Movie Review – The Limey (1999)
by NIR SHALEV
Wilson (Terence Stamp) is a Cockney Brit, a career criminal, and a gangster who was released from prison after serving a nine year stretch. He receives a letter in the mail that contains a newspaper clipping, one claiming that a certain young woman died in a car crash in the hills of Mulholland Dr. He believes the young lady mentioned to be his daughter Jenny (Melissa George) and he flies to L.A. to find out the truth. He has questions he needs answered: was Jenny murdered or was it really an accident? And if she was murdered, who killed her? Read more 
DVD of the Week – “Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu” Box Set
by HELEN GEIB
Today’s DVD pick is a box set of four films directed by Hiroshi Shimizu and released by Criterion under its Eclipse label. The Criterion website describes Shimizu as one of the most respected and today, least well known of the Japanese directors who made names for themselves in the 1930s, the heyday of the studio system. Attesting to the accuracy of the second half of that description, I had not heard of Shimizu until recently and I have yet to see any of his films. What I have read of his work, especially David Bordwell’s lengthy blog post about this set, makes me anxious to change that. Read more
Movie Review – The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)
by HELEN GEIB
The Taking of Pelham 123 is the fourth film from the director-actor team of Tony Scott and Denzel Washington; their prior collaborations were Crimson Tide (1995), Man on Fire (2004), and Déjà vu (2006). The film co-stars John Travolta. John Turturro, Luis Guzman, and James Gandolfini lead the supporting cast. The film is based on a novel by John Godey that was previously adapted by Hollywood in 1974. The script is by Brian Helgeland; LA Confidential, Mystic River, and Man on Fire top the list of his roughly 10 major screenplay credits. The story is set in the subway tunnels and on the streets of New York City and the evidence on the screen proves the filmmakers had the budget they needed to create convincing sets and film on-location. Read more
Thinking Outside the Multiplex
by MIKE MACCOLLUM
Music, of some sort or another, is the coincidental unifying theme of the three small scale releases opening on big screens in and around Indianapolis this week. There’s a documentary on a Canadian metal band that never hit the big time, another doc on one of the biggest Broadway hits of all time, and a romantic comedy about an Elvis impersonator who finds love with a waitress. Further afield, Harrison Ford’s star power (even combined with Ashley Judd and Ray Liotta) couldn’t bring Crossing Over to theater screens in Indy (or many other cities), but it does open in at least one Indiana theater late this week. Read on for more details along with a summary of what will be bypassing our fair city (for this week, at least), a brief preview of what’s scheduled for next week, AND a question for anyone out there reading this: What would YOU like to see on the big screen in Indianapolis? Read more
Movie Review – The Hit (1984)
by NIR SHALEV
Willie Parker (Terence Stamp) is a British gangster who honestly believes that squealing on his colleagues and boss is the right thing to do. We see him in the courtroom acting high and mighty and his ex-friends begin to sing We’ll Meet Again; they sing the lines with glee: “don’t know when, don’t know where.” We then see him living in Spain ten years later. Although a Spanish cop follows him around for protection, Willie is too relaxed. In fact, he’s so relaxed that he speeds ahead on his bicycle and runs right into an ambush. He is kidnapped and thrown into a car. When the sack is lifted from his head he sees two British hit men pointing guns at him. Read more
Movie Review – The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
by NIR SHALEV
Four men hijack a New York City subway train with pistols hidden within their overcoats. When one of them produces a machine gun, the hostages begin to laugh. Another criminal produces a machine gun and no one laughs anymore. The train is driven into a tunnel but only its first compartment containing 17 hostages. Read more
Thinking Outside the Multiplex
by MIKE MACCOLLUM
Great gallopin’ gosharootie, gang! For the teeming multitudes demanding information on lesser-known, hard-to-find films playing this week around Indianapolis and elsewhere in Indiana, read on for this week’s thrilling installment! And yes, it is a wee bit late again this week, but ye humble author recently received a replacement power cord for his computer. This means he won’t have to rely on library computers and their limited hours in future weeks, and he’ll be able to get these things in on time… barring unforeseen calamities, of course. Also, if any odd turns of phrase should appear in this week’s column, Mr. MacCollum hopes you will forgive him. He recently saw the early 70s oddity Psyched by the 4-D Witch on DVD, and his poor brain is still recovering. If you’ve seen this one yourself, you’ll understand….
Adaptation – The multi-part video installation continues at The Indianapolis Museum of Art. For more information, go to the IMA’s website.
American Harmony – In past columns, I have griped about movies that open in other cities and bypass Indianapolis. But here is a movie that is playing in Indy before it opens in most other cities – and it sounds like it is well worth seeing. According to the film’s official site, this documentary about a barbershop harmony singing competition has been an official selection at several film festivals, winning an award at one of them. American Harmony is playing this week at Landmark’s Keystone Arts. Read more
Hollywood Releases Preview – June, 2009
by HELEN GEIB
Hollywood’s June lineup is heavy on comedy of various stripes – parodic, romantic, family-friendly, obnoxious, unintentional. Okay that last one is just a guess, but you have to admit the reviews for Transformers don’t inspire confidence in its sequel. In better news, Denzel Washington has a new movie and it looks like it’ll be a good one. Read on for the full list of this month’s multiplex releases.
June 5
The Hangover – You know how sometimes you see the same trailer over and over and it makes you wonder what it says about your taste in movies that the marketing people have you pegged as the target demographic? Read more
Movie Review – My Life in Ruins (2009)
by HELEN GEIB
The heroine of the romantic-comedy My Life in Ruins is a tour guide for a cut-rate package tour company in Greece. Georgia (Nia Vardalos, My Big Fat Greek Wedding), an American of Greek descent who lives unhappily in Athens, is a classics scholar who has lost her university teaching position and sees her tourism-industry job as slumming. The bad attitude that makes her a lousy guide is on full display in an early scene of Georgia complaining to her boss that all tourists fall into readily identifiable categories, pretty nearly all of them obnoxious. Her diatribe doubles as an introduction of the members of the tour group and company bus driver who are the other main characters. Read more
DVD of the Week – Disc Commentary Track for Oldboy (2003)
by NIR SHALEV
The premise is simple: while in a drunken rage Oh Dae-su is kidnapped from the streets of Seoul and thrown into a room to be imprisoned without knowing why or by whom, or for how long. After 15 years he is suddenly released back into the world with a fresh suit and shades, a cell phone and revenge on his mind; he wants to find the perpetrator and kill him. But the mastermind behind it all is wondering whether Oh Dae-su actually cares as to why he had him imprisoned. So begins a classic tale of revenge that received a five minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival back in 2003. Read more