When I heard that a Nancy Drew movie was being made, I had envisioned something along the lines of Veronica Mars on the big screen. Of course, I knew that it wouldn't be anything like that, but the Kristen Bell character is similar to what I think a new version of Nancy Drew would be like. What we got was a movie that wasn't quite sure how to handle the character or how to deal with the tone. The end result is a movie that is not terribly bad, but it smacks of a missed opportunity.

The story, which had the working title of Nancy Drew: The Mystery in Hollywood Hills, has the young sleuth moving, temporarily, with her father to Los Angeles for some unspecified job-related reason. Nancy got to select where they were going to live, and true to form, she has chosen this old neglected mansion, which plays host to an unsolved Hollywood mystery. The spacious home was once owned by Dehlia Draycott, a top Hollywood actress who had disappeared for a number of months, only to be murdered shortly upon resurfacing. The long unsolved mystery has tickled Nancy's sleuthing itch and she sets out to find out the truth behind the mystery.

Nancy Drew is not a deep movie, there is little in the way of character development. Actually, there's no character development — what you see is what you get. From the requisite introductory scene through to the final reveal of who was behind everything, you are clued in at every step of the game. Of course, I was not expecting this to be the next Double Indemnity, nor was I expecting to be drawn in by its conventions, since I am clearly not within the target audience. I was just hoping to watch a movie that knew what it was, rather than the scattershot result.

The tone of Nancy Drew seems like a cross between The Brady Bunch Movie, Scooby-Doo, and low rent film noir. While the movie is set in the present day, Nancy is perpetually locked in the 1950s, attitudes, clothing, and all that goes with it. This would certainly open things up for a little comedic bite, but no, not going to go that route, which is a good thing, as I never really pictured her as a comedic target. Then there is the mystery, which does not have a lot of depth and is easy to follow, and the way Nancy and her little gang go about unraveling the clues is not unlike your typical Scooby mystery. During the final third, as the pieces all fall into place, it takes a brief darker turn which seems to be clearly inspired by '50s-era detective stories.

For all of its faults, I did find it somewhat endearing. It wasn't entirely dumb, it wasn't boring, and had a nice colorful look that the young girls at the screening seemed to really enjoy. The performances were decent, if unspectacular. I found myself lulled by the upbeat way in which the movie bounced along. Would I have preferred a movie that was a bit more serious? A bit more focused? Maybe a mystery that felt a little more substantial? Yes on all accounts. Still, It was inoffensive and delivered what the target audience desired. Just, be warned if you are outside the 7- to 13-year-old girl range.

Bottom line. It was an enjoyable diversion that, while nowhere near being perfect, was still enjoyable enough. There was also the cameo by Bruce Willis which may have been the best scene in the film. Not the train wreck I was expecting, but definitely a missed opportunity for something more.

Mildly Recommended.

Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about entertainment when he isn’t sitting in a movie theater. He is known around the office as the “Movie Guy” and is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Interests include science fiction, horror, and metal music. His writings can be found at Draven99’s Musings, as well as Film School Rejects.

This week The Sundance Channel's Big Ideas For A small Planet takes aim at the world of sports, and what some companies and individuals are doing to make equipment sustainable and eco-friendly. Following their usual format, Big Ideas For A Small Planet zooms in on three story segments.Craig Calfee, of Calfee Designs is a well known designer of high end bicycles for discerning enthusiasts. Back in 1997, due to the high cost and shortage of carbon fiber, he started to explore alternative materials. One day while teasing his dog with a piece of bamboo he had a ‘EUREKA’ moment. Bamboo is very light, very plentiful, and incredibly strong — the bamboo bike was born. It turns out that bamboo is actually stronger than carbon fiber, and it is one of the fastest growing plants on the planet; here is a truly sustainable raw material.

Craig takes us through the building process, and it is amazing. To join the pieces together a combination of hemp fiber and epoxy is used. The finished product is superb, and according to riders, the bamboo absorbs the kinks and ruts, giving a very smooth ride. This eco-friendly bike now represents about 20% of sales for the company.

Jason Salfi is the co-founder of Comet Skateboards. He points out that skateboarding is becoming more and more popular, annual sales have been growing every year, yet many of the skateboards on sale use non renewable wood resources, and lots of toxins in the manufacturing process, in the forms of glue and lacquers. Comet uses water-based paints and is also experimenting with a soy-based polymer that will be used to protect the deck. Jason wants to create a ‘closed loop’ recycle process. When you are finished with the product, it is compostable. I had the pleasure of chatting With Jason about Comet Skateboards.

Comet Skateboards has been around for ten years; have you always been eco-friendly or is this a recent development?

We never said we want to be the “greenest company’’, we just want to make the best boards possible. For us that includes making a minimal impact on the forest, the air, the water, etc. From day one we have used FSC woods, water coatings, and inks… We feel like these are the best materials available. After all we are making things for young people, if we offer them a product that compromises their future, what good are we to them?

Most manufacturers are motivated by cost of raw material. How does your manufacturing cost compare to using more traditional materials?

We pay a little more at times. Our product is part of our marketing and our values drive everything. There is more of a good vibe about our boards and the return on the investment is loyalty from the skaters.

Do people buy because it is eco-friendly, or is just because it is a damn fine product?

People like our boards because they last several times as long as other boards and skate great. When they dig a little deeper and find out about our core values, they are extra stoked. In the last year, however, many sales have been driven by our commitment to less impactful materials/eco edge.

How close are you to using your soy-based protective covering?

We are finishing the prototyping of the soy polymer and bio-composite boards in August and launching them in the fall. We have been working on this with E2E Materials in Ithaca, New York for two years to make sure it will live up to the Comet performance standards before we launch.

I was talking to a friend of mine about natural-based lubricants; have you tried any of these as a replacement for oil-based?

I was just on a panel with Jeremy Ridenaur from Wise Solutions in Watsonville, California. We may collaborate on a bio lube for skateboard bearings.

The final third of the show concerns Alison Gannett, a well known ‘free skier’, best known for throwing herself of the top of really scary looking mountains! She has set out on her “Global Cooling Tour”. With CO2 emissions growing, and global warming being the result, the winter sports industry is in danger. Alison cites a study that claims that within 15 years ski resorts under 5,000 feet will cease to exist. Like most of the people featured in Big Ideas, she is just one person trying to make a small difference. Use energy efficient bulbs, campaign for energy producers to cut back on the use of coal and move to sustainable energy resources, are among her messages.

Big Ideas For A Small Planet airs Tuesday at 9pm on the Sundance Channel; don’t worry if your cable provider does not carry Sundance, you can see most of the action on their website.

Here’s a film for those old enough to recall a resurgence of interest in monasticism in the late 1980s when records – yes, records – and tapes of Gregorian chants were bought and played for an uncommon peace. And if you were one of those who has read all the books by and about Thomas Merton, then this film is for you. If you had dreams of wearing a nun’s habit, or toyed with the idea of being a priest or monk, then this film is for you. If you love and understand meditation and silence, then Into Great Silence was made for you. Why? Because it has almost no dialogue or music. And when there is dialogue it consists mostly of prayers. The rare music comes from mass or reading from the Bible.

It is a detailed and divining look at cloistered life inside the Grande Chartreuse monastery in the French Alps. The conversation as well as the prayers are in French, with English subtitles. But its rarified atmosphere is more like Lourdes than Paris. Filmed by German filmmaker Philip Gröning in 2006, the film runs for 162 minutes and is available on DVD.

Silence is a typical vow of those who enter cloistered orders. It is based on the belief that the five senses and the portals of the body are sources of evil, or where evil can gain a foothold and thus pull one down and away from God. Those who follow an order and its “rules” must shun any sort of stimuli that might lead to impurity in thought, word or deed — a truly holy life the goal. So when the world is offered this rare glimpse into such a life, don’t expect a party or even a sound.

The very stillness of this film made it akin to watching great art at the Louvre in Paris. But instead of the watcher moving around the picture, the picture moves around the watcher.

The audience is taken by the hand inside the cell (a small walled-off space) of the monk and inside his life. The grounds are also on display, an alpine view of snow-covered mountains, valleys, woods and streams. Throughout the film each of the monks, from applicant to abbot, is introduced. We are not told their names, nor do they talk on camera. It is only a face that we study. Monks who appear in the film are not actors, but people living a group life, bien difficile, especially by modern standards. But the difficulty is more than physical, it is also emotional and spiritual. The men are seduced into following Christ and they are fully aware and welcome this seduction. We are reminded of this, along with other aphorisms (spelled out in French, German and English) throughout the film.

I live in a small town with only one theater that regularly accommodates the “artsy film.” This film, which I was lucky to catch, was screened only four times over the past weekend. I thought I would be only among a handful of people there. I was wrong. The show let out while we waited and a full house emerged from the darkness. And there was a good-sized crowd waiting for the last show offered. People left before the movie ended, realizing that they could not deal with so much silence and stillness, but that was okay. I thought I was going to be the only one there in the first place.

I have closely studied French medieval monasticism for the past seven years. It was from the lives, letters, lectures, and writings of Heloise and Abelard that the university system was born, first near Paris and later disseminated throughout Europe. Monasteries have long been the repository of a treasure trove of the world’s knowledge, especially the Classics. The very Western tradition we enjoy was imported from the great minds and philosophies of the ancient world: Greece and Rome, the place where the Bible was translated from Aramaic to Greek, where it was then able to be translated into Latin.

The advent of the printing press and the Latin Bible both made “modern” life possible. Many books, I dare call scholarship, have been written lately causing a renewed interest in atheism. Well-meaning men have once again put God on the critical list. Religion is its roommate. Religion and the genetic code that causes us to seek God are espoused as evil, both pegged as the source of war and human suffering. The fragile individual, however, seems to forget one thing: along with the rest of the world, that they owe their very literacy to religion and faith, all faiths. Science was born from religion. Man should not forget that regardless of the status of this relationship, one birthed the other.

However, this film does not extol or count the civilization contributions of the Catholic Church per se, or of any other church. What it does very well is to remind us that simplicity is what we are missing in our lives. And that simplicity can be had for free, just by closing your eyes, turning off the electronics and breathing the fresh air during a walk. Stress reduction never looked so good as watching grown men playing and sliding down snow-covered slopes. The brothers in Christ in this film took group walks as a means of exercising the soulful communion and familial connections one with the other. During all activities however the brothers were never to forget the rules that governed all aspects of this life, even rules to walk by. They could not, for instance, eat or drink while they walked.

Monastic life is governed by the rules of its founder and the particular faith. Therefore there is more than one type of robe a man might wear, and more than one type of abbot that a monk might follow. Thomas Merton belonged to the Trappist Order who have a large monastery in the woods near Louisville, Kentucky. The Carthusians portrayed in Into Great Silence take a different vow, and amend their lives accordingly. But many of the house rules and structure of daily living were similar.

Here the audience walked through and within a grand stone estate where the men lived and slept in a cell, with a stove at its heart and a small area where they could study. Silence, prayer, and study make up the atoms of their existence. The pursuit of knowledge through reading and study after all, wrote Cicero, is the root of true happiness in life. If that is the case then the cloistered are some of the happiest people in the world.

If you were a child sometime between 1960 and 1990 then chances are good that you watched at least a couple episodes of children’s programming starring Bozo the Clown. Depending on where you lived in the country, the look, sound, and line-up of your show might have been any combination. You see, Bozo the Clown was one of a very few shows (including Romper Room) that operated as a franchise rather than in syndication.

Marketing genius Larry Harmon bought the rights to the clown he once portrayed and allowed local media markets to hire their own Bozos. My personal favorite was Chicago area clown Bob Bell, whose show created the kid favorite Grand Prize Game. Harmon’s most loved clown though, was Frank Avruch in the original Boston market.

Now, after many years of speculation on when it would happen, Larry Harmon has offered up 30 episodes (each 23 minutes long) remastered from his original film. Each episode features Avruch as Bozo, The World’s Most Famous Clown, entertaining a studio audience full of elementary school children who seem glued to his every move. Recorded between 1959 and 1970 it is not exactly the Bozo of my early eighties youth, but those of you who watched in earlier years will not be disappointed.

In each episode you get a much expected Bozo game where a child pulled from the audience gets the chance to win a prize, a Bozo cartoon featuring his trusty sidekick Butch, and – if you’re lucky – an appearance by Mr. Lion or Kookie the Boxing Kangaroo. Both Lion and Kookie were portrayed by the amazing Caroll Spinney, who you might remember for his later work as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street.

I have to say honestly that two things are working against me with this four-disc DVD set. First, being 27, I find that the charm and wonder I experienced as a child watching Bozo is much diminished. I can still sit down and watch an episode of The Smurfs or Fraggle Rock and find them entertaining, but Bozo just does not have that same appeal. I will be calling my mother in just a bit to thank her for watching those hundreds and hundreds of episodes with me.

My other disappointment is that Frank Avruch just does not seem to bring the excitement and energy to the show that my beloved Bob Bell did. Perhaps it is a regional love and Boston fans will appreciate this DVD more than me; however those who did not grow up with this Bozo will find themselves disappointed.

After 47 years on air, making it one of the longest running shows on television, it was time to immortalize Bozo in his own DVD. I just wish that Larry Harmon would have chosen to include a few episodes from each of the major franchised markets, giving us all a little of the Bozo the Clown that we remember.

Kate Harding’s brain contains an abnormal amount of entertainment (read: useless) knowledge. It is the reason that she did not do better in school and why she often can’t remember why she walked into a room. Kate can be found managing a non-profit art gallery and talking endlessly about music.

Like the titular dish (and a clever wordplay), Ratatouille is simple, subtle, yet a wonderful experience to be enjoyed by everyone, young and old.

Remy (Patton Oswalt) is an ordinary rat with an extraordinary sense of smell and taste. Remy's idol is world-renowned chef Gusteau (Brad Garrett), whose motto is that "anyone can cook." Remy dreams of becoming a chef, too, but his family thinks he's nuts, until his sense of smell saves the whole clan — that is, Remy is assigned the task to sniff out poisonous food.

A disaster on the home front forces the clan to move, and in the process Remy gets separated from his family and ends up, through the sewers, in Paris; and finally at Gusteau's kitchen. When a garbage boy, Linguini (Lou Romano), messes up the soup, Remy comes to the rescue. The trouble is, the soup is a sensation and the head chef, Skinner (Ian Holm), thinks that Linguini is a fake and demands that he re-create the soup. Having no choice, Linguini teams up with Remy in a Cyrano de Bergerac way: Remy will cook by hiding in Linguini's toque and controlling Linguini's hands and body. Working together with Colette (Janeane Garofalo), Linguini develops strong feelings for her.

Remy's cooking is creating a stir and reviving Gusteau's reputation as one of Paris's best restaurants, and rousing the curiosity of food critic Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole), who was responsible for taking two stars away from the once five-star Gusteau's. Meanwhile, Skinner suspects something is behind Linguini's success and he's determined to smoke out the rat, so to speak.

The voice talents in Ratatouille are phenomenal in that they all fit the characters perfectly, delivering lively and affecting performances. As Remy, comedian Patton Oswalt (The King of Queens) is delightful, reminding us of Nathan Lane but also creating his own brand of friendliness in his voice. As the klutzy Linguini, Lou Romano (The Incredibles, also Pixar's artist) is perfectly goofy and sincere. Remy and Linguini don't really talk with each other (while Remy can understand the humans, his speach comes off as squeaks in Linguini's ears), but their individual voices still create a wonderful overall dynamic.

Ian Holm (The Aviator) is remarkable as the frantic, conniving Skinner. He gave Skinner a wildly comical voice, which in the hands of a lesser actor could very well go over the top. As Colette, Janeane Garofalo (Southland Tales) is sweet but spunky. Sometimes she does go over the top and it's a bit difficult to understand her faux French accent. Brad Garrett (Music and Lyrics) provides a jolly and heartfelt voice for Gusteau, the chef who inspires Remy (and later becomes his conscience) to follow his dream. The standout is the formidable Peter O'Toole (Venus) as the feared critic. He helps make Anton Ego become one of Pixar's most impressive "villain."

As writer and director, Brad Bird (The Incredibles) is involved in every aspect of the production, and his magical touches are evident everywhere. Bird's previous works such as The Incredibles and Iron Giant have cemented his place in the world of animation, and Ratatouille will only further establish him as a god.

As with The Incredibles, the film is light in tone, high on humor (but void of crude potty jokes), and great with memorable characters and a plot that moves and twists. Sure, the theme of "follow your dream" is not new, especially in family films, but Brad Bird's story goes beyond that. For a G-rated family animation, the story is surprisingly mature. Clearly Brad Bird and Pixar had adults in mind when making this film. While children will definitely enjoy the animation, the action, and the cute characters, the themes are quite mature, and adults will truly appreciate the humor, dialogue, and story. It's not as flashy as The Incredibles or Cars, but I really appreciate the maturity of the story and the broad range of humor (from physical slapsticks to simple, funny lines).

Good writing is only half the battle. I'm pleased to say that Ratatouille does not disappoint as far as the animation is concerned. It's one of the most delightful, beautiful, and amazing productions even by Pixar's stellar standards. The rats move like real rats (without being grotesque), the furs look real, and Pixar has perfected the water, which is one of the hardest things to animate. When the characters get drenched, you can feel how their furs clump together or their clothes cling to their bodies. When they cook, you can almost smell and taste the food, which looks deliciously real. And Paris literally comes to life with amazing details — sometimes the sceneries are so photorealistic we really feel that we're there. The CG animation has the striking fluidity of hand-drawn animation, coupled with the details of CG, giving us a full experience.

For an animation nut like myself, Ratatouille is a marvel to behold. The story is wonderfully thought out, the performances pitch perfect, and the humor delightful. And for everyone else, the film simply entertains with an unexpected and satisfying finish. Even if you don't care about the lessons, you will no doubt be wowed by the quality of the animation and the lighthearted story about love, friendship, and food. After the movie, I bet you can't wait to rush home and find a recipe for ratatouille — I did.

Stars: Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Peter O'Toole, Ian Holm, Janeane Garofalo, Brad Garrett
Director: Brad Bird
Writers: Brad Bird, Jim Capabianco, Emily Cook, Kathy Greenberg, Jan Pinkava
Distributor: Pixar/Buena Vista
MPAA Rating: G for some intense moments that may scare little children
Running Time: 122 Minutes

Ratings:

• Script – 8
• Performance – 9
• Direction – 9
• Animation – 10
• Music/Sound– 9
• Editing – 8
• Production – 10

Total – 9.1 out of 10

Dead Silence certainly isn’t the movie I expected from the director of Saw. It’s a solid, slightly more sophisticated horror film, one that I imagine director James Wan was thinking of making when he got his big break with the gruesome, albeit groundbreaking Saw. In fact, it was bold move, making a ghost story when hyper-graphic horror films are all the rage.

Wan wasn’t rewarded with box office success. Dead Silence only grossed $15 million at the North American box office. Yet the small scale, atmospheric horror film is a treat for audiences with enough sense to know the difference between shock and awe.

I say awe because Wan’s jackhammer subtlety is controlled enough to tell a simple tale rather effectively. It’s the tale of Jamie (Ryan Kwanten), a newlywed whose wife is mysteriously murdered after a ventriloquist’s dummy appears on his doorstep. When he finds his wife, her mouth is pried open as if she too were a puppet (the closest we get to gore in this film). While a cop (Donnie Walhberg) investigates Jamie, the newlywed heads to his hometown where the story of a murderous old ventriloquist, Mary Shaw (Judith Roberts), turns out to be more than just a legend.

Dead Silence very well could have been part of an anthology series, ala Masters of Horror. The story doesn’t call for Wan’s blue filters or red set pieces. The large(ish) sets border on excessive. The boyish Kwanten doesn’t look the part and Wan still hasn’t gained the ability to direct an actor. Yet, Dead Silence works thanks to good old-fashioned storytelling ability.

Wan never struck me as a competent storyteller until I saw Dead Silence. Watching the extras and seeing the characters he cut from the script and the terrible alternate opening and closing, you can see how far he’s come in terms of tightening the narrative since his work with Saw (and presumably as the executive producer of parts two, three, and four). Whereas I expected another incoherent, overacted, gore-heavy, schlock-fest, I can say I was pleasantly surprised by the tepid but competent ghost story I actually got.

The only truly unfortunate part of Dead Silence is seeing it fall flat in release. I didn’t love Dead Silence, but I didn’t hate it either. I would rather it succeed than the truly bad horror films that came in the wake of Saw. While Dead Silence may even be slightly bland, it isn’t as offensively bad as the so-called "torture porn" horror films that rely on jump cuts to get an R-rating. I’ll take confidently lackluster over faux-horrifying any day.

Evening puts together an excellent cast. It is based on the novel by Susan Minot and adapted for the screen by Ms. Minot and Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Cunningham of The Hours. This is a story of a timeless romance and its consequences.

Ann Lord (Vanessa Redgrave) is bedridden and is suffering from an irrational mind. She reveals a long-held secret about her past to her concerned daughters, Constance (Natasha Richardson), a content wife and mother, and Nina (Toni Collette), a restless single woman. Both are bedside when Ann calls out for man she loved more than any other she met. This man is Dr. Harris Arden (Patrick Wilson), and the daughters wonder who and what is he to their mother?

While Constance and Nina try to take stock of Ann's life and their own lives, their mother is tended to by a night nurse, sometimes seen as a fictitious angel (Eileen Atkins), as Ann journeys in her mind back to a summer weekend some fifty years ago, when she was Ann Grant (Claire Danes). In this flashback scene, young Ann has just come from New York City to be maid of honor at the high society Newport, Rhode Island wedding of her best friend from college, Lila Wittenborn (Mamie Gummer). The bride is jittery, and turns to Ann rather than her own mother (Glenn Close) for support. Ann stays close to Lila during this confusing time, knowing she is getting married to a man she doesn't love. Ann is closer than Lila's younger irrepressible alcoholic brother Buddy (Hugh Dancy) who has a crush on her.

Unexpected feelings surge when Ann meets wedding guest Harris Arden, a lifelong intimate friend of the Wittenborn family. A love affair between Ann and Harris triggers a fatal accident in the Wittenborn household and eventually changes the life of everyone at the wedding.

The story comes full circle and unfolds when Ann's best friend Lila Wittenborn, now Lila Ross (Meryl Streep), appears at her death bed. Meryl Streep's role is limited in this film but she adds a fine closure to a spectacular emsemble. The period piece flasback scenes and music of the 1950s add a nostalgic look and sound to an already excellent movie.

I found this film to be an illuminating, timeless love story and a deeply emotional narrative which binds mother and daughter – seen through the prism of one mother's life as it crests with optimism, navigates a turning point, and ebbs to its close. Two pairs of real-life mothers and daughters – Vanessa Redgrave and Natasha Richardson, and Meryl Streep and Mamie Gummer – portray, respectively, a mother and her daughter and the mother's best friend at different stages in life. The complete cast is unquestionably outstanding and I expect to see nominations at Oscar time for their roles.

Directed by: Lajos Koltai
Running time: 117 minutes
Release date: June 29, 2007
Genre: Drama
Distributor: Focus Features
MPAA Rating: PG-13

Though it seems like a natural, this Tuesday marks the first collaboration between Nova and National Geographic Television. The material, entitled "The Great Inca Rebellion," focuses on new discoveries and revelations about the Spanish conquest of the Incas. It is certainly a worthy topic for these two heavyweights to tackle together.

As the documentary states, for years the accepted version of the Incas' devastating defeat by the Spanish focused on horses, steel, and germs. The commonly accepted view is that due to the horses and steel of the Spanish conquistadors, the Incan army was no match for the Spanish. Then, as the Incas came into more contact with the Spanish, they fell ill and died due to diseases carried by the Spanish. In short, it is because the Spanish wore more advanced and somewhat lucky.

Now, however, a new theory has emerged. There are some historians, archaeologists, and assorted other scientists who are piecing together a different version of the events. They believe that while it is true that horses, steel, and germs helped the Spanish, that a deciding factor in these battles was in fact the enlistment of other native tribes to battle against the Incas.

Nova begins this story by talking to Peruvian archaeologist Guillermo Cock. Cock, who has for a long time been provided grants by National Geographic, discovered an old Incan burial ground on the outskirts of Lima. While some of the graves there are traditionally Incan in nature, nearly 70 others, which sit on top of the Incan graves, are not. They may contain Incas and other natives of the region, but they are buried haphazardly, not in the methodical Incan style. The bodies also contain crushing blows to the skull and numerous broken bones.

After bringing in experts, it was determined that at least one of these bodies contains a bullet wound, one that is consistent with what would be produced by the Spanish guns of the era. That, along with other evidence, helps Cock and his team place the site as the first one that contained bodies from the same time period as the Inca Rebellion in Lima.

Once the narrative of the documentary gets this far,it takes a strong left turn and becomes almost something else entirely. Two separate historians, without the aid of the grave site, have already started putting together a different view of the Spanish conquest than the traditionally accepted European one, one in which other Indian tribes played a huge role in vanquishing the Incas. These historians recount how Francisco Pizarro's concubine was an Indian and how the Inca Rebellion in Lima was not put down due to a heroic charge on a part of the Spanish cavalry, but rather by the concubine having written to her mother, a tribal chief, that sent an army to help Pizarro.

The story of the cemetery and the Inca Rebellion are told with great style and it is clear that a lot of care went into constructing all the visual images. The various tales told within the single documentary are fascinating as well, but, as presented, they do not mesh as smoothly as they ought. They should work together perfectly as they are two halves of the same whole, but very little effort seems to have been put into having these two stories flow from one into the next. It's sad, because the rest of the documentary is put together well.

The historians interviewed have clearly been formulating their beliefs for longer than this new cemetery has been known to exist, yet the episode makes little mention of this. The cemetery supports the historians' already existing beliefs, rather than helping the historians formulate them. Additionally, the historians make no mention of the grave site. It seems completely and totally beside the point to them, which aids in the disjointed feel of the program.

Despite this weakness, the episode is an engrossing look at the historic realities of the Spanish conquest of the Incan Empire (which was, as the episode reminds us, in decline when Pizarro arrived). While the cemetery is clearly the impetus for the episode, the more fascinating aspects of the historical reality, the second half of the episode, is the more interesting half.

Nova – "The Great Inca Rebellion" airs on PBS, Tuesday, June 26 at 8pm. However, it's always best to check your local listings rather than just taking my word for it.

Asia has churned out some very good horror films over the past decade. Breathing life into the genre, they brought new vision and new approaches. Of course the first ones to cross the pond were the good ones, films like The Ring, The Eye, Dark Water, and The Grudge; then when the top tier titles were spent we started to get middling titles, and as those began to run out the quality starts to become even more widespread.

The Heirloom hails from Taiwan, and while it picks up in the latter third, it is such a dreadfully dull slog that you may not be able to make it all the way through. The Heirloom is one of those movies that has some very good things going for it, making the whole quite frustrating.

James Yang (Jason Chang) is an architect, recently returning to Taiwan after studying in the UK. He has inherited a large gothic mansion on the outskirts of Taipei. It is an old decaying home whose origins date back to the Chinese occupation. Even though he is urged to sell right from the start, he decides to keep it, and invites his girlfriend, Yo (Terri Kwan), to come and live with him there. She has some initial misgivings, but quickly agrees to move in. Shortly thereafter, in what any veteran of these haunted house type tales will know, strange things start happening. The first victims of the occurrences are James and Yo's friends Yi-Chen and Cheng.

I guess it would help to back up a little bit. The film opens with text telling of the ancient Chinese tradition of worshiping young ghosts. They would take dead fetuses, keep them in jars and feed them blood in return for good fortune. Like most ancient practices used in movies of this type, this one has dire consequences. In this case, a mass suicide by James' family twenty years earlier leaves him the heir to everything, and now that he is of age, it is his. The problem is that he knows nothing of his family's legacy, of their use of dead fetuses to better the family's fortune.

James and Yo try to make sense of what is going on, and aren't making much headway. Then partway through, James' committed aunt reveals the dead baby legacy to Yo, who starts to piece things together. From this point on, it becomes the young couple's mission to close this circle of death.

The biggest problem with the movie is that it moves along so slowly that I found my interest never even building to the point where it could wane. I never really cared about the characters or became invested in their survival. The further it went, the smaller the chances became that I would care. Sure, the post-exposition time did get better, but it was too little too late to save the movie for me.

Despite what a slog it was, it was not a complete loss. The cinematography is gorgeous, the mansion set becomes a character itself, giving an aura of menace, dread, and impending doom. There are some gorgeous tracking shots through the expanse that are just great. Combine that with an intriguing score, and you have a movie that does have a distinct feeling that something bad is afoot; it is the story, and the dreadful pacing that ultimately sinks the movie.

Audio/Video. The film is presented its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and it delivers a very nice image, nicely detailed and free of any major defects. Audio is presented in Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1. I listened to the Dolby track, and there is nothing to complain about.

Extras. There are a few included here, but nothing terribly compelling. Included are a commentary track with the director, screenwriter, and production crew, a brief making of featurette, deleted scenes, and the original trailer.

Bottom line. You could do much worse, but unless you are starved for Asian horror, I would not really recommend this. The pacing is just a killer of insomnia. There is some nice atmosphere, but again, not enough to save this bore.

Not Recommended.

Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about entertainment when he isn’t sitting in a movie theater. He is known around the office as the “Movie Guy” and is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Interests include science fiction, horror, and metal music. His writings can be found at Draven99’s Musings, as well as Film School Rejects.

On Friday's General Hospital:

Lucky banged heads with Liz again for visiting Jason. He asked her if she believes that if Jason wasn't in jail that he would be able to find Jake. I, however, wondered how it is that Jason, being held on murder charges, is able to receive visitors anytime he wants. He's practically living in the interrogation room with a constant stream of people coming and going. Elizabeth says Jason calms her, while all Lucky and Liz seem to be able to do is argue. They were able to stop when they thought Jake had been found, but when the infant in question turned out to not be their son, Jason called on Spinelli to break him out so he could look for Jake.

When Ric came to the Everyday Heroes set asking where Sam was at the time of the kidnapping, Amelia lied and provided her with an alibi. The kindness only confused Sam who can't seem to figure out why Amelia continues to be so nice to her. Later, Amelia's motives were questioned even more by Sam when she found Amelia's file containing Sam's con-artist past.

Kate came to Sonny and begged him to stop a tabloid from running an article romantically linking her to him. All the time he was playing his cat and mouse game with the woman, he was also playing with the gold lighter. For the life of me I couldn't figure out when Sonny had developed pyro tendencies or even a smoking habit, but of course it was yet another forced plot device. They needed a lighter available when Kate came back to the coffee shop and discovered Amelia and Sonny getting hot and heavy in his office. How else would she set off the fire detectors without that lighter? I love Kate showing a jealous side and the desire to be with Sonny even though she protests to his face, but the whole lighter thing was just so convenient!

Carly wanted to jump into hotel renovations with Jax, who seemed eager, that is until he got a call from Jerry and packed his bags. (We all saw this coming, right!) He was no sooner gone when Carly decided she was going after him to bring him back home. No, this is not going to end well!

Warning! News and Spoilers Ahead!

• Spinelli says no to Jason? When it comes to breaking him out jail he does, though I'll be curious to see why, since it was his idea in the first place.
• When Carly catches up with Jax, she'll have to save him from the bartender holding him at gun point. She'll return home alone when Jax insists on finding his brother. Hmm, maybe he should go with Carly as Jerry will be lying in wait with the boys when Carly returns.
• Maxie wants proof of Logan's seduction of Lulu. Proof? Like what kind of proof?
• There's a little more information circling about the new storyline for Noah Drake (Rick Springfield) and Anna Devane (Finola Hughes) which is set to roll into motion on July 2nd. Springfield will actually be taking on a second role; that of Eli Love a rockstar/spy who bears an uncanny resemblance to the good Doctor. It does seem to be Noah, however who is Anna's love interest, though I imagine Eli is one of her contacts. When Eli is hurt, Noah will be called upon to step in for the rockstar. I'm also hearing that Anna is a contact of Jerry's. Seems the wonder-woman spy has been pretty busy since her absence from the screen.
• Want a sneak peak at the Night Shift? Check out GHFF2.

Wife, mother, aspiring novelist, and music editor at BC Magazine, Connie Phillips spends most of her time in a fantasy land of her own creating. In reality, she writes about music, television, and the process of writing, when she’s not cheering on her kids at equestrian events. Contact: Phillips.connie@gmail.com