Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 11th, 2003
Synopsis
We open with Jennifer in the process of taking her own life. Flashback to how this came tobe, as she falls in with the wrong crowd (and extremely rebellious trio) of girls at St. Andrew’sCatholic High School. All sorts of cynical blackness ensues, involving drugs, sex, violence andthe like. Undeniably energetic, the film turns its amp to 11 and keeps it there. This lack of tonalvariation may explain why I found the viewing experience somehow flat.
Audio
...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 10th, 2003
Synopsis
Before Buffy, before Jesus Christ, there was Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter. Ahandsomely if inexpensively mounted period piece, this sees the dashing swordsman of the titlebattling vampires in the English countryside. In this instance, the vampire doesn’t suck blood,but youth. The plotting is very haphazard, and the action scenes leave something to be desired,but there are fun turns by the usual set of British character actors, and Caroline Munro lends herever-smould...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 5th, 2003
Synopsis
The movie is exactly what the title suggests it is: we journey with various migratory birdsover their long, often hazardous voyages. We are intimately involved with the travels, flyingcheek by beak with the birds, right in the middle of the formations. The result is beautiful,compelling, moving, and utterly astounding.
Audio
The 5.1 sound does wonders for the you-are-there feel the movie is shooting for. The musicis very nicely rendered, but what st...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 4th, 2003
Synopsis
Omar Sharif is the son of Jack Palance (nobody said the casting was ethnically authentic) andis a proud champion of Buzkashi, an unbelievably rough sport which consists of a group ofhorsemen whipping the hell out of each other as they struggle to grab a headless calf. Sharifbreaks his leg in the championship game, and heads out on a long, treacherous journey to regainhis pride. With him are his magnificent horse, his increasingly treacherous servant, and aduplicitous nomad ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 3rd, 2003
Synopsis
In a cellar (all that remains of a great mansion) lurks a demonic bed. Anyone who lies on it will be eaten (and being eaten involves being surrounded by yellow foam and dragged down into yellow liquid limbo and dissolved). Trapped behind his own painting is the ghost of artist Aubrey Beardsley. He witnesses the bed's depredations (and his narration explains the plot to us), but there is nothing he can do to stop the evil. That, more or less, is the plot. The 80 minutes meander along, and the...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 2nd, 2003
Synopsis
In 1933, a luxury liner sails from Mexico to Germany. On board: Vivien Leigh, who is bitterat the loss of her youth; Simone Signoret, a Spanish countess who is being deported; OksarWerner, the ship’s doctor with the bad heart condition who falls in love with Signoret; JoseFerrer as the rude, crude, stupid Nazi mouthpiece; Lee Marvin as the washed-up ball player; andso on and so on and so on. The format of big stars and their multiple interlocking tales was firstperfected in...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 27th, 2003
Synopsis
From its inception onward, here is the history of the Brooklyn Bridge, with special attentiongiven to the lives of the men whose dream this bridge was. As with Burns’ other documentaries,this is fascinating stuff, with great archival material, and some gorgeously evocative shots of thebridge.
Audio
The sound is mono, but stereo isn’t really necessary for this documentary. The main pointis whether or not the narration is clear, and it is. The accompa...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 27th, 2003
Synopsis
At a Hawaiian resort, a five-year college reunion is underway. Four young women inparticular are excited to be chosen as centerfolds for Cavalier magazine (don’t ask). One by one,they are killed in boringly unbloody ways. Investigating is local detective Kari Wuhrer and ex-LA cop Bretn Huff, sent to Hawaii after a stock footage car chase back home. The dialogue withmake you want to hit your head with a sledgehammer, the mystery’s resolution is simultaneouslyobvious and nons...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 23rd, 2003
Synopsis
Michael Idemoto plays Michael, an introspective bookworm and mechanic. His tenant isEugenia Yuan, who has a boyfriend, but spends most of her evenings with Michael. Theirrelationship is platonic, but Michael clearly has strong feelings for her. Then he meets Darcy(Jacqueline Kim), a distant but alluring young woman. In fact, Darcy is Yuan's sister Charlotte.Our protagonist is a man of few words, and the same can be said of the movie. The mostimportant elements are the thing...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 22nd, 2003
Synopsis
Romain Duris plays a young man who wants to get a good job in the French bureaucracy, andneeds to improve his Spanish. In order to do this, he leaves Paris to live for a year in Barcelona,much to the chagrin of his girlfriend (Audrey Tautou). After navigating the red tape (a realplague in France, and hilariously, mercilessly satirized here), he’s off. Once in Barcelona, hewinds up living in an apartment that he shares with other students from England, Germany,Belgium, Italy...
