Change Your Image
tomstrock
Reviews
Mondovino (2004)
not just for people who love wine
mondovino is a moving and rewarding documentary. in the world of wine there is a huge different between the big winery and the small one. it's not just about size of of your vineyard but also the amount of money and power you have. if you have enough money to place ads in the wine spectator and hire a so called "wine except" then it doesn't matter the size of your estate. also in business world of today wine often has to mass marketed and suited to people's taste. what is means many times wine filtered of it's origin. mondovino shows the commercial side of wine in that of mega producer Robert mondavi, and Michael Rolland the wine expert who shapes wine to the taste of today's critics like Robert parker who is also in the film. now these men are not evil or wrong for they have done a great deal of good for wine. but they have power on a grand scale. as we all know power corrupts. mondovino also shows small wine makers such as Aime Guilbert of the languedoc and Hubert de montille of volnay in burgundy. these wine makers are not starving wine makers but they know like all great wine makers that it's about where the grapes are from. the best example of this is explained not by a wine maker but by a Haitian man working for Neal rosenthal the wine importer. the area the grapes are grown the terroir that matters, that a guiding hand that knows this makes important real wine.
Sahara (1943)
when America was fighting a just cause.
yes one can say that sahara is a propaganda film. filmed in 1943 it tells of how a rag tag bunch of allies from a Sudanese; a free french fighter, several brits along with three Americans lead by bogart take on about 500 odd Germans. but one can not help but love this film. the allies are trying to keep the Germans from a well for as long as the can. but before this bogart tells the men that they can have their fill of water and leave before the German arrive, or they can stay and fight them because that would inflict heavy damage and would the moral thing to do. so stay and fight is what they do. well of course they are victorious but not without paying a very heavy price. the part that hit me on a personal level was the end. bogart delivers the German pow's to the British army, he then reads off the names of the guys that didn't make it from their dog tags. yesterday i stood on a corner in my neighbor and read names the of some of the dead from this war. did they died for freedom? i really don't think so.
Bad Santa (2003)
perhaps the greatest anti-hero since Harry Lime
When I saw this in the movie house I laughed more than I had in a very long time. I saw it again on DVD the other night and liked it even more although the shock value had lessened. Some comments on this film have confused me. First of all this movie grossed over 60 million at the domestic box office alone. The budget was only 16 million; peanuts compared to most Hollywood movies. That wouldn't make it a bomb now would it? Lauren Graham's character has a santa fetish that why she gets it on with old Willie.
Billy Bob Thorton's Willie is a tour de force. Like any good anti-hero he has his own set of rules. By the way this movie is a great litmus test for a relationship. Have a couple of grandad's sit back and enjoy.
Control Room (2004)
treatment of pow"s
After seeing picture upon picture of iraqi prisoners abused I found it amazing that in the control room it shows george w bush stating how fair pow's will be treated in iraq. The film shows American prisoners in iraq. During the height of the media coverage of the shall i say scandal, i saw a larry king show which one the American pow's on free i might add said that she was treated rather well under the circumstances. Control room shows the viewer the side that the American media rarely shows, the human element of what going on in iraq. Perhaps enough people will see control room and talk about it with the people the know. It is important to see both sides of the coin.