When underground director Ryuhei Kitamura announced that he’d be making Azumi, his first film inside the Japanese studio system after a successful run of independent films (Versus, Aragami), fans may have had just cause to fear. Not only was he joining the mainstream machine, but he was also directing for the first time a script […]
Consider a parallel world at the dawn of the new millennium. Unemployment is rampant, national morale is low and the country’s youth are unruly and dangerous. The government’s solution: Banish one school class per year to a deserted island and force them to kill each other. Three days, no rules, one winner. If you’ve never
Just when you thought the mockumentary had mocked everything worth mocking, here comes a new gem of the genre that will have you rolling in the aisles once again. Up for skewering this time around is the dog show, as Best in Show takes the absolutely inane shenanigans of dog breeders and handlers, impaling their
With preternatural good looks, a Spice Girl for a wife, and an uncanny ability to kick a soccer ball and make it land wherever he wants, David Beckham is one of the biggest stars of British sports. The soccer player was nice enough to lend his name to Bend It Like Beckham, a spirited, good-natured
The main problem with making a sequel to the original Apes was that Charlton Heston didn’t want to put the loincloth back on to keep the struggle going against those damn, dirty apes. So Richard Zanuck, the producer of the original Apes, asked Heston personally to return to the role as some kind of karmic
When is somebody going to scare the shit out of us again? Will the day arrive when I can watch a movie with the same frightened, uneasy feeling I get when I walk through my darkened hallway at midnight? These questions zoom into mind after watching David Twohy’s Below, the latest in a line of
In 1948, director Vittorio De Sica made The Bicycle Thief, the quintessential blueprint of neorealism, a drama widely considered one of the greatest films ever produced. It was shot in the streets of Italy with non-professional actors, and tells about the haves, the have-nots, and the desperate. For the uninitiated, the classic tale is motivated
Years ago, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) turned a chance meeting on a train into a romantic 24 hours wandering the streets of Vienna. At the end of Richard Linklater’s engaging Before Sunrise (1995), the young one-night lovers go their separate ways Jesse back to the U.S. and Celine back to France their
There truly is nothing quite like a Brendan Fraser movie, is there? Encino Man, Dudley Do-Right, Mrs. Winterbourne these are the films that a generation uses to mark the passage of time. It’s nigh time we added another sparkling gem to the 30 picture oeuvre that is The Brendan Fraser Experience and that gem is
Often considered the best animated film ever and the only one to ever be nominated for Best Picture on a return viewing years later, Beauty and the Beast doesn’t seem to be quite the masterpiece we once thought. Dig through the cacophany, though, and you will indeed find one of the better animated experiences of
