July 2009
	by Max (with Walt Oleksy)	view previous issues here

My master and I aren’t watching any television, whether network or satellite, this summer. He called our satellite provider and asked that the signal be turned off until Oct. 1. So far, we haven’t gone into TV withdrawal. Maybe it’s because we go to parks together more and in the evening we watch some of his DVDs… old movies and documentaries about animals, history, travel. It’s great and we don’t mind not seeing the overwhelming amount of mindless movies and TV shows on the networks and satellite television. He also saves about $70 a month!

New recommended movies this month, all with two paws up and lots of Woo Woo’s.

Click on small photos for larger views

PRIDE

One of the movies my master pulled out of his collection that we hadn’t seen yet is this amazing British live-action animal movie for the whole family. Released in 2004, it tells the story of a family of lions on the Serengeti Plain in Africa, focusing mainly on Suki, a rebellious lioness cub with a mind and will of her own. The mischief she gets in threatens the lives of the entire pride. The lions talk and their lips move through amazing computer graphics by the Jim Henson Creature Shop, and their voices are from some major actors including Kate Winslet as Suki and Helen Mirren as the voice of her mother. John Downer directed the lion cub coming-of-age story written by British screenwriter Simon Beresford Nye. It’s one of the best animal films of any year, from BBC Video, and the lions deserved Oscars for their incredible performances.

THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS

This drama from Canada and France won the 2004 Academy Award for best foreign language film, although few people probably saw it in this country. Maybe that’s because the title is misleading. It isn’t about Barbarians invading anywhere. Instead, it is very personal story of a family coping with the imminent death of a man from whom they have been estranged for years. It won major prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and critics everywhere hailed it as one of the year’s best. Writer-director Denys Arcand did a masterful job of the screenplay writing and directing. From Miramax.

BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS

A boy whose father is commandant of a Nazi concentration camp for Jews during World War II befriends a Jewish boy at the camp. Neither of the 8-year-old boys know that the prisoners are to become part of the infamous Holocaust. I won’t tell you more because you need to see this film, from the novel by John Boyne that may well give you an entirely new perspective on the Holocaust. The boy actors – Asa Butterfield as the commandant’s son, and Jack Scanlan as the Jewish boy – are fantastic. From Heydey Films and Miramax

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD

This best picture Oscar-nominated drama is engrossing but also unsettling, about a young married couple with two children in the mid-1950s who are unhappy with their lives as average suburbanites (he a businessman and she a housewife). They dream of starting life anew in Paris, although neither of them has a clue as to how they will make a living there. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the perplexed husband and Kate Winslet (this year’s best actress Oscar winner) plays the disillusioned wife. DiCaprio plays his role about as perpetually unhappy and dissatisfied as the owner of the dog in Marley and Me, which became very tiring to watch. Revolutionary Road is not a film for kids, but adults -- especially couples married or unmarried -- will find it serious food for thought. Is it a “downer’? Quite a way down, but worth seeing. This couple really does not get along. The only thing they don’t do is kick their dog, but they probably would if they had one, which they don’t. The title, by the way, refers to the street the couple’s house is on in Connecticut. A joint U.S.-U.K film from Dreamworks and BBC Films, it is released on DVD from Paramount Home Entertainment.




Also new this month:

TAGGART

Two new boxed sets of the Scottish detective chief inspector are available on DVD and both are excellent additions to the very popular television series. Mark McManus stars as the touch, acid-tongued gumshoe who tracks down killers and other villains in Glasgow. Hellfire is a set of 3 DVDs centering around shenanigans at a fertility clinic, a murdered writer, and a satanic ritual. Prayer for the Dead is a set of 2 DVDs that has McManus investigating the death of two young girls and a hypnotist of questionable talents. Good sleuthing from The Brits, Scots, and BFS Entertainment.

LAST CHANCE HARVEY

A quirky romantic comedy with the unlikely teaming of Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, although they do manage to seem like they could fall in love. But he’s so short, he looks like he’s playing Toulouse Lautrec next to a woman giant. The plot isn’t much… he doesn’t think he’ll ever find a woman to love or vice versa, and she – almost chained to her mother – thinks the sun has already set for her. From Starz and Anchor Bay.

New from PBS Home Video: Poisoned Waters, an unsettling look at how polluted waterways of Puget Sound and the Chesapeake Bay are causing health problems for humans and animals; The Released, equally unsettling, about the lives mentally ill public offenders face after prison; The Madoff Affair, the greedy road to prison of Bernard Madoff who used the trust of Jews to hide millions of dollars for his personal use; and Black Money, about international bribery schemes and efforts of the U.S. Department of Justice to protect American businesses.

From Smithsonian Network and Infinity Entertainment Group: Pandas in the Wild, an animal documentary following the adorable creatures (even if they’re not dogs) in China’s mist-shrouded Quinling Mountains; Sky View, a beautiful and exciting aerial view of Europe and the British Isles; The Big Blue, a visit to Australia and the blue whales, sea giants who live in the ocean off the Down Under’s southern coast; Wanted: Anaconda, a close-up look at enormous snakes who literally hug animals (and sometimes people) to death.

Garfield’s Pet Force is a new full-length feature film with a Star Wars story, an interstellar battle between cartoon characters and space creatures who want to control the universe. From 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

New from Hit Entertainment and Lionsgate: Some of kids’ favorites are back with more adventures: Barney: Sing & Dance with Barney; Shaun the Sheep: Sheep on the Loose; Thomas and Friends: Hop on Board Songs and Stories; Bob the Builder: Truck Teamwork.

My master and I find it hard to watch any new animated movie from Walt Disney. The genius whose incredibly talented pen and paint brush artists gave us Bambi, Pinocchio, Snow White and other classics must be turning over in his grave since those who work at his studio in the last decade or even earlier have turned the animation over to computer graphics designers (I don’t call them artists). Case in point is the new film, Bolt. We gave up watching it early into the movie because the animation was so unlifelike and cold. I hope parents are showing their kids the early classics from Disney, or even the newer animated films from Don Bluth, so they know how magical animation films used to be.