Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 4th, 2005
The complete fourth season of the UK’s hit show Coupling arrives on DVD in 6 exciting episodes.
Wait a minute…did I just say “complete season” and “6 episodes” in the same breath? Unfortunately, yes. Now, I can’t really blame the DVD producers; they’re just putting out content that has already been made. Television seasons are short in the UK… what are you going to do? The rumor is that season five has been ordered for production by the BBC, but the show is currently on hiatus, so there is no guarant...e that any more episodes will be produced. This could be the last full season of this colossal hit, so collectors will definitely want to pick this one up.
Posted in: News and Opinions by Archive Authors on March 2nd, 2005
Fox Home Entertainment will release the Collector's Edition of The Day After Tomorrow on May 24th. This 2-disc set will be presented in a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, along with Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS audio tracks. Extras will include two audio commentaries (the first by Director/Co-writer Roland Emmerich and Producer Mark Gordon; the second by Co-writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Cinematographer Ueli Steiger, film Editor David Brenner & Production Designer Barry Chusid), four featurettes ("pre-visu...lisation", "Eye of the Storm: Filming The Day After Tomorrow", "Pushing the Envelope: Visual Effects", & "The Force of Destiny: The Science and Politics of Change"), a pre-production meeting, storyboard and concept galleries, deleted scenes (with optional commentary), a "scoring the movie" feature, and a number of trailers.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 27th, 2005
The movie’s tagline is “Ordinary Life is Pretty Complex Stuff.” And the movie itself, with Paul Giamatti (Sideways) as Harvey Pekar, a file clerk at a Cleveland Veterans’ Hospital, is very good. Harvey creates a comic book based on his life, and he and his book hit a stride of popularity, which includes several appearances on Late Night with David Letterman. Things manage to take a downturn when he is diagnosed with testicular cancer. So he and his wife Joyce (Hope Davis, About Schmidt) decide to...write his plight into the comic as well. Harvey manages to beat the cancer into remission, and the movie ends with a party celebrating Harvey’s retirement from the hospital, surrounded by family and friends.
That’s it. That’s the movie. But there are so many creative accents added to the film that it really turns conventional filmmaking on its head. When Joyce decides to go to Ohio and meet Harvey, she gets to the train station, and in her anticipation, we see what she’s been seeing; his comic book interpretations. She (and we) experience 3 different illustrated interpretations of Harvey before she meets him in person. And his first words to her are some of the most memorable ones you’ll hear, they make a girl swoon! Or maybe not. The movie incorporates comic book storyboards into the film frame, reminiscent of what was done in Hulk, but in a much more obvious and, consequently, greater effect. The real Harvey provides narration through the movie. Harvey also provides detail and explains some of the scenes. Footage of Harvey’s appearances on the Letterman show is edited into the film, and we see it in between Giamatti both before and after his first appearance.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 26th, 2005
Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 is one of the worst movies ever made. At least...that's what I keep reading. Reviews have torched this movie, and I must concur. This movie is bad. And I don't think the first one was much of a hit either. So why make this dreck?
The plot of the movie revolves around our little genius heroes saving the world from an evil TV mogul played by Jon Voight (need a paycheck?). This baddie wants to submit subliminal messges through kiddie TV and control children (and baby ta...k) all over the world. There's a lot of kung fu between kids vs. adults, and Scott Baio shows up to proclaim to the world that HE IS NOT Chachi. The director Bob Clark has seen better days. Porky's is a masterpiece compared to this pablum.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 25th, 2005
I’m always a sucker for con men movies, movies about the grift, or general films about robbers who are smart and get money from dumb people. If they’re too stupid to know what to do with the cash, send it over here, Daddy needs it. Sometimes there are new and interesting wrinkles that usually crash and burn, but sometimes work out quite well in the end.
Matchstick Men tells the story of Roy (Nicolas Cage, Adaptation) and Frank (Sam Rockwell, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind), two men wh... have been conning people for a few years, Roy being the veteran of the bunch, one who doesn’t like to take many big risks. Roy appears to suffer from various neuroses, and is a bit of an obsessive compulsive, who takes medication to help curb his tics. In the midst of a panic attack caused by a lack of pills, Frank sets Roy up with a psychiatrist who can prescribe the desired pills, but would still like to find out more about Roy’s life. In the midst of the discussions, Roy tells the psychiatrist that he had a daughter with an ex-wife who left him. The psychiatrist decides to make contact with her, and introduces Roy to his daughter Angela (Alison Lohman, Big Fish). Roy meets Angela and she stays with him for a short while, and they eventually develop a bond, so much so that he decides to show her some of the tricks of his trade. She finds herself involved in a job Roy and Frank are pulling to rob almost $100,000 cash from Chuck (Bruce McGill, The Sum of All Fears), leading up to a wild and wacky ending.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 25th, 2005
In the midst of Hollywood rehashing old TV shows from the 70s and 80s, they’ve been working on a big screen version of The Dukes of Hazzard. I will repeat that because I think that it bears repeating. Somebody in Hollywood greenlit a movie with Stifler and Johnny Knoxville as Bo and Luke Duke, and Jessica Simpson as their cousin Daisy, as they taunt and evade Boss Hogg played by, wait for it….Burt Reynolds. Someone should be brought up on charges for this, because that sound you’re hearing is Hollywood scrapin... the bottom of the barrel of ideas.
That’s not to say that perhaps they aren’t trying to capitalize on a potentially big crowd. I mean, the show was a staple on CBS TV for 7 seasons, running for almost 150 episodes. You can’t do much better than that with 2 good looking guys, a good looking girl and the requisite pile of car tricks each episode. It was Southern boys acting like Southern boys, having fun and staying close to their family. Warner brothers has put the entire second season (23 episodes) out on 4 flipper discs. Quite a few well known names of the South appeared through the years on the show. Among those recognizable are Nascar driver Cale Yarborough (it was 1980, keep that in mind) along with musicians Mel Tillis, The Oak Ridge Boys and Loretta Lynn.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 25th, 2005
There’s gotta be some reason why Charmed has stuck around for as long as it has. What started as a show created by Aaron Spelling, starring Shannon Doherty (Beverly Hills 90210) and goddess to internet pervs everywhere in Alyssa Milano (Embrace of the Vampire) has been a staple in the WB lineup for its 7th season now. Even though the show did have to change out Doherty several seasons ago, replacing her with Rose McGowan, the adventures of the Halliwell sisters are still going strong.
T...e folks at Paramount have finally started putting this show out on DVD, and the first season has recently arrived. All 22 episodes from the first season are available on a six-disc set, which examines the clairvoyance of Phoebe (Milano), the telekinetic powers of Prue (Doherty), and the freezing powers of Piper (Holly Marie Combs, Picket Fences). Phoebe returns to San Francisco to stay with her sisters, the more free-spirited of the three, while Prue is the dominant one and Piper is the shy one. Those familiar with the show now will find the dynamic between the three completely different than what it first was, and it’s fun to watch, as the girls try to get a better handle of their newfound powers, and they eventually embrace them in a fight against various demons and other black magic antagonists.
Posted in: News and Opinions by Archive Authors on February 23rd, 2005
Universal Home Entertaiment will release the Ethan Hawke / Laurence Fishburne remake of Assault on Precinct 13 on May 10th. This disc will be presented in a 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, along DTS (English) & Dolby Digital 5.1 (English & French) audio tracks. Extras will include an audio commentary (with director Jean-Francois Richet, Writer James DeMonaco and Producer Jeffrey Silver), deleted scenes, and five featurettes ("Armed and Dangerous", "Behind Precinct Walls", "Plan of Attack", "The As...ault Team", & "Caught in the Crosshairs").
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 20th, 2005
The Matrix (1999) was a landmark film in the Sci-Fi genre. While it’s box office intake was dwarfed by Episode 1, it was The Matrix that had people talking. Andy and Larry Wachowski’s story of a post-apocalyptic world where humans serve as biological generators of energy for the machines that rule the planet, challenged people’s perceptions of what reality was.
In addition to the well crafted story, The Matrix was well known for the creation of one of the most copied special eff...cts shots currently in movie production, “bullet time” blew audiences away. The normally wooden acting of Keanu Reaves seemed to fit Neo’s transformation well and the performances by the supporting cast (Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Ann Moss) were visceral in their appeal. The Matrix was a box office success – the production budget was $63 million and the domestic gross was $171 million.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 19th, 2005
Until September is soap opera/romance that lacks sizzle. Karen Allen, of Raiders of the Lost Arkfame plays Mo. Mo is a plucky American girl who falls in love with Parisian named Xavier (played by Thierry Lhermitte). Mo misses her plane and is stuck in Paris. She meets cute with Xavier and an affair begins. However, complications ensue: Xavier has a wife and family.
The Paris locations are nice, but the lead couple lacks any chemistry whatsoever. Karen Allen is cute as a button, but Th...erry Lhermitte is a dreadful bore. The only interesting thing of note is that the director is Richard Marquand. Marquand directed Return of the Jedi and this is the movie he made right after. The two movies are like night and day. Jedi is fun and engaging, Until September is a bland piece of oatmeal.
