Disney and director Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin is a blandly competent, flavourless film that has no reason to exist outside of making a quick buck from families and nostalgic millennials who’ll shell money out for anything based on an intellectual property they have fond memories of.
Guy Ritchie
Somehow director Guy Ritchie really did it. He’s made the sixties look stylish again, and while I’m not eager to try out any of the fashion myself, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. lives in a hip, cool, Cold War reality where spies are back in style, and the United States and Russia really can’t stand each other.
This week in DVD Tuesday I take a look at the latest new arrivals: Sherlock Holmes returns to the screen in Guy Ritchie‘s action-packed adaptation starring Robert Downey Jr.; plus a look at the drama An Education, starring Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard, and the children’s comedy, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.
Opening this week just in time for Christmas holidays, Robert Downey Jr. stars as tough but wise Sherlock Holmes; Daniel Day-Lewis stars in Rob Marshall‘s musical, Nine; plus a look at Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, It’s Complicated, Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and Up In The Air.
Taking a look through the pile of new home video releases, Guy Ritchie and Woody Allen both debut their latest oh-so-recognizable films, the gangster comedy RocknRolla, and the sexual drama Vicky Cristina Barcelona, respectively. Also out this week, the cop drama Pride and Glory, and the comedy The Rocker.
Get ready for guns, thugs, and special agents this week, as two big movies try to duke it out for Canada’s Thanksgiving weekend. On the one hand, Guy Ritchie‘s RocknRolla brings the director back to form, while director Ridley Scott debuts the CIA thriller, Body of Lies. Also opening this week is the family film, City of Ember; the sports drama, The Express; and to get you in the mood for Halloween there’s the horror film, Quarantine.
- Toronto International Film Festival
Guy Ritchie and the cast of RocknRolla on the red carpet | TIFF 2008
Director Guy Ritchie and the cast of his new crime drama RocknRolla walked the red carpet for the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday, September 4.
You’ll have to excuse the relative silence that has taken over on these pages the past few weeks, but big things are in the works. Even as I was prepping for the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, which starts tonight, I have been working on The GATE’s brand new video channel that will launch this weekend (with TIFF content included, of course).