Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 30th, 2006
Honestly, I wasn't expecting too much from The Virgin Spring. I know that it's Bergman, but it's based on an ancient Swedish medieval ballad. If your source material is hundreds of years old and only two pages long, surely there can't be much to see from the film, can there?
I could not have been more wrong. Though this may be just under an hour-and-a-half in length, the film is filled with subtext, imagery and several powerful messages. Spring tells the story of a fair maiden who is brutally ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 30th, 2006
American Women is a difficult film to write about because it evokes such little passion from its viewer. By no standards is it a good film, but pinpointing its frailties becomes quite the daunting task. Set in a small Irish village, the story centers on a group of sexist men, who want to import girls from America because the ones accessible to them do not meet up to the appropriate standards. The plot is farfetched, even as goofball comedies go, and none of the male characters are likeable. Also, with so many ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 30th, 2006
Disney’s Timeless Tales is a collection of six classic cartoons, each running about ten minutes long. It’s a lightweight release with not much to speak of, but it will please the kids, and includes some annoyingly catchy little tunes that are hard to shake. The most famous inclusion here is that of “Casey at the Bat.” One nice add-on worth noting is the small insert which includes the short “Casey” tale in its entirety, so you can follow along as you watch. The classic tale of Casey, which deals with overconfi...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 29th, 2006
It's great to see Scorsese return to his love and respect of music in documentary form. Of course, the first time he did a music documentary, the result was what many consider to be the best musical performance film of all time; The Last Waltz. He has always paid special attention to rock and roll music in his films, from using Cream in a gangster film (Goodfellas) to The Moody Blues in a film about old Las Vegas (Casino). Music has played an interesting and important role in all of Scorsese's fi...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 28th, 2006
Oliver Stone has developed a well-deserved reputation for injecting conspiracy tales into his films. A veteran of Vietnam, he has developed quite a case of drug-induced paranoia over the years. While this probably makes him a real drag at parties, it makes for some really interesting films... especially when said films are based on actual events. Audiences can drive themselves crazy trying to separate fact-from-speculation-from-rumor-from-flat-out-fiction, and that kind of thing is great fun for somebody like me.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 28th, 2006
Obviously, the idea of making a film about mixing races in 1949 was a topic that was quite taboo. Nobody can fault Pinky for being groundbreaking in its subject matter. However, this is the very definition of a timely film. Being viewed almost 60 years later, it comes across as silly, almost like a midnight viewing of Refer Madness. Just as the kids in Reefer are obviously not under the spell of some horrible mind-altering herb, so Jeanne Crain is about as convincingly “colored” as Bill Gates on ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 28th, 2006
Last year, Warner Brothers put out a great ten-disc set of all of the Hitchcock films in their catalog. While not the ultimate Hitchcock collection, it was still an excellent representation of the Master's work, including many films that have received a well-deserved second look as a result of their inclusion in the set. It was especially rewarding to be given the opportunity to see Montgomery Clift's amazing portrayal of a Priest caught in the middle of a murder scandal in I Confess.
Not to be outdo...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 27th, 2006
Synopsis
Based on the novel by Helen Cross, and adapted for the screen and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, My Summer of Love is an interesting story about two girls in Ireland (or England) who find friendship in each other’s company among a sea of desolation.
Mona (Nathalie Press, Chromophobia) lives above a pub that her brother Phil (Paddy Considine, In America) owns. But Phil, an ex-con, has found religion, and plans to close the bar and turn it into a gathering place for fel...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 27th, 2006
When news of a sequel to 1998’s The Mask of Zorro was first announced, I was very excited as I really enjoyed The Mask of Zorro. The film had an interesting story and great acting from Banderas and Hopkins. But as I learned more and more about the sequel, I became extremely worried as neither of the two screenwriters (Ted Elliot or Terry Rossio) were returning. Also, we would be introduced to their cute little child (and EVERYONE knows how much adding little children to sequels can do for a film’s likea...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 27th, 2006
Synopsis
Mission Hill was left with the unfortunate task of initially airing on a network that wasn’t capable enough to nature it (Arrested Development fans can empathize with that scenario). The good news for fans of the show was that after its short run of episodes on the WB network, the Cartoon Network picked up and aired the remaining finished episodes, and put them on their Adult Swim broadcasting format before they went away. The good part of the deal is that Warner Brothers were good en...
