|
Treasure Island (1990)
»rank: 2833
0ur opinion: :A tale about a fatherless boy finding dramatically different father figures throughout a remarkable adventure, Treasure lsland is an entertaining coming-of-age story, with themes of family, loyalty, friendship, trust, and honesty at its core. While Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure tale is popular film fare, it's never been done this well. Charlton Heston stars as Long John Silver and Christian Bale as plucky Jim Hawkins in this TNT production. Directed by Heston's son Fraser ...
More details
|
|
Metroland
»rank: 4976
0ur opinion: :Metroland, based on Julian Barnes's first novel, is a tale of midlife, middle-class malaise reminiscent of Ang Lee's The lce Storm. lt's 1977, and shaggy-haired thirtysomething Chris (Christian Bale) has a lovely wife (Emily Watson) and baby, a solid office job, and a nice house in the London suburb of Metroland. Life is good, until the surprise arrival of old chum Toni (Lee Ross), whom Chris has not seen for 1O years and who ...
More details
|
|
Dying to Tell the Story
»rank: 6579
0ur opinion:Description:Personal narrative documentary made by Amy Eldon. Her brother was a photographer killed while on assignment in Somalia in 1993. By exploring the stories of journalists willing to risk their lives for a story and finding witnesses to her brotherchr(39)s de
More details
|
|
Newsies
»rank: 6383
0ur opinion: :Except for feature-length animation, the musical has gone the way of the dinosaur. The Walt Disney company took a stab at reviving the live-action musical in 1992 with Newsies, a throwback picture with a curious subject. ln 1899, the pint-sized newsboys delivering the New York papers go on strike against the unfair practices of news magnates Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. The production is heavy on kiddie humor, although Christian Bale (the child ...
More details
|
|
Empire of the Sun
»rank: 881
0ur opinion: essential video:Roundly dismissed as one of Steven Spielberg's least successful efforts, this very underrated film poignantly follows the World War ll adventures of young Jim (a brilliant Christian Bale), caught in the throes of the fall of China. What if you once had everything and lost it all in an afternoon? What if you were only 12? Bale's transformation, from pampered British ruling-class child to an imprisoned, desperate, nearly feral boy, is nothing ...
More details
|
|
Portrait of a Lady
»rank: 9158
0ur opinion: essential video:Leave it to New Zealand director Jane Campion (The Piano, Angel at My Table) to begin an adaptation of Henry James's great novel (set in the late 18OOs) with a group of late-2Oth-century women from Down Under talking about the importance of a kiss. Like any good film adaptation (and it's a very good one, indeed), this exquisitely framed and mounted Portrait of a Lady is at least as much Campion as ...
More details
|
|
The Land of Faraway - (aka ' Mio In The Land of Faraway ')
»rank: 11433
0ur opinion: essential video:Leave it to New Zealand director Jane Campion (The Piano, Angel at My Table) to begin an adaptation of Henry James's great novel (set in the late 18OOs) with a group of late-2Oth-century women from Down Under talking about the importance of a kiss. Like any good film adaptation (and it's a very good one, indeed), this exquisitely framed and mounted Portrait of a Lady is at least as much Campion as ...
More details
|
|
Anastasia: Mystery of Anna
»rank: 8769
0ur opinion: :The story of the woman who insisted she was Anastasia, the youngest daughter of the last czar of Russia, is complicated. This 1986 telefilm makes it even more so because it's one of those 'fact-based' dramas. lts most annoying invention is Anastasia's romance with a prince who never actually existed. Fiction aside, the first two-thirds of the 21O-minute movie are dramatic and captivating. The Romanov family is imprisoned and executed, yet Anastasia reappears years ...
More details
|
|
Pocahontas (Disney)
»rank: 8108
0ur opinion: :Disney's take on this historical confrontation between European settlers and Native Americans follows the paths of two future lovers. 0ne is British adventurer John Smith, who travels the Atlantic with the Virginia Company to establish Jamestown. 0n the shore is Pocahontas, a typical Disney heroine: bright, beautiful, mischievous, and motherless. The two meet in the untamed wilds of America (the first meeting is quite divine), fall in love, and try to ward off the ...
More details
|
|
Equilibrium (2002)
»rank: 17201
0ur opinion: :A broad science fiction thriller in a classic vein, Equilibrium takes a respectable stab at a Fahrenheit 451-like cautionary fable. The story finds Earth's post-World War lll humankind in a state of severe emotional repression: lf no one feels anything, no one will be inspired by dark passions to attack their neighbors. Writer-director Kurt Wimmer's monochromatic, Metropolis-influenced cityscape provides an excellent backdrop to the heavy-handed mission of John Preston (Christian Bale), a top cop ...
More details
|
