All Articles by Jackson

DESIGN FOR LIVING Criterion Blu-ray Review

Posted: January 6th, 2012 at 5:00 am

When those of us who have grown up watching modern cinema view pre-Production Code movies, it can be easy for us to ask, “What’s the big deal?”  By today’s standards, much of what was considered “morally questionable” enough to spur the introduction of the Code in the 1920s would be considered laughably tame.  Every now and then, however, one has the opportunity to watch a pre-Code film that causes one to understand (with a nod to differing historical norms, of course) how certain movies could indeed generate such uproar.  Ernst Lubitsch’s Design for Living (based on Noel Coward’s play of the same name) is just such a film. Hit the jump for our review of the Criterion Blu-ray for Design for Living.

THE RULES OF THE GAME Criterion Blu-ray Review

Posted: December 27th, 2011 at 6:00 am

It is hard to believe that a film considered to be among the greatest of all time was not only ridiculed upon its initial release but also at one time lost for nearly twenty years.  But such was the case with Jean Renior’s The Rules of the Game, the negative for which was destroyed in World War II and the film not reconstructed until 1959 at which point it was recognized for the masterpiece that it is.  Hit the jump for my review of the Criterion Collection Blu-ray release.

CINEMA PARADISO Blu-ray Review

Posted: December 6th, 2011 at 7:00 am

The mark of a truly classic film is that its themes and subject matter are timeless, relatable to each successive generation even if the direct circumstances have passed.  Cinema Paradiso falls perfectly into that mold.  I had often heard that Cinema Paradiso was cinema’s greatest ode to motion pictures, and such could not be more accurate. Hit the jump for our review of Cinema Paradiso on Blu-ray.

RIO Blu-ray Review

Posted: September 6th, 2011 at 6:59 am

I love a good marketing campaign, whether it stems from a truly clever idea or creative cross-promotion.  Too often, however, the film (or other product, if we want to speak generally) does not live up to the work executed to promote it.  So when Rio teamed up with iPhone app uber-hit “Angry Birds”, 20^th Century Fox hit marketing gold.  But what about the film itself?  My review after the jump.

JANE EYRE Blu-ray Review

Posted: September 5th, 2011 at 5:00 am

Literary adaptations are a mixed bag. A handful of such films (The Shining, for example) actually surpass the books upon which they are based.  Many more are plain awful.  And countless lit flicks—regardless of the films’ merits compared to those of the books—undergo such far-reaching changes, sacrifices and/or additions to make the stories more filmic as to be only loosely connected to their source material. Cary Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre, the latest of many filmed versions of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel, scores high marks both for quality and for being an extremely faithful adaptation. Hit the jump for my full Blu-ray review.

PLATOON 25th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Review

Posted: July 12th, 2011 at 5:42 am

I always find it interesting to revisit a film that I watched only once as a kid and see how it holds up years later—particularly if I did in fact enjoy the movie. Does the film stand up to the test of time? Or were my expectations clouded by the transitory appreciations of youth? Platoon was one such movie that I had not seen since its original big screen release. 25 years later, it is still as powerful as ever. My review after the jump.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF 40th Anniversary Blu-ray Review

Posted: May 23rd, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Some films completely embody a time and place, a particular style or genre uniquely popular in that exact when and where.  Others land on those transition points between eras, exhibiting qualities of both the past and the future, belonging somewhat to both but not fully to either.  The film adaptation of the stage musical Fiddler on the Roof, released in 1971, falls into that latter category.   More after the jump.

SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT Criterion Blu-ray Review

Posted: May 10th, 2011 at 1:12 pm

When looking at the careers of legendary directors, writers and actors in retrospect, it can be interesting to analyze just what path they took before reaching greatness.  Today, Ingmar Bergman is internationally known as one of the great auteurs of all time.  But while he was already an established director for nine years in his native Sweden, it was not until his fifteenth film as director that Bergman achieved international acclaim in 1955.  That film was Smiles of a Summer Night.  Hit the jump for my review.

Federico Fellini’s THE CLOWNS DVD Review

Posted: April 19th, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Every now and then one watches a film that takes a couple days to absorb. I am not just talking about dissecting and understanding—often the better the movie, the more that is revealed by further thought—but literally the most basic of conclusions, sometimes even so simple as whether one likes it or not. Federico Fellini’s The Clowns was just such a movie for me. The Clowns is Fellini’s filmic exploration of his own—and humanity’s—fascination with clowns and the circus (for those not familiar with Fellini’s work, clowns and the circus play prominently across his oeuvre).  For my DVD review of the film, join me after the break.

MERRY CHRISTMAS MR. LAWRENCE Criterion DVD Review

Posted: November 2nd, 2010 at 12:56 pm

Few film genres cover such a wide range of perspectives and styles as do those about war.  War movies range from those that glorify combat to those that reveal its deepest, darkest horrors; from those that take place direct on the battlefield to those that revolve around ancillary elements; and from those that are intensely patriotic to those that are pointedly critical of one’s own nation’s actions.  Nagisa Ôshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is a “war” film that explores the intense conflict between different cultural mores when those very mores themselves are being challenged by the brutal realities of a world at war.  My review after the jump:

3 SILENT CLASSICS BY JOSEPH VON STERNBERG Criterion DVD Review

Posted: September 2nd, 2010 at 6:49 am

The transition from silent films to the “talkies” was difficult for many in the motion picture industry.  For many (particularly those in front of the camera), it would result in the death of their careers.  Others (particularly directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford and Cecil B. DeMille) would go on to bigger and better things in the sound era (Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford, among them).  Another such director was Josef von Sternberg, whose career began at the very end of the silent era, but whose brilliance was already apparent in the years leading up to the release of The Blue Angel.  Now, thanks to The Criterion Collection’s 3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg box set, some of his early silent films are available in restored glory. My review after the jump:

LIFE DVD Review

Posted: July 6th, 2010 at 7:07 am

life – noun, definition 1 c: an organismic state characterized by capacity for metabolism, growth, reaction to stimuli, and reproduction (from the Merriam Webster Dictionary, online edition)

Life – noun, proper: a nature documentary television series produced by BBC Television and distributed in the United States by the BBC and the Discovery Channel that perfectly encapsulates the above definition of “life”.  More after the jump.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE DVD Review

Posted: March 25th, 2010 at 6:56 am

Take a classic work of children’s fiction, as famous for its art as it is it’s story.  Add an idiosyncratic director with a distinct visual style.  Recipe for success, right?  Wrong.  Unfortunately, Spike Jonze’s highly-anticipated adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Caldecott Medal award-winning Where the Wild Things Are falls strangely flat.  Why after the jump…

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS DVD Review

Posted: March 25th, 2010 at 6:51 am

Mis-advertising of movies is a disservice to film patrons and to the very movies the trailers and television spots seek to promote.  False expectations simply can never be met, and setting them in the first place exhibits an extreme lack of faith in the film in question.  Grant Heslov’s The Men Who Stare at Goats, starring Ewan McGregor as a journalist investigating the US Army’s one-time secret psychic soldier program and George Clooney as a former member of said program, suffers from such a misguided marketing plan.  More after the jump:

9 DVD Review

Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 6:17 am

It’s rare that two films with the same name come out within months of each other.  After all, the MPAA Title Registration Database exists to protect against just such confusion; however, when both are adapted from pre-established source material, what can the MPAA do?  To be fair, so the two films in question, Nine and 9, are not quite identically titled.  The former is an adaptation of the stage musical of the same name that itself is taken from Fellini’s 8 ½.  This is not a review of that film.  The latter is an expansion of director Shane Ackers’s digitally animated short about a burlap doll that awakens in a post-apocalyptic world devoid of humans and must subsequently struggle to survive.  DVD review of that 9 after the jump.

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