Weekend Cinema Listomania (Special In the Not Too Distant Future Edition)

Friday, November 20

Video Event of the Week: Could VCI Entertainment's DVD of Douglas Sirk's low budget Chekhov adaptation Summer Storm (1944), starring George Sanders, get the nod? Might Microcinema's disc of Luis Bunuel's 1956 Death in the Garden, an overlooked thriller from his Mexican period, conceivably deserve the honor? Or despite the horror that was the recent cable remake, could A&E Home Video's remastered box set of the complete original The Prisoner tv series, with the great Patrick McGoohan, possibly be The One? All worthy, to be sure, but in the meantime here's a fun project for us all -- The Awful But Somehow Respectable Film You Really Wish Had Been Parodied on Mystery Science Theaer 3000...

Reviews

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The Twilight Saga: New Moon

by Amy Nicholson

Scorecard

3 Stars
reviewer rating

5 Bucks
box office prospects

Talk to a Twilight fan (or Twihard or Twimom or Twitard, if you're nasty) and you'll hear concessions: Stephenie Meyer’s books are poorly written, Twilight is too melodramatically directed. Even Edward, they'll admit, is way emo and Bella sullen with...

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Red Cliff

by Wade Major

Scorecard

3.5 Stars
reviewer rating

3 Bucks
box office prospects

That the most successful film in John Woo’s career should receive a belated and truncated release in the U.S. speaks volumes not simply about Woo’s relationship with Hollywood, but about a more general American inability to appreciate and embrace all...

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The Blind Side

by Pete Hammond

Scorecard

4 Stars
reviewer rating

3 Bucks
box office prospects

Uplifting if overlong sports tale is an inspiring and extraordinary true story about a homeless African American teen taken in by a rich southern family and groomed for football glory. With a career-best performance by Sandra Bullock and a terrific...

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Pirate Radio

by Richard Mowe

Scorecard

3 Stars
reviewer rating

2 Bucks
box office prospects

This blast of Sixties nostalgia, derived from the days when pirate radio ships broadcast off the coast of Britain with a motley crew of dee-jays, should appeal to ageing music freaks and fans of Brit-pop. It doesn’t have the same...

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