Monday, October 15, 2007

THE SEEKER NOW AVAILABLE

THE SEEKER NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE

HERE IS THE SUMMARY FOR THE MOVIE THE SEEKER FROM IMDB

Based on the acclaimed novel by Susan Cooper, THE DARK IS RISING is the first film adaptation of the author's acclaimed The Dark Is Rising Sequence. The film tells the story of Will Stanton, a young man who learns he is the last of a group of warriors who have dedicated their lives to fighting the forces of the Dark. Traveling back and forth through time, Will discovers a series of clues which lead him into a showdown with forces of unimaginable power. With the Dark once again rising, the future of the world rests in Will's hands. Written by Anonymous

HERE IS A REVIEW FOR THE MOVIE THE SEEKER FROM DVDTALK

Between now and February three movie studios have armed themselves with family-oriented epics to sweep up whatever coin has been left behind by the likes of the "Narnia" franchise and especially "Harry Potter." It's an awfully transparent way to conduct business, but hey, that's Hollywood.

On his 14th birthday, Will Stanton (Alexander Ludwig) finds he's the savior of the universe; a boy entrusted with preserving the forces of the Light (including Ian McShane and Frances Conroy) against the growing persistence of the Dark (led by Christopher Eccleston). Uncomfortable with his new powers, Will hunts for special signs and artifacts to help the cause, bending time to achieve his quest to become the great power on which so many are depending to help banish the Dark forever.

The first "alternate world" production to reach theaters is "The Seeker" (the others being December's "Golden Compass" and February's "Spiderwick Chronicles"), an adaptation of the popular 70's fantasy books written by Susan Cooper. Not having had the pleasure of reading the source material, "Seeker" holds some high-flying aspirations to become a snappy fantastical franchise, yet a majority of it was lost on me. I can only imagine I will not be alone in that reaction.

The ultimate question is, was the movie purposefully made into a blur to play directly into the pockets of the fans, or do we chalk this up to standard-issue directorial incompetence? I vote the latter, since helmer David L. Cunningham doesn't exhibit much skill gluing sequences together in "Seeker." Cunningham is thirsting for a more visually spastic direction, pumping up the light shows and overtaxing smoke machines to give "Seeker" otherworldly menace. Frankly, it looks more like Duran Duran's "Wild Boys" video.

On one side we have a director with a sweet tooth for frame clutter and an exasperating reliance on clich�d artifice; on the other side, a script that requires a PHD in "Dark is Rising" backstory, which pulls the film in a far more lethargic direction. The exposition is piled dangerously high in "Seeker," threatening to suffocate the film under the mass of characters and histories the film fails to properly introduce. Watching the feature stop itself over and over to carefully explain just what in the hell is going on is tiring, making me reflect fondly on how the "Harry Potter" films were executed to Muggles like me. It doesn't have to be a flawless immersion, just engaging. "Seeker" doesn't invite the audience to participate in the fun. Instead the feature drones on about events and people we barely understand in the first place.


CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW FOR THIS MOVIE.

HERE IS THE DIRECT DOWNLOAD FOR THE MOVIE THE SEEKER.

SCARFACE NOW AVAILABLE

SCARFACE NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE

HERE IS THE SUMMARY FOR THE MOVIE SCARFACE FROM IMDB

Remake of the 1932 film, which follows the rise of Tony Montana, a Cuban emigre who, with his friend Manny Ray, builds a strong criminal empire in early 1980's Miami. Written by Stephen Currence {billyc@erols.com}

When Fidel Castro opens the harbor at Mariel, Cuba, he sends 125,000 Cuban refugees to reunite with their relatives in the United States. Among all the refugees, there is one who wants it all, his name is Tony Montana. Tony and his friend Manny when they arrive in the United States and start in small time jobs, soon they are hired by Omar Suarez to pay money to a group of Colombians. When the deal goes wrong, Tony and Manny leave with the money and succeed in their job. Soon Tony meets with drug kingpin Frank Lopez and falls for his boss's girl Elvira. Pretty soon Tony will know that those who want it all, do not last forever and that is the price of power. The world will know Montana by one name....SCARFACE. Written by Emphinix

A remake of the 1932 classic, the 1983 version follows cuban refugee, Tony Montana and his close friend Manny Ray, and together they build a strong drug empire in Miami. Of course Montana must deal with the hardships of this type of buisness. And as Montana's power begins to grow so does his ego and his paranoia. Written by A Martinez

An update of the 1932 film, Scarface (1983) follows gangster Tony Montana and his close friend Manny Ray from their trip on the Cuban Boat Lift for refugees to their arrival in Miami. After killing a powerful Cuban figure, Montana and company gain the ability to leave their refugee camps and roam around the U.S. After unsuccessfully trying to make it legitamately in the country, Montana and Ray resort to selling cocaine to dealers around the world. Tony's rise is quick, but as he becomes more powerful, his enemies and his own paranoia begin to plague his empire. Written by Titan45

When Castro opened the port at Mariel Harbor, thousands of Cubans fled to the United States. One is a young tough named Antonio (Tony) Montana, who, with his friend Manny Ray, starts in with Miami's cocaine trade. He survives attack by chainsaw after a deal goes bad, and several other attempts by other dealers to eliminate him. Eventually the grandiose Montana becomes head of a cocaine cartel. But his enemies start coming after him, and his paranoia threatens to drive Montana's empire into the ground... Written by Derek O'Cain


HERE IS A REVIEW FOR THE MOVIE SCARFACE FROM DVDTALK

The Movie

Operatic is not nearly a word large enough to describe Scarface, director Brian DePalma's coked-out epic of Eighties excess. Fueled by future manic auteur Oliver Stone's gonzo screenplay, bringing Ben Hecht's early Thirties gangland film into then-modern day Miami, and Al Pacino's towering, iconic performance as the Cuban immigrant who rises from the gutter to the top of Miami's brutal drug trade, it's a film whose legend has only grown in the ensuing decades, thanks largely to being embraced by Hispanic and African-American rap artists, as well as a surge in popularity for crime films � gaudy, gory and gloriously debauched, Scarface is a film very much of and slightly ahead of its time.

Not so much updating as obliterating the 1932 Howard Hawks film, Stone, DePalma and Pacino stretch their widescreen canvas to the breaking point, somehow managing to impart an epic, continent-bounding story of rags-to-riches-to-massive piles of blow without once straining to fit every last scrap of narrative in; at nearly three hours, Scarface unfolds at a luxurious pace, likely too slowly for some, who would rather DePalma dispense with the character studies and get to the adrenaline-charged set pieces. Some of the film's lugubriousness owes to the fact that DePalma, in a move that somewhat smacks of latent racism, elected to use very few Hispanic or Latino actors, relying instead on heavily made-up Caucasians whose mangled, dodgy Cuban accents provide an unintentional element of camp to the otherwise deadly serious proceedings. There are a few actors � Robert Loggia, F. Murray Abraham, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, even Pacino � who are more frequent offenders, but hey, you're not watching Scarface for a meticulous attention to detail, right?

No, you're watching to involve yourself in the old-as-time yet still oddly effective story of a man raising himself from nothing to a position of tremendous influence: Tony Montana (Pacino) is introduced to the audience in the midst of an interrogation, fresh from a Cuban refugee boat. It's the dawn of the 1980s and Fidel Castro has allowed several thousand Cubans to escape to the Florida coasts � it sounds like a noble gesture, but as the opening crawl explains, many of the boats were infested with vicious criminals that the dictator was happy to be rid of. Tony and his best friend, Manny Ribera (Steven Bauer) waste little time ingratiating themselves with friends in high places, carrying out a hit during chaotic riots in a temporary Cuban shantytown.

After earning their freedom, Tony and Manny befriend local drug kingpin Frank Lopez (Loggia), whose frigid wife Elvira Hancock (an often over-looked Michelle Pfeiffer) hypnotizes Tony, a voracious thug with his sights set on being the biggest, baddest and richest narcotics trafficker in Florida. In short order, Tony is scaling the ladder, climbing ever higher in the ranks of Frank's organization, increasing his wealth and becoming ever more ruthless in his acquisition of power, becoming a man feared by his estranged family, which includes kid sister Gina (Mastrantonio) and his distrustful Mama (Miriam Colon).

Tony's meteoric rise to the top of the Miami drug game is, as expected, following by his swift tumble from grace, a fall precipitated by an increased paranoia stemming from staggering cocaine abuse � in the film's latter third, cocaine, profanity and bullets flies with equal �lan; Tony Montana is brought low by his ambition, driven to his knees by insulating himself from his friends and his family, his world dissolving in a blizzard of white powder. What's often lost amid all of the blood, powder and fury in Scarface is that Stone weaved a cautionary tale about the corrosive nature of drugs (cocaine, in particular) into the fabric of this otherwise by-the-numbers story-line; sure, Tony is a hero to a generation of rappers, wannabe thugs and posturing suburban teens, but he's also a symbol of a decade that celebrated having too much of a good thing. The Eighties have a number of films that perfectly capture the hedonistic, live-fast-die-young aesthetic and Scarface is certainly among the best.

While its obscured good intentions and surprisingly moral message can make revisiting the film worthwhile, there are also aspects that can wear on those experiencing this landmark work for the first time � the coarse language, startling bursts of violence and pat third act can leave some feeling as though they've been battered about the head for almost three hours; DePalma is far from a subtle filmmaker, but I'd argue that for this film, his ceaseless approach works in favor of the material. If you're uncomfortable with more than a few utterances of the word "fuck," you'd probably do well to pick up something else up off the shelf. However, if you've always been curious as to what the fuss is all about, there's no better place to start exploring Scarface than with this latest DVD incarnation. Big, over-the-top and gaudy to a fault? Sure � but it's also one of the most riveting, exhilarating and passionate works of art of the last two decades.


CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW FOR THIS MOVIE.

HERE IS THE DIRECT DOWNLOAD FOR THE MOVIE SCARFACE.