Archive for January, 2004
The Butterfly Effect
by Bill Henry on Jan.23, 2004, under Bill Henry's Movie Reviews
The Butterfly Effect
Directed by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber
Sets down nationwide 1/23/2004
3 *
One of the indispensable volumes on any movie-lover’s bookshelf is the latest edition of David Thomson’s The Biographical Dictionary of Film. Not so much a comprehensive research volume, the book is a collection of essays about the filmmakers and actors that Thomson believes to be the most noteworthy throughout cinema history. One passage that I have always enjoyed is his dismissal of Andrei Tarkovsky’s version of Solaris in which he concludes that he saw the same thing done on a Star Trek episode where it was one-third as long and a lot more entertaining.
Related Reading:
Why Popcorn Costs So Much at the Movies: And Other Pricing Puzzles
Cinematic Storytelling: The 100 Most Powerful Film Conventions Every Filmmaker Must Know
If You Take a Mouse to the Movies (Book & Cassette)
Color Your Own Classic Movie PostersCarandiru
by Bill Henry on Jan.16, 2004, under Bill Henry's Movie Reviews
Bill’s Review
Brazil’s most recent submission for the Foreign Language Film Academy Award is Hector Babenco’s Carandiru, a docudrama set in what had been Latin America’s largest penitentiary. Based on a memoir by the prison’s doctor Drauzio Varella (a book whose title translated as Carandiru Station—named after the good doctor’s Sao Paulo train ride commute), the movie is a story seen through the outsider’s eyes that (with the audience) comes to see the convicts’ humanity in what has become their “home.†(continue reading…)
Related Reading:
Understanding Movies Value Package (includes Filmmakers on Film (CD)) (9th Edition)
The Film Club: A Memoir
A Century of Movie Posters: From Silent to Art HouseAlong Came Polly
by Bill Henry on Jan.16, 2004, under Bill Henry's Movie Reviews
Bill’s Review
Ben Stiller delivers a perfectly ordinary performance in Along Came Polly, a by-the-numbers comedy that ventures little and entertains even less. Reunited with his Meet the Parents and Zoolander screenwriter John Hamburg (here making an uninspired debut as director), they have provided a tepid, unimpressive piece of cineplex flotsam which will rise to the top for a weekend and then quickly sink under the weight of its mediocrity. (continue reading…)
Related Reading:
"Have You Seen . . . ?": A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films
Stone Age Soundtracks: The Acoustic Archaeology of Ancient Sites
Mamma Mia!: The Movie Soundtrack Featuring the Songs of ABBA (Piano Vocal Guitar)Teacher’s Pet
by Bill Henry on Jan.16, 2004, under Bill Henry's Movie Reviews
Teacher’s Pet
Directed by Timothy Bjorklund
Unleashed nationwide 1/16/2004
1.5 *
Good news for those enduring a harsh winter, one of the sure harbingers of spring arrived January 16th: Walt Disney has dispatched to theatres another cheaply-made, thoroughly-uninspired cartoon to separate the wee ones from some of their hardly-earned cash. Though summer and Christmas might be fitting for the likes of Finding Nemo, Toy Story, and Treasure Planet—works of grand entertainment and originality perfect for family film-going, this is the time of year when parents are suckered into depositing the kids at the multiplex to sit through such fare that, despite the Disney logo, will more likely be a feature inspired by one of their television programs or a churned-up sequel to one of their beloved classics complete with a third-rate score.
Related Reading:
The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made, Updated & Revised (Film Critics of the New York Times)
Art of the Modern Movie Poster: International Postwar Style and Design
Film Art: An Introduction with Tutorial CD-ROM
Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American MoviesTorque
by Bill Henry on Jan.15, 2004, under Bill Henry's Movie Reviews
Torque
Directed by Joseph Kahn
Rolls out nationwide 1/16/2004
1 *
The real price we pay for a hit movie is not merely the admission cost (not that I would have much direct knowledge of that). Rather from the land where success breeds sequels, the actual cost of a hit movie is the interminable carbon copies of that hit which will follow as surely as a starlet after a producer. The atonement for The Fast and the Furious which began with Biker Boyz and 2 Fast 2 Furious continues with the unleashing of Torque. Since few of the people involved in this two-wheeled clichemobile seem to have a working knowledge of basic physics (or basic filmmaking or basic storytelling), it is probably thought that Torque would look cooler on the marquee than the more appropriately descriptive “Dung.â€
The Film Encyclopedia 6e: The Complete Guide to Film and the Film Industry
Attack of the 'B' Movie Posters (The Illustrated History of Moves Through Posters Series Vol. 14)