Jose Hilario Ponce's DVD Talk DVD Reviews https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/list/DVD Video DVD Talk DVD Review RSS Feed en-us Match Point Theatrical https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/19823 Tue, 24 Jan 2006 02:19:08 UTC Rent It


"The world is getting to be such a dangerous place, a man is lucky to get out of it alive."
--W.C. Fields

At the film's opening, tennis pro Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) says, "I'd rather be lucky than good." His voice-over comes as the audience witnesses a tennis ball strike the net in slow motion and stall perfectly mid-net before falling as if by chance to one side or the other. Wilton is a former tennis player turned instructor who meets an elite English family; at the center are good boy Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode) and his sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer). Chris becomes enchanted by the Hewett's lifestyle, fancy dinners, expensive cars, and particularly Chloe who takes an intense and rather high school crush interest in him. Although her pursuit of Chris is too fai...Read the entire review

]]> Brokeback Mountain Theatrical https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/19804 Sun, 22 Jan 2006 02:37:08 UTC Highly Recommended


--"But what about us?"
--"We'll always have Paris."

Bogart's line in Casablanca has burrowed itself into the lexicon of Americana. Its use denotes loss or longing and more often than not pains of the nostalgic. For Jack and Ennis, the two, uncertain cowboys of Ang Lee's latest film, Brokeback Mountain is their Paris.

Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) are a pair of Wyoming cowboys during the '60s. Both men are down on luck and money and neither has much going for them when they meet for the first time in the employment office of ranch owner Joe Aguirre, played by a puffy and aged Randy Quaid. The two men are given jobs guiding sheep up the side of Brokeback Mountain and told to watch over them while they...Read the entire review

]]> Hostel Theatrical https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/19603 Sun, 08 Jan 2006 01:57:35 UTC Rent It

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." -Charles Caleb Colton

Horror auteur Eli Roth might benefit by considering a paraphrasing of Samuel Johnson and ask himself if his flattery is worth the having. The latest film by Cabin Fever writer/director Eli Roth is nothing if not a second serving of homages and attributions to his cinematic idols. Where Cabin Fever paid respect to the directors of his childhood, namely Hooper and Rami, Hostel ardently strives to seat himself among his contemporaries.

Hostel's story is intricate but the plot is simple. Two American college students, Paxton and Josh (Jay Hernandez and Derek Richardson, respectively), take a break from their studies and backpack across Europe where they cross paths with Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson) an Icelandic chap with similar intentions. The three become a pact, prowling from country to country ...Read the entire review

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