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The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, a review by dfmorgan

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Year: 2009
Director: Terry Gilliam
Cast: Christopher Plummer, Lily Cole, Tom Waits, Heath Ledger
Overview: Directed by visionary genius Terry Gilliam, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus features Heath Ledger in his last role, plus a stellar cast including Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) is an immortal who leads a travelling theatre troupe. Their props include the 'Imaginarium' - a mirror doubling as a magic doorway into a world that makes your wildest dreams a reality.

Parnassus's immortality has come at a price however - he will lose his daughter Valentina (Lily Cole) to the Devil himself (Tom Waits) unless he persuades five more souls to lose themselves in the Imaginarium. "A wild and wonderful fantasy" - Alan Frank, Daily Star

Watched: 27th Mar 2010
My Thoughts: Ok a strange film but then again not. Terry Gilliam in a weird phase, been there before and will be again, but making an excellent film which in places was very Pythonesque, not too sure if that is good or bad. There will be nuances and depths that I have missed in this first viewing, one thing you can't do with a Terry Gilliam film is to remove your brain and let it rest on the side, but hopefully they will appear and clear when I rewatch this in future. The basic premise is the usual fight between Good and Evil represented here by Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) as the Good and Mr. Nick (Tom Waits) as the Devil. Both these came over well and with good support from Verne Troyer, Andrew Garfield and Lily Cole as Doctor Parnassus's troupers.

One of the main talking points about this film, also heavily touched upon by Terry Gilliam in his introduction to the film, was the fact that Heath Ledger died before his role had been completed. Three other actors, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, stepped in to save the film by taking on the uncompleted parts which luckily were those that involved Heath Ledger stepping into the Imaginarium. Did that work? I have to say that to me it appeared that yes it did work, I presume though that Terry Gilliam and his co-writer had to amend their original scripts to cater for this but it came over well.

My Rating: Overall a 4

Dave

(From Dave's DVD/Blu-ray Reviews on March 28th, 2010)

Clawed: The Legend of Sasquatch, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: Clawed: The Legend of Sasquatch
Year: 2005
Director: Karl Kozak
Rating: R
Length: 83 Min.
Video: Widescreen 1.76:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, English: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo
Subtitles: English, Spanish

Stars:
Dylan Purcell
Brandon Henschel
Miles O'Keeffe
Jack Conley
Chelsea Hobbs
Casey Labow

Plot:
According to a tale told for generations in Pine Creek, many years ago a group of hunters were found slaughtered in the woods above the town in a gruesome tragedy that locals have come to call "the Echo Mountain Massacre." Legend has it that a giant grizzly mauled the men in the hunting party beyond recognition. Some in the town believe the legend, and some aren't quite sure that a grizzly, even a big one, could have done what the story says happened.

But it happens again. A band of poachers is found brutally killed much like the old legend had reported. Was it another giant grizzly? Or could it be something more cunning and more powerful than even a great bear? Now, four high school seniors, a park ranger and a pack of revenge-hungry gunmen are going to find out...

Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Bonus Trailers
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes

My Thoughts:
An entertaining film... but should have been a lot better. For the most part it was pretty slow. Big Foot looked pretty good for a guy in a hair suit. No CGI here for great effects. They kinda went old school for this one. It really needed more action. But not sorry I have it... and could even see myself watching it again at some point. Just nothing here to blow your socks off.



(From The Movies From Within My Lifetime on May 21st, 2011)

"Due South" marathon, a review by Tom

1.07 Chicago Holiday - Part 1 (1994-11-10)
Writer: Paul Haggis (Created By), Jeff King (Writer), Paul Haggis (Writer)
Director: Paul Lynch
Cast: Paul Gross (Constable Benton Fraser), David Marciano (Detective Ray Vecchio), Beau Starr (Lt. Harding Welsh), Daniel Kash (Detective Louis Gardino), Tony Craig (Detective Jack Huey), Catherine Bruhier (Elaine), Lisa Jakub (Christina Nichols), Stacy Haiduk (Janice DeLuca), Ron Lea (Mr. Nichols), Deborah Rannard (Medical Examiner), Peter Williams (Gerome), Stephen Shellen (Eddie Beets), Jonathan Shapiro (Teenager), Daniel DeSanto (Jerry), Kelly Proctor (Janus), David Rosser (Quigly), Beth Amos (Housekeeper), Kevin Rushton (Henry)

Another good episode. Nice gag with naming the housekeeper "Mrs. McGuffin"
This is the episode Kathy didn't like. I haven't watched the second part yet this time around, but at least in the first part, the diplomat's daughter doesn't know yet, that she has killers after her (except if I had missed something). She just runs away again and again, because she doesn't want to be babysit and rather go out partying. For now the two storylines with Ray searching for the killer and Ben escorting the daughter are separate as far the characters is concerned.


Rating:

(From "Due South" marathon on July 5th, 2009)