‘A Scanner Darkly’ Download and Reviews
“A Scanner Darkly” Movie Details
A Scanner Darkly tagline: What Does A Scanner See?
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| Directors: Richard Linklater | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| IMDB Rating: 7.2/10 out of 38,974 votes |
“A Scanner Darkly” Movie Review
“A Scanner Darkly” Plot Summary
An undercover cop in a not-too-distant future becomes involved with a dangerous new drug and begins to lose his own identity as a result.
Imaginative and original
At first glance, you’d think A scanner darkly was style over substance. That is very much wrong. If you peeled away the trippy layers of rotoscoping, you’d still have a very cool and original movie. The writing is really tight and builds up a great and paranoid setting
The characters are very varied. Keanu Reeves, who does a decent job, is a somewhat apathetic washout, a role that fits him well. For all the Keanu-haters out there, I can say that he is not the sole star of the movie. This movie is much more about his friends, a mixed bag of drug-addicts and dopers
Robert Downey Jr. does a fantastic role as the manic, phony-eloquent pseudo-intellectual Barris. He’s very believable and you can’t help get a bit annoyed by him even as you laugh. He has some great lines, and he delivers them superbly
Winona Rider’s Donna is a character we don’t get to see enough of. The scenes she’s in are good, and she certainly looks and acts like a burnout
Rory Cochrane is even more creepy as Freck, the worst case of the little group. You can feel your skin crawling as soon as he goes on-screen. For those who have read the book: Yes, the opening sequence is the same
Then there’s the under-appreciated Woody Harrelson, funny and realistic as Luckman. His burned-out logical jumps and paranoid outbursts are perfect
A benefit of the rotoscoping is that supporting roles can for once look like natural people. Think about it. In your average Hollywood flick, there are professional small parts actors and actresses. The same small group of people perpetually turning up as doctors, gas station attendants, brokers… how real does that feel? I’m sure Linklater doesn’t care anyway, but it just seems more natural with unknowns when they’re drawn. A small point but there might be something to it
The real benefit of the rotoscoping, of course, is that it looks good. Every frame is like a cutout from a graphic novel or some pop art. For a drug movie, you couldn’t ask for anything better. As tempting as it must have been, the animation team has however limited the really trippy sequences to where it matters. All in all, there are only two or three hallucinatory scenes. The general floatiness of the animation, however, gives the movie a fluid and slightly hallucinatory look in general
Combine all of the above and add a healthy dose of paranoid music by Radiohead and you’ve got a cult classic and a great piece of art. Not to be missed by those who appreciate film.
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‘Bowfinger’ Download and Reviews
“Bowfinger” Movie Details
Bowfinger tagline: A desperate plan for a desperate man
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Freddy |
“Bowfinger” Movie Review
“Bowfinger” Plot Summary
When a desperate movie producer fails to get a major star for his bargain basement film, he decides to shoot the film secretly around him. add synopsis
Entertaining Comedy
was actually surprised that BOWFINGER got a mere average rating of 6.4 on this site because the IMDb is full of wannabe film makers who are gonna love a movie satirizing the Hollywood studios , a film both cruel and amusing in turn and it would be very interesting to see how the votes panned out . I’m sort of guessing here that the wannabees awarded it very high marks while the typical Eddie Murphy fans , casual film goers and those people who claim THE MUMMY RETURNS is the greatest film ever ( And no I’m not criticising anyones opinions and tastes ) would have given it relatively low marks . I’m guessing that it’s a possibly a film that unfortunately went above a lot of headsFirst off is the title BOWFINGER . What sort of image does that conjure up ? Possibly a James Bond spoof ala AUSTIN POWERS with lots of slapstick ? If you enjoy that sort of schoolboy humour you’ll be very disappointed . Likewise if you’re an Eddie Murphy fan because Murphy’s dual performance is very restrained here and all the better for it . It also has an opposite effect for people who don’t like Eddie Murphy ( Or for that matter Steve Martin ) very much but are people not keen on either Murphy or Martin going to watch this in the cinema ? I was very happy that the movie did relatively well on its initial release in 1999 because it certainly had the potential to be a flop at the cinema The premise is very simple: Film producer Bobby Bowfinger ( Martin ) has a knock back from Hollywood star Kit Ramsey ( Murphy ) so Bowfinger decides to secretly film him anyway and edit it into his movie . Thankfully the screenplay of BOWFINGER is developed well enough for maximum comic effect , Bowfinger is making a sci-fi movie so Kit finds himself facing aliens at one point and yes he genuinely believes they are real aliens . Bobby Bowfinger himself seems to have been based on the infamous Ed Wood while watching Kit attend the MindHead classes one is perhaps reminded of John Travolta or Tom Cruise and I don’t care what the critics say – Some of the gags like the scene with the dog in the underground car park are laugh out loud funny without ever going OTT All in all a fairly amusing satirical comedy that enjoys taking pokes at the American film industry and certainly one of the better films that have either starred Martin or Murphy
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‘The Soloist’ Download and Reviews
“The Soloist” Movie Details
The Soloist tagline: Life has a mind of its own
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| Directors: Joe Wright | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| IMDB Rating: 6.8/10 out of 11,159 votes |
“The Soloist” Movie Review
“The Soloist” Plot Summary
A Los Angeles journalist befriends a homeless Julliard-trained musician, while looking for a new article for the paper.
Interesting to know
I am a musician and live in France, where the release date of this movie is scheduled for Sept. 2 2009. I obviously cannot write a review at the present time but have nevertheless read the book
What no one mentions in all of the above comments is that Nathaniel Ayers was originally a Double Bass student at Julliard and NOT a cellist. That instrument– along with the violin, trumpet, and piano, all came about later on. Put any instrument into his hands and he’ll do his best to master it. Having attended Yale university, I did not know him personally, even though we studied with one of the greatest bass teachers in the New York area at that time: Homer Mensch. Recently our paths did finally cross thanks to one of our mutual acquaintances, bassist and composer Joe Russo. Nathan likes to write down the names of his long lost good friends on walls, or any writing surface, and Joe’s name is always there, scribbled amongst his favorites. This was where Steve noticed Joe’s name and Googled him to look up his website. A new and close friendship resulted between them, and the many anecdotes that Joe pulled out of Nathan’s past were worth their weight in gold to Steve, enough to devote the entire chapter 8 of the book to Joe!To me, reading this book made me come to the conclusion that every man has his hour in life, and Nathan’s time had come now. The chances of 2 men, one homeless and one not, being pulled together through the sound of a violin in a rush hour tunnel, were undoubtedly written in the stars. Through articles, a book and now a film on Nathan, Steve helped uplift a poor and abandoned part of society to a rank that it never imagined nor asked for, but morally deserved. We all know that the Internet is indeed capable of connecting and reconnecting people in the present, but only music can magically, throughout time, open the doors that connect all of us to one another.
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‘Tropic Thunder’ Download and Reviews
“Tropic Thunder” Movie Details
Tropic Thunder tagline: The movie they think they’re making… isn’t a movie anymore.
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| Directors: Ben Stiller | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| IMDB Rating: 7.2/10 out of 95,405 votes |
“Tropic Thunder” Movie Review
“Tropic Thunder” Plot Summary
Through a series of freak occurrences, a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying.
The next level
This is a brilliant piece of work. A comedy/parody that actually emulates at the level of its source material. Ben Stiller has clearly done his homework and here recreates many epic battle scenes. The photography is stunning and the direction is nothing less than awesome, for the first twenty minutes or so. Although the movie loses direction a little in the second and third acts it has enough great script and sheer momentum that it never falls below excellent. This really is a stunning piece of work. Look at what else is out there. This is constantly funny but also technically brilliant and very artistic. There are no ‘longeurs’ and every scene moves the action forward. The performances are spectacularly good. Tom cruise still looks slightly too ‘Tom Cruise’ but his lines are almost perfect. As a whole his part is 1000 times better than in that defecant Magnolia. Robert Downey Jr is almost embarrassingly good. He plays Bill Cosby playing an actor in a movie, but then he slips into a stereotype of all ‘our favorite’ Black actors. He is challenged by the one real Black guy and this scene serves to show that he is an actor, playing an Australian actor who is trying to play a Black American. Ther are too many other outstanding features to mention, such as the child general and Jack Black’s best work in years. All in all, this is not a mainstream movie. It is Something Else.
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‘Predator 2′ Download and Reviews
“Predator 2″ Movie Details
Predator 2 tagline: Pull over, park, and pray.
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| Directors: Stephen Hopkins | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| IMDB Rating: 6.0/10 out of 30,722 votes |
“Predator 2″ Movie Review
“Predator 2″ Plot Summary
Amidst a territorial gang-war, a sophisticated alien hunter stalks the citizens of Los Angeles and the only man between him and his prey is veteran LAPD officer, Lieutenant Mike Harrigan. add synopsis
One of my all time favorite Sci-fi’s
I found this sequel to be much more complex and also more entertaining than the original. First of all the original revolves around Arnold S.(although I still find it to be Arnold’s best movie, and also like Carl Weathers and Sonny Landham) who is this 80’s action-man stereo-type one-dimensional feel-no-pain killing machine who nobody in their right mind can identify with and second the jungle is much too obvious a studio set.
The second Predator on the other hand is set in an anarchic future in the asphalt-jungle, midst a drug dealers-police violent confrontation(I loved the war-zone-city vision), and hunted by government agents(this being an excellent pretext to display some stylish shooting-techniques and unusual angles, and also explain the creature’s nature and motives) who want to capture the beast(Gary Busey-another brilliant performance) to study it for it’s killing potential. The voodoo-gang’s whole mystique, the hard music score, the attention for detail – the south-American influenced interior design of the drug-lord apartment or the interior of the alien ship(there are some hidden treats for the trained eye, like the alien skull and other interesting trophies) and not at least the creature’s design are just a few examples for the stylish quality of this much better than the original sequel. Danny Glover brings a touch of real to the tough but human lead character while Bill Paxton(bad-mouthed as always-I just love this guy in everything he’s done), Ruben Blades and Conchita Alonso are the flavor of this adrenalin ride. Keep out an eye for the color composition of virtually every scene – a treat. There’s no killing what can’t be killed…
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‘The Incredible Hulk’ Download and Reviews
“The Incredible Hulk” Movie Details
The Incredible Hulk tagline: On June 13, get ready to unleash the beast.
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| Directors: Louis Leterrier | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| IMDB Rating: 7.1/10 out of 75,980 votes |
“The Incredible Hulk” Movie Review
“Hulk 2″ Plot Summary
Dr. Bruce Banner, thanks to a gamma ray experiment gone wrong, transforms into a giant green-skinned hulk whenever his pulse rate gets too high. Meanwhile, a soldier uses the same technology to become an evil version of the original.
Truly Incredible… extraordinary in every way!
What a summer Marvel is having! Iron Man hitting big was great but Incredible Hulk may even top it. I caught a pre-screening and I can assure everyone that the Hulk delivers more action and maybe more fun. If you are concerned that this film is another Ang Lee type misfire, don’t be. It’s about 100 times better then the version of five years ago. Unlike the Ang Lee effort, it’s presented in a way that can be savored. The pacing is perfect and the action is relentlessly awesome. What’s amazing is that they managed to play both sides perfectly. It’s far deeper then I would’ve thought given the subject matter. Each frame is packed with action, emotion, drama or intensity. I was expecting to see a crazy green giant destroying the landscape and fighting another crazy green monster for two hours. I was shocked at the complexity of this movie. Given Edward Norton’s involvement, I don’t know why I’m so surprised. The action is certainly there but the tone is perfect, a mix of the TV flavor with all the action from the comic books. Hulk does indeed ’smash’ but it’s more then just dumb action with no plot. It truly is an all around exceptional film. Also, I’m amazed at how far the CGI came since the first teaser trailer. This remarkable CGI works very well and it offers the chance to savor a complete movie going experience without being pulled out of the film. This trimmed downed Hulk looks perfect and his opponent is truly frightening. The final battle between the two will go down in movie history as one of the greatest fights of all-time. Overall, a summer movie that’s superior to everything else that I’ve seen this year, with the possible exception of Iron Man. Again, who would’ve thought that Marvel would be a perfect two for two this summer? Speaking of Iron Man (*Beware SPOILER*) Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) does indeed show up at the end of the film(they cut from Banner and that green eyed smile we’ve all seen in the TV ads right to the Stark scene and the hairs on your neck will stand up)
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‘Sherlock Holmes’ Download and Reviews
“Sherlock Holmes” Movie Details
Sherlock Holmes tagline: Nothing Escapes Him
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| Directors: Guy Ritchie | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| IMDB Rating: 7.6/10 out of 51,528 votes |
“Sherlock Holmes” Movie Review
“Sherlock Holmes” Plot Summary
Detective Sherlock Holmes and his stalwart partner Watson engage in a battle of wits and brawn with a nemesis whose plot is a threat to all of England. add synopsis
Bloody Brilliant!
‘Sherlock Holmes’ is part-comedy, part-thriller, part-romance, and part-buddy movie. It is also completely brilliant
The film’s plot concerns a mysterious plot by the menacing Lord Blackwood. Holmes (Downey Jr.), Watson (Law), and an alluring past love interest (McAdams) must work together- sometimes reluctantly- to crack the case. It sounds simple, but a number of ominous supporting players and adrenaline-inspiring set pieces make it constantly entertaining and riveting
The perpetually likable Robert Downey Jr. takes up the torch as Sherlock Holmes. There’s no need to compare his work to that of Basil Rathbone- the two performances could not be more different. Downey Jr. makes Holmes both comedic and competent. His accent is convincing, and his delivery is as dead-pan as ever. In Guy Ritchie’s revisionist take, Holmes has become a comic action hero, and Downey Jr. pulls off both the comedy and the action seamlessly. Jude Law lends great support as Watson; his take on the character is more traditional, but he makes a great comedic straight-man as well. McAdams also does well as an American femme fatale whose allegiances are always in question
Stylistically, the film combines Ritchie’s ‘guns-blazing’ sensibilities with period detail and witty dialogue. The quick-cut shots and fast-paced visual flashbacks/explanations suit the source material surprisingly well. The musical score is effectively creepy; it evokes the air of the Rathbone films and the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novels. Similarly, the costumes and art direction capture the time period, and arrest the audience visually. The script is chock-full of funny lines, and the cast delivers them well
While purists may shudder at the sight of Sherlock in the boxing arena, Ritchie’s ‘Holmes’ is fun, fast-paced, and fresh. Case closed.
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‘Air America’ Download and Reviews
“Air America” Movie Details
Air America tagline: The Few. The Proud. The Totally Insane.
 Air America DVD Cover |
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| Directors: Roger Spottiswoode | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| IMDB Rating: 5.3/10 out of 9,529 votes |
“Air America” Movie Review
“Air America” Plot Summary
A young pilot finds himself recruited into a covert and corrupt CIA airlift organization operating in Vietnam War Era Laos. add synopsis
Good for some laughs.
I enjoyed Air America even though it wasn’t the most original story ever told. Mel Gibson is very good in a role that seems written for him. The rest of the cast seem like they are just collecting a paycheck. Some good action scenes spike it up a little but, it’s really only good for about one viewing.
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