A 19th-century massacre gets an overly melodramatic recounting.
By Colin Covert , Star Tribune
Last update: August 23, 2007 - 5:24 PM
SEPTEMBER DAWN
Rating: R For violence.
The setup: A dramatization of a 19th-century mass slaughter of Christian settlers by Mormon fanatics in Utah.
What works: Strong work by Terrence Stamp and Jon Voight as Mormon elders.
What doesn't: The two-dimensional, melodramatic tone.
Great scene: Voight's blood-and-thunder sermons against the blasphemous gentiles.
"September Dawn" records a little-known footnote to the bloody settling of the frontier, the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, which some describe as the first act of religiously inspired mass murder in U.S. history.
While resting in Utah before making the final push to California, a wagon train of 120 settlers was ambushed by fanatic Mormons, who slaughtered men, women and children alike. The facts of the case are not in dispute, but the film already has stirred controversy with its critical portraits of the church's early leaders and its graphic, unsparing depiction of the bloodbath.
Its Christian settlers are bathed in such a flattering glow of sanctity, and the Mormons portrayed as such inhuman zealots, that the project has the appearance of melodramatic sectarian propaganda. LDS prophet Brigham Young (Terence Stamp) is presented as the cold-blooded architect of the atrocity, and the fact that the massacre took place on Sept. 11 is driven home forcefully.
As Mormon Bishop Jacob Samuelson, Jon Voight delivers thundering sermons against the gentiles (the church's term for those who don't share their faith) who used violence to drive his people into exile in the West years earlier, and views the pioneer women who wear practical male clothes and carry firearms as blasphemous abominations.
The film is rife with scandalized references to polygamy and proto-feminist indignation about the status of Mormon women, while director Christopher Cain makes it clear where he stands by photographing Mormon characters from the most menacing angles he can find. Samuelson's boy Micah (Taylor Handley) practically licks his chops in delight as he cuts down his helpless victims while disguised as an Indian.
The only decent Mormon in the bunch is his older brother Jonathan (Trent Ford), redeemed by his love for the devoutly Christian Emily (Tamara Hope). The film feels less like historical drama than a venomous religious tract printed on celluloid.
Colin Covert ? 612-673-7186
Colin Covertrating: R For violence. ? ccovert@startribune.com
- August 23, 2007 - Living inoperative of a van with five other young cinephiles for the past respective months, Couple Cities aborigine Todd Sklar has been compensating as a service to the downsized state of self-sufficient skin ordering by myself bringing movies to theaters across the country. More
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The North Star Supernovas take on Hammer City Roller Girls in a WFTDA sanctioned scrimmage at Skateville in Burnsville. Here, Naughty Kitty lays a block on Coma
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The Show:
Back in the 90s a cult fantasy anime series was released that offered up quite the change in pace from adventures like Lodoss War and many of the others. Those Who Hunt Elves proved itself to be a show that was heartfelt, hilarious, and a darn good ride while it lasted. It only had twelve episodes instead of a full season, but a second season was soon produced and the adventures were able to continue much to the delight of fans everywhere.
In reality though, both seasons are essentially the same. The same plot points return, the same characters, heck, even the same jokes stick around. The concept gets a little tiring after a while, but it is kept up with a fresh style and each episode offers up a different gag. You see, the whole purpose of the show is for our main characters to strip as many female elves as possible, in any way that they can.
Through a twist of fate our three heroes were sucked from our world into that of a fantasy land filled with elves, spirits and magic. They befriend (I use that term loosely) a revered leader and hero of the elves known as Celcia, who tries to assist them by conducting a ritual that would send them home. The only problem is that she gets distracted very easily, so when she loses her concentration, the spell shatters and the rite gets spread across the land. The only problem is that the mystical markings didn’t just wind up anywhere, they were actually imprinted on the skin of a handful of elves scattered around the world. This leads our characters on a quest for the spell fragments, but the only way they can really do that is by disrobing elves across the land.
The group eventually becomes notorious and their reputation spreads around the globe. When Those Who Hunt Elves come to town, you’d better run unless you want to be publicly humiliated. This off the wall comedy/fantasy has a completely different tone from other fantasy themed anime and really is pretty absurd at times. That’s part of the charm though, and even though the ideas get old after a little while, the show has a way of staying highly entertaining. That watching value comes from the cast of characters who teeter on the edge of cool and insane.
Junpei is easily my favorite character out of the bunch because he’s the type to overreact to just about everything. He’s a muscle bound knucklehead who is proactive in ripping the clothes of girls, enjoys getting into fights and is generally the biggest form of comedic relief that the show has. He’s also always blowing up over little things and makes a scene no matter where he goes and what’s happening.
Airi is much cooler headed than Junpei is and is seemingly the brains of the operation. She’s a world renowned actress and can turn on the talent at a moment’s notice, which comes in quite handy in sticky situations. She is usually looking for a more peaceful solution to problems by using her theatric abilities, but it doesn’t always work. That’s where Junpei and Ritsuko come in.
Ritsuko is a munitions expert who drives around in a tank, sets explosives and is pretty darned good with a sniper rifle. She’s usually the most upbeat character and is very attached to her Type 74 tank which was transported to this world when they were. The tank eventually gets possessed by the spirit of a dead cat, which leads to it taking on a life of its own and more hilarious situations.
Celcia and Junpei are constantly at odds over absolutely everything. If one of them would say up, the other would say down. This adds a lot of friction to the show and it’s hilarious to see them each blow up at each other, since they share a lot of the same personality traits. Even though she is one of the most honored elves around, Celcia is responsible for what happened to the group of characters from our world. She can’t exactly help them out openly so she turns herself into a dog as a way to keep her identity disguised. Unfortunately for her she can’t turn back into an elf until all of the runes are collected, so she’s stuck as a mutt for basically the entire show. She also becomes the butt of a cosmic joke as the various magic symbols they come across become attached to her in some embarrassing manner.
If you can’t tell by now, this show is off the wall in just about every way possible, but that’s really where the charm lies. It’s hard not to crack a smile when the group comes across an elf that they haven’t seen in her birthday suit. The characters do act with a little bit of decency though and more often than not make the girls strip all on their own. It’s these situations that give the Elf Hunters notoriety and they quickly become legends around the world.
There is a little bit of continuity that flows throughout the show, especially since each episode ties together into the same story arc. For the most part though, the individual stories here are stand alone adventures as the troop continues to roll across the landscape. Many characters reappear and some events are referenced in subsequent episodes, but if by some chance you accidentally skip an episode you shouldn’t be totally lost.
I really enjoyed this show and since I had heard a lot about it before going in, I had high expectations that were fortunately all met. The thinpak contains both seasons and twenty four episodes in total, so you don’t have to worry about being left out in the dark once the first season ends. There are of course some episodes that are better than others, but I didn’t really feel that there was a “bad” one amongst the bunch (though it does get a little silly near the end of the first season). There is a lot of fanservice since the premise of the show is all about looking at naked elves, but it remains fresh enough that it’s highly entertaining and a worthwhile watch.
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The DVD:
With the original production back in the 90s, i>Those Who Hunt Elves is a nice looking show that doesn’t really wear its age. It is presented with its original broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame and features some very nice quality on DVD. The animation is fluid, the colors are vibrant, and there is practically no cross coloration or aliasing. I did notice a few moments where there was some slightly visible grain, but it was nothing to mar the viewing experience. One issue of the show’s production quality comes from a few occurrences of repeat or still animations, though even those moments still look very solid.
Audio:
Both season of Those Who Hunt Elves come with 2.0 tracks for both English and the original Japanese. While both offer decent quality, I found the Japanese track to be all around better due to some annoying English dubbing on the other selection. The audio is free of distortion, but it’s a little disappointing to not have a 5.1 option even though there is some minor directionality to the sound.
Extras:
Absolutely nothing is available on the thinpak collection for bonus material, so if you’re hoping to see something extra, you’ll be left out in the dark.
End Thoughts:
Those Who Hunt Elves is a very entertaining romp through a strange fantasy world. The concept and characters are begging to tickle your funny bone, but I do have to admit that the idea behind the show gets a little old after a while. Fans will appreciate being able to get both seasons here, and for twenty four episodes you can’t really argue with the pricing point. If you enjoy your anime with a little bit of fanservice, action and adventure, then this is a series you’ll want to take notice of. Recommended
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I find it particular, yet compelling, to truly find the words that can best describe the ethical issues confronted in this pure powerful movie. It is fundamental to imagine that this is a covering based on racial issues in America, but there is something far deeper in its subject matter. After viewing this take I up till ponder the question of why, and how, can people be so cruel? I never could understand how the U.S. could fight injury in Europe during WWII but allow it to meet with in our own backyard. What’s settle worse and very confusing is how we struggle with these issues uninterrupted in today’s mankind. But, this is a videotape that commitment satisfy the senses and deliver you deep into the heart of the report, and even deeper into the put through matter. In the end, it will leave loads of grub since hope on the subjects of race, humanity, and the lessons we should all learn from the vastly devastating mistakes people be experiencing made.
“Mississippi Burning” is a wonderfully crafted, masterfully suspenseful crime drama directed by Alan Parker. It is based on a true tall tale that takes place in a under age (down-people’s home, southern hospitality) burgh in Mississippi during 1964. The representation begins when three young gentlemen, civil rights workers, are mysteriously reported missing somewhere in Mississippi. It is up to two FBI agents, Anderson (Gene Hackman) and Ward (Willem Dafoe), to investigate the disappearance. Anderson was a story-fix sheriff of a small city in Mississippi, and Block is a young passionate agent bucking his way to hesitation a big encase. Needless to chance, neither factor likes each other much, which makes into a inoffensive, despite everything random, suitable cop-bad cop situation. When they arrive in the small burgh, they are not greeted with the warmest of welcomes. The more they analyse, the more violence they release down on the black ethnic group in metropolis.
They soon learn that the Sheriff, Deputy, and Mayor are race the betray (via the KKK) and don’t run after kindly to outsiders potent them how to run their state. The chief pointy heads go as further as to say the missing civil rights workers are pulling a trick and are most likely hiding wide of the mark up North. However, agent Thwart doesn’t buy the rationalization and sends in a hundred more FBI agents. The move doesn’t take part in well with envoy Anderson as he is aware it want only mention on more violence to the oppressed minorities of the unoriginal city. Eventually, the three brood civil rights workers bodies are found, giving our agents the verification they need to bring down the small Mississippi town. Not to give anymore away, but the allegory has much more to follow as well as a very clever ending.
The first time I had to put forth a paper in front of an audience of Hemingway scholars, I was quaking in my boots. Official Tim Story must get felt the same advancing tiresome to fetch life to four comic-book superheroes for an expert audience that knows, lives, and breathes comic-book heroes and their exploits. Plus, you be enduring “Spider-Handcuff 2″ hovering out there equal to a gigantic zeppelin with a beckon on it that says something corresponding to, “Can’t Catch This.”
Maybe I’m easily amused, or maybe it’s just been too long since I’ve reread all those Alien Four comics that I saved from my teens in a whomp somewhere in the attic, but I thought Story’s contemporary-action attempt was entertaining tolerably. Yes, it’s no “Spider-Man 2″ or even “Spider-Mortals,” but it’s also not methodical close to bottom-of-the-barrel films find agreeable “Elektra” or “Catwoman.” And I’m guessing creator Stan Lee, that fabulous Marvel guy, agrees with me. Lee was onboard as an executive creator for this film, and it couldn’t have struck him as being that plainly improbable the have an effect, or else he wouldn’t have signed on to be a put asunder give up of “Fantastic 4: Take flight of the Silver Surfer” that’s any more in in.
If you’ve listened to any of the commentaries on previous superhero films, you know that the hardest preoccupation for filmmakers is to do an “origin” membrane. So much of the story has to be devoted to telling how these accustomed people behove superheroes that it’s like spending most of an afternoon with Clark Kent in lieu of of Superman–not closely as joking, and not scarcely enough camera-dated conducive to those villains we love to hate. For that think rationally just, I’m guessing that the development slated for 2007 report will return nutty to a faster start and maintain the momentum. I’m guessing too that Version (”Barbershop”) will have learned a scattering things in the operation of filming his first superhero screen.
The plot in “Fantastic 4″ is pretty bovine. Brainiac Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) approaches hyper-potent Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) to loot a frisk to interval to gather data from a cosmic turbulence he hopes will yield secrets to decoding human DNA. His astronaut driver of choice? Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis), who accompanies him to the penthouse office where Von Doom sits like Dr. Pestilential . . . or a corporate CEO. Von Doom agrees, but insists that Ioan’s past it flame, Go down Storm (Jessica Alba) go along, and that she be accompanied by her companion, soon-to-be-new-”flame” Johnny (Chris Evans), who washed out of NASA. Oh, and Van Doom is common too.
In space, Reed’s calculations twirl out to be off and they’re all blasted by the storm–Ben, the worst. Backtrack from on Earth, they start to develop symptoms that turn them into freaks. Reed develops an suppleness that makes him a stretchy, bendy Gumby kind of satirize who’ll come to be known as Mr. Fantastic. Let, meanwhile, can turn invisible (though, bummer, her clothes can’t), and she fittingly bristles when her brother and the media start speciality her the Invisible Girl as contrasted with of “woman.” Johnny, the spur-of-the-moment impulsive hothead, can terminate a fervour on quicker than a Bunsen burner and streak through the air as the Human Torch. And unproductive Ben? His heart John becomes so dense he’s as big and solid as one of the guys on Mt. Rushmore–a permanent transmogrification that spares him his life but costs him his mate. Von Downfall predictably turns into a superstrong satirize who’s gradually turning into metal alloy. The four good guys appear in admitted once and become known as the Bizarre Four, while Von Doom, a suddenly superstrong guy who’s gradually turning into metal, turns into the villain as a service to the episode. There’s no grand plan to take over the on cloud nine or blow up a city, and no saving citizens from rampant violation–a moment ago a venomous personal battle between Von Doom and the Fantastic 4.
The third chapter in Kinji Fukasaku?s ?Yakuza Papers? saga is the everyone with ?war? right in the title, but it?s part four, ?Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Police Tactics,? that really shows the battles brewing. This is possibly the most wild of the clutch, with the graphic nature of the combine warfare shown in its rawest manufacture.
Continuing his theme of an evolving, reconstructed Japan, ?Police Tactics? take place entirely within 1963, making it the tightest yet of all the films. By now, the nation is fully back on its feet, casting aside the anarchy of the post-war era and charging straight on into modern times, so much so that the country is gearing up to host the 1964 Olympics. As such, the government, fueled equally by citizen outrage and global image, is eager to clean up the streets. As the title indicates, the police play a role in this chapter that?s far larger than anything we?ve seen from these previously powerless, invisible forces.
But while their power grows, they still play a relatively minor role in the overall storyline. Law enforcement is, for the most part, an outside force with which to be reckoned, a stumbling block on the way to all-out yakuza war.
For ?Police Tactics,? the Hiroshima feud is boiling over yet sits on hold. Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara), still on parole, is under tight scrutiny from police officials, leaving him unable to make a strike on his rival and former boss, Yamamori (Nobuo Kaneko). Yamamori, on the other hand, is stuck dealing with a growing army, supplied by supportive crime families, which has swarmed upon Hiroshima and is racking up enormous hosting expenses for the Yamamori family - it seems all this support, without a battle to fight, leaves the men with nothing to do but spend Yamamori?s money.
It?s a win-win for the cops, who realize that either Yamamori will go bankrupt or be forced to make a move, one that would land him in jail. But there is a third option: negotiation. And so, as it?s been for the movies before it, part four contains its fair share of impossibly complex dealings and double dealings, weaving a larger and larger web of yakuza politics.
?Police Tactics? makes its mark by bringing in a new generation. Remember, it?s been eighteen long years since the events of the first film, with Yamamori and his fellow bosses growing old (and, possibly, weak), and with Hirono settling into a bitter middle age. (Side note: consider Sugawara?s performance during this series. It?s striking to remember that these films were made in the course of a mere two years, and yet, with just a squint of the eyes and a shift in stature, Sugawara has been able to age nearly two decades on camera. It?s a small part of a dynamic performance, a tightly calculated acting job that holds the entire series together. Of all the excellent performances in this series - and there are dozens of them - Sugawara delivers the absolute best.)
With the characters of the earlier films now putting on the years, they?ve settled into a world of talk, not action. They?ve grown up, become businessmen. (One boss, a particular coward, is seen repeatedly contemplating shucking it all and instead devoting his time to his taxi company.) Compare this, then, with the itchy actions of the younger family members who crave action. To them, all the deals, truces, promises, and debates the older generation produces are empty. This new blood has the fire of angry youth, and they?re eager to strike out.
This youthful energy works its way down from the top, with Yamamori?s captain, Akira Takeda (Akira Kobayashi), representing the second generation, and with a handful of various miscreants representing a blossoming third generation. For Takeda, Yamamori?s decisions are endlessly bad; just as Hirono was the ignored voice of reason for the Yamamori family in the first movie, Takeda is the ignored voice of action in this one. You can see Takeda desperate to break off from his boss, yet, like Hirono before him, he is unable to do so.
As for the third generation, we see that the anger of youth is still here, except with this generation, separated from the horrors of World War II, there?s not the post-war angst against which to place their rage. Instead, their fire comes from growing up in a city ruled by gangs. To become a man, one must join a family. (Without intending to, Fukasaku has painted a touching portrait of future gang life around the world. Children grow up in a world of violence, and eventually they truly believe that the only way to earn respect in life is to join a gang and continue the cycle.)
The most powerful of all the subplots in the ?Yakuza Papers? series can be found in this chapter. Young Hiroshi Yazaki begins his life of crime taking bets on baseball games. He?s quiet, stays out of the way. He even befriends members of rival families - he?s a good kid. But then, late in the film, he?s offered a job: kill a rival, the same rival Yazaki befriended. This death will open up countless opportunities for the kid?s boss, and besides, the job pays an outrageous sum of money.
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It?s a downright frightening scene, the seduction of this (semi-)innocent into the larger world of violence. After all, we?re already concerned for the teen, having watched in horror as he ogled his first gun - and the newfound power it holds - in an earlier scene. And now we?re seeing him fully sucked into the darkest corners of this world.
Yet we understand his decision once we see his home, located in the middle of Hiroshima?s ?A-bomb slums.? This miserable life of poverty is pushing teens into gangs, and poor Yazaki is merely the latest casualty.
That Fukasaku leaves this as a mere subplot, paying it only enough attention to make its point, not so much as to make it the main point, shows how carefully he?s constructed his film series. ?Yakuza Papers? is an epic that paints its picture with large strokes, yet leaves space for the finest of details. The large and the small combine to bite down hard on the themes of endless violence in an uncontrollable underground. And, as always, his eye remains unflinching, coldly watching, refusing to whitewash a single incident.
The surprise in ?Police Tactics? is in how neatly the film wraps up. It leaves an opening for a fifth chapter, but not a requirement; the series could end here quite nicely. (Indeed, Fukasaku wanted to end here, but was convinced by the studio to do one more chapter.) The finale is perhaps the most downbeat of the saga so far, making it the most fitting: Fukasaku and screenwriter Kazuo Kasahara go for extreme nihilism here, telling us that every deal, every action, every death was all for nothing. This was a war that left many dead, many more injured, with millions spent, all with nothing to show for it.
?The Yakuza Papers? exists to show the complete futility of such a life. The scene in ?Proxy War,? in which a gang attack leaves the cremated remains of a former friend crushed and strewn on the street, was only a small touch, it seems; here, everyone?s life has as little value as those poor, trampled ashes. And so we head into the final chapter feeling beaten. The entire cast of characters has been reduced to a group of meaningless lives. What could Fukasaku possibly do for a finale?
Malcolm X is an invigorating, revealing, and altogether magnificent fade away that chronicles the living of the slain well-mannered rights ruler from his babyhood in Nebraska to his assassination at the Audubon Ballroom in February of 1965. Though a tad long—it clocks in at nearly three and a half hours—the pic is a wondrous trip into done with several decades and various stages of Malcolm’s flair, through the good and the poisonous.
Directed by Spike Lee, the film became a lightning cane of argumentation upon its release in 1992 as innumerable derided it as “hero worship”, and, after the marketing appliance had driven it so far into the American consciousness that it was impossible to go anywhere without hearing it discussed or seeing the memorable “X” everywhere you looked. Fashionable, after virtually thirteen years, the film is somewhat freed of this dispute and hype, and can be seen for the benefit of what it is: a powerful biography of a male who simply wanted the most desirable for the human race.
Malcolm X opens in Boston during WWII, and after a wonderful establishing shot featuring a bustling bishopric boulevard we are bounced back and forth between Malcolm’s (then, Malcolm Little) life in Boston with his friend Shorty (Lee) and his infancy in Omaha, Nebraska. We learn of his struggle from an premature age after his father was beaten and murdered, presumably by members of the Ku Klux Klan, and his household home burned to the ground. In Boston, Malcolm goes to inflame repayment for West Indian Archie (Lindo), a crook who introduces the innocent shackle to numbers running, drugs, and burglary. Soon Malcolm is arrested and, in prison, becomes the picture of a man who has contempt in behalf of anyone and the total and it lands him in isolation for much of his stay.
But when Malcolm meets a fellow inmate named Baines (Hall), he soon becomes enamored with the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, becoming a member of the nation of Islam. As Muhammad’s prominent disciple, Malcolm becomes a well-known leader of the movement—until he becomes disillusioned by those he simultaneously respected and splits from the organization. Along the mode, he marries Betty Shabazz (Bassett) and weathers death threats, constant surveillance from the FBI, and makes the hejira to Mecca, sharply before his death.
It is easy to the hang of from the start that Lee truly cares yon his subject matter and he has the truth the blear an epic yet intimate feel. Working from a relatively small budget for this type of project ($30 million), he succeeds admirably. Cinematographer Ernest Dickerson gives the film a distinctive look—the opening scenes in Boston showcase a nostalgic have while the prison sequences are presented in strong blues and grays. The prominently scope does become involved in away from Lee in an overlong pretentiously band sequence early in, but it is a small flaw in a leading and stunning film over.
Washington offers an effortless performance that is evocative in its scale from Malcolm’s days as a small-time crook, dancing and entertaining in zoot suits with Shorty, to offering smoldering speeches in Harlem. You instantly believe Washington in the character as he always carries an force that is unsubtle beneath the surface—it is a rightly humongous piece of pressure.
Respecting Spike Lee, Malcolm X stands as the unexcelled moment in an eminent career. Lee admits in the wealth of bonus palpable on this DVD that he was heedful from the start, frequently telling himself “not to hot water Malcolm up.” As with any great labor of charity, Lee does become a bit to the ground-enamored with his tale, but inclusive does a terrific job, presenting a story that gains momentum and enthralls with the energetic life of its leader. Robbed of any standard of serious award attention, the film gains power and meaning with each passing year. This is indisputably one the subdue screen biographies ever made and it stands as a crowning achievement for all labyrinthine associated with.
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20th Century Fox
Actors: Dennis Haysbert, Max Martini, Robert Patrick * Format: AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC * Language: English * Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 * Number of discs: 20 * Rating: Unrated * Studio: 20th Century Fox DVD * Release Date: September 29, 2009 * Run Time: 3041 minutes
BUY FROM AMAZON!
Shout Factory
Michael J. Fox is back as Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty, the damage-controlling spin wizard to New York Citys favorite blundering boss man, Mayor Randall Winston. Season Three spells reelection time, and that means business in the office, aside from a steady stream of assassination plots, supermodels, teenage girl muggers, ex-girlfriends and a city full of problems. With all the ensuing chaos, there are enough distractions and obstacles to make business nearly impossible for Mike and his crew. Guest stars included Conan OBrien, Heidi Klum, Joe Torre, Lou Diamond Phillips and Courtney Thorne-Smith.
HBO
Four hundred years after the founding of the Republic, Rome is the wealthiest city in the world, a cosmopolitan metropolis of one million people, epicenter of a sprawling empire. But now, the city's foundations are crumbling, eaten away by corruption and excess…And two soldiers unwittingly become entwined in historical events, their fates inexorably tied to the fate of Rome itself. The entire award-winning, critically-acclaimed series will be available as a gift set, just in time for the holiday season.
School is back in session. Based on the 1973 film The Paper Chase, the TV series features John Houseman (who won an Academy Award for his portrayal in the original film) as Professor Charles W. Kingsfield, Jr. the almighty voice of law and order on the Ivy League campus. He presides over second year student James T. Hart (James Stephens) and a class of driven, intelligent, and morally challenged students who always seem to rise through the pressures of life and law in the pursuit of truth and justice. They will be challenged and you will be riveted. For the first time on DVD, this second season box features 19 one-hour episodes.
The Criterion Collection
Called "the greatest rock film ever made", this landmark documentary follows the Rolling Stones on their notorious 1969 U.S. tour. When three hundred thousand members of the Love Generation collided with a few dozen Hells Angels at San Francisco?s Altamont Speedway, Direct Cinema pioneers David and Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin were there to immortalize on film the bloody slash that transformed a decade?s dreams into disillusionment.
image Entertainment
Four souls bound by fate, romance and tragedy collide in the parallel worlds of London and the futuristic Meanwhile City, where a single bullet will alter the course of their lives forever. A masked detective, a self-destructive art student, a desperate father, and a lovelorn romantic are just a few of the unforgettable characters in this visually stunning fantasy thriller starring Eva Green (Casino Royale), Sam Riley (Control), Ryan Phillippe (Crash), Richard Coyle (Coupling), Bernard Hill (The Lord of the Rings), Art Malik (The Wolf Man), and Susannah York (Superman).
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Matteo Garrone?s Gomorrah is a stark, shocking vision of contemporary gangsterdom, and one of cinema?s most authentic depictions of organized crime. In this tour de force adaptation of undercover Italian reporter Roberto Saviano?s best-selling exposé of Naples? Mafia underworld (known as the Camorra), Garrone links five disparate tales in which men and children are caught up in a corrupt system that extends from the housing projects to the world of haute couture. Filmed with an exquisite detachment interrupted by bursts of violence, Gomorrah is a shattering, socially engaged true-crime story from a major new voice in Italian cinema.
In Arnaud Desplechin?s beguiling A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël), Catherine Deneuve brings her legendary poise to the role of Junon, matriarch of the troubled Vuillard family, who come together at Christmas after she learns she needs a bone marrow transplant from a blood relative. That simple family reunion setup, however, can?t begin to describe the unpredictable, emotionally volatile experience of this film, an inventive, magical drama that?s equal parts merriment and melancholy. Unrequited childhood loves and blinding grudges, brutal outbursts and sudden slapstick, music, movies, and poetry, A Christmas Tale ties it all together in a marvelously messy package.
Warner Home Video
A Whole New Realm of Discovery … Discover the intriguing inside stories of why so many of Britain's most celebrated stars took roles in the series • See the newly unveiled screen test between Daniel Radcliffe and Evanna Lynch (selected to play Luna out of 15,000 hopefuls!) • Go on the set to see firsthand how each of the directors brought unique strengths to the series • Witness the amazing transformations as Daniel, Rupert and Emma grow with their characters over a decade of unprecedented filmmaking. Plus: Never-Before-Seen Screen Tests of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson.
Image Entertainment
The screen?s sexiest bombshell, Brigitte Bardot, sizzles in three of her most unforgettable roles! First she teams up with director Roger Vadim (Barbarella) as a virginal temptress running amok in rural Spain on THE NIGHT HEAVEN FELL then she?s a comic nymphet who takes Paris by storm as an amateur striptease artist in PLUCKING THE DAISY. Finally, a grown-up Brigitte scorches up the screen as a female DON JUAN, a proud destroyer of men (and women) who even drives a priest mad with her wicked misadventures! This trio of tantalizing tales of love, scandal, and betrayal will titillate seasoned Bardot fans and newcomers alike!
Contains 22 Episodes and these Special Features: Truth, Spies and Regular Guys: Exploring the Mythology of Chuck * Dude in Distress: explore some of this season's best action sequences * Chuck Versus the Webisodes: web originated minifeaturettes * Chuck: A Real Life Captain Awesome's Tips for Being Awesome * John Casey Presents: So You Want to be a Deadly Spy? * Declassified scenes * Gag reel
Shout!Factory
Few television programs can claim to have the cultural resonance that thirtysomething did in late 1980s America. Winner of four Emmy Awards, the groundbreaking hour-long drama held up a mirror to a generation of young adults struggling to find a larger meaning to their existence in an era marked by rampant consumerism and the yuppie ethos. Season Two picks up where everyone left off and then some. * New Cast Interviews * Commentaries by Creator, Cast and Crew
TW LW Title Studio Gross($Mill) 1 16 The Princess and the Frog Walt Disney Studios Distribution $25.0 2 1 The Blind Side Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution $15.4 3 * Invictus Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution $9.0 4 2 The Twilight Saga: New Moon Summit Entertainment, LLC $8.0 5 4 Disney's A Christmas Carol Walt Disney Studios Distribution $6.8 6 3 Brothers Lionsgate $5.0 7 6 2012 Sony Pictures Releasing $4.4 8 5 Old Dogs Walt Disney Studios Distribution $4.3 9 7 Armored Screen Gems $3.5 10 8 Ninja Assassin Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution $2,710,000 $34,307,000 3 2100 Box Office Charts From Box Office Mojo LLC
Teenagers Nicole Maris (Melissa Joan Hart) and Chase Hammond (Adrien Grenier) spirited next door to each other but give birth to midget in communal. Dedicated follower Nicole is in charge of organising the high faction centennial dance while the rebellious Hunting spends most of his on many occasions with fellow outsiders at the local coffee shop/performance skilfulness venue. When Chase is dumped by girlfriend Dulcie (Ali Larter) and Nicole’s flight of fancy date with basketball star Brad (Gabriel Carpenter) falls from one end to the other, she suggests to Chase that they pretend to era in tranquillity to appeal to the attention of their personal romantic prey. As the continuously of the big prom approaches Nicole and Chase discover that true love may be closer than either imagined.
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Anton Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre doesn’t receive the most ringing endorsements from his friends. “He’s more than just a jerk,” says his record company president, Greg Shaw.
But he remains a subject of intense fascination for Courtney Taylor of the Dandy Warhols, the alt-rock band from Portland, Ore., that plays the Beatles to the Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Rolling Stones for the duration of the rather remarkable rockumentary, “DiG!”
Shot over the course of seven years and culled from a staggering 1,500 hours of footage, the movie follows the twin paths of the two indie rock bands, as they bob and weave along the stumbling path to rock stardom. The Warhols - - the self-described “most well-adjusted band in the world” — clearly defer to nobody in their admiration of “mad genius” Newcombe, a sociopath musician who is performing songs from his 12th album (he released three albums in one year alone) with new associates as the movie ends, after his long- suffering band finally dissolved.
Newcombe is caught in the film’s final moments throwing yet another self- destructive tantrum and stalking off the stage, ending one more effort to launch his musical career, while the Warhols have managed to eke out a European hit that will keep the band up and running, in what passes for a happy ending in this Sundance prize-winner.
Filmmaker Ondi Timoner followed the entangled rise of these two bands from the Pacific Northwest with an obsessive compulsive’s eye for detail. Every ugly moment is on the screen — from the onstage fistfights to the Georgia roadside marijuana bust — as the two bands seek their respective fortunes. “We’re a lucky band,” says one of the Warhols. “They’re an unlucky band.”
While it may be tempting to read “DiG!” as a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of creativity and the modern record business, or an allegory about commerce (the Warhols) versus art (the Massacre), the film’s centrifuge actually is Newcombe himself. Self-absorbed, semi-delusional, entirely unrepentant, Newcombe is not only a never-ending source of fascination for his friendly rivals the Warhols — who nevertheless wind up talking about getting a restraining order to keep him away — but also the lurching, flailing driving wheel of this movie.
With Taylor of the Warhols providing the voice-over narration, the film unspools like a seedy, noir tale. As the Warhols sign to a major label, get the fashion photographer-directed half-million dollar video treatment, the Massacre are living across town on a penny-ante advance from a small-time independent label, eating food out of cans and sleeping in a funky bungalow without furniture. The Warhols invade the Massacre’s pathetic headquarters to stage a publicity photo shoot for themselves, borrowing the other band’s ignominy for some precious atmosphere.
The Warhols understand that they aspire to things that Newcombe comes by naturally. The unstated subtext is that if he could rein in the craziness just enough, he could be successful in the music business. But if he could, he wouldn’t be who he is. That dilemma has skewered many a would-be rock genius, but Newcombe is the man who makes “DiG!” so abundantly worth watching.
– Advisory: Profanity and brief nudity.– Joel Selvin
Drama. Starring Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Carole Bouquet. Directed by Cedric Kahn. (In French with English subtitles. Not rated. 106 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)..
“Red Lights” is an eerily affecting domestic drama combining elements of “The Lost Weekend” with “Lost Highway.” French director Cedric Kahn adapted his movie from a psychological novel by Georges Simenon, better known for his mysteries, although the books he called his “romans durs” are more memorable.
Much of the film is shot noir-style in the dark of night, illuminated by the headlights of oncoming autos on a highway and by distant lights, some of them red, from passing villages.
I happily hop along for the ride on any film that veers off in unexpected directions. “Red Lights” takes a lot of detours after an unhappy Parisian couple take a literal one off this packed highway on their way to a vacation in the South of France. They wind up in a serious jam involving an escaped prisoner and resulting in acts of violence.
The husband, Antoine (Jean-Pierre Darroussin, who looks like a taller though no less intense Wallace Shawn), is a drinker, the serious kind that shouldn’t be in the driver’s seat, though that’s where he’s often positioned.
Kahn imaginatively establishes Antoine’s problem in an early scene where he waits for his wife, Helene (Carole Bouquet) in a Paris cafe. His empty beer glass suddenly fills up although no waiter is in sight, and for a second you consider a screw up on the part of the crew in charge of continuity. But then one beer after another mysteriously appears like manna from heaven, each eagerly downed by the increasingly glass-eyed Antoine.
Stuck in a mundane job as an insurance agent, Antoine, whether consciously or not, blames his alcoholism on his wife’s success as a high- powered attorney. Resentment creeps into Darroussin’s voice as Antoine relates how her law partners came to his house after his wife gave birth to beg Helene to return to work as soon as possible. Antoine, by contrast, is far from indispensable at his job. Like the best scripts, the one for “Red Lights” suggests a lot more than it states. Somehow we know the couple began their marriage as equals, but that she soon eclipsed him, for which he can’t forgive her.
Bouquet plays Helene with the haughty demeanor of a salesclerk on the Faubourg St. Honore — you can almost understand her husband’s resentment. She hardly says anything as he weaves all over the road, but her silence speaks volumes.
After Antoine gets them hopelessly lost and insists on stopping at a wayside tavern as a consolation, she’s had enough. He wobbles back to the car to find Helene’s note saying she has taken the train to their destination. When she fails to show up, “Red Lights” adds another dimension. Suddenly, it’s a movie about everyone’s worst nightmare — a loved one who vanishes. Darroussin ably communicates Antoine’s mixed emotions for his spouse, and love is definitely in the mix.
In a riveting scene, he makes a dozen calls in rapid succession attempting to locate his missing wife. He phones the camp where they were to pick up their children, the hotel where they had a reservation, and numerous hospitals and train and police stations. (Americans may be amazed that he reaches a human being each time instead of a recorded message.)
Only his side of the conversation is audible, but it’s clear he’s not making any headway from the looks of desperation on Darroussin’s face and the number of times his character asks “Are you sure?” I took a broader meaning from the question — what are we ever really sure of about our marriages or our lives, which “Red Lights” persuasively shows can dramatically change in the flash of a light.
Antoine finally locates a woman who could be Helene in a hospital. Fear seems to sober him up as he gets back in the car and heads to her bedside. He discovers there what all married people should know — that relationships are inexplicable, but that each is inexplicable in its own way.
– Advisory: This film contains acts of violence. — Ruthe Stein
Documentary. Directed by Bruce Weber. (Not rated. 78 minutes. At the Castro Theatre.).
Canine culture has certainly ascended to a prominent place in the United States. Look at the world of magazine publishing, where Bark has established itself as a kind of New Yorker for dog lovers. Look at the world of children’s cartoons, where “Clifford,” “Spot” and other animated canines are big TV hits. And look at the world of cinema, where “A Letter to True” is the latest film to feature dogs as a central motif.
True is one of the golden retrievers that belongs to Bruce Weber, the prominent photographer/filmmaker who has had a lifelong love affair with his animals. Weber’s entire pack of dogs is featured in this film, but it’s True who’s the object of Weber’s fiercest devotion.
Weber creates handwritten notes for his dog, whom he speaks about in a way some people speak about a spouse. “Sometimes, he’s the only one who will listen to me,” exclaims Weber, who says that when he goes on photographic assignments, he can’t stop thinking of True. “I miss you so much,” Weber coos in the film.
We see Weber’s retrievers do everything that would make them so endearing. They run around playfully on the grass. They splash in ocean water and hang out in a dinghy. They sleep contentedly on big couches. It’s all so cute — except that Weber wants this to be a thoughtful film. In “A Letter to True,” he wants to explain his life to his dog, and explain this love to the audience. Incredibly enough, Weber connects it all with Sept. 11 and New York, the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr., Haitian refugees in the United States, the Vietnam War and Elizabeth Taylor. Weber also throws in some semi-erotic images of a semi-clad man and woman — the same sort of images that have been his trademark for many years. (Think of Calvin Klein ads and beefy bodies, and that’s Bruce Weber.)
It’s enough to make even the most die-hard Weber fan scratch his or her head. For example, Weber talks about losing a friend on Sept. 11, then shows images of Manhattan, including a cafe scene where a dog licks ice cream from a dish. Huh? Later, Weber juxtaposes one of King’s more electrifying speeches (where King talks about wanting to “leave a committed life behind”) with an image of dogs wearing “Dogs for Peace” signs. Weber even connects his love of jazz music (Weber’s best-known film is the Chet Baker documentary “Let’s Get Lost”) with a segment from the “Rin Tin Tin” television series that was popular in the 1950s.
More than a simple homage to his dog, “A Letter to True” is a collage of everything that’s important to Weber. But what’s important to a rich, successful photographer/filmmaker with time and money on his hands is not necessarily important to anyone else. Weber’s “Let’s Get Lost” had universal appeal because Baker’s story (handsome trumpeter gets hooked on drugs, falls from musical perch, loses his looks, then tries to come back) was so compelling. “A Letter to True” seems like a vanity project that was green- lighted because of Weber’s immense reputation. Which is too bad. On paper, it must have seemed like such a good idea.
– Advisory: This film contains some scenes of seminudity.– Jonathan Curiel
Documentary. Directed by Luis Fernandez de la Regueras. (Not rated. 90 minutes. At the Galaxy.) .
“Anything I ever liked, I always did to excess,” Michael Morra says in this documentary that bears the name he went by, Rockets Redglare. There’s no reason to doubt his word: Most of this unflinching — yet overlong and overindulgent — film is a loving portrait of a man whose gargantuan appetite for life’s illicit pleasures seemed to be matched only by his love of sharing just how much he wallowed in them.
Rockets’ entire life was a struggle. Born addicted to heroin, he grew up in New York surrounded by violence. His father was a criminal and his mother was murdered. He became a junkie and spent time in prison. Despite all this, or perhaps because of it, Rockets had a vicious but endearing sense of humor that eventually landed him stand-up comedy gigs. Clearly, this self- destructive man was hungry for attention, and his act had more than a ring of authenticity to it, coming as it did from a gruff, obese individual whose front teeth were missing.
Influential people in the Lower Manhattan arts scene of the 1980s were drawn to him, and he befriended the painter Julian Schnabel and actors Steve Buscemi and Willem Dafoe. These men pay tribute to Rockets in the film, as does director Jim Jarmusch, who likens him to “a con man with a soul” and who cast him in bit parts in “Stranger Than Paradise,” “Down by Law” and “Mystery Train.” Rockets also pops up, Zelig-like, as a bodyguard to the painter Jean- Michel Basquiat and a drug dealer to Sid Vicious.
One feels compassion for all that Rockets suffered in his life, and one chuckles, as he does, when he gets away with smoking yet another cigarette while in a hospital bed.
But much of the movie drags, and Rockets’ war stories begin to sound like the repeated old yarns told by the guy at the end of the bar who’s had one too many and can’t stop talking. The film’s director, who met Rockets while working at a bar, should have known when to cut him off.
– Advisory: This movie contains adult language.– John McMurtrie
How assorted times has a location moved you so much in the halfway point of a glaze that you had to let-up it and go gather together yourself before resuming?
Testament is one of those very few films capable of rousing such emotions. Originally conceived as a small screen bulge out for PBS’s American Playhouse, the end up results were so remarkable that Essential bought the theatrical rights, making this 1983 project one of not a handful of made-for-TV movies to obtain such a leap; it went on to provide an A-one showcase object of rising child actors Roxanne Zal (who would go on to star in Something Concerning Amelia, another meritorious telefilm) and Lukas Haas (Endorse) as well as garnering a beyond justified Oscar nod towards Jane Alexander.
As the film begins in a laid back California community, we’re given access to the daily lives of the Wetherly relatives, an atypical American three-child household lorded over by Carol (Alexander) and Tom (William DeVanne). She’s a playwright into the local school youngest son Scottie (Haas) attends; Tom’s a businessman preparing for the purpose a trip to San Francisco.
A last minute phone call from Tom indicating he’ll be dwelling sooner slightly than later sets up another relaxing evening at home ground. But while suffering time watching Sesame Street, the signal goes to static, irritating older son Brad (Ross Harris) no effect. But that lament is hastily forgotten when a local news anchor materializes on the screen advising viewers that the station has lost its network signal—and it’s not just a case of “our technicians are working to clear up the problem”-typewrite interruptions. Though sketchy, the U.S. appears to be under nuclear attack by obscure sources. Suddenly, another blast of static gives way to a stark, abominable difficulty message graphic setting up a report from the White House. As Carol quickly but calmly reaches for the phone, a sound of far-off white scold envelops the compartment.
Life would never be the same again.
With little or no information available from perhaps permanently silenced media outlets, residents gather at a close by church where a mixture of reactions ranging from a local hold owner’s whinefest done with a broken window to a plan of military law by local authorities are dispensed. Such complaints and slight disagreements are instantly rendered confutable by the worries of a young mother who comments on her babe in arms throwing up after being breastfed. It’s an frightful Poetic denounce for of things to come to pass: people leaving town in the hopes of a less threatened existence, deaths open to mount, and the re-establishing of daily routines are handily suggested but not easily practised.
Further, in the midst of this chaos with a deluge of tears barely held back, Carol remains a study of rule and grace; without considering knowing of the sad, inevitable fate of her children, her above-board courage is an inspiration whether it be the calming of Scottie’s fears of the unbeknownst or expressing the joys of intimacy to a daughter that will never be masterly to experience it.
Beautifully adapted from Carol Amen’s short story The Pattern Testament, Testament is not an easy watch, but for those putting aside their wariness over such alarming subject matter resolve sophistication a rush of emotions unlike any other film dealing with the horror of nuclear tactics. It’s a accustomed that you’ll call (Mother Wetherly singing My Rarely Nut-Tree to Scottie moved me to tears), but don’t be surprised if you get angry as well—and I hope everyone seeing this obscure is motivated to hunger guidance leaders and officials in every mountains of the world to use self-restraint. I execrate, I became as outraged as Lionel Mandrake in Dr. Strangelove while witnessing the lallygagging destruction of a once beautiful community at the hands of a man-made seal that accomplishes nothing but profusion murder.
Nothing but.
Editorializing aside, Testament achieves intellect from all and sundry in front of and behind the lens: Lynne Littman’s intimate administration, tomorrow China Beach copyist John Sacret Young’s excellent scripting (Dana Delany’s Colleen McMurphy from the latter series bears more than a cursory emotional accord to Carol Wetherly), stupendous scoring from James Horner, Steven Poster’s powerful photography, and, of course, a phenomenal chuck headed by Alexander’s beautifully basic yet emotional while away with great support from Haas, Zal, and Harris; screen give something Leon Ames in one of his incontrovertible performances as the eternally optimistic senior citizen lording during his ham radio for any dope available; Kevin Costner and Rebecca De Mornay as the young link concerned onto their baby’s fettle; and Japanese peculiarity actor Mako as the loving inventor of a mentally challenged neonate.
One aspect of the film that I feel merits close attention is the invigorating lack of histronics that could have turned Testament into a mishap film undistinguishable from the likes of The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. What you can’t and don’t see is more abominable than what you do; it’s a technique that the filmmakers of Testament carry to the hilt. There’s no preposterous make-up, no significant special effects to speak of, and the lingering aftermath of the seizure is conveyed internally and emotionally very than physically, which gives the movie an ethereal feeling… one you won’t soon forget.
