Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 5th, 2006
Synopsis
Christmas, 1914. In the trenches, we see the Scots, French and Germans beginning to celebrate in their own way. Singing in one trench inspires more in the opposing one, and before long, an unauthorized truce has broken out, and the enemy combatants are marking Christmas together. The film concentrates on a handful of characters who play a pivotal role in the truce in this particular section of the trenches, in particular the local commanding officers.
This was one of the most start...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 5th, 2006
I don�t recall when I first saw Rocky, and I haven�t kept track of how many times I�ve seen it since. The answers are probably �15 years ago� and �more than 10 times�, but accuracy isn�t important. What is important for you to know, is that Sylvester Stallone�s masterpiece is one of my favourite films of all time.
In other words, I love this movie, so don�t expect any criticism until at least the �video� section of this review. I don�t deny that there may be aspects of Rocky that merit denigration, I just refuse to let anything distract me from what I consider to be the ultimate inspirational story.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 4th, 2006
When I sat down to watch The Devil Wears Prada with my wife, who was excited to see it, I was braced for a complete chick flick. I figured it was another one of those �ugly� duckling turns beautiful to conquer her situation movies, and that prospect didn�t exactly have me jazzed up.
Well, that�s not quite how it goes, and I was surprised to find that I enjoyed the film. The story centres around Andrea (Anne Hathaway), an aspiring journalist who�s getting nowhere, who takes a job as second assistant to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), the frightening editor-in-chief of a leading fashion magazine.
Posted in: Highly Defined, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on December 4th, 2006
Caution: reading any of this entry may cause you to break down, cry and accuse me of “unappropriate” things.
Well, a week back into the fold (save for a business trip) doesn’t report much new news to speak of. In fact, the most notable news (aside from still poring over the Superman discs) is that the Blu-Ray release of Speed seems to be coming up with some glitches on playback, specifically that it won’t play on the Samsung player. Thankfully, Fox is providing replacement discs (hey, sounds familiar...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 3rd, 2006
Excalibur tells the story of King Arthur, from his simple beginnings to his noble ends. War plagues Great Britain, and many countrymen relish at the thought of peace as everyone is making claim to the Kingship. It is told that who ever removes Excalibur from the stone will be declared King. This legend might sound familiar to you as The Sword in the Stone (Excalibur being the sword). It is a mythical sword, which has been said to have magical, and only a noble and worthy man can bear it. Every noble i...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 3rd, 2006
The plot of Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, although simple, provides a very enjoyable experience throughout its entirety. Johnny Depp does a tremendous job brining his character to life, as does the rest of the cast.
Set in a dark Victorian era city, Corpse Bride is the tale of an arranged marriage between Victor Van Dort (Johnny Depp) the son of fishmongers, and Victoria Everglot (Emily Watson) the daughter of aristocrats. Victor is very hesitant of the marriage, of course until he meets the cha...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 1st, 2006
Ah, good old 1990 � such an important year in our history. The Soviet Union was in a state of social and political upheaval, David Robinson had just taken the professional basketball world by storm, and I was hatching plans for my first double-digits birthday.
Oh yeah, and Beverly Hills, 90210 hit the airwaves for its inaugural season. Obviously, at the time I was a bit young to have been interested in this teen soap opera, so watching this first season DVD set has not be full of reminiscence for me.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 1st, 2006
When I first heard of the film Accepted I immediately thought of Camp Nowhere. Both films have a similar plot – that of kids convincing their parents of a fake place that they're all going to. Accepted is a modern version of the aforementioned film, but lacks the overall humor that Camp Nowhere gave us.
When Bartleby Gaines is turned down by every single college he applied to he decides to make up a sister school to Harmon College simply named South Harmon Institute of Technolog...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 27th, 2006
I�m never up on the film festival scene, so it�s no surprise to me that I�ve only just discovered Tom Zuber�s Little Athens, even though it was an official selection of the Toronto Film Festival back in 2005.
My three favourite things about this movie are its strong cast, solid story and the unique cinematography. Actually, make it four things, because the soundtrack is also pretty excellent.
First, the cast. Little Athens is definitely an ensemble film, and every actor in this one is solid.
Posted in: Highly Defined, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on November 27th, 2006
What, you were expecting something profound from a short week?
Seriously? Well, for whatever it’s worth, the big news this week is the release of Superman to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. The Bryan Singer film Superman Returns (which looks like a beaut on HD-DVD), along with the Richard Donner-helmed Superman and Superman II (both of which are also beauts to boot).
In other day and date HD and Blu releases, The Ant Bully hits store shelves this week, and Windtalkers comes ...
![Excalibur [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/excalibur-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
![Tim Burton's Corpse Bride [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/tim-burtons-corpse-bride-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
