Arts + Life

Reviews: A History of Violence, The Greatest Game Ever Played, and Oliver Twist

By Hosts John DeSando & Clay Lowe

"It's Movie Time" has won 8 national awards including Silver Microphone and Communicator honors.

Drs. Lowe and DeSando have been moderator and panelist respectively on TV 25's "World Film Classics" for several years. Both are university professors, Lowe at The Ohio State University and DeSando at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio.

A thinking person's sci-fi.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

"God give me the serenity to accept things which cannot be changed; give me courage to change things which must be changed . . . . Reinhold Niebuhr

Adapted from a graphic novel but not an imitation of it.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time

Knowing how director David Cronenberg is turned on by violence, I was interested to see how he could treat its history. But A History of Violence is the story of only one man's history, Tom Stall, played with hunky toughness by Viggo Mortensen. Upon reflection, the film is really a history of all violence if its insanity, pervasiveness, inevitability, and sexuality are common traits.

Films reviewed: Just Like Heaven and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride

By Hosts John DeSando and Clay Lowe with Mark Pfeiffer in for Clay Lowe

"It's Movie Time" has won 8 national awards including Silver Microphone and Communicator national honors.

Drs. Lowe and DeSando had been moderator and panelist respectively on TV 25's "World Film Classics" for several years. Both have been university professors, Lowe at The Ohio State University and DeSando at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio.

A Shakespeare play . . .

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

If not the greatest game ever played, certainly the 1913 US Open, where 20-year-old amateur Francis Ouimet (Shia LaBeouf) defeated reigning champion Harry Vardon (Stephen Dillane), would have to rank in the top five. Rare it is for any amateur to win a professional tournament; for an American to take it from the defending Brit champion and another top Brit was unthinkable at the turn of the last century.

Foster trades a panic room for a panic plane.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

"Flight is intolerable contradiction." Muriel Rukeyser

The age of kick-butt women in film is alive and maturing, as Jody Foster in Flightplan extricates herself from an apparent kidnapping of her daughter aboard a flight to the states from Berlin. Red Eye with Rachel McAdams has a similar situation with a female exec freeing herself from a fellow passenger who demands her involvement in an assassination long before the flight.

Visual Poe

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

Films reviewed: Proof and Lord of War

By Hosts John DeSando and Clay Lowe with Lori Pearson substituting for Clay Lowe

"It's Movie Time" has won 8 national awards including Silver Microphone and Communicator national honors.

Drs. Lowe and DeSando had been moderator and panelist respectively on TV 25's "World Film Classics" for several years. Both have been university professors, Lowe at The Ohio State University and DeSando at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio.

Plato in the Park

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

The most imaginative narrative film in the last two years? Better middle-aged romance than Something's Gotta Give and Must Love Dogs? YES!

In Yes, Sally Potter, having established herself as not one of the usual directing boys with her wildly creative Orlando, has her characters speak in iambic pentameter, which, if I remember my English literature classes well enough, was the style used by Shakespeare because it approximates ordinary speech.

Light fare for a waning summer

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

Just when I thought the western world had forgotten about Plato, along comes a romcom devoted to the purity of love divorced from the sensual. Just Like Heaven casts Reese Witherspoon as Elizabeth, a medical doctor put into coma by an accident. But her spirit haunts Mark Ruffalo's David, who has rented her old San Francisco apartment.

Proof that a play can become a film.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

A necessary evil.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

"Evil prevails." Yuri Olav in "Lord of War"

Nicholas Cage's Yuri Orlav is the embodiment of the situationally ethical arms dealer who justifies his profession with such specious arguments as supplying arms to countries for their "defense" or because someone will take his place if he leaves--unsatisfactory justifications for families of slaughtered African refugees and bloody poor excuses for the US government.

Films reviewed: Exorcism of Emily Rose, Unfinished Life, Constant Gardener

By Hosts John DeSando and Clay Lowe

"It's Movie Time" has won 8 national awards including Silver Microphone and Communicator national honors.

Drs. Lowe and DeSando had been moderator and panelist respectively on TV 25's "World Film Classics" for several years. Both have been university professors, Lowe at The Ohio State University and DeSando at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio.

A bear runs through it.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

Even when he's not an environmental activist or independent film guru, Robert Redford infuses every project and role with a gravitas part hope and part dignity. But not all the films are successful such as All the President's Men or Butch Cassidy. Director Lasse Hallstrom's An Unfinished Life is a modern melodramatic oater whose plot once started can navigate on its own.

A travelogue of the mind.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

Kenya is a problematic place for a romantic government official or a devoted gardener for that matter. Both of those are in the character of Ralph Fiennes' Justin (a just man), who marries Rachel Weisz's Tessa, an activist inviting the wrath of global businesses determined to profit from vulnerable natives. No surprise Hardy's Tess had the same doomed outrage and singleness of purpose.

Agnostic Heaven

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

Films reviewed: Red Eye, Transporter 2

By hosts John DeSando and Clay Lowe

"It's Movie Time" has won 8 national awards including Silver Microphone and Communicator national honors.

Drs. Lowe and DeSando were moderator and panelist respectively on TV 25's "World Film Classics." Both have been professors, Lowe at The Ohio State University and DeSando at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio.

A whimper.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

Until I read about the catastrophes associated with "A Sound of Thunder," I was going to call it the cheesiest movie in recent memory. The adapted Ray Bradbury science fiction story about time travel suffered the great floods of 2002 in Prague and lack of money that delayed its release for 2 years. That Renny Harlin (Cutthroat Island) was originally scheduled to direct should have tipped me off to a lowbrow enterprise.

Enjoy!

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

I'm usually pushing the arty films or the thematically rich indies, so let me digress and recommend Transporter 2 for mindless fun without a speck of artistic heft. Jason Statham plays Frank Martin, a super operative who would discretely carry your mother-in-law to Hades for a price, and drive her there in a shiny black Audi.

Films reviewed: 40 year-old Virgin, Wedding Crashers, Aristocrats, Big Lebowski

By hosts John DeSando and Clay Lowe

"It's Movie Time" has won 8 national awards including Silver Microphone and Communicator national honors.

Drs. Lowe and DeSando were moderator and panelist respectively on TV 25's "World Film Classics." Both have been professors, Lowe at The Ohio State University and DeSando at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio.