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DVD Laurel Canyon
When young psychiatrist Sam (Christian Bale), the son of record producer Jane (Frances McDormand), brings his girlfriend Alex (Kate Beckinsale) to stay at his mother's house, he's expecting that Jane will be gone--but a delay in finishing an album with a British rocker named Ian (Alessandro Nivola) has kept her there. Instantly, the tensions of Sam's counterculture childhood set off a series of betrayals and attractions that threaten to wreck Sam and Alex's relationship. Director Lisa Cholodenko has a keen eye for the behavior, delineating doctors and musicians by the ways they talk and greet each other--it's an almost anthropological study of different tribes. Laurel Canyon lacks the focused story of High Art, Cholodenko's previous movie, and some viewers may find the ways the characters change too subtle to be rewarding; but for others, the rich, detailed performances will be a pleasure worth having. --Bret Fetzer
Wailing wannabe film students = Good movie you should get!
You know this has got to be a good film when you get all of these bellyaching reviews from wannabe film students.
I just watched this movie on cable & loved it, so I went straight to Amazon to buy it and then I had to write a review once I saw some of the reviews below.
Some of these reviewers are so obviously bitter video store clerks and film school drop outs, who haven't gotten over the fact that they will never have what it takes to get a real movie made.
And, what is with giving away key moments of a movie in the reviews?...this kind of behavior makes you guys as bad as the people that used to give you wedgies and dunk your heads in toilets at school.
I mean come on... one of these reviewers says "Give me Woddy Allen any day"?...I can't think of a more wannabe fim nerd comment.
You guys don't even have to list where you are from ( Texas? Iceland ?) for it to be obvious that you don't have a clue about the lifestyles depicted in this movie.
This movie was so beautifully shot, beautifully scored, and beautifully nuanced with varying degrees of human nature that it gives me hope that some people in Hollywood can still make movies that take the emotional side of your brain on an introspective ride through a film instead of just the the part of your brain you use to play video games or read comic books.
Buy this movie & Soundtrack and you will grow inside.
The Graduate Redux
Like Al Pacino, Frances McDormand tends to dominate any film she plays in, and so it is here. Unfortunately, it's not enough to salvage this cliche-ridden remake of The Graduate (the major difference being that the girl ends up sleeping with the guy's mother). The other actors provide uninspired, wooden perfromances.
Spend your money elsewhere
big waste of time
I found this film to be pretty useless. Christian Bale and Kate Beckinsale play a couple who move to Los Angeles to Los Angeles so Sam (Bale) can pursue his medical residency, and Alex (Beckinsale) can complete her dissertation on genomics. Studious and serious individuals, both of them. They are going to live in Sam's mother's house in Laurel Canyon, thinking Sam's mother (Frances McDormand) is going to be away. She is a famous music producer, and unfortunately her latest project has run over time and she is still at the house when Sam and Alex arrive. Sam is perturbed; he clearly does not see eye to eye with his mother or her reckless lifestyle. Alex, though at first not interested in the rock and roll lifestyle on offer, becomes intrigued and gets a little bit too involved in Jane's (McDormand's) activities for Sam's liking. Meanwhile, Sam is feeling like his relationship has problems, is questioning many things in his life and is distracted by an Israeli intern at the hospital where he works (played by Natascha McElhone). As he nearly begins this affair, Alex grows more and more wrapped up in the "cool" lifestyle of Jane. Of course it all leads to a semi-disaster. By watching the film, though, a viewer comes away with nothing. There is nothing remotely interesting about this film apart perhaps from McElhone's pursuit of Bale's character and on occasion, the self-indulgence and insecurity visible in McDormand's character (her desperate need to be "cool" and appear young, etc. and the slight hint of jealousy she feels when her younger boyfriend wants to be with Alex.) In no way can I recommend this film. There was nothing redeeming about it at all that would make it worthwhile to watch.
Metroland, based on Julian Barnes's first novel, is a tale of midlife, middle-class malaise reminiscent of Ang Lee's The Ice Storm. It's 1977, and shaggy-haired thirtysomething Chris (Christian Bale) has a lovely wife (Emily Watson) and baby, a solid office job, and a nice house in the London suburb of Metroland. Life is good, until the surprise arrival of old chum Toni (Lee Ross), whom Chris has not seen for 10 years and who was his accomplice in teenage shenanigans and heady visions of a bohemian life abroad. Toni, an inveterate ladies man and rootless poet, disdains his old friend's bourgeois milieu and feels it his duty to revive Chris's passion for women, art, and rock & roll. Meanwhile, Chris can't stop fantasizing about his steamier days as a 20-year-old in Paris with... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Christian Bale - Lee Ross - Emily Watson Director(s): Philip Saville DVD Release Date: Released the 22 July 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
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"Royal Deceit" is an interesting if uneven movie, telling a Danish tale of regicide and revenge that is similar to "Hamlet". The filmmakers have opted for authenticity in the costumes and props and a kind of Passion Play style of acting and direction, with mixed results. While the sheer acting power and amazing charisma of Christian Bale as the Prince, Helen Mirren as his mother, and Gabriel Byrne as the corrupt king, is mesmerizing, their excellent work is frequently undermined by an underwritten and wandering script and occasionally laughable direction. The battle scenes are staged as if being acted on-stage in a small theater-in-the-round, an odd choice given that they are filmed in the great outdoors. Large warriors trot around on tiny moorland ponies to unavoidably comic effect, and... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Gabriel Axel DVD Release Date: Released the 05 August 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The Bret Easton Ellis novel American Psycho, a dark, violent satire of the "me" culture of Ronald Reagan's 1980s, is certainly one of the most controversial books of the '90s, and that notoriety fueled its bestseller status. This smart, savvy adaptation by Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol) may be able to ride the crest of the notoriety; prior to the film's release, Harron fought a ratings battle (ironically, for depictions of sex rather than violence), but at the time the director stated, "We're rescuing [the book] from its own bad reputation." Harron and co-screenwriter Guinevere Turner (Go Fish) overcome many of the objections of Ellis's novel by keeping the most extreme violence offscreen (sometimes just barely), suggesting the reign of terror of yuppie killer... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Mary Harron DVD Release Date: Released the 21 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Kate Beckinsale plays an art restorer. While working on her current commission, she discovers a previously hidden inscription, which points to a murder conspiracy 500 years ago. As she tries to solve the mystery, whose key lies in the paintings depiction of a chess game, people around her, connected in one way or another to the painting, begin to die. Is the past reaching out to wreak vengeance on the present? And who is the Black Queen?
I won't tell you, except to say that the answer is painfully obvious. Based on The Flanders Panel, a novel by Arturo Perez-Reverte, author of The Ninth Gate, this is a much less successful film than Roman Polanski's effort. The premise is intriguing, but the resolution is deeply disappointing. Beckinsale's character, furthermore, is so... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Jim McBride DVD Release Date: Released the 16 March 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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I have to say I was looking so foward to seeing this film. The concept is wonderful. It's too bad the last 15 minutes are about the worst ending I have ever seen. A pleasant story of two lost souls with a common love of animals and the natural world. Suddenly it turns into some gangster horror flick. Complete with car chases, kidnapping and blood. It's as if this ridiculous ending mocks the entire film. As someone who deeply identified with both Bobby and Mr. Summers it was an outrage that this story would take this sensational, unbelievable turn. More Info about this DVD Director(s): Jeremy Thomas DVD Release Date: Released the 19 August 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
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