Movie Junction

Christopher McQuarrie has an interesting love-hate relationship with Hollywood. After having won an Academy award for the screenplay of “The Usual Suspects” (1995), he approached various studios for a solo directing project with full artistic control. However, he was repeatedly turned down on his new proposals by studios. After a five-year hiatus, under the Artisan banner he was able to write and direct his first movie, “The Way of the Gun” (2000), only to disappear again for eight years. He is most known for writing screenplays for movies directed by Bryan Singer (“The Usual Suspects,” “X-Men,” “Valkyrie”). Even after directing “The Way of the Gun” and writing, “Valkyrie,” McQuarrie is still searching for that elusive movie he can create on his terms. The story begins with two troublemakers, Longbaugh (Benicio Del Toro) and Parker (Ryan Philippe), on a lookout to make quick money. One day on a trip to a sperm-donation clinic, they overhear a conversation in which the surrogate mo...

I vividly remember the day I first received a DVD copy of the “Frailty.” I think I may have won a contest on a DVD Web site. I am glad I watched the movie and happy to have it now on Blu-ray disc. “Frailty” was hardly profitable during its theatrical run in 2002, but it garnered generally positive reviews. Bill Paxton’s debut directorial effort, “Frailty” was one of the best movies of 2002. I dare say that it is one of the best in the horror genre The story begins with Fenton (Matthew McConaughey) appearing at FBI headquarters claiming to know a killer’s identity and demanding to see the FBI detective, Doyle (Powers Boothe). He claims his brother, Adam (Levi Kreis), is the God’s Hand killer that investigators have been looking for. From that point onward, it becomes a cat-and-mouse game between him and Doyle as he narrates his childhood story. The two young boys, Fenton and Adam, were told by their father (Bill Paxton) one day that the God’s angel had spoken to him about slayin...

Co-written by Shane Black, who also wrote “Lethal Weapon” (1987) and “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” (2006), “The Monster Squad” (1987) over the years has developed into something of a cult classic. Upon its initial theatrical release, “The Monster Squad” bombed at the box-office, earning a meager $4 million on a budget of $12 million. As a result, “The Monster Squad” was only released in a VHS edition for home video, not until much later on DVD.  In 2007, to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the movie’s release, Lionsgate finally issued an elaborate two-disc edition that was long overdue (since the DVD format was launched in 1997). Now, Lionsgate with the Blu-ray release of “The Monster Squad” has given its fans a chance to experience this cult classic in hi-def. The story is straightforward. Count Dracula comes back from the dead to retrieve an ancient amulet that will give him more powers. However, he only has until midnight to execute his plans. In order to fulfill his rogue ...

Criterion set up a voting mechanism for the first time in April, 2009, through the Amazon.com Web site asking its fans to vote for a future Blu-ray release.  Five titles were up for the vote:  Louis Malle’s “Au Revoir Les Enfants” (1987) , Jim Jarmusch’s “Down by Law” (1986), James Ivory’s “Howards End” (1992), Masaki Kobayashi’s “Kwaidan” (1964), and Peter Weir’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock” (1975).  As a fan of Peter Weir’s works, I voted for “Picnic at Hanging Rock.”  So when “Howard’s End” was selected as the final choice, I was crushed.  I thought “Picnic at Hanging Rock” was in need of a proper restoration and it not getting selected meant there was no special-edition release in the foreseeable future.  To me, “Howard’s End” was an odd final choice, nevertheless…. I was introduced to the world of Merchant-Ivory films when I saw “Shakespeare Wallah” (1965), “The Guru” (1969), and “Bombay Talkie” (1970).  One can conclude that their filmmaking caree...

Bella Fleck is a well-known American banjo artist who has won nine Grammy awards. More so, he has been nominated in more categories than any other artist in the history of Grammy nominations. Sascha Paladino’s documentary “Throw Down Your Heart” is an adventure trip that Bella and his crew undertake to various countries in Africa to understand the heritage of the African Banjo and its influence on the music community. Moreover, it is Bella’s quest to reach out to musicians at the grassroots level to produce new music. The first destination on the trip is a remote village, Jinja, in Uganda, a country in the Eastern region of Africa sharing its borders with Kenya and Tanzania. Here Bella meets a local musician and the two of them jam for a few minutes, where the latter uses a unique violin-like instrument. Soon after, he is welcomed by his friend, Haruna Walusimbi, who takes him to a village named Nakisenyi for another jamming session. On reaching the village of Nakisenyi, Bella wit...

Before watching the John Huston’s “The Dead” (1987), the same day I watched a Bollywood movie, Ashwin Kumar’s “Road to Ladakh.”  After watching “The Dead,” I realized both movies had striking similarities.  First, both movies have short run times, “The Dead” running about sixty-five minutes (excluding the credits) and “Road to Ladakh” running about forty-five minutes.  Second, the only thing you remember about these movies is their ending.  Of course, that does not say much about either of the movies. “The Dead” was John Huston’s last directorial effort, and the studio released it posthumously.  Huston created a ton of classics in his first decade of directing with “The Maltese Falcon” (1941), “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1946), and “The African Queen” (1951) that have managed to rank high in the list of critics around the world.  Although he continued to make good films, his later filmmaking efforts did not match the earlier efforts in his firs...