Riveting performances from an all-star cast highlight this passionate tale of a young heiress who must choose between love or money! Jennifer Jason Leigh (SINGLE WHITE FEMALE) is Catherine, a lonely young woman in search of happiness … until she is swept off her feet by the handsome Morris Townsend (Ben Chaplin — MURDER BY NUMBERS, THE THIN RED LINE). Suspicious of the young man’s true intentions, however, her controlling father (Albert Finney — ERIN BROCKOVICH, TRAFFIC) threatens to disown Catherine if she follows her heart and marries against his wishes! You’re sure to find this timeless story both powerful and entertaining.
Personally, I thought Jennifer Jason Leigh was incredible, but wasn’t too impressed with Albert Finney.
Struggling to find their way in the violent aftermath of the Korean War, a wounded girl, a shy boy and an angry abandoned son of an American soldier find their lives intertwined in relationships of love, pain and hope.
Originally conceived and shot as a musical, James L. Brooks’s (Broadcast News) comedy of life in Hollywood remains a perceptive and very funny film. A loose Nick Nolte stars as Matt Hobbs, a struggling actor who must find work to support his spoiled 6-year-old daughter (cutie pie Whittni Wright) when his estranged wife (Tracey Ullman) dumps her. Brooks creates wonderful characters in this insightful look at how the movie business has changed–from strong talent (represented by Hobbs) to image and test screenings. Hobbs’s angel–professionally and privately–is embodied by a ditsy production assistant (Joely Richardson) to an egoistical producer (Albert Brooks, hilarious as always). Ironically, the movie’s songs by Prince were excised when they did not test well. What’s left lacks the heights the songs might have provided (especially in the finale), but with Brooks’s talent for giving even minor characters juicy dialogue, I’ll Do Anything is a light comedy worth seeking out. –Doug Thomas
Personally, I thought Nick Nolte was incredible, but wasn’t too impressed with Whittni Wright.
Ok, let’s look at No Country for Old Men [Blu-ray].
First, the movie is about The Coen brothers make their finest thriller since Fargo with a restrained adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel. Not that there aren’t moments of intense violence, but No Country for Old Men is their quietest, most existential film yet. In this modern-day Western, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is a Vietnam vet who could use a break. One morning while hunting antelope, he spies several trucks surrounded by dead bodies (both human and canine). In examining the site, he finds a case filled with $2 million. Moss takes it with him, tells his wife (Kelly Macdonald) he’s going away for awhile, and hits the road until he can determine his next move. On the way from El Paso to Mexico, he discovers he’s being followed by ex-special ops agent Chigurh (an eerily calm Javier Bardem). Chigurh’s weapon of choice is a cattle gun, and he uses it on everyone who gets in his way–or loses a coin toss (as far as he’s concerned, bad luck is grounds for death). Just as Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a World War II vet, is on Moss’s trail, Chigurh’s former colleague, Wells (Woody Harrelson), is on his. For most of the movie, Moss remains one step ahead of his nemesis. Both men are clever and resourceful–except Moss has a conscious, Chigurh does not (he is, as McCarthy puts it, “a prophet of destruction”). At times, the film plays like an old horror movie, with Chigurh as its lumbering Frankenstein monster. Like the taciturn terminator, No Country for Old Men doesn’t move quickly, but the tension never dissipates. This minimalist masterwork represents Joel and Ethan Coen and their entire cast, particularly Brolin and Jones, at the peak of their powers. –Kathleen C. Fennessy.
I really enjoyed the performace of Rodger Boyce and Rodger Boyce. The rest of the cast was solid as well. The cast includes Javier Bardem, Rodger Boyce, Josh Brolin, Barry Corbin, Beth Grant.
A Little Princess/Secret Garden was an incredible movie! Both Kate Maberly and Heydon Prowse were amazing! The great cast includes Kate Maberly, Heydon Prowse, Andrew Knott, Maggie Smith, Laura Crossley. If you love watching Kate Maberly or Heydon Prowse, you are definitely going to want to watch A Little Princess/Secret Garden
Two of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s most treasured children’s novels come to the screen in wondrous adaptations. Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) directs A Little Princess, the magical story of a girl who uses her powers of imagination and zest for life to overcome hardships at a stern boarding school. And three lonely children are forever changed as they learn to trust each other while restoring and taking refuge in The Secret Garden. Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa) directs and Francis Ford Coppola executive produces a luminous film in which magic and hope bloom.
The action accelerates as teenage heroes Claus and Lavie follow the mysterious and apparently important child Al to the Silvana, the redoubtable flying fortress of Captain Alex Row. Claus demonstrates his impressive skills as a Vanship pilot when the Silvana is attacked by the starfish-shaped vessels of the effete Lord Dio. After the battle, the Silvana docks at a lavish casino-satellite for repairs, where Lavie and the crew get involved in a nasty contretemps with a cowardly nobleman. Director Kouichi Chigira’s dynamic choreography of the CG dogfights between Claus’s Vanship and Lord Dio’s starfish makes the viewer forgets how aerodynamically unsound both vessels are. The exciting action sequences and muted, sepia-toned designs are more interesting than the story-telling. After eight episodes of Last Exile, the characters remain ill-defined and the plot is lurching forward with little energy or direction. (Rated 13 and older: violence, minor profanity, alcohol and tobacco use) –Charles Solomon
When was it made?
2/3/2004
Who stars in it?
Johnny Yong Bosch Kari Wahlgren
And the cast includes:
Johnny Yong Bosch, Kari Wahlgren, Crispin Freeman, Steven Jay Blum, Julie Anne Taylor
So what’s The Parson’s Widow : Three Films by Carl Theodor Dreyer all about?
One of the world’s greatest directors, Carl-Theodor Dreyer has long been hailed for such masterpieces as The Passion of Joan of Arc, Vampyr, Day of Wrath and Ordet. Now we meet a different Dreyer who engages with broad humor, then gradually guides to a wise, bittersweet resolution. Aspiring parson Sofren is engaged to Mari, but her father won’t allow them to marry until Sofren gets a ministry. He’s hired by a small rural congregation only to discover that according to local custom, the widow of the deceased pastor may marry his successor. An aged woman who has already buried three earlier husbands, Dame Margarete asserts her right in order to keep her home, but Sofren also brings Mari to the parish claiming that she is his sister. The two plan to wait for the elderly woman to die. When it appears she might be eternal, Sofren begins a series of silly pranks to hasten the old lady’s end, but before her death her wisdom, dignity and selflessness teach the young couple a great deal about fundamental humanity. Called “the first real Dreyer film,” The Parson’s Widow (aka The Witch Woman) prefigures key themes in his later work. Beautifully photographed in the 17th-century museum village of Lillehammer, Norway, the film’s original luminous quality is captured in this digitally mastered edition from a 35mm camera-negative print. Plus two rare Dreyer shorts! They Caught the Ferry (1948, 12 mins.) adapts the technique of Dreyer’s horror/fantasy Vampyr to a chilling and unforgettable miniature on driver safety. Thorvaldsen (1949, 11 mins.) uses the long lenses and confrontational style of The Passion of Joan of Arc to illuminate the search for truth in the work of the greatest Danish sculptor, which turns out to have a surprising affinity with Dreyer’s own cinema. All three films digitally mastered from 35mm archive prints. The Parson’s Widow is speed-corrected and tinted, with new music compiled by Neal Kurz from the works of Edvard Grieg.
When was it made?
9/21/2004
Who stars in it?
Joseph Koch Ib Koch-Olsen
And the cast includes:
Joseph Koch, Ib Koch-Olsen, Greta Almroth, Einar Röd, Hildur Carlberg
A respectable tearjerker, Life as a House is a welcome throwback to angst-ridden family dramas like Ordinary People and Terms of Endearment. It falls short of those modern classics, but you’ll probably still need Kleenex if you appreciate Kevin Kline’s underrated dramatic skills. As the title suggests, Kline’s project is a broad metaphor for repairing damaged lives from the foundation up. Playing an architect with terminal cancer, he gives an Oscar®-caliber performance, reaching out to his estranged, nihilistic son (future Star Wars star Hayden Christensen) and ex-wife (Kristin Scott-Thomas) as he wrecks and rebuilds the Malibu cliff-top home that contained his most painful memories. Director Irwin Winkler’s flair with actors helps to minimize lapses in a script (by As Good As It Gets scribe Mark Andrus) that occasionally borders on maudlin. Overall, this is a fine reminder that Hollywood hasn’t lost its soul to action and special effects. –Jeff Shannon
Personally, I thought Kevin Kline was incredible, but wasn’t too impressed with Kristin Scott Thomas.