Film
Brando, Cooper DVD packages released
By BRUCE DANCIS
Monday, November 20, 2006
Gary Cooper and Marlon Brando were both major Hollywood stars, but they couldn't have been more different as actors.
Cooper, the epitome of the "strong, silent type" of film actor for whom changes of emotion resonate only slightly on his usually placid face, got his start when he literally had to be silent, during the last years of the silent-film era.
Brando emerged two decades after Cooper as the quintessential Method actor, inhabiting and playing complex, tormented characters on both the stage and screen.
"The Marlon Brando Collection" (Warner Home Video, $59.92, various ratings) and "Gary Cooper: The Signature Collection" (Warner Home Video, $49.92, various ratings) bring together five films apiece from these famous actors.
'House of Sand' leaves viewers high and dry
By PHIL VILLARREAL
Sunday, November 19, 2006
"House of Sand" begins on a note borrowed from "Lawrence of Arabia." The screen is composed almost entirely of sweeping sands of desert plains. Tiny specs emerge and turn out to be a caravan struggling across the desolate landscape.
Sadly, the sequence is a metaphor for the viewers' struggle to endure the too-long, too-dry drama.
Brazilian director Andrucha Waddington follows three generations of women over six decades in a remote, arid region of Brazil.
'Color of the Cross' challenges traditional view of Jesus
By JASON B. JOHNSON
Sunday, November 19, 2006
For many, the image of Jesus is that of a white man with wavy blond hair and blue eyes _ kind of like Jeffrey Hunter in 1961's "King of Kings." But a new film, "Color of the Cross," shows the Christian savior as a black man.
'Babel' is engaging, but time-hopping is losing its charm
By BETSY PICKLE
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Not all the world's a stage for "Babel," but several chunks of it are. Characters appear on cue in Morocco and Mexico, Japan and the United States. As the title suggests, the film boasts a mix of languages, with people failing to understand each other's words, meanings and motives.
The main point director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga seem to want to make is that the citizens of the world are all connected.
IRS agent finds key to new life in 'Stranger Than Fiction'
By ROBERT DENERSTEIN
Friday, November 17, 2006
"Stranger Than Fiction" begins with a narrator describing the waking hours of a fastidious IRS auditor who lives alone in his appallingly clean, super-organized Washington, D.C., apartment.
Within a few minutes, Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) comes off as a poster boy for anal retention.
What's new on video
By MIKE PEARSON
Friday, November 17, 2006
(Cars. Disney. 116 min. Rated G. $29.99. Grade: C+)
The people at Pixar aren't infallible after all.
Consider "Cars," the most pedestrian movie to date from the studio that gave us "The Incredibles," "Monsters Inc.," "Finding Nemo" and "Toy Story." It's nowhere near that level.
Director John Lasseter has concocted a story for the NASCAR crowd that cleaves to cliche.
Capsule reviews of current movies
By ROBERT DENERSTEIN
Friday, November 17, 2006
BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN (B+) British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen brings one of his characters to life on the big screen, and the result is an extremely funny movie that's also wildly and purposefully offensive.
Catch-up time in series one 'Alan Partridge' DVD
By BRUCE DANCIS
Friday, November 17, 2006
("I'm Alan Partridge: Complete Series 1." Graded: 3-1/2 stars. Cast: Steve Coogan, Felicity Montagu, Simon Greenall, Phil Cornwell, Barbara Durkin, Sally Phillips and David Schneider.
Tuxedo-clad mouse visits miniature London
By CARLA MEYER
Friday, November 17, 2006
Several writers collaborated on "Flushed Away," emerging with ... a tuxedo-clad mouse as a lead character. The computer-animated film he's in doesn't seem especially inventive, either, though it's lively enough to engage the little ones for stretches and clever enough to keep parents alert.
Following the animation template of a far-from-home loner (voiced by Hugh Jackman) discovering his tribe, "Flushed Away" is remarkable in just one way.
New films from a family perspective
Friday, November 17, 2006
A guide to movies from a family perspective:
"Flushed Away"
_ Rated: PG.
_ Suitable for: Preschoolers and older children who can sit through an 86-minute movie.
_ What you should know: This computer-animated movie is about a pampered pet mouse who ends up flushed away to the teeming world below London's streets.
