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Accepted (HD DVD)

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…
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Highly Defined – The World of High Definition

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 …
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Little Athens

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 27th, 2006

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Iï¿½m never up on the film festival scene, so itï¿½s no surprise to me that Iï¿½ve only just discovered Tom Zuberï¿½s 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.
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V for Vendetta (HD DVD)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 26th, 2006

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Natalie Portman stars in V for Vendetta, cast in a role unlike what I typically expect from her, a dialogue driven action movie with a serious tone to it. This movie even got me thinking a little bit about mankind’s intolerance of other man and how far society has to go to protect itself. I enjoy movies of this nature, you know the kind taking place in a not to distance future and not so distant problems, but a drastically different way of life. Something these movies always have in common is the civil rights …
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Die Another Day (Region 2)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 25th, 2006

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Synopsis

With Casino Royale now out in theaters and being shown to a mostly positive audience, let’s all take a step back and remember that James Bond just celebrated an anniversary in 2002 with the release of Die Another Day. The film was the twentieth in the Bond legacy, and Brosnan’s fifth (and last) in the role. How does it stack up?

Directed by Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors), the film puts Bond in North Korea, attempting to procure some diamonds from a young Korean Col…
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Ronin

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 25th, 2006

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(Portions of this review have been pulled from the original one-disc version of Ronin, which can also be found in the reviews portion of the site)Synopsis

I think the only thing I remember about Ronin initially was that Robert DeNiro (Heat) was involved in some scandal involving a French “house of ill-repute” or something along those lines. But when Ronin was released, people quickly forgot about that mess, as what came from it was an action film that put a little more e…
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Strangers With Candy

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 25th, 2006

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Synopsis

Back when it first aired on Comedy Central in a previous incarnation as a television series, Strangers With Candy was an interesting enough premise. Take a menopausally challenged, recently released prisoner named Jerri Blank (Amy Sedaris, Elf) who decides to return home for the first time in over three decades to try and get a new start and throw her into high school. Now, not knowing how good or bad the show did, it must have had some sort of following, because there’s a movie out …
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JAG – The Complete Second Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 25th, 2006

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Synopsis

The concept of JAG is pretty simple, I mean, it’s A Few Good Men on the small screen, using sets and footage from other recent armed forces films and hopefully enough pretty people that viewers will enjoy it. However, that wasn’t the case initially, but JAG is one of those shows that helps prove how sometimes you’ve got to give enough time for people to catch onto it before it takes hold.

From week to week in Season One, the creators kept trying to find a female offic…
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O. Henry’s Full House

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 24th, 2006

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Synopsis

John Steinbeck, looking and sounding remarkably like James Ellroy, and coming across as surprisingly two-fisted given the overall tone of the movie, introduces a quintet of stories by O. Henry. “The Cop and the Anthem” features Charles Laughton as a dignified bum trying unsuccessfully to get himself arrested so he can spend the winter in a nice, warm prison (Marilyn Monroe is one of the top-billed, but she has only one brief scene here). “The Clarion Call” has Dale Robertson as a detective w…
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Miracle on 34th Street

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 23rd, 2006

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Synopsis

This is another film one feels a little silly summarising, given that it must be an exercise in redundancy. At any rate, Macy’s department store gets a new Santa, and this one (a marvellous Edmund Gwenn) insists that he is the real thing. He sets about restoring the sense of wonder in hard-nosed Maureen O’Hara and her skeptical daughter (Natalie Wood), and John Payne winds up having to prove that our boy is who he says he is in a memorable court case.

Schmaltz is hard to avoid in C…
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Peeper

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 23rd, 2006

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Synopsis

Michael Caine is a down-on-his-luck PI in LA. He’s hired to find the long-lost daughter of a man who is now wealthy, though being hunted by goons. Caine heads off to house of the presumed daughter’s adoptive parents. There are two women the right age here. Which one is he looking for? Could it be Natalie Wood?

And the questions keep coming, such as who thought Wood would be perfectly cast as a femme fatale? Questions unlikely to be answered. The script is full of would-be witty ban…
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You, Me and Dupree (HD DVD)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 23rd, 2006

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I’ll come right out and say it. I don’t see what the big deal is with actor Owen Wilson. Sure he was funny in Wedding Crashers, but he always seems to play that super annoying character in his films that you just want to hate, but seemingly can’t sometimes feel sorry for. Such is the case in his recent 2006 affair with Kate Hudson and Matt Dillon entitled You, Me and Dupree.

Carl (Matt Dillon) and Molly (Kate Hudson) have just gotten married in the beautiful Hawaii islands. Dupree (Owen Wilso…
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Pen & Teller: Bullsh*t! – The Complete Third Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 22nd, 2006

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I thought Pen & Teller were magician-comedians. When did they get a T.V. show? Call me out of touch, but I hadnï¿½t heard of Pen & Teller: Bullsh*t! until this third season set was sent my way to review.

Obviously, Iï¿½m in no position to make comments like, ï¿½season three of Bullsh*t! (for short) is by far the best yet.ï¿½ I can say itï¿½s the finest season of Bullsh*t! Iï¿½ve ever seen in my entire life, but that means jack-all since Iï¿½ve already explained that itï¿½s the only season of Bullsh*t! Iï¿½ve watched.
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Waterworld (HD DVD)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 21st, 2006

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For nearly eleven years now, I’ve heard nothing but horrendous comments about Kevin Costner’s post-apocalyptic film Waterworld. Critics and audiences alike have torn this film a new one, claiming that the film was boring and full of so many holes that it literally swallows itself. While I didn’t absolutely love the film, it surely surprised the hell out of me as I found it to be rather entertaining.

The basic plot of the film goes something like this. The unknown future has arrived along with the me…
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Humphrey Bogart – Signature Collection, Vol. 1

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 21st, 2006

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Humphrey Bogart, screen legend. Before I got my hands on this collection, Iï¿½d never seen a Bogart picture in its entirety. And yet, I knew his name as well as anyone, and was aware of his status as one of classic Hollywoodï¿½s biggest stars.

Humphrey Bogart ï¿½ The Signature Collection, Volume 1 presents four Bogart films: Casablanca ï¿½ 2-disc Special Edition, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre ï¿½ 2-disc Special Edition, High Sierra and They Drive By Night. Iï¿½d always meant to wat…h these films, but I just never got around to it, partly because I can barely keep up with all of the new ones released every year, and partly because of ï¿½ I admit it ï¿½ a slight prejudice toward ï¿½oldï¿½ movies.
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Highly Defined – The World of High Definition

Posted in Highly Defined, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on November 20th, 2006

Normally, I’d tell you about the PS3 or something, now that it’s out, but if I need to have a bulletproof vest on when I buy a gaming console, something’s friggin wrong in my country.

Snacking on ginger snaps at work while I try to figure out how to kill these next three days, I can’t really tell you anything about the PS3 that you don’t already know. From what I understand, the Blu-Ray capabilities are the best of any of the three machines out there, even if some of the games can’t be played at 1080i or 10…
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Sopranos, The — Season Six, Part 1

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 17th, 2006

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Synopsis

I’m not even going to try to summarize this, as that would mean pretending I had the faintest idea what was going on, and who was who. I know, I know, I’m revealing my cultural deprivation – I haven’t been following the series. What I will say, though, is that even with that ignorance, the quality of this chronicle of the ups and downs of a New Jersey mob’s lives, loves and deaths, is undeniable. But then, you knew that, or you wouldn’t be reading this. Do note, of course, that this is only …
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Under Siege (HD DVD)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 16th, 2006

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Steven Seagal has never been able to do it for me, that probably explains why this is the first time I have ever seen this movie. Upon reading the back it seemed to have potential, the first thing I notice on the back was the comment “Die Hard on a battleship”. That’s a bold statement as Die Hard is one of the best action movies ever made, having all the core elements.

It’s the fiftieth anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor as the movie begins, and it’s the final voyage of the USS Missouri. …
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Thank You for Smoking

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 15th, 2006

Synopsis

Based on the book by Christopher Buckley, the cellular version of Thank You for Smoking may be misconceived by some as a movie about a guy who’s defending smoking, but I think it is a movie about a couple of different things. The first, more obvious things is that it’s a movie about spin. Either in the early ‘90s (when the book came out) or in the last year or so (when the film came out), even if the setting has changed, the method of dispelling one’s argument, even without possessing any co…
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Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman – The Complete Fourth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 15th, 2006

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Written By Jeff Mardo

The final season of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman has finally hit store shelves, and it couldn’t have come at a better time for the franchise. The Big Red S is everywhere these days, between a new feature film that is coming soon to DVD, a boxed-set re-release of all the Christopher Reeve-era films and an all new video game, the hero seems to be everywhere. It’s only fitting that the final season of the modern series should be hitting the streets as well.

Unfortunately, the series d…
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The Green Mile

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 15th, 2006

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The Shawshank Redemption is a film that didn’t do much at the box office. However, home video, word of mouth and countless airings on TNT have made it an enormously popular film in the time since. Director Frank Darabont returned to prison with The Green Mile, another film based on a story by acclaimed writer Steven King. One could almost look at these two films as companion pieces. Whereas the central theme of Shawshank was the importance of never giving up hope, The Green Mile was more about the changing power of love.
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Casablanca (HD DVD)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 15th, 2006

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Yes I will admit that I probably was the only person who had never seen Casablanca. A movie so highly regarded by critics and fans alike, I don’t think it needs an introduction. With A List stars of its time, and seemingly endless amounts of quotable phrases it is quite a surprise I haven’t seen it yet.

Set during World War II in Casablanca (current day a city Morocco) the story’s main focus is the love affair of Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman). They had met in France just before Nazi…
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King Kong (2005) (HD DVD)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 15th, 2006

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Ever since making the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Director Peter Jackson has almost become a household name that seems to always guarantee success. Don’t get me wrong though, Jackson has not always been successful. Before making the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jackson had the film The Frighteners and a few smaller films where he only produced. The idea of giving this not so successful movie director hundreds of millions of dollars to remake the Lord of the Rings trilogy, made many turn their…
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Satan’s Playground

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 14th, 2006

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Synopsis

A dysfunctional family unit (single mother and infant, her sister and loutish husband, their autistic teen) are travelling through rural New Jersey when their car gets stuck. One after another, they head off to seek help, only to knock on the door of the sinister Mrs. Leeds and her homicidally retarded crew. And if that weren’t bad enough, there’s some kind of monster flapping through the woods.

Writer/director Dante Tomaselli has assembled a mixture of The Texas Chainsaw Massac…
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Angel Rodriguez

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 13th, 2006

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Angel Rodriguez is a realist film that covers a 36-hour snapshot of the lives of two people: a troubled young man and his guidance counsellor.

I have to admit right off the top that this type of film is not my bag ï¿½ realism to me pretty much means boring. While there may great artistic merit to writer-director Jim McKayï¿½s little film, itï¿½s not particularly entertaining. Interesting, maybe.

Angel is a young man struggling with life in the inner city. His father has kicked him out of the house, and the film follows the story of Angel and his guidance counsellor, Nicole, whoï¿½s trying to help him.
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