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Dennis McDonald’s MOVIE REVIEWS

 

This section contains links to my occasional movie & DVD reviews. A complete index is here.

Tuesday
Aug312010

Je-gyun Yun's TIDAL WAVE (HAEUNDAE)

As disaster movies go this one is pretty good. We get to know an odd group of people and wonder, of course, which will survive When The Big One Hits.

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Wednesday
Aug182010

Sylvester Stallone's THE EXPENDABLES

Team of over the hill mercenaries rescue damsel in distress in a tiny corrupt island based military dictatorship. In the process the island is reduced to smoking rubble and piles of corpses.

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Friday
Aug132010

Michael Powell's AGE OF CONSENT

In this 1969 film an ageing and bored successful artist leaves New York for a sun-filled respite on a beautiful but sparsely populated Australian island. There he runs into a teenager who serves as his model. In the process his creative juices start flowing again.

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Thursday
Aug052010

Na Hong-jin's THE CHASER

Following the success of Silence of the Lambs, movie and TV audiences have been treated to many pale imitations, most of which have failed to excite or provide any serious dramatic interest

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Monday
Jul262010

Alexander Sokurov's THE SUN

I have no idea how factually accurate this movie about Emperor Hirohito’s emergence following Japan’s defeat in WWII is. As a movie, though, it is engrossing, thoughtful, and occasionally, visually dazzling.

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Thursday
Jul222010

Rob Zombie's THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EL SUPERBEASTO

My biggest complaint about this feature length “adult” cartoon is not about gratuitous sex and violence — that’s Rob Zombie’s whole point — it’s one very simple but unmistakable fact:

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Friday
Jul162010

Val Guest's DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE

Val Guest’s businesslike direction and matter-of-fact approach to depicting extraordinary circumstances in a near-documentary style here yield a still-watchable and very entertaining thriller that takes place in London in the early 1960’s.

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Friday
Jul162010

Discoveries via Streaming Netflix 1

I’ve been using an XBox 360 to access Netflix and its streaming video service.

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Monday
Jun212010

Robert Brousseau's RACE

This is the “intergalactic pod race” story you get from people who don’t read enough good science fiction.

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Wednesday
Jun092010

Val Guest's QUATERMASS 2 (ENEMY FROM SPACE)

This mixture of British horror and sci-fi from 1957 is thoughtful and at the same time scary.

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Wednesday
Jun092010

Park Chan Wook's THIRST

Plot summary: * Devout priest volunteers for medical experiment * Becomes lustful vampire as a result * Sex/violence/building-hopping/tragedy/ensue

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Tuesday
Jun082010

Christian Alvart's PANDORUM

Plot summary: Outer Space Zombies.

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Tuesday
May112010

Dziga Vertov's THE MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (Chelovek s kinoapparatom)

This 1929 silent film by Russian director Vertov is a masterpiece of fluid editing and visual storytelling.

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Sunday
May092010

Steven Spielberg's CATCH ME IF YOU CAN

“Oh yeah, this is what the credits for an Otto Preminger comedy would look like!”

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Sunday
May092010

Jack Arnold's IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE

Back in 1976 I was taking a driving tour of California, my first.

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Tuesday
May042010

Terry Gilliam's THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS

“Imaginarium” is an inventive and fun film that becomes more engrossing as it unfolds.

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Monday
Apr262010

Peter Jackson's HEAVENLY CREATURES

Once more DVD technology comes through by making available an older film no longer in general theatrical release, this time Peter Jackson’s 1994 HEAVENLY CREATURES.

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Monday
Apr262010

Peter Jackson's THE LOVELY BONES

In THE LOVELY BONES director Peter Jackson returns to the more intimate blending of emotion and fantasy that characterized earlier films like HEAVENLY CREATURES.

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Monday
Mar222010

Ricky Gervais & Matthew Robinson's THE INVENTION OF LYING

What a subversive little film this is. And sweet. And funny. And unexpected.

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Thursday
Mar182010

Hayao Miyazaki's PONYO

This is some of Miyazaki’s best work. It’s enchanting, touching, sentimental, funny, and occasionally, simply astonishing. Miyazaki has a gift for capturing the honesty and wonder of childhood yet he does so without sugarcoating or pandering.

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