I have to admit, some of the most interesting movies I get copies of to review are the documentaries. Strange little pieces about strange little things, like the entire career of H.P. Lovecraft. And today, I’m bringing out a documentary of the kind the History Channel would probably love–War Dogs of the Pacific.
They mean it literally, you see–War Dogs of the Pacific is all about the dogs who fought in the Pacific theater in World War II. They were trained pretty extensively, and they served a whole host of roles in the war, including guard duty, ferreting out enemy positions, sensing enemy movement, and even outright combat. See, back in the last days of World War II, the Pacific was about the only game in town left. And the Japanese had developed an especial talent for hiding and attacking from ambush, so the idea came to use dogs to track hiding places. And boy, did it ever work.
This movie is spectacularly informative, and will almost certainly tell you at least something new about World War II and about the role that dogs played in this war. It’s a downright amazing role, too–considering that people back then handed over their pet dogs to serve in the war, in some cases for good, is just plain old amazing.
Of course, getting past the sheer awesomeness of the idea, you’re left with a pretty good if somewhat short documentary–this has a runtime of about forty five minutes. But it’s a pretty sweet forty five minutes, especially if you love documentaries or war movies.
The Screenhead Ten Scale loves this movie, but it realizes its tastes are a little unique, and thus hands War Dogs of the Pacific an eight out of ten for giving us all an excellent, if esoteric, view of World War II.
Today I’m talking about a movie you probably haven’t heard of.
It was just released this week to theatres, mobile devices, online, and on DVD, and it’s called Rage, a film that will ensure you never look the same way at couture culture again.
It’s about a filmmaker that goes by the name of Michelangelo, a young man out to shoot a film on his cell phone about the fashion industry. As his subjects slowly reveal bits and pieces about themselves, a series of crises bursts into life around them, and each must come to grips with the disasters in their own way. But just how much of these are Michelangelo’s doing? Or is everyone just in the wrong place at the right time?
There’s a mix of no-names bundled in with a bunch of big names–Jude Law’s sharing the screen alongside Simon Abkarian, and Steve Buscemi’s right there with Adriana Barraza. There are plenty more recognizable names, and they’ll all turn in outstanding performances.
Why? Because they HAVE TO. They have literally no choice but to excel since there’s absolutely nothing in the shot but them. No explosions, no other characters, no action, not even music, really–just the actor and his or her lines.
Rage proves the incredible power a movie can pack when it’s well written, and shows what little the Michael Bays of the world are actually doing. The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Rage plenty of respect with a nine out of ten for an amazing display that only becomes predictable at all toward the end.
Well, in retrospect, it’s the kind of thing we should have seen coming. Considering the Smurfs were looking to take on Green Hornet AND the Yogi Bear movie in the upcoming holiday movie season, it really doesn’t come as much of a surprise that the powers that be over at Sony decided they weren’t even going to bother.
That’s right, folks, the Smurfs movie has been officially pushed back, back, WAY back….all the way back to 2011.
Here’s the strange part, though…rather than falling back to, say, March 2011, it’s apparently going to take a run at the summer movie season of 2011 instead. Now, I don’t know about you, but I definitely don’t think the Smurfs have the kind of firepower necessary to take a summer movie weekend by storm unless everyone else manages to stay home for a weekend.
Well, here’s hoping for the best for the Smurfs, and that neither Gargamel nor bad reviews will keep them away from success.
I Can Do Bad All By Myself hit the top of the box office with a favorite movie of mine, 9, in second place. Amazingly Inglourious Basterdsis in third place, Tarantino’s movie is raking in the dollars. Another favorite of mine, Julie and Julia is still in the top ten at ninth place.
He loves me, he loves me not…find out when He’s Just Not That Into Youis based on the wildly popular bestseller from Sex and the City scribes Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, He’s Just Not That Into You tells the stories of a group of interconnected, Baltimore-based twenty- and thirty-somethings as they navigate their various relationships.
Spielberg is on the set of The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn with fellow actors Jamie Bell and Andy Serkis. You can see the whole picture by going to Empire. When the Empire Magazine hits the newsstands you can read the article about what’s happening with Spielberg’s new motion-capture spectacular movie.
The picture to the right shows Spielberg talking with Tintin (Bell) and Captain Haddock (Serkis). The picture gets bigger at Empire, so you can see the actors with their CGI outfits and dots on their faces. It’s a pretty cool shot.
Rebecca Bloomwood is a sweet and charming New York City girl, but she has a tiny, little problem that is rapidly turning into a big problem. She is hopelessly addicted to shopping and drowning in a sea of debt.
While Rebecca has dreams of working for a top fashion magazine, she can’t quite get her foot in the door until she snags a job as an advice columnist for a new financial magazine published by the same company.
Overnight, her column becomes hugely popular, turning her into an overnight celebrity. Yet, when her compulsive shopping and growing debt issues threaten to destroy her love life and derail her career, she struggles to keep it all from spiraling out of control and is ultimately forced to reevaluate what is really important in life.
I have to admit, some of the most interesting movies I get copies of to review are the documentaries. Strange little pieces about strange little things, like the entire career of H.P. Lovecraft. And today, I’m bringing out a documentary of the kind the History Channel would probably love–War Dogs of the Pacific.
Today I’m talking about a movie you probably haven’t heard of.
Well, in retrospect, it’s the kind of thing we should have seen coming. Considering the 
