DVD Collectors Online

Brick, a review by Jon

Brick
4 out of 5



Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 'Mysterious Skin') is a loner at his high school, someone who knows all the angles but has chosen to stay on the outside. When the girl he loves, Emily (Emilie de  Ravin, 'Lost'), turns up dead, he is determined to find out “who” and “why”.

Brick is a fascinating and original film from first-time director Rian Johnson and it is a great debut. I haven't got much to add to Goodguy's review who hit it right on the head. It's an absolutely authentic Film Noir, straight out of the smoky 40s, except there's no smoking because it's set in High School!

It's tough to describe the film accurately. This isn't some ironic gimmick, it's played dead straight, with dialogue, characters and even mannerisms echoing perfectly the original movies. It really shouldn't work! But it is a resounding success thanks to the dedication shown by the young cast, who help pull off the suitably labyrinthine script. Johnson holds true to an atmosphere that feels just like The Long Goodbye. Matthias already mentioned that reference, but I can't think of another so perfectly matched. He's no slouch either, because while he could have got away with basic direction to just frame the actors, there are some really lovely touches especially in editing that give it some extra spark and subtle humour.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the "detective", as hard-boiled and world weary as any. He has a natural intensity I found similar to Heath Ledger and all credit to him that he shoulders almost the full running time. As with any classic Noir, the world revolves around him, much to his disgust. His heart broken by a girl now dead and for whatever reason, he needs to know why, digging into the criminal underworld of... his school. All the other important elements crop up, the Femme Fatale (Nora Zehetner), the thug (Noah Fleiss) and the kingpin (Lukas Haas), plus watch out for the superb scene with the Assistant Vice Principal (Richard Rountree, who else?), who in the real-Noir-world would be the police detective trying to help and double-cross our hero at the same time.

Not for want of effort, but occasionally, the ambition gets the better of them and it briefly feels like kids doing a play. I was reminded of Wes Anderson's Rushmore, but that's being picky, because this is very original and anyone who loves film will get a kick out of it. And I stress, again, it's no gimmick. You'll be drawn into their strange mirror-world without any effort!

(From DCO third annual November Alphabet Marathon - discussion/review/banter thread on November 4th, 2009)

The Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, a review by Tom

Title: Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Year: 2008
Director: Rob Cohen
Rating: FSK-12
Length: 111 Min.
Video: Widescreen 2.40
Audio: German: DTS 5.1, English: DTS HD HR, French: DTS 5.1, Italian: DTS 5.1, Spanish: DTS 5.1, Japanese: DTS 5.1
Subtitles: Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish

Stars:
Brendan Fraser
Jet Li
Maria Bello
John Hannah
Luke Ford
Isabella Leong
Michelle Yeoh

Extras:
Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Scene Access
Trailers

The good thing: The special effects are good, or at least decent.
But the whole movie just does not really work. Rick and Evy feel like they are just supporting joke characters this time around. And it does not help that Rachel Weisz didn't want to reprise her character. Nothing against Maria Bello (who I know as Mrs. Smith to Scott Bakula's Mr. Smith in the short-lived 90s TV series Mr. & Mrs. Smith), but she doesn't have the class that Rachel Weisz brought to the role.
This movie centers more around their son Alex and his love-interest Lin. Although she is quite a cutie, the love story itself just seems to be contrived. Especially because he seems like such an asshole. I don't see how she could have fallen for him this fast.

And how often did they have to say, that they are fighting again a mummy? Probably had to make clear, that this resurrected Chinese emperor is also a mummy (to justify the movie title) even though he is not Egyptian.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on December 26th, 2008)

"Due South" marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

Hawk And A Handsaw

Much better... finally another episode I enjoyed quite a bit. I definitely agree with what Rick said about the way Fraser got into the asylum.

My Rating:

(From "Due South" marathon on July 15th, 2009)