Follow That Dream

Follow That Dream Review

Follow That Dream Feature

• PRESLEY*ELVIS

Follow That Dream Overview

Elvis Presley is at his dreamboat peak in this musical comedy that finds the sexy star crooning five original songs in an "amusing and fast-paced" (Variety) romp boasting a "delightful mixtureof songs, romance, humor and good old homespun warmth" (Citizen-News)! When his scheming pop decides to "homestead" the family on a public beach, Toby Kwimper (Presley) digs the exotic settingbut hates the attention he is suddenly receiving. Though he just wants to play his guitar, Toby finds himself up to his baby blues in trouble with government bureaucrats, crime bosses and even two smitten "kittens"an adopted little sister who feels more than sisterly love for him and a social worker with more than his welfare on her mind!

Follow That Dream Specifications

Elvis hadn't dyed his hair a permanent midnight black yet in Follow That Dream, which is another way of saying this is still the point in his career when he was making movies, not just Elvis Presley vehicles. Elvis road-trips with his crabby, anti-government pop (Arthur O'Connell) and an adopted brood to a Florida beach, which by a legal quirk they can homestead. The authorities and some fairly unbelievable gangsters would like to stop them. The songs are undistinguished but not awful, the scenery is nice, and Elvis--looking well-fed and relaxed--shows off good comedic chops doing a dumb-guy shtick. Screenwriter Charles Lederer and director Gordon Douglas are a class act by Presley picture standards, keeping the sitcom-style plot moving along. No fancy clothes or cars in this one, just Elvis and some beachcombing and an old git-tar, and not a bad time-killer for all that. --Robert Horton

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Touched By an Angel - The Third Season, Vol. 2

Touched By an Angel - The Third Season, Vol. 2 Review

Touched By an Angel - The Third Season, Vol. 2 Overview

A trio of angels Monica (Roma Downey), Tess (Della Reese), and Andrew (John Dye) are dispatched from heaven with a special mission: to inspire people facing sometimes unseen crossroads in their lives. Monica, an angel who at times still needs some guidance with her earthly assignments, reports to Tess, her tough, wise and always loving supervisor. Also on hand is Andrew, who, in addition to his duties as the Angel of Death, now helps out as a caseworker on carious assignments. Gloria, an angel for the 21st century, continues to seek guidance from Monica performing her angelic duties. While the angels may not bring solutions to every problem, they always deliver a message of hope.

Touched By an Angel - The Third Season, Vol. 2 Specifications

Roma Downey, with her apple cheeks, cascading brunette hair, and Irish lilt, has the kind of warm benevolence that has been the bedrock of television from its inception. Starring as Monica, an angel "caseworker" who walks among mortal humanity to help them solve their problems, Downey glows beatifically as she dispenses homilies about God's enduring love. The cantankerous authority of Della Reese as Tess, Monica's immediate superior, and the bland manliness of John Dye as Andrew, the Angel of Death (though by this season, he'd became pretty much all-purpose) gave Touched by an Angel its own holy trinity. By the third season, the trio had settled into a comfortable blend of earnest empathy and vaudevillian banter.

While fans of the show praise its moral values, the scripts vary erratically, slipping all to often into melodrama and hamfisted dialogue. Even viewers comfortable with problems being solved by the Lord's direct intervention will probably scoff at the ending of, for example, the episode about an escape artist who feels guilty over his brother's death--not only is the resolution farfetched, the execution is clumsy. Still, the show pulls in an impressive array of guest stars; The Third Season, Vol. 2 features James Earl Jones, Bill Cosby, Cloris Leachman, Abe Vigoda, Esther Rolle, Edward James Olmos, Camryn Mannheim, Chris Noth, and many, many more. Jasmine Guy returns as Monica's diabolical nemesis, and Hudson Leick (Xena: Warrior Princess) appears twice as a sweet fledgling angel. This four-disc set features 14 episodes with no extra features. --Bret Fetzer

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Jeremiah Johnson

Jeremiah Johnson Review

Jeremiah Johnson Feature

• DVD
• Widescreen
• Pan and Scan (TV Format)
• English, Spanish, French, Subtitled

Jeremiah Johnson Overview

Robert Redford has one of his best-ever roles as a 19th century mountain man in a wilderness of harsh elements and hostile Indians. Directed by The Firm's Sydney Pollack. Year: 1972 Director: Sydney Pollack Starring: Robert Redford, Will Geer, Stefan Gierasch

Jeremiah Johnson Specifications

After they first worked together on the 1966 film This Property Is Condemned, director Sydney Pollack and Robert Redford continued their long-lasting collaboration with this 1972 drama set during the mid-1800s, about one man's rugged effort to shed the burden of civilization and learn to survive in the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains. Will Geer is perfectly cast as the seasoned trapper who teaches Jeremiah Johnson (Redford) how to survive against harsh winters, close encounters with grizzly bears, and hostile Crow Indians. In the course of his adventure, Johnson marries the daughter of a Flathead Indian chief, forms a makeshift family, and ultimately assumes a mythic place in Rocky Mountain folklore. Shot entirely on location in Utah, the film boasts an abundance of breathtaking widescreen scenery, and the story (despite a PG rating) doesn't flinch from the brutality of the wilderness. --Jeff Shannon

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Dazed & Confused - (The Criterion Collection)

Dazed & Confused - (The Criterion Collection) Review

Dazed & Confused - (The Criterion Collection) Overview

America, 1976. The last day of school. Bongs blaze, bell-bottoms ring, and rock and roll rocks. Among the best teen films ever made, Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused eavesdrops on a group of seniors-to-be and incoming freshmen. A launching pad for a number of future stars, Linklater’s first studio effort also features endlessly quotable dialogue and a blasting, stadium-ready soundtrack. Sidestepping nostalgia, Dazed and Confused is less about "the best years of our lives" than the boredom, angst, and excitement of teenagers waiting . . . for something to happen

Dazed & Confused - (The Criterion Collection) Specifications

You remember high school? Really remember? If you think you do, watch this film: it'll all really come racing back. After changing the world with the generation-defining Slacker, director Richard Linklater turned his free-range vérité sensibility on the 1970s. As before, his all-seeing camera meanders across a landscape studded with goofy pop culture references and poignant glimpses of human nature. Only this time around, he's spreading a thick layer of nostalgia over the lens (and across the soundtrack). It's as if Fast Times at Ridgemont High was directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The story deals with a group of friends on the last day of high school, 1976. Good-natured football star Randall "Pink" Floyd navigates effortlessly between the warring worlds of jocks, stoners, wannabes, and rockers with girlfriend and new-freshman buddy in tow. Surprisingly, it's not a coming-of-age movie, but a film that dares ask the eternal, overwhelming, adolescent question, "What happens next?" It's a little too honest to be a light comedy (representative quote: "If I ever say these were the best years of my life, remind me to kill myself."). But it's also way too much fun (remember souped-up Corvettes and bicentennial madness?) to be just another existential-essay-on-celluloid. --Grant Balfour

On the DVD
With a perfect combination of awesome '70s-era packaging and a totally rockin' selection of bonus features, the Criterion Collection's director-approved special edition two-disc release of Dazed and Confused instantly qualifies as one of the very best DVDs of 2006--the 30th anniversary of the Bicentennial, man! That's what I'm talkin' about! As a sublime companion piece to Criterion's release of Richard Linklater's previous film Slacker, the set comes in a slipcase (complete with "Physical Graffiti"-like picture-windows) festooned with Flair-pen high-school "doodling" (just like you'd scribble on your Pee Chee folders, back in the day), and the features get off on a high note (kinda like Slater, y'know?) with writer-director Linklater's feature-length commentary, which offers all aspiring filmmakers an important lesson protecting your vision and knowing when not to compromise. In recalling the many struggles he endured during production, Linklater covers a lot of territory (notes from the studio, the fantasy abundance of muscle cars, selection of music, and his acute disappointment when Robert Plant--but not Jimmy Page--refused to allow Led Zeppelin songs to be used in the film), and his engaging, good-humored perspective (and appropriate sense of vindication) clearly arises from his film's eventual acceptance as a classic. (For all you film buffs out there, Linklater quite rightly recommends Tim Hunter's Over the Edge and Lindsay Anderson's If... as "great teenage films" that defined the genre before Dazed.) The film itself never looked or sounded better (Linklater and cinematographer Lee Daniel supervised the high-def digital transfer), and a generous selection of deleted scenes will be welcomed by the film's legion of loyal fans.

The Disc 2 supplements are highlighted by Making "Dazed", filmmaker Kahane Corn's decade-in-the-making 50-minute documentary, chronicling all aspects of the production from casting to the Dazed tenth-anniversary celebration in Austin, Texas, in 2003. "Beer Bust at the Moon Tower" allows random viewing of a 118-minute compilation of behind-the-scenes footage, on-set interviews (with cast members both in and out of character), audition footage, and recollections from the anniversary bash. The accompanying 72-page booklet is a Criterion master-stroke: Designed like a small-scale high-school yearbook, it's filled with more "doodling" artwork, lots of photos, three appreciative mini-essays (the best being by journalist/author Chuck Klosterman), recollections by cast and crew, and humorous "Profiles in Confusion" portraits of the characters in Dazed, reprinted from the film's similarly designed companion book. It's all topped off by a miniature reproduction of the film's original poster, designed by Frank Kozik. In terms of capturing "The Spirit of '76" and the film's celebratory sense of anti-nostalgia, this is surely one of Criterion's finest releases to date. --Jeff Shannon

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Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go Review

Never Let Me Go Overview

Academy Award® Nominees Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley, co-star with talented newcomer Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) in this poignant and powerful film. Kathy (Mulligan), Ruth (Knightley) and Tommy (Garfield) are best friends who grow up together at an English boarding school with a chilling secret. When they learn the shocking truth--that they are genetically engineered clones raised to be organ donors--they embrace their fleeting chance to live and love. Based on the acclaimed novel by Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day), Never Let Me Go is an intriguing exploration of hope and humanity.

Never Let Me Go Specifications

In adapting Kazuo Ishiguro's celebrated novel, director Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) and screenwriter Alex Garland (Sunshine) transform dystopian fiction into period drama by presenting an alternate past in which people routinely live beyond 100--at a cost to those who make it possible. In the 1970s, Kathy (Isobel Meikle-Small) and Ruth (Ella Purnell) attend Hailsham, a British boarding school where Miss Emily (Charlotte Rampling) holds sway--and no one ever mentions their parents. When new teacher Miss Lucy (Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky) arrives, she reaches out to the awkward Tommy (Charlie Rowe), with whom Kathy becomes close--until jealous Ruth steals him away. Then Lucy reveals what will happen when they leave. By the 1980s, Kathy (a poignant Carey Mulligan), Ruth (Keira Knightley), and Tommy (Andrew Garfield) live in the country until they're ready to fulfill their purpose. With Ruth and Tommy an item, Kathy becomes a carer, a sort of social worker. Over the years, the three go their separate ways until the 1990s, by which point their time will run out unless they can arrange for a deferral. Throughout, Romanek never presents alternate points of view; the audience experiences this brave new world only through the eyes of its sheltered protagonists. If the story raises issues that recall Orwell, the unhurried pace echoes The Remains of the Day, Merchant Ivory's Ishiguro adaptation. Similarly, Never Let Me Go is a work of great skill and compassion, but make no mistake: it's also very, very depressing. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I Review

Elizabeth I Overview

ELIZABETH I - DVD Movie

Elizabeth I Specifications

Helen Mirren's Elizabeth I could almost be cousin to her Jane Tennison. Like the dedicated detective chief inspector, Queen Bess is not without a heart, but work comes first and any romantic entanglements are doomed to fail. Fortunately, she has her friendships. Directed by Tom Hooper (Prime Suspect 6), this two-part HBO/Channel 4 tele-film begins in 1579. The Virgin Queen has been on the throne for 20 years, but has not married. Her closest relationship is with Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester (Jeremy Irons), whom the council will not allow her to wed. Because Robert wishes to produce an heir, he marries another, garnering Elizabeth's disfavor (and nor is he all that thrilled about her dalliance with Henry, the Duke of Anjou). In time, he'll return to her good graces. As she explains, "Friendship outlasts love and is stronger than love." Then, as his health begins to fails, she'll turn to his stepson, the dashing, if duplicitous Robert Devereaux, the Earl of Essex (Hugh Dancy, the Hooper-directed Daniel Deronda). Meanwhile, Mary, Queen of Scots (Barbara Flynn) plots against her Protestant cousin. Even after Mary makes her exit, plenty of other powerful Catholics will stop at nothing to seize the crown. Marked as much by triumph as tragedy, the role of Elizabeth I has been catnip for many illustrious actresses, notably Bette Davis, Glenda Jackson, and Cate Blanchett. Mirren's multi-faceted portrayal of the queen's golden years is a worthy addition to that canon and Irons is a particularly formidable foil. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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Paper Moon

Paper Moon Review

Paper Moon Overview

Adapted from the novel "Addie Pray" by Joe David Brown, PAPER MOON is set in the Midwest during the Great Depression, and follows the story of Moses Pray (Ryan O’Neal), a happy-go-lucky con artist who travels through the Midwest on a mission to swindle money out of innocent widows. While attending a friend’s funeral, Pray is called upon by two elderly ladies to deliver the daughter of the deceased, Addie (Tatum O’Neal), to her aunt in Missouri. Soon learning that the 9-year-old is almost as mischievous and manipulative as he is, Pray and Addie develop a father and daughter routine that increases their credibility as well as their income. Now, the devious duo set out on a series of misadventures involving crooked cops, bootleggers, grieving widows and a Carney dancer named Miss Trixie Delight (Kahn) who adds a little spice to their routine.

Paper Moon Specifications

A sweet and subtle gem of a movie. Newly orphaned Addie (Tatum O'Neal) falls into the care of small-time con artist Moses Pray (Ryan O'Neal, Tatum's real-life father) and turns out to be better at grifting than he is. Set in Depression-era Kansas, Paper Moon is a miracle of unity. The set design and cinematography combine to give both the flavor of documentary photos and the visual quality of movies from the period, and every performance meshes with the overall tone of sincerity, earnest optimism, and creeping desperation. The rapport between Addie and Moses is phenomenal--and being father and daughter doesn't make that a sure thing. Ryan O'Neal gives a truly great performance (perhaps the only one of his career) and Tatum won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress (she's the youngest winner in history). Madeline Kahn was also nominated for her wonderfully funny and sad turn as an exotic dancer named Trixie Delight. Paper Moon has a miraculous combination of outrageous sentimentality and pragmatic cynicism; the result is genuinely touching. One of director Peter Bogdanovich's best films, and kind of a comic companion piece to The Last Picture Show. --Bret Fetzer

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