La jetée (The Pier) (1961)

La Jetee (The Pier) is the 1961 experimental French film that inspired 12 Monkeys. At 28 minutes in length, it is as long as an original series Twilight Zone episode and it looks and feels like one too. An English-speaking narrator tells the story, which is depicted only through still photos, from a prompt start to an abrupt finish. Largely because of its historical and social significance though also its short length, La Jetee is a noteworthy and memorable film to watch. The protagonist narrates a story that centers on the post-WWIII occupation of Paris by Germans, who perform time-travel experiments on prisoners. They confine the narrator to a hammock to sojourn mentally through time for as long as 50 days -- no indication is made as to how his body is sustained in the meantime -- and he meets a woman in the past with whom he establishes a connection. (My favorite part of the film is the sequence as she awakes in the morning light.) La Jetee is a pivotal, essential, and monumental science-fiction film that is about the what-ifs of postapocalyptic society and a simple romantic connection. 3.5 stars.

The Lon Chaney Collection: The Unknown (1927)

I saw Lon Chaney's The Unknown as part of Houston's Discovery Park downtown outdoor film series. The silent film was greatly energized by an original score (klezmer meets Bono) performed live by the six-person band The Invincible Czars, all dressed as gypsies. Here is Chaney without mask or makeup -- we see his facial expressions contort without artifice, only artistry. The story is of course melodramatic and somewhat maudlin but captivating in a Gift of the Magi way. Chaney is Alonso, an armless circus performer who nimbly plays guitar, lights and smokes cigarettes, and does everything else with his toes. (This is one of the most incidentally entertaining parts.) He is enamored with the circus owner's daughter (played saucily by a young Joan Crawford), who confesses to the sympathetic and safe Alonso that she trusts him. Yet Alonso has secret desires of his own and an even greater secret that he dares not reveal to anyone but his trusted servant. He sets out to guard one secret and attain the other but tragedy befalls his twisted plans. How the story unfolds is both simple and captivating. Do what I do: Follow Chaney's facial expressions and supply your own lines, murmuring bits like "Oh great -- now I'm so screwed!" (This review will be updated after I receive and watch the rest of the disc.) 3 stars. (6-14-10 posted 7-26-10)

Dolphins: IMAX (2000)

Dolphins: IMAX has dolphins galore -- so what's not to like? If you love dolphins, see this film. If you want to learn about dolphins, watch it and find greater cause to love them. Why? Because dolphins are the second-most intelligent creatures on the planet, clearly creative, constantly playful, capable of tenderness and emotion, possess perceptive faculties we cannot yet fathom, and they definitely communicate with their own complex language. Don't believe me? See this film and decide for yourself. (The anti-science crowd can move along, nothing to see here since you have already made up your mind about the world while keeping your eyes and minds shut tight.) Kathleen Dudzinski is a marine scientist whose studies and discoveries about dolphins form the bulk of the movie's fascinating narrative. (IMAX films tend to profile the work and reflections of one or more scientists -- always scientists -- as a way to personalize the science esp. for kids and to keep the audience's eyes and ears from crusting over from merely narrated factoids.) You can see the schoolchildren's eyes brighten as she makes dolphins come alive for them. She repeats a line heard in the IMAX film The Living Sea: "We can't protect what we don't understand." If the ocean is our world's final frontier, then dolphins alone promise a whole new territory to explore and understand. (As with nearly all IMAX-format films, the movie is clearly listed as 40 minutes in length; with making-of featurette, the DVD totals 89 minutes. Click my avatar to see my IMAX movies list.) Enjoy! 4.5 stars.

The Road to Wellville (1994)

The Road to Wellville is U-Turn meets Exit to Eden -- sort of the illegitimate spawn of Terry Gilliam and the Farrelly Brothers, spoofing turn-of-the-century health regimen practices. Anthony Hopkins is Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, cereal magnate and director of the Seventh Day Adventists' Battle Creek Sanitarium (which did burn down in 1902 but was rebuilt, operating until 1933, and still stands as the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center). Think of Hopkins here as a bully-pulpit Teddy Roosevelt with buck teeth. Basically he advocates physical exercise, the use of many self-invented though medically questionable devices (some involving electricity), no sex or sensuality even between married couples (as a waste of bodily fluids and energy), no meat, lots of vegetables, and lots of enemas (water and yogurt) for everyone. (This is all true and even Pres. Taft was a patient.) The performances of Hopkins and the ensemble cast (Matthew Broderick, Bridget Fonda, John Cusack, Lara Flynn Boyle, Michael Lerner, and esp. Dana Carvey as the crazed George Kellogg with Jacob Reynolds as young George) are both nuanced and over-the-top -- based on the characters and full of surprises. Colm Meaney appears as Kellogg's nemesis, Dr. Lionel Badger, an advocate of sexual expression who, with Norbert Weisser as Dr. Spitzvogel, finds an inquisitive audience in Eleanor Lightbody (Fonda) and Virginia Cranehill (Camryn Manheim). Meanwhile, William Lightbody (Broderick) has a few hallucinations of naked women (Traci Lind as his lovely nurse and Boyle as his pale hall neighbor). Throughout, Hopkins is officious and pedantic as he spouts his prescriptions for "exonerating one's bowels." Much of the humor is scatological but as satire not slapstick. (After all, people believed and practiced this stuff for 50-75 years.) The Road to Wellville is a fast-paced farce that you may have to watch again to catch all the comedy. It's intelligent but lowbrow. Lastly, you will need a sense of humor about sexual references and inquisitiveness (as well as seeing the bare behinds of Broderick and a dozen overweight patients). I greatly enjoyed this movie (though I had to get it from a competing service since it has been out of stock here for many years). Click my avatar to see my Bl@ckbuster and other Save title lists. Enjoy! 4.5 stars.

The Living Sea: IMAX (1995)

The Living Sea is a visual smorgasbord representing all aspects of the world's oceans, with a great deal of the tidal eye candy focusing on underwater denizens and marine ecology. While the most sumptuous scenery is (as always with IMAX ocean films) under the surface of the sea, I also enjoyed the time-lapse views of tidewater ebb and flow as well as baywater recreational boating -- not to mention the segment on the joys of surfing. Here is an IMAX film that gives us panoramic vistas from California's sea kelp to the Palau Islands' barrier reef and all the marine creatures that inhabit such environs. Divers swimming among swarming schools of fish is a great pleasure to witness (esp. due to top-shelf IMAX production values, including sound editing by Skywalker Ranch) and we even follow a cuttlefish, with its psychedelic color-shifting, for a minute. The segment on Palau's eons-old saltwater lake is particularly stunning, with "a million" nonstinging jellyfish that "farm" algae inside their own bodies. Like many IMAX films, The Living Sea feels like a spiritual experience -- if you love and respect the Earth's creation and all that it contains. The music soundtrack by Sting is lyrical yet meditative and Meryl Streep (considered by some to be the world's greatest living actress) as narrator is a superb choice. The only complaints seem to come from those who hate Sting, hate Streep, misunderstand IMAX (typically a 39-minute visual-essay "documentary lite"), are anti-evolution (implied in one line of the script), or anti-science. The message of The Living Sea, stated twice, is as follows: "Our knowledge of the oceans is growing. This knowledge is important, because we can't protect what we don't understand. What we understand fully, we come to love." The oceans *are* all connected. They *do* provide 70% of the world's oxygen. Laws protecting habitats and prohibiting the slaughter of entire species (the humpback whale, to cite one example) *are* reversing prior trends towards extinction. The Living Sea is a love song to our oceans, its creatures, and those who respect them. Enjoy! 5 stars.

Starz Studios: Predators / Despicable Me / The Kids Are All Right (2010)

This 12-min Starz Studios featurette highlights nine movies -- two of them enticingly filling 5 of those 12 minutes and bracketing the rest: Despicable Me (2 min as Steve Carell explains the story line with clips), The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1.25 min as Jay Baruchel gets glib about his acting career), The Kids Are Alright (1.25 min of cogent clips), The Girl Who Played with Fire (.25 min), [Rec]2 (.25 min), Winnebago Man (.5 min), Predators (1.5 min), Inception (1.5 min), and The Pillars of the Earth (3 min as Ridley Scott and cast explicate the set and characters of the Ken Follett novel turned Starz miniseries). 3.5 stars.

The White Ribbon (Das Weiße Band: Eine Deutsche Kindergeschichte) (2009)

White Ribbon is Sweet Land or Babette's Feast meets The Army of Shadows. It is a stark but beautiful film with child actors that are flawless gems set amidst the rank stonewall that is their isolated Austrian village's adult society -- and what an adulterated society it is esp. owing to its feudalistic baron and the repressive disciplines of the minister. (The film's title comes from the white ribbon the latter publicly ordains his children to wear as a sign of the purity they both lack and require -- but he doesn't know half of the children's sins.) Do his ministrations amount to authoritarianism or Calvinism gone awry? Do they engender an entrenched and passive-aggressive subversion against authority? White Ribbon frames its coroner's real-time study of a town's morality in black-and-white and examines every development with a vibrant, microscopic exactitude (that those who prefer action to intellect will unfortunately consider to be numbingly glacial). White Ribbon slowly unravels a mystery that will confound many a crime connoisseur because the clues are supremely subtle. Furthermore, the film ends on an inconclusive tangent just before the start of World War I because the director's aim is not to provide a resolution but to paint an open-ended story that elucidates how Aryan (or any) citizens could allow their Fatherland to become a totalitarian state. How evil is tolerated and ultimately nurtured in the core of an adult or a child -- individually as well as corporately -- is not an easy process to pin down or portray. However, if you watch carefully and follow the story closely, I think you will find White Ribbon is as detailed, riveting, beautiful, and fearsome a narrative as there is on the subject. Don't miss it if you enjoy movies that really make you think and re-evaluate what you know. 5 stars.

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Quentin Tarantino rocks again as Inglorious Basterds takes a cinematically grounded yet fresh approach to a kill-the-Nazis theme. Our story begins with an intriguing premise: What if, had history gone differently, a crack team of American Jews took surgical, bloody, insurgent revenge on hundreds of Nazis in France and ultimately succeeded in assassinating Hitler, Goebbels, Goering, and Bormann in a propaganda premiere turned conflagration? The characters and low-key (if often lethal) comedic developments make this story pop and sizzle (esp. as Hitler and his murderous ilk get what's coming to them). Brad Pitt is Lt. Aldo Raine, a vowel-chewing soldier from Atlanta who recruits a deadly squad of American Jews and demands 100 Nazi scalps from every one of his men. Diane Kruger plays his would-be co-conspirator in a plan of attack that's beyond his means. (Foreign dialects are his downfall, esp. I-talian.) Melanie Laurent is Shosanna, his ultimate co-conspirator who fills the bill (literally and hauntingly). Stellar in this film though is Oscar winner Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa, the urbane, witty, and deadly Nazi officer known as "the Jew Hunter." (He hates the nickname but prattles on about it as he plays with his victims like a cat with a mouse.) Most of the movie's grisly moments and wounds are all but bloodless -- scalping should be quite a bit messier than shown, for just one example -- thus avoiding the trap of splatterporn. Besides, Tarantino loves to push the boundaries of violence while drumming it for comedic effect -- and he does this very well. All caricatures aside, you may find yourself cheering as the Nazis meet their demise. (Think of the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark but with more Nazis, panic, and carnage.) The best scenes, however, are detailed, character-based, and full of fun (esp. anything with Christoph Waltz in it and Aldo's unraveling plan in the bar). Have a sense of humor and enjoy! A film buff co-worker already owns this movie and so will I. 5 stars.

Superman Doomsday (2007)

I've watched Superman Doomsday two times with my youngest son and it has held our attention with adequate animation and a somewhat compelling storyline. My son asks to skip the mining scenes when the Doomsday creature is unleashed because of the rampant mayhem -- which continues against humans until its final clash with Superman. The story's attraction is Superman's battle-to-the-death with the Doomsday creature, who pummels Superman to within an inch of his life -- even causing him to cough up blood, which spatters many feet to paint Lois Lane's cheek -- and then an inch further. (No spoilers here: It's been common knowledge since 1993 that, in this storyline, Superman dies.) You can't keep a good (not to mention super) man down though and the mysteries of Kal-El's Kryptonian biology receive assistance from his Fortress of Solitude's sentient robot companion. Lex Luthor throws another fly in the ointment, however, by means of his genetic megalab and Kal-El must face another nemesis with Kryptonian genes. Conservative families should be aware that several towel-wrapped and kissing scenes with Lois and Superman in each other's homes are part of the romantic subplot that has "gotten more intimate" for "several months now" and leads Lois to pry into learning Superman's true identity. 3 stars.

Pure Country (1992)

I'll take Sam Elliott or Randy Travis in a starring role any day long before George Strait -- but when George sings country love songs (as he does a lot in this movie), it's like eating butter creams. So let's be clear: You don't watch Pure Country for stellar acting. (Perhaps the only name besides George Strait that you'll recognize is Leslie Ann Warren.) The settings are not picturesque -- concert arenas, arena basements, honky-tonks, and tour buses -- until you get back to the land where George (as country-music star Dusty Dustin) got his start an' he starts ropin' an' singin'. The story is sufficiently perfunctory to carry it along just fine if you don't nitpick. You watch Pure Country for the good-as-sweetgrass country music and for the love story. Isabel Glaser holds her own fairly well as Harley Tucker, a love interest with a talent of her own. I also like her taciturn father. Be sure to see Pure Country if you love George Strait, country music, love songs, cowboys, rodeos, ranch life, Texas, and songs about good American folks who hold down their jobs and love their families. See it esp. if you're a Texan or own a pair of cowboy boots you've worn more than once. Over time, see it enough times that you can sing along with the words. Enjoy! 3.5 stars. (6-17-10 posted 7-9-10)

Lewis Black's Root of All Evil: Season 2 (2008)

Lewis Black makes a great spittle-spewing curmudgeon of a comedian who gets really worked up about life's idiocies. His game-show-like Root of All Evil show has a great formula that pits two comics against each other as they present the "evidence" and contend as if in court whether one thing or another is the "root of all evil." Next, Black conducts his own whip-smart "inquisition" before he asks each comic to present his or her "Ripple of Evil" -- an often wildly imaginative worst-case scenario for how bad things would get if said subject got out of control. Finally, Black pronounces judgment as to which of the following pairs are the greater evil: Ultimate Fighting vs. Bloggers, Steroids vs. Boob Jobs, NRA vs. PETA, Olympic Games vs. Drinking Games, Red States vs. Blue States, Disney vs. Scientology, Going Green vs. Spring Break, Gen-X vs. Boomers, Strip Clubs vs. Sororities, and The Hills vs. Rocket Scientists. The second season adds Black's appeal to the audience to vote by applause (often followed by his yelling that they're wrong). It doesn't really matter which side "wins" and is sentenced to Black's punishment because it's all about the ranting and the riffing. I esp. like Kathleen Madigan and Patton Oswalt (who appear in both seasons) for their intelligence and theatrics. Lewis Black's The Root of All Evil is like Jon Stewart's The Daily Show on steroids. Enjoy! 4.5 stars. (7-9-10)

Lewis Black's Root of All Evil: Season 1 (2008)

Lewis Black makes a great snarling curmudgeon of a comedian who gets really worked up about life's idio(syncra)cies. His game-show-like Root of All Evil show pits two comics against each other as they present the "evidence" and contend as if in court as to which one of two things is the "root of all evil." Each comic presents his or her case and then argues it, with ample space for rejoinders and cloy name-calling. Testimony includes recorded street or personal interviews (for example, asking people on the street whether Samuel Adams is more famous for signing the Constitution or selling beer). Next, Black conducts his own whip-smart Q&A before each comic is asked for a "Ripple of Evil" -- a hyperbolic worst-case scenario for how bad things would get if his or her subject got out of control. Finally, Black pronounces judgment as to which of the following pairs are the greater evil: Oprah vs. the Catholic Church ("If Oprah's followers are not a cult, then we don't know what a cult is"), Viagra vs. Donald Trump ("a stiff dick -- and a stiffer dick"), weed vs. beer, YouTube vs. porn, Paris Hilton vs. Dick Cheney, American Idol vs. High School, Kim Jong Il vs. Tila Tequila, and Las Vegas vs. The Human Body. This edgy show makes for fast-paced, exaggerated, snap-crackle-pop comedy. Though some of the crackle falls flat, it's great fun to hear the arguments. Lewis Black's The Root of All Evil is like Jon Stewart's The Daily Show on steroids. Enjoy! 4.5 stars. (6-17-10 posted 7-9-10)

Starz Studios: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse / The Last Airbender (2010)

This 12-minute but fairly jam-packed Starz Studios featurette gives us extended fresh takes on Twilight: Eclipse (3 min) and The Last Airbender (1 min), followed by a spate of scenes from upcoming 3D movies such as Tron Legacy and The Green Hornet, before returning to previews of Great Directors (.5 min), Love Ranch (.5 min), Waiting for Superman (1.5 min), Cyrus (2.5 min), Inception (1 min), and Dinner for Schmucks (1.5 min). After watching this presentation, I am more interested in seeing every one of these movies -- except for The Last Airbender -- esp. Inception and Dinner for Schmucks. 3.5 stars.

Starz Studios: Toy Story 3 / The A-Team / Cyrus (2010)

This 12-minute Starz Studio featurette gives us a very good taste of Toy Story 3 (4 min), Cyrus (1 min), The A-Team (1.5 min), Jonah Hex (2 min), The Killer Inside Me (.5 min), I Am Love (.5 min), Predators (2 min), and Salt (1.5 min) with the result that I feel more inclined than ever to want to see every one of these movies. 3.5 stars.

Starz Studios: Jonah Hex / Grown Ups / Knight and Day (2010)

This 12-minute Starz Studio featurette presents us with a what's-my-motivation profile of the Bree Tanner character in Twilight Eclipse (2 min) and Josh Brolin on acting with trailer scenes from Jonah Hex (1.5 min), followed by enjoyable previews of Knight and Day (2 min), Restrepo (.5 min), Wild Grass (.5 min), Grown-Ups (2 min), and Toy Story 3 (3 min). 3.5 stars.

Toy Story 3 (2010)

Some may find reason to slight the toymakers but Pixar has never let me down. For its third run out of the toybox, Toy Story 3 proves it still has the whimsy, delight, and genius that make up a Pixar movie -- esp. its stories told from the toys' point of view. "Andy's toys" (as they have been known since Toy Story first entered pop culture and revolutionized computerized animation 15 years ago) are back and more real now -- esp. as they face the reality that Andy is grown and about to leave for college. What will become of them? Does Andy still love them? Do they still have a purpose -- or must they face their end (whatever that may be)? What about their attachment to Andy (who after all has no idea they, with their feelings of love and loyalty, are real)? Woody, Buzz, and the gang have a lot of ground to cover as they wrestle with garbage trucks, daycare toddlers gone wild, and a welcoming but devious cabal of new toys before facing their final destination. The closing moments of the movie are quite touching (in a sweet and hopeful not a sad way); my youngest son and I did not have dry eyes. However, I laughed heartily at Buzz Lightyear's antics in an alternate personality (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui con gran brio) as well as Ken's extensive wardrobe stylings and poofy handwriting. Make no excuses -- see Toy Story 3 if you are at all inclined to do so! I think you'll be pleased with this closing chapter on Andy's toys -- not to mention the new characters as well as new dimensions on the old ones you've always loved. 5 stars. (6-24-10 posted 7-9-10)

The Lost World (1925)

I saw the restored "original" version of The Lost World (106 minutes) at Houston's Discovery Green outdoor film series, accompanied by a superb original soundtrack performed live by Austin's Green Hornet Project. The Lost World is a masterpiece that any film-history, stopmotion, or dinosaur fan should see at least once. It is because of this movie that we have King Kong, Godzilla, and Jurassic Park (albeit also Carnosaur 1, 2, and 3). If you are open to the magic of silent movies, please treat yourself to this show. 3.5 stars.

Land of the Lost (2009)

In his big-screen remake of The Land of the Lost, Will Ferrell plays an amiable crackpot, Dr. Rick Marshall, whose theories for solving all the world's problems involve the harnessing of time warps -- and he would have done it too, if not for that meddling news guy Matt Lauer, who led the rest of the world in laughing Dr. Rick into oblivion. Scoot forward through time (in linear fashion as all mortals must) a decade or so as Rick stumbles across an admiring Cambridge grad who happens to be female, British, and hot -- in the geeky sense that she is a) female, b) British, c) geeky, and d) older and slightly more stylish than Ugly Betty. She agrees to be his field assistant and help prove the worth of his backpack-sized Tachyon Inducer. The best locale turns out to be a deserted tourist trap, where after a few tongue-in-cheek scenes they experience "the greatest earthquake ever known" (as Rick later sings while plucking a banjo in homage to the original TV series' opening sequence) and fall through time and space into The Land of the Lost. In this movie, however, all kinds of artifacts -- from ancient culture to modern kitsch -- find themselves lost in the wasteland -- and the helpful Sleestak is more than he first appears to be. The remake is an admirable reimagining of the TV series and the scenes with the T-Rex are a hoot and a half. Make no mistake, this remake is seriously campy and tongue-in-cheek and Will Ferrell eats it up in low-key fashion. (I like him a lot in this movie and I have rarely liked him in much beyond Elf and Curious George.) Think of a goofier The Librarian: Quest for the Spear or a Scooby Doo live-action movie with slightly more self-respect. Two gross-out scenes involve Rick coating himself in dino pee and dino doodoo but the excretion factor is kept to a minimum (though small kids may wonder about an off-camera scene Rick repeatedly refers to as "tapping that ass"). Aside from that groaner, I laughed a lot and really liked Will Ferrell in this one. The other actors did fine too but the T-Rex showed more personality than perhaps any previous dinosaur and more humans than you'd think in sci-fi filmdom. 4 stars. (10-20-09 posted 7-9-10)