Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 18th, 2004
Everyone’s favorite television psychiatrist is back for his third go around. Frasier and his emmy award winning cast return for one of the better seasons that the series produced. The third season sees more wackiness, more Eddie jokes, and more shenanigans at the radio station. The biggest story shift this year is Niles' (David Hyde Pierce) separation from the still unseen Maris, leaving him more free time to moon over Daphne (Jane Leeves). In a half-season arc, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) finds himself at odds with, an...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 10th, 2004
Joe Queenan is one of my favorite writers. He is the author of wonderfully amusing essays and books dealing with the subject of film. In his book Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler, he is bold enough to take on the challenge of watching every Merchant Ivory film, back-to-back. At one point late in the narrative, he has this to say:
As I sat there in my reclining chair with my kids lighting matches to my feet, I realized that God had created Merchant and Ivory for only one reason: because otherwise ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 8th, 2004
Summer School is one of those films that I really enjoyed as a boy growing up in the 80’s. It had crazy characters, pretty girls, funny one-liners and cool people, like Mark Harmon. Watching the film today, I can honestly say that it is as good now as it was then. The only problem is, I have matured as a person and as a movie viewer. The characters are still crazy, but they are also largely annoying. The girls are still pretty, and the foreign exchange student is the same woman who played Allota Fagina in A...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 27th, 2004
All too often, films with an ensemble cast are a dream for the studio’s marketing department, but end up being a nightmare for the moviegoer. They are the very definition of the phrase, “too many Chiefs and not enough Indians”. There are exceptions to this rule (such as Steven Soderberg’s re-make of Ocean’s 11), but more often than not, such films fall flat, as everybody leads in their own direction, and nobody follows.
Thankfully, this is one of those rare exceptions. Each member of the cast of T...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 24th, 2004
Easily the best animated series to hit the airwaves over the past decade, Gennedy Tartovsky’s Samurai Jack has developed a devoted following owing to it’s superior storytelling and cinematography (if you can call it cinematography when it’s on TV).
It follows the story of Samurai Jack – a time displaced samurai looking to restore order to the planet by destroying the demon responsible for his, and the earth’s predicament. Aku, a powerful demon attacked Jack’s village destroying his home and family. Jack sw...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 24th, 2004
Following what may be one of the best season finales ever (i.e. Buffy sacrifices herself for her sister Dawn) Buffy is raised from the dead by the ever increasing powers of Willow. She returns disoriented just in time to battle a horde of motorcycle riding demons hell-bent on turning Sunnyvale into their own personal property. It is during the opening two episodes that it becomes clear that secrets are going to play a major role in the sixth season.
Buffy’s friends believe that as a result of the events of...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 19th, 2004
The time of being a teenager and self discovery can be a difficult one. We watch the life of Simon mainly through flashbacks as he is dealing with his drug addiction. We see a young man who doesn’t seem to fit in with his rich family friends. He finds friendship and comfort with a group who follows bands like Phish and The Dead around the country, getting high and having fun. Simon’s descends into drug addiction driven by the memory of his father betraying his mother just before she dies. The plot has the potential t...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 19th, 2004
A doctor looking to escape his past gets stuck in Purgatory Flats and drawn into a circle of deceit with the wild Sunny. Sunny is looking for a ticket out of the one horse town and will do anything to get out including killing her husband. The plot is as thin as one of Sunny’s little skirts and grates on you like the desert sand in a windstorm.
Video
The 1.33:1 full screen transfer looks pretty bad; I have seen worse but this one ranks up there. Colors are over really saturated… I assume ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 19th, 2004
What do you when you are in your mid 20’s and are diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and only given a short amount of time to live. Do you move home and surround yourself with those who you love or do you enlist your friends to help you rob a bank and see if you can go out in a blaze of glory. This is an interesting film with a somewhat original storyline, there is a nice little twist at the end that you can see coming but overall it was an entertaining watch.
Video
The 1.33:1 full ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 18th, 2004
Love Nest is one of those films that has a great plot, but is unable to follow through on the script. The idea behind this film is simple; a man returns home from the war to find that his wife has purchased an apartment building, and they are now landlords. Every one of their tenants is crazy in their own way, and mad-cap adventures ensue.
After the first act, the story really settles in on one tenant in particular… a sneaky old Casanova who makes his money by pretending to fall in love with rich old...
