DVD Reviews Archive for February, 2013
The DVD Wrapup
The Master, Holy Motors, Kid With a Bike, Loneliest Planet, Silent Souls, Chicken With Plums, How to Survive a Plague and more.
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: The Master
PICK OF THE WEEK: NEW THE MASTER (Also Blu-ray) (Two Discs) (Four Stars) U.S.: Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012 (Starz/Anchor Bay) No, I won’t call it a masterpiece — though it’s certainly a brilliant and beautiful movie, better than any other American film I saw last year. Better than Argo. Better than Lincoln. (Not by much,…
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: Argo
Though based on fact, Argo plays like a mad combo of mixed genres: Spy Games espionage stuff, Wag the Dog government trickery, Close-Up Iranian street film and The Sting, an intricate con game, except that this time the picture puts the CIA in a favorable light, instead of tapping into the usual Three Days of the Condor Company nightmare.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup
Bullet Collector, Argo, Thief of Bagdad, Deadfall, Sushi Girl, Undefeated, Laura, Naked City, Bath Salt Zombies… and more.
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: Two-Lane Blacktop
All three of these existential car dudes (they’ve got no past, they’ve got no future, and what little there is of either was probably something made up by Warren Oates), get together for an outlaw car race — the Chevy against the GTO, for the pink slips. They head out from California through Santa Fe and up to Little Rock, to Tennessee and North Carolina — by which time the race and these people have changed a little — including the hitch-hiker, who comes in, grabs a ride and messes everybody up. She’s called The Girl (Laurie Bird) and she adds sex or potential sex to the equation.
Read the full article » 1 Comment »Wilmington on DVDs: Monsters, Inc. 3D; Sinister; Top Gun; Twilight’s Last Gleaming; Grand Hotel..
Monsters, Inc. 3D (Five Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition or Three Disc 3D/Blu-ray Combo) (Three Stars) U.S.; Pete Docter, 2001-2012 (Disney) More good, funny, beautifully crafted, heartfelt stuff from Pixar, set in the scream-powered factory of Monstropolis among all the most horrible or brainy toy monsters — notably big, scary Sulley (John Goodman)…
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: Skyfall
PICK OF THE WEEK: NEW SKYFALL (Also Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy) (Two Discs) (Three and a Half Stars) U.K.-U.S.: Sam Mendes, 2012 (MGM) Skyfall may be a James Bond movie for both the masses and the cognoscenti, but it begins with something as old as The Perils of Pauline — a chase and a battle…
Read the full article » 1 Comment »The DVD Wrapup
Skyfall, Bully, Wallflower, Thieves, Mimesis, Serena, Jedi Junkies, Coalition, Gossip Girl… and more.
Read the full article » 1 Comment »The DVD Wrapup
House of Cards, Flight, Peter Pan, Cabaret, Narayama, Hello I Must Be Going, PA4, Vreeland, Side By Side and more…
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: Flight
Flight is also a very entertaining movie, and its very mutability and changeability — the way it hops from genre to genre, mood to mood, from high action and high entertainment to high seriousness, is a large part of what makes it so compellingly enjoyable.
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: Farewell, My Queen; Ten Best Movies, 2012
We know she is doomed. Much of the tension of the film comes from our own wonderment at when the Queen and the King and the court will realize it too. Instead they act, in the few days (July 14-17, 1789) that we and Sidonie watch them, as if only a temporary disturbance—a tempest in a pastry shop—were underway, not the end of the world.
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