Directed by Mark Waring. With Charlie Tahan. Victor plays one of his homemade scifi movies where his dog Sparky in its rockership must battle hostile flying saucers. Episode 2 Hewys Animated Movie Reviews Superman Doomsday. For Hewys 80th episode, and to celebrate Independence Day, he takes a look at an animated adaptation of. Listing by Date of all Reviews at Captain Toy, Michaels Review of the WeekActs to bring positive, familyoriented television programming to the U. S. entertainment industry. Organization information and news, individual action projects, and. Box office Chart Top Movies this Weekend by Box offfice gross in the US. Updated Mondays. With Links to the in depth Box Office stats, and with visitor ratings. Also. THE CONSPIRACY Review. THE CONSPIRACY Stars Aaron Poole and James Gilbert. Conspiracies are a fascinating culture phenomenon, and The Conspiracy has no interest in that. In fact, writer director Christopher Mac. Bride has no interest in probing deeper into the nature of conspiracies, and instead turns his attention to churning out the most generic, tired conspiracy yarn possible. Then, in an obvious gimmick, he couches his weak story inside the framing device of a faux documentary. Theres no attempt to play off other loony bin documentaries like Loose Change, or any trace of a serious effort to keep us guessing to the authenticity of the documentary form. Until a horribly clumsy ending, everything in The Conspiracy is at face value the one dimensional characters, the thoughtless clichs, and the total lack of insight about why conspiracies are interesting in the first place. Aaron Aaron Poole and Jim James Gilbert are documentary filmmakers who decide to make a film about Terrance G. Alan C. Peterson, a local conspiracy theorist who takes to the streets and shouts his theories through a megaphone. Before we can get any sense of Terrances character beyond his profession, he mysteriously disappears, but there are still scraps of the countless news clippings he had on his wall. Aaron picks up the pieces, and tries to follow Terrances work, although Jim thinks his friend is starting to go round the bend its tough to tell since we hardly know Aaron well enough to see any kind of radical transformation. However, Aaron eventually connects the dots to the nefarious organization, The Taurus Club, who are looking to create a New World Order. Mac. Bride could have picked his conspiracy out of a hat for the entire lack of creativity and imagination behind his choice. Theres no reason that aliens or the government couldnt be the antagonist. But seemingly at random, its an Illuminati like group who want to impose the New World Order, which means one nation where power rests in the hands of a secret oligarchy. The logistics of this is never explored, and Mac. Bride only wants us to play along insofar that we dont scoff at the notion of a far reaching conspiracy. Were just not allowed to ask too many questions either. For example, we dont get to ask why an all powerful organization would leave so many of their thumbprints behind in the news clippings put together by Terrance. Why would the Taurus Club not make it a priority to control every single major media outlet  Also, how did this become the only powerful organization I guess the protagonists getting caught between two conspiracies would have been too much of a curveball in this tee ball league of a picture. Instead, we get one secret society using an old standby such as a black SUV, the conspicuous vehicle of choice for all shady organizations. These niggling questions wouldnt be so much of a problem if Mac. Bride didnt put all of his energy into such a tepid, tired plot. The thoughtlessness of the story could be somewhat forgiven if the thought was directed towards exploring why people believe in conspiracies in the first place. Mac. Bride doesnt hesitate to repeatedly show clips of the JFK assassination and 91. The filmmaker doesnt acknowledge that these conspiracies develop because theorists need to have faith in something larger than horrible events. If theres a Taurus Club out there, then at least we dont live in a random, unforgiving universe. The Jungle Book: Howl At The Moon Free Online Movie there. Theorists like Terrance can whine all they want about a New World Order, but order is what they crave. Mac. Bride could not care less. He only seems to care about his lazy faux documentary approach. The framing device is nothing but a cheap cloak to shroud the plots lack of originality. Theres no cleverness on behalf of Mac. Bride when it comes to tweaking the formula, and we certainly dont get a better understanding of the lead characters simply because theyre shooting each other with cameras. By the end of the film, I still had trouble remembering which actor was Aaron and which actor was Jim because their characters lack distinction. Jim is vaguely the voice of reason, but never to the point where he forcefully confronts Aaron or leaves any serious impact on the storyline. Theyre both just being carried away by the silliness of an unimaginative plot. The only remarkable thing about The Conspiracy is how wrapped up it becomes in its banal plotline and uninspired storytelling device. Whether you believe in conspiracies or not, they have the potential to be fascinating stories where a moment of fear and confusion blossoms into a sanctuary of horrifying possibilities. Theres nothing horrific or original about The Conspiracy. It doesnt even deserve the definite article. Its A conspiracy, and a pretty lame one at that. Rating FFor all of our Fantastic Fest coverage, click here. Here are links to my other reviews. The Beguiled review Sofia Coppola gives her women shelter from the war Sight Sound. The doom laden sound of men beating war drums opens Don Siegels 1. Southern Gothic adaptation of Thomas P. Cullinans 1. 96. A Painted Devil, about an injured union soldier who takes refuge in a Virginian girls school. Forty six years later Sofia Coppola starts her version with the sound of a young girl humming. Theres also lens flare and the lyrical spectacle of the moss laden trees above, a protective canopy which offers shelter from the sun and muffles the blasts of nearby cannons. USA 2. 01. 7Director Sophia Coppola. Cast. Mc. Burney Colin Farrell. Miss Martha Nicole Kidman. Edwina Kirsten Dunst. Alicia Elle Fanning. Amy Oona Laurence. Jane Angourie Rice. Marie Addison Riecke. Emily Emma Howard. What Coppolas revamp unsurprisingly does considering her focus on the female coterie of Marie Antoinette and the clan of sisters in The Virgin Suicides is put the seven women front and centre. She also brings a dreaminess, a softness and a minimalism where before nightmares had reigned. Most of the principle plot points remain Colonel John Mc. Burney a mostly understated Colin Farrell is found and taken in by Amy Oona Laurence, one of the youngest schoolgirls. Headmistress Miss Martha Nicole Kidman and the four other girls are worried by this blue belly in their midst but decide to do the Christian thing and nurse him until he can be taken into Confederate care. Kirsten Dunsts schoolteacher Edwina is the first to succumb to his charms the others gradually follow suit, and the colonel himself becomes more and more beguiled with them, as well as with the prospect of sitting out the war in their safe house. Dunst as Edwina and Colin Farrell as Mc. Burney. The sex starved male soldier, desperate for female action, is common fixture of many war movies. Lusty ladies, not so Scarlett OHara was somewhat of a trailblazer here. In the original The Beguiled the female pack were horny to the point of being deranged. Here, desire is seen as natural Miss Martha sensually and curiously towels down Mc. Burneys body and then towels herself down after. Along with Mc. Burney, Kidmans Miss Martha is the character most markedly different to the original. Kidman crafts a steely but compassionate mother figure, not Geraldine Pages admittedly glorious uptight, jilted spinster matron with lurid fantasies she has no lover brother backstory here either. The girls too get more screen time to build their characters and dont conform so readily to the archetypes of the virginal teacher or the red blooded siren even flirty Alicia is given a delicious sly charm by Elle Fanning. Compared to Seigel, Coppola sends much less time with Mc. Burney. Hes also humanised less the Machiavellian devil and sexual predator loose in the hen house, more just an everyday man who fears battle hes honest about being a deserter and even understandably irate by the later actions of these vengeful bitches. The sense of threat he suddenly poses when he does try to rule the roost is brought home by a raging, turbulent Farrell though it must be said the actor has far less of Eastwoods raw, sizzling charisma. Fanning as Alicia. The other negative space in Coppolas film is race. Difficult to make your characters as sympathetic as they are here if theyre ordering slaves about  and Coppola ducks the challenge with an early mention that the slaves left the school long ago. Siegels version by contrast had managed to work a fairly progressive take, with Mea Mercers defiant Hallie his films most winning character. The labour that Hallie does in that film toiling in the garden, mending clothes and cooking Coppola takes pains to show her women doing too. Their grand colonnaded mansion is far from a dark, eerie place but is instead a sanctuary, home to a tight knit rather than hyper competitive all female ecosystem. The film makes up for in atmosphere what it lacks in drama though gothic developments and a wicked, dark humour take hold nearer the end. Slithers of sunlight illuminate an overgrown garden shot by Philippe Le Sourd in an impressionistic and languorous soft focus. Even the interiors, lit by candlelight at night, feel delicate and cocoon like rather than menacing. The women are truly alone. Coppola makes it clear that many of the girls have actually been abandoned by their families. But they are nowhere near as hardwired vulnerable or vengeful as their 1. Siegel made a good deal of the ever present threat of rape here its just in the background. If Siegels 1. 97. Coppolas 2. 01. 7 update foregrounds a hard won utopia. Together, they make for a entrancing and contrasting double bill.