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Some of the most favorable film reviews coming out of Sundance, via Variety:
MURDERBALL
Powered by a fantastic subject and real-life characters who would be difficult to invent, “Murderball” is a blast and a half—as entertaining as mainstream American docus get. Not simply profiling but burrowing into the lives of members of the U.S. Paralympics quadriplegic rugby team over a two-year-plus period, Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro’s propulsive and superbly crafted pic successfully juggles macho drive, intense emotions and classic sports movie bravado. Even as the B.O. bar continues to rise for nonfiction, ThinkFilm should anticipate smash results in theaters and vid, with a high-gear launch from the Sundance doc competish.
The masterstroke of the docu is the opening, which sets the tone by not showing any pity toward guys rendered quadriplegic in their prime by life’s hazards. To the contrary: These rugby fanatics are shown as downright intimidating, foul-mouthed and ultra-competitive.
THE MATADOR
Deftly maneuvering through audacious mood swings and tonal shifts, “The Matador” emerges as a quirky yet commercial commingling of black comedy, seriocomic psychodrama, heart-tugging sudser and buddy-movie farce. Propelled by a fearlessly self-mocking perf by Pierce Brosnan as a swaggering vulgarian who’s losing his edge as an international hit man, writer-director Richard Shepard’s eccentric amalgam remains funny and sustains interest even during a shaky third act. Still, pic will require critical kudos and clever marketing to maximize bullish theatrical potential before charging into ancillary venues.
Pic pivots on a chance meeting between strangers in a hotel bar, the kind of latenight interlude that encourages complete honestly between lonely travelers who feel secure in their anonymity. Denver businessman Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear) is in Mexico City to close a deal that he desperately hopes will end a long string of bad luck that includes the loss of his son in a school bus accident.
Add the mobisode to TVs new tech vernacular.
Original programming from a major studio is coming to a mobile phone or hand-held device near you.
The shows willgive new meaningto the term miniseries, with each episode only 60 seconds long.
Twentieth TV has agreed to produce 26 one-minute episodes apiece of two daytime dramas made especially for Verizon Wireless 3G mobile multimedia devices (thus mobisode).
Daniel Pipes on the Armanious family murders, which appear to have been the work of religious terrorists:
Assuming Spencer’s information is accurate, it raises a most alarming prospect of the importation of Sharia to America.
From a legal and law-enforcement standpoint, this has a lot in common with organized crime. Our law-enforcement officials have had great experience and success with developing techniques to fight organized crime, such as the Mafia. All those techniques can be brought to bear immediately to find and punish those who would kill others over their religious beliefs.
According to the Washington Post, there are some new spies in town:
The Pentagon, expanding into the CIA’s historic bailiwick, has created a new espionage arm and is reinterpreting U.S. law to give Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld broad authority over clandestine operations abroad, according to interviews with participants and documents obtained by The Washington Post.
The previously undisclosed organization, called the Strategic Support Branch, arose from Rumsfeld’s written order to end his “near total dependence on CIA” for what is known as human intelligence.
It’s unfortunate that the currently existing espionage agencies are so mismanaged that a new one may be required. On the other hand, the article reports that there are indications that this unit is doing well:
...Navy Vice Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, expressed “utmost confidence in [unit commander] Colonel Waldroup’s capabilities” and said in an interview that Waldroup’s unit has scored “a whole series of successes” that he could not reveal in public. He acknowledged the risks, however, of trying to expand human intelligence too fast: “It’s not something you quickly constitute as a capability. It’s going to take years to do.”
Given the dangers presented by terrorists, I think it’s good to have this new capability in place. Hopefully the older agencies will be streamlined while this one is in operation.
