimately in the end, the authoritarian hierarchical organization only wanted to preserve order and individual lives of the soldiers meant nothing. As the three executed were all innocent compared to what was expected of them and the truly guilty got free. One squad commander had killed one of his men and as such he selected the man that knew it to the court marshal hearings. And lastly, Colonel Dax was sent to the front again. Life expectancy was not long in the front lines and was a punishment for not accepting the field promotion.

PS: I know that I am a little thick but my review is more along that it was an anti-WWI type war. Every war has its own unique circumstances so much of that was specific to WWI, especially the fact that everything was so "civilized" and civil just a few miles away from the battle lines. War was glorious as long as you were a civilian or someone not in the trenches. Much as "All Quiet on the Western Front" portrayed.

Good Kurds, Bad Kurds: No Friends But The Mountains (2000)

2010-05-21T16:49:00.000-07:00

Kevin McKiernan directs this passionate account about the plight of the Kurds, the world's largest minority without a nation. The film opens with McKiernan shopping around his painstakingly researched findings to ABC's Nightline and other news telecasts only to meet complete indifference. From there, he describes the Gunduz family, an exiled Kurdish family. The film cuts between grisly footage from the front lines of Turkey's bloody Kurdish repression to the struggles of Gunduz patriarch Kani, who works as a congressional lobbyist. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Good Kurds, Bad Kurds: No Friends But The Mountains (2000)

It covers some interesting angles about the two brothers that their status regarding immigration is in peril including the one brother has to pay back student loans that he fraudulently obtained with a false ID. The courts set the bail at one time to the ridiculous amount of $250,000.

Dust Cover:
Filmaker and acclaimed freelance journalist Kevin McKiernan poses this question at the outset of this stirring, provocative film shot in part by legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler. It's all in how you define "good" and "bad". "Good Kurds" are those in Iraq: they're Saddam Hussein's victims, whom we want to help. "Bad Kurds" are those waging an armed insurrection against Turkey, an American ally: they're at the receiving end of U.S. weaponry.

McKiernan went to northern Iraq to cover the uprising against Saddam Hussein. Just a few miles away, no one was covering the hidden war in Turkey. McKiernan determined he would report the story independently.

Good Kurds, Bad Kurds brings sharp clarity to a complicated history, while providing disturbing insight into immigration practices and U.S. foreign policy.

While a good introduction to the duopoly of how the US views the PKK, it left out a lot of the history of the PKK and how it has transitioned to more moderate positions. It also did not note any actions that the PKK and other Kurdish groups are doing in Iran, and they would also be defined as the "good Kurds".

Another aspect that I have studied before is how Democracy Now with Amy Goodman also defines in subtle ways the dichotomy of views of the Kurds/PKK being good or bad depending on who they oppose. Throughout the 90s and into 2000 Goodman reported a bias in presenting them based on what state they were acting against. It was like taking the US State Department typography of the ideologies and transposing them 180 degrees. Amy Goodman, et al was not opposing for the fact of being in the right but just opposing all US positions irregardless of facts and circumstances.

Lastly, the film did not note the ties between the Kurds and Israel. The film notes that the Kurds feel that if the Jewish/Palestinian issues are resolved then the world would be more responsive to the requests of the Kurds. These ties also make them "Bad Kurds" in the eyes of Amy Goodman and her ilk.

For presenting a side of the conflicts in Iraq/Turkey rarely discussed this was an excellent film. The film was shot and produced before 9-11 and as such it presents a certain historical picture in time. I am sure he would have produced a much different documentary now.

I see as late as September 2006 Kani "Xulam's" status was still undecided in the USA...
US: Kani Xulam could face deportation 9.2.2006 By Don M. Burrows| The people behind the persecution

Links:
Kani Xulam on Turkish Kurdish relations

American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN)

Chandni Bar (2003)

2010-05-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

Heading to Bombay with her lone surviving relative after she loses her parents and her town is destroyed by religious strife, young Mumtaz (Tabu) has a difficult time adjusting to a place where jobs seems scarce and life is cheap. Informed by distant relative Iqbal (Rajpal Yadav) that the only job available at the time is a position in the sordid Chandni Bar, Mumtaz's guardian, Mamu Irfan, reluctantly accepts the position in order to provide for her young charge. Soon addicted to drugs, Mamu Irfan finds solace only in the company of her equally despondent co-workers. The arrival of corrupt political henchman Potiya (Atul Kulkarni) provides a glimmer of hope as he falls for Mamu Irfan, though after a brief marriage and a pair of children later, Potiya quickly disappears never to be seen again. Despite Mamu Irfan's best efforts to keep Mumtaz and her children shielded from the bleak realities of her own life, fate soon descends a series of crippling blows on the hapless family. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Chandni Bar (2003)

Another long {over 2 hours} melodramatic film depicting the life and lives of women in India. The film is very predictable as characters portent the end result of their family-that destiny and background dictates the future. It was almost like a caste system in place as people are held down by poor decisions or such high level of constraints creating limited possibilities and opportunities.

It was much in the tradition of Mother India (1957) and even one character tells Mumtaz that she is basically Mother India and as such you sill suffer long and hard and same with your children.

The film started out as showing religious persecution but as soon as the two move to Mumbai all former religious out-showings disappear. Most of the men end up being "pimps" and the word is used quite frequently in the film {translation stated "pump" on my version}. Even in the end Mumtaz and her daughter to a lesser degree gets "pimped" out to try to raise money to save the family-specifically the son from prison.

Death of a President (2006)

2010-05-20T15:21:00.000-07:00

The assassination of the most powerful leader in the free world is examined in this controversial mockumentary from British filmmaker Gabriel Range. On October 19, 2007, president George W. Bush is visiting Chicago when he impulsively stops to shake hands with supporters en route to a meeting, while a throng of protesters demonstrate nearby. Shots ring out, and Bush is fatally wounded. As America and its allies deal with the tragic loss of their leader, vice president Dick Cheney is sworn in as the new chief executive, and while he takes the reigns of the nation and pushes new and aggressive anti-terrorism legislation through Congress, the Federal Bureau of Investigation steps into action to track down the gunman. As Secret Service agents and law enforcement officers share their thoughts on how the murder of the president could have been avoided, and people around the globe discuss how Bush's death has tipped the delicate balance of relations between the United States and the Middle East, a Syrian Muslim activist living in Chicago, Jamal Abu Zikri (Malik Bader), is charged with the murder of the president. While no "smoking gun" connects Zikri to the crime, a wealth of circumstantial evidence points to him as the gunman, and he's tried, found guilty, and executed in short order. However, lingering questions persist as some wonder if the F.B.I. found the right man with the right motives. Created using a combination of newsreel footage, computer-generated images, and newly staged material, Death of a President (aka D.O.A.P.) received the International Critics Prize at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival, despite negative reaction from many American political commentators, many of whom were deeply offended by the film's depiction of the assassination of Bush, the sitting U.S. president at the time of the picture's production and release. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 97 mins
Death of a President (2006)

The one special feature of the DVD was a compilation of interviews with the director and others about the film and specifically why they felt a sitting president should be the subject of an assassination film. While I got a better picture of why they did it, it still did not excuse the fact that it glorifies something that would be just as damaging to the USA as 9-11 (IMHO). The obvious reason to do it was because of the ability to use archival footage of news reels and to create a sense of reality that a pure fictional account would lack. So in that sense it had to be created as it was. The actual gun shot scene where the President gets hit, was very well done as it was the real president and then with in a few frames it appears as if he really gets shot and is falling down. I went frame by frame and was amazed at the technical skills for the transition.

The director states that maybe he will do one with Tony Blair but that never materialized. Wonder if he will do one with Obama? Not like he does not have his haters already too. No I am not one of them-although dislike is right up there.

The film is not really kind to all the people that would be likely to assassinate a president even to KKK members, al-Qaeda, war protesters and anarchists etc.

Avatar (2009)

2010-05-20T14:44:00.000-07:00

A paraplegic ex-marine finds a new life on the distant planet of Pandora, only to find himself battling humankind alongside the planet's indigenous Na'vi race in this ambitious digital 3D sci-fi epic from Academy Award-winning Titanic director James Cameron. The film, which marks Cameron's first dramatic feature since 1997's Titanic, follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a war veteran who gets called to the depths of space to pick up the job of his slain twin brother for the scientific arm of a megacorporation looking to mine the planet of Pandora for a valued ore. Unfortunately the biggest deposit of the prized substance lies underneath the home of the Na'vi, a ten-foot-tall, blue-skinned native tribe who have been at war with the security arm of the company, lead by Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). Because of the planet's hostile atmosphere, humans have genetically grown half-alien/half-human bodies which they can jack their consciousnesses into and explore the world in. Since Jake's brother already had an incredibly expensive Avatar grown for him, he's able to connect with it using the same DNA code and experience first-hand the joys of Pandora while giving the scientific team, led by Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) and Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore), some well-needed protection against the planet's more hostile forces.

On a chance meeting after getting separated from his team, Jake's Avatar is rescued by Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a Na'vi princess, who brings him into her tribe in order to give the humans a second chance at relating to this new environment. When word gets out of his increasing time with the alien species, Quaritch enlists Jake to do some reconnaissance for the company, as they'd like to persuade the tribe to move their home before taking more drastic measures to harness the treasure hidden below. Yet as Jake becomes one with the tribe and begins to understand the secrets of Pandora, his conscience is torn between his new adopted world and the wheelchair-bound one awaiting him when the psychic connection to his Avatar is broken. Soon battle lines are drawn and Jake needs to decide which side he will fight on when the time comes. The film was shot on the proprietary FUSION digital 3D cameras developed by Cameron in collaboration with Vince Pace, and offers a groundbreaking mix of live-action dramatic performances and computer-generated effects. The revolutionary motion-capture system created for the film allows the facial expressions of actors to be captured as a virtual camera system enables them to see what their computer-generated counterparts will be seeing in the film, and Peter Jackson's Oscar-winning Weta Digital visual-effects house supervises Avatar's complex special effects. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
Avatar (2009)

Clearly, from all the links below, I was quite curious as how the film would appear to myself. It was nothing special really in terms of changing my opinion and no revelation occurred with the heavens opening up to reveal the splendor of gaia. It was more of the save the biosphere by at least getting the creatures to destroy the evil invading army. Like most films of its ilk, it tries to paint "corporations" as having all power including owning weapons. I seriously doubt that humans would allow that. The example more likely to be reality is Star Trek where government explores areas before trading occurs between civilizations and worlds.

For special effects and just a general fun film to watch, I rate it pretty high, but not too much for intellectual depth.

Links:
Things I learned while watching Avatar: AMERICAN DIGEST

Avatar = what I choose to be

Alternate World, Alternate Technology

Avatar is Great and Libertarian - Stephan Kinsella - Mises Economics Blog

Ironies of Avatar 20 December 2009

Blue Man Group

Not Right-Wing Friendly :: Hollywood Elsewhere

The Movie Avatar: Three Points of Interest « Ernest Bazanye: I Dance The Internet

Why It’s OK for Conservatives to Enjoy Avatar

Audiences experience 'Avatar' blues - CNN.com

Olympia (1938) & Disc II

2010-05-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

Having proven her mettle with her still-astonishing propaganda epic Triumph of the Will, German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl furthered her reputation with the two-part Olympia, an all-inclusive filmed record of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In its original 220-minute form, the film was designed as a paean to Aryan superiority, likening the strong-limbed young German athletes with the godlike participants of the ancient Olympic games. By accident or design, however, the film transcends politics, resulting in an across-the-board tribute to all the Olympic partcipants -- even those whose racial makeup did not come up to the "pure" standards established by the Third Reich. This is especially true in the first portion of the film, in which black American runner Jessie Owens emerges as the star. The second half of the film is the more impressive technically, with Riefenstahl utilizing an astonishing variety of camera speeds and angles to record the diving competition. Working 16 hours a day, seven days a week, Riefenstahl and her staff were often denied desirable camera angles, forcing them to improvise with telephoto lenses; the results are often far more dramatically impressive than the up-close-and-personal approach taken by contemporary TV cameramen. After an editing process that took nearly 18 months, Riefenstahl added icing to the cake with a richly evocative soundtrack -- an added touch which, so far as the filmmaker was concerned, "made" the picture. Inasmuch as the German government was still trying to curry favor with the outside world in early 1938, Olympia was shipped out in various reedited versions, each favoring the athletes of the release country. Many English-language versions avoided any references to Hitler or Nazism -- quite a feat, considering the preponderence of swastikas at the Olympic site. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 204 mins
Olympia (1938)

The opening scene has some creative film making with lots of naked bodies and 3 young adult female athletes topless interacting. Sort of like the gratuitous sexuality of when Showtime had the three ladies doing floor exercises together at late night viewing.

Just as the review above notes, Jessie Owens gets plenty of limelight and was much more balanced {at least on the first disc} than I had heard it was. There did tend to be a little more German jubilance and of course the Swastika but since filmed in Germany it was bound to have some obvious bias.

Overall from the first disc, it was a good historical record of most of the events. The pole vault competition was quite fierce and was one of the most interesting aspects of the film.
I believe the competition was like 9 hours long and well after dark when a winner was decided.

I have decided to watch the second disc, hoping that it will be worth it...

Disc II:
The second disc at least did not disappoint me. Although the main film was much more of the same general news reel type documentary as the first disc, the filming was very good and included many different angles including from the various athlete's perspective.

It starts out with a short clip of the topless young girls on the disc and there is an extended section of young men running around naked and swimming and then going to the sauna. The fencing also was very good although with B/W the narrow blades were hard to see, especially as the contestants were fast.

Bonus Features also made this disc well worth watching it also. They include 1. a biography of the director Leni Riefenstahl which notes that she also did "Triumph des Willens" or better known as RDRutherford Movie Reviews: Triumph of the Will (1934). 2. Deleted scene of the "Olympia Oath" which obviously is a little strange as it closely resembled the Nazi oaths. 3. Alternate scenes of: Sailing, Gymnastics, Fencing, Wrestling, Boxing, Score Boards. 4. Still Gallery. 5. Essay by David Calvert Smith. 6. "Jugend Der Welt"-"Youth of the World" which was the winter Olympic games in Germany but the quality was not as good as the main film-over 30 minutes. 7. "Die Kamera Faurt Mit"-The Camera Goes Along which is a documentary about the filming of the movie.

The Dogs of War (1981)

2010-04-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

Christopher Walken stars in John Irvin's graphic adaptation of Frederick Forsythe's novel about a mercenary sent to overthrow the government of an African country. Walken is Shannon, an American soldier of fortune who has staged incidents in Central America and Africa that helped topple governments. Shannon decides to take on one more mission when American businessman Endean (Hugh Millais), working for a large mining company wanting to move into an African country, hires Shannon to scout out the terrain of the country and see if the government is weak enough to be overthrown. Shannon assumes the guise of a photographer for a nature magazine and travels through the country, meeting a wide-array of people. But the government becomes suspicious of Shannon and throws him in jail, where, between torture sessions, he meets an imprisoned dissident leader. Through his imprisonment, Shannon comes to understand more fully the struggles of the African country. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 119 mins
The Dogs of War (1981)

More of the cheesy variety of films produced in 1981 and along with Stripes. Christopher Walken does a good job on his part even if not much to work with. In the end Christopher's character does the right thing, so not sure if it was meant as anti-war or in fact glorified war or was even anti-imperialist. But in the end there was a heavy cost for the war and interventions.

After Endean gives Shannon $1 million for expenses, Shannon contacts his mercenary cohorts from Central America (3 of whom join him; 1 does not). They meet up at Liverpool Street Station to plan the coup, when all the options have been decided Michel proposes a toast followed by Shannon's reciting his motto "Everyone Comes Home". The group illegally procures Uzi submachine guns, ammunition, rocket launchers, mines, and other weapons from arms dealers.
The Dogs of War (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Unfortunately, I forgot what actor did not join him but was famous enough that I assumed he would come back into the script-which he does not. A film technique that I see often is a minor character will go off in a different direction and when the time is right, they are brought back in to either keep the plot moving along or to "save the day". That is what I expected all along in this film, but either that plot never developed or the writer just wanted to show that someone decided to finally hang up their guns.

The Courtesans of Bombay (1983)

2010-04-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

The Merchant-Ivory team adopts a semi-documentary stance in Courtesans of Bombay. Though several scenes are dramatized, this film is essentially an unadorned look at prostitution in modern India. The film details the impoverished conditions that would prompt otherwise chaste Indian women to seek out employment as "performers"--a euphemism for the World's Oldest Profession, though they do indeed give public dancing and singing performances as a sideline. Indian actress Saeed Jeffrey heads the cast of this Ruth Prawer Jhabvala-scripted "docudrama." Courtesans of Bombay was made for British television, and original telecast in those late hours ostensibly off limits to younger viewers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 73 mins
The Courtesans of Bombay (1983)

Yes, a little romanticizing the oldest profession although "courtesans" has broader meaning than what is implied in the comments above as well as its close link with prostitution. Defining the Courtesan provides a short glimpse into how some may positively view courtesans, as in:

Courtesans were basically mistresses. They were supported by wealthy men who provided them with anything they could ever want. Many such women lived in a more comfortable way then some of the bourgoisie.

The thing that is not discussed is that for the most part that small commune was visited by not "people of the court" but of just middle class and maybe even poor by certain standards. The doors close at night and give an air of respectability but the atmosphere was of one of a brothel as deals were made and some women left with their dates for the night.

The movie was just over an hour and it also was accompanied on the DVD about street music in India. I forgot the name and only watched a part of it, which was also just over an hour long.

Shakespeare Wallah (1965)

2010-04-18T18:16:00.000-07:00

After 45 years, Indian films still are the same:
Sanju: Don't you get tired of your films?
Always the same-
singing, dancing, tears, love.
Manjula: I have played many great dramatic roles in my time.
Every scene where she is acting is just her dancing and singing to contrast with her statement.

While the original Shakespearean actors lives the movie is based on did not like the portrayal of like a life wasted, the movie was much along the lines of other films where certain people and groups do not transfer to the new society well and still hang on to old dreams and structures that may not in fact exist. The film that comes to mind first is Good Bye Lenin! The interviews actually mention that the original idea for the movie was for an India troop of actors to go around doing the plays but then it was considered that no Indian actor of the quality to perform Shakespearean plays would agree to behave like gypsies going from place to place to perform. Thus the diary of the mother of the Shakespearean troop was used to create the screenplay.

Lizzie (Felicity Kendal) is an actress in a Shakespearean theater troupe that has seen better days. The troupe tours India to dwindling crowds who are less interested in all things British in the wake of Indian independence. When she has an affair with the Indian playboy Sanju (Shashi Kapoor), Lizzie feels the wrath of her disapproving father Tony (Geoffrey Kendal) and her mother Carla (Laura Liddell). Madhur Jaffrey plays the role of the Indian actress Manjula in this romantic drama with musical score from Satyajit Ray. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 122 mins
Shakespeare Wallah (1965)

The extras included interviews with Felicity Kendal {Lizzie}, James Ivory with an unindentified Indian gentleman, and Shashi Kapoor{Sanju}. They start out discussing what "wallah" means and each of the three have a different definition. Felicity says it is masculine and doing with a trade as in a tradesman. But James says it was "The one who is involved with or does something in depth." They also talk about coming off the production of the movie "The Householder". I remember the film but did not do a review of it at the time.

While Lizzie is not beautiful she does come across as quite appealing and understandable how even the playboy was enamored by her charm. Instead of the Indian actress that acted more like a princess, Lizzie was more humble and willing to explore the world. It obviously was made for a British audience and had trouble getting released in the USA. There was a lot of kissing and even a intimate scene with the couple in bed, both of which censors in India would have not given it approval to see in India.

The extras also included a 45 minute documentary about "The Delhi Way" by the same director as the film-James Ivory. It also includes an interview with him about the film. Interesting little documentary about the history of Delhi and how it has expanded into the desert areas and built upon itself in the same process.

Sick Girl (2007)

2010-04-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

A psychologically mangled teenage girl embarks on a violent rampage after a trio of bullies target her younger brother for torment in director Eben McGarr's blackly comic indie shocker. Young Izzy (Leslie Andrews) has issues; her parents are nowhere to be found, and when her older brother joins the military and leaves to fight in Iraq, she's forced to become the sole guardian of her younger brother Kevin. Thankfully, her motorcycle-riding pal Barney is always willing to lend a helping hand, but that still isn't enough to make Izzy's life stable. In order to blow off steam, Izzy frequently tortures people in the abandoned barn near her family home. Whether it's the young hooligans who won't leave her brother alone or a busload of Catholic schoolgirls who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, Izzy wastes anyone who gets in her way without a second thought. But her bad judgment hits an all time high when she bestows her younger brother the gift of a handgun, paving the way to tragedy and potentially destroying what's left of her family. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 79 mins
Sick Girl (2007)

Well after Izzy's brother takes her life, then there was nothing left of the family anyway as the older brother dies in Iraq that causes her to go off the deep end. We see the flashback of the officers delivering the news close to ending credits.

Basically a sick film and somehow I thought it seemed interesting when ordering it. When she went after innocent boys then the film turned to the just gratuitous violence of horror films.

Rating of 1/2 for just being sick.

2012

2010-04-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

Disaster movie maven Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) crafts this apocalyptic sci-fi thriller following the prophecy stated by the ancient Mayan calendar, which says that the world will come to an end on December 21, 2012. When a global cataclysm thrusts the world into chaos, divorced writer and father Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) joins the race to ensure that humankind is not completely wiped out. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Danny Glover, Amanda Peet, Thandie Newton, and Oliver Platt round out the cast of this end-of-the-world thriller co-scripted by the director and his 10,000 B.C. writer/composer, Harald Kloser. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 158 mins
2012 (2009)

Actually John Cusack is just trying to save his family as everyone else in the world is doing. But as far as reality, this is more like a cartoon with so much special effects. I had already an idea about it since I saw the clip below so I was well aware of stretching the realms of reality but when Yellow Stone National park was blowing up and all the fire and brimstone was falling down it was even more comical than the preview clip.

For some reason I assumed a spaceship was going to take everyone off earth and not just giant vessels. The alternative ending did have them finding the Genesis Yacht stranded on some rocky island. Which although is a better ending that some actually would survive the waves in large ocean going vessels, landing on the rock might have been worse because as there were multiple tsunamis then the next one would have ripped it to shreds on the rocks. If they knew which direction the waves were coming from then it is likely many vessels could have rode into the wave as they are suppose to and height of the wave would not matter as much. The movie even shows an aircraft carrier being hit sideways by the wave and capsizing. Highly unlikely that they would not respond better to the wave which they claim is 1500 meters high for the one hitting the high mountains in China.

Full TV Episodes

2012 (Columbia Pictures) (November 13, 2009), PG-13

Entertaining but disappointing that too much fun with special effects and not believable story line. Rating 3/{5}

My Name Is Khan

2010-03-29T12:09:00.000-07:00

Upon release, the film broke opening box office records overseas for an Indian film. It was the highest-grossing film in its opening weekend overseas and had the highest opening day overseas for a Bollywood film. It is also the second-highest worldwide grosser in its opening weekend, behind 3 Idiots, and the third-highest net collections in the first week for a Bollywood film. Within four weeks, the film crossed the INR 700 million mark in India and became the first film of 2010 to do so. The film also created a new box office record for a release in the first quarter of a year (January to March), breaking the previous record set by Race. It is also the second highest-grossing film to be released in the first half of the year (January to June), behind Krrish.

Plot
Rizwan Khan (Tanay Chheda) is a Muslim child who grew up with his brother Zakir and his mother (Zarina Wahab) in a middle class family in the Borivali section of Mumbai. Rizwan is different from the other children and no one, including his mother, can understand why. However, he has certain gifts, particularly a special ability to repair things. His difference leads to special tutoring from a reclusive scholar and extra attention from his mother, all which leads to a heightened level of jealousy from his brother Zakir, who eventually leaves his family for a life in the United States .

Despite this resentment, as an adult Zakir (Jimmy Shergill) sponsors Rizwan (Shahrukh Khan) to come and live with him in San Francisco after the death of their mother. It is at this time that Zakir's wife, Haseena (Sonya Jehan) diagnoses Rizwan as having Asperger's syndrome. Rizwan also begins to work for Zakir and in the process he meets a Hindu woman, Mandira (Kajol) and her young son, Sameer or Sam (Yuvaan Makaar), from a previous marriage. Mandira is a hairdresser by profession. Despite Zakir's hostility to the match, they marry and settle down in the fictional town of Banville, where both Mandira and Sameer take Rizwan's last name as their own. They also live next door to the Garrick family. Sameer is close to their young son, Reese (Kenton Duty and Michael Arnold) while Mark (Dominic Renda) is a reporter and Sarah (Katie A. Keane) is a friend of Mandira.

The Khan's perfect existence gets disrupted, however, after the September 11 attacks on the twin towers in New York City. Mark goes to cover the war in Afghanistan and dies there. At the same time, the Khan family begins to experience post 9-11 prejudice in their community and Reese begins to turn against Sam as well. One afternoon, an argument between them turns into a racially motivated schoolyard fight between Sameer and a number of older students. Reese tries to stop the fight but is held back and Sam is beaten so badly that he dies. A shattered Mandira blames Rizwan for his death stating that Sameer "died only because his name was Khan." She then tells Rizwan that she no longer wants to be with him. When he asks her what he has to do to be together with Mandira, she tells him that he has to tell the people of the United States and the President that his name is Khan and that he is not a terrorist .

Rizwan thus sets out on a journey that takes him from one US state to another, in order to first meet President George W. Bush and later President-elect Barack Obama. During this quest, he travels to Wilhemina, Georgia and befriends Mama Jenny and her son Joel. Later, in Los Angeles, he prays in a Mosque and overhears violent rhetoric from Faisal Rahman (Arif Zakaria). He reports this to the FBI but there is no response at that moment. Later, while waiting in a crowd to meet President Bush and repeating again and again, "My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist," Rizwan is arrested and placed in a prison by police who misinterpret his statement.

While in the prison he is tortured as a terrorist suspect and meets the psychiatrist Radha (Sheetal Menon) who believes he is innocent. He is later released after a media campaign by some Indian student reporters Raj (Arjun Mathur) and Komal (Sugandha Garg) and Bobby Ahuja (Parvin Dabas), who prove his innocence by unearthing his attempts to inform the FBI about Faisal Rahman. After his release, he returns to hurricane-hit Wilhemina to help Mama Jenny and her son. His efforts attract media attention and numerous Muslims come to help as well. At the same time, Reese confesses to Mandira and reveals the identity of the boys who beat up Sam. She informs Detective Garcia (Benny Nieves) who has been assisting her on the case, and Detective Garcia arrests them.

After they are brought to justice, she joins Rizwan in Georgia. At the moment she arrives, Rizwan is stabbed by a follower of Faisal Rahman and is rushed to the hospital. With Mandira's help, Rizwan survives and meets President-elect Barack Obama (Christopher B. Duncan) who tells him: "Your name is Khan and you are not a terrorist . "
My Name Is Khan

This is the typical maudlin dramatic farce where unnecessary side stories are woven to get the 161 minutes of film. For example the section where Rizwan is stabbed was necessary for the character development in fact it neither affected the direction of the movie before the incident or afterward and was simply a reset button technique.

At times it seemed the screenwriter had very little knowledge of how things are done in the USA. Take for example the return to hurricane-hit Wilhemina where the first set of reporters and then the whole brigade of volunteers come wading in chest high waters carrying their supplies on their heads with dead bodies floating by. Well we are a civilization that craves its capital and high tech mechanical devices. If the victims (204 according to the story) was not actually airlifted by helicopter they surely would have been rescued by some boat and taken to safety until the water receded. Reminds me of a live news cast where the reporter is in a boat doing his report and a couple of people just happen to walk by with the water actually about knee deep.

I also doubt that any Mosque in the US would be that concerned about Hinduism and so the rant about Hindus was just for the Indian audience-I can assume. The time frame is also strange in the sense that the screenwriter still thinks that violence against Muslims is still an issue and the few reported cases was in the few months afterwards and nearly all died down after a year. Here we are to assume that 9 years later we have rampant animosity is hard to match with reality. Not that it was going to be unbiased to the two Presidents, it seems to paint the former President Bush as not helping the situation and I credit him with lessening the animosity actually.

Overall a fine film although again I am sure my copy was boot-legged...

Prix De Beauté (1930)

2010-03-12T12:04:00.000-08:00

The French Prix de Beaute stars cult figure Louise Brooks as a nondescript typist for a Parisian newspaper. On a whim, Brooks submits her photograph to the Miss France Contest. To everyone's amazement--and her boyfriend Andre's (Georges Charlia) displeasure--she wins the contest, and is sucked into a whirlwind of photo ops and interviews at the Miss Europe contest in Spain. Here she is confronted by Andre, who angrily demands that she give up this foolishness and return home. But the lure of fame and fortune is much too strong, and before long Brooks has signed a movie contract. The heart-stopping tragic climax brilliantly juxtaposes the image of the dead Brooks with her "live" screen image. Not as highly regarded as Louise Brooks' German films for G. W. Pabst, Prix de Beaute nonetheless succeeds in terms of visual dynamics and the naturalness of the star's performance. Available in both sound and silent versions, the film never received a formal American release. Augusto Genina replaced the film's original director Rene Clair during the pre-production stages. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 88 mins
Prix De Beauté (1930)

Like a lot of movies, the endings sometimes break down from reality. I like the contrast between the dead Brooks and the screen image in the sense that the song was nearly a love song to her husband. He was extremely domineering in the relationship and in the cab ride she asks her if she loved him and she said yes but when she asked in return it was silence...

Nice little film and enjoyed the opening portions the best. I almost thought the film was going to be similar to Roxanne or Cyrano de Bergerac (1990 film) as the "nerd" showed interest in Brooks and was the more intelligent and caring of the group. I suppose he was included to show the cruelty of Andre. But it does not follow that just because he is cruel to his male friends that he would be just as bad to his girlfriend and then wife. In fact the scenes where she is married she wears such tattered and torn clothes that even in B&W it was so obvious as mere rags on her body which made the lure of stardom that much more attractive. There was clearly no grey areas in this movie.

Let me also include Louise Brooks Movies:

The daughter of a Kansas attorney, Louise Brooks was 15 when she accompanied her mother to New York. A talented if not inspired dancer, Brooks performed with the Denishawn dance troupe, then worked in such annual revues as George White's Scandals and The Ziegfeld Follies. Signed to a Paramount film contract in 1925, she was largely confined to nondescript leading lady roles in such films as W.C. Fields' It's the Old Army Game (1926), directed by her then-husband Eddie Sutherland. Better roles came her way in Howard Hawks' A Girl in Every Port (1927) and William Wellman's Beggars of Life (1928). With her darkly exotic good looks and distinctively bobbed-and-banged haircut, Brooks gained popularity with filmgoers, but neither critics nor studio executives were particularly impressed with her acting ability. All this changed when she was invited to work in Berlin by director G.W. Pabst. Her haunting, provocative performances in Pabst's Pandora's Box (1928) and Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) not only established her as a screen personality of the first rank, but also fostered a Louise Brooks "cult" which continued to flourish.
Alas, when the temperamental Brooks refused to return to Hollywood to film sound retakes for her silent picture The Canary Murder Case (1929), she was effectively blacklisted in Hollywood. Despite another brilliant performance in René Clair's Prix de Beaute (1930), Brooks found herself consigned to thankless supporting roles when she returned to America. Soon she was scrounging for work in two-reel comedies and bit roles; her last screen appearance was a demeaning leading lady assignment in the 1938 Three Mesquiteers Western, Overland Stage Raiders, which she accepted because she needed 300 dollars in a hurry. She spent the next two decades in virtual obscurity, occasionally obtaining radio work, but generally limited to clerical and salesgirl jobs. She was rescued in the mid-'50s by a millionaire media executive with whom she'd allegedly had an affair, and who provided her with a modest monthly annuity for the rest of her life. She moved to Rochester where she formed a lasting friendship with film buff/curator James Card of the George Eastman House. It was Card who drew the reclusive Brooks out of her shell with a series of well-received Louise Brooks retrospectives. In her last two decades, she began a whole new career as a writer, producing well-researched and well-balanced articles on movie history. Still, she remained a mercurial personality to the end, alternately attracting and repelling her admirers with her unpredictable behavior. In 1982, Louise Brooks collaborated with Hollis Alpert on her witty, extremely candid autobiography, Lulu in Hollywood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (2003)

2010-03-11T14:49:00.000-08:00

Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst is a documentary about the short-lived radical political group that caused a media frenzy in the early '70s. Filmmaker Robert Stone incorporates archival footage, news clips, and contemporary interviews with SLA founder Russ Little and member Mike Bortin. Most of the film focuses on their much-publicized act of domestic terrorism: the kidnapping of Patty Hearst in 1974. The group held the 19-year-old college student hostage, demanding that her father, William Randolph Hearst, give millions of dollars to the poor. Later, the girl was said to have joined the group on a crime spree throughout the West Coast. Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst was shown was shown at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival as part of the documentary competition (under the working title Neverland: The Rise and Fall of the Symbionese LIberation Army), and later aired on the PBS documentary series American Experience. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 89 mins
Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (2003)

Although it was not explicitly stated all possible tie-ins between The Weather Underground and the ALS but it does cover the basic atmosphere of the "rhizome" groups that rose up in the Berkeley radical centers. So for me it filled in more of the background information about the other groups. Just like the Weather Underground, they had most of their tapes played on KPFA in Berkeley and one of the communiqués was the same voice used in the broadcast of the WU ones also which must have been by a radio announcer at the time.

One of the special features was the director, Robert Stone, providing the commentator tract. A very insightful special feature that showed that he studied the ALS in depth including he noted that after them going underground they became more cult like than a movement for change. He compared them to the Jim Jones cult and upon reflection that is exactly the outcome of the WU "sect" also, IMHO. They also in essence became media whores as they relished the limelight more than the glorious revolution.

The director said he limited the number that were interviewed so that he felt it avoided a bias film as well as falling into a he said, she said scenario. He did not even interview Patty Hearst and only included a small interview that was publicly aired aside from the audio tapes when she was part of the gang.

They also included the camera recordings of the bank robberies. The most unsettling special feature was when Bill Harris directly spoke to John {?} Opsahl without remorse and more like excusing himself. I did not watch it all because it was so condescending. When John had his turn, I would have used his words against him when he had the chance.

Another glorious revolution that ended in some senseless murders...

PS: The movie time-line ended with the convictions so Wiki can fill in some details at Symbionese Liberation Army.

Queen Kelly (1929)

2010-03-06T18:03:00.000-08:00

Though filmmaker Erich Von Stroheim's notorious profligacy had made him virtually unhirable in the US by 1929, screen-star Gloria Swanson still had faith in him. She poured a great deal of her own money in Von Stroheim's last silent film, Queen Kelly, and agreed to play the leading role to insure box-office success. When production began, Stroheim had not quite completed his script: all he had was the premise of a young Irish convent girl named Kitty Kelly (Gloria Swanson) being seduced by a German nobleman (Walter Byron) who was slated to marry the mad Queen (Seena Owen) of a tiny European principality. Brandishing a whip, the loony Queen drives the hapless Kitty from the palace. It was after shooting had started that Von Stroheim filled Swanson in on the rest of the plot: Kitty was to inherit all the worldly possessions of her aunt in German East Africa. Arriving to take charge of the estate, Kitty would learn that she was proud possessor of a string of brothels. Realizing that such a plot device would never get past the American censors, Swanson reacted in horror; she frantically called her money men in America and screamed "There's a madman in charge!" In the final release version of Queen Kelly, hastily completed by Swanson to recoup her losses and ultimately released in Europe, Kitty Kelly was forced into a marriage with brothel manager Tully Marshall, a tobacco-juiced stained degenerate. She ultimately returns to the nobleman who'd seduced her, is driven from the palace by Queen Owen, and commits suicide. This version contained dialogue sequences, and one musical interlude, sung by star Swanson. Despite its tawdry plot, Queen Kelly was beautifully photographed; its most famous shot, of Swanson praying in church, her face framed by flickering candles, was excerpted in the actress' much-later talkie Sunset Boulevard. The currently available restored version of Queen Kelly uses still pictures and explanatory titles to fill in the footage that has decomposed over the years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 101 mins
Queen Kelly (1929)

Strangely, could not get the commentator track to work. The "Outtake footage" did not have sound and most of it was just repeated scenes from already shot scenes. As noted above, the ending was mostly a few stills and some insert dialogue. It also had the "Swanson Ending" ended like Romeo and Juliet as the prince takes out his sword as he is above Kelly lying in the Church dead, which I assumed she died from throwing herself in the river.
'Gloria Swanson Remembers' was an interview of almost 20 minutes. She talks in three segments meant for the beginning of the film the Epilogue and the ending. In the end piece she talks more about her relationship with Erich Von Stroheim. Although there was a lot of animosity between the two he did agree to play her butler in Sunset Boulevard (1950). She was definitely right about censorship not being a problem later on in the films especially when the ratings systems came out.

It would have been a much greater film if the film was complete, the ending was just a summary and not a complete story thus only 2.5/5 rating.

Autumn Sonata (1978)

2010-03-04T20:55:00.000-08:00

Ingrid Bergman, the Swedish expatriate who became one of Hollywood's greatest stars, and Ingmar Bergman, one of the world's most acclaimed filmmakers and Sweden's most honored director, worked together for the first and only time in this intensely personal drama about the troubled relationship between a mother and daughter. Charlotte (Ingrid Bergman) is an acclaimed concert pianist who is visiting her daughter Eva (Liv Ullmann), the wife of a parson in a rural community, for the first time in seven years. While Charlotte and Eva struggle to be civil, there is a deep emotional gulf between them. Eva resents her mother for not caring enough for her as a child, feeling that Charlotte was more interested in her career and her other daughter, Helena (Lena Nyman), who is severely handicapped and can only communicate through inarticulate noises. Charlotte, on the other hand, is uncomfortable with the fact that Helena now lives with Eva, and she is still coming to terms with the emotional devastation of her husband's recent death. Herbstsonate, released in America as Autumn Sonata, earned Ingrid Bergman some of the most enthusiastic acclaim of her career; she received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, and she won the same honor from the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle. It was also her last theatrical release; she would appear in only one more project, a TV movie about the life of Golda Meir, before her death in 1982. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 92 mins
Autumn Sonata (1978)

The film started out so slow with almost no direction. It was not until the underlying problems in the relationship between the two daughters and the mother that it became more interesting. Although the above review gives that the handicapped daughter got more love and attention, I did not see that and even near the end Helena calls out to the mother and gets no response or care in return. Thus signifying to me that the estrangement had already been well established long before then. A portion of the text that I found most interesting:

-Mother: Leonardo once said, how did he say it now? "A sense of reality is a matter of talent. Most people lack that talent and maybe it's just as well." Do you know what that meant?
-Daughter: Yes, I do.
-M: How very strange?
-D: Strange?
-M: I've always been afraid of you.
-D: I can't understand that.
-M: I think I wanted you to take care of me. To put your arms around me and comfort me.
-D: I was a child.
-M: Does that matter?
-D: No.

I did not even get the name of the historian that did the commentator but what small portion I listened to, he seemed quite knowledgeable and with more time, I would have loved to watch it again with the comments on.

Kaun (1999)

2010-02-25T13:49:00.000-08:00

Kaun (Hindi: कौन, English: Who's There) is a 1999 Hindi suspense thriller directed by Ram Gopal Verma, written by Anurag Kashyap, and starring Urmila Matondkar, Manoj Bajpai and Sushant Singh. Other titles for the film were Evaru (Telugu title) and Thriller (English title).

The film features a man claiming to be a white collar worker (Bajpai) and another man claiming to be a police inspector (Singh), both attempting to get into the house of a young woman (Matondkar). Kaun was an inventively minimalistic film using only one set and a cast of three actors (excluding a dead body and a brief appearance of a room full of silent, motionless extras). The only costume change occurs in the film's final scene when Matondkar reappears the following morning.
Kaun (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There was the usual plot twists and I was surprised by the ending especially from Bollywood. At times this seemed to border on the horror genre, which would make this the first Bollywood slasher film I have seen. The dead phone seemed obvious but not sure why each individual character decided to lie about it.

Baijpai did play the part well in creating a character that would get on anyone's nerve. The cat was not harmed in the making of the film. If you look closely at the cat with the blood around it, you can see his chest rising and falling. Must have drugged it to stay put in a puddle of water though.

I would love to Satya also but the members at Blockbuster said the sound quality is bad and most just returned the video to the store.

Kaun (1999)

Battle for Haditha

2010-02-13T08:27:00.001-08:00

The fate of two cultures becomes locked on a tragic collision course in director Nick Broomfield's dramatization of the events that led to the massacre of 24 Iraqi men, women, and children by American Marines. A squadron of American soldiers goes speeding across the Iraqi desert in a convoy of armored Humvees, eventually stopping at a local store where the soldiers jump out to stretch and browse the DVD selection. Meanwhile, as the Marines strike up a conversation with the young male clerk behind the counter, two Iraqi men climb into the back of a pick-up truck to get a crash course in IED mechanics. Both the Marines and the Iraqis are simply going about their daily business as usual, just doing their best to survive in a land where war is just another fact of life. For the Marines it's all about patrolling the desert and waiting for the next bomb to go off. When a roadside IED kills one Marine and wounds two others, the vengeance with which the American soldiers strike back at the locals may cause even the most hard-line warhawks to take pause and consider the true cost of a war which has no end in sight. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie
Battle for Haditha (2007)

Although the movie is quite balanced overall of the motives in the movie, it does not tell of the large number of civilians killed by terrorists. The reactions by the locals to noticing the bombs being placed feels real and gives the balance to the story that I was pleasantly surprised by. Others of course can wonder about the brutality of the marines but since they were mostly acquitted and standard procedure is to plant false flags by Al-Qaeda then not likely we will ever know the real story of those tragic deaths of civilians.

This film is a good companion with the "Hurt Locker" as showing the tensions and anguish of events before the marines supposedly went off the ranch. I found the Hurt Locker to be much more realistic in the actions of the Marines and Army. For example after the IED exploded and killed one, they just seem to stand around in the open thinking about what to do and when they do decide to attack it forgets about back alleys that the true killers were retreating from. The one portion that seems to be true is that the killing of the civilians in the vehicle had no justification and was most definitely the work of the Marines from my reading of the news reports.

Battle for Haditha (film) From Wikipedia

3 Idiots

2010-02-12T15:33:00.000-08:00

3 Idiots (Hindi: थ्री इडीयट्स) is a 2009 Bollywood comedy film directed by Rajkumar Hirani, with a screenplay by Abhijat Joshi, and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It was loosely adapted from the novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat. 3 Idiots stars Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor, Omi Vaidya, Parikshit Sahni and Boman Irani.

3 Idiots has become the "highest grossing Bollywood movie of all time."[3] The film set a box office record for the Indian film industry, grossing Rs 400 crore (US$ 86 million) worldwide.[4] It is expected to be the first Indian film to be officially released on YouTube, within 12 weeks of releasing in theatres.[5] The film also went on to win many awards, winning six Filmfare Awards including best film and best director, and ten Star Screen Awards.

The film also uses real inventions by little known people in India's backyards. The brains behind the innovations were Remya Jose, a student from Kerala, who created the exercise-bicycle-cum-washing-machine, Mohammad Idris, a barber from Meerut district in Uttar Pradesh, who invented a bicycle-powered horse clipper, and Jahangir Painter, a painter from Maharashtra, who made the scooter-powered flour mill
3 Idiots

Completely an hilarious film, BUT the translation was not complete in the subtitles and thus some of the film is lost in translation for lack of proper subtitles. Like most Hindi films it does have a lot of English dialogue so with that and the subtitles, I could understand the film. The one part that my wife found much more hilarious was the part of the speech with the translation of "magic" is replaced with "rape". Chamatkar was replaced by balatkar in the text of the unsuspecting student that while he could pronounce perfectly, he did not understand the words.

Education is a strong theme in many Hindi movies and not trivial matters like US films that focus on recess and after hours activities. For example they have a scene just on what the definition of a "motor" is that was a good 5 minutes of the film. The tyrannical authoritarian principal is also played out in several other Indian films like {well can't remember the names-lol}... Since some of the classes are quite large the older students advised one smart put very poor kid to put on a uniform and attend classes. If found out just change uniforms the next day.

I hope to see it again but not rented from a hole in the wall Indian Grocery store...lol

Mondays in the Sun (2002)

2009-12-03T18:35:00.000-08:00

Set in the Spanish port city of Vigo, Fernando León de Aranoa's Mondays in the Sun is a touching drama about a group of working-class men who find themselves suddenly unemployed and unwanted in their middle age. Laid off from the local shipyard, the men spend their days at the town bar, where they reminisce, philosophize, and commiserate about their current state. Gruff Santa (a bearded Javier Bardem) puts up a tough front, refusing to sink into self-pity, and occasionally pricking his friends' hopes. Morose José (Luis Tosar) openly worries about his wife, whom he fears might leave him. That seems to have been the fate of Amador (Celso Bugallo), the oldest of the bunch, who keeps reassuring everyone that his wife will be back any day now from her trip. Meanwhile, Lino (José Ángel Egido) refuses to give up hope of employment, going to interview after interview for jobs being offered to applicants half his age. Presiding over the glum bunch is Rico (Joaquín Climent), the bar owner and the men's co-worker from the shipyard days. Despite its depressing subject and downbeat mood, Mondays in the Sun was a big winner at the 2003 Goya Awards, Spain's equivalent of the Oscars, winning Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Bardem. The film was also Spain's surprise representative for the 2003 Oscars' Foreign Language film category, nabbing the distinction over Pedro Almodóvar's critically lauded Talk to Her. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 113 mins
Mondays in the Sun (2002)

I found it dull, boring and insipid. The characters could have been interesting enough especially Gruff the gruff one but nothing really sticks out as nothing more than losers complaining about how bad they have it. But at least one person seems to have gotten into the movie at: "Full of sympathy for the worker's plight." Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz.

Jose's wife Ana (Nieve de Medina) works the night shift of an assembly line at a fish processing plant that pays little and exploits the workers with poor working conditions, but she's the family breadwinner just waiting for the day when she can tell the bosses to go fuck themselves and she can come home without having to deodorize herself from the fish smell. But she seems tired of her husband's despair and low self-esteem, and their marriage is becoming strained as Jose is becoming a shell of a man unable to even communicate with her.

I unfortunately missed that idea about the fish smell when she spent inordinate amounts of time using the spray deodorant.

The scene with the rich parents kids away and the four men hanging out drinking was quite creepy as well as the flirts between Gruff and Nata (Aida Folch) the 15 year old daughter of the bartender. He even does it openly at the bar but ultimately when given a chance for a rendezvous at his apartment he sneaks out. But at other times Nata is distant to Gruff as they meet outside the young boys house to discuss the transaction for babysitting which is just an excuse for the four men to drink at the "man's" house.

Overall not worth the effort to read...

The Man Without a Past (2002)

2009-11-20T21:18:00.000-08:00

Aki Kaurismaki's The Man Without a Past opens with the title character (Markku Peltola) being savagely beaten. At the hospital he is declared dead, but he sits up and walks out on his own power. He is taken in by a mother and her two sons, discovers an old jukebox that inspires local musicians, and discovers he has skills as a welder. When he becomes unwittingly involved in a bank robbery, and the man is unable to give the police his name, the cops send out feelers trying to figure out the man's identity. Soon his wife appears. The Man Without a Past was screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival where it was awarded the Grand Prix, the most storied prize after the Palme D'Or. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 97 mins
The Man Without a Past (2002)

Although another foreign film that is quite slow in the development of the story line, I found the character of "M" to be very interesting and a certain curiosity about him in the movie. While we do get some background on him from the time he meets his wife, there is just so many unanswered questions that still create the tense feelings in the movie dialogue. In the end we do not need to know what his past is since he changed after the mugging. He even confronts his attackers later but the plot does not indicate that he remembered them also as the kids also show no remorse for their thug actions.

I am sure to also put Lights in the Dusk (2006) on my movie queue.

The Man Without a Past From Wikipedia

The film begins with an unnamed man arriving by train to Helsinki. After falling asleep in a park, he is mugged and beaten by hoodlums and is severely injured in the head, losing consciousness. He awakes and wanders back to the train station and collapses in its bathroom. He awakes the second time in a hospital and finds that he has lost his memory. He starts his life from scratch, living in container dwellings, finding clothes with help from the Salvation Army and making friends with the poor.

Russian Ark (2002)

2009-03-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

Modern Intellectual 1: For us, detail is more interesting.
Look closely here.
A chicken and a cat are in the foreground.
They are symbolic figures.
The chicken represents greed, avarice...
the cat, cynicism and cruelty.
Cynicism and Cruelty... The cat...
They are both calmed by the birth of John.
French Marquis: Interesting.

Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov broke boundaries with his dreamlike vision of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russian Ark. It's the first feature-length narrative film shot in a single take (on digital video, using a specially designed disc instead of tape). Russian Ark is shot from the point-of-view of an unseen narrator, as he explores the museum and travels through Russian history. The audience sees through his eyes as he witnesses Peter the Great (Maksim Sergeyev) abusing one of his generals; Catherine the Great (Maria Kuznetsova) desperately searching for a bathroom; and, in the grand finale, the sumptuous Great Royal Ball of 1913. The narrator is eventually joined by a sarcastic and eccentric 19th century French Marquis (Sergey Dreiden), who travels with him throughout the huge grounds, encountering various historical figures and viewing the legendary artworks on display. While the narrator only interacts with the Marquis (he seems to be invisible to all the other inhabitants), the Marquis occasionally interacts with visitors and former residents of the museum. The film was obviously shot in one day, but the cast and crew rehearsed for months to time their movements precisely with the flow of the camera while capturing the complex narrative, with elaborate costumes from different periods, and several trips out to the exterior of the museum. Tilman Büttner, the director of photography, was responsible for capturing it all in one single Steadicam shot. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 96 mins
Russian Ark (2002)

A truly beautiful picture, and well worth watching it with the commentary also afterwards, and that is not the drugs talking {cold}.

It was not an historical documentary but a fantasy of what the French Marquis might have said if he got to visit the museum that spanned throughout 300 years of Russian History. I like the subtlety of the French Marquis references to some of the historical events did not make it any easier. But luckily, I don't know any Frenchmen so the can go ----. Bullox!

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

2008-12-31T19:20:00.000-08:00

Road Prison 36:
Yeah, well. Sometimes nothing can be a real cool hand.

Paul Newman was nominated for an Oscar and George Kennedy received one for his work in this allegorical prison drama. Luke Jackson (Paul Newman) is sentenced to a stretch on a southern chain gang after he's arrested for drunkenly decapitating parking meters. While the avowed ambition of the captain (Strother Martin) is for each prisoner to "get their mind right," it soon becomes obvious that Luke is not about to kowtow to anybody. When challenged to a fistfight by fellow inmate Dragline (George Kennedy), Luke simply refuses to give up, even though he's brutally beaten. Luke knows how to win at poker, even with bad cards, by using his smarts and playing it cool. Luke also figures out a way for the men to get their work done in half the usual time, giving them the afternoon off. Finally, when Luke finds out his mother has died, he plots his escape; when he's caught, he simply escapes again. Soon, Luke becomes a symbol of hope and resilience to the other men in the prison camp -- and a symbol of rebelliousness that must be stamped out to the guards and the captain. Along with stellar performances by Newman, Kennedy, and Martin, Cool Hand Luke features a superb supporting cast, including Ralph Waite, Harry Dean Stanton, Dennis Hopper, Wayne Rogers, and Joe Don Baker as members of the chain gang. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 126 mins
Cool Hand Luke (1967)

What we've got here is (a) failure to communicate From Wikipedia

What we have here is basically a narcissistic little brat that was only concerned about himself. It was a movie about "I". One of the aspects that came out was how alone Luke was. Even when he destroyed public property he had no one to share with, and when he was on the run he again left his only friend. When he had competition to prove his worth, it was in boxing and eating eggs. The only team competition that he engaged in was the street scene but again it was more of an emphasis on the two team leaders and not the cooperative aspects of the teams.

While the Liberals may look up to such a man, he was a selfish little man that instead of being with his mother as she passed away, he felt destruction of public property that served no purpose-I can see. What good was it to cut the heads off parking meters? Was he against the government dictating payments? The film clearly leaves more questions than it answers as to WHY?

After rejecting friends and family, society finally had enough and he was just quietly disposed of. Basically a case of Into the Wild (2007) without the wilderness destroying the man. Both were of men seeking suicide through acceptable means.

Noting brave or especially noble about the character of Luke. Even the phrase, "What we've got here is (a) failure to communicate", is really not that interesting.

The Mirror (1997)

2008-11-12T11:00:00.000-08:00

The story is rather thin, but the neat twists make this Iranian drama, of a feisty little girl trying to find her way home, interesting. The girl's journey begins when she exits school and discovers that her mother is not outside awaiting her. Worried, the child, garbed in traditional clothes and sporting a cast, calls home, but no one answers. Though she doesn't know her own address, she is pretty sure she can find her way and so boards what looks like the correct bus. During the journey she watches the people around her. When they finally arrive at the terminus, she realizes that she has gone the wrong way. A friendly driver puts matters to rights, but by this time the child has become petulant and it is at this time that the course of the film surprisingly transcends itself to become a film about making a film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The Mirror (1997)

The film at that time loses much of its refinement in editing as the little girl basically walks off the set and continues her "journey" home including dropping off the microphone to the gentleman that had hired her and at which time the sound then is lost and there is some back and forth at her house where we only get the sound from the outside of the house.

Interesting film and the young girl made the film enjoyable. Back-dropped against the repressive regime of Iran, I have to wonder what will happen to this girl as she becomes an adult. This also is another perspective of the lives of women in Iran as compared to the other fine films to come out of Iran lately.

Barsaat (1949)

2008-11-12T10:46:00.000-08:00

Raj Kapoor directs this meditation on love. Pran (Kapoor), a wealthy lad with a poetic soul, is passionately in love with impoverished country lass Reshma (Nargis). When she attempts to run away with Pran -- over the objections of her traditionalist father -- she slips and falls into a river, and apparently drowns. As Pran and his womanizing buddy Gopal (Premnath), who just cruelly dumped another girl, Neela (Nimmi), are driving through the country, they are more than a little surprised to see Reshma about to be married to a fisherman (K.N. Singh). Pran runs off the road and wrecks his car, halting the wedding, and eventually marries Reshma. Gopal is crushed and penitent when he learns that Neela committed suicide. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Barsaat (1949)

Yes, in the very Indian tradition of tragic love stories. Neela death was nearly gratuitous since most of the problems faced by the heroes had been overcome and that only this one last loose end was not tied to join the last couple together even as the potential groom was willing to give up everything for her. But it was expected at least one death had to occur and I so expected that it was going to end as Romeo and Juliet when one person had died or appeared to be dead and the remaining one was overcome by grief.

This one has the typical villains with the man that while saves Reshma he decides to make her his bride and holds her captive as a slave for his personal pleasures. The father also plays the part of the bad father that is willing to kill his daughter rather than let her marry the man of her choice.

Not sure why the rating at Blockbuster was so low at 2 stars but I think it deserved 3.5 stars.

Choker Bali

2008-11-12T10:16:00.000-08:00

Chokher Bali (literally translated to "sand in the eye", figuratively to "constant irritant") (Bengali: চোখের বালি) is a Bengali film based on the novel Chokher Bali by Rabindranath Tagore. It was directed by Rituparno Ghosh in 2003 and stars Prasenjit as Mahendra, Aishwarya Rai as Binodini and Raima Sen as Ashalata. Ashalata and Binodini refer to each other as Chokher Bali. The other major characters are played by Lily Chakravarty (as Rajlakshmi, Mahendra's mother) and Tota Roy Chowdhury (as Behari, Rajlakshmi's adopted son). The film was later dubbed into Hindi and was released internationally under that language.

Chokher Bali (film) From Wikipedia

Some of the songs were still in Begali we presume since my wife could not understand the language of them. It does mention the language Bengali when the petition is stated in English under the time of British rule.

The strange thing for me was the character of Binodini which is played by Aishwarya Rai. She has played in numerous roles and is an overall good actor but in this part she hysterically laughs at times which seems inappropriate at best and tasteless in the social settings she was in. I am sure it was written like that but made her character look so narcissistic and petty which is not in the least her normal role. Other times she played the part of the contrite widow. Which the film also did not let us forget including bringing up the funeral pyre of widows and their second class status in society. Close to the end she gets some jewelry and tries to seduce the brother but he rejects her. I do not notice how the film rectified that she claimed she was penniless widow and then have the jewelry near the end of the movie.

For the above reasons I only gave this a rating of 2.5/5
But no one died as both me and my wife assumed would happen...
Choker Bali

Aaj-Ke-Sholey

2008-11-11T13:26:00.000-08:00

Very much in the genre of young superhero action figures with almost cartoonish stereotype heroes. There is one death which for Indian films is expected even if just for younger audiences. The strongest of the young guests is chiseled as much as Bruce Lee with many of the same moves used.

When the young guest of honor is kidnapped from a birthday party, five courageous kids risk everything to rescue their friend. Along the way, they learn that the kidnapper, Balbir Gupta, is an old partner of the abducted child's father, recently released from prison and looking to settle a score. Directed by S.V. Rajendra Singh, this action adventure stars Amrish Puri, Sundar Krishna Urs, M.B. Shetty, Jayanthi and Manjula.
Starring: Jayanthi, Manjula
Director: S.V. Rajendra Singh
Genre: Foreign
Format: Full Screen ...
Language: Hindi
Subtitles: English

Aaj Ke Sholey (1985)

It ends on a near comical fight out with the evil Gupta and his many henchmen and some film actors along with the young children.

Overall an enjoyable film even if slightly juvenile.

No information at Blockbuser: Aaj-Ke-Sholey.

Salaam Namaste (2005)

2008-11-11T13:18:00.000-08:00

A couple navigates the ups and downs of romance and imminent parenthood while setting up house in a new land in this Bollywood romantic comedy. Nikhil Arora (Saif Ali Khan), known to most of his friends as Nick, is a successful chef who has become something of a celebrity, with a following in Australia. Nick agrees to appear on a radio show hosted by Ambar Malhotra (Preity Zinta), an attractive woman who is finishing up her college degree, but working out the arrangements proves difficult, and by the time they meet face to face, Nick and Ambar have already exchanged a number of harsh words. When the two actually walk into the studio together, they feel a strong mutual attraction, but given their history, neither is sure if they should trust their feelings. After several dates, Nick makes a proposal -- he is going to Melbourne for a year, and if Ambar wants to join him, they can see if they could get along living under the same roof. Ambar agrees, but before long she has some surprising news for Nick -- she's pregnant with his baby, a prospect that does not make him happy. As the two face the reality of their situation as parents-to-be, Nick wonders if he's ready to give up the bachelor's life he's long enjoyed, and Ambar struggles to adjust to life down under. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Salaam Namaste (2005)

Definitely a nice romantic comedy worth watching. There is quite a community of Indians in Melbourne as the film shows including one character that has a white woman as his girlfriend. The funny thing about his character is that he speaks Hindi with an Australian accent.

Nick also has issues with his Indian name and thus partially his heritage at least according to Ambar. Ambar's pregnancy also brings up the abortion issue as Nick wants an abortion immediately while Ambar is not willing to compromise her morality. Again well worth watching it.

Leaves from Satan's Book (1919)

2008-11-05T13:23:00.000-08:00

A well directed and wrote silent film trying to show the atrocities caused by Satan but have to wonder about the inclusion of the French Revolution. I know that this "Glorious Revolution" caused many deaths and is still held in high regards from the Left, but I do wonder about their inclusion in this film.

It was also unusual that Satan had bouts of remorse and that it was God that directed him to go out and create evil. Especially the scene where Satan feels guilty for his part in killing the Son of God. But God just sends him out to cause more pain to humans. He is even given an incentive with 1000 years less of torture for every man he helps and 100 years more for every man he destroys.

The Danish Leaves From Satan's Book (Blad af Satans Bog) was the "breakthrough" picture for filmmaker Carl Thedor Dreyer, who was elevated from a local talent to a director of international renown. The content of the film is implicit in the title: we are witness to the power of Evil through the ages, linked together by images of turning pages. In its multi-storied construction, the film is obviously beholden to D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916). Some of the vignettes, especially the Spanish Inquisition scenes, are both beautiful and repulsive; we marvel at Dreyer's brilliant visual sense, even as we have the impulse to avert our eyes. Though a worldwide success, Leaves From Satan's Book cost too much to suit the tastes of the parsimonious Danish film industry, compelling Dreyer to work in other countries throughout most of the silent era. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 121 mins
Leaves from Satan's Book (1919)

Aag Aur Shola

2008-10-30T18:55:00.000-07:00

Another long Indian movie with lots of songs and dancing with over 227 minutes of running time according to my DVD clock. Lots of beautiful saris including a gold and purple that are colors of my Middle School. LOL.

Aag Aur Shola (1986)NetflixLivid when his sister Usha chooses impoverished Raju as her suitor, Bombay thug Nagesh tracks down her beau, thrashes him and leaves him for dead in this potent yarn about sweet revenge. Surviving the vicious attack and undeterred by it, Raju seeks help from the reclusive Vishal, hatching a scheme that will even the score and put Usha back in Raju's arms. The film's cast includes Jeetendra, Mandakini and Shakti Kapoor.

Yes, the comical versions of fight scenes reminiscent of the 1970s in the USA.

Aag Aur Shola From Wikipedia
Whenever Inspector Ram, incharge of police station in Bombay, try to arrest some criminal a gangster named Nagesh help these arrested criminals. Nagesh has political influence. Nagesh's sister Usha is in love with Raju. When Nagesh learn this, he beats up Raju. Raju survives. He and his mother approach Vishal for help.

A side story involves Vishal and his love with him promising to protect lovers as his lover dies in his hands. Ultimately he sacrfices his life for the friendship of Usha and Raju.

No special features except Songs listed. This film like a couple of others have like a dozen lead in previews and advertisements even when choosing the subtitles it goes back through the previews again. Quite Distracting...
"Put vermilion on the bride's head."

Aag Aur Shola{Blockbuster}

Aag Aur Shola

Baazigar (1993)

2008-10-26T22:20:00.000-07:00

In addition to the following entry, Wiki gives complete details about the plot of the movie:

Baazigar (Hindi (Devanagari): बाज़ीगर, Urdu/Farsi (Nastaliq): بازیگر, English: Gambler) is a 1993 Indian Hindi film directed by Abbas-Mustan. It is a contemporary thriller about a young man who stops at nothing to get revenge. The film shocked its Indian audience with an unexpected violation of the standard Bollywood formula: The hero murders the innocent heroine. However, this film with an ambiguous hero did well at the box office. This was Shahrukh Khan's first movie as the sole lead and also Shilpa Shetty's debut film. Although Akshay Kumar was initially offered the lead role of Baazigar, he turned it down because of its negative shades.
This film is loosely based on the Hollywood film A Kiss Before Dying (1991).
Baazigar

Yes definitely a more vicious villain than most Indian films. We do not get to know the reasons for the murder of innocent lives until later in the movie as flashbacks fill in the background information slowly. Still we can see his hatred for wanting to take revenge over the past sins of others leads to the killing of innocent lives. Even if your sister and mother deaths was caused by another gives no right to extract that same punishment on other innocent lives.

Vicky then goes on to kill two more innocent lives to cover up his first killing. Thus he becomes a sociopathic killer of the worst kind. But overall has some of the same tragic life stories of many Indian films but just more cruelty in how the punishments are handed out. I gave it a rating of 3.5/5 which was below Blockbuster customer ratings of 4/5.

Baazigar (1993)

The Corporation (2003)

2008-10-19T18:33:00.000-07:00

The usual left-wing talking points. It does provide some voices to explain the "corporations" point of view but of course we have the usual suspects. That is Noam Chomsky (Chumsky), Howard Zenn, Naomi Klein and The Fatso-Michael Moore. They have no soul because they want to personify inanimate objects and in this case a concept of business organization.

It also must be noted clearly that the first corporations were state sanctioned monopolies. And I am sure that no Lib-tard {including Thom Hartmann} is going to tell me that they would like to go back to the monopoly corporations.

It was nearly hilarious that somehow they used DDT as proof that corporations are bad by showing that they were spraying people to prevent diseases caused by ticks and lice. There has never been anyone died from DDT and thus the millions that lived because of those techniques are much better off. DDT is no longer patented and as such many good uses are not being used because of scare mongers like these LIBTARDS. Anyone for DDT? is a good place to get some information on DDT.

Another funny part is their descriptions of memes in society and they label that process as roach bait. Just like corporations are "branding" and creating images with words this film is doing the exact same thing. Product placement is no longer in movies but is labeling {as they described}. I use to wear a lot of Camel T-shirts that they use to give away and a coworker asked me why I wore something that was against what I preached. In subtle ways I use to complain about smokers. I asked do you see how dirty they get as I worked in a machine shop. Hell if someone wants to pay me to be a living billboard then fine with me as long as it is enough...

In the mid-1800s, corporations began to be recognized as individuals by U.S. courts, granting them unprecedented rights. The Corporation, a documentary by filmmakers Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott and author Joel Bakan, delves into that legal standard, essentially asking: if corporations were people, what kind of people would they be? Applying psychiatric principles and FBI forensic techniques, and through a series of case studies, the film determines that this entity, the corporation, which has an increasing power over the day-to-day existence of nearly every living creature on earth, would be a psychopath. The case studies include a story about how two reporters were fired from Fox News for refusing to soft-pedal a story about the dangers of a Monsanto product given to dairy cows, and another about Bolivian workers who banded together to defend their rights to their own water supply. The pervasiveness of corporate influence on our lives is explored through an examination of efforts to influence behavior, including that of children. The filmmakers interview leftist figures like Michael Moore, Howard Zinn, Naomi Klein, and Noam Chomsky, and give representatives from companies Burson Marsteller, Disney, Pfizer, and Initiative Media a chance to relay their own points-of-view. The Corporation won the Best Documentary World Cinema Audience Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 145 mins
The Corporation (2003)

Michael Moore close to end of movie talks in terms of the Communist Meme that capitalism will sell the rope to hang itself. He claims that this is a gaping hole that capitalism will let voices be heard and will even promote it that is contrary to its basis. Well this contradicts what Pacifica and much of the Libtarded left that claims that corporation control the news and no other voices get aired. Of course no Libtard will note or acknowledge this cognitive dissonance including the Dweeb MM...

There was some special features like the making of the movie that is arranged as an question and answer session.

The Real Threat Posed by Bill Ayers

Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994)

2008-10-19T18:30:00.000-07:00

A beautiful directed film with plenty of good Bollywood dancing and singing. Over half of the film was over before the happiness had to be interrupted. I was thinking at the time that most Indian films have to have a moral dilemma for the main actors as well as some tragedy that spans this problem. And sure enough someone has to die to create this dilemma. We also get the problems presented for widowers and the lives of "bhabhi{s}". That is sister in laws on the brother's sides, the family that is the receiver of the bride in the marriage.

A huge hit when released in India in 1994, director Sooraj Barjatiya's affecting family drama started a notable trend towards more family friendly fare in a time when violence was the predominant attraction of Bollywood films. As Prem's (Salman Khan) brother prepares for his marriage to Nisha's (Madhuri Dixit) sister, the single siblings slowly fall in love with one another. Following the death of Nisha's sister Pooja, Nisha is obligated to marry Prem's brother Rajesh since Rajesh's child is familiar with Nisha. As Nisha and Rajesh prepare for their wedding, Rajesh finds a note that Nisha has written to Prem and insists that she follow her heart and marry her true love. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 205 mins
Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994)

Most movie reviews only give details of the first half of film but the one above is basically telling the whole story.

Parinda (1988)

2008-10-15T23:29:00.000-07:00

It had more of a feel of "Americanized" film than others including the bloody and violent deaths of Karan and Paru for Indian standards with the machine gun killing of the lovers in bed. I also seem to remember that one of the dance scenes was scripted like an American dance scene than Indian but as the movie progressed the usual Indian dance moves and rhythms came back. Also when Karen willingly joins the gang to get back at the killers, was similar to many cops and robbers movies of the 70s and onward in the USA.

Two brothers take different paths in life, which leads both of them into danger in this drama from India. Kishan (Jackie Shroff) and Karan (Anil Kapoor) are two brothers who move to Bombay to find their fortunes. Kishan falls in with Anna (Nana Patekar), a drug dealer; Karan becomes friends with a policeman (Anupam Kher), falls in love with schoolteacher Paru (Madhuri Dixit), and decides to go to America to further his education. As Kishan sinks deeper into the criminal underworld, Anna discovers the policeman Karan used to know has been assigned to bring him to justice. Anna intends to kill the cop rather than lose control of his criminal empire, and Kishan learns of Anna's deadly plan just as Karan is about to return home. Kishan is determined to keep his brother away from himself and the policeman to protect his safety, but Karan isn't so sure he wants to be sent away to Delhi, since he hopes to renew his relationship with Paru. Like many "Bollywood" dramas, Parinda also features several songs. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 145 mins
Parinda (1988)

Not One Less (1999)

2008-10-15T18:11:00.000-07:00

A charming little story about a young lady that perseveres over obstacles and ultimately does not lose any of her students, although you have to wonder why such drive for only 10 extra yen. She spends much more and a lot more hassle than the extra 10 yens as well as the salary of 50 yens.

I did have a soft spot in my heart for the young people that desired to learn {for the most part} and quite a bit of attention was paid to the amount of chalk used on a daily basis. But ultimately it was a propaganda piece about socialism. And while Justin Lin shows the problems with wrong incentive structures, the young heroine {Gao} does show some desire to accomplish her tasks in the best way possible.

In a village in China mired in poverty, Gao (Gao Enman) is the lone teacher in a school so threadbare he must ration chalk to make sure he has enough for the day. The destitution of the village is not limited to the school; some of the children sleep in the schoolhouse because they have nowhere else to go, and many students have already dropped out to go to work to help feed their families. Gao is forced to leave town for a month, and no one in the village is able to take over for him except a 13-year-old girl, Wei Minzhi (Wei Minzhi), who possesses only the most rudimentary education herself. What she lacks in educational credential, she makes up for in determination -- she needs money, and teaching is an honest job that pays, and since she'll get a 10 yuan bonus if all 28 students are still attending when Gao gets back, she is determined that no one will drop out on her watch. So when one student turns up missing, and word has it he's been sent to the city by his mother to work, she travels to the city to look for him. In a place where thousands of children are working in the underground labor force or begging on the street, one boy hardly stands out from the crowd, and she has little luck. However, she's able to persuade a sympathetic TV station manager to let her make an announcement in hopes someone knows where he has gone. Despite its serious and often grim theme, Yi Ge Dou Bu Neng Shao is often light in tone and draws on the strength and humor of its characters; the film won the Golden Lion at the 1999 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 106 mins
Not One Less (1999)

Do I Love You? (2003)

2008-10-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

A disappointment to me in that the dialogue at times seemed more like prepubescent girls exploring their sexuality than mature women understanding their Lesbianism. They were completely fickle and Lisa even tries some "experiments" with men but chickens out after getting in bed with at least one of them.

British writer/director/actress Lisa Gornick makes her feature debut with the microbudget romantic comedy Do I Love You? Shot with digital video, the film involves struggling writer Marina (Gornick) riding her bike around London while her voice-over narration ponders all matters of life and love. She thinks that having kids will solve her problems with girlfriend Romy (Raquel Cassidy). Meanwhile, straight girl Louise (Sarah Patterson) writes a magazine article about the hip quotient of being a lesbian. Do I Love You? was shown at the 2003 San Francisco Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 73 mins
Do I Love You? (2003)

Lumumba (2000)

2008-10-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

You know the Bantu proverb: "The hand that gives, rules."
And your hand has been a bit heavy lately. Excuse me.
Which Lumumba states to the US representative in the hallway outside of the Presidencies office.

A highly slanted version of the events including that somehow the CIA was an important enough force that it had to be included in this film. But other than abstaining any decision about what to do with Lumumba and meeting briefly in front of the Presidents office they played little role in the vast amount of violence in Congo. While it shows the vast overreaching colonialism of Belgians into Congo life, I doubt that many Libs would take away from it that. As that is compared to so called US colonies.

Still, I did not have time to fully explore Lumumba's life before watching the film so I am sure there are parts I missed that further education would help fill in the various actors and the parts they played.

Patrice Lumumba was a passionate advocate for freedom in colonial Africa, and when the Belgian Congo was granted independent (and was later renamed Zaire), Lumumba was the new nation's first prime minister. However, Lumumba's dream of freedom and dignity for the people of the Congo made him a controversial and dangerous figure, and this biographical drama explores his short, tumultuous life. We first encounter Lumumba (Eriq Ebouaney) in the late 1950's, when his National Congo Movement is gaining widespread public support, despite opposition from the nation's political leaders. Hoping to avoid a violent overthrow, the Belgian government begins negotiations with the NCM to turn rule of the Congo over to the citizens, and Lumumba and his political party are swept into power during the nation's first independent election. However, Lumumba's desire to bring a peaceful and orderly transfer of power soon earns him enemies of all political stripes. Militant advocates for freedom demand that white Belgian officers of the nation's military be replaced with African soldiers at once, while Belgian colonists are met with violence, sparking a revolt by the white settlers that leads to a bloody civil war. Lumumba was directed and co-written by Raoul Peck, who previously directed the acclaimed documentary Lumumba: Death of a Prophet. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Lumumba (2000)

Second Generation (2003)

2008-10-07T22:56:00.000-07:00

Although from a casual observer they may overlook at the conflicts between the Hindu and Muslim traditions and how that played out. Ultimately Heere decides to move back to India with her Father to take care of and forsake London with her Muslim friend. So if there is a message in the film, I am not sure if it was to say that India is mother country beyond even differences in religion. I did do a search and this commentary did show up:

British TV brings NRIs home RASHMEE Z AHMED

LONDON: The UK's first, mainstream, British-Indian television drama arrives on thousands of screens across the country this weekend, but the real headline is its extraordinarily in-your-face message: Immigration is no longer a one-way street heading West and it's okay for the punk-haired second generation of British Indians to "immigrate" to the Motherland.

The drama posits an unexpected, deeply-poignant, 21st-century passage to India at the height of Britain's ongoing, passionate and commercially-productive love-affair with all things Indian. The bold television drama, baldly titled Second Generation, ends with three of its lead characters returning to India. Two of them -- a Bengali Hindu-Muslim pairing -- are beer-swilling, bhangra-rapping, British-born-and-bred. To top it all, they speak Bengali with a pronounced accent.

But, for the first time ever on British TV, the British-Indian second generation is shown to reject the bright lights of London for the alien-but-dimly-remembered chaos and camaraderie of Kolkata.

It's something director Jon Sen believes to be a "positive statement about India as an alternative place to live for British Asians".

The third "reverse immigrant" character, played by Om Puri, arrived in Britain half-a-century ago and sacrificed everything including his "(Indian) moral framework" to make good in an alien land. Eventually, he returns to India to lay his "demons to rest" and find peace, Sen told The Times of India.

In his first pre-release interview to an Indian publication, Sen, an Anglo-Indian, said the drama was a "benchmark production because it took the British Asian narrative on, even as it started from a position of Indian pride, wealth and success".

The drama, baldly titled Second Generation, is executed as an expertly-crafted Hollywood-Bollywood mish-mash of saris-sex-swearwords and suicide. It stars Puri, Anumpan Kher, Roshan Seth and Parminder Nagra, heroine of the hit film Bend it Like Bechkam. And it's already being described as an important, British Indian "think" piece on immigration, taking the Asian story onwards from the seminal Buddha of Suburbia.

But it comes at a sensitive time, when the right-wing British National Party has won several local election victories despite banging the drum on the issue of "forced repatriation" of coloured immigrants.

Sen denies Second Generation is about "being repatriated but about choice and reversing the traditional view of immigration from the sub-continent to Britain".

Britain has a several-million strong, largely prosperous, Indian community. But Sen believes Second Generation underlines the huge sacrifices Om Puri's generation had to make to become the wealthy, successful, stereotype British Indian of today.

But the second generation, he says, can now see -- and show on British TV -- that "Britain isn't always the ideal place for us to make our lives� that India is an alternative choice, it can offer British Asians as good a standard of living, it has revolutionised itself".

The drama, commissioned and screened by Channel 4, is written by Neil Biswas, the son of Bengali immigrants who lived in London's East End.

Sen, the director, has a Bengali father and English mother and admits to "romanticising India" at least partly because he feels "the pull of history there, at least half my history is in India".

Yes a good description of some of the underlying stories of the movie. I also would like to point out that while this film was not a commercial success it did provide a vehicle for the career of Parminder Nagra to take off in Hollywood and getting a contract with the show "ER" for one year and to continue on.

Some of the special features and flashbacks were confusing and campy but overall the film was good and worth a DVD rental.
Second Generation

Second Generation stars Parminder Nagra as the free-thinking daughter in a traditional Indian family who has torn herself away from the restrictive traditions of her parents. A family emergency brings her back into the fold, where the entire family must contend with how their world sometimes is at odds with the modern London world they inhabit. In addition to the struggles with her family, the daughter is caught in a love triangle involving her British fiancé and her old flame. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 136 mins
Second Generation (2003)

The Mystic Masseur (2001)

2008-10-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

Ismail Merchant, best known as the producing half of the successful Merchant-Ivory team, once again steps behind the camera as director for this story of life among Indian expatriates in the 1950s. Ganesh (Aasif Mandvi) is a young man who was born to a community of Indian exiles living in Trinidad. Always bright, Ganesh hopes to hake a career for himself as a writer, but he lacks the money to pursue writing full-time, and his ideas about education clash with those of his employers after he gets a job as a teacher, leaving him with few prospects. Returning to Trinidad after the death of his father, Ganesh is pressured into marrying a local woman named Leela (Ayesha Dharker), whose father, Ramlogan (Om Puri), is a successful merchant. Ganesh and Leela move to a modest home in the hills, where he begins work on a book, but Leela chafes at the Spartan lifestyle dictated by Ganesh's finances, and for a time leaves their home to stay with her parents. In time, Ganesh completes his first book -- a book for lay people on the Hindu faith -- but sales are sluggish until Ganesh and Leela come up with a plan to boost interest in Ganesh's work. Ganesh is promoted as a "Mystic Masseur" with special powers to heal the infirm; Ganesh's routine quickly makes his work very popular with spiritual seekers, and his book becomes a top-seller. However, Ganesh becomes disillusioned with his newfound fame and power, especially after he attempts to take advantage of his celebrity by entering the political arena. The Mystic Masseur was based on a novel by V.S. Naipaul, who won an Nobel prize in the year of this film's release. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 118 mins
The Mystic Masseur (2001)

Seems funny that a washed up masseur turns to being a con artist {mystic healer} then decides to peddle books and then after getting notoriety decides to enter politics and ends up being just a mantle piece instead of actually do good. You have to wonder if he took a hard long contemplated look at his life.

But the scenes were nice.

Andaaz (2003)

2008-10-04T18:20:00.000-07:00

Directed by Raj Kanwar, Andaaz follows the friendship between Raj (Akshay Kumar), a handicapped college student, and Kajal (Lara Dutta), a hot-tempered young woman who shares the same love of model airplanes that he does. With her help, Raj miraculously overcomes his disability. Though he finds himself deeply in love with Kajal, she marries another man while he is fighting in the Indian army. Several years later, the disillusioned Raj is going through intensive special training in South Africa, where he meets a beautiful but mysterious woman named Jiya (Priyanka Chopra). ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 152 mins
Andaaz (2003)

Another fun film from India that has plenty of back and forth romance with our hero taking the extremely long time to express his feelings for his first love. "First love" when people are in 3rd grade is something that the USA never really got into but in India there must be a dozen I have seen so far.

There is the dilemma of sister in laws {Bhabhis} that comes up briefly also when Kajal becomes a widow. Although not allowed, it might have been interesting to have a three way marriage...

Shadow Kill (2001)

2008-09-30T21:43:00.000-07:00

Set in a village in the Indian state of Kerala on the eve of Gandhi’s freedom movement, Shadow Kill tells the story of Kaliyappan, a guilt-ridden hangman haunted by the memory of the men he has executed. He lives in constant fear of being called by the British authorities to perform his next execution, and his fellow villagers, because of his proximity to death, believe him to possess the powers of the goddess Kali. When he is summoned to perform one more hanging, he fears that his most dreaded premonition may be about to come true. ~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 91 mins
Shadow Kill (2001)

Lots of nice scenes of India and overall it had a good quality picture. But it was way too slow at getting to the story and spent way too much time just looking at scenes like the pond with the lily pads. Then the action scenes and dramatic moments seemed to just pass in a blink without too much explanation of what had actually happened. Of course some of that is just censorship by not allowing the violence to come out as well as the sexuality.

Sketches of Frank Gehry (2005)

2008-09-25T22:30:00.001-07:00

Acclaimed film director Sydney Pollack took a five-year break from the realms of fiction to assemble a lovingly crafted tribute to longtime friend and acclaimed architect Frank Gehry in this documentary born from the sketches of its talented subject. A notoriously shy craftsman whose impressive body of work includes the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Ghery is shown working in his studio unobstructed as Pollack attempts to capture the very essence of the artist's bold works through use of film and digital video. Driven by an intimate but informal series of discussions between Ghery and Pollack, Sketches of Frank Gehry uses the subject of architecture as a launching point to discuss the creative process, and paints a fascinating portrait of how one humble man was able to create some of the world's most awe-inspiring structures. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 84 mins
Sketches of Frank Gehry (2005)

Yes informal to the point of casual videotaping. My wife liked it as a look at the life and art of Frank Gehry. Only certain people can get away with having such low skills in a technical manner and still achieve so much. Interesting film about the architecture but unlikely that it would appeal to a broad audience...

The Terrorist (1998)

2008-09-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

Do you know the tale of the two seeds?
One was the optimistic seed.
The other, the pessimistic one.
The optimistic seed spoke of its dream.
"When I am sown, I'll grow tall and big.
My roots will go deep into the earth in search of water.
My leaves will dance with the wind.
Dewdrops will rain on me.
I will be content and will salute the earth."
The pessimistic seed disagreed.
"I don't want my roots to go deep within the dark, suffocating earth to look for water.
If I become a plant, I may be pulled out by the roots.
If I blossom into a flower, I may adorn someone's hair.
I refuse to grow unless my safety is guaranteed."
The optimistic seed grew up to become a big tree.
The pessimistic seed bided its time.
An alert hen ate the pessimistic seed.
...

The basic melodramatic Indian Movie is what I would call the "The Terrorist". Acting was fine and the scenes were nice and crisp. They spent an inordinate amount of time of closeups of the heroin and she was pleasant enough to look at.

Veteran cinematographer Santosh Sivan made his directorial debut with this fact-based Indian drama, a winner of "Best Film" and editing awards in India. Teen terrorist Malli (Ayesha Dharkar) dwells on the death of her family members who have died for the cause. A veteran of killings during 30 covert operations with a resistance group, the 19-year-old is chosen to be a "thinking bomb," assassinating a dignitary with plastic explosives strapped to her stomach. Beginning her journey to the city where the explosion is scheduled to happen, Malli moves through the jungle and arrives at the farm of friendly landowner Vasuderan, aka Mad Vasu. On the farm, she poses as an agricultural student, but the waking coma of Vasu's wife in the adjacent room is disturbing. Memories and flashbacks also intrude, as Malli contemplates her forthcoming task. Shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 95 mins
The Terrorist (1998)

This is loosely based on true events but obviously the real life ends in a tragedy otherwise it would have not meant much. Only successful terrorist attacks are newsworthy and widely dispersed.

This film was not in the usual Hindi language for Indian films, but it was of good quality production. Ayesha Dharker appears mostly in English films it appears. The film credits did even show Star Wars II.

Tycoon: A New Russian (2002)

2008-09-22T21:41:00.000-07:00

Political intrigue and total corruption within the so-called democratic Russia are brought to the forefront in Pavel Lungin's Tycoon. Beginning as an investigation into the assassination of one of the richest men in Russia, the story flashes back to late-'80s Russia, just after Perestroika has broken up the Soviet Union. Five intelligent Russian students -- including one Platon Makovski (Vladimir Mashkov) -- abandon their academic careers in exchange for diving into the newly developing private business sector. As the rules for business in Russia are barely in place, the five new businessmen find a number of ways to profit from a wide array of nearly illegal dealings. Platon, in particular, has developed a knack for ingenious new ways of making money and very quickly becomes one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in Russia. Along the way, he also manages to alienate and/or infuriate most of his friends as well as a few government officials. Tycoon premiered to positive reviews at the 2002 Locarno International Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 128 mins
Tycoon: A New Russian (2002)

A nice suspense film but I was not into as much as I could have been. Basically the genre has gotten a little stale from my own experiences of the 1970s. But at least on one level, it is good that Russia deals with these issues on film just as the USA dealt with some crime issues also in the same way.

Special features has a 25 minute interview with the director as he stutters a lot.

The Red Balloon (1956)

2008-09-14T19:12:00.000-07:00

A short film {34 minute} with just a balloon that appears to have its own mind. Not really that inspiring for myself so not much to say about this film. This is the type of film that should really be added as a collection of a few short films into one DVD. Thus I rated it low at 1 1/2.

Most of French director Albert Lamorisse's films celebrate the miracle of flight, but few were as landmark as his 1956 short subject The Red Balloon. The story, told without dialogue, concerns a little boy (played by the director's son Pascal) who comes across a helium-filled balloon. As he plays with his new acquisition, the boy discovers that the balloon seemingly has a mind of its own. The little red orb follows its new "master" all through the streets of Paris, then dogs the boy's trail into the schoolroom, which drives the teacher to comic distraction. Towards the end, it seems as though boy and balloon will be parted forever....but director Lamorisse has a delightful surprise in store for us. In an unusual move, The Red Balloon in its American TV premiere was introduced by Ronald Reagan as an episode of the CBS anthology G.E. Theater on April 2, 1961. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 34 mins
The Red Balloon (1956)

East Is East (1998)

2008-09-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

Om Puri plays a most backward and downright chauvinist man including even authoritarian streaks. Which begs the question as to why the two even married and then why the mother did not leave his sorry ass for good. I even forgot that I watched this when me and my wife first met. Was not real memorable in that case.

East is East, a fast-moving comedy drama of mixed-race manners, is set in Salford, England in 1970. It centers on the Anglo-Pakistani alliance of the Khan family that is both claustrophobically cohesive and hopelessly dysfunctional. In their over-crowded terrace house, anarchy erupts daily with farcical energy. The Khan children, caught between the traditional dogmatism of their Pakistani father (Om Puri) and laissez-faire attitude of their British mother (Linda Bassett), have a lot of difficulties to follow their dreams of becoming citizens of the modern world. Based on the award-winning stage play by Ayub Khan-Din, East is East had great success in the theatres of London before it was made into a film. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 96 mins
East Is East (1998)

Manda Bala (2007)

2008-09-14T18:57:00.000-07:00

Quite an interesting film about the crime problems in Brazil and political corruption, although the kidnapping aspects take up most of the screen time. It almost looked like Ford put on the defensive driving course for bullet proof vehicles. That was also a very interesting segment that including how even the bullet proof windows can not survive multiple shots at close range.

Brazil is a nation where political and economic corruption and violent crime are a way of life for many, and filmmaker Jason Kohn examines some of the more unusual ways they manifest themselves in this documentary. In Manda Bala (Send a Bullet), Kohn's subjects include a plastic surgeon whose practice is dominated by the victims of kidnappers who lost their ears to their captors; a political figure who uses his frog ranch as a cover for illegal business operations which have made him a multi-millionaire; and an auto customizer whose specialty is bullet-proofing luxury cars. Manda Bala (Send A Bullet) won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 85 mins
Manda Bala (2007)

It was amazing how the doctors was able to fix a young woman's ears. They looked nearly perfect maybe even too good. She only complained that the earlobe was stiff since it was built upon the same cartilage that was taken from her chest.

In the USA, I constantly hear about how it is so bad for chipping individuals, but in this film the one man with the bullet proof car wants not one chip implanted but wanted two from two different companies and then he said he would feel safe. Yes being kidnapped and not being sure if you would survive would drive people to do anything, and I can see chipping as a valuable tool for catching criminals.
Special features:
7 Additional Scenes
Commentary with Director and Producers.

Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006)

2008-09-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

It is refreshing to watch a film that just explains the situation instead of paranoid logic being used. It also appears to be honest by mentioning that yes Sulfur Dioxide (Nitrogen Oxides) would increase under EV (Electric Vehicle) cars. Although one of the deleted scenes was an excerpt of the tearing out of electric streetcars by GM.

One of the deleted scenes was a delightful interview with two African American women {Colette and J. Karen}. They describe how the younger one volunteered to be arrested in trying to block the transport vehicles taking away the EVs. If I was as desperate as they were, I think I would have refused to bring it back, just claim it was stolen and hide it out somewhere. She also gives a funny anecdote of how people now plug in their phones before taking them around with them each day. And yes that is a flimsy excuse for not buying an EV to be bothered with plugging it in. Alhtough working at Radio Shack, I have seen enough times that batteries do not last as long as they are suppose or give a short use time.

Filmmaker Chris Payne explores the many factors that played into the ultimate failure of the electric car to catch on with consumers, even as gas prices began to skyrocket, in a thoughtful meditation on the increasingly important role that renewable energy plays in modern society. Introduced as a means of providing an alternative to increasing oil consumption and reducing pollution in 1996, the electric car was all but a forgotten memory only a decade later -- but why? Though interviews with consumer advocacy experts, automotive industry experts, and oil industry heavyweights, Payne paints a though-provoking picture of a culture whose aversion to change and reliance on dwindling resources may be rooted in the financial concerns of a wealthy few, and may also be leading consumers down a troubling path. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 93 mins
Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006)

Special Features:
Deleted scenes as some are mentioned above.
Jump starting the future, which gives a positive message about the future and that steps are being made even if not the grand schemes as before {i.e. hybrids}.
Meeky Rosie video with some scene shots from the movie.
And a quite a few previews of other movies.

The Weather Underground (2003)

2008-09-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

The best aspect of this film was the comments track of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. To me this was nearly the point of scary in their way of excusing their terrorist acts and even when the armed robbery went wrong and David Gilbert was caught and sentenced for life, they glorified his actions and said he should not have been in prison. What can I say???

This tells me that no matter how Barrack Hussein Obama says that he was only 8 years old when Bill Ayers started his bombing is just an excuse since he still has the views that he did nothing wrong and glorifies "revolutionary" killers/terrorists. They also make the excuse that they did not target people so it was not terrorism. But terrorism acts on how people perceive the dangers. And even if random buildings the three Underground terrorists that killed themselves in the faulty explosion is enough to terrorize anyone.

Sam Green and Bill Siegel's documentary about a radical group whose stated goal was the violent overthrow of the U.S. government details a valuable chapter in the history of the '60s protest movement and leftism in America. The Weathermen were a faction of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), one of the driving forces behind the period's mass protests against social injustice and the Vietnam War. Frustrated by SDS's adherence to non-violent dissent, the Weathermen broke off and adopted a more combative approach. As the student protests ebbed in the 1970s, the group went underground and shifted tactics, embarking on a terrorist campaign against the U.S. government. For years, the Weather Underground evaded the authorities' grasp, even as it pulled off high-profile bombings against government targets. Their momentum petered out in the 1980s, as one by one the organization's members surrendered after years on the run. The Weather Underground uses extensive archival footage and revealing interviews with the surviving members to trace the group's evolution and place their actions in the context of the period's tumultuous events. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 92 mins
The Weather Underground (2003)

Weather Underground Splits Up Over Plan to Come Into the Open
Dissidents Publish Charges Top Leadership Is Adopting 'White, Male Supremacist' Tactics
By John Kifner
The radical Weather Underground movement struggling to maintain momentum in the post-Vietnam era, has split apart over a plan to come into the open.

The schism appears to reflect heightened and sometimes bitter feminist perception among female radicals, along with the groping of the revolutionary movement for support at a time when once-seething campuses are quiet and even much of the militance of the black movement seems to have died down.
...
In these papers the word b"crime" rather than "error," is frequently used to describe the politics o[sic] the leadership group, indicating the bitterness of the division.

No documents or other statements have been issued by the Central Committee members under attack, Jeff Jones, Bill Ayers and two others know by pseudonyms, Joe Reed and Celia Sojurn.

The Motorcycle Diaries

2008-09-09T14:57:00.000-07:00

The Motorcycle Diaries (2003) was a nice little film about Ernesto ''Che'' Guevara and if I had not read and watched him in action then I would have taken away from this film that he was a mild compassionate individual that wanted to help the people out. But basically this film was an attempt to white-wash his life based on some writings he did as he traveled around South America.

As just a story about a couple of people on an adventure this is a quite an enjoyable film to watch. It does show that again he is willing to take that which does not belong to him if he thinks it is "fair" by his standards.

Brazilian director Walter Salles Jr. follows up the Golden Globe-nominated Behind the Sun with this filmed adaptation of Argentinian-born Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara's journals of the same name. The Motorcycle Diaries stars Gael García Bernal (Y Tu Mamá También, Amores Perros) as a young, pre-revolution Guevara, a 23-year-old medical student in 1952 traveling across South America on a motorcycle with his friend Alberto Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna), who co-wrote the source material. As they embark on their journey, both young men come of age and find their individual world views broadened farther than they ever expected. The Motorcycle Diaries premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 127 mins

A couple of videos that the film also contains as extras:
Alberto Granado recuerda a Fuser (Ernesto ''Che'' Guevara)

EL CHE GUEVARA EN MACHUPICCHU

Baabul (2005)

2008-09-08T20:54:00.000-07:00

IMO a classic sister in law problem {Bhabhi} where this then intersects with the issues of widows. Although it is obvious the practice of widow funeral pyres is barbaric other alternatives were also not very compatible for a society based on liberal democracy and equality in opportunity for everyone. So while in the West would consider some of these issues as minor we can see that these issues are played out in great detail and thought.

A woman is uncertain of what path to take when she loses the love of her life in this romantic drama from India. Avi (Salman Khan) is a bright and ambitious young man who, after completing his education in the United States, comes home to take his place in the successful business run by his father, Balraaj Kapoor (Amitabh Bachchan). Avi meets a beautiful young artist named Millie (Rani Mukherjee) and the two fall in love. They wed, give birth to a son, and are enjoying their lives with their new family when Avi is suddenly killed in an auto accident. Millie is emotionally shattered by Avi's death and she is uncertain about what to do next. Balraaj believes his daughter-in-law needs to remarry and start life over again; he knows that Millie's friend Rajat (John Abraham), a musician, has long had feelings for her, and he tries to bring the two of two of them together. But Millie must decide if she's ready for a new love while her life with Avi is still fresh in her mind. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Baabul (2005)

Bandini (1963 film)

2008-09-08T20:53:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately a lot of Indian films are not that good of quality picture. This one also has a distracting fade to the next scene as it changes to a washed out picture and then the next scene is transitioned. After transition it goes drastically back from the faded out scene to the regular B/W scene.

Like Mother India it follows the overwhelming burden of Indian Women in society. The very classic film about a young girl that gets involved in helping a freedom fighter and falls in love, man spoils the young woman's reputation and offers to marry her, father refuses, rebel leaves, marries another woman, young woman becomes a hand maid servant to a bitchy woman that turns out to be the rebels wife that was arranged, young woman goes stark mad and poisons rebels wife, young woman goes to jail (8 yr sentence), meets doctor that falls in love with her, for her guilt she offers to help a TB patient, Doctor can't handle not having her and leaves, warden reads diary of young girl and gives her release early and sends her to the Doctor's home, young lady meets rebel again as he has TB and coughing, then as the train that she was to depart in and the boat he is departing in she changes her mind and jumps on the boat, and they live happily ever after...

See classic story!
Bandini (1963 film)

Bandini (Hindi: बन्दिनी, Urdu: بندِنی, translation: imprisoned) is a film directed and produced by Bimal Roy, the man who directed such classic as Do Bigha Zameen and Devdas, Bandini explores the human conflicts of love and hate intertwined in the mind of Kalyani (Nutan). The movie tells the story of Kalyani, the all suffering, selfless, sacrificing, and strong yet weak Indian woman. She must make a choice between two very different men.
...
Director Bimalda captures her emotions with light and darkness falling on her face due to a welder's torch and the thumping of Iron in the background.

Back from the flashback in the jail Deven (Dharmendra) the jail doctor falls in love with her. Kalyani is not ready for it and starts to stay away from him. They are always shown with a partition in between after Deven proposes her. Another symbolism used in the movie is the occasional shouting of "All is well" by the prison guard when nothing in the movie is.

Missed the "All is well" statements but did see the door as a symbol of blocking off people, including the rebel woman she helps did it. Of course the using of veils to put up walls is a classic Indian tradition.
Blockbuster has no information on Bandini.

"It is not correct to do 'Raslila' here."

Samurai Rebellion (1967)

2008-08-31T14:32:00.000-07:00

"But you can't reason with a crying child nor with your lord, as they say.
Actually quite funny to compare a child and lord in the same sentence and I am sure many times they are nearly identical.

A father and son prepare to die for their beliefs in this historical drama set in 18th century Japan. While Isaburo Sasahara (Toshiro Mifune) has been loyal to Japan's feudal system all his life, his beliefs begin to change when the local rulers demand that his son Yogoro (Go Kato) give up his bride, who has bore a child that will come to power upon the death of the current ruler. Yogoro dearly loves his wife, and Isaburo respects his daughter-in-law and does not want to be separated from his grandson. When Yogoro refuses to part with his wife and child, he and Isaburo are ordered to kill themselves. They refuse and instead challenge the forces of the feudal leaders to a fight to the death. Director Masaki Kobayashi's work on this film earned him the FIPRESCI Award at the 1967 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 121 mins
Samurai Rebellion (1967)

One of my liberal friends recommended this one, but by the time it arrived, I forgot what he thought was so interesting and revealing about human nature in it. In a way it was similar to Bandini that I watched recently in that the Heroine goes berserk at the lover of the person they love and in Bandini kill the competition and in this film get into a cat fight.

Ultimately in the end the best Samurai was defeated by guns although he did take out quite a few in the reeds. A basic love story about a families love but then again strife in the family between the matriarchal and patriarchal figures with their marriage being without love. All the more reason for him to defend the honor of his son and willingly die for the love of his son and his daughter in law. The reason for the escalation of tensions was that at first the family did not want the reject from the royal family to be forced on their son that was planning n marrying someone else. Then when the royal family went through heir questions then they wanted the young woman sent back after she gave birth to a girl.

There was the usual sword-fighting as most Samurai movies have but this was near the end with the no special effects.

4 (2004)

2008-08-30T10:55:00.000-07:00

The lies shared by three Russian strangers take on a life of their own in director Ilya Khrzhanovsky's dreamlike journey into the strange heart of modern-day Russia. After entering a local watering hole and relaying a series of elaborate but entirely fabricated tales, a prostitute posing as an advertising executive, a piano tuner claiming to be a genetic engineer, and a butcher posing as a Kremlin insider all go their separate ways. In the hours following their strange conversation, all three will experience a surreal and richly symbolic voyage into a land where the specter of even the most elaborate of lies can somehow fade into reality for one tantalizing instant. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 125 mins
4 (2004)

I found no "tantalizing instant". I was only left with the vague idea that maybe there is genetic engineering happening in Russia. But just a bunch of weird people acting strange is about all this movie was. Nothing really became suspenseful for myself.

Lots of drinking Vodka and general partying. Not sure what the dogs were suppose to signify as they appear in nearly all scenes.

Koyla (1997)

2008-08-28T21:41:00.000-07:00

In this thriller from India, Shankar (Shah Rukh Khan) is a mute servant of Rajasaab (Amrish Puri). Shankar is a loyal follower, however, he falls in love with his master's wife, Gauri (Madhuri Dixit). When Shankar and Gauri run off, Shankar is thrown from a cliff and left for dead, and Gauri is sold to a bordello. Shankar is found by a native and is slowly nursed back to health. Having also regained his ability to speak, Shankar returns to Rajasaab to rescue Gauri and get revenge. Koyla is based on the 1990 Tony Scott film Revenge, which itself is an adaptation of a novella by Jim Harrison.
~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 167 mins
Koyla (1997)

Shah Rukh Khan who also played Ram Jaane! did a good job in this film and while most of the film he is mute, his friend and coworker plays a joke on others as he projects his voice as Shakar "talks" and then also sings and dances in some other scenes.

To get enough tragedy and to extend the film to the 2 hours and 50 minutes it has a subplot with the brother of Gauri that is away working and comes back to find that his parents had basically sold her off through trickery of pretending that she would marry Shakar. On the wedding the master's face had a veil over it so she did not know it was the wrong man until she saw Shakar serving the guests and it was too late as the Master dragged her around the "marriage fire".

Also there was some good {albeit campy} Rambo scenes as Shakar kills some of the people out to capture him and his bride. Which includes a scene where he kills the man shooting from a helicopter.

Suno Sasurjee (2003)

2008-08-21T20:05:00.000-07:00

"The parrot had bitten on the chili."
The phrase above is quoted on several occasions but not even sure even what that phrase means.

Kader Khan stars in the rollicking Bollywood farce Suno Sasurjee as the most unscrupulous of characters, a shifty and shady young banker who employs a number of outrageous schemes to wheedle money out of the elderly. He hits a bit of a snag, however, when one victim's grandson (Aftab) learns of his latest ploy - the successful theft of his grandfather's inheritance - and grows understandably irate. Complicating matters further is the fact that the grandson soon meets the banker's lovely daughter (Amisha) and develops a heavy and intense crush on her. He soon finds himself faced with two seemingly insurmountable challenges: how to retrieve the money and win the heart of the young woman. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Suno Sasurjee (2003)

Yes a comical farce where the side kick of the young banker is a near comic book character. But plenty of laughs and an enjoyable romantic comedy where again the man falls in love at first site but takes a little longer for the woman in question to see his charms...