FilmRoar

I was sent a link to DarkMateris’s Star Trek Songs and was so amused and impressed that I have been incesently listening to the Picard song ever since. A must download for any fans of Star Trek Next Generation.

The first five minutes of Shrek 2 (2004) can be found on the Shrek web site.

It is regrettable when a “what is really going on” style mystery becomes predictable. Such is the case with The Thirteenth Floor (1999), a noir-style murder mystery told in and out of a virtual reality simulation so sophisticated that the characters in the virtual world do not realize they are figments in somebody else’s story. Still some decent acting from Craig Bierko, Vincent D’Onofrio and Gretchen Mol along with a strong visual style lend the otherwise flat story enough of a spark to make the movie at least watch able.

While most people have compared The Thirteenth Floor to movies like Dark City (1998), The Matrix (1999), and the remarkably similar script for eXistenZ (1999), watching the movie I was reminded more of noir-fi classics like Blade Runner (1982) and Gattaca (1997). This is probably mostly due to the second reality taking place in an impressively richly constructed 1937 Los Angeles. Unfortunately not a hell of a lot happens in the course of the movie. Our hero is accused of a murder and jumps in and out of the virtual world he constructed to try and solve the mystery. Along the way enough hints are dropped to make the thin story easy to figure out. D’Onofrio is as always a pleasure to see act and Moll lends the movie a strong sense of authenticity with her classic beauty (which incidentally has given me new hope for the upcoming biopic The Ballad of Bettie Page (2004) where she is due to replace Liv Tyler in the title role).

Mari posted an interesting idea at her blog. She has marked which of the IMDB Top 250 films she has seen, very similar to my earlier post Film Roar: 37% Library DVD Titles Watched where I counted having seen 540 of the 1,447 DVD titles at Multnomah County Libraries. I liked the idea and thought I would take a whack at the list myself. I disagree with many of these films having such high ratings, but am nonetheless proud to say I have seen 80% of the movies listed.
Read the rest of this entry »

By now most people have probably heard that Disney has frozen distribution of Michael Moore’s latest film Fahrenheit 9/11 because it is critical of the Bush family and their dealings with the Bin Ladens. The New York Times article that broke the news can be seen at: Michael Moore’s web site has updates on the controversy. While I have come to distrust Moore after finding out some of the inaccuracies in his previous movies I am more so disturbed by the Bush family trying to quench criticism.

I was happy to receive an advanced screening ticket to see the new action flick Van Helsing (2004) last week. I entered the theater with low expectations for the massively over-advertised (read as in over-hyped) flick and can honestly say I was not disappointed. The action was unrelenting, the editing quick, the plot thin, the lines cheesy, the acting questionable, the directing laughable and overall it was a quite a bit of fun.
Read the rest of this entry »

I had the rare pleasure of watching the new documentary The Corporation (2003) at an advanced screening at the 27th Portland International Film Festival with co-director Mark Achbar present. Achbar, who brought us the superb film Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992) a decade ago does a superb job of offering a new perspective on the behavior of the corporations that have come to be in control of most of our planet. The movie employs a humorous narrative and quick-image cutting to keep the audience entertained and engaged even as it delves into some of the astoundingly immoral behavior that we have come to accept, or ignore, from our corporate citizens. Early in the movie the analogy of a corporation of an individual is used to analyze corporate behavior using the DSM IV and conclude a pattern of psychopathic behavior that is hard to dismiss given later accounts of blatant harm to peoples and societies and a resolute refusal to take responsibility for the pervasive unethical behavior. While the alliagance of the documentarians lies clearly in the side of the workers solidarity and environmentalist the movie still manages to concentrate on impartial facts to move the audience towards a state of general outrage.

I believe people most likely to take the time to see this film are liberal activists which is too bad because corporate workers probably stand the most to benefit from the film. The corporation has seen limited screenings at film festivals and art houses around the united states but should enjoy a wider release starting mid-June. I highly recommend you read the release dates or keep your eye on local listings and don’t miss the chance to see this superb movie.