Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 21st, 2003
Synopsis
The titles and the stars speak for themselves: Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone and Olivia deHavilland in The Adventures of Robin Hood; James Cagney in Yankee DoodleDandy; Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Of the three,Yankee Doodle Dandy, a musical biopic of singer/dancer/songwriter George M. Cohan,is the one that has been treated the least kindly by the years. Its front and centre flag-waving canbe a bit much, though Cagney’s trem...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 17th, 2003
Synopsis
Though there is a intro that summarizes who’s who and what’s what, if you’re not familiarwith the Storykeepers cartoon, you might well find this a bit confusing (I know I did). Anyway,in 64 AD, a group of Christian orphans and their protector are on the run from the evil EmperorNero (who has henchmen with such subtle names as “Nihilus”). They flee the burning Rome,but do find the time to sit down and hear tales of Christ’s nativity and the like. The animationis primitive, a...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 16th, 2003
Synopsis
Jimmy Durante and his family, penniless circus performers, move into a run-down rentalhome. Also living in the house is Rupert, a trained squirrel (brought to life primarily throughstop-motion animation). The miserly owner of the rental is stashing money in his walls, and asfast as he can do this, Rupert halls the money out and dumps it into the rental living room.Durante’s wife (Queenie Smith) sees money floating down from the ceiling, and thinks it is theanswer to her pra...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 15th, 2003
Synopsis
Robbie Coltrane plays Fitz, a criminal psychologist as brilliant as he is hard to take: gambler,smoker, drinker, lousy husband and father, he’s no prize. But he is also very good at what hedoes. These three stories feature an amnesiac serial killer, a misfit couple of murderers, and mobviolence. Coltrane is superb in the lead, but is backed up by equally strong performances by thelikes of Christopher Eccleston. With luck, the other episodes will follow shortly. If they do, br...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 15th, 2003
Synopsis
Henry Fonda and Henry Morgan are two outsider cowhands who ride into town just as wordarrives that a popular ranchers has been killed. A posse, or, more accurately, a lynch mob, forms,and Fonda and Morgan go along. Three men (including Dana Andrews and Anthony Quinn) arefound and blamed for the crime. The mob decides to kill them, even though Fonda and a fewothers become convinced of their innocence. Though a bit heavy-handed at getting its messageacross, and resorting to u...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 15th, 2003
Synopsis
In 1963, little Michael Meyers stabs his sister to death (the scene shown in a justly famouscontinuous POV shot). Fifteen years later, Michael escapes from the asylum and returns to hishome town of Haddonfield. On Halloween night, he stalks Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) andher friends, while being pursued himself by Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence). The first and stillthe best of modern masked slasher films, Halloween towers above its imitators. Stylish,smart, restra...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 15th, 2003
Synopsis
Hundreds of years ago, alchemist Fulcanelli created the Cronos device, a contraption thatlooks like a silver Faberge egg. This device conveys eternal life, but at a price, as a kindlyantiquarian (Federico Luppi, who also starred in The Devil’s Backbone) discovers. Hebecomes younger, but also monstrous, and develops a thirst for blood. He must also battleRon Perlman, thuggish henchman of a dying millionaire who also wants the device. Then there’sthe bond Luppi has wit...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 14th, 2003
Synopsis
Nine more SpongeBob episodes, including the double-length “Christmas Who?” Not all theepisodes are Christmas, or even winter, related. “Procrastination,” for instance, showsSpongeBob desperately trying to write an essay (amusing enough, but not a patch on RichardCondie’s animated short “Getting Started”). All in all good-humoured fun, though I keep beingreminded of Ren and Stimpy with the edge removed.
Audio
The sound is much the same as that on the...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 14th, 2003
Synopsis
Each disc contains four episodes of the series, moving forward in the order they wereoriginally broadcast (so volume 9 ends gets us as far as episode 35). These are valuable historicaldocuments of TV’s pioneer days, and the show, at the time, was hugely impressive from aproduction standpoint in that it used multiple cameras (and employed such luminaries aslegendary cameraman Karl Freund). I’ll admit Lucille Ball’s style of slapstick doesn’t do muchfor me, but I guess I just...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 13th, 2003
Synopsis
This is, of course, the familiar tale of miser Ebenezer Scrooge (voice of Simon Callow) andhis conversion thanks to his encounters with the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet-To-Come. This version has a few alterations, though: Scrooge’s lost love (Kate Winslet) is still verymuch around, and is trying to get in touch with him; there’s a new subplot involving a hospitalfor poor orphans that shuts down because of Scrooge; and Scrooge’s only friends are two mice,who sca...
