DVD Picks: Goats, Riverboats and Rock Stars
March 26, 2010
Raleigh News & Observer
March 26, 2010
The Men Who Stare at Goats
PICK OF THE WEEK
Comedy; rated R for language, some drug content and brief nudity; also available on Blu-ray
The Gist: Greenhorn reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) stumbles across a top secret government psi ops program in Iraq, learning “the way of the Jedi” from the likes of George Clooney, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey.
The Lowdown: This very funny and slyly satirical comedy from director Grant Heslov is a real pleasure, and drew all that top-shelf acting talent for a reason. Intriguingly, the film is based on actual events. As the fascinating DVD extras reveal, the “New Earth Army” – an experiment exploring possible military applications of New Age psychic phenomena – really did exist. “Goats” can be enjoyed on one level as a dextrous madcap comedy, and on another as a kind of gonzo satire of military culture and the madness of war.
Eurotrash Swirl
March 22, 2010
Sequel to the 2004 original, “District 13: Ultimatum” is the latest from the prolific writer and producer Luc Besson, who cranks out high-gloss Eurotrash action pictures with admirable efficiency. Set in the near-future slums of Paris, the film concerns the infamous District 13, a slum so dangerous the cops have walled it off and surrendered authority to the locals.
Things get complicated when corrupt officials decide D-13 should be leveled entirely. And so honorable cop Damien Tomaso (Cyril Raffaelli) and local roughneck Leito (David Belle) must once again team up to save D-13, fight the cops and the drug lords, and basically run like crazy in highly choreographed chase scenes.
DVD Picks: Aviatices, Satanic Cults and LeBron James
February 11, 2010
‘Amelia,” starring Hilary Swank as famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart, is a perfectly serviceable, standard-issue Hollywood biopic that hits all the requisite notes and risks little. It’s an enjoyable movie experience and, at under two hours, admirably restrained in length. I only wish the movie, like its heroine, had a little more guts.
It’s a problem of form, really. “Amelia” is done about as well as this type of movie can be done – but that’s the problem. The celebrity biopic has become Hollywood’s most tired and predictable genre. If you recall, we were tipped to this problem in 2007 with the very funny mock-biopic “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.” “Walk” tackled the subgenre of the musical biopic, but its cautionary lessons can very easily be extrapolated – and, evidently, ignored. Read the rest of this entry »
Already a legend of low-budget horror, ” Paranormal Activity” is an object lesson in the power of viral marketing. Filmed for $15,000, its theatrical take after wide release on Halloween is $107 million, with an additional $10 million or so still coming in from the UK.
So why such astounding success? First, “Paranormal” is a scary ghost story with an effective gimmick: Like “The Blair Witch Project,” the film is presented as found footage, the record of a haunting caught on camera and left by the dearly departed victims. Read the rest of this entry »
Linus the Lunatic Tax Guy
April 15, 2003
NewsObserver.com
When there’s just no accounting for taxes
CHAPEL HILL–Springtime is also tax time, and this is just plain cruel. Flowers and budding life on the one hand; 1040s and abject terror on the other. But I’d like to share a cautionary tale that may help you feel better about your situation, whatever it is. Because there was a time in my life — one dark and terrible year — when I spent much of the tax season curled into a trembling fetal ball, breathing very quickly, and fending off stark madness.
All because of Linus the Lunatic Tax Guy. Read the rest of this entry »
