Drama

Bruce Willis was successful in his new role

By GalaTView staff

Photo Courtesy

Walking Dead 2 is coming at home

Interviews Video  By Alfonso De Elias

Season Two lead cinematographer Rohn Schmidt’s gritty, hopelessly dour mise en scene is perfectly depicted on Anchor Bay’s Blu-ray transfer. The Walking Dead: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray arrives courtesy of AMC and Anchor Bay Entertainment. The show is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen, mixed in 7.1 Dolby TrueHD. The season’s 13 episodes are spread among four discs. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe, causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. In a matter of months, society has crumbled: There is no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV.

Rick Grimes finds himself one of the few survivors in this terrifying world. He was a small town cop who had only fired his weapon a couple times but never at anyone and had only ever seen one dead body. Separated from his family, he must sort through the death and horror to try and find his wife and son. In a world ruled by the dead, people are forced to finally begin living.

Shot on Super 16, The Walking Dead is a textured, gritty looking series, often painted with morose, bleak visuals and a stark, apocalyptic palette reminiscent of other zombie films. The Blu-ray presentation outdoes the already staggering HD broadcast by delivering a cleaner, crisper presentation.

It’s probably not a series for the ages, but any genre programming that can both appeal to its base market and still drum up intrigue in other demographics has to have something going on under its hood. Most images are defined by pale colors that yield a gray, bleak, hopeless sort of visual structure that reinforces the themes of despair and death and emphasizes the general end-of-days misery. The zombie apocalypse is not just about mindless nonstop zombie smashing for people with ADHD. It’s more about the loss of humanity and how people interact with each other so this Blu-ray-DVD has English and French languages with English subtitles.

Lawless will take your breath

By GalaTView Staff

“Americano” a movie full of flash backs

By Jenny Alvarez

Photo Courtesy

Martin lives in Paris with Claire, although the passion has gone out of their relationship.  When he learns of the death of his mother, Martin returns to his home town in California to take care of the legal formalities.  Shortly after his arrival, he meets up with Linda, an old family friend who takes him to his mother’s apartment in an area he got to know well when he was living with her.  Immediately, he experiences a resurgence of childhood memories.  The ensuing emotional crisis drives him to Tijuana, where he hopes to find Lola, a young Mexican woman he once knew and who occupied an important part in his mother’s life.   He finds her at the Americano, a nightclub where she dances every evening.

Martin brings a heart touching when he receives news that his mother has died in the United States despite of he hasn’t felt a connection to his mother in years many  memories and how he might be able to recreate his mother and the impression comes back again.

All the main actors were: Mathieu Demy, Salma Hayek, Geraldine Chaplin and more. The plot is somewhat predictable, but is deeply moving drama especially in some interesting aspects and many subjects are involved in this movie such as prostitution, emotional journeys, sadness, robbery, death, depression and so on. Hayek’s role is another stripper character with no changes to her previous roles. Martin’s shows a deep voyage between past and present (something that anyone’s can suffer in anytime of life).

Everyone has a different gift in “Crooked Arrows”

By Jenny Alvarez

Photo Courtesy

A mixed-blood Native American, Joe Logan, eager to modernize his reservation, must first prove himself to his father, the traditionalist Tribal Chairman, by rediscovering his spirit. He is tasked with coaching the reservation’s high school lacrosse team which competes against the better equipped and better trained players of the elite Prep School League. Joe inspires the Native American boys and teaches them the true meaning of tribal pride. Ignited by their heritage and believing in their new-found potential, coach and team climb an uphill battle to the state championship finals against their privileged prep school rivals.

Obviously is a movie with a predictable plot, but it works because the action sequences are engaging enough for novices to the sport and authentic enough to satisfy the true believers. Kids and teens will learn about Native American culture, including the fact that Native Americans invented lacrosse especially where the Native American heritage is examined in modern times. In general terms, is a family-friendly entertainment and the filmmakers had the good sense to cast real lacrosse players.

Directed by Steve Rash (American Pie Presents Band Camp), Crooked Arrows stars Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) and Gil Birmingham (Twilight).  The film was produced by J. Todd Harris (The Kids Are All Right), Mitchell Peck (Priest), and Adam Leff (The Last Action Hero).  In addition, the movie features top lacrosse players from around the country, including a team » It is open in limited release on June 1^st in NY and LA.

“Polisse” will not disturb the Parisian Child Protection

Reviewed by Jenny Alvarez

Photo: Courtesy

The daily grind for the cops of the Police Department’s Juvenile Protection Unit (Riccardo Scamarcio, Marina Foïs, Maïwenn Le Besco, joey starr) taking in child molesters, busting underage pickpockets and chewing over relationship issues at lunch; interrogating abusive parents, taking statements from children, confronting the excesses of teen sexuality, enjoying solidarity with colleagues and laughing uncontrollably at the most unthinkable moments. Knowing the worst exists and living with it!

There are interesting ideas in the main dialogue with disturbing content, this movie reflects French drama about a courageous team of men and women in a Parisian Child Protection Unit. However, every sequence has a great intensity, which has the paradoxical effect of lessening the overall oomph. Many real social facts are part in each case that this team has to face such as: rape, sexual abuse, child endangerment, underage prostitution and even a boy who’s put up for sale. Sometimes the infamy is the bureaucracy itself, which can’t be roused to protect the vulnerable.

Simple solutions often elude these cops, who work the multiethnic, relatively downscale neighborhoods of northeast Paris. Most of the victims are hopeless especially infants and some of these officers develop work relationships that are more intense than others.

Fred, the group’s hypersensitive wild card, is going to have a hard time facing the scrutiny of Melissa, a photographer on a Ministry of the Interior assignment to document the unit. Even there are some shocking moments, especially with the crimes mentioned here would seem horrific to anyone with a pulse, but it’s all the more disturbing on the real life happens so is highly recommended. This movie opens in limited release on May 18^th

Real people in real situations in Where Do We Go Now?

By GalaTView Staff

Photos Courtesy

Set in a remote village where the church and the mosque stand side by side, Where Do We Go Now? follows the antics of the town’s women to keep their blowhard men from starting a religious war. Women heartsick over sons, husbands and fathers lost to previous flare-ups unite to distract their men with clever ruses, from faking a miracle to hiring a troop of Ukrainian strippers.

Many sons, fathers, and husbands died, and now the women are despondent having buried their loved ones. In an effort to quell the tensions that are beginning to rise, the town’s female population bands together to not just outsmart the men, but – better yet – to keep the peace between the religions. They distract the men with creative ruses – everything from faking a miracle (one of the funniest scenes in the film) to hiring a troupe of cute Ukrainian belly dancers. This movie also includes racial, religious and political tensions well treated especially with humourous and loving ladies have proved to be the true heroines of this hard-hitting film.

Footnote summarizes all the references of the relationship between father and son

By Jenny Alvarez

Photo: Cortesy

Footnote is the tale of a great rivalry between a father and son. Eliezer and Uriel Shkolnik are both eccentric professors who have dedicated their lives to their work in Talmudic Studies.  The father, Eliezer, is a stubborn purist who fears the establishment and has never been recognized for his work. While his son, Uriel, is an up-and-coming star in the field, who appears to feed on accolades, endlessly seeking recognition.

Then one day, the tables turn. When Eliezer learns that he is to be awarded the Israel Prize, the most valuable honor for scholarship in the country, his vanity and desperate need for validation are exposed. His son Uriel, meanwhile, is thrilled to see his father’s achievements finally recognized but, in a darkly funny twist, is forced to choose between the advancement of his own career and his father’s.  Will he sabotage his father’s glory?

Their relation is very complicated between a father and son.  Does Uriel give too much respect to his father? Is the price he pays too great? It’s much more a tragedy than a comedy (though it has very funny bits) and I found the focus on the word (as in “In the beginning was the word”) fascinating. “Footnote” is a decidedly male-centric film. Structurally, this film is divided into named chapters that make for cute markers but give it the not-entirely satisfying feel of a jaunty satire.

Eventually the movie focuses on an unknown that is stretched almost to the point of paradox: Is the quality of the old man’s work in academe really unsurpassed, or is it really unsatisfactory? The movie does turn out to be a fable, and a fable worth taking seriously. Finally, we won’t know the possible end but I figure out that love will win in this complex paradigm.