glory road Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Our readers may have noticed that I've been following the HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray format war on Cinematical. Some readers have also observed -- and pointed out in comments -- that I am not an expert in the least on either format. But I enjoy a good format war and I like keeping a layman's point-of-view (besides, I don't usually understand the technical stuff), so I shall continue representing the typical consumer without a great knowledge of hardware and software specs. Because, after all, it is we regular folk who influence the success of entertainment products in the end. Therefore, I believe if is likely that the winner of this war will be the one who has the most attractive item for average Americans.

From this stance, I have so far put my bet on HD DVD. Yet Disney just announced a new incentive with some of its Blu-ray titles, and it just might be enticing enough to some parents out there. On September 19, the studio will release its first discs in the format, and two of them, Dinosaur and Eight Below, will feature exclusive short films shot in HD specifically for inclusion on the discs. One month later, three more of their titles, Glory Road, Gone in Sixty Seconds and The Haunted Mansion, will also come with their own shorts. Each short will be inspired by the movie it is packaged with, and all were shot by Louie Schwartzberg. Based on Schwartzberg's previous work, the shorts are likely to be pretty little documentaries with wide landscape cinematography and a lot of time-lapse footage.

A lot of people like extras, but it is hard to imagine the shorts in question will be that attractive. I'm guessing one's a little piece on paleontologists, the next about real dog sledding, another showing some college basketball and finally one on classic racing cars. I'm not sure about the Haunted Mansion short. Maybe a tour of old southern mansions? Anyway, when I first heard the news of this announcement, I thought Disney was including new, original animated shorts featuring familiar and beloved characters from its catalog. Who isn't in the mood for some new Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck cartoons? Who is in the mood for disposable docs?

Normally I don't pay much attention to newswire critics, but Tuesday's article by Christy Lemire (Associated Press & Canadian Press) put me in a defensive mood. Lemire has written a piece in which she reflects on the movies she's seen in the first half of 2006, and realizes that her current top ten list is made up primarily of documentaries. I don't reject the declaration that we're experiencing another good year for docs, but since critics have been making this same observation for the pasts several years, it makes you wonder if it's the docs that are getting better or simply the fiction films that are getting worse. Or is it a little of both?

I say that it's neither. Documentaries just always seem universally better than narratives. Because they typically lack artificial elements like acting, plot and dialogue, on which viewers most easily judge the qualities of fiction films, docs are more difficult to analyze. Despite the fact that some docs are misleading and may distort or completely fabricate facts, they always have the perception of reality, and for most people, reality means truth and truth means good.

With most documentaries, the audience is given more than mere entertainment, whether it is taught something, is convinced of something, or prompted to think about something further.  In this way, docs are rarely a waste of time, and therefore critics may find it difficult to give them bad reviews. But what about when a doc isn't intent on being educational or insightful? How is it that Dave Chappelle's Block Party is a great film for someone (me) who doesn't necessarily favor the comedy of Chappelle of the music of the film's featured artists?

• Firewall - Like Rip Van Winkle with a $25 million per picture deal, nap-addled gruff boy Harrison Ford has seen his career hibernate for more than a decade now, scoring hit upon forgettable hit. Ford's latest variation on a theme is, like the bulk of his post-Indiana Jones filmography, predictable formula fare, and therein lies its broad appeal. In what ultimately feels like a diluted remake of Ron Howard's 1996 thriller, Ransom, he plays a bank security expert whose family is held captive in exchange for his aid in electronically liberating $100 million. Bad guy Paul Bettany sneers and jeers so much that we know from the moment he turns up that Ford is going to heroically beat him and his dirty, dirty bastards, and our belief that goodness triumphing over ee-vil will be renewed. Able British stalwart Richard Loncraine, who directed Bettany in Wimbledon, paints this one by-the-numbers, and anyone looking for what might be their last Harrison Ford fix before Indy 4 (and presumed retirement) will get what they paid for, though very little more.

This is one of the more bizarre movie-related brouhahas I've heard of. Officials at Texas A&M  University want Walt Disney Company and the filmmakers and writers associated with the film Glory Road to apologize for falsely depicting the school as having racially-charged scenes take place there.

The film is based on a true story about the Texas Western Miners, who in 1966 made athletic history by becoming the first team with an all-black starting lineup to win the Championship game. The movie, says the university, contains a scene of a "completely fabricated" game beween the Miners and East Texas University, the name of Texas A&M Commerce at that time.

• On the cover: George Clooney, the triple threat.
• The Oscar race begins, and EW makes the calls.
• Popwatch quiz: what do these four films have in common? Adaptation, Catwoman, Charlie's Angels, and The Players Club. 
• New movies: they give Match Point an A, Glory Road a C , and Last Holiday a C.
• New DVDs: The Constant Gardener gets an A, Junebug an A-, and The Aristocrats a B .     

• Last Holiday: That sound you hear, friends, is the sweet music of 95% of all American critics falling completely in love with Queen Latifah. I've never read a group of reviews so enamored of a movie's star, and of her effect on what would otherwise be an utterly forgettable film. Roger Ebert summed up the general feeling best when he said "Last Holiday plays like a hug." (I know. But they're almost all like this. It's awesome.)

• Glory Road: While most critics are bit more generous than Jette, everybody agrees that the based-on-a-true-story flick is formulaic and predictable, so much so that "you could be forgiven for thinking Stouffer's produced it, not Disney." That said, however, its young actors win praise, and a few critics feel the film addresses the racism at the core of its story with surprising grace. And, as a bonus, the basketball scenes don't suck!

• Tristan & Isolde: Nobody (apart from Roger Ebert, who praises its realism) really likes this one. At best, it's bland with good action scenes; at worst, "like a Monty Python movie with the jokes removed." Not only do they not like the movie as a whole, but several critics also set a little space aside to rip on poor James Franco, who hasn't really successfully conveyed an emotion since Freaks and Geeks.

• Hoodwinked: Holy divergence of opinion, Batman! Reactions to this one range from raves to pure, unadulterated hatred, and include pretty much everything in between. Either it's clever and snappy, or it's a big pile of crap - and you're going to have decide for yourselves. If it helps at all, most people come down somewhere in the middle, but going to see this one really is going to be a crapshoot.