Reviews

I really liked this movie; it excels in telling the story of one young man's humanity, contrasted with the inhumanity of the correctional system. You become immersed in the life of Charlie, and you start to make the voyage through the film with him. As you begin trying to understand everything going on in his life, you contrast it to a system that does not see people as individuals. A system the judges people's character based upon flawed and superficial measurements.

Superb acting was essential to telling the story, and the cast did a fantastic job. There are many shots in the film that rely heavily on the facial expression of Charlie, and Michael Angarano delivered.

I think the cinematography really fit the film as well. The use of lighting, colors and shots always seemed appropriate, and really was consistent with the overall vision.

In short, storytelling is often times a lost art, but Bondage did a great job at telling us a story. It gives the audience the chance to walk in someone else's shoes for a few hours, and learn from their experience. I really enjoyed that experience.

-E

From the description, I expected Shadow Company to be a condemnation of privately run military companies, however the actual film turned out to be very well balanced and well put together.

The film grabs varying viewpoints, from the soldiers in the field, to the executives that hire them, to ethics experts and more. The film looked at the issue from historical, financial, ethical, and effective standpoints.

The film added liveliness and interest through clever use of overlays and cut-away scenes. It managed to add elements of humor from time to time that helped the film feel much less dry than other documentaries.

The best part about the documentary is that it did not attempt to sell me a particular viewpoint. It left me still pondering everything that I had seen on the screen, and attempting to decide what I really felt about the issue.

In total, one of the finer documentaries I have ever seen.

I saw Deadroom at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, TX. We were all really excited to see this movie based up on the film description; however we were left disappointed by the actual film.

I liked the concept of the film in general, and am not adverse the artistry that they attempted to put in the film. However several things prevented me from enjoying the movie. Out of the story lines, only one of them I really found interesting. While some of the other plot lines were partially interesting, any interest was ruined by the lack of quality in the film.

I understand the problems associated with trying to make an independent film on low budget, but several shots were out of focus, which I found inexcusable. The biggest problem however was horrific acting. There was one, maybe two good actors in the film. Half way through the film I would have liked to go up and act myself to improve the film.

Batman and Robin is still by far a worse film, but this film was a real disappointment to me.

After failing to get into several movies, we waited for an hour and a half to see this movie at it's premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, TX. The crowd at the premiere was probably biased, seeing as how the movie was filmed in Austin, but most of the crowd seemed to enjoy the film.

The film provides a different sense of humor, though somewhat dark. To avoid spoiling the plot, I'll tip-toe around the exact plot. The movie provided good laughs, if you are willing to get past the weirdness of the plot content. I did spend a good portion of the film almost afraid the content was going to cross the line. There were interesting twists, and never it lets you be certain where the plot line was headed. The plot left a few rough edges, unanswered questions, and characters that either appeared out of no-where, or disappeared just as fast.

I'm not a big fan of Jason Lee, but he seemed to play his character to the letter. Crispin Glover's character really threw me at first. I'd expect him to play this character given the content of the film, what I didn't expect was his accent. It's a tough fit for him, but he seems to do a pretty good job at pulling it off. I thought the supporting cast filled in very nicely alongside of the main actors and actresses.

The cinematography was pretty straight forward with the exception of flashback scenes, which I thought were nicely done. Aside a few technically cheesy shots, the filming was done alright.

All together, I give the movie decent marks for a somewhat original and twisted plot line, bringing a different sense of humor that's worth a few laughs. However since the movie's dark humor goes against my typical sensibilities, I drop my rating a mark or so.

Overall, I give it 6.4/10 to round to an even 6/10.

Just recently Legend was released in the Ultimate Edition, a 2 disc set of DVDs. This includes both the original US Release and Ridley Scott's Director's Cut. Some people I know, bit 80's fan I might also say, really loved the original US release, but to me at least the tone of the movie isn't set properly, especially in the music.

With 24 more minutes of added scenes and a completely new score for the movie, the Director's Cut brings out Legend as the amazing fantasy it was designed to be. The movie has absolutely amazing cinematography to bring the wonderful scenes to life. Just the first scene of the forest just left me saying "wow".

All and all, if you thought the original release came off a little corny and didn't quite feel right, give the Director's Cut a chance. If you are one of those in love with the original release, pretend the Director's Cut never existed :)

Beautifully filmed fantasy adventure, check it out.