Michael Kerwin’s blog

I remember when I thought a movie with Elektra in it would
be cool.

I thought that for years, since the mid-1980s Marvel Comics
prime of the character. She's a female ninja in very little
clothing, a star of classic

Daredevil

comics by Frank
Miller. Then I remember the stark realization that a movie with
Elektra in it might not be cool — and it wasn't her appearance
in the

Daredevil

movie.

It was this movie, when Elektra met a teen girl juvenile delinquent,
who made Elektra's tough as nails demeanor begin to crack. And
then the

Elektra

movie became

The Golden Child,

but with 100 percent less Eddie Murphy. It's also the exact
same plot as several John Wayne movies, but there's no Duke
here either.

The child charming a tough bastard into showing his or her
heart of gold has been done about 50 zillion times. None of
them were comic book movies, though, so I guess there had to
be one eventually. Why couldn't they have gotten it over with
on

Howard the Duck?

Even

X-Men

had a touch
of it, but at least there was other stuff going on.

In

Elektra,

this is all we get. So our choices are:
Like it, which teen girls might; or lump it, which I shall proceed
to do now.

Comics Elektra is a bitter, remorseless assassin. Her heart
is thawed by Daredevil (not in the same way as the little girl
in the movie). Then, like nearly every comic heroine, she is
killed brutally. Then ninja magic revives her, and about 50
miniseries later she's a guest star in

Wolverine.

In the

Daredevil

movie, she's not very Comic Book
Elektra at all. Elektra in the comics was on a journey toward
redemption. Movie Elektra was already good, except she just
didn't see Bullseye kill her daddy, which began her descent
into Evanescence playing on the soundtrack. Then she went on
one mission and was killed.

In this movie, she's already angry, but not about her daddy.
This time she's got mommy issues. In the sequel, will she be
mad about her Uncle Larry?

Elektra

is full of silly, misplaced, or just unsuccessful
plot points, characters, and scenes. There's a full story here,
which is more than I can say for

Daredevil.

But must
my innocence be scorned for seeking it?

The movie begins with a voiceover about "The Treasure," a
wonderful thing that will bring everyone peace and love and
stuff. Elektra was The Treasure, but now she's not. Now the
teen girl is The Treasure. But later in the movie, villainess
Typhoid says that she used to be The Treasure, too. Did they
take turns? ("I thought it was you this week." "No, I start
next Tuesday.")

A chunk of time is spent in a Japanese executive board room,
where the villains speak in subtitles and the super-villains
demonstrate their powers. Then the boardroom is never seen again.
I think the magic healing guy who disappeared in

The Punisher

works there.

After one assassination, Elektra is in a big empty mansion.
Then she accepts her next mission and suddenly she's in a completely
different empty mansion. Did I fall asleep? Not that I expect
a movie to show a character waiting in line at baggage claim,
but give me something.

One of the villains has tattoos that come to life. His name
is Tattoo. I thought of the little guy on

Fantasy Island

going "Hey Boss, what's Klinger's fantasy this week?" Memo:
That name should be stricken from the list of character names.
(Tattoo, not Klinger.)

Girl Power

The annoying kid is an easy out in any action movie, and Elektra's
not that hard a character to wrap one's head around. There are
brief dialogue bits that made me think they were going to nail
it, but then the girl would get kidnapped.

She notes that maybe Elektra has obsessive-compulsive disorder.
As a plot point, not as a punchline. Then it's never mentioned
again. And she has a weapon of her own — a magic bracelet
that turns into an electric whip. But it doesn't stretch, so
all the villains need to do is stay six inches away. Deep, cleansing
sigh. . . . There, there. It'll all be over soon.

I got the sense watching this movie that something was just
wrong; like the creators just gave up and made the first thing
that came to their minds. Oddly enough, that first thing was
a 14-year-old girl with a magic bracelet.

Kneel Before Stick

Terence Stamp was awesome as General Zod in

Superman 2.

Here he plays Stick, Daredevil's tough mentor from the comics.
He gets a different outfit in every one of his scenes. It's
like he's demonstrating each of the Stick action figures, but
there are no Stick action figures. There's Ninja Robe Stick.
Then Pool Hustler Stick! Then Forest Adventure Stick in Powder-Blue
Camouflage!

Many fee-based watching video movie sites warn that non-paid watching video sites can only offer you low quality films with disappointing resolutions that destroy your online movie watching experience, it is totally] true. enought of bandwidth for uninterrupted viewing, or working links to the streaming movies you want to see? These important considerations that will have the greatest impact on the quality of your relaxation is what you will choose: download movie sites or watching site. Download movie sites give a great quality , so you can get pleasute of your favorite movies in hd quality anytime. Download Avatar full length divx

If there is any reason to see this movie, go for the powder-blue
camouflage.

Ninjas!

Did I mention the ninjas?

Ninjas used to be shorthand for "bad mothers" in adventure
fiction. If only one showed up, you were in trouble. They had
the quickness. They would kill you so fast, you wouldn't even
know it.

The end for them was the

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

comics in the mid-1980s. That contained a Daredevil reference
in its first issue. That was the end of lone ninja action. It
took four of them just to be fair.

Thereafter, the Turtles stacked ninja corpses like pancakes
in the mid-1980s. At that same time over in Marvel, Wolverine
and Elektra were stabbing whole armies of them like they were
corn on the cob.

The Tick

comic book crystallized the notion that
ninjas are funny, and it added an "Elektra" parody as a bonus.
Now we have come full circle, and ninjas are in the

Elektra

movie. And let me tell you, they're hilarious.

They present way too much of a threat to the star of the movie.
It's a 10-minute scene for what would have been half a panel's
work for Comic Book Elektra. But the best part is, they disappear
in a puff of green smoke when Elektra kills them, like ghosts
eaten by Pac-Man. Either the point is that these are more of
a threat because they are MAGIC ninjas, or somebody thought
dead bodies were icky.

Then good ninjas show up. You know they're good because they
wear white. Which sort of screws up that whole stealth business,
unless they're in Iceland. Or is it Greenland? I always get
that mixed up. Either way: shiny white ninjas.

Alias Elektra

Jennifer Garner is a good actress. She's very good in

Alias.

But I'm not sold on her Elektra. And I'm not saying that out
of comic-book fan spite. She twirled the sai convincingly, and
her costume is sexier this time than in

Daredevil,

although it still keeps safely on the side of reality, eschewing
the comics' hip boots and skull cap.

I am not saying that I wanted a top-heavy Playmate with a black
wig and a vacant stare. Garner doesn't work for me as Elektra
because she's too cute. When she tries to be steely, brutal,
and cold, she looks like she's about to cry.

Here's the thing. If you have never read Comics Elektra, you
will say "Haven't I seen this movie before?" If you have read
Comics Elektra, you will say "Gak! This isn't Comics Elektra!"
It misses an easy target.

Humor compiler Joe Crowe is peaceful but brutal.

We give birth to Secretaries’ Date for a reason. In any office setting, it is a sure bet that the secretarial pole puts up with a allowance a a good. The pursuit is tedious, the punish is low-born, and the realize find time done is commonly not appreciated. So it’s not too eager to imagine three secretaries snapping, kidnapping their boss, and holding him pawn, now is it?

In Nine to Five, three women do everyone’s fantasy - they grab to attack and humiliate their boss (although not not by choice). The first half of the talkie is a winning office comedy, sort of like a 1980s Office Seat. Judy (Fonda) is new at Consolidated, Inc. She isn’t the most self-assured (or technologically capable) person in the post, and within hours she has the copier shooting paper all over the floor, earning her a reprimand from the boss, Mr. Hart (Coleman). Office director Violet (Tomlin) and Hart’s secretary Doralee (Parton, in her film debut) explain that Hart’s treatment is pretty much par for the course. He has climbed to the top on the backs of his co-workers: if he isn’t peculation ideas from Violet, he’s stressful to have an affair with Doralee. The three fantasize about offing him (in creative dream sequences), but when Violet accidentally mistakes rat poison in compensation sugar and puts some in Hart’s coffee, they may find their dreams inadvertently coming true.

I really enjoyed the outset half of this flick. It was hysterical (in a dated way), the characters were engaging, and the parley was showily written. Halfway through, however, the film makes an quick turn into black comedy, and the shift isn’t a smooth one, to say the least. The three leads are plonk down up as wise, normal characters in the earliest half of the shoot, and it is a part hard to accept all the wacky, unpredictable, and unbelievable things they do by the put paid to. Suppress, even however it is highly implausible, the latter half is still funny; it’s just that the film takes the unhurried behaviour pattern out, substituting unheard-of situations for neat scripting.

Any deficiencies in the theme are made up for in the acting. Tomlin, Fonda, and Parton are all wonderful. They have great chemistry, and each shows her own one strengths; Parton is delightfully innocent, Tomlin is satisfactorily bitter, and Fonda shucks her normal room divider presence as she transforms from wide-eyed klutz to loveable iniquitous. Coleman is good as well, if a bit inseparable-note (but doesn’t he have to be?). His representation of a sexist pig is darn near practised (I remember. I breathe with one. An authentic one, not just a representation).

The final third of the movie does incline to fail actually a bit. I find creditable if the running time had been shaved by wide 15 minutes, much more of the comedy would work&#8212timing is everything, you know. However, comprehensive Nine to Five works because it is inventive and unpredictable. Director Higgins creatively stages scenes in the ennuyant workplace, and to if the pace slows, the film many times looks good. I signally enjoyed the three delusion sequences and the various cartoon effects used to envision the regicide of Mr. Hart.

Admitting that the “glass-ceiling” premise seems a bit dated, I’m sure it still applies. There is in fact definitely a jot of collective commentary wrapped up in all the hilarity, but I was too amused to focus on on it. Plus, there’s that unforgivable occasion song (which earned Parton an Oscar® nomination). Why not give this one to your secretary next time Secretaries’ Day rolls around?

You identify, on alternative touch, it effectiveness simply give them ideas.

Written: Nov 19 '01

Produce Rating:

Performance Factor:

Special Effects:

Doubt:

Pros:

dramatis personae, direction, sets, cinematography, create

Cons:

lengthy, slow, sometimes manipulative, film stock has deteriorated somewhat

The Bottom Line:

This classic Hollywood tearjerker requires some unflappability, but rewards viewers with its top notch cast, way, and bittersweet comic moments.
Compare Prices
(

$0.17 - $37.2 from 6 stores

)

Get free shipping on orders ov…

at Amazon


$7.98



BrianKoller's Full Reconsider:
Penny Serenade
Skeleton Details: This point of view reveals serious details about the movie's plot.

Cary Grant was probably the greatest comic actor in Hollywood history. He starred in comedies spanning four decades, from the 1930s to the 1960s. But aside from a belated honorary Oscar received in 1970, he only received two nominations for Best Actor, never winning. Both films were dramas,

Penny Serenade

(1941) and

None But the Lonely Heart

(1944).

Grant's comic skills were certainly appreciated by the millions who flocked to theaters to see his films. But you can be sure that it was not his big comic scene in

Penny Serenade

, which has him frantically searching for a lost baby, that garnered the Oscar nod. Instead, it was his passionate speech to a judge, pleading that his year-old adopted daughter not be taken away despite his chronic unemployment.

The latter scene is more characteristic of

Penny Serenade

, a consummate romantic tearjerker directed by George Stevens. Stevens' skill with melodramatic 'soap opera' plots would later show in

A Place in the Sun

(1951) and

Giant

(1956). Stevens had worked with Grant before, in

Gunga Din

(1939), and would direct him in a heavily Oscar-nominated success the following year,

The Talk of the Town

(1942).

The movie is composed of a series of flashbacks, several with surprisingly long takes. A scene in which Irene Dunne learns to bathe her infant would seem interminable, if it were not so charming nor as well done. The flashbacks are framed by a stack of old RCA Victor 78 RPM records, played by Dunne as she reminisces about her troubled marriage with Grant.

As in another Cary Grant film from 1941,

Suspicion

, he plays a character whose sunny optimism belies a risk-taking and spendthrift nature. Dunne had earlier been in two comedies with Grant, the classic

The Awful Truth

(1937) and

My Favorite Wife

(1940), but in

Penny Serenade

her scenes are mostly dramatic. Dunne was a seemingly ageless beauty who had leading roles into her late forties, radiating grace and dignity even in comedies.

Penny Serenade

first saw theaters in April 1941, about eight months before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Several early scenes in the movie take place in Japan, although they were undoubtedly filmed on a Hollywood backlot. The benign depiction of the Japanese people, and the appreciation for their ancient cultural traditions, are in stark contrast to how the Japanese would soon be portrayed in American films.

At 120 minutes, the film runs a bit long, and various tragedies that befall our leads are milked for all the drama that can be drained from them. But dry your eyes; we suspect all along that a production code happy ending is in store. (67/100)

Recommended:


Yes

Viewing Format:

VHS


Video Occasion:

Fit for Friday Evening


Suitability For Children:

Suitable for Children up Ages 8

Comments on this Review

Read all comments (2)


Epinions.com ID:




-

Top 50


Member:

Brian Koller

Location:

Plano, Texas

Reviews written:

873

Trusted by:

481 members

Back Me:

Conservative grades, but kinder and gentler reviews.

View all reviews by BrianKoller


View BrianKoller's profile

Subscribe to More Reviews on Videos & DVDs

Liberated the RSS Feed:
- Unite to My Yahoo!:



- Combine to Google Homepage:



Subscribe to BrianKoller's Reviews:

Get the RSS Sustain:
- Add to My Yahoo!:



- Join to Google Homepage:

Summer’s approaching, and if Mud doesn’t think of something solid he’ll have to endure eight weeks of nerd hell at Flounce Computer Chip-a-wa. His friends are facing the yet unwelcome vacation: It’s rancid to a paramilitary coterie in behalf of Zack (Andrew Keegan), a fat farm for Gaby (Melody Kay) and drama camp also in behalf of Trish (Marne Paterson). Then Mud (Jonathan Jackson) has a brainstorm. If they could someway get their hands on the moolah their parents are prosperous to use to send them away, they could hire their own coterie. No rules, no ox-like activities, no wordless counselors–due eight weeks of unsupervised joyousness.

The history of the teen summer camp movie is far from exalted, and the opening moments of “Camp Nowhere” may make you fear that it’s another “Meatballs.” Oddly enough, though, it turns out to be nothing of the sort. Instead of the usual coming-of-age coarseness, this celebration of kid power is a rather tame affair. It’s sweet, likable and even vaguely hip.

It’s a relief to see a children’s film that portrays kids as resourceful and self-reliant. To pull off the scam with their parents, Mud and his friends enlist the services of Dennis Van Welker (Christopher Lloyd), a former drama teacher best known for his notorious musical version of “The Silence of the Lambs.” Dennis dons a series of disguises to convince the parents of each kid that their child must spend the summer with him. And everything seems to work perfectly, except that word gets out around school and before Mud can do anything, half his classmates get in on the scam.

The camp itself was once a hippie commune, but quickly–and with the help of their parents’ money–the kids transform it into a kid’s paradise, complete with water cannons, computer games and wide-screen TV. Along the way, the children have fun (most of it fairly harmless), overcome hardships and petty squabbles, and find themselves. Even Dennis, who has run away from most of the tough decisions in his life, learns to stand up and take responsibility like a real grown-up.

Directed by Jonathan Prince, “Camp Nowhere” is old-fashioned and borderline corny, but here and there the comedy turns delightfully weird. For example, Parents’ Day includes a hilarious kids’ production of a scene from “A Streetcar Named Desire” as part of what the campers call “Tennessee for Tots.”

The kids get busted, of course, but after the parents are allowed a minor freakout, things return to normal and nobody gets hurt. Maybe “Camp Nowhere” is more easily praised for what it isn’t than for what it is. Still, it’s not half bad.

The Relations Stone

Starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Dermot Mulroney and Rachel McAdams; directed by Thomas Bezucha

The Descent Stone is the decent what Santa ordered. Normally Christmastime is when Hollywood unleashes hammy family beau-fests upon us as if we liked these lumps of coal. Cooked through, the House Stone may boast a cozy finale but it at least it isn't what you're in the club.

Download Blood and Bone Movie dvd

The Stone family has bit and they stab their claws in physical deep ahead of Sarah Jessica Parker has a crying confidence of enjoying her X-mas holidays. She comes home ground as Dermot Mulroney's inexperienced beau ready to meet the Stone family, a misfit bundle of judgmental nitpickers all set to impersonate her throat-clearing and play embarrassing games of charades. The Stone's cruelty is a delight, outstandingly when it turns out Parker actually is a giant loser.

With great characters and a smart script, the family Stone is a sabbatical gem.

Rating: Three Stars and a half out of five

THE STRAIGHT DOPE:
Danish foreman Lars von Trier is most known in America for his 1996 film Breaking the Waves and the Dogme 95 manifesto in which he, along with several other filmmakers, extolled the virtues of “unstylized” filmmaking using only natural light and nominal appurtenances. The Dogme activity, which always seemed more like a joke than an actual concept, was a complete aesthetic reversal for von Trier, whose earlier films were shot with a sophistication that few Hollywood filmmakers can match. The Element of Crime, von Trier’s 1984 highlight debut, stands in such stark contrast to his later, minimalist work that it seems the birth of an entirely different artist.

The Element of Crime concerns the return of a detective named Fisher to Europe (a specific nation is never named) from a 13 year hiatus in Cairo. He has been called back to help solve a series of disturbing child murders. The Europe Fisher remembers has faded during his absence and the new, dreary landscape is mirrored by a new order, or rather lack of
order. Fisher subscribes to a method of police investigation
detailed in a volume authored by his mentor, Osborne,
called The Element of Crime. This method is similar to
the acting “method” made famous by Actor’s Studio graduates
like Marlon Brando, where the individual approaches
a performance by completely becoming his subject. In the film Fisher tries to get into the mind of the murderer by following his path step for step. After a while he begins to totally identify with the murderer. This method is frowned upon, however, by the new chief of police, a violent blowhard who shoots first, asks questions never.

As interesting as it is, The Element of Crime is a difficult film. At times it is overly pretentious, and much of the dialog consists of arty non sequiturs, like “The weather changes constantly. It never alters.” In a way, von Trier is an exceptional filmmaker, but he is also the kind of European artist that gets spoofed most often, sort of Dieter from ‘Sprockets,’ but with better cinematography. Breaking the Waves concentrated on an emotional journey and, therefore, the poetic meandering helped create an atmosphere of longing. The Element of Crime, however, includes a lot of plotting in addition to the atmosphere and, in leaving so much open to interpretation von Trier can seem like he’s lost at times.

The Element of Crime is most striking for its visuals. The entire film is shot through an amber filter, rendering the images almost monochromatic, but with an eerie glow. Occasional neon signs and blue green TV screens cut through this sepia fog to signify modernity in a decaying society. It is easy to see the influence the film has had on David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club), whose visual control is no less impressive than von Trier’s.

While trying to create something new and original, von Trier is obviously a fan of classic cinema. The film borrows images and moments from Casablanca, Vertigo, Apocalypse Now!, and innumerable hard-boiled detective stories. What this mix ultimately creates is a world that is purely cinematic. Von Trier makes no attempt to make the film “real,” as there he does in the Dogme films, but rather he allows The Element of Crime to live within the context of all the films that came before it.

Even though the film is visually stimulating it can be coldly clinical and never really opens up fully. It keeps the viewer at arms length, which helps maintain an air of mystery, but also prevents the viewer from identifying with the characters, ironic since Fisher’s problem, ultimately, is that he identifies too strongly with his subject.

Von Trier may have been a young filmmaker but he was confident enough to fill his film with thematic images and textures that a more experienced director may have overlooked. The repeated use of the four basic elements (water, fire, wind, earth) reminds us that the elements of these crimes are all around us and that the semi-fictionalized world of the film is still based on some decaying moral reality that von Trier detects in our own world. By the end he seems to be saying that there are no murderers and victims, no good guys and bad guys. That we are each all of those things.

PICTURE:
Criterion’s new anamorphic transfer is simply stunning. The images are crisp and the colors are vibrant. The sepia-toned images are the most important components here and are served well.

AUDIO:
The mono soundtrack is presented equally well. Through subtle use of music, sound effects, and a variety of noises, von Trier has created a soundscape of depth and imagination.

EXTRAS:
Criterion has included one extra that is so impressive it almost makes this disc a double-feature: Stig Bjorkman’s nearly hour-long Tranceformer: A Portrait of Lars von Trier. This 1997 documentary looks back at the films he had made up until that point and tries to place them within the neuroses and psychoses of their director. Von Trier comes off as clever and eloquent and his collaborators, although never identified on screen, all give insights into his process. From his films it’s clear that von Trier is intelligent, but it’s surprising that he can also be funny. Tranceformer curiously does not discuss the Dogme aesthetic, something that would be interesting given it’s difference from The Element of Crime.

The disc also features a trailer.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
While it can be a little tough to decipher at times, The Element of Crime should be engaging viewing for fans of European or classic cinema. It is especially interesting in the way it tries to bridge genres, from the introspective art film to the tough detective pot-boiler. While it may bear the mark of a young man trying to cram as much angst into one story as possible, The Element of Crime shows a talented filmmaker learning his craft.

Gil Jawetz is a graphic designer, video director, and t-shirt designer. He lives in Brooklyn.

E-dispatch Gil at buskerdog@yahoo.com

Brothers Michael (Ulrich Thomsen) and Jannik (Nicolaj Fabrication Kaas) are as different as chalk and cheese. Not at best do they look different, but their lifestyles are worlds individually. Michael is the favoured son, an army sergeant and devoted family chap to wife Sarah (Connie Nielsen) and his two daughters. Jannik, the younger brother, has condign been released from house of detention, a renegade and negligible criminal, now intruding into Michael’s family life. When Michael is sent to Afghanistan, he is captured and reported missing in action, believed killed, Jannik comforts Sarah, but this leads to acute family tensions.

Streaming movie sites have become popular with people who spend a lot of time online these days. These sites give a possibility to watch full-length feature movies, and even streaming television shows right on your computer using a technology known as ?streaming-video.? On some of these web resources you can even play interactive games in HD with 3D graphics. There are numerous websites providing these services, some free and others requiring paid memberships. The best free free movie downloads site is watch-funny-movies.com

Moderately slow-inspirational, but else a funny and thoroughly enjoyable strive to revive the cynical, corpse-laden, bafflingly plotted Chandler thrillers of the ’40s. Here the chase as a service to a diamond tie-pin wanton by a rich but unhappy girl (Lyon) leads through some nude Miami locations and a handsome mixed bag of blackmailers and shabby undesirables, including a striptease dancer and her lesbian protectress, a venal doctor and his moronically muscle-headed son, a raffish dope peddler, and a drink-sodden mamma kept shut away in a irresponsible house. Most of them be awarded pounce on to a stale end while Sinatra, level in ably for Bogart as the tough private perception, times his deadpan cracks perfectly, takes his beatings like a man, and batters his velocity to some sort of solution.

Year One video hd