Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 25th, 2004
Synopsis
Mandy Moore plays Anna Foster, daughter of President Mark Harmon. She is extremelyfrustrated with the fact that her social life is consistently ruined by the vast phalanx of SecretService personnel that shadow her every move. Harmon promises to ease up on her while theyvisit Prague, but he breaks his promise, and she flees, hooking up with handsome photographerMatthew Goode. A travelogue of Europe ensues, with romance aborning. Trouble is, Good isactually another Secret Ser...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 23rd, 2004
Synopsis
Type A real estate salesman Eddie Murphy can't ever stop selling, even when this meansneglecting his family. His drive lands them all into trouble when he insists they take a detourfrom their vacation to follow up on a mysterious offer concerning the mansion of the title. Soonenough, He and his family are trapped in the massively haunted building, running hither andthither from ghosts, while his wife (Marsha Thomason), believed to be the reincarnation of themaster's long-lo...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 20th, 2004
Synopsis
Three men are after a fortune in gold, and they will stop at nothing to get it. Boiled down toits essentials, that is the plot of TGTBTU. Granted, there are all sorts of betrayals anddouble-crosses along the way, but they don’t change the fact that the story is essentially a verysimple one, and you might wonder how the film takes up three hours. It certainly doesn’t throughcharacter development. In fact, there is very little that sets the characters apart (which is par...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 20th, 2004
Synopsis
Cliff Robertson is a US Lieutenant who had planned to make it through WWII as a radiooperator and translator, and see no action. He is less than pleased when Henry Fonda dispatcheshim to the New Hebrides to accompany a rag-tag squad of disaffected British soldiers (and noneare more disaffected than Michael Caine) on what may very well be a suicide mission. Leadingthe squad is Denholm Elliott, a brave but incompetent officer, and bit by bit, the mission goeswrong. Eventually...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 19th, 2004
Synopsis
John Carradine, playing real-life author R. Chetwynd-Hayes (on whose book the movie isvery loosely based), is ambushed by vampire Vincent Price. Price drains only a bit of his blood,and upon realizing that he has met his favourite author, invites Carradine for drinks at theMonster Club. Here Price spins a trio of tales: a young woman ill-advisedly plans to steal froma lonely “shadmock” (a creature with a fatal whistle); a family-man vampire is stalked byunpleasantly bureauc...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 19th, 2004
Synopsis
Steve McQueen is JR Bonner, rodeo rider who has left his prime behind. Thrown by a bullas the film begins, he returns to his home town for a rematch with the same animal. Hisfamily is a bit of a mess: brother Curly (Joe Don Baker) is a greedy businessman takingadvantage of his parents; father Ace (Robert Preston) is a drinker and a dreamer; and mother IdaLupino stands strong through it all, stoically dealing with the stupidities of the men in herlife.
If one were...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 16th, 2004
Synopsis
Devastated by being dumped by his fiancee (Minnie Driver), Colin Firth flees to OldeEngland for New, attracted by the refuge offered by the name of the town of Hope. There hemeets wild child of nature Heather Graham, and begins to fall in love. Re-enter Minnie Driver,and a revelation that complicates things considerably. How will the triangle be resolved?
And do you care? Firth doesn’t stretch much, filtering the stiff befuddlement of his Mr.Darcy variations from < ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 15th, 2004
Synopsis
Billy Crudup learns that father Albert Finney is dying, and returns home. He has feltalienated from his father because of the latter’s never-ending tall tales of his life. Crudup wouldlike to hear something true for once in his life, while Finney maintains that he IS telling the truth.Finney tells the tales again, mostly to Crudup’s fiancee, and his improbable life unfolds beforeus, with Ewan McGregor as his younger self. In his quest for his true love, he encounters amysti...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 15th, 2004
Synopsis
Spencer Tracy arrives in the research department of the “Federal Broadcasting Company”to install a computer. He is sworn to secrecy by the president of the network, however, and soresearch head Katherine Hepburn and her co-workers assume they are to be made redundant.Sparks are clearly flying between her and Tracy, however, even if this romantic tension remainsvery much an undercurrent to their witty banter. Also on the scene is Gig Young, Hepburn’srather callow and thought...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 15th, 2004
Synopsis
Here are three cartoons that Paul McCartney backed and scored. They are all lovinglycrafted, even if they don’t always work at the narrative level. “Tropic Island Hum” and “Rupertand the Frog Song” are the weakest (though again, they look stunning). They are little more thanvisually lush excuses to set up underwhelming musical numbers (which tend to reinforce theimpression that McCarney is a creatively spent force in this department). The former apes thelook of classic musical shor...
