5 Razors

Dark City

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Dark City
  • IMDb: link

“That’s what Science Fiction and Fantasy is for, after all; to take one behind the scenes,
to force one to reinvent the paradigm. And Dark City does that in spades.”
—Neil Gaiman

I’m a big fan of The Matrix, but I’m a bigger fan of Dark City. Released more than a year before Neo took the red pill to the delight of audiences everywhere, writer/director Alex Proyas presented a similar tale of a man trapped in a world where nothing is quite what is seems. Although not as widely known (more than six times the number of people have taken the time to rate The Matrix on IMDb), it is a superior film in almost every conceivable way. Released in 1998 we mark the occasion by reviewing the DVD ten years later.

Back in the spring of 1998 I was in the middle of a particularly brutal college semester and looking for a few hours respite.  Checking the paper I discovered the local $1 movie theater was showing a film I had missed, Dark City.  Taking a chance, I went.  I went back the next night as well.  And the third night I dragged my two roommates and went back again.  I long ago lost track of the number of films I have seen over my lifetime, but I can count on one hand the films which have had this reaction on me.

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Soaring Through the New Frontier

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Justice League: The New Frontier
  • IMDb: link

“We need our heroes to stand up and show us what this country is supposed to mean.”

Although I’m a huge fan of the Justice League animated series I wasn’t too thrilled with their first big feature film Superman: Doomsday (read that review).  On hearing their next project would be an adaptation of Darwyn Cooke’s DC: The New Frontier, I was a tad skeptical about what the finished project might look like.  I shouldn’t have worried; this time they get it just right.

Set i the 1950’s, an age of distrust and the height of McCarthyism, the film opens with the end of the Korean War and test pilot Hal Jordan (David Boreanaz) ill-fated final mission.  It’s appropriate the film (not counting the pre-credit sequence) opens with Jordan, because he more than any other character is asked to carry the film.

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God That’s Good!

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
  • IMDb: link

“There’s a whole in the world like a great black pit, and the vermin of the world inhabit it, and its morals aren’t worth what a pin can spit, and it goes by the name of London.”

sweeney-todd-poster

When I heard Tim Burton was set to direct Sweeney Todd my initial response was to expect a great looking but overproduced and underwhelming film (like say Sleepy Hollow).  I was dead wrong.  In another director’s hands the bloody tale would have been cut, trimmed, and made to look nice enough to earn a PG-13 rating.  Burton however embraced the story of vengeance and loss and gives us a Sweeney Todd worthy of the name.  How good is Sweeney Todd? It’s arguably Tim Burton’s best film.

For those unfamiliar with the original story and the Broadway musical, the plot involves a young barber named Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) whose wife Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly) and infant daughter Johanna are taken from him by Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman).  Turpin steals the women for himself and sentences Barker and banishes him from London forever.  The film opens with the return of Barker years later under the new name of Sweeney Todd

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Sports Night

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Sports Night – The Complete Series
  • tv.com: link

sports-night-dvdIf you blinked at the end of the last millennium you probably missed Sports Night.  The brainchild of Aaron Sorkin hit the ABC airwaves in the fall of 1998.  Although critically acclaimed, it won many awards including three Emmys, the show never really hit it big (especially compared to The West Wing). 

As his second show became a huge success, this first foray into television slowly faded into syndication.  The tagline for the show was:  It’s a show about a show about sports, that isn’t about sports at all.  I would be hard pressed to sum it up better.  An extremely well written high paced workplace comedy that is filled with kinetic energy, big laughs, snappy dialogue and one hell of a great cast.  I only wish it could have run for more than two seasons.

Continental Corp owns the Continental Sports Channel, or CSC, a third place network which airs a third place sports highlight show known as Sports Night. 

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Across the Universe

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Across the Universe
  • IMDb: link

“All you need is love.”

Across the Universe

The film begins with an English dock worker named Jude (Jim Sturgess) who travels to America to find his father.  His journey takes him to a college where he befriends a screw-up named Max (Joe Anderson) and falls head-over-heels for Max’s sister Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood).

Traveling to NY with Max Jude finds himself living with a nightclub singer (Dana Fuchs), a guitar player (Martin Luther), and a young lesbian named Prudence (T.V. Carpio) struggling with her place in the world.  Making a living as an artist and designer Jude enjoys his new world until the terrors of war fracture the group’s fragile peace.

What follows is an exploration of love against the backdrop of the 1960’s, Vietnam, civil unrest, violence, and change.  Max is drafted, Lucy becomes a civil activist, fame and glory strain the relationship between Sadie and JoJo.  The world changes and each struggles once again to find their place in it, stay true to themselves, and grow and change with the times.

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