Transformers: Special Edition
October 17, 2007
In the 1980s, Transformers were one of the most popular and profitable toy lines. So much so that the franchise expanded into a long-running cartoon, a movie, a comic book, and so on. It was only a matter of time (and money) before someone would try a...
Days of Heaven: Criterion Collection
October 12, 2007
In retrospect, Days of Heaven (1978) can be seen as a transitional film for its director, Terrence Malick, whose first film, Badlands (1973), was a fictionalized account of Charles Starkweather, a young man who went on a killing spree with his teenage...
Mala Noche
October 10, 2007
Mala Noche (1985) was Gus Van Sant’s feature film debut and an early example of what would become known as New Queer Cinema in the 1990s. More significantly, it was the first film in an informal trilogy set in Portland, Oregon that would also include...
The Sarah Silverman Program: Season 1
October 8, 2007
I used to hate the comedy of Sarah Silverman. To me, her humour was crude, mean-spirited and intended to shock only for the sake of being so without any substance to it. The problem with her taboo-smashing brand of comedy is that sometimes she pushes...
The City of Violence: Ultimate Edition
October 5, 2007
The City of Violence (2006) is a stylish action film that wears its many cinematic influences proudly on its sleeve. Filmmaker Ryoo Seung-Wan employs a bevy of flashy techniques like split screens, freeze frames and time lapse photography to tell a simple...
Robinson Crusoe on Mars
October 5, 2007
Artists have always been fascinated by the planet Mars, from books like H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds and Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, to films like Invaders from Mars (1953) and The Angry Red Planet (1960). Screenwriter Ib Melchior...
Saturday Night Fever: 30th Anniversary Edition
September 28, 2007
Saturday Night Fever (1977) turns 30 this year and has become firmly entrenched as a popular culture icon. It is one of those rare films that tapped into the zeitgeist of its time, brought disco into the mainstream, transformed its star, John Travolta,...
The TV Set
September 27, 2007
The TV Set (2006) is a satire of television that wants to be the next Network (1976) but opts for a much more laid-back approach. The film shows the inner workings of the T.V. industry and how a pilot episode is pitched, then produced, and, in this case,...
Lucky You
September 25, 2007
After the surprise critical and semi-commercial hit of L.A. Confidential (1997), director Curtis Hanson followed it up with the equally critically-lauded Wonder Boys (2000) that, despite two separate theatrical releases, failed to connect with a mainstream...
Next
September 24, 2007
Cris Johnson (Cage) is a two-bit Las Vegas magician, a second-rate Amazing Kreskin who can also see two minutes into the future but only as it pertains to him. The one exception to his two-minute rule is a recurring vision that he has of a woman in a...
