Archive for Documentary

Music Box Films,

Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, Renan Ozturk, Jon Krakauer

Meru is a mountain in India. Not the highest, but perhaps one of the most difficult. At the top is a place called the Shark’s Fin which is virtually straight up, and very smooth. It’s probably the most difficult because it has all kinds of climbing. Due to the extreme altitude, all the high altitude equipment must be hauled up, but you not only have to climb the wall, you have all types of climbing to cross, so it takes a lot of equipment with no Sherpa to carry your stuff. These three expert, world renown climbers made the incredibly intense climb and filmed it so we can experience everything along with them.

This is another breathtaking film on the mountain. This documentary also contains a lot of background information about the people involved including their families. This is a unique film because it was done by the climbers themselves and they bring their own personalities into the film. There is something unique about these folks that are constantly pulled to the mountain and have to test their survivor skills over and over again for no great compensation. They just can’t seem to stop. These are the very best, and this movie is really interesting. It’s the closest I’ve come to real climbing myself.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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D’Souza Media,

Dinesh D’Souza

Dinesh D’Souza, a brilliant scholar and conservative pundit sets to discover the truth about the early days of the Democratic Party and if their claims regarding their history especially regarding minorities is actually correct or if it is all misdirection. Then he looks at the history of the Clinton Family from before their were married up to the present run for President. Dinesh interviews some really scholarly people to understand the history and what is happening yesterday and today, and perhaps tomorrow. This is a documentary, but a very interesting story.

This was a fascinating and very interesting film, very well done, and very professional. The DVD contains the feature film, which is excellent in it’s entirety, but also has some very long interviews with three of the most interesting guests on the DVD that are very long, almost as long as the film itself. These full interviews are an excellent add as it serves two purposes. First you get a real understanding of what the person has to say, but you also get to view the way it is edited to fit into the running time of the film. The information that was cut was certainly as good as the parts that were used in the film. The two biggest takeaways for me were, 1- The Democrat party has had a long history of slavery and persecution of African-Americans especially. They were the ones that started and supported the Ku Klux Klan, and although Hillary mentioned the film Lincoln in one of the debates recently in explaining why you use a personal and a private persona to get things done in Washington, I think she missed the point. Lincoln had to use everything in his arsenal to get the thirteenth amendment passed, it was the Democrat Party who was fighting him all the way. 2 – My second takeaway is how the Clinton Family history. Since college, Hillary has been very motivated by seeking power. The two of them came from simple means, but all of their gigantic fortune has come from nothing but selling access to government. Throughout history, corrupt politicians have accepted money from companies and individuals for pork belly projects that brought businesses and jobs to their home districts. You might argue that it’s wrong, but it has always happened, but the Clinton gang is the first ever that did it for the sole purpose of building their own power and mostly personal wealth. They were also very happy to go to foreign companies, even hostile ones, and takes millions of dollars for their “charity” work in return for granting huge contracts and such for personal friends. Suddenly Bill Clinton is getting half a million dollars for a 45 minute speech, while his wife is working in the Senate or Department of State and there are many examples of how these humongous fees came in and immediately after a contact was awarded by Hillary to the donor country. I wondered why the Haitians are picketing the Clinton Foundation daily, only to find out that they took in Billions for charity to help Haiti to rebuild houses and infrastructure from the hurricane, and most of the money went to a friend of theirs to build a huge building in Norther Haiti which was not even affected by the hurricane. Those poor folks are yelling, “where is our money?”. I understand it now. All former presidents have given speeches after their presidency is over, but it is the first time that a former president has gotten these kinds of fees for speeches, while his wife is currently serving in the Senate and then the State Department, and possibly even the White House. I know liberals tend to wipe away all the claims of corruption and “pay for Play” but if you simply watch these interviews with people who are in the middle of things, you will see why. This is unprecedented in our Nation’s history. When Bill ran for President, he remarked that by electing him, we would get a bargain of two for the price of one. These two are certainly a tag team, and I have no idea that this will continue without any letup if Hillary wins the White House again. I was impressed very much by Dinesh’s work, and really wish it could be mandatory watching for every American. It was a must see. I was shocked by how much I didn’t understand.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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NWave Pictures, Serengeti Entertainment, Atlantic Productions,

Tim Allen

Rex (Tim Allen) the penguin has been off at sea for three years learning how to catch fish and avoid predators. Now it’s time for him to return to Penguin City and find a mate and settle down. But according to the laws of nature, when the egg is lain, the male must stand over and keep the egg warm all winter while the female heads out to sea to gorge herself with fish. This is the story of a year in the life of the penguins (particularly Rex) watching his egg and raising his child.

This film has some of the best nature footage I have seen. It’s certainly very high quality and very instructing and very entertaining. Seeing this in IMAX 3-D would have been wonderful. But there is a problem. Well, perhaps it’s a problem, but the narration is by Tim Allen who is a really great guy and a good actor, but it’s a voice over of everything from Rex’s point of view. The problem is that they fall into the trap of making up a story that probably has nothing in the world to do with real king penguins. It is really cutesy, with lots of made up thoughts that is really very childish. On the other hand, this might be really good for young children who could learn a lot about the species while hearing an entertaining story along with it. It’s a bit like on one hand there is DisneyNature Bears, and on the other hand there is “Charlie the Lonesome Cougar”. For those of you who are not familiar, Disney sent out photographers into the wild to capture wildlife footage by the mile. With what they brought back (and truthfully I’m certain a lot of it was staged), they turned it into two types of features. On one hand they had Disney’s True-Life Adventures (the childhood version of the new DisneyNature films) which were very educational and really tried to show nature in natural terms, and Charlie, the Lonesome Cougar on the other hand was a childhood adventure made for the kids, and shown on the Disney Sunday night TV show in 2 parts. Both served a different purpose. This version of the film is the childish one, and it loses a bit, in my opinion, due to the silly dialog made up strictly for entertainment. But there is a lot of information here. Now, one final point. There is a European version of this film narrated by David Attenborough. I have included both previews below. His version “sounds” like the serious version I was looking for, but unfortunately that soundtrack was not available to me. It would be wonderful for them to provide both tracks to allow you to choose both. Perhaps that will happen in a release at some point. All in all, this was a good movie, and really a lot of fun to watch. I recommend it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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British Film Company, Canal Cat Films, Verax Films,

Paul Blake, Jeremy Bulloch, John Chapman, Anthony Forrest, Laurie Goode, Garrick Hagon, Derek Lyons, Angus MacInnes, David Prowse, Pam Rose


This documentary covers the experience of the masked characters and extras that were hired to perform in the original Star Wars film. Though they had momentary fame due to the expected popularity of the movie, they had different experiences in the long term. But no doubt it had a life changing effect on their lives. This is their stories of how they were chosen to participate and how it has effected their lives.

I know that when Star Wars was made, they thought it would be just a little film, perhaps a TV movie. Even George Lucas himself had no idea of the massive impact this movie would have on the world. I was looking forward to this movie and was anxious to see it, but I was sorely disappointed after watching it. This was one of the most boring pieces of film I have ever seen. I am not sure why, but there was just nothing interesting here in the least. At just over 90 minutes, it felt like hours of people talking and talking about nothing much. Some continued as fairly decent actors and artists, but most spend their time reminiscing the past and hoping for something to happen to bring them the fame they feel they deserve. Imagine the poor guy who did all the acting as Darth Vadar in the plastic mask. He did all of the dialog, but was told that they would have to replace all the dialog because of the muffling effect of talking with a mask on his head. He naturally thought that he was going to fly to California to replace the dialog, but it ended up being James Earl Jones. Now this poor fellow makes most of his money from star Trek fan conventions telling people that he was Darth Vadar. All in all, besides boring me to death, it was rather pitiful as well. I am really sorry to say that I really did not enjoy this film and I can’t recommend it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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PCH Films,

Glen Campbell, Bruce Springsteen, The Edge, Chad Smith, Bill Clinton

Glen Campbell, an accomplished musician, song writer, and performer and part of the famous “Wrecking Crew” [click here for Ed’s Review] was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 2011. Unlike any other celebrity, Glen’s wife Kim decided to make the diagnosis public. In addition, the decided to do a simple three week goodbye tour, as Glen loved doing the live shows, and surprisingly it helped him when he was performing. This turned into a huge 151 event coast to coast tour that kept going and going and going. But in addition to the tour, she also decided to document his sad journey through this film which goes right up to the point where Glen recorded a huge hit farewell song, “I’m Not Going to Miss You”. [Click here for the video on YouTube.] Additionally though, this film documents Glen’s amazing career, through Country and cross over pop music writing hit after hit, and winning many awards and lifetime achievement awards. This is the definitive documentary of a wonderful life that Glen has forgotten, but we never will.

This is a very well done documentary. It’s rather controversial in some ways, and many people have criticized Kim’s decision to put Glen on display when his abilities were weakening, and making sort of a sad clown, but the fans flocked to get to see him once more, and were enthralled at the opportunity. Glen also loved it, and was by far the best when he could be on-stage, so what right did they have to take that away from him. Some question the choice to announce the diagnosis and cause the world to look at him. But this is a documentary, and is an unflinching look at the trials and tribulations of this horrid disease along with the great moments of peace and triumph. I am glad they did this while Glen is still with us, though after the last show it was clear there won’t be any more. But his connection to his fans is something to admire and cherish. This was originally shown on CNN, but is now available on DVD. This is an excellent story of a great man and a bad disease, and looks carefully at both. I highly recommend this movie, even though it’s a documentary, it was fascinating.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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