Documentary, 90 Minutes, 2013
Back in the early 1970’s director Alejandro Jodorowsky [IMDB] decided that he was going to adapt Frank Herbert’s watershed 1965 sci-fi novel Dune into a movie. By all accounts, an utterly bat-shit insane movie. This documentary is the story of how that movie was never made.
Documentary, 78 Minutes, 2014
This is the latest in Disney’s “True Life Adventure” series of nature documentaries. This time we follow an Alaskan Grizzly bear and her two cubs through their first year of life. It’s very tempting to say “if you seen one, then you’ve seen them all” here. Mostly because it’s basically true.
Documentary, 109 Minutes, 2008
Not so many years ago, voice actors were relegated to Saturday morning cartoons, vocational films and the occasional hand-drawn feature. In the past two decades, however, there’s been an explosion in the need for qualified talent.
Documentary, 89 Minutes, 2013
Do you like “Calvin and Hobbes”? Of course you do, you’re not an idiot! Everybody does. (Well, everybody except for sad, attention-craving contrarians who scream, “that sucks, now pay attention to me!” about everything great.) By taking the position that something everybody loves is great the movie sets itself a pretty easy row to hoe.
If anybody deserves a tribute documentary it’s Bill Watterson, creator of “Calvin and Hobbes“. He produced one of, if not the, most beloved comic strip of all times, fought tirelessly for artistic freedom on the comics pages and chose to forgo a significant fortune by refusing to merchandise his creation.
The film looks to set exactly the right tone of fun, awe and respect. It will be in (a very limited number of) theaters and available digitally on Nov. 15. A large assortment of DVD and Blu-Ray bundles are also available for pre-order at the official website.
Documentary, 87 Minutes, 2010
To begin with there is, apparently, a raging debate regarding this film. One camp is absolutely positive that this was a completely scripted, produced false documentary in the vein of “Blair Witch” or “Paranormal Activity”. Another camp is certain that this is an honest, straight documentary. Still others argue that the truth lies some where in-between. For my part I won’t take a position beyond that offered by the filmmakers: they say the movie wasn’t staged so that’s how I’ll treat it.
Documentary, 87 Minutes, 2010
I’m a big fan of stand-up comedy (although I’m a big hater of clubs – I neither drink nor smoke – so I almost never go out to see it). It’s truly one of the purest forms of performance. Most comics author and perform their own material in front of small, often distracted (and drunken) audiences. They might travel for months on end to stand on tiny stages under blinding lights and do dozens of shows in a week.
Documentary, 90 Minutes, 2011
Only a small minority of people will ever donate their time and energy to the betterment of others. An even smaller minority would ever consider joining a neighborhood watch. Of that group only a tiny minority would actually exert effort outside their own neighborhood and even fewer would specifically target the very worst urban areas. Within this tiny minority of selfless, giving people there is a vanishingly small subset – barely registering a wedge on the pie chart – of people who do all of that while wearing a costume.
“The People vs George Lucas” on IMDB
Documentary, 70 Minutes, 2011
[This is the fifth review for this edition of my semi-regular “my-wife-is-visiting-relatives-so-I’m-watching-loads-of-crappy-movies” film festival. Consider this a palette cleanser between the schlock.]
Documentary, 101 Minutes, 2008
Bill Maher has never been one to shy away from controversy or confrontation. Sometimes (as with his views on medicine and vaccines) he’s as crazy as you could ever ask somebody to be but in the matter of religion he and I see pretty much eye-to-eye.
