3.5 Razors

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Vol. 1

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones Vol. 1
  • tv.com: link

young-indiana-jones-vol-oneVolume One, as well as the second and third volumes of the series, chronologically collects the series in sets of television movies (rather than in the order the original hour-long episodes aired).

The first five chapters of the series involve the adventures of young Henry Jones Jr. (Corey Carrier) traveling around the country with his father Professor Henry Jones (Lloyd Owen, doing an acceptable Sean Connery impression), his mother Anna (Ruth de Sosa), and his tutor Miss Seymour (Margaret Tyzack).

Most of the adventures fall into the same basic story structure, which (somewhat unbelievably) doesn’t get old.  The family arrives in a new location where Prof. Jones has been asked to lecture and Indy finds a way to get out of studying and ultimately, whether meaning to or not, finds himself involved in mischief, often with historical characters.  An over the course of the episode young Indy learns an important lesson.

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The Man with No Name

/ / Comics
  • Title: The Man with No Name #1
  • Comic Vine: link

“Goddam it.”

“Saints and Sinners” begins the new series by Christos Gage and Wellington Dias with our hero walking into town only to find an ambush waiting for him.

Of course such a thing isn’t going to keep our hero down for long, and he takes care of business with his usual flourish.  But news that not only the Union Army but also the Confederacy are both after his head (the first for blowing up a bridge, the second for the small matter of the gold he’s currently carrying – from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) leads the Man with No Name to hit the road and journey out into the desert.

Our hero’s flight is interrupted however by an attack and a dying priest who makes a last request which will only further complicate our protagonist’s life.

The art of Wellington Dias and colors of Bruno Hang give the comic a somber, slightly dirty yet still vibrant look which works quite well.  I was also impressed with the use of light and shadow throughout the issue including several stand-out panels.

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Stop-Loss

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Stop-Loss
  • IMDB: link

stop-loss-poster

Stop-loss – the involuntary extension of a service member’s enlistment contract in order to retain them beyond the normal end of service.  The film tells us more than 650,000 troops have been sent to Iraq and roughly one-eighth of that number have been stop-lossed, or forced to return to duty past the time of their enlistment.

We begin in Iraq with the unit under the command of Sgt. Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) which includes his boyhood best friend Steve (Channing Tatum) and the somewhat unstable Tommy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).

Just before shipping home the unit is caught in an ambush which takes the lives of their friends.  On returning home the threesome are regarded as heroes, but Tommy and and Steve struggle with the readjustment.  Brandon is just happy to be home and free of the army, that is until his C.O. (Timothy Olyphant) informs him he has been stop-lossed and will be returning to Iraq for another tour.

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The Bank Job

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Bank Job
  • IMDB: link

“We’re not bank robbers.”
“Maybe that’s why we could get away with it.”

the-bank-job-poster

Terry (Jason Stratham) and his small-time crook pals (Daniel Mays, Michael Jibson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Alki David, James Faulkner) are offered a chance at the biggest score of their lives by one of Terry’s old flames, Martine (Safron Burrows).

Trouble is they only know have the half the story.  Martine is actually working for MI5 (British Intelligence) who desperately need some damaging photographs from a safety deposit box owned by a black militant (Peter De Jersey) who is using them to blackmail the government.

Tim (Richard Lintern) is given the assignment of capturing the damaging material without using any company resources, as the government can not be tied to the operation if all goes wrong.  He blackmails Martine into getting her friends to do the job.

The job is further complicated by a pornographer (David Suchet) whose ledger of police payoffs is also hidden among the treasures the team lifts from the bank.

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War/Dance

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: War/Dance
  • IMDB: link

“In my heart I am more than a child of war.”
 

war-dance-poster

The film tells the tales of three children – Nancy, Dominic, and Rose – from the Acholi tribe in the Pantongo region of northern Uganda.  These children live in a refugee camp among 60,000 other members of their tribe, displaced by a violent terrorist group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army.  Each has harrowing tales of tragedy to tell.

As the film opens these children, along with many others from the camp, are training and working towards winning the national dance competition in the town of Kampala.  This is the first time a primary school from a camp such as this has earned a spot in the final competition and the children hope to do honor to their tribe and bring a trophy home.

The documentary from Sean Fine and Andrea Nix does many things well including capturing the look and feel of the various settings in the film from the camp, to the open bush, to Kampala.  Facts and statistics are also inserted throughout the film in way that doesn’t make them seem forced or distracting.

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