Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 4th, 2003
Synopsis
It is 1907. Musicology professor Lily Penleric (Janet McTeer), unjustly passed over forpromotion, leaves the city to stay with her schoolteacher sister in the Appalachians. There sheexperiences revelations of various kinds. She discovers traditional Irish and Scottish ballads,altered but recognizable, still living vibrant folk lives. She also finds her superior, urban anduptight attitudes slowly but surely demolished by the people around her. The most importantperson she me...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 4th, 2003
In 2176, the world is a grey, sterile place. All history has been lost. Four scientists (led by David Cassidy of Partridge Family infamy) travel back in time to recover the American Constitution, and revive history. Unfortunately, their time machine malfunctions, and they windup in 1976. Cue the stupidity. Unfortunately, the laughs are very few and far between. We already know that this period had many risible qualities. Just showing them to us isn’t enough.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 4th, 2003
We first meet Holly and Michelle in the 70s, when they are 13 and already inseparable friends. They are very different already, though. Holly is bookish and shy. Michelle is beautiful and wild. Over the years, their relationship is tested as they clash, support and sabotage each other. The significant male characters are Kyle Maclachlan as a professor they both have an affair with, and Michelle’s brother, for whom Holly carries a torch through the years.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 3rd, 2003
Spanning a good thirty years, Giant tells the tale of the Benedicts, a Texas family on an immense cattle range. The patriarch is Rock Hudson, whom we first meet as a young man visiting Maryland to buy a horse. There he meets Elizabeth Taylor and falls in love. His new bride initially finds Texas difficult to adjust to, and Texas has difficulty adjusting to her, as she does not hold with the local attitudes towards women and, most especially, Mexicans. The third major player is James Dean, a rather sullen ranch hand who winds up changing everybody’s lives when he strikes oil on his small parcel of land.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 1st, 2003
The film opens with the assassination of Jesse James (Kristofferson) and then flashes back tothe last years of the lives of the James brothers. Ostensibly retired from their outlaw ways, they can’t quite settle down. Jesse is the wilder of the two brothers, while Frank is much more of a homebody, and is frequently seeing cursing his stubborn animals. Imagine the kind of western you’d expect to catch on cable in the late 80s, and you’ve imagined this movie. Kristofferson is notably more convincing in his role than is Cash.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 30th, 2003
Synopsis
Josh (David Wenham) is going to leave Australia in three days. He meets Cin (Susie Porter)at a party. The two share a cab, and Cin thinks that three days might be just right for a fun fling.This is what happens, and most of the film takes place in Cin’s apartment. There is some prettywitty, breezy stuff here, but there is also much familiar material about how men and women aredifferent, and did we really need yet another romantic comedy with asides where the characters,inte...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 30th, 2003
Synopsis
Not unlike the New Mutants comic book, these are episodes which feature the heroes in thethroes of adolescence. Unlike the New Mutants, however, these are the X-Men themselves intheir youth: Jean Grey, Cyclops and so on. So in between fighting the Brotherhood of EvilMutants, they also have to worry about dating and homework and the whole bit. At least this discdoesn’t try to pretend it’s a feature film.
Audio
The sound is about par for TV cartoon tr...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 24th, 2003
Synopsis
Nick Broomfield, never one to shy away from hard and prickly topics, here tackles theshooting deaths of Biggie Smalls (the Notorious B.I.G.) and Tupac Shakur. The trail opens up allsorts dangerous vistas, including crooked cops moonlighting as security for Death Row Records.Most intriguing, and more than a little alarming.
Audio
The sound quality is all over the map, but that’s to be expected: this is a documentary, folks,and you don’t expect the ev...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 24th, 2003
Synopsis
Four episodes (two of which are a two-part story) make up this offering, which, what withMagneto and the X-Men joining forces and Wolverine learning about his past, will bear someresemblance, presumably, to some of the action in the new movie. This is just Saturday morningcartoon fare, however, no more, no less. So be sure you like the TV show before you pick up theDVD.
Audio
Not too much to report on the audio. The 2.0 mix is certainly clear enough...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 22nd, 2003
Synopsis
Undercover DEA agent Enrique Camarena (Steven Bauer) is kidnapped and killed inMexico. Drug lord Benicio Del Toro is responsible, but investigators Treat Williams and CraigT. Nelson discover the corruption is more widespread than they thought. The case boasts thatthis if “from the producers of The Insider, Ali and Black Hawk Down,” but a more accuratesense of this effort would be given had the tag read “from the director of Poltergeist III.” Prettystandard TV fare, and the ...
