Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 31st, 2003
Synopsis
Welcome to the world of Julie (Deborah Foreman) and Randy (Nicolas Cage). Randy is apunk, and Julie is the eponymous Valley Girl, she of the instantly recognizable slang (“totally,”“grody,” “gag me,” etc.). Theirs is a light-hearted Romeo and Juliet story, as they fall in lovedespite the disapproval of peers. Don’t be expecting the outrageousness and excess of somethinglike American Pie. Rather, this is a sharply observed comedy, driven more by characterthan by slaps...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 31st, 2003
Synopsis
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. So there are these three friends, right? They’re allsomewhere on the geeky spectrum, but you’ve got the macho dude, the fat boy, and the sensitivetype. And they all want to get laid. And there’s also one special girl that the sensitive type hasfallen for... You’ve seen it before, you’ve seen it better. You’ve seen it as an after-school special(minus the nudity). Worth a look though, if only to see the only abortion sequence scored toU2.< ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 30th, 2003
Synopsis
Chaplin’s career was a long one, and the four films here cover a good span. Chaplin is bestknown for his silent work, and that is represented by Modern Times and The GoldRush. Though the former is also technically his first talkie, it is still primarily silent. Thelatter comes in two versions: the original 1925 release, and the 1942 re-issue, which featured afew new scenes, and the intertitles replaced by Chaplin’s narration (though the film remainsbasically a...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 29th, 2003
Synopsis
The complete set of episodes from the second season, with our 20th-Century hero nowrelatively well adapted to life in the far-flung future. The characters by this point are wellestablished and a fairly broad ensemble. The series has never struck me as being quite as funnyas the The Simpsons in their prime, but there is still lots of choice material.
Audio
The audio is a 2.0 mix. This is pretty common for TV discs, though it is certainly notnecessary...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 25th, 2003
Synopsis
The plot unfolds with the logic of a nightmare, thereby defying linear description. Roughly,what happens is that a group of teens stage a violent escape from a rehab centre, and wind upat the house of our heroine (Lizzy Mahon). Here reality breaks down completely, as Mahon andthe others are tormented by one supernatural event after another, all of which seem to havesomething to do with the actions of Mahon’s father and grandfather. There are many strikinglybeautiful and/or ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 24th, 2003
Synopsis
Blinded in a horse-riding accident, Mia Farrow comes to live with her uncle and aunt in thecountry, and manages to get around the familiar spaces quite well. Unfortunately, her uncle’s carearlier splashed the cowboy boots of a psychotic killer. He descends on the house while Farrowis out, and kills everyone there. She returns, unaware that she is surrounded by corpses, and thatthe killer may return. Though the premise (blind woman versus a killer) bears some similarityto th...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 24th, 2003
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 19th, 2003
Synopsis
James Cagney plays a hard-boiled newspaper editor in pre-WWII Tokyo. He gets wind ofa Japanese baron’s plans for world conquest, and risks his life (with the help of Chinese-American spy Sylvia Sidney) to expose the dastardly plot. We even get some early martial artsaction with Cagney jodo-chopping his way through men twice his (diminuitive) size. Be aware,though, that the film was made in 1945 and shows it, with all but one of the Japanese charactersportrayed as unidimensi...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 19th, 2003
Synopsis
Ronald Colman, in an Oscar-winning performance (1948), plays an actor who takes methodacting to the extreme. He truly disappears into his roles, and this becomes a problem when hiscurrent project is Othello. Little by little he loses touch with reality, with consequences that provedeadly for waitress Shelley Winters. Filled with delicious portraits of the New York theatrescene, with top talent both behind and in front of the camera, this is a strong thriller. Highlyrecommen...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 17th, 2003
Synopsis
The time is the summer of 1985, and Richard Ramirez, who became known as theNightstalker, is roaming the streets, randomly entering homes and slaughtering the peopletherein. Rookie cop Roselyn Sanchez becomes involved in the search to find the killer, andstruggles both with inexperience and hostility from her male colleagues. That’s about all thereit to the plot, which is simplified almost to the point of short-hand, and in place of more elaboratedevelopment we get extended...
