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DVD Movie Disc Reviews
Categories in section: DVD Movie Disc Reviews
Tuesday, 25 April 2006 |
Written by
Bill Warren
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title:
Casanova
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studio:
Touchstone (Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
MPAA rating:
Rated R
starring:
Heath
Ledger, Sienna Miller, Jeremy Irons, Oliver Platt, Lena Olin, Omid
Djalili, Charlie Cox, Natalie Dormer, Helen McCrory, Tim McInnerny
DVD release year:
2006
film release year:
2005
director:
Lasse Hallström
running time:
108 minutes (DVD label says 111 minutes)
film rating:
Four stars
sound/picture rating:
Four stars
reviewed by:
Bill Warren
Giacomo
Casanova was an adventurer, libertine, magician and traveler who, late
in life, wrote his multi-volume memoirs. Movies have been feasting on
them as long as there have been movies. Fellini made “Fellini’s
Casanova” with Donald Sutherland as the rake of the Renaissance, but it
was surprisingly stodgy for Fellini. The same certainly can’t be said
for Lasse Hallström’s lively, funny—and underestimated—“Casanova” of
2005.
Tuesday, 25 April 2006 |
Written by
Mel Odom
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title:
ÆON FLUX WIDESCREEN SPECIAL COLLECTOR’S EDITION
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studio:
Paramount Home Entertainment
MPAA rating:
PG-13
starring:
Charlize Theron, Marton Csokas, Jonny Lee Miller, Sophie Okonedo, Pete Postlethwaite, Frances McDormand
film release year:
2005
DVD release year:
2006
film rating:
Three Stars
sound/picture rating:
Four Stars
reviewed by:
Mel Odom
“Æon Flux” began life in 1991 as an experimental animated series
launched by MTV’s Liquid Dreams. Created by Korean American animator
David Chung, the show kept coming back again and again, reaching cult
status after three seasons that were basically unconnected. In fact, in
the first season Aeon got killed in each episode. Fans rejoiced and
dreaded the movie version of their heroine.
Hewing to its science fiction roots, “Æon Flux” is set in Bregna, the
last city left alive on earth after a terrible disease killed
ninety-nine percent of the world’s population. Walls keep nature at
bay. Bregna is the world’s most perfect city, providing everything its
citizens want or need. Unfortunately, there is a ...
Tuesday, 25 April 2006 |
Written by
Bill Warren
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title:
Shopgirl
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studio:
Touchstone Home Entertainment
MPAA rating:
PG
starring:
Claire Danes, Steve Martin, Jason Schwartzman, Bridgette Wilson, Sam Bottoms, Frances Conroy
theatrical release:
2005
DVD release:
2006
film rating:
Four Stars
sound/picture rating:
Four Stars
reviewed by:
Bill Warren
This warm, sensitive and funny movie didn’t burn up the boxoffice,
though it deserved to; this may explain why the DVD has so few extras.
Technically, the DVD is fine, with the careful color palette of
director Anand Tucker, cinematographer Peter Suschitzky and production
designer William Arnold well-rendered. The color scheme is discussed in
the expert “making of” documentary on the disc, and in Tucker’s
intelligent, interesting commentary track.
Tuesday, 25 April 2006 |
Written by
Darren Gross
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title:
Shadows in the Sun (Aka: The Shadow Dancer)
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studio:
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
MPAA rating:
TV14
appearing:
Harvey Keitel, Joshua Jackson, Claire Forlani, Armando Pucci, Giancarlo Giannini, Valeria Cavalli, John Rhys-Davies
TV release year:
2005
DVD release year:
2006
director:
Brad Mirman
film rating:
Two and a half stars
sound/picture rating:
Two stars
reviewed by:
Darren Gross
Slick young literary editor, Jeremy (Jackson) is given the seemingly
impossible task of convincing retired literary giant Weldon Parish
(Keitel) to write another novel. Parish hasn’t written in twenty years
and lives a reclusive life with his daughters in the beautiful Tuscan
countryside. Sent to track down Parish by his boss Mr. Benton
(Rhys-Davies), Jeremy finds Parish an ornery, protective sort with a
prankish sense of humor. Initially incurring Parish’s ire with his
slick, businessman’s approach, Jeremy begins a long process to win
Parish’s trust, and in the result finds in him an encouraging mentor on
life as well as writing. As Jeremy begins to unlock his own repressed
writer’s ...
Tuesday, 18 April 2006 |
Written by
Bill Warren
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title:
Out Of Sight
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studio:
Universal Home Video
MPAA rating:
R
starring:
George
Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Dennis Farina,
Albert Brooks, Steve Zahn, Nancy Allen. Unbilled: Michael Keaton,
Samuel L. Jackson
release year:
1998
film rating:
Four and a half stars
reviewed by:
Bill Warren
While not a hit, this movie pleased virtually everyone who saw it in
theaters, and it's only going to win more followers on video --
particularly in this terrific DVD. There are plenty of extras, which is
easy enough to do, if you have the footage, but here they're
particularly well organized, with interesting deleted scenes,
intelligent commentary by director Steven Soderbergh and writer Scott
Frank, and well-chosen clips from the "electronic press kit" created to
publicize the film, including some words from Elmore Leonard, author of
the original novel.
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