Daniel Barenboim - 50 Years On Stage (DVD)

Advantages: Crudup's surprising and engaging performance
Disadvantages: rather predictable fare

...Maybe it’s because I was less than complimentary about Billy Crudup’s rather functional perfomance in Big Fish, or perhaps I was just in a sentimental mood as I settled down to watch this theatrical little tale, but I left it rather moved. No genius here, but a lot of heart made it something worth watching, if not an urgent recommendation. Seventeeth century English law decreed that it was illegal for a woman to take to the stage. As such, some male actors would specialise in playing women’s parts. Billy Crudup takes to the screen as Ned Kynaston, a beloved star of the stage, famed for his Desdemona, supported and secretly worshipped by his plucky dresser, Maria (Claire Danes). Her suppressed passion to emulate the object of her desire on the stage is finally given its outlet when one theatre takes the risk... Read review

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Advantages: the ilm settings are good
Disadvantages: the acting and directing and the number of mistakes in the film

...one hundred million year's b.c dvd the plot A senior member of the united states navy, from a failed philadelphia experiment leads a team of navy seal soldiers to rescue the team he sent during the Nineteen Forties. eighteen out of twenty ene soldiers go through a time portal and by mistake a dinasour is sent through the time portal. The dinosaur makes it to los angeles. during the nineteen forties dr reno, sent a team through a time warp, that took them back in time to some seventy million years ago. Archeological evidence and proof of the mission surfaced. The team is briefed regarding the philadelphia project led by Dr Reno's. It is his time warp technology which enables the team to go back in time. once the time travel is complete, the story largely focuses on trying to effectively kill and escape from dinosaurs as they... Read review

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Advantages: Great script, performances and attention to detail
Disadvantages: Unnecessary nudity

...In 1660, the most beautiful woman on the London stage is played by a man. Ned Kynaston is the most feted ?actress? in the country, dazzling everyone as Desdemona in ?Othello?. But when Charles II bans men from playing women, Ned is out of a job and has to watch as his lovelorn dresser Maria takes to the stage. How will he cope? And can his acting talents stretch to playing men as well as women? Director Richard Eyre is best known as an award-winning theatre director, so who better to direct a film about the theatre? He and screenwriter Jeffrey Hatcher (adapting his own stage play) interweave fact and fiction. Ned Kynaston was a Restoration-era star and Margaret (Maria) Hughes was the first woman on the stage. Hatcher?s script is well-written, witty, poignant and intelligent and will frequently be compared to the Oscar... Read review

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