Change Your Image
darkstarvideo-1
Reviews
Redacted (2007)
Read the one star reviews and take a guess if they've seen the film
There is a bizarre phenomena going on here. The folks who want to propagate this war are frightened by this film and they should be. With support for the war in Iraq eroding day by day the hawks have to block or obscure the truth at every avenue. This film is not a documentary but does mirror the actual events of American soldiers raping and killing a family of Iraqis. This sort of news has not reverberated well in middle America so the right wing has done the best they can to bury it. I offer in evidence the 23 one star reviews as of this date on IMDb. Of these 23 reviews 15 are from authors whose only review is Redacted. I submit that these folks are not film reviewers but political actors attempting to drag down the overall IMDb rating of this film in a impotent attempt to discourage people from seeing it. Among the remaining 8 one star multiple reviewers , Transformers, Attack Force and Georgia Rule get 10 stars so I think you know where they're coming from. Leave IMDb to film lovers. Wage your political battles elsewhere.
Automaton Transfusion (2006)
Yet another low budget zombie flick from your friends at Dimension EXTREME
The best way to overcome a very low budget is ingenuity which is not in evidence here. What we have here are one dimensional stereotypes sputtering illogical dialog fighting their way though tired and predictable plot points lifted from 1000 better movies. The death metal/power pop soundtrack is more than a little distracting as is the use of sound effects in general. The ploy of using gallons of blood and frenetic camera movements to hide the non-existent budget doesn't work and the ending or lack there of is the obvious effect of Miller writing himself in to a corner. Still I don't want to dump on this thing completely. I would say that Steven C. Miller's direction was at least competent and he could possibly have a future if he would work with MUCH better scripts and MUCH better actors. Also I would say that the box art for the DVD is pretty cool but what the f*ck is with that title?????
Superbad (2007)
Fine it's a good movie for the genre but in the top 250?
Suderbad is a very funny and entertaining movie. That said it does not deserve nearly the accolades it has received. The only reason that it gets the treatment it does is because it's a big fish in a really small pond. The teenage sex comedy has been in severe decline since Risky Business. The American Pie series is targeted at retards so when a film delivers realistic characters in a sub-genre where writers don't even bother to make the effort people freak out. I'm sure that Seth Rogen would be the first to tell you that Superbad has no business being rated higher than Children of men. Every generation needs a film to define it's youth and I guess this one is it. Too bad that it was written ten years ago.
Because I Said So (2007)
Hey Diane, Get a new agent.
I can't for the life of me understand why Diane Keaton agreed to do this. I realize there may not be a lot of roles out there but Meril Streep seems to be doing OK. In Diane's defense this is not nearly as bad as anything Jane Fonda's been doing. As a 40 year old guy I realize I was not the target demographic for this thing but it's not too good even for the marshmallow fluff genre. More than a few gags, if not direct dialog, are stolen from other movies....Bad Screenwriter! Mandy Moore tries her best to be a sweetie but I find her far more effective as a villain, like in Saved. The director is a television director and that makes sense because this really feels like a made for TV affair. Six months from now I doubt I'll have any recollection of this film.
Just Like Heaven (2005)
Try ripping of a good movie
Pathetic ripoff of Ghost. Total formula. You find yourself thinking about the suits in the pitch meeting and why they thought this would work. It's really too bad because Mark Waters is a decent director who must must have done this for a paycheck. Star vehicle targeted to the Saturday night lonely hearts club, nothing more. I often think that Oscar consideration should take into account other films completed in the same year they win. If this was the case Reece Witherspoon would be forced to give back her Walk the Line Oscar. This was yet another shinning example of miscasting Mark Ruffalo. All involved should be ashamed. Moreover those giving positive reviews to this film on this site need to take a good look in the mirror and ask themselves whether suicide is the answer.
Children of Men (2006)
Cautionary Masterpiece
Harry Lime in the Third Man tells Holly Martins "in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed, but they produced Michaelangelo - Leonardo Da Vinci, and the Renaissance...In Switzerland, they had brotherly love. They had five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce?...The cuckoo clock." Great art stems from turmoil and pain and this movie reflects that paradigm. 2006 has been a year for bleak futures in film exemplified by Inconvenient Truth, Idiocracy, V for Vendetta and now Children of Men. In the early 70s amidst the quagmire of Vietnam, the civil rights movement and the corruption of the Nixon administration the cinema produced Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green and THX 1138. Now amidst the quagmire in Iraq, the legitimization of torture, the suspension of habeus corpus, and the corruption of the Bush administration director Alfonso Cuarón has woven a cautionary tale set in 2027 England but the issues at stake could not be more topical. The single take tracking shots drag the viewer by the hair through a world more terrifying than any horror film could conjure. I was riveted by this pre- apocalyptic drama to the very last frame. When the credits rolled I looked at an audience quite literally stunned and silent. I cannot recall another film that delivers such a punch. I felt so raw afterward I had to have a drink. It is without a doubt the best film of 2006.
An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
The most terrifying thing I've ever seen!
No other film I've seen in my lifetime calls the viewer to reevaluate their thinking and personal priorities. An Inconvenient Truth casts in stark relief the very real plight the human race faces IN OUR LIFETIME! Al Gore is simply the messenger in this story and this message should transcend partisanship. The real story of this film is not Gore but rather the drastic changes in climate in just the last 20 years. Gore articulates from every angle how mother nature is slapping us in the face begging us to wake up. 9/11 was terrible and terrorism should be a serious concern but a real weapon of mass destruction is headed our way that will dwarf the loss of that tragic day. No I'm not going to say that anyone who voted for the Bush administration has unwittingly signed the death warrant of their grandchildren but the Republican Party simply must make radical changes to their environmental platform. I reiterate this is everyone's problem. Al Gore's mission here is to illustrate that we're not talking about the abstract here. This is not something that we will be forced to address 100 years from now. This problem is immediate. Tsunami's, hurricanes, fires and floods are just the beginning. Now as a film An Inconvenient Truth could have been unbearable with it's grim message but Gore offers a ray of hope that change is possible through technology and political will. American's bear the lion's share of this responsibility as our co2 output far surpasses other countries'. This means that you as an American voter has been empowered to quite literally save the planet. I urge everyone to explore their Rep's environmental record and vote accordingly. The writing is on the wall will someone please read it!
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004)
A slap in the face to southern culture
A mockumentary yes...historically implausible perhaps but this film captures the essence of southern thinking today. There is a distinct undercurrent of racism in all southern politics. The American Civil War created an insecurity complex within southerners much like WWI created in the French. In my view there won't be much outcry about this film from the sons of the soil because for them this represents the dream that could have been. What we need is another John Brown sweeping though the south expunging both statehouses and trailer parks alike. Perhaps then mankind will be able to transcend and evolve with some equality for all.
You've Got Mail (1998)
The Worst Movie Ever Made!
Nora Ephron should be tied to a fencepost and beaten unconscious for making this drek. Look beyond the fact that this movie is one long commercial, no other film has more product placement. The insidious message of the film is the inevitability of corporate domination. Meg Ryan, the small business owner, has her bookstore driven into the ground by Tom Hanks and his Borders type mega-store but all is forgiven in the name of love. I've never known destroying someone's livelihood to be an aphrodisiac. The rest is by the numbers romantic comedy. Trite, shallow, saccharine, completely without merit. Everyone involved should be shot!