Touching the void
Touching the Void is a 2003 documentary based on the book with the same title (1989 NCR Book Award) written by Joe Simpson.
Both book and documentary narrates the real tribulations of three Brits, two of them mountaineers: Joe Simpson and Simon Yate, and Richard Hawking, during their 1985 attempt on the conquering of an untouched mountain so far then: Peruvian Siula Grande (20,813 ft/ 6344 m.) by its West side. Read the rest of this entry »
“…3 guys will slide into your cell, wrap your ass into that blanket, and I don’t care how tough you think you are or how strong you might be, they are gonna kick your ass over the side of that bed and do bounty of your asshole by sticking a dick in it. So what do you do? I am gonna give you five options you can take: One, you go to the cop, you tell the officer three guys just ripped me off and you come back with the cop and say: that white guy, that black guy, that black guy…these three guys are going to the hole for 30-60 days and then the’ll be back in population, but the administration won’t let you into population for one of these guys associates will cut your ass from A to Z, so they gotta do something to protect you. Right up there on floor 2, there is a place called P.C., Protected Custody, we call it punk city, and there is were you are going to be all your time, and when you are in PC, you are locked 23 of the 24 hrs a day, you got 1 hr for exercise, and that’s it. Read the rest of this entry »
http://www.torrentz.com/36ed39e6e15f594654b0a973fbd615717c81bdfa
Everybody knows Jamie Foxx from “Any given Sunday” but not until I saw this stand-up session I became aware that this guy is funny. Jamie repertoire includes many imitations of famous celebrities like Clinton, Nixon, Prince and others, most of them black due to the almost all black public that filled the theater. Nevertheless the main course of this evening was the parody of Africa: its smells, people, music and animals. Not bad at all, though sometimes you could feel some repetitiveness on the punch lines. All and all this was a solid black culture show and enjoyable by all.
http://www.mininova.org/tor/2738095
People, this is the “real” hurricane that Bob Dylan talked about in his song of the same title, John Arthur Johnson (March 31, 1878 – June 10, 1946) or better known as Jack Johnson or nicknamed the “Galveston Giant”.
This African American fighter, born in Texas, lived during some troubled times where America was ruled and leaded by an all white regime, for which the “free negroes” where to be kept still apart, totally segregated from the white folks, even in the northern cities. Those northern cities, where the white folks have not even cohabited with the African Americans, where extremely anti black. But, hey, congressmen and even the president of the united states, in fact where quoted using prejudice comments, and the papers were not exception. Looks like Lincoln and the fathers of this nation meant “you are free to live where the white folk tells you to”; liberty under today’s understanding was not existent for an African american during the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Read the rest of this entry »
http://www.mininova.org/tor/2970781
Many critics reviews would go and keep comparing Sasha Baron Cohen’s latest movie with the previews one, Borat. Of course there are similarities between both pieces, they were both obviously done by the same man, similar structures formed of many hilarious sketches that many said would be more appropriate for youtube and that this is not a real movie. In art there is no “real movie” concept, either you belong to one type of films or you don’t, and this the real point, critics may not have enough drawers to classify some films. Bruno is an amazingly hilarious piece of 7th art. It is always surprising, striking and creative. Read the rest of this entry »
http://www.mininova.org/tor/2714054
Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell bring up a magnificent documentary around the first single-handed, non-stop, round-the-world yacht race held in 1968, the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. Two prizes were giving, a golden globe to the man who finishes first in the race, and a 5000 pounds prize for the fastest man, but that was nothing compared to have your name written in the history books. There were no participation requirements, for this race wanted also to award those sailors who were already at sea on their private round the globe seas sailing adventure, the sailors were to start the race anytime between the 1 till the 31 of October, in order to avoid the winter weather of cape Horn. Read the rest of this entry »
http://www.mininova.org/tor/2917730
http://www.mininova.org/tor/2917734
John Woo, Chinese director responsible for, among others, Face Off, this time focuses on Chinese History to create this saga of two long parts that form 4 hours of an epic historical movie at the times of the Han dynasty. This is the most expensive piece made ever in Asia and you can tell already from minute one. Armies of extras, outstanding effects, well chosen script, and beautiful stars. Read the rest of this entry »
http://www.mininova.org/tor/2687405
I tried to recollect any Harvey Keitel’s movie where he didn’t act in a fantastic fashion. This film is no exception. In this movie, Harvey plays a corrupted lieutenant of the NYC Police Department. The character is so destroyed inside that killing himself a little more wont take him lower from where he stands now. Crack, heroine and cocaine, alcohol and pills are in the daily menu of this cop, for which the boundaries between legal and not, moral and not, law enforcement officers and criminals, these boundaries are almost nonexistent, by osmosis. Read the rest of this entry »
http://www.mininova.org/tor/2744934
A comedy with Samuel L. Jackson and Nicholas Cage cannot go wrong. A respectable African american scholar professor (Jackson) has just arrived to his new summer home at a small town, when, unluckily his mid class white neighbors got it wrong when they saw a black man handling a stereo withing the house that they thought still belonged to the last white owner. Read the rest of this entry »
http://www.mininova.org/get/721692
Ralph Nader, this is the name we are dealing here at this doc. To be sincere, he was a complete unknown to me, as a non US citizen, I knew of the existence of presidential candidates and public figures like Pat Buchanan or who run as independent candidates to the presidency of the United States several time but not Ralph.