Check Out the Trailer

For Judd Apatow’s third directorial outing, he’s more personal and matures his material. Like Roger Ebert mentioned in an interview with the director, his films have a way of taking a typical plot and putting an unexpected twist on it. The losing your virginity plot is skewed in THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN with the age of its lead. The unwanted pregnancy is skewed in KNOCKED UP with a pretty successful woman trying to make her relationship work with the child’s lazy frumpy father. Now in FUNNY PEOPLE, Apatow skews the near death experience with a man who learns nothing.

George Simmons (Adam Sandler, PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE) is a world famous comedian who stars in stupid family films that would even make Eddie Murphy wince. He learns that he has a rare blood disease and must go on an experiment treatment regiment. Before he got sick, he was a miserable person to be around and he only gets worse. At a comedy club, he does painful morse and egotistical routines that audiences laugh at awkwardly. I mean he’s George Simmons, so must be funny, right? At one performance, he meets the young comic Ira Wright (Seth Rogen, PINEAPPLE EXPRESS) and asks him to write some jokes for him. This gig leads to him becoming George’s assistant. Ira finally gets a taste of success — both the sweet and bitter.
Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

OLDBOY director Chan-wook Park tackles the vampire myth in an interesting way. Like has been done before, he deals with vampirism as a disease. But how do people react to that infected person when he’s a priest?

Sang-hyun (Kang-ho Song, SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE) is dedicated to the sick people he cares for. He’s so caring that he decides to submit himself to an experimental treatment that might find a cure for a mysterious disease that is killing his patients. No one has survived the procedure yet. The main researcher Immanuel (Eriq Ebouaney, KINGDOM OF HEAVEN) always wonders if his volunteers are suicidal or have a martyr’s complex. Sang-hyeon seems truly compassionate. But as the old saying goes, “No good deed goes unpunished.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Little girls are to fantasy like princesses are to princes. Classically, they go hand in hand. With Henry Selick’s delightful CORALINE now on DVD, This Weekend’s Film Festival looks at the connection between little girls and fantasy. Coraline joins a host of classic girls and their fantasy worlds. Those three are joined by girls who bring fantasy to their worlds.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check out the trailer

The three-time Oscar winning sound and film editor Walter Murch directed only one film, this film. What a gutsy project for your first time in the director’s chair. L. Frank Baum wrote many stories set in Oz, but few have dared to bring them to the screen fearing comparison with the classic WIZARD OF OZ. Because it would be hard to attain the magic of musical fantasy in WIZARD, Murch goes a completely different direction. If one can accept a dark Oz, then one can find a fascinating fantasy world within RETURN.

Dorothy (Fairuza Balk, THE CRAFT) hasn’t been sleeping ever since she returned from Oz. Her Aunt Em (Piper Laurie, CARRIE) and Uncle Henry (Matt Clark, THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES) are worried about her obsession with the fantasy world. So they decide to take her to a doctor who specializes in a new treatment – electro-shock therapy. Dr. Worley (Nicol Williamson, EXCALIBUR) and Nurse Wilson (Jean Marsh, FRENZY) assure Aunt Em that they can make the vision of Oz go away.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Hayao Miyazaki’s films capture goodness and kindness like no other filmmaker. He puts the magic of living and growing up into each hand drawn frame. Few animation directors actually animate on their films; Miyazaki draws thousands of frames himself. His personal touch washes over all his films and if there has ever been an animation director who could be called an auteur, he would be it. He’s the perfect filmmaker to bring us tales of magic, because he’s a real life magician.

And this is certainly a tale of magic. Kiki (Japanese voice: Minami Takayama, English voice: Kirsten Dunst) is a 13-year-old witch in training. It’s her time to leave her mom and dad and find a witch-less city to serve. With her witty best friend, the black cat Jiji (Japanese voice: Rei Sakuma, English voice: Phil Hartman), accompanying her, they settle in a town by the sea. When she clumsily swoops into town, she certainly makes an impression, especially on the aeronautics-obsessed teen Tombo (Japanese voice: Kappei Yamaguchi, English voice: Matthew Lawrence). A chance encounter with the baker Osono (Japanese voice: Keiko Toda, English voice: Tress MacNeille) leads her to setting up a delivery service — a pretty good job when you can whisk away on a broom over the traffic.
Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Audiences and critics alike have been split on Baz Luhrmann’s epic Australian melodrama. It’s certainly a throwback to the “big” pictures of the past. While I wouldn’t dare say it comes close to classics like GONE WITH THE WIND or THE AFRICAN QUEEN, the film shares much of the same tone and ambition as those films. Driven by good performances, I found myself caught up in the story, especially its gorgeous vistas.

Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman, DEAD CALM) travels to Australia to deal with the sale of her cattle ranch. When she arrives she discovers her husband has been murdered and the locals are blaming the Aboriginal medicine man King George (David Gulpilil, WALKABOUT). His half-Aboriginal, half-white grandson Nullah (Brandon Walker) knows the truth, but he must watch who he trusts because the authorities are rounding up “creamies” to breed the black out of them. Her prim and proper ways don’t mesh well with her rough Aussie guide Drover (Hugh Jackman, X-MEN), but she has to rely on him when she’s forced to fire her ranch hand Neil Fletcher (David Wenham, LORD OF THE RINGS), who has been secretly helping her competition, King Carney (Bryan Brown, F/X), ruin her Faraway Downs ranch.
Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

One of the chief complaints of most of the DC universe superheroes is that they’re hard to relate to because they are like gods. This direct-to-DVD animated feature finds a way to deal with that issue head on. When you are a god, what responsibilities does that give you?

Hal Jordan (Christopher Meloni, LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT) is a test pilot who is chosen by an intergalactic organization called the Green Lantern Corps in their effort to protect the universe. When one member of the Corp dies, their power ring goes to the next worthy wearer, giving the user the power of flight, force fields, and the ability to form any object out of energy. Jordan receives the ring of Abin Sur (), a very respected member of the Corps, which makes the other members doubtful that the Earthling he can live up to his predecessor.
Read the rest of this entry »

Buy It Now!

Blu-ray certain does aid animation. The colors just pop off the screen. The deep colors show off the direct-to-home entertainment releases cut-above-the-rest animation. However, like physical flaws on actors blaringly coming out in 1080p, so does the animation cheats, like less detail in background elements. That said it’s never distracting in the least, especially when the story is so solid. As for the soundtrack, it does really utilize the 5.1 surround sound capabilities, relying on the front speakers for the most part.

For the special features, “I Am the Ring” is the most interesting featurette looking at Green Lantern’s roots in mythology and religion. While at times repetitive, the scholars and comic experts delve into an interesting discussion on the history and meaning of talismans and amulets. Artist Neal Adams makes a particularly interesting point when he notes that the power ring comes to Earth to pick the most worthy successor and has to skip other DC icons like Bruce Wayne and Superman to find Hal Jordan. That says a lot about Jordan.

“Behind the Story with Geoff Johns” looks closer at the Green Lantern mythos. For Lantern newbies like myself, I found the featurette very informative. The only problem was that the nine-minute feaurette left me wanting more. Likewise I found the feaurettes on Sinestro and the Guardians of the Universe to be shallow at best. The disc also contains previews of other DC Animation titles including the upcoming SUPERMAN/BATMAN: PUBLIC ENEMIES, which one gets the impression is going more toward action and less story, which is a shame, considering the richness of the comic source. But DC has disappointed with these titles yet. Geoff Johns also returns for a featurette on his multi-title comic run called “Blackest Night,” where a black power source is activated that brings back dead superheroes. The disc also features GREEN LANTERN-centered episodes of DUCK DODGERS and JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED, which were picked by DC icon Bruce Timm, as well as a Windows Media Player digital copy of the film.

Read a review of the film here!

I guess Natalie Portman would make brothers Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal fight over her.

It’s been two weeks since the last Getting Buzzed column, so there are a lot of trailers to see. There are many here this week that are sure to make my most anticipated films of the fall list for sure.
Read the rest of this entry »

With WATCHMEN arriving on Blu-ray and DVD this week, This Weekend’s Film Festival is going dark with a look at cinematic dystopias. Alternative histories. Drug-regimented populations. Crime crippled cities. Fascist governments. And a bit of the ole ultra-violence. Look into the future through a glass darkly.
Read the rest of this entry »