DVDpedia : Library : Title : V

Theatrical: 2006

Studio: Warner Home Video - DVD

Genre: Drama / Action

Duration: 132

Summary: THis movie made perfect sense to me and it had lots of info about real stuff.It had great visual effects and it always had me entertained the entire time i was in the theatre. I had to go to the bathroom oh so bad but i held it because i didnt want to miss a single part. The only part i found bad and it wasnt that bad was the noise the men made when they fell in the part where V faced Cready in the tunnel it was like noooooo pleeeeease it was kinda cheasy but im sure im just one in a million who thinks this. All in all i loved this movie and am waiting to figure out when the movie will come out on dvd and hope to get a copy.

Theatrical: 1981

Studio: Polart

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 108

Summary:

Theatrical: 1985

Studio: Polart

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 101

Summary:

Theatrical: 2001

Studio: Paramount

Genre: Drama

Duration: 135

Summary: A successful publisher finds his life taking a turn for the surreal after a car accident with a jaded lover.

Theatrical: 2008

Studio: Sony Pictures

Genre: Action

Duration: 90

Summary: "Vantage Point", which aspires to be a cunningly twisted thriller, comes equipped with plenty of hurtling action, handheld camerawork, what-was-that? editing, and a plot that has multiple, contradictory agendas writhing like a nest of snakes. It's all set a-boil within a few blocks of a town square in Spain where a U.S. President is targeted for assassination. Although the movie lasts 90 minutes, the events it depicts are mostly over with in a quarter-hour or so--but seen, rewound, and reseen from half a dozen different (you guessed it) vantage points. The first line in the credits reads "Original Film," apparently the name of the production company. "Gimmick Movie" would be more accurate; the opening reel, effectively jolting, affords an initial overview of the events through the eyes, lenses, monitors, and dueling sensibilities of a TV news producer (Sigourney Weaver), her activist-minded reporter (Zoe Saldana) and crew. Everybody’s in Salamanca (actually, Mexico City) for the start of an international conference to reaffirm Arab-Western commitment to the fight against terrorism. Terrorism, of course, sees this as an ideal moment to break out. As gunshots and explosions reduce everything to chaos, the clock is reset to zero and we proceed to revisit the scene as experienced by several Secret Service agents (namely Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox), an American tourist with camcorder (Forest Whitaker), sundry locals--including three who may be caught up in a love triangle or a conspiracy or both--and even the President himself (William Hurt).

For a while, this is mildly diverting: that guy, or that gesture, so sinister when glimpsed across the plaza in one run-through, now appears harmless in close-up--or vice versa. But there's no real ambiguity (so stop with the careless comparisons to Kurosawa's "Rashomon")--this is a shell game in which the peas aren't worth tracking. Despite decent actors, the characters might as well be holograms (although poor Forest Whitaker is saddled with "motivation" of surpassing sappiness), and the casting telegraphs several twists: one redoubtable good guy practically gives a wink-wink, nudge-nudge that he's really bad, etc. The movie declines to specify which nutjob philosophy the terrorists espouse, and their numbers are multi-ethnic. There's also a laborious suggestion that they have bloodthirsty, reactionary counterparts among the President's inner circle, which perhaps qualifies as redeeming socio-political comment and prompts a meaningless declaration of deep meaning from the Prez. The whole megilleh finally comes down to an extended car chase through impassably claustrophobic streets that would mark a lurch into unintentional self-parody--if only that point hadn't been passed a couple of rewinds earlier. "--Richard T. Jameson"


Stills from "Vantage Point" (click for larger image)

Theatrical: 2007

Studio: Funimation Prod

Genre: Anime / Sci-Fi

Duration: 109

Summary: "Balls to the wall action!" --- "Geek"
From the creators of "Appleseed" comes a full CG Animation Sci-Fi action film!
2077: for ten years, Japan has sealed itself from the rest of the world. Disturbing information is now emitting from within the countries borders. An elite group of American agents are assigned to infiltrate the magnetic shield shrouding Japan to shed light on the illegal biotechnology research running rampant within.

Theatrical: 2008

Studio: The Weinstein Company

Genre: Comedy / Drama

Duration: 96

Summary: "In the United States things have changed a lot, and it's hard to make good small films now. The avaricious studios couldn't care less about good films."--Woody Allen.



Woody Allen has said that European audiences are more receptive to his films these days than American audiences. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) is his fourth European movie, and in many ways his most French film yet. Set in Avilés, Barcelona, and Oviedo, Vicky Cristina Barcelona follows Allen's London films, Match Point (2005), Scoop (2006), and Cassandra's Dream (2007). It stars Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation), Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men), Patricia Clarkson, and Penélope Cruz (Volver), and tells the story of a lovers' threesome. Shortly after arriving in Barcelona on vacation, two young American women in their 20s, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Johansson), are invited by a smooth-talking artist, Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) to spend a weekend in Oviedo, drinking wine and making love with him. Because she is engaged to be married, pragmatic Vicky is reluctant at first. Cristina, however, is open to the seduction. The two women accept Juan Antonio's proposal, and accompany him to Oviedo, where they soon discover the painter has a thing for his beautiful, but emotionally unstable estranged-wife, María Elena (Cruz). After Juan and Vicky drink wine and make love, Cristina, Juan, and María Elena soon find themselves living together. It becomes evident to Cristina that Juan Antonio and María Elena are still madly in love with each other. Bardem and Cruz bring a chemistry to the screen that sizzles. Ultimately, the film then becomes a fascinating Woody Allen meets Éric Rohmer (Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales - Criterion Collection) meets Pedro Almodóvar (Volver) exploration of the dynamics of this sexually free-spirited lovers' threesome, contrasted by Vicky's more conventional relationship with her dull, New York buttoned-down love interest, Doug (Chris Messina). Just as Manhattan was central to Manhattan, Barcelona features prominantly in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, especially Gaudí's Park Güell. Much like a good French film, this brilliant movie ends on a note that is both poignant and sad, with everyone a little wiser in the end. Once the celluloid love poet of Manhattan, with Vicky Cristina Barcelona Allen reveals he is much wiser now when it comes to the ways of the heart. It is "a very sad film" (as Allen calls it) only because of the message it sends about relationships. Some couples settle for convention rather than the madness of real love. Others, like Juan Antonio and Maria Elena, experience real love with the level of chemistry we might call "soulmates," only to find they cannot live together. To use an old cliche, Juan Antonio can't live with Maria Elena, but can't live without her. Allen seems to suggest that all we can really hope for in the end, after stumbling around in any relationship, is a little wisdom. Dare I say that this is Woody Allen's best work since Hannah and Her Sisters? Unlike that film, however, this is a really good film Allen could have never made in Hollywood, which generally prefers feel-good love stories with happily-ever-after endings.



12/05/08 Update: Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Jarvier Bardem, Rebecca Hall, and Penélope Cruz all received nods for Golden Globe Awards this week.



G. Merritt

Theatrical: 1985

Studio: MGM Entertainment

Genre: Action

Duration: 126

Summary: "A View to a Kill", Roger Moore's last outing as James Bond, is evidence enough that it was time to pass the torch to another actor. Beset by crummy action (an out-of-control fire engine?) and featuring a fading Moore still trying to prop up his mannered idea of style, "A View to a Kill" is largely interesting for Christopher Walken's quirky performance as a sort-of super-villain who wants to take out California's Silicon Valley. Grace Jones has a spookily interesting presence as a lethal associate of Walken's (and who, in the best Bond tradition, has sex with 007 before trying to kill him later), and Patrick Macnee (Steed!) has a warm if brief bit. Even directed by John Glen, who brought some crackle to the Moore years in the Bond franchise, this is a very slight effort. --"Tom Keogh, Amazon.com"
On the DVD: For Roger Moore's final Bond outing the production crew faced the usual quota of difficulties and disasters, the "making-of" documentary reveals: from base jumpers off the Eiffel tower whose antics threatened to jeopardise fragile relations with the Parisian authorities, to Ridley Scott thoughtlessly burning down the 007 at Pinewood right before production was due to start. Patrick MacNee, who has a supporting role in the movie, hands over narrative duties on this one to Rosemary Ford. The commentary is one of those less-than-satisfying montages of comments from various members of cast and crew. Also included is Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill" video (sounding hopelessly dated now), the usual trailers and a brief deleted scene of comic relief inside a Parisian police station. The second documentary concerns the music of Bond--always a crucial ingredient--although it manages the neat diplomatic trick of interviewing both Monty Norman and John Barry without giving the least hint of any controversy about the famous James Bond theme. --"Mark Walker"

Theatrical: 1960

Studio: Criterion

Genre: Art House & International

Duration: 89

Summary: Made in 1960 and set in medieval Sweden, Ingmar Bergman's "The Virgin Spring" is based on a folk ballad. It also examines a society in transition from Norse pantheism to Christianity. The film starkly contrasts Ingeri--a dark, feral, Odin-worshipping foster daughter to a Christian family headed by Max Von Sydow--and their own daughter, a pretty and blond but also vain and naïve girl named Karin, whom Ingeri resents. They travel out together to a distant church where Karin is to offer votive candles to the Virgin Mary. However, en route, Karin is raped and murdered by two desperate goatherds, accompanied by a 13-year-old boy. By coincidence, the goatherds then seek refuge with Karin's parents and even try to sell them her clothes, which proves to be a mortal error.
Bergman was greatly influenced by Akira Kurosawa when he made "The Virgin Spring", as evinced in its ominous use of dark and shade and lengthy sequences without dialogue. However, this is more than pastiche. Although the Christian ending with which Bergman feels obliged to conclude the film doesn't quite sit well in a movie in which God is as palpably absent as in any Bergman movie, the slow, remorseless pace of the murder and subsequent retribution bring to mind Krzysztof Kieslowski's "A Short Film About Killing" in their sense of the futility of vengeance. "--David Stubbs"

Theatrical: 2003

Studio: A.D. Vision

Genre: Anime / Sci-Fi

Duration: 25

Summary: Although it looks like a studio work, "Voices of a Distant Star" is a personal film, made almost entirely by a single artist, Makoto Shinkai. Mikako and Noboru are separated at the beginning of high school in 2046. She's accepted into the training program for "mecha" pilots to fight the aliens who attacked human settlements on Mars. As she moves across the miles and, ultimately, light years, she sends messages that the forlorn Noboru patiently awaits. The animation is largely restricted to camera moves over still artwork and CG objects, but Shinkai is a skillful enough director to tell this melancholy sci-fi romance through the strong music and vocal tracks. "Voices of a Distant Star" packs more of an emotional punch than many elaborate studio films. (Rated 13 and older, but suitable for viewers 2 years younger: minor violence) "--Charles Solomon"