4 Razors

Oil and Blood

/ / Home Video
  • Title: There Will Be Blood
  • IMDB: link

there-will-be-blood-dvdWriter/director Paul Thomas Anderson‘s adaptation of the Upton Sinclair novel Oil! earned well deserved praise in its release last Oscar season.  Anchored by an astounding leading performance by Daniel Day-Lewis and some terrific cinematography it was one of the best films of 2007.

The film centers around oil man Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) in the early 1900’s.  Plainview is a model capitalist, ruthless and a tad crazy.

After a prolonged opening sequence involving Plainview’s discovery of oil and his transformation from a silver prospector to an oil speculator the film moves to the town of Little Boston, California.  His attempts to buy the land hit a snag from the local preacher/prophet Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) who begins a behind-the-scenes battle of wills with the oil man.

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Rounders

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Rounders
  • IMDB: link

“We can’t run from who we are.  Our destiny chooses us.”

Mike McDermott (Matt Damon) is a struggling law student; he’s also a world class poker player, who, in the film’s opening scene, loses all his money in a high stakes game.

Nine-months later Mike has renounced gambling and made up with his girlfriend (Gretchen Mol).  He works a part time delivery job and works towards a law degree.  Life is hard, but good, though he still misses the game and the thrill of playing.

When Mike’s best friend Worm (Edward Norton) is released from prison with a substantial mark to be paid off Mike finds himself pulled back to the tables.

The story is presented from Mike’s perspective with commentary, which comes and goes, giving us a glimpse into the world of professional gambling and his own views on life.  The story feels authentic and real; at no time does the film cop-out with huge twists or unlikely hands.

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Nanking

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Nanking
  • IMDb: link

“We have to keep in mind that it’s not just about the numbers of people who died; it’s also the manner which many of these victims met their deaths. “
—Iris Chang

nanking-poster

To tell the story a group of actors is assembled together.  Each is assigned a role and will read the letters, diaries, journal entries, and accounts of that person which are then intercut with real footage of Nanking.  This unusual set-up takes a little to get used to, but by the time the historical context is covered and the film moves into the gory and ghastly details of the Rape of Nanking you have forgotten the actors and are completely immersed in this horrific tale.

Nanking was the Chinese capitol in 1937 when the Japanese army invaded the country and took control of the city.  The occupation of Nanking lasted for more than six weeks and visited such atrocities on the civilian population it has been named the Nanking Massacre and The Rape of Nanking.  A small group of missionaries from foreign countries including America and Germany created a safety zone in the city for refugees and survivors.

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Penelope

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Penelope
  • IMDB: link

penelope-poster

Here is a classic yet modern fairy tale of life and true love. Who hasn’t experienced a touch of Penelope from time to time? Who hasn’t felt loved or appreciated or wanted by another or society because of one flaw or another? Everybody has felt dejected in one format or another and Penelope gives us a lighthearted reach into hope; a lighthearted reach with James McAvoy being the end result and no longer feeling like an outcast. True, I may have read just a little more into a simple fairy tale than what was actually there. Then again, isn’t that what going to the moves is all about?

Here we have Penelope (Christina Ricci) and blue-blooded aristocrat that is the first-born female who receives a gypsies curse. Her family kind of pissed off a gypsy by double crossing her daughter and a curse was put upon the entire family tree, the first girl to be born would have the face of a pig, which will not release that child until she is loved unconditionally by one of her own. Luck would have it that after generations of Wilhern’s born Penelope is the first girl and therefore the cursed.

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The Umbrella Academy

/ / Comics

“Forty-three extraordinary children were born to mostly single women, who had shown no signs of pregnancy, in seemingly random locations around the world.  The children were either abandoned or put up for adoption.  Enter Sir Reginald Hargreeves, a.k.a the Monocle, world renown scientist and wealthy entrepreneur…  For reasons unknown Sir Reginald set out with his bodyguard Abhijat aboard his private vessel The Minerva, rumored to be powered by the remains of King Amen-Kharej IV.  Using methods undisclosed, he sought to track down and adopt as many of the children as he could.  He only found seven of them…

umbrella-academy-apocalypse-1-coverThe first issue, “The Day the Eiffel Tower Went Berserk,” gives us the brief background of Sir Reginald before jumping into one of the team’s early adventures against Zombie Robot Gustave Eiffel (that’s right folks, the guy who built the Eiffel Tower has been living inside as a robotic robot zombie for years waiting for his opportunity to launch the Tower into space! – oh, did I mention that the Eiffel Tower is really a spaceship!!).

From here we jump 20 years into the future to the members of the long disbanded team who learn of the death of their mentor.  00.01 – Space Boy, the team’s leader, returns from his post at the moon for the funeral only to discover one more surprise – 00.05 has returned un-aged from his long disappearance with a terrifying tale to tell.

A great first issue that flushes out some of the characters, their origins, and the dynamics of the group while still moving on at a fun and brisk pace that isn’t lost under heavy narrative or exposition.

[Dark Horse, $2.99]

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