http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Sat, 12 Jul 2003 09:42:58 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/07/12/094258.php Jim DedmanTHE LAMENESS OF THE LEAGUE: Recently, I read an interview with Sean Connery, in which he stated that he had passed on Lord of the Rings and twice on The Matrix because he didn't understand the scripts. So, considering the wild successes of those films, he chose to star in The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, which he also did not understand. Well, there is only one word to describe his new effort, and that word is "lame." The film's director has perpetrated something akin to Tomb Raider and The Phantom. (Alright, to be totally honest, I haven't seen that 1996 film starring Billy Zane, but we all know, even without having to suffer through it, that is really, really lame, right?)Of course, you're thinking to yourself, "what were you expecting?" Well, the source material, the graphic novel by Alan Moore, was enough to give the project the benefit of the doubt. Anyway, The League is unredeemable and without social or artistic merit. It is in all respects laughable, and I'm surprised that the cast was able to keep a straight face long enough to finish a take. (Well, I suppose they kept stoic by considering the effect this film might have on their careers.) I mean, its just downright silly. I mean, Captain Nemo looks like he is wearing pajamas. The real fun is in counting the film's many, many cliches, from the father-son relationship developing between Connery's Allan Quatermain and Shane West's young Tom Sawyer, the token betrayal by a major character, or the ostentatious preservation of grounds for a sequel. Ugh. Peta Wilson's Mina Harker and Stuart Townsend's Dorian Gray are the only really interesting characters, and little is made of them until the film's climax, which is really an anti-climax anyway. From here on out, make mine The League of Melbotis. Video6895@blogcritics.org Sat, 12 Jul 2003 09:42:58 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/07/02/003429.php Jim DedmanREVIEW OF T3 - MINOR SPOILERS: Having just seen the sneak preview of Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines, I can say only that it is underwhelming. The first half, in which we are introduced to an older John Connor (played originally by Edward Furlong, but now by Nick Stahl), is largely derivative of Terminator 2 - Judgment Day. Indeed, we are treated to the familiar arrival of Arnold Schwarzenegger from the future as well as that of a newer-model liquid metal Terminator, this time in the form of Kristanna Loken. As before, Schwarzenegger is sent back to protect, while Loken shares the same mission as T2's Robert Patrick: kill John Connor. (However, Loken is also programmed to terminate the lives of another of young adults who are to become Connor's underlings in the future war against the machines.) We bear witness to the familiar chase scene in which the evil Terminator pursues victims in a large truck while Schwarzenegger follows and fights from a motorcycle. Of course, this being a sequel, the stakes are higher, the damage and body count is increased, and the villain wields far greater powers. It is not until the second half of the film that the narrative finds itself and provides new twists to the saga, and even those are not revolutionary spins on the formula. Unfortunately, T3 also lacks the solemnity of its immediate predecessor, and possibly that is due to the absence of James Cameron, writer and director of the first two Terminator films. Predictably, Cameron has dismissed this sequel, which is perhaps unfair, since his first major success as a director was making a sequel to another director's sci-fi action film. (Cameron took Ridley Scott's psychological suspense thriller Alien and produced the action-packed adventure sequel, Aliens.) Whatever the case, T3 is overly self-aware and occasionally makes sly, and rather distracting, allusions to both itself and to T2. Particularly irksome in this respect is the cameo appearance of Earl Boen, who played the sinister Ratched-esque chief of the mental institution in which Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor resided at the beginning of T2. Boen's appearance is played for light self-referential comedy. Obviously, the narrative must make reference to the events which occurred in previous films, but the film suffers for doing so in a wink-wink, nudge-nudge, remember-this-part-from-the-last film manner.The irony of T3 is that it sends contradictory messages about fate. The characters, particularly Schwarzenegger 's cybernetic organism, acknowledge that Judgment Day had been postponed, which suggests that the future is unwritten and can be changed by meddlers from the future. However, the film's climax, as well as a subplot involving John Connor's relationship with Kate Brewster (Claire Daines), suggests that fate cannot be overcome and the inevitable can be delayed but not defeated. That message stands in stark contrast to the message of Terminator 2, which was that our destiny is not a fixed journey but rather a blank canvass which is ours to paint. Video6670@blogcritics.org Wed, 2 Jul 2003 00:34:29 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/06/25/084443.php Jim DedmanINTERVIEW WITH THE ASSASSIN: Released on DVD last week was Neil Burger's Interview with the Assassin (2002), a faux-documentary about the assassin of President Kennedy finally confessing to his involvement in the scheme. In the film, cameraman Ron Kobeleski (Dylan Haggerty) discovers that his elderly neighbor Walter Ohlinger (Raymond J. Barry. of Training Day, Just Married, and The Ref) is the shooter from the grassy knoll, or at least purports to be. The weight of time, or conscience, has prompted Ohlinger to unmask himself as a member of the conspiracy, and his confession inspires both himself and Kobeleski to travel across the nation to find the remaining conspirators. As the film progresses, however, it degenerates from historical intrigue to hackneyed political thriller in which, of course, the characters discover that they may just be in over their heads.Shot in the now trendy, oft-emulated Blair Witch Project style, the direction hovers somewhere between trendy postmodern pseudo-documentary and the Danish Dogme95 movement. The approach to film-making can add to the tension and suspense, particularly when done well, but the novelty of the technique has certainly atrophied since the buzz of Blair Witch climaxed in the summer of 1999. (See 2003's The Wicksboro Incident for an example of another film in which the film-makers pilfer from the Blair Witch handbook.) Furthermore, Burger's knowledge of the assassination itself seems entirely derived not from independent research or, gasp, books on the subject but rather popular films and conventional wisdom. The film could have been at its best when Ohlinger is recounting the particulars of the 1963 assassination, but unfortunately, in advancing the narrative, Burger merely recycles popular culture from the last decade, including Oliver Stone's JFK, The X-Files (particularly the Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man episode). Indeed, this is not a film for the conspiracy buff; instead, it is aimed at the viewer who is not looking for clever references to assassination obscurities or even a satire of the still-burgeoning conspiracy industry.Barry, who the viewer will likely recognize but initially be unable to place, performs ably as the creepy former Marine with a secret to share. Haggerty, as this film's Heather Donahue, spends most of his time muttering behind the camera and meekly pleading Barry's character to refrain from doing whatever it is he is about to do.What began as interesting premise collapses of its own ambition. Ultimately with an unsatisfying conclusion suggesting perhaps that the entirety of the Ohlinger's account was either a paranoid delusion or groundwork for an insanity plea. Video6485@blogcritics.org Wed, 25 Jun 2003 08:44:43 EDT