DVD Collectors Online

Searching for Sugar Man, a review by Antares

Searching for Sugar Man (2012) 81/100 - Before films became my main hobby, music was my one love. I grew up as a child in the sixties and basked in the creative outputs of the greatest musical generation. So it irked me that I had never heard of this performer or his music. I had heard the urban myth about the performer who created suicide on stage, but that's what it was, just a myth. Listening to the clips that are played in this documentary makes one wonder why he never had a successful career. He had a voice that was harmonic and rich, yet eerily similar to Bob Dylan. His lyrics were poetic, and laced with a societal substance that few songwriters every attain. Maybe it was his ethnic background that created the ceiling he couldn't punch through or maybe it was a case of the right songs at the wrong time. All the while I was watching this, I felt a connection between Rodriguez and another performer who was never truly understood, Laura Nyro. She too, was a gifted songwriter with a distinct flair, but only achieved marginal success. The documentary itself, is pretty manipulative. I say that because after I finished it, I jumped on the web to do some research on the man chronicled. That's when I found out that the underlying theme of the film, that Rodriguez never knew success and had just disappeared, wasn't exactly true. Six years after his second, and final album was released, he did achieve a small level of success in Australia. Which is never mentioned in the film. And that's where I have a problem with the film. After learning about what transpired in Australia in 1979 and the subsequent release of a live album not mentioned, I felt that I had been slightly duped by the director and writers of this film. You can't take poetic license when you are trying to make an historical documentary, which this film is. Sure, the story as shown, is heartwarming and intriguing, but in the end, it kind of rings hollow, if you do just a little bit of research on your own. So while I enjoyed learning about this performer and will definitely seek out his two albums, I can't give this a higher rating, because it is just manipulative mythologizing for the sake of entertainment.

What the color coding means...

Teal = Masterpiece
Dark Green = Classic or someday will be
Lime Green = A good, entertaining film
Orange = Average
Red = Cinemuck
Brown = The color of crap, which this film is

(From Antares' Short Summations on January 24th, 2013)

Life of Pi, a review by GSyren

Title	Life of Pi
Year	2012
Director	Ang Lee
Stars	Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Ayush Tandon, Gautam Belur, Adil Hussain
Overview	Embark on the adventure of a lifetime in this visual masterpiece from Oscarr winner Ang Lee*, based on the best-selling novel. After a cataclysmic shipwreck, young Pi Patel finds himself stranded on a lifeboat with the only other survivor - a ferocious Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Bound by the need to survive, the two are cast on an epic journey that must be seen to be believed.
My thoughts	You are probably going to disagree with me on this... After all the rave about this film, I was quite disappointed with it. To be sure, it's a marvellous technical achievement, and the acting and direction is excellent. I just didn't like the story. Unlike most viewers, I see in the moral of the story (or rather the extension of the moral of the story) just what is one of the biggest problems in the world. The film tells one, admittedly beautiful, story. Then at the end, we get another, not so beautiful story, and we are asked "Which story do you prefer?". Well, that's religion in a nutshell. And on the surface there's nothing wrong in believing in a beautiful fairy tale, as long as you accept that other people may believe in something else. The problem arises when you get so absorbed in your chosen story that you are willing to kill people just because they don't share your story. Don't get me wrong, though. There is nothing in the story that encourages hating people. It's just the idea of chosing to believe in a basically unbelievable story that rubs me the wrong way. So, if you are a cynic and an agnostic, like me, maybe you'll react as me. If not, chances are that you'll love this film. Please don't hate me for my views, though. I'm giving this film 3.5 out of 5 for its technical excellence.
Rating

(From Reviews and ramblings by Gunnar on May 14th, 2013)

My PILOT Marathon, a review by Rich

Dollhouse

1/ Ghost (apparently there was an unaired pilot prior to this)
Echo is one of the "Actives" in the elite and illegal Dollhouse. Through different personality downloads, she plays the role of a lovestruck girl on a romantic weekend, and then a ruthlessly efficient kidnapping negotiator.
Meanwhile, FBI Agent Paul Ballard is struggling with his assignment to uncover information on the Dollhouse. The chase has destroyed his marriage and is wrecking his career, and it doesn't seem that he'll stop until he uncovers the truth.



FROM JOSS WHEDON, CREATIVE MASTERMIND BEHIND Buffy the Vampire Slayer  and Angel, comes the provocative Dollhouse, a sexy, suspenseful thriller starring the stunningly talented Eliza Dushku.
As an "Active," the mysterious Echo (Dushku) serves as an unwitting agent of Dollhouse, an illegal undergroound organization that provides its elite clientele with programmable human beings.  Actives receivve persoonality imprints, allowing them to temporarily become anyone or anything - the perfect burglar, lover, spy, or assassin.  Now, with the FBI and her own shadowy past closing in, Echo must face a rogue Activve who will stop at nothing to bring Dollhouse down - forever.

As has been mentioned several times before, this series began very slowly and picked up around the 5th episode.
The first episode is quite confusing to follow and understand exactly what is going on, who is who, are the dolls victims or volunteers, what is what, why the Dollhouse, are they good or bad?? The idea of wiping a 'persons' mind and imprinting a new one, whether that be an assassin, lover, fighter etc, is quite novel and shows promise.
It is eye candy gone mad with a host of bronzed beauties to appeal to both sexes, but the majority unfortunately on first showing appearing rather lightweight in the acting skills. Adele DeWitt looks like she has secured a great role, and I am interested to see how this develops through the series.
Certainly a pilot that could put you off a series as it was just too confusing, but with the knowledge of how this improves and where it leads to I will be watching the remainder of series 1 very soon.
 


(From My PILOT Marathon on September 14th, 2009)