King of the Hill: Criterion Collection
March 27, 2014
After the surprise success of his independent film debut, sex, lies & videotape (1989), which won the prestigious Palme d’Or, Steven Soderbergh struggled to find the right projects and the ability to make them to his satisfaction. This resulted...
The Brothers Bloom
October 21, 2010
It was with high expectations that I slipped Bloom into my DVD player. After all, Rian Johnson had made the excellent Dashiell-Hammet-in-high-school Brick, one of the coolest indie films of the past few years. Would Bloom have the sharp dialogue, excellent...
The Darjeeling Limited: Criterion Collection
October 11, 2010
Coming off the ambitiously mounted and complicated production that was The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), Wes Anderson wanted his next film to be much smaller in size and more intimate in scope. Initially inspired by living in Paris with actor...
The Thin Red Line: Criterion Collection
September 16, 2010
After Terrence Malick made Days of Heaven in the late 1970s, he didn’t make another film for two decades. Because he shunned the press like the cinematic equivalent of Thomas Pynchon, speculation was rampant as to the reasons why. It was rumored that...
King Kong: Deluxe Extended Edition
November 29, 2006
King Kong (2005) is Peter Jackson’s epic, mega-budget, fanboy love letter to the film that inspired him to become a movie director in the first place. Clocking in at double the running time of the original, Jackson’s film is an ambitious juggernaut...
King Kong
April 6, 2006
King Kong (2005) is Peter Jackson’s epic, mega-budget, fanboy love letter to the film that inspired him to become a movie director in the first place. Clocking in at double the running time of the original, Jackson’s film is an ambitious juggernaut...
King Kong
March 31, 2006
You’d think after spending five years working on the most epic of trilogies Peter Jackson would take time out, or do a smaller project, and for a while it looked like The Lovely Bones would be his next film; a follow-up of sorts to Heavenly Creatures...
King Kong – Peter Jackson’s Production Diaries
February 16, 2006
In order to capitalize on the release of Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong (2005), Universal has released a collection of production diaries on a 2-DVD set. These brief segments originally aired on Kong is King, a fan website dedicated to the movie....
The Jacket
December 28, 2005
Like the similarly themed The Machinist (2004), The Jacket (which was released in the same year) is all about the fractured perception of its protagonist. Jack Starks (Brody) is a U.S. soldier badly wounded in the first Persian Gulf War that resulted...
The Village
July 4, 2005
The Village (2004) is an evolution, of sorts, for the M. Night Shyamalan formula. Instead of focusing on one protagonist as he has done in his previous films, he has shifted the focus to an ensemble drama. It is also his first period drama in which the...