Archive for the ‘Other’ Category

  • 14 Feb

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    I’m Going to Hell

    4

    Vader Beckons

    Star Wars is the devil.

    No comment. I leave that to you.

  • 09 Dec

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    Three Days of Cheadle

    9

    Don CheadlePurely by coincidence, I’ve had three days/night of Don Cheadle films this week. Since he’s one of my favs, I though I’d just elaborate. Nothing long or special here, these aren’t even my favorite Cheadle performances (not even close), just thought it interesting that I happened to catch three of his movies in as many days.



     

    Don CheadleThursday: Talk to Me
    This is the most recent of Cheadle’s films. He takes the lead here, to play Petey Greene; a talk show host of the 70′s who’s extremely outlandish at the time (the original shock jock?). Little do the conservative, white-boy execs at the radio station know, this man is exactly what the community wants to hear and as the film wears on, it turns out they need to hear him as well.

    Cheadle turns up the volume to eleven and really brings the soul of Petey Greene to the forefront in an extremely charismatic performance. Supported by the up and coming, always terrific, Chiwetel Ejiofor; here is a heluva film that really has lots to say about race relations and social (in)justice in the time of the mid to late sixties. Plenty of humor here as well.

    Don CheadleFriday: Mission to Mars
    Okay okay okay, I admit it. This is a guilty pleasure. However, I love coming home from the bar late at night (alone again, sigh…) and popping in one of these overblown effects movies without forcing me to think too much. Just eat popcorn and drink water.

    I gotta admit though, I really enjoy these scientific, exploration/adventure movies. The Core is another example of one such film. The lines in the film are unbelievable corny and some of the situations are preposterous. Still, the fun characters and the gorgeous effects make this movie work for me. The vision of Mars in the future and what might be waiting there for us to find is compelling enough on it’s own. How we deal with it is another matter.

    This may be sacrilege, but several of these scenes in here are unmistakably Kubrick. DePalma (who I’m not really a big fan of) has obviously borrowed from 2001 on several fronts – dramatic cues, aural cues, camera techniques and probably most recognizable, the set design. Obviously not pulled off as well as Kubrick might’ve, but still, I like the effort and can appreciate the influence. Great ending too.

    Don CheadleSaturday: Reign Over Me
    While Cheadle really plays second fiddle to… get this… Adam Sandler, his role as a family man with not enough free time and too much stress really comes off great. Even though he’s a little distant and seems to need more from life, I found myself laughing out loud at some of his pieces of dialogue, more than I did with most of Sandler’s. The banter with his wife being the most notable: “Honey, can I go out and play?” type of stuff.

    The film overall seems to have loads to say, but it dragged on a little longer than needed. All in all a good picture though. Sandler is… I can’t believe I’m about to say this, damn near brilliant as Charlie. With Cheadle to play off of, the movie comes off as fairly touching, heart warming and genuine; not the Oscar bait that it appears to be.

    As a side note, anyone who is familiar with the 80′s television show on HBO entitled “Not Necessarily the News” may remember a little segment called “Sniglets: Words that Don’t Appear in the Dictionary, But Should.” Anyway, one of the popular sniglets [snig-lit] was:

    CHEADLE – noun: The orange, cheesy residue left on the finger tips after eating a bag of Cheetos

    see trailers or clips from the above titles and a sniglet example after the jump!
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 05 Dec

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    Limited Releases

    30

    before1.jpg“Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country (typically in cities such as New York and Los Angeles).

    A limited release is often used to gauge the appeal of an independent film – especially of documentaries and art films. A common practice by major film studios is to give highly anticipated and critically-acclaimed films a limited release in December in New York and Los Angeles in order to qualify them for an Academy Award nomination, as set out by the rules outlined by the Academy. These films would often receive a wider release later in January or February.” (Source: Wikipedia)

    I hate to say it but I have a serious problem with movie studios. I can acknowledge the use of releasing a small low budget film on a very limited scale to gauge the response in order to see if it should be given a wide release. I do not accept giving limited releases to movies that they know will get a wide release. In my mind all this encourages is movie piracy. If a movie is available in Toronto, Los Angeles and New York and I do not know when it will be released in my city I would be tempted to see if I can find that movie by other means. I would still pick it up on DVD if it is good once it is released but until that point I would be very tempted to watch it illegally.

    I live in a fair sized city. Saskatoon has approximately 200,000 people currently living here. As an example, I am sure that if they released Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (Our Review) there would be a large enough audience to justify its release here. There are only three cases where in my mind I can justify a limited release: 1) Releasing a movie for press only is completely valid. This is how movies get early reviews; 2) Showing the movie at a film festival. Film festivals are a special case and I can fully appreciate that; and 3) Releasing small low budget films on a limited scale in order to gauge if they will make or loose money when released fully.

    I am not saying that I believe in movie piracy or anything but it sure makes it hard to wait for a movie when everyone I know has already seen it.

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