Justin Reviews: Batman: Gotham Knight
July 16, 2008
With the nationwide release of ‘The Dark Knight’ just days away, Warner Bros. released a direct-to-DVD anime film comprised of six anime shorts, each around 12 minutes in length entitled, ‘Batman: Gotham Knight.’ The animated feature was to provide another perspective on the world of Batman that Christopher Nolan created as well as fill in the gap between the events that take place in ‘Batman Begins’ and the upcoming feature. Read more
Justin Reviews: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
July 15, 2008
Converting J.K. Rowling’s novel, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, into a film was clearly going to be a challenge.
DVD Review: Antonio Gaudi
July 15, 2008
How do you define a documentary? Is it a film that has interviews? Is it a film that tells a true story? These are the sorts of questions that you find yourself thinking watching Hiroshi Teshigahara’s movie ‘Antonio Gaudi.’ Read more
Justin Reviews: Rescue Dawn
July 14, 2008
No one can accuse Werner Herzog of not being a risky director. While his directorial style doesn’t contain a lot of flash, it is definitely stylized in its ability to capture riveting stories. And no one can accuse Christian Bale of being a personality actor.
Remake This: 3:10 To Yuma (2007)
July 8, 2008
In 1953, writer Elmore Leonard published a short story in Dime Western Magazine. The story was made into a movie in 1957, starring Glenn Ford. In 2007, ‘Walk the Line’ director James Mangold tackled the story again. Read more
Review: WALL-E
July 7, 2008
Halfway through the large slate of movies released annually Read more
DVD Review: The Darjeeling Limited
June 30, 2008
Three brothers, Peter, Jack and Francis all meet in India and re-connect in a spiritual and emotional journey through the countryside. That is the one-sentence plot of Wes Anderson’s most recent film, ‘The Darjeeling Limited.’ What sounds simple on paper turns into an on-screen character study featuring three of this era’s most interesting and watchable stars. Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson play the brothers. Read more
DVD Review: The Holy Mountain
June 27, 2008
This is not a movie to watch with Mom. Written, directed and co-starring Alejandro Jodorowsky, ‘The Holy Mountain’ is many things. Easily forgettable is not one of them.
Jodorowsky made the film as the follow up to his indie hit, ‘El Topo.’ John Lennon was among the films admirers and he approached Jodorowsky to see if he could help fund his next movie. Lennon ended up funding the entire film. The film remained elusive and available only in bootleg copies after Jodorowsky fought with former Rolling Stones manager, (and film distributor,) Allen Klein. Klein reportedly said the movie would only be released after Jodorowsky died. Luckily, nothing so drastic had to happen.
‘Holy Mountain,’ is light on story. Basically, a thief meets with up with a guide, (played by Jodorowsky,) who introduces him to seven spiritual guides. Together, they try to climb the titular mountain and kill the Gods who live on the mountain and take their place.
The plot is a simple one, and it’s basically 45 minutes until the it actually kicks in. Before that, the stranger is drugged and used as a model for a crucified Christ, a group of frogs dressed as conquistadors who re-enact the conquest of Mexico, and people reading each other’s excrement to determine the future.
The film is also oddly quotable and one could have a very profitable t-shirt company by solely printing up shirts featuring ‘Holy Mountain’ quotes. To wit:
You are excrement. You can change yourself into gold.
Your sacrifice completes my sanctuary of 1,000 testicles.
There’s also a line about rubbing your clitoris on the mountain, but I can’t find an exact quote on-line. As bizarre as the movie is, the visuals are amazing. Tarsem owes his entire career to the work of Jodorowsky. And Jodorowsky does it 1,000 times better than Tarsem dreams of. The film is apparently a low-budget movie and I knew that going in. Yet so many of the film’s set pieces look like huge effects, either an elaborate in-camera effects shot or requiring a large cast and expensive costumes. At every turn, the film simply dazzles and mystifies.
But did I like the movie? I don’t know. Would I recommend it? If you liked ‘Titanic,’ and don’t want to be challenged by film. I would say no. If you only like art movies because your friends do, I would say no. If you’re interested in seeing a movie unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, and could quite possibly melt your face off, I can say enthusiastically say hell yes. –Sam
DVD Review: American Gangster
June 25, 2008
It seems that if you are a working filmmaker in America these days, at some point, you will make a mob movie. It’s Ridley Scott’s turn and his effort is ‘American Gangster,’ starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. Read more
Justin Reviews: Kung-Fu Panda
June 23, 2008
I’m usually of the opinion that DreamWorks’ animation releases overall water-down the Kool-Aid of animation films.
Justin Reviews: The Happening
June 17, 2008
It probably comes as little surprise that almost all of us who write reviews on films harbor some sort of deep, secret desire to pen our own screenplays
Summer of Sin: Revenge of the Nerds
June 17, 2008
‘Revenge of the Nerds’ will forever be one of the defining 80s movies for me. While the DVD releases from the 90s on will inevitably tout the fact that it co-starred Anthony Edwards, ‘Revenge of the Nerds’ is an excellent ensemble cast that includes Robert Carradine as Lewis Skolnick, Anthony Edwards as Gilbert Lowell and John Goodman as Coach Harris.
