Archive for the ‘First Run Features’ Category
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Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 27th, 2009
Posted by Ken Spivey
Filmmaker Godfrey Cheshire returned to his ancestral home, Midway Plantation, in 2003. When he arrived he found his cousin, Charlie Silver, about to move the southern mansion to make way for a shopping complex. “Moving Midway” is the story of Midway’s past, present journey, and future home.
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Disc Reviews by Aric Mitchell on March 31st, 2006
Arnold Clasen reenters society after time away in a Nazi prison camp, and returns to Hamburg and a life of quiet solitary resistance, in the 1981 war-time drama Your Unknown Brother. Clasen immediately reconnects with his old love Renate, and embarks on a turbulent, dangerous friendship with resistance leader Walter, a man of ulterior motives, who is also in bed with the Nazi regime. Clasen starts to suspect Walter when many of his old comrades are seized by authorities. It seems everyone in the resistance, wh…
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Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 22nd, 2006
Synopsis
In Spain of the early 70s, Javier Cámara is Alfredo, an unsuccessful door-to-door encyclopedia salesman. His wife, Carmen (Candela Peña), desperately wants a baby, but he refuses because of their dire financial straits. The publishing house he works for decides to move into making sex films, and its remaining door-to-door men must film themselves having sex with their wives or lose their jobs. Carmen sees this as a good opportunity to get pregnant, and convinces Alfredo to give it a try. The…
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 9th, 2004
Suspended animation is a story with a lot of promise. Fifteen minutes into the film and it looks like we’re seeing a Misery ripoff with a cannibal twist. From that point on I’m not sure if I’m watching Misery, Deliverance, or Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There are some truly suspenseful moments in the film, but they are spaced too far apart with needless muddled plotlines. The film style is eerily reminiscent of the Italian suspense masters like Brava and Argento without the gore. The Spaghetti Nightmares are an obvious …
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Disc Reviews by Jeremy Frost on November 13th, 2002
Synopsis
”Edward and Connie Sumner (Richard Gere, Diane Lane) have the perfect life: a happy marriage, an eight-year-old son, and a beautiful house in the suburbs. But when Connie’s chance encounter with a handsome stranger (Olivier Martinez) erupts into a full-blown affair, desire becomes obsession, and the true price of betrayal takes a shattering toll.” – Fox
Audio
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track on this disc is good, but not great. The dialog is very good, and the …
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 16th, 2002
What happens when you take a writer/producer known primarily for music videos and documentaries, give him a modest budget, and a script of vignettes? You get a very artsy David Lynch imitation that I like to call Lynch-Lite. Jon Reiss wants so much to be David Lynch that there are even moments of the Twin Peaks theme in the score. I don’t mind struggling through a piece of film noir if I can eventually find my way to a payoff. Not that there aren’t bright spots and even flashes of cinematic genius here, just not enough.
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