The Manchurian Candidate tries to ride along the success of recent remakes of ‘60’s and ‘70’s movies, such as heist flicks Ocean’s Eleven (yes, that was a remake) and The Score, plus horror giants like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Dawn of the Dead. The 1962 original, directed by John Frankenheimer, starred Frank Sinatra and (the late) Janet Leigh and has little to do story-wise with Jonathan Demme’s 2004 remake. The gist of the plot, however, has been smoothly shifted to the present. And it may not be purely coincidental that this version, which deals with a vice-presidential candidate, has been cleverly released in the midst of the Bush-Kerry battle.
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In homeland Germany, Der Untergang, describing the last two weeks of the life of Adolf Hitler, caused quite a stir (and that is deliberately intended euphemistically). In all press-outings it was made clear the film would show the human side of Hitler, the side that was always overshadowed by the atrocious acts he undertook in order to feed his expansion needs and prove his horrible racial theories. It is way too unshaded to state that this is all Der Untergang is aiming at.
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Based on the novel by the same name from prize winning novelist, Michael Cunningham, A Home at the End of the World will be a big surprise for Colin Farrell fans who expect him to play his usual man of action. Many would even call it “daring” for the young actor to take on this role of more than dubious sexuality as the quiet Bobby who has a certain emotional dependency on his childhood friend, Jonathan (Dallas Roberts). This is a shy film that mysteriously kept my interest despite the sometimes uneven pacing of the story.

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The search for the lead role in the upcoming Superman return, logically entitled Superman Returns, has finally come to an end with the casting of rookie Brandon Routh. This was also confirmed this week by Warner Bros. Routh recently played in TV shows such as Gilmore Girls and One to Live and has done some guest appearances, in shows such as Will & Grace. Director Brian Singer (yes, he from the two truly excellent X-Men films) has stated, he wanted to go for a fresh new face, ever since he became linked to the project. Inititial photography will begin around January/Febuary 2005 and Superman Returns is scheduled for a 2006 summer release. The story for the new film will continue where the last Superman movie, Superman IV from 1987, starring late Christopher Reeve, left off. (Photograph courtesy of Alex Dwyer/brandonrouth.tv)

I quite literally can’t see this film enough. Brilliant direction by Sidney Lumet, an amazing script by the legendary Paddy Chayefsky and profound performances by Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Robert Duvall, Ned Beatty as well as an Academy award win for Peter Finch as the media messiah who famously gets people to shout that they are “mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore!” With the lines between news, fiction, documentary and propaganda increasingly vagued, this 1976 classic has become scarily prophetic. See it again and be afraid, be very afraid.

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If I was four years old, it probably wouldn’t bother me so much that this film is clearly a lame attempt by DreamWorks Studios to capitalize on the undersea success of Pixar’s Finding Nemo (2003). They both even feature a vegetarian shark: the oxymoron of which I find slightly annoying speaking as someone still traumatized by the film JAWS (1975). Yet as the holiday season approaches and we can expect a plethora of computer generated animated extravaganzas coming soon to theaters near us, Shark Tale is the sort of film only worth taking very young children with the attention span of newts to go see.

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In concurrence with our Zeitgeist and the situation in most Western cities, this movie belongs to the growing line of cinematic features that critically and openly portrays ethnic and social issues. In order not to agitate the audience too much, the makers of this movie chose satire and a light-hearted tone to depict the tense situation in the fictitious district Kassablanka, situated in Antwerp, Belgium. This city is notorious for its racial and social problems and the strong representation of right-wing extremists unified in the controversial political party Vlaams Blok. The story follows two families and their everyday lives, one week before the city’s elections in the year 2000: one Moroccan family and one (indigenous) Flemish family.

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The Clearing is the directorial debut of a Dutchman who is no stranger in Hollywood. As producer of Glory (1989), The Vanishing (1993), The Pelican Brief (1998), Heat (1995) and more, Pieter Jan Brugge has a respectable resume to his name. It’s with that track record that he can make a debut with such heavy hitting actors as Robert Redford, Helen Mirren and William Dafoe. All of these give strong performances and every detail of this production is done with the greatest of care, yet the sum of it’s parts leave one completely unfulfilled as Brugge quite masterfully makes what I can only describe as the best film I really never needed to see.

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Who is Tom Dowd? That’s what artists like Eric Clapton, Ray Charles, the Allman Brothers and Aretha Franklin asked when they first heard his name or saw his flop of black hair over thick-rimmed glasses behind the mixing console of the Atlantic Records recording studio. Tom Dowd was an audio engineer for Atlantic Records from the late 1940′s through to the turn of the century whose great influence on some classic tracks and albums will remain a secret to most of those who haven’t seen this documentary.

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Although we have still more than two months to go until 2004 is history, with some amazing titles about to be released, it is always good to look ahead to see what we can expect of the movie year 2005. And it will be dynamic year, with some exciting superhero, sci-fi and fantasy movies. A look at some of the most promising blockbusters of 2005.
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