Rasputin Manifesto

Sex And The City: The Movie - Extended Cut

davidb — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:42:53 +0000

I’m not embarrassed to admit that although I came late to the party, I was a regular watcher of SATC during most of its historic run on HBO (nothing wrong with getting in touch with your feminine side, right?). Women around the world gave a collective cheer when plans for a feature-length film was announced [...]

Cool Hand Luke

davidb — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:40:10 +0000

When we heard of Paul Newman’s passing, Cool Hand Luke moved to the top of my (very tall) stack of DVDs to watch and review. One of the defining films of his career, CHL summed up in perfect fashion, the reason Newman was a major box office draw for most of his career. He played [...]

The Happening

davidb — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:38:40 +0000

After The Village, I began having my doubts about M. Night Shyamalan and his ability to tell a creepy story and then reviews of Lady In The Water didn’t do much do dispel that idea. Based on trailers and my respect for Mark Wahlberg’s acting, I thought The Happening might turn out to be a [...]

Felon

davidb — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:07:39 +0000

You’re an ordinary citizen, you have a family, a growing business a life. One night you catch someone in your house; you chase them out into the yard swinging your baseball bat and accidentally hit him in the head. He dies on the neighbor’s lawn and you get sent away to prison. That’s the premise [...]

Nixon

davidb — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:06:23 +0000

Maybe it’s me, but whenever I read anything about the work of Oliver Stone, I rarely see Nixon mentioned alongside such films as J.F.K., Natural Born Killers, Platoon, or even The Doors. This is a shame that can be easily rectified with this new DVD (The “Election Year Edition”) that adds 28 minutes on to [...]

The Life Before Her Eyes

davidb — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:02:50 +0000

A tragedy of Columbine proportions is at the heart of The Life Before Her Eyes, a powerful and moving story told via a series of flashbacks that jump around in time, before coming together in an ending that will shock and surprise. Evan Rachel Wood is excellent as Diana, the teenager with a crush on [...]

The Shield – Season 6

davidb — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:57:42 +0000

In 2002, The Shield exploded onto the small screen and instantly placed Fox’s new FX channel in the spotlight as a home for programming that was edgy and unafraid to push the boundaries of basic cable as far as it could. As each season progressed, Detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) faced down brutal gangs in [...]

High And Low

davidb — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:55:46 +0000

Criterion brings us yet another masterpiece from the great Akira Kurosawa, in this adaptation of Ed McBain’s King’s Ransom. Toshiro Mifune stars as Kingo Gondo, a wealthy industrialist and the target of a kidnapper who bungles the job when he mistakenly snatches up the son of Gondo’s chauffeur instead. As it happens, Mifune’s character had [...]

Rolling Stones - Shine A Light

davidb — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:51:24 +0000

While it may be hard to believe that the Stones can still get it up after all these years, Shine A Light demonstrates that these senior citizens haven’t lost any of their chops and still know how to rock hard. In what is arguably the best Stones film since Gimme Shelter, Martin Scorsese captures the [...]

Redbelt

davidb — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:43:07 +0000

David Mamet has a jaundiced view of the world – one where the fix is always in and nothing is really how it seems on the surface. His dialog has a stilted quality to it, as if it were written for the stage (and many of his works are), giving his films an instantly recognizable [...]