This is Bill Chambers's Typepad Profile.
Join Typepad and start following Bill Chambers's activity
Bill Chambers
Recent Activity
Roger Dodger (2002) - DVD
***½/**** Image A Sound A- Extras A starring Campbell Scott, Jesse Eisenberg, Mina Badie, Jennifer Beals written and directed by Dylan Kidd by Bill Chambers There's a clever moment in Roger Dodger destined to slip past viewers that underscores the precision with which the film was conceptualized. Roger (Campbell Scott), the lady-killer whose nickname (which he shares with the stooge in Sidney Lumet's Q&A) lends the picture its title, walks up to one of the glass walls of a meeting room inside his workplace to communicate with two colleagues on the other side--one of whom sticks the word "incubator" to his own forehead just as the scene cuts. Coming on the heels of a prologue in which Roger has demonstrated his persuasive albeit highly misogynistic grasp of sexual politics to his dazzled peers, this tableau is the movie in a nutshell: With a man of such confidence around, all others are hatchlings hanging on his tutelage. The film is subsequently about Roger passing a certain torch to his visiting 16-year-old nephew, Nick (Jesse Eisenberg), and Nick fighting his moral instinct to extinguish it, as when he practices Roger's art of seduction on a couple of bar-hopping older women played by... Continue reading
Posted 2 days ago at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
New on Our Patreon
Posted 3 days ago at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Elvis (2022)
Posted 5 days ago at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) - DVD
**/**** Image A- Sound B starring Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo screenplay by Frank Oz and Tom Patchett & Jay Tarses directed by Frank Oz by Bill Chambers The third and final Muppet feature to which the dearly departed Jim Henson contributed, The Muppets Take Manhattan is a hodgepodge of terminally '80s show tunes and ill-considered plotting that ransacks The Muppet Movie's basic premise--colourful nobodies seeking stardom--while gutting it of its thematic resonances, including the power of interracial harmony, i.e., "the Rainbow Connection." What we're left with is something that sparks but never ignites; The Muppets Take Manhattan is a Muppet film largely without Muppets save Kermit the Frog, and when you get right down to it, Kermit is only as interesting as his sparring partner. Like most leading men, he's handsome but a bit of a blank slate. Retooling the Muppet mythology once again, The Muppets Take Manhattan begins at a community college, where Kermit and co. are performing a self-scripted revue called "Manhattan Melodies." The audience response is encouraging (it is indeed above-average for community-college students), but the Broadway producers to whom they subsequently pitch the show are considerably less receptive. Feeling like a burden... Continue reading
Posted 7 days ago at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (1980/2006) - DVD
Posted Jun 17, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
The Mummy Returns (2001) [Collector's Edition (Widescreen)] - DVD
*/**** Image A Sound A+ Extras B- starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo written and directed by Stephen Sommers by Bill Chambers The Mummy Returns reminds me of a little film called The Mummy. Actually, it made me think of Trail of the Pink Panther, which was assembled from outtakes of other Inspector Clouseau movies due to star Peter Sellers expiring before, it would seem, his contract did. The Mummy Returns is all but a patchwork quilt made up of, if not leftover scenes, then scrap ideas. In The Mummy, a looming face of swirling sand pursued our hero; in The Mummy Returns, it materializes from a waterfall. The kind of production for which the writing credit should probably read "cocktail napkin by," The Mummy Returns fails to distinguish itself from the undistinguished original. Why are they both superhits? Like the original, this second Mummy is full of unpersuasive special effects, pulse-less characters, connect-the-dots action, and sand, so much sand that when it's over you reach for the Visine. If these films were half as enchanting as their respective trailers, I'd get it, and I get that those previews put bodies in seats, yet word of mouth... Continue reading
Posted Jun 17, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Zachariah (1971) - DVD
**½/**** Image A- Sound A- starring John Rubinstein, Pat Quinn, Don Johnson, Country Joe and the Fish screenplay by Joe Massot and Philip Austin and Peter Bergman, David Ossman, Philip Proctor (known as Firesign Theatre) directed by George Englund by Travis Mackenzie Hoover Think back with me, for a moment, to a bygone era when rock was strange: a hippie-descending, proto-glam period when the buzz was off the love generation but a bumbling mystic energy remained--when record producers were getting into bed with the likes of Alejandro Jodorowsky and Mick Jagger could be seen in the gender-bending gangster drama Performance. It was a self-aggrandizing, frequently ridiculous time, but it had a tolerance for eccentricity that's impossible to find in our Britneyfied MTV age and for which I can only be wistfully nostalgic. Lacking both the money and the conceptual force to fully realize its acid-western ambitions, Zachariah isn't even close to being the quintessential flashback to those days (it may in fact simply be cashing in on a trend), but its half-flubbed attempts at pop-surrealism seem a tonic now that the mainstream pop landscape is largely imagined by accountants. Zachariah (John Rubenstein), a decidedly unmanly young man, buys a revolver... Continue reading
Posted Jun 15, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Six Feet Under: The Complete First Season (2001) - DVD
Posted Jun 15, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Revenge of the Nerds/Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise [Fox Double Feature] - DVD
REVENGE OF THE NERDS (1984) ***½/**** Image A- Sound B+ starring Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards, Ted McGinley, Bernie Casey screenplay by Steve Zacharias & Jeff Buhai directed by Jeff Kanew REVENGE OF THE NERDS II: NERDS IN PARADISE (1987) ½*/**** Image A- Sound B+ starring Robert Carradine, Curtis Armstrong, Bradley Whitford, Courtney Thorne-Smith screenplay by Dan Guntzelman & Steve Marshall directed by Joe Roth by Bill Chambers One's great, the other ain't, and that's the truth, Ruth. Revenge of the Nerds, too often lumped in with the T&A comedies that flanked its theatrical release (Up the Creek, Porky's Revenge, et al.), is a cinematic gem of exemplary construction--one of the best, most empathetic teen movies with which John Hughes was not affiliated. Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise, alas, sequelizes the trashy rep of its predecessor rather than the reality. Revenge of the Nerds opens with Gilbert Lowe (Anthony Edwards) and Lewis Skolnick (Robert Carradine) heading off to Adams College for the first time. Conversation on the drive down with Mr. Skolnick (James "Jamie" Cromwell, a decade before an Oscar nomination altered his career trajectory; every role in Revenge of the Nerds on down to Alice Hirson's sympathetic... Continue reading
Posted Jun 14, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
The Trouble with Harry (1955) - 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital Code
Posted Jun 13, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
Posted Jun 9, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Six Days Seven Nights (1998) - DVD
**/**** Image B+ Sound A- starring Harrison Ford, Anne Heche, David Schwimmer, Jacqueline Obradors screenplay by Michael Browning directed by Ivan Reitman by Bill Chambers Still smarting from back-to-back high-profile failures (the Arnie-gets-pregnant comedy Junior and the Billy Crystal/Robin Williams team-up Father's Day), director Ivan Reitman needed a hit, badly. In casting Six Days Seven Nights, he took out the closest thing to a living insurance policy you will find in Hollywood: Harrison Ford. For Ford's co-star and the female lead, he chose Anne Heche, who's spent a few years in the trenches (best friend and wife roles) gaining traction as the next Meg Ryan. Then Ford seemed to go through a mid-life crisis, sporting an earring and a hip new look on the talk-show circuit that felt like a rejection of his stoic image and the fans thereof. And Heche came out as a lesbian in a public declaration of love for Ellen DeGeneres. It created a lot of static for both their performances and audiences to overcome, yielding Reitman's third flop in a row. Does this mean Six Days Seven Nights is some buried treasure you'd be lucky to discover at the video store? Not really, because the... Continue reading
Posted Jun 7, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Shadow of a Doubt (1943) - 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital Code
Posted Jun 6, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Crimes of the Future (2022)
Posted Jun 3, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Michael Jordan to the Max (2000) - DVD
**/**** Image A Sound A+ Extras B narrated by Laurence Fishburne directed by James D. Stern and Don Kempf by Bill Chambers "Up close some heroes get even bigger." If I ever get around to compiling the 2000 Billy Awards, look for the above to receive "Worst Tagline." Belonging to the IMAX release Michael Jordan to the Max, it's fascinating copy all the same, at once the technically true and false advertising--the latter in terms of both execution and the film's home-video destiny. Do take my criticisms below with a grain of salt: I don't know basketball from cantaloupes, and I've never subscribed to the theory that Jordan is so iconic that he transcends sports, race, gender, even team partisanship. His cushioned shoes, maybe. Michael Jordan to the Max is one of the odder pieces of propaganda out there. Bloated with affectations of hype, it doesn't actually have anything to sell. Its only aim seems to be to keep Jordan in the public consciousness now that he's hung up his jersey--the Simple Minds song "Don't You (Forget About Me)" would've made an appropriate theme. It's too soon to fret that we won't remember Jordan's myriad accomplishments: kids half my 26... Continue reading
Posted Jun 1, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Mad God: An Interview with Phil Tippett
Posted Jun 1, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Gummo (1997) - DVD
***/**** Image A- Sound A Extras C starring Linda Manz, Max Perlich, Jacob Reynolds, Chloe Sevigny written and directed by Harmony Korine by Walter Chaw Xenia, Ohio, America's middle-of-nowhere, is imagined by Harmony Korine (Kids) as the quintessence of Grant Wood's slightly canted take on the gothic at the heart of the mundane. It's a town out of step, recovering from a tornado which, an opening narration tells us, left people dead, cats and dogs dead, and houses ripped apart. In Gummo, his directorial debut, one of the tasks Korine sets for himself is detailing the psychological damage wrought on Xenia by two different forces of nature: the lingering emotional fallout from the almost-forgotten tornado; and the tragedy of being born with no advantageous DNA in an ever-diminishing gene pool. The characters in Gummo constantly engage in nihilistic reenactments of tragedies past: murdering cats, fighting one another, huffing glue, coupling desperately, and, in one especially surreal sequence, wrestling a chair. It's a keen and discomfiting chronicle of the fugue of frustrated aggressions seeking to redress themselves through sadistic action. More disturbing than any physical violence or petty cruelty, however, are the instances in Gummo in which creatures clearly unable to... Continue reading
Posted May 31, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
25 Candles: Film Freak Central Turns the Quarter-Century Mark
Posted May 31, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Jackie Chan's First Strike (1996) + Rush Hour (1998) [New Line Platinum Series] - DVDs
First Strike **½/**** Image B Sound A- starring Jackie Chan, Chen Chun Wu, Jackson Lou screenplay by Stanley Tong, Nick Tramontane, Greg Mellott, and Elliot Tong directed by Stanley Tong RUSH HOUR *½/**** Image A Sound A Extras A+ starring Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Tom Wilkinson, Elizabeth Peña screenplay by Jim Kouf and Ross LaManna directed by Brett Ratner by Bill Chambers Early on in Rush Hour, the smash-hit buddy-cop movie from last fall, there's a shot of Jackie Chan clinging tenaciously to a Hollywood street sign as he dangles several feet above the L.A. traffic. It's a powerful metaphor for Chan's career: Rush Hour represents his last-ditch effort to become a Stateside action star after finally finding a measure of Hollywood success with the popularity of HK imports like Rumble in the Bronx and Supercop. (Indeed, Chan includes said image in the colour stills portion of his autobiography I Am Jackie Chan, annotated by this caption: "On the set of Rush Hour--hanging on to another chance at Hollywood success.") This final gamble, after striking out in the early-'80s with Cannonball Run II and The Big Brawl, his English-language debut, paid off handsomely. But why? Maybe it was the teaming... Continue reading
Posted May 29, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Posted May 27, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Saboteur (1942) - 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital Code
Posted May 22, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Under the Cherry Moon (1986); Graffiti Bridge (1990); Purple Rain (1984) [Two-Disc Special Edition] - DVDs|Purple Rain - Blu-ray Disc
UNDER THE CHERRY MOON ***/**** Image B+ Sound B+ starring Prince, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jerome Benton, Steven Berkoff screenplay by Becky Johnston directed by Prince GRAFFITI BRIDGE */**** Image A- Sound B+ starring Prince, Morris Day, Jerome Benton & The Time, Jill Jones written and directed by Prince by Travis Mackenzie Hoover There's something cinematic about the artist known as Prince, and it's not just his effeminate charisma (though there's that) or his flair for theatre (though there's that, too): The whole sensual package that is his deliciously weird sensibility--a blend of satin-laced fetishism and self-loving exhibitionism--all but cries out to be photographed. The question is, was The Artist himself filmmaker enough to bring that to the screen? Making for a split decision are the two films that bear his directorial stamp, both of which have finally hit DVD. In one corner stands Under the Cherry Moon, a savagely-underrated romance that suggests that with someone else's script, he's got the right stuff; in the other corner sits Graffiti Bridge, a grotesque white elephant that suggests Prince left to his own devices turns from funk idol into sadly inebriated schoolgirl. First, the good news: Under the Cherry Moon manages to capture... Continue reading
Posted May 21, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Scream (2022) - Blu-ray + Digital Code
Posted May 17, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Film Freak Central Does Hot Docs 2002 Canadian International Documentary Festival - Filmmaker Discussion: History and Innovation
The Revival, Toronto|The more I listen to documentarians, the less I trust the documentary. The line that separates fact from fiction and reportage from drama is so fine that it frequently disappears altogether; even the best-intentioned filmmaker is under pressure to give shape to something that is essentially formless, and in so doing leaves out much essential information. The directors on today's panel, which deals with the vagaries of representing the past for the present, did their best to downplay the dangers of such a situation, but their words kept raising more questions than they answered, and I walked out of Revival even more leery of the form than I was going in. One problem, as Bill Weber pointed out, is that people's memories are often subjective--the interviewees of his film The Cockettes frequently contradicted each other as they remembered the drag troupe/commune of which they were members. The filmmaker is often in the position of sorting out what to believe, if anything--a process that requires great care. Furthermore, the filmmaker is often in the position of speaking for people who can't speak for themselves, such as the dead: Brenda Longfellow spoke of how she used diaries and actors to... Continue reading
Posted May 17, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
Film Freak Central Does Hot Docs 2002 Canadian International Documentary Festival - The Opening Press Conference
The Revival, Toronto, April 8|The swellegant club/restaurant Revival, with its yellow-brick interiors and Japanese-paper chandeliers, was the appropriately modern setting for the unveiling of the 2002 Hot Docs festival line-up. As the press gallery filtered in (after a stop at the food table), the programmers gravitated towards the mic and announced program highlights culled from the 104 documentaries on offer in their expanded ten-day event, which runs from April 26th to May 5th. Of special interest amongst the programs is the retrospective of Inuit director Zacharias Kunuk. A wide body of short works that document, and hope to strengthen, the Inuit way of life represents Kunuk, who shot to fame after winning the Camera d'Or at last year's Cannes festival. Included is the acclaimed Quaggiq ("Gathering Place"), which centres on negotiations between two families on a marriage, and Nipi ("Voice"), which explores, on the eve of Nunavut's birth, the challenges faced in asserting Inuit control over the region. Also attending the festival is vérité master Frederick Wiseman. Wiseman achieved notoriety through his suppressed asylum documentary Titicut Follies and quickly established himself as a constant and controversial eye on various institutions and social systems in such films as Welfare, Juvenile Court,... Continue reading
Posted May 16, 2022 at Film Freak Central
Comment
0
More...
Subscribe to Bill Chambers’s Recent Activity