Welcome back to another review of Aew Dark: Elevation, this week features an Eddie Kingston main event… Hell yes. Though we have to sit through nine matches before that! We’ve got Ian Riccaboni, Paul Wight and Matt Menard on commentary once again, so let’s get into the review.
Match #1: The Bunny def. Blain Onyx
My Thoughts: The Bunny took control of this one for the get-go, only “letting” Blain Onyx get a few hits in so it didn’t look like she totally folded. But otherwise this was a complete and total squash.
My Score: 1 out of 5 Match #2: Brandon Cutler def. Man Scout
My Thoughts: Another Brandon Cutler comedy match… What did you expect? Classic wrestling? He’s fighting Man Scout here folks! This was more of your typical Aew quasi-squash but the outcome was Never in doubt. At all. In the slightest.
My Score: 2 out...
Match #1: The Bunny def. Blain Onyx
My Thoughts: The Bunny took control of this one for the get-go, only “letting” Blain Onyx get a few hits in so it didn’t look like she totally folded. But otherwise this was a complete and total squash.
My Score: 1 out of 5 Match #2: Brandon Cutler def. Man Scout
My Thoughts: Another Brandon Cutler comedy match… What did you expect? Classic wrestling? He’s fighting Man Scout here folks! This was more of your typical Aew quasi-squash but the outcome was Never in doubt. At all. In the slightest.
My Score: 2 out...
- 11/30/2022
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
Another week, another episode of Aew: Dark which emanates from Chicago like the rest of this past week’s shows. We got a tight 7-match card (thank god) so let’s get right to it!
Match #1: Josh Woods & Tony Nese def. Brandon Gore & Storm Grayson
My Thoughts: Again? Really? Well at least Nese and Woods are getting work. Work against jobbers but work nonetheless. Though we didn’t need two matches a week from those guys Imho, especially when both are squash matches.
My Score: 1.5 out of 5 Match #2: Marina Shafir def. Laynie Luck
My Thoughts: This match felt like a step back from the work Shafir is doing in her tag matches with Nyla Rose (who was at ringside here), with a number of iffy-looking moves from Shafir that even Taz points out on commentary!
My Score: 1 out of 5 Match #3: Zack Clayton def. Serpentico
My Thoughts: Totally...
Match #1: Josh Woods & Tony Nese def. Brandon Gore & Storm Grayson
My Thoughts: Again? Really? Well at least Nese and Woods are getting work. Work against jobbers but work nonetheless. Though we didn’t need two matches a week from those guys Imho, especially when both are squash matches.
My Score: 1.5 out of 5 Match #2: Marina Shafir def. Laynie Luck
My Thoughts: This match felt like a step back from the work Shafir is doing in her tag matches with Nyla Rose (who was at ringside here), with a number of iffy-looking moves from Shafir that even Taz points out on commentary!
My Score: 1 out of 5 Match #3: Zack Clayton def. Serpentico
My Thoughts: Totally...
- 9/8/2022
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
Bali International Film Festival’ 15th edition from 9–12 June is again delivering outstanding entertainment of quality, thought-provoking independent, and award-winning shorts, features, and documentaries from Indonesia and around the world.
In-cinema and online: Films will be presented as a combination of in-cinema and on-line screenings.
Premieres: The Official Program includes many premieres among the 63 features and shorts representing 26 countries.
Awards: Our juried competition will include awards in several artistic and technical categories —Narrative Features, Documentaries and Short Films.
Films In Competition Feature documentary Lamafa (Kujirabito), Director: Bon Ishikawa (Japan) Bucolic (Bukolika), Director: Karol PaÅ‚ka (Poland) My Childhood, My Country — 20 Years in Afghanistan, Director: Phil Grabsky, Shoaib Sharifi (United Kingdom)Mentawai — Souls of the Forest, Director: Joo Peter (Germany) Feature narrative The Coffin Painter The Coffin Painter, Director: Da Fei (China)Inside a Funeral Hall, Director: Ho-hyun Lee (Republic of Korea) Solo on Icebergs, Director: Rouhollah Sedighi (Islamic Republic of Iran)Preman,...
In-cinema and online: Films will be presented as a combination of in-cinema and on-line screenings.
Premieres: The Official Program includes many premieres among the 63 features and shorts representing 26 countries.
Awards: Our juried competition will include awards in several artistic and technical categories —Narrative Features, Documentaries and Short Films.
Films In Competition Feature documentary Lamafa (Kujirabito), Director: Bon Ishikawa (Japan) Bucolic (Bukolika), Director: Karol PaÅ‚ka (Poland) My Childhood, My Country — 20 Years in Afghanistan, Director: Phil Grabsky, Shoaib Sharifi (United Kingdom)Mentawai — Souls of the Forest, Director: Joo Peter (Germany) Feature narrative The Coffin Painter The Coffin Painter, Director: Da Fei (China)Inside a Funeral Hall, Director: Ho-hyun Lee (Republic of Korea) Solo on Icebergs, Director: Rouhollah Sedighi (Islamic Republic of Iran)Preman,...
- 6/8/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
John McAfee isn’t fooling anyone. In a documentary profile filled with damning evidence, there’s something self-incriminating in McAfee’s “You probably read about me” response to being arrested by police, all caught on squad car dashcams.
It’s the opening scene of Nanette Burstein’s “Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee,” a detailed look at the trail left behind by a millionaire untethered from social and legal norms. From his time as progenitor of the once-ubiquitous McAfee antivirus software, through his business ventures overseas in Belize and his recent bid for the Libertarian presidential nomination, Burstein looks at the consequences of empowering an individual to trade on his name and not his abilities. In a media landscape that hasn’t fully realized how to cover business mogul presidential candidates, “Gringo” shows what it takes to truly examine the past of a volatile public figure.
“Gringo” is light on McAfee’s pre-Belize exploits,...
It’s the opening scene of Nanette Burstein’s “Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee,” a detailed look at the trail left behind by a millionaire untethered from social and legal norms. From his time as progenitor of the once-ubiquitous McAfee antivirus software, through his business ventures overseas in Belize and his recent bid for the Libertarian presidential nomination, Burstein looks at the consequences of empowering an individual to trade on his name and not his abilities. In a media landscape that hasn’t fully realized how to cover business mogul presidential candidates, “Gringo” shows what it takes to truly examine the past of a volatile public figure.
“Gringo” is light on McAfee’s pre-Belize exploits,...
- 9/16/2016
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
Happy Birthday Robert Anthony De Niro Jr, born on this day 1943. Arguably the greatest American actor of his generation, Robert De Niro has, in recent years, become a prime contender for the "should have retired years ago" cone of shame. Roles in films like Analyse This and Meet the Parents encouraged an ageing De Niro to steer more towards comedy - where he could continue to demand substantial salaries while putting in notably less effort than some of his earlier, more physical roles. Not that anyone can blame him either. He's an old man, but when the guy who gave us Travis Bickle, Vito Corleone, Jake La Motta and Jimmy Conway pumps out a string of dross that includes comedies Little Fockers and The Big Wedding,...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 8/17/2015
- Screen Anarchy
Watching and listening to former United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld speak at length—close to two hours, in fact—about his life and career in politics is a bit of a dizzying ordeal. Even with Errol Morris directing, The Unknown Known is frustrating at times and stupefying at others. But rather than being a weakness or a reason to dismiss the film as a slog through circular reasoning and overanalyzing minute details of history, the movie indeed seems to capture qualities inherent to Mr. Rumsfeld, working in a way that is emblematic of the great documentarian’s preference to create portraits rather than incisive and conclusion probes of public figures. That is to say, the audience is ultimately left to judge the exploits and demeanor of the former Secretary, rather than being blatantly instructed on what to think of him.
It’s not until the end of the...
It’s not until the end of the...
- 9/11/2013
- by Darren Ruecker
- We Got This Covered
It was a blinging night at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, California as a number of stars hit the red carpet of the 38th American Music Awards. From Miley Cyrus to Rihanna, all stole attention with their dazzling outfits. Putting her rock style aside, Miley showed up at the Sunday, November 21 event in a short white dress with a very long train.
Beside posing solo, Miley also struck a pose with Kelly Osbourne who was dressed in a strapless black dress, peep-toe heels, and rocker-chic rings and had a bouffant hairstyle. As for Rihanna, although the Barbadian stayed true to her red locks, she had voluminous spiral curls that night. Rihanna matched her red hair with a scarlet long sleeve gown with subtle floral detailing from the Fall/Winter 2010 Ellie Saab Haute Couture collection.
Tapped to perform at the prize-giving event, Taylor Swift was almost unrecognizable with her long straight hair.
Beside posing solo, Miley also struck a pose with Kelly Osbourne who was dressed in a strapless black dress, peep-toe heels, and rocker-chic rings and had a bouffant hairstyle. As for Rihanna, although the Barbadian stayed true to her red locks, she had voluminous spiral curls that night. Rihanna matched her red hair with a scarlet long sleeve gown with subtle floral detailing from the Fall/Winter 2010 Ellie Saab Haute Couture collection.
Tapped to perform at the prize-giving event, Taylor Swift was almost unrecognizable with her long straight hair.
- 11/22/2010
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
Competition
BERLIN -- Errol Morris looks at the abuse and torture of prisoners by U.S. soldiers in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad with a peculiar fixation in Standard Operating Procedure. The scandal, of course, came to light in 2004 through photographs taken by the Army members who served as prison wardens.
In his documentary, Morris focuses with near-pornographic obsession on how those photos were taken, by whom and for what purpose. The wider context of the war on terrorism, the Bush administration's complicity in prisoner abuse, the moral and legal implications and the damage the scandal did to U.S. prestige worldwide is not even mentioned.
Such subject matter was never going to find a wide audience, especially theatrically. But this Sony Pictures Classics release faces another challenge: A much more encompassing film, Rory Kennedy's The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, made a year earlier for HBO, covered the identical territory -- even to the point of duplicating some interviews -- and that film did explore the context of the scandal.
Morris draws on three sources for his film: The photos themselves of Iraqi detainees being physically abused, sexually humiliated and in one instance the body of a prisoner evidently tortured to death; interviews with the soldiers who took the photos or appeared in them; and re-created scenes with actors portraying events surrounded the infamous photographic sessions.
Where in Kennedy's docu the soldiers wondered in amazement how they ever got involved in such appalling behavior, Morris' questions put them on the defensive. They point fingers, the women blame the men, the photographers insist they only wanted to document the abuse, and everyone keeps saying they never really hurt anyone. In truth, daily shelling of the prison by insurgents and constant threats of violence by prisoners did create an extremely unhealthy psychological state where illegal orders were obeyed promptly.
Morris' interviews rarely rise above the level of sergeants. He did get on camera Janis Karpinski, who as commander of the military prison brigade in Iraq was a central figure of the scandal and she doesn't mince words. But the film never follows up on her allegations. She mentions that the military intelligence interrogators answered to a General Miller but the film never explains that this is Major Gen. Geoffrey Miller, formerly head of prison operations at Guanatanamo Bay, who was ordered by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to bring his methods to Abu Ghraib.
Instead, Morris keeps returning again and again to those photos and in one instance a video and the time frames in which they were taken. It seems like Morris -- no pun intended -- misses the bigger picture.
The film does make a solid point that in at least once instance an Iraqi who was willing to cooperate and give information shut up forever following his humiliation. A soldier relates that one detainee in this purgatory was a mere taxi driver caught up in a sweep of adult males by the U.S. military.
The restaging of the events surrounded these humiliation is in questionable taste, though. What purpose does it serve for actors to recreate these incidents when we already have such strong photographic proof? These sequences, often tricked out with elaborate slow motion, a few optical effects and Danny Elfman's overwrought musical score, put a Hollywood gloss on "SOP" that ill befits its subject.
The interviews are the most impressive element of the film. Despite the pain and shattered lives, these soldiers are willing to face the camera -- and themselves -- to try to make sense out of completely senseless actions that never advanced the American cause in Iraq. This is the real value of SOP.
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
Sony Pictures Classics
Participant Prods.
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Errol Morris
Producers: Julie Ahlberg, Errol Morris
Directors of photography: Robert Chappell, Robert Richardson
Music: Danny Elfman
Editor: Andy Grieve
Running time -- 121 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
BERLIN -- Errol Morris looks at the abuse and torture of prisoners by U.S. soldiers in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad with a peculiar fixation in Standard Operating Procedure. The scandal, of course, came to light in 2004 through photographs taken by the Army members who served as prison wardens.
In his documentary, Morris focuses with near-pornographic obsession on how those photos were taken, by whom and for what purpose. The wider context of the war on terrorism, the Bush administration's complicity in prisoner abuse, the moral and legal implications and the damage the scandal did to U.S. prestige worldwide is not even mentioned.
Such subject matter was never going to find a wide audience, especially theatrically. But this Sony Pictures Classics release faces another challenge: A much more encompassing film, Rory Kennedy's The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, made a year earlier for HBO, covered the identical territory -- even to the point of duplicating some interviews -- and that film did explore the context of the scandal.
Morris draws on three sources for his film: The photos themselves of Iraqi detainees being physically abused, sexually humiliated and in one instance the body of a prisoner evidently tortured to death; interviews with the soldiers who took the photos or appeared in them; and re-created scenes with actors portraying events surrounded the infamous photographic sessions.
Where in Kennedy's docu the soldiers wondered in amazement how they ever got involved in such appalling behavior, Morris' questions put them on the defensive. They point fingers, the women blame the men, the photographers insist they only wanted to document the abuse, and everyone keeps saying they never really hurt anyone. In truth, daily shelling of the prison by insurgents and constant threats of violence by prisoners did create an extremely unhealthy psychological state where illegal orders were obeyed promptly.
Morris' interviews rarely rise above the level of sergeants. He did get on camera Janis Karpinski, who as commander of the military prison brigade in Iraq was a central figure of the scandal and she doesn't mince words. But the film never follows up on her allegations. She mentions that the military intelligence interrogators answered to a General Miller but the film never explains that this is Major Gen. Geoffrey Miller, formerly head of prison operations at Guanatanamo Bay, who was ordered by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to bring his methods to Abu Ghraib.
Instead, Morris keeps returning again and again to those photos and in one instance a video and the time frames in which they were taken. It seems like Morris -- no pun intended -- misses the bigger picture.
The film does make a solid point that in at least once instance an Iraqi who was willing to cooperate and give information shut up forever following his humiliation. A soldier relates that one detainee in this purgatory was a mere taxi driver caught up in a sweep of adult males by the U.S. military.
The restaging of the events surrounded these humiliation is in questionable taste, though. What purpose does it serve for actors to recreate these incidents when we already have such strong photographic proof? These sequences, often tricked out with elaborate slow motion, a few optical effects and Danny Elfman's overwrought musical score, put a Hollywood gloss on "SOP" that ill befits its subject.
The interviews are the most impressive element of the film. Despite the pain and shattered lives, these soldiers are willing to face the camera -- and themselves -- to try to make sense out of completely senseless actions that never advanced the American cause in Iraq. This is the real value of SOP.
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
Sony Pictures Classics
Participant Prods.
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Errol Morris
Producers: Julie Ahlberg, Errol Morris
Directors of photography: Robert Chappell, Robert Richardson
Music: Danny Elfman
Editor: Andy Grieve
Running time -- 121 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 2/14/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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