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“Lost in La Mancha” Directed by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe

Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe’s “Lost in La Mancha” chronicles director Terry Gilliam’s attempt to create “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,” a film adaptation of Cervantes’s classic novel “Don Quixote.”

Gilliam’s decadelong aspiration to make his film is finally put into production only to be plagued from the start with relentless complications, ranging from an unbelievable apocalyptic flood to the comically crusty, grumpy, injury-plagued French actor Jean Rochefort.

A chaotic flux of insurance adjusters, principle investors, and a host of other supporting components refuse to peacefully coexist with Gilliam as he travels down an increasingly depressing road toward abandonment of the film after six days of shooting.

Despite its comical moments and a visually captivating flood scene, this film is in Discovery Channel style. At times the narration by Jeff Bridges will lull you toward memories of a Sunday afternoon TV couch nap. It lacks a pulse.

If you feel you could enjoy the artistic parallel between the lives of Terry Gilliam and Don Quixote – both dreamers whose dreams are destroyed by the encroachingly pragmatic world around them – this movie is well worth seeing.

Monty Python fans will enjoy scenes of Gilliam sketching out animations of his frustrations.

“Lost in La Mancha” is a story of a man’s struggle to transform a personal dream into a tangible reality. It is revealing, somewhat inspiring, slow, but intellectually satisfying.

-Sean Halloran

“The Recruit”

Starring Colin Farrell, Al Pacino

Directed by Roger Donaldson

In a refreshing change of pace from the standard predictability of most action films, “The Recruit” capitalizes on everything that a fun movie worth seeing should boast: cleverness, sex, mystery, and of course, stunning actors who hold the audience’s attention for the entire film.

Set in the CIA’s closely guarded training facility otherwise known as “The Farm,” the film takes moviegoers into the top secret world of undercover espionage where appearances can be deceiving.

The film takes unpredictable turns following the recruitment process of James Clayton (Colin Farrell), student of CIA instructor Walter Burke (Al Pacino). It teases the audience to no end as to who or what is behind the secret plot to steal information from the CIA headquarters. Added to the talented cast is Bridgette Moynahan who only enhances the unique flavor of the high energy suspense thriller.

Going above and beyond any other film that has tried to realistically recreate CIA headquarters, the producers gained unprecedented access into the offices at Langley, Virginia so that they could correctly recreate details of certain sets as closely as possible, even down to the spacing of the tiles and type of stone used for graphic inlays.

While the climax of the plot may not have been without one or two minor holes in logic, for an action film of this complexity and high level of suspense, it’s easy to forgive and forget. The rest of the storyline made up for anything else the movie lacked.

-CJ Yu

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