September 25, 2004
Sunday September 26, 2004

Savant's new reviews today are

La dolce vita Koch Lorber
The Wrong Man Warners
Come Back, Little Sheba Paramount
Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell AnimEigo
Lady Terminator Mondo Macabro and
What's Good for the Goose Image/Salvation

Quite a stimulating weekend with Fellini and a couple of John Cassavetes films to watch ... BATTLE OF ALGIERS just came in, in enhanced widescreen, but I've got to wait until previous commitments are reviewed, darn it.

Saw the only film I've wanted to walk out on in years last Wednesday, SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW. It's a movie that begs to stop being screened and become a series of screen savers. Every rule of good storytelling is broken and every symptom of runaway CGI syndrome was present. The characters were impossible to care about and with every single shot somebody's work of art, there was no pacing of effects; events had no weight. Every room is some overdesigned cavern, every effect has to have 500 robots or 300 chrome pods or 200 airplanes when three or four of each would do. A P-40 that flies underwater just doesn't fly for me ... it's just dumb. With all the 'imaginative' visuals and ideas lovingly copied from great old movies from KING KONG (note VENTURE on the sea floor) to OUR MAN FLINT, there's no real imagination present or reason for the thing to be. If they dispensed with the live action stars stars and used animated figures, it would still be lacking in sufficient character. Dismal.

The fun's on DVD for the moment, and the occasional revival screening ... -note- since my main rank of reviews just below holds only eight titles, don't forget to check the paragraph of links immediately below. Some of them are only a few days old. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Posted by DVD Savant at September 25, 2004 03:58 PM