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When the Steins, (Larry Miller, Sandra Taylor) put on a blockbuster Streak Mitzvah for their son Zach (Carter Jenkins), Adam Fiedler (Jeremy Piven) – a business opposition – feels booked to not merely keep up with but exceed the Steins’ extravagance with the upcoming Stick Mitzvah recompense his son Benjamin (Darly Sabra). Benjamin’s not at all secure about the big plans until he realizes that possibly this could be the give rise to to reconcile his still angry dad and his estranged grandfather Irwin (Garry Matshall), who unprincipled his dad and his grandma Rose, Doris Roberts) once more 20 years earlier.

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In a grim days, Earth is so overdeveloped plants can no longer survive. Titan greenhouses in revolution carry samples of Earth’s dying forests. When the government decides they are too extravagant to advocate, one committed troupe member will stop at nothing to save them. Screenplay by Steven Bochco and Michael Cimino. Music by Peter ‘PDQ Bach’ Schickele.

The Show:

CLAMP, the creators of Card Captor Sakura and Magic Knight
Rayearth, have another one of their manga series brought to the small
screen with Angelic Layer.  Even though the title sound pretty
sappy and girlish, this is a fighting show that can appeal to a wide audience. 
Originally released in 2003 and 2004 as a seven volume series, ADV has
released this show again as a five disc set.  This new release omits
the extras that were originally included, but lowers the price significantly.

Misaki Suzuhara is a twelve year old girl who is going to live with
her aunt while she goes to school.  As soon as she gets off the train
in Tokyo though she discovers Angelic Layer, the newest fad to sweep the
nation.  Angels are hi-tech dolls that their owners can customize. 
Once they are placed on a special table called a ‘layer’ the dolls become
animate, taking mental instructions from their owners.  The angels
then fight in tournaments, and the best players can become pop idols quickly.

Misaki is entranced by the first Angelic Layer game that she sees, and
really wants to get into the sport.  Enter Icchan, a semi-mysterious
man (as well as comic relief) who spots Misaki and helps her buy an Angel,
Hikaru, and everything that she’ll need to compete.  He’s spotted
the innate talent that she has, and he quickly gets her up to speed and
has her enter the national tournament.

As Misaki competes in the game of Angelic Layer, she makes a lot of
friends, a few enemies, and even discovers some mysterious things about
her family.

I wasn’t sure how much I’d like this show at first.  Shoujo anime
(girl’s cartoons) are fine, but sometimes they get a little too sappy. 
I was pleasantly surprised to find this show much more accessible to a
more general audience than I thought it would be.   At its heart,
this is a fighting show, and as such there’s a lot of action.  Most
of the people who compete are female though, and a lot of the plot deals
with how Misaki deals with her friends and new-found fame as she gets better
and better at the game, which is sure to appeal to the women who watch
it.

 

This is really a cute and endearing show.  Misaki is a typical
upbeat anime heroine, but she’s also sweet and it’s easy to start cheering
for her and Hikaru.

The show isn’t as tedious as many fighting shows are either.  There
are episodes that deal with Misaki’s personal problems and relations with
her friends in addition to the shows that are mainly fights.  The
shows were Misaki has to deal with jealous competitors and her fans are
a nice change of pace, and prevents the show from becoming monotonous or
too formalistic.

The thing that really drew me into the show was the interesting and
well rounded characters.  Everyone’s motivations are examined, and
the main people are all well rounded and three dimensional.  Even
the lesser characters feel real.

Another positive aspect of the show are the quality fight scenes. 
The battles are well choreographed and look good.  The various strategies
that come into play are explained, and the animation is very fluid. 
They spent some money on this show and didn’t try to cheat their way out
of the battles.  (Don’t you have when a fight scene mainly consists
of people groaning and the camera panning or zooming on static images?) 
Also, most, if not all, of the fights are over in a single episode, it’s
nice that they don’t drag them out over several shows like most anime does.

There is some humorous moments in the show too, most of them thanks
to Icchan.  He’s always punishing his underling, and these tortures
are some of my favorite parts of the show.  These penalties are wonderfully
bizarre.  I loved when he made him stick a live octopus in his pants
for 10 minutes.

The DVD:

All 26 episodes of Angelic Layer are presented on five DVDs.  Each
disc is housed in a thinpak case and the whole lot come in a sturdy slipcase. 
The slipcase has an images of Misaki and Hikaru on one side and Hatoko
and her angle Suzuka on the other.

Audio:

This show offers viewers the choice of the original stereo mix or a
5.1 English dub.  I alternated between languages as I watched, as
I usually do, and enjoyed both tracks.  The English dub sounded more
full and enveloping than the Japanese track, but the original language
audio was also very good.  Both tracks were clean and clear, with
no hint of audio defects.

Video:

These shows are presented with a nice full frame picture.  The
colors are bright and solid, and the lines are tight.  There is some
aliasing that occurs mainly in the background, but it isn’t significant. 
Other digital defects are nonexistent.  A very nice looking show.

Extras:

This reissue set doesn’t have any extras aside from some trailers.

Final Thoughts:

Though I’ll admit that Angelic Layer is a tad predictable and
aimed at a fairly young audience, the show has a charming quality. 
It’s hard not to like Misaki and root for her during her battles. 
A fun and enjoyable series, this show gets a strong Recommendation.

 

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VERONICA
GUERIN


4/10


USA 2003
: Joel Schumacher : 98 mins

click

here

for Neil Young?s inspect of the

other

movie inspired by the Veronica
Guerin epic,


When the Sky Falls


.

GUEST DISCUSS
by Christopher Errington

Jerry Bruckheimer
secured the rights to Veronica Guerin's resilience testimony some in the nick of time b soon ago. This
is the story of a pubescent Irish news-hen investigating the drug barons
of Ireland who was tragically gunned down. Perhaps in the wake of the
Iraq war, where many journalists had suffered similar fates, any more seems
strain the fulfilled time to notify this story. Bruckheimer setting aside how is not a
curb known in the course of his insidious films nor is director Joel Schumacher, who has
been chosen to helm this project. The sheet opens with Guerin?s take for a ride.
She is driving away from a court hearing for some minor speeding charges
and is elated as she has been excuse at leisure.  As she stops at the traffic lights
a hamper on a bike pulls up to the side of her and smashes the window. The
screen then fades to black. The quiet of the story is told in flashback.
The elementary ten
minutes of the take looks promising as Guerin is walking through a rough
council estate. Children are playing on the unwashed footing surrounded by
used syringes. As Guerin drives away from the scene however the fade away couldn't
be more Hollywood.The camera follows the buggy through the beautiful, unsophisticated,
Irish countryside.  The film is construct in Ireland so in order to clarify
this experience we are blasted with a jaunty, folky rationale. This is typical Hollywood
logic and makes everything that precedes it seem aseptic and fake. The
film is directed with in the matter of as much passion as an ITV drama. Schumacher?s
direction isn't the biggest problem here. The screenplay, written by Mary
Agnes Donoghue, is flat and simplistic. The character of Guerin is written
as about as complex as an Irish Lois Lane. Donoghue tries to write out Guerin
into a more rounded, emotive proper by showing her at homewards with her
family, kicking a
football
there with the children. These scenes manner have about
as
much emotional affect as an Oxo ad and by a hair’s breadth handle tacked on. The
duty
of Guerin?s peace is horribly underwritten. He legitimate seems to
standpoint
there looking anxious.
The film doesn't
want to be afflicted with bogged down with the problems that
the
job may engender to the relationship so Donaghue just sugar coats it.
When
Guerin?s keep does air his fears to Guerin back her career
the
scene by the skin of one’s teeth ends in normal Hollywood schmaltz as they dance
around
the flat together. The drug barons, although thuggish,
never
seem to be menacing enough.
One place however
is indubitably chilling, where Guerin receives a threatening phone chastise which
terrifies her into being physically sick. A couple of scenes later anyway
and you would under no circumstances comprehend it had happened. The pellicle gets around this by
suggesting that Guerin is frightful all the same she does not want to show her expect.We
scarcely just get a purport of her fear however which makes the character
unconvincing.
Cate Blanchett,
desperate on account of a hit after


Charlotte
Gray


, is actually mere good in the lead role. She does the best
with the in need material she's been prone and her Irish accent is unsullied.
She plays Guerin with real grace whether she's speaking to a government
official or haggling information thoroughly of
a
disgraceful lowlife. It is a shame her part didn't  have more pith to
it..
This
isn't a terrible film. Some scenes are actually quite moving
and
the life story itself is fascinating no matter how Schumacher handles
it.
As a mainstream Hollywood movie it could have been a lot worse.
The
experience is made palatable over the extent of American audiences and is at no time
very
challenging.
This sheet isn't
made any more credible by the appearance of Schumacher?s rout mate Colin
Farrell in a pointless cameo. He looks like he just wandered dotty the decline
of

Incautious

, looking akin to Bullseye. The ending is long drawn inoperative
and overly tear-jerking as an unnecessaryvoice over explains to us how
the faction is a richer reconsider all set without delay because of Guerin. This is the sense of
hope that Schumacher feels an audience needs after such a tragic ending.
This suspect of look forward to is fine. We just don't need it ramming down our throats.

by Christopher
Errington

(Guest Reviewer)

Gallic cousin to “Dumb and Dumber,” Francis Veber’s “Ruby & Quentin” is an amiable mismatched buddy comedy whose yucks derive more from pairing a stoic Jean Reno and a dorky Gerard Depardieu than from pic’s scanty draw out assume. Evenly paced and indifferently lensed romp, in which an annoying simpleton escapes can alongside a vengeful humdinger, is high to a flying start on homewards boot out (as of Oct. 22) and should passenger reasonably well offshore. But advance falls short on newness and heap. Divergent from scripter-helmer’s previous winners “The Closet” and particularly “The Dinner Encounter,” current outing doesn’t scream “Remake me in English!”

Jovial lug Quentin (Depardieu, looking relatively trim and youthful) has the brain power of a French-speaking cantaloupe. Opening scenes, in which Quentin is stumped by the dearth of recognizable loot when he holds up a currency exchange rather than a bank, do a bang-up job of establishing Quentin is far too literal-minded to succeed as a crook. But what he lacks in intellect he makes up for in brute strength. Yet Quentin likes to talk the way most folks like to breathe (hence pic’s French title, which means “Shut Up!”).

The strong, silent type, Ruby (Reno) manages to hide E20 million ($22.9 million) purloined from his rival Vogel (Jean-Pierre Malo) before being arrested. Detective Vernet (Richard Berry) wants to nail Vogel, but Ruby won’t utter so much as a helpful syllable.

When the prison shrink (Andre Dussollier) mentions that ultra-talkative dimwit Quentin has driven a succession of five cell mates batty in less than a week, Vernet is inspired to toss Quentin in with Ruby. Quentin mistakes Ruby’s silence for good listening skills, and a great, completely one-sided friendship is born.

Ruby’s carefully laid plans to buy his way out of the slammer go spectacularly awry when Quentin, too dense to comprehend that Ruby’s plans to kill Vogel and vamoose with the hidden bounty don’t include him, unwittingly intervenes.

Plot relies heavily on cars, cell phones and sudden bursts of superhuman strength as the title pair repeatedly hop out of the frying pan and into the fire. However contrived, gags are consistently satisfying in a low-key way.

Perfunctory widescreen lensing in Paris and environs gets the job done, but nothing about pic makes a lasting impression — which isn’t exactly a tragedy where lightweight comedy is concerned, but is a bit of a letdown.

Thesps appear to be enjoying themselves, and one imagines there were some funny outtakes en route to so many scenes in which Reno must maintain a stone face while Depardieu, boasting the expression of a well-meaning loon, storms new frontiers in idiocy. For the record, this is Depardieu’s fifth perf in a Veber film (after “La Chevre,” “Les Comperes,” “Les Fugitifs” and “Le Placard”).

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A pretty teenager meets and falls in regard with a charming, mysterious childish valet at an all-night rave platoon in Seattle. When she stops seeing him after discovering he’s cheating on her with her best lover, he snaps, vowing vengeance against her and her family. A worked up thriller.