The Wire on HBO really got me thinking about this issue again. I’m wondering if there are any more expensive, less effective strategies than that used by the U.S. government.
Daniel Noll & Audrey Scott are the husband-and-wife storytelling and photography team behind Uncornered Market. They travel deep and off-beat, aiming to connect the world through people, food and adventure. Six years and 75 countries later, they are still going…and still married …
I’m looking at a couple of future Round The World trips right now.
Exactly what I expected. Awesome special effects, crappy plot.
The camera work is mostly handheld, jarring at times.
… Based on 189 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a 15% approval rating from critics …
… A.O. Scott of The New York Times described A Good Day to Die Hard as “a handful of extended set pieces — each more elaborate and therefore somehow less exciting than the last — linked by a simple-minded plot and a handful of half-clever lines. …
That’s true. But the first car chase scene can stand with the best ever filmed, no matter how unrealistic.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave Life of Pi 4 out of 4 stars, referring to it as “a miraculous achievement of storytelling and a landmark of visual mastery” as well as “one of the best films of the year.” He particularly praised the film’s use of 3D that he described as “deepen[ing] the film’s sense of places and events.”
I was enthralled the entire time. The CGI didn’t bother me even once.
… the setting of District 9 is inspired by historical events that took place in South Africa during the apartheid era, with the film’s title particularly alluding to District Six.
District Six, an inner-city residential area in Cape Town, was declared a “whites only” area by the government in 1966, with 60,000 people forcibly removed and relocated to Cape Flats, 25 km (15 mi) away. …
Sony Pictures launched a “Humans Only” marketing campaign to promote District 9. Sony’s marketing team designed its promotional material to emulate the segregational billboards that appear throughout the film. …
The film received very positive reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes reporting that 91% of critics gave the film a positive review …
The film received four Academy Awards nominations … It was also the first mockumentary style film to be nominated for Best Picture. …
I love everything Bill Murray. Predictably, I smiled all the way through this romp.
Hyde Park on Hudson is a 2012 British biographical comedy-drama film directed by Roger Michell. The film stars Bill Murray and Laura Linney as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Margaret (Daisy) Suckley, respectively. It was based on Suckley’s private journals and diaries, discovered after her death, about her love affair with and intimate details about President Franklin D. Roosevelt. …
In June 1939, King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, made a visit to the United States, during which they stayed at President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s country estate in Hyde Park, New York. …
… “Black November” is a drama about Nigeria’s Niger-Delta region. The film is weighing into the 50-year history of western exploitation of the region’s oil resources, local collusion and violent resistance to it.
Nigeria’s Niger Delta region is the world’s third largest wetland but decades of oil drilling have turned it into one of the most oil-polluted places on earth. …
… The film has a cast that include Mickey Rourke, Kim Bassinger, Hakeem Kae-Kazim and Enyinna Nwigwe.
It also features Mbong Amata, Jeta’s wife; his father, Zack and his uncle, Fred. …
… The cinema of Nigeria grew quickly in the 1990s and 2000s to become the second largest film industry in the world in terms of number of annual film productions, placing it ahead of the United States and behind the Indian film industry.
… The average film costs between US$17,000 and US$23,000, is shot on video in just a week—selling up to 150,000–200,000 units nationwide in one day. …
… about “1,200 films are produced in Nigeria annually.” And more and more filmmakers are heading to Nigeria because of “competitive distribution system and a cheap workforce.”
I liked both films. But Lincoln is by far the more important, the more skillful.
It should have won Best Picture.
Lincoln … produced by Steven Spielberg, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as United States President Abraham Lincoln and Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln. The film is based in part on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s biography Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, and covers the final four months of Lincoln’s life …
Lincoln received widespread critical acclaim, with major praise directed to Day-Lewis’ performance. ..
Vincent Edward “Bo” Jackson (born November 30, 1962) is a retired American baseball and football player. He was the first athlete to be named an All-Star in two major American sports, and also won the Heisman Trophy in 1985. …
He also ran a 40-yard dash in 4.12 seconds (hand-timed), which is still the fastest verifiable 40-yard dash time ever recorded at any NFL Combine. …
A (fluke) hip injury in January 1991 ended his football career and severely impaired his professional baseball career. …
He grew up poor and fatherless. And became one of the great success stories of American pro sport.
I saw the most wonderful documentary, You Don’t Know Bo – ESPN Films: 30 for 30.
Clearly one of the most “talented” athletes. Ever.
In the documentary many of his coaches tell that he was un-coachable. Day 1 he could could do … anything he tried. He couldn’t see the point of practice.
Bo will forever be known as a cultural icon and one of the most famous athletes of all time. This film will examine the truths and tall tales that surround Jackson, and how his seemingly impossible feats captured our collective imagination for an all-too-brief moment in time.
… Call me a masochist, but I’ve been getting urges to go back to the frantic subcontinent once again myself. I’ve spent about 12 months there, over the years.
Rick McCharles 