Tag Archives: Drama

A Christmas Carol (1951): Ultimate Collector’s Edition (DVD)

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It’s surprising that after all these years, after fifty five years of technology and CGI, and stylish directors bringing up this old story, that the 1951 version of “A Christmas Carol” is still the best. Why? Well, there are so many reasons. For one thing “A Christmas Carol” is filled with dread and utter morbid reveling, as it is intent on exploring the world of Ebenezer Scrooge and the punishment he’s earned for himself. Secondly, the hauntings by his old business partner are still rather chilling, including his utterly horrible howling at Scrooge’s defiance. Brian Desmond Hurst unravels a creepy and woefully dreadful vision of “A Christmas Carol” as he films most of Scrooge’s house in stark blacks while relying on factory devices of sound and mind games.

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A Work in Progress: A Short Film By Wes Ball (2002)

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wipWriters always put themselves into their work, be they articles, reviews, and especially fiction. The stories we tell are a part of us, they’re our personality, our inner most desires, and our greatest wishes. What “A Work in Progress” does is feature a storyteller in search of her own friend. She’s a girl who sits watching many other children play while she’s forced to basically write and create her own characters. And wouldn’t you know it, she begins to tell the sad story of a brown bear in search of a friend.

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Æon Flux (2005)

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B1aFTc8I was never a fan of the techno-punk, cult series “Aeon Flux” from MTV, and for good reason. While, I’m always up for an animated series about a hot woman kicking ass, “Aeon Flux” was dull, lifeless, and ached to be as entertaining as fare like “Ghost in the Shell” from day one. Thus was MTV’s prime goal back in the days: make every series hipper than the last. And with this they failed. So it was only a matter of time for a movie to be made and eventually flop. You can blame America’s hesitation to enjoy a female superhero, you can say that they mishandled the character of Aeon Flux, but whatever excuse you create, at the end of the day “Aeon Flux” is a pretty bad film, clear and simple, and worse yet, it hearkens back to the absolutely excruciating “Ultraviolet” on many occasions.

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Right At Your Door (2006)

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Right_at_your_doorWe live in alarmist times. We live in times where we’re constantly in fear of terrorism, terrorist activities and are influenced to be xenophobic to a certain extent. We are a people de-sensitized with violence, a people who always fear death at our door, and ultimately have an unspoken paralyzing fear of the apocalypse entering into our windows, and it’s reflected in our culture and pop culture. Be it through zombies, a plague or what have you, we’re in times where our fear of Armageddon is difficult to ignore, and that’s due to increasingly violent circumstances involving the realistic likelihood of some sort of bomb or toxin entering into our neighborhood and destroying everything we love.

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Apocalypto (2006)

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You have to give it up for Mel Gibson. It’s not many Hollywood heavyweights who would set an action thriller in an Ancient Mayan civilization, and actually have his characters speak ancient Mayan. Only in Hollywood would we have polished young actors speak English in such a setting, but what Gibson has done is throw down all xenophobic and sensationalistic urges, and given us a film that actually sticks true to the concept he puts forth. And it also helps that “Apocalypto” is a genuinely exciting and enthralling action adventure, too. Mel Gibson has really become a director of his own class, a man who tells the stories he wants to tell, in spite of the backlash he receives. All in all “Apocalypto” is probably Gibson’s best film to date, because it’s almost free of any of Hollywood’s tainting.

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Alpha Dog (2006)

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Much like films such as “Havoc,” and “Dreamland,” the teen thriller “Alpha Dog” is about as realistic a representation of the modern teen as Hollywood would like you to believe. The only saving grace is the fact that it’s based on a true story, which helped fuel my strong interest, along with the lovely Amanda Seyfried starring. “Alpha Dog” is a display of the best of the best young talents that Hollywood has to offer with an ensemble hearkening back to the likes of “The Outsiders” on many occasions. People like Ben Foster to Emile Hirsch pull in very good performances, with even Justin Timberlake pulling in a stand out as Frankie, a friend of Johnny Truelove’s who is given the duty of watching young Zack, and inevitably gains a sense of fondness for him. Timberlake is unlike anything I’ve ever seen here, and he’s both sympathetic and utterly memorable as a character that begins as a mere supporting player and ends up a key figure in the progression of crime drama.

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Alabaster (2007)

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One of the aspects of Brandon McCormick’s “Alabaster” that I enjoyed was his unflinching willingness to completely hit the ground running in a world of surreal characters. Like many other existential dramas, “Alabaster” is a film comprised of many elements, all of which are leading somewhere. I won’t give anything away for you, but immediately, I could sense that “Alabaster” and its variety of odd characters and symbols was inevitably going to come together to say something. And quite honestly, I was riveted.

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