"Woman Thou Art Loosed" Stirring, Powerful

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 40 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux


Woman Thou Art Loosed (2004)
Running time: 99 minutes (1 hour, 39 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence, sexual content, and drug use
DIRECTOR: Michael Schultz
WRITER: Stan Foster (from the novel by T.D. Jakes)
PRODUCER: Reuben Cannon
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Reinhart “Rayteam” Peschke
EDITOR: Billy Fox
Black Reel Award winner

DRAMA/RELIGIOUS

Starring: Kimberly Elise, Loretta Devine, Debbi Morgan, Michael Boatman, Clifton Powell, Idalis DeLeon, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Sean Blackmore, Jordan Moseley, Philip Daniel Bolden, Destiny Edmond, and Ricky Harris

The subject of this movie review is Woman Thou Art Loosed, a 2004 religiously-themed drama that is directed by famed African-American filmmaker, Michael Schultz. The film is an adaptation of the 1994 self-help book of the same name.

Woman Thou Art Loosed, adapted from Bishop T.D. Jakes best-selling self-help book for women, begins with Michelle Jordan (Kimberly Elise) committing a murder at a revival. Later, Bishop T.D. Jakes (playing himself) visits Michelle on death row. Told through flashbacks, we then see Michelle, just released from prison and determined not to return to her self-destructive life of drugs, stripping, and prostitution, struggle with the demons of her past, including being molested by her mother Cassey’s (Loretta Devine) boyfriend, Reggie (Clifton Powell). At the encouragement of Twana (Debbi Morgan), a family friend, Michelle begins attending Bishop Jakes’ three-day revival, the scene of Michelle’s ultimate tragedy. Can Bishop Jakes help Michelle to accept the healing power of Jesus’ love?

Woman Thou Art Loosed is a beautiful and spiritually engaging film. What it lacks in refinement and technique, it makes up for with religious fervor. Directed by Michael Shultz (Cooley High and Car Wash among others), who was probably the only black film director to consistently direct movies during the 1970’s and 80’s, the film is mostly disjointed for the first half of its running time. Actually, the film is quite hard to follow for the first 20 minutes or so, but then the narrative seems to miraculously come together and flows smoothly the rest of the way. The tragedy of the film is that the script, which tells a very good and compelling story, is short of characterization and character development. Rich characters fill this story, but we only get a taste of them, just enough to irritate because the story doesn’t give more.

What makes this clunky movie soar is Kimberly Elise’s brilliant and searing portrayal of Michelle, young woman who seemingly can’t stop making bad decisions once her innocence is destroyed when she is a child. Ms. Elise has a magnetic screen presence and her performance as a young woman with trials and tribulations is much truer than Oscar winner Hilary Swank’s tepid routine as a trailer trash boxer in Million Dollar Baby. Also stirring is the ministry and preaching of Bishop Jakes.

Though there are moments in the film when the revival seems a bit over the top, 80 percent of the time, it is awe-inspiring and stirs the soul and awakens the intellect. Bishop Jakes’ message of hope and Ms. Elise’s performance, as well as the other actors who give excellent supporting performances in spite of a limp script, make this a fine religious drama. What it lacks as art, Woman Thou Art Loosed makes up for with spirit and hope.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2005 Black Reel Awards: 2 wins: “Best Actress, Independent Film” (Kimberly Elise) and “Best Director, Independent Film” (Michael Schultz); 2 nominations: “Best Actor, Independent Film” (Clifton Powell) and “Best Independent Film” (Reuben Cannon)

2005 Image Awards: 1 win: “Outstanding Independent or Foreign Film;” 2 nominees: “Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture” (Kimberly Elise) and “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture” (Loretta Devine)

TNT and Dark Horse Announce "Falling Skies: Season 2" Comics

DARK HORSE DIGITAL and TNT Partner for Season Two FALLING SKIES COMIC

TNT and Dark Horse Comics have partnered again for the Falling Skies season two digital comic. The comic will be available beginning April 18 on FallingSkies.com and Dark Horse Digital. TNT’s epic drama Falling Skies, basic cable’s number-one new series of last year, chronicles the chaotic aftermath of an alien attack that has left most of the world completely incapacitated. Season two will premiere with back-to-back episodes on Sunday, June 17, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT).

Dark Horse Comics began working with TNT over a year ago, publishing a free webcomic prequel to Falling Skies. The inaugural comic quickly sold out and was a fan favorite in advance of the series premiere. The upcoming digital comic series, Falling Skies: The Battle of Fitchburg, chronicles what happens to the Second Mass in the three months between when season one ends and season two picks up. With an army of skitters closing in, and the group sustaining heavy losses, the Second Mass shields itself in an armory in Fitchburg ready to finish the battle once and for all. Falling Skies: The Battle of Fitchburg will be released as free eight-page, biweekly comics featuring art by Juan Ferreyra (Rex Mundi) and scripts by Paul Tobin (Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four, Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man). Fans can get a sneak peek of the animated trailer by visiting EW’s Shelf Life!

This season will continue its extraordinary story about life and survival in the wake of a catastrophic alien invasion. Noah Wyle (ER) stars as Tom Mason, a former college professor and father of three, who has become an unlikely leader for the Second Massachusetts civilian resistance group. Falling Skies comes to TNT from DreamWorks Television and is executive produced by Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks Television heads Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank. Remi Aubuchon, Greg Beeman, and Robert Rodat are also executive producers. Fans can find the latest Falling Skies news online at FallingSkies.com and via @FallingSkiesTNT on Twitter.

In its debut season, TNT’s Falling Skies averaged more than 6.9 million viewers, 3.3 million adults 18–49 and 3.7 million adults 25–54 to rank as basic cable’s number-one new series of 2011. On the international front, Falling Skies premiered in more than 115 global markets, achieving hit status in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Latin America, among others. The premiere of Falling Skies also ranks as the biggest series launch ever for TNT networks in Spain, Germany, and Austria.


About TNT
TNT, one of cable’s top-rated networks, is television’s destination for drama. Seen in 99 million households, the network is home to such original series as The Closer, starring Emmy® winner Kyra Sedgwick; Rizzoli & Isles, starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander; Falling Skies, starring Noah Wyle; Franklin & Bash, with Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer; Leverage, starring Timothy Hutton; and Southland, from Emmy-winning producer John Wells, as well as the upcoming series Major Crimes, Dallas, Perception and The Great Escape. TNT also is the cable home to powerful dramas like The Mentalist, Bones, Supernatural, Las Vegas, Law & Order, CSI: NY, Cold Case and, starting this year, Castle; primetime specials, such as the Screen Actors Guild Awards®; blockbuster movies; and championship sports coverage, including NASCAR, the NBA and the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. TNT is available in high-definition.

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news; entertainment; animation and young adult; and sports media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.

About Dark Horse Comics
Since 1986, Dark Horse Comics has proven to be a solid example of how integrity and innovation can help broaden a unique storytelling medium and establish a small, homegrown company as an industry giant. The company is known for the progressive and creator-friendly atmosphere it provides for writers and artists. In addition to publishing comics from top talent like Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Neil Gaiman, Gerard Way, Will Eisner, and best-selling prose author Janet Evanovich, Dark Horse has developed such successful characters as the Mask, Timecop, and the Occultist. Additionally, its highly successful line of comics and products based on popular properties includes Star Wars, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Aliens, Conan the Barbarian, Mass Effect, Serenity, and Domo. Today, Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent comic-book publisher in the United States and is recognized as both an innovator in the cause of creator rights and the comics industry’s leading publisher of licensed material.

Paramount Pictures Announces Release Date for "The Dictator"

THE DICTATOR, will open on Wednesday, May 16, 2012.

Review: "Strange Brew" is a Strange Blend (Hapy B'day, Max von Sydow)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 89 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


The Adventures of Bob and Doug Mckenzie: Strange Brew (1983)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada
Running time: 90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes)
MPAA – PG
DIRECTORS: Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas
WRITERS: Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas and Steve De Jarnatt
PRODUCERS: Louis M. Silverstein
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Steven Poster
EDITOR: Patrick McMahon

COMEDY with elements of sci-fi

Starring: Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis, Max von Sydow, Paul Dooley, Lynne Griffin, Angus MacInnes, Tom Harvey, Douglas Campbell, Brian McConnachie, Len Doncheff, and Mel Blanc (voice)

The subject of this movie review is The Adventures of Bob and Doug Mckenzie: Strange Brew, a 1983 Canadian comedy film. Also widely known as Strange Brew, the film stars Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas (who also both direct the film) and features Max von Sydow as a villain.

Brothers Bob (Rick Moranis) and Doug Mckenzie (Dave Thomas) are two beer-guzzling Canadians who luck upon a goldmine – an unlimited supply of beer – when they land jobs at the Elsinore Beer brewery. However, the two “hosers,” end up helping the beautiful Pam Elsinore save the brewery from her conniving Uncle Claude Elsinore (Paul Dooley) and the diabolical Brewmaster Smith (Max von Sydow), who plans on using his own concoction, a strange brew of Elsinore Beer to control the world. Hijinks ensue in this very loose, nutty, and slightly surreal reworking of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

The Adventures of Bob and Doug Mckenzie: Strange Brew or just Strange Brew (for the movie’s American release) was born out of a skit, “The Great White North” that appeared on “SCTV,” (1976-84) a Canadian sketch comedy television series that also aired in the U.S. (1981-85). The skit featured Bob and Doug, two brothers meant to parody Canadian culture. Eventually, Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas’ characters actually became icons of the very culture they were mocking, and the “brothers” appeared in commercials and made cameo appearances on TV and in films. Before the act’s popularity faded, they also released two comedy albums, The Great White North: Bob and Doug Mckenzie and The Great White North: Strange Brew. Moranis and Thomas also played a variation of Bob and Doug when they provided the voices of the characters “Tuke and Root,” talking moose in the 2003 Disney animated feature, Brother Bear.

The SCTV skit also became the movie Strange Brew, which is unabashedly one of those intentionally “stupid movies” that are supposed to illicit laughter because they’re actually funny in their stupidity. Strange Brew is sometimes hilarious, often funny, and mostly entertaining. Actually, it is a bit surreal – almost a mixture of comedy and light drama – a farcical thriller. It’s a strange comedy/sci-fi/horror blend like Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Strange Brew has long had cult status, and it’s a must see for serious fans of film comedies. The brothers are likeable, and the supporting cast is decent and also notable for an appearance by famed actor, Swedish-born actor, Max von Sydow.

6 of 10
B

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Review: "The Day After Tomorrow" is Still Relevant and Entertaining (Happy B'day, Dennis Quaid)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 83 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Running time: 124 minutes (2 hours, 4 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense situations of peril
DIRECTOR: Roland Emmerich
WRITERS: Jeffrey Nachmanoff and Roland Emmerich; from a story by Roland Emmerich
PRODUCERS: Roland Emmerich and Mark Gordon
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Ueli Steiger (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: David Brenner
COMPOSERS: Harald Kloser and Thomas Wanker
BAFTA winner

ACTION/ADVENTURE/DRAMA/FANTASY/SCI-FI/THRILLER


Starring: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy Rossum, Dash Mihok, Jay O. Sanders, Sela Ward, Austin Nichols, Arjay Smith, Tamlyn Tomita, Ian Holm, Kenneth Welsh, and Perry King

The subject of this movie review is The Day After Tomorrow, the 2004 science fiction and environmental disaster film from director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day). Released by 20th Century Fox, the film is an ensemble drama about people trying to survive a new ice age brought upon by abrupt global warming. The character that is the main focus is a climatologist who is determined to save his son who is trapped in a frozen New York City.

A crack paleoclimatologist, Professor Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid), discovers that the Ice Age is coming back with a vengeance in director Roland  Emmerich’s hip retro cool disaster film, The Day After Tomorrow. Mixing such controversial concepts as the green house effect, global warming, and modern super SFX, the film is truly the movie as roller coaster ride.

After this new Ice Age hits the northern hemisphere with almost unimaginable fury, especially New York City, Hall begins a dangerous track across the frozen face of the northeastern U.S. to reach his son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal), who is trapped in NYC with a group of fellow students. Meanwhile, the freak weather is tearing half the planet apart.

Although many critics and detractors will cry over the film’s allegedly implausible concept, the important question is always, “Is it good.” Hell, yeah, it’s good. It’s a big, old giant tub of popcorn movie fun. The Day After Tomorrow is also a finely constructed drama and thriller with that just right touch of melodrama that stays one notch below over the top, which is just enough to pull at the old heartstrings. It’s exciting. It’s thrilling. It’s a damn good time at the movies.

Roland Emmerich reaffirms what his film Independence Day hinted – he’s a great movie director. Emmerich does the same thing Martin Scorcese and Steven Spielberg do with a “serious” drama – make the ordinary extraordinary. When it comes to a fun film, The Day After Tomorrow is a keeper.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2005 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (Karen E. Goulekas, Neil Corbould, Greg Strause, and Remo Balcells)

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Happy Birthday, Liz

Unlike Anna, I won't tell your age.  Happy B'day and I wish you many more.

Review: Crazy White Women Put the Bloom in "White Oleander" (Happy B'day, Robin Wright)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 132 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

White Oleander (2002)
Running time: 109 minutes (1 hour, 49 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for mature thematic elements concerning dysfunctional relationships, drug content, language, sexuality and violence
DIRECTOR: Peter Kosminsky
WRITER: Mary Alice Donoghue (from the novel by Janet Fitch)
PRODUCERS: Hunt Lowry and John Wells
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Elliot Davis (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Chris Ridsdale
COMPOSER: Thomas Newman

DRAMA

Starring: Alison Lohman, Robin Wright Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Renee Zellweger, Amy Aquino, Patrick Fugit, Cole Hauser, Noah Wylie, Marc Donato, Billy Connolly, and Dallas McKinney

The subject of this movie review is White Oleander, a 2002 American drama film. It based upon the 1999 novel of the same name from author Janet Fitch, a novel which also has the distinction of being picked for Oprah’s Book Club in 1999.

In White Oleander, Michelle Pfeiffer is Ingrid Magnussen, a woman sentenced to prison when she murders her lover in a crime of passion. Her imprisonment sends her daughter Astrid (Alison Lohman) on a journey through the foster care system where she undergoes intense experiences of love, loss, and near death. She, however, never loses touch with her mother, maintaining contact through letters and Astrid’s brief visits to the prison. As the years past, Astrid begins to resent her mother’s insistence that she live her life as her mother wishes, and their relationship becomes a war between a controlling mother and a teenage girl determined to find her own way.

I could describe the film White Oleander (the name of a beautiful, but deadly poisonous plant) as beautiful, but I would have to add on the descriptive term, “hauntingly.” If you like chick movies, especially sad chick movies, White Oleander is one of the best I’ve seen in ages. It is unrelentingly sad, and that has put off some viewers, but the performances are monster and deserve to be seen. Ms. Pfieffer can play the shrinking violet as well as anyone (see Dangerous Liaisons), but her talents are quite sharp when she extends her razor-like claws of her talent into bad girl/misunderstood woman roles (The Fabulous Baker Boys or her voice work in the animated Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas). Young Alison Lohman shows an ability to channel pain that recalls the early work of the first lady of tragic heroines, Meryl Streep. Ms. Lohman dominates this movie, and she saves this from being a dreadful movie of the week. Director Peter Kosminsky (an award-winning television movie director) smartly lets her shine.

White Oleander is quite engaging and enthralling, unusual for a movie of such palatable sadness, but it’s rewarding. It’s a feel good movie about surviving the really rough patches in life. I fault an incoherent script for running from one sad scene to another as if the writer was trying to make a grocery list of the bad things that can happen in life. The film never really slows down to take the time and show us the process of Astrid growing up and growing independent. Still, this has to be one of the prettiest sad movies in a long time. It’s like a beautiful car wreck and if you’re not careful, you might find yourself in love with all this pain.

7 of 10
B+

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