Displaying items by tag: Sting: Bring on the Night

[Editor’s Note: This interview was originally posted on The Digital Bits on 9/17/02, coinciding with the Columbia TriStar Home Video DVD release of Enough and Enigma. We would like to dedicate it to the memory of Michael Apted.]

There are some directors who find a genre they’re particularly comfortable with or adept at and make an entire career out of it. Think Wes Craven with horror movies or the Farrelly brothers in comedy. Michael Apted is not one of these directors. Apted is a jumper, having tackled everything from courtroom dramas to comedy to rock and roll. When you look at his filmography, the phrase you are most likely to repeat over and over is, “He directed that, too?”

Apted began his career as a researcher and director for British television. In the 1970’s, he crossed over to theatrical films with movies like Stardust, a terrific, criminally underrated movie that traces the rise and fall of a rock group (note to the studios: Stardust needs to be released on DVD and the sooner the better). His major American breakthrough came in 1980 with Coal Miner’s Daughter, for which Sissy Spacek won the Oscar as Best Actress. Since that time, Apted has worked with some of the best actors in recent memory, including Sigourney Weaver (also Oscar nominated for her work in Apted’s Gorillas in the Mist), Jodie Foster (Nell), Val Kilmer (Thunderheart), and Gene Hackman (Class Action and Extreme Measures). Oh yeah, he also helmed one of the most recent adventures of some guy named James Bond (The World is Not Enough). [Read on here...]

Well, folks... today is the Friday before Christmas, so you know what that means.  Hollywood is shutting down for the holidays and lots of you are starting your Christmas vacations!

Things are going to be pretty slow over the next week or two, so we may not check in every day, but we’ll try to drop by if there anything worth reporting for you guys.  You never know.  And we’ll have some reviews for you too.

Speaking of which, we’ve just added no less than 12 Blu-ray Disc reviews into the new site’s database, including a pair of music titles in Sting: Bring on the Night and The Police: Certifiable, a couple of fine catalog titles in the form of Forrest Gump, Rocky Balboa and Outbreak, a mess of Dr. Jahnke’s horror reviews including Audition, Children of the Corn, Child’s Play, Book of Blood and The Blood Trilogy, and finally a pair of great holiday titles including White Christmas and – or course – It’s a Wonderful Life.  What would the Christmas season be without those last two?  [Read on here...]