Joseph Fiennes

Killing Me Softly (Unrated Edition)
$14.98
Sometimes one will watch a movie just to see how it ends. This is one of those movies where you don't have to do that as most folks with an IQ above 30 will have the ending correctly guessed by half an hour into the movie.
The leads give it a go here but the plot doesn't do them any favors as it is never presents believable characters or situations. The London scenery and Graham give the viewer a little to watch as the trite tale unfolds. It's not a bomb but 2 stars is all it deserves.

The Color of Freedom
$27.98
It is normally believed that if a prisoner starts accepting ideas and principles of his captors (think Patty Hearst) they suffer from Stockholm syndrom. But what happens when a prison guard starts to see truth in the words and actions of his prisoner?

"Color Of Freedom" is a story of two men Mendella and his prison guard Gregory. Gregory earns his job by virtue of knowing african language used in South Africa. He uses that to censor Mendella's mail and monitor conversations during visits from Mendella's family. While Mendella spends 27 years in prison fighting for the equality of South Africa's blacks, Gregory simply wants to earn means for his family, he has no high ideals. That does not diminish is his genuine humanity. By being part of the system he gets to see what is happening between blacks and whites in his country firsthand. His decency forces him to open his mind to what Mendella is truly trying to change in South Africa. Slowly, Gregory and Mendella establish bond through their personal tragedies and political changes in the word that force South African leaders to eventually free Nelson Mendella from political prison.

How much of the story is true will be known only between these two men. All we as viewers have to do is accept well meant intentions of the message of the movie. That we are all human with our basic emotions, needs and desires. It takes time to attain our ideals, purpose or subdue the emotional (invisible) pains of our souls. Freedom has no color - it just is.

Interview Magazine - August 1999: Joseph Fiennes, Tara Reid + (Single Issue Magazine)
$9.89
Oversized magazine featuring Joseph Fiennes on the cover and in a feature inside, plus Virginie Ledoyen, Tara Reid, Pierce Brosnan, Barry White, Tibor Kalman, and others, plus loads of sexy fashion layouts, smaller features on Lenny Bruce, KISS, Vitamin C, Basement Jaxx, and others, reviews, and much more!

William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice
$14.94
"...it looks like a misbegotten pilot for Law & Order: Usury Victims Unit. Or it would be if not for Pacino..." Keith Phipps, A.V.Club, 2004

Cute dismissal, sure, but Radford/Pacino's version of the story offers more than yet another Pacino vehcile.

This Merchant seeks to return to a Shakespearean formula, an instructional comedy about fidelity. To reach that story, bigotry and debauchery are placed front and center, illustrating the pitfalls of men pursuing passions and proclivities without a woman's restraint.

Pacino's Scarface/Godfather Shylock, wronged and vengeful, and Irons' Antonio, bigoted and brought to ruin, provide ample tension, though Irons crumples easily. Or does he? Were the conditions on his pardon vestigial spite? Does the scene of Shylock adrift suggest he opted to maintain his faith and leave Venice? Radford creates ambiguity for good reason. Headstrong Gratiano and malleable Bassiano likewise offer vows recklessly, nearly losing all they have gained.

Radford's Merchant is a study of how women, duly concerned with consequences, can lead men away from debauchery, bigotry, and recklessness. It is a beautiful and unique telling, well worth viewing and contemplating.