DVD Collectors Online

The Hourglass Sanatorium, a review by goodguy

The Hourglass Sanatorium (PL 1973) Written & Directed by: Wojciech J. Has, based on short stories by Bruno Schulz Starring: Jan Nowicki DVD: R0-UK Mr. Bongo Films (2008) My rating:

Cover Blurb: Adapted from the 1937 collection of stories by Polish author Bruno Schulz; Sanitorium Under The Sign Of The Hourglass, Wojciech Has's 1973 film version follows the journey of a young man, Joseph (Jan Nowicki), as he visits his dying father in a mysterious sanatorium. Joseph comes to realise that time itself behaves very strangely inside the walls of the asylum, and he soon finds himself immersed in a web of memories, fantasies and visions - which express the longings and frustrations of his childhood.
The film contains crazed scenes of Jews dancing together and many of the residents appear dressed as giant birds. For his part, Schulz was widely seen as Poland's answer to Kafka, he was eventually murdered by Hitler's SS army during the Nazi occupation of Poland.
A surrealist headspin, this film has been compared to the best works of Terry Gilliam, Peter Greenaway, and Luis Bunuel...

I'm glad I bought both of Has' movies together, because, while I liked "The Saragossa Manuscript" well enough, I might not have given another of his movies a try afterwards. But with this one we truly are in the realm of the surreal and the weird. While the transitions between stories in "The Saragossa Manuscript" were clearly marked, this is not the case here. The protagonist moves as seamlessly between fragments of his memories as he moves between places that cannot possibly be connected. The structure is dreamlike, but never feels arbitrary, even if one has difficulties making heads or tails of what the hell is going on. I greatly enjoyed this, but a second viewing is definitely required to make more sense of it.


(From goodguy's Watch Log on July 7th, 2010)

The Ex, a review by Rich

Title: The Ex

Runtime:89
Certificate:12
Year:2007
Genres:Romance, Comedy

Plot:Two of TV's funniest and most popular comic actors, Zach Braff (Scrubs) and Jason Bateman (Arrested Development) take no prisoners as they fight it out for the love of Sofia (Amanda Peet). Tom Reilly (Braff) and his wife Sofia (Peet) have just had a baby and when Sofia, the breadwinner, decides to be a stay-at-home mum, it's all change. They move out of the city, back to Sofia's hometown where Tom is offered a job at the firm run by his father-in-law (the legendary Charles Grodin). Everything seems to be fitting nicely into place until Chip (Bateman), Sofia's ex boyfriend, local hero and all-round wonder-boy is appointed as Tom's manager. Chip's flame for Sofia still burns brightly and he will stop at nothing to see Tom undermined, humiliated and made a fool of in order to win back his ex...

My Review:
Lightweight comedy, but with a certain charm and originality that keeps you interested until the end.
Amanda Peet is gorgeous as the wife/mother, but both Bateman and Braff fail to make the most of their lead opportunities.
There are a few laugh out loud moments, but the biggest negative of this film is the script, it just isn't funny enough through the movie, and is a bit of a lost opportunity.
In fact the funniest part of the film is the outtakes which run with the credits, and are definately worth watching.


(From DCO third annual November Alphabet Marathon - discussion/review/banter thread on November 12th, 2009)

Tom's Random Reviews, a review by Tom

Title: Gokusen I
Year: 2002
Director:
Rating: U
Length: 660 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: Japanese: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: Chinese, English, Other

Stars:
Nakama Yukie
Matsumoto Jun
Itoh Misaki
Namase Katsuhisa
Kaneko Ken

Plot:
Newly graduated Kumiko Yamaguchi wants to make her mark on the Japanese educational system as a teacher. All well and good until she finds out that the school she'll be teaching at has its fair share of troublemakers and rabble-rousers. The ruffians at the school don't frighten her though for she has a secret of her own-she's a fourth generation crime syndicate member and next in line to head it up. She's gone straight and wants to be a teacher though, but she's one person in whose class you don't want to be caught fooling around!

Extras:
Featurettes

What can I say: I love it!!!
Great Japanese comedy series I can highly recommend. If you remember, I recently watched the anime series of this after a lucky blind buy.
This series is even better than the anime.
The actress who plays the main character is simply perfect in the role. What makes the series so great is the combination of the line delivery by main stars, editing and camera work. I had to laugh out a lot in most scenes thanks to the great direction on these (and that even though I am watching the series for the second time).
This show does not only offer comedy but also a little drama. Which is often on the cheesy side but it really works here.
The only minor critique I have is, that the grandfather of the main character is too much of a nice guy to be the head of a Yakuza clan.

Sadly I did not find any YouTube material which does the show justice.
But I will provide some links nevertheless:
Here is a best of montage, but of which I think that the shown scenes are hardly best of material of this series. There would have so much better stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkvZ7NAuH_Y

Here is a montage of a running gag, but will probably be lost on people who haven't seen this series yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVdMbP3ojuY

If I have even remotely sparked your interest, I recommend that you follow the link provided in the description in both of the above YouTube videos. It will lead you to a site which offers fansubbed versions of the episodes. This is how I come to know this series the first time around.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on August 28th, 2008)