Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 15th, 2002
Synopsis
Herbert's novel is very complex, and one attempts a synopsis at one's own risk (this is part of the problem with Lynch's film). At its most basic, it is about power struggles in a galactic empire, power struggles centred on the planet Arrakis, or Dune, home of the spice, the most vital element in the empire. Paul Atreides, newly arrived on Arrakis, turns out to be the long-prophesied messiah. This is an incredibly ambitious project for a telefilm, and though some of the budgetary limitations...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 26th, 2002
Synopsis
You might wonder how it's possible for a reality show to have bloopers. How are bloopers different from the other things that go on? Not much, except for those instances where the crew gets involved (cameras falling down, that kind of thing). All of this is strung together by Puck, who seems to think he is entertaining. Beyond boring.
Audio
The audio is a faithful reproduction of the TV experience, for what it's worth. The music has decent surround presence, a...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 26th, 2002
Synopsis
This is a collection of clips along with retrospective interviews with the participants. Shower antics, bathroom disasters, lots and lots of digitally fogged nudity. If watching paint dry is just a little too racy for you, then this is just what you're looking for.
Audio
The source material is TV, and the disc reflects this. Nothing much wrong with the sound, but there's nothing much to it either: people talking, people yelling, musical interludes. The surroun...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 5th, 2002
Synopsis
Buddy Young Jr. (Billy Crystal) is in the twilight of his career. Once he had his own television show, but his self-destructive impulses and violent temper torpedoed that (not to mention increasingly alienating his loved ones). Now a senior citizen, he is still trying to make a go of it, still making life miserable for his long-suffering brother. The film flashes back and forth, showing us Buddy's rise and fall in the past, and his current attempts to make something remotely resembling a com...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 4th, 2002
Synopsis
A synopsis is pretty pointless. Either you watch the series or you don't. But for what it's worth, Buffy is a high-school student who is also one of the chosen heroes of history whose purpose in life is to combat and destroy vampires. The big complication this season is the fact that she's fallen love with one (Angel).
Audio
The Dolby 2.0 audio is acceptable, but nothing special. While generally clean, the dialogue does occasionally have some buzz to it. The music ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 25th, 2002
Synopsis
Paul Newman's Frank Galvin has seen better days. Now he's a broken-down, alcoholic ambulance-chaser. But then his last chance arrives in the form of a negligence case being brought against two doctors who gave a young woman the wrong anaesthetic, reducing her to a vegetable. Though Galvin at first is planning to settle out of court, he changes his mind, and the result is a David-and-Goliath courtroom struggle.
Though a 1982 release, The Verdict still has much of the feel of a 70s f...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 11th, 2002
The film may take place in London, and feature English actors, and be shot in English, but this is definitely French cinema. How do we know? Because the sex scenes hit hardcore explicitness, and none of the characters are particularly happy about any of the proceedings.
Synopsis
Jay is a former musician, now bartender, and left his family some years ago, in a fit of what appears to have been existential ennui/sexual angst. Now he lives in a run-down house, and is visited every Wednesday by woman with whom he has sex.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 8th, 2002
The title catches your eye. A mob film, you suspect. And you’re right. But a mob film from 1968, BEFORE The Godfather defined the genre as we know it today, and the difference is apparent.
Synopsis
Kirk Douglas is big-shot Mafioso living in retirement in Sicily. He’s old-fashioned, and believes in the old “values” of the Cosa Nostra. From the States comes his brother, who wants to make his name with the mob. His assignment, as it turns out, is to kill Douglas. Set entirely in rura...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 12th, 2002
Let’s take a little trip down memory lane, shall we? Follow me back to that bygone era known as the eighties. Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer were consolidating their formula for slick, commercial fluff, Harold Faltermeyer’s synthesized scores were inescapable, and Steven Bauer actually rated star billing.
Synopsis
Steven Bauer is a professional cat-burglar, aided and managed by cocaine-sniffing restaurant employee David Caruso (looking geekily young). On one particular job, Bauer finds, amid hi...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 20th, 2002
The second version of Cornell Woolrich’s novel “Waltz Into Darkness” (previously filmed by François Truffaut’s Mississippi Mermaid), this is a decidedly steamier version, especially here, in its unrated form.
Synopsis
Cuban plantation owner Antonio Banderas advertises for a wife, and the woman who answers his ad is, he believes, plain but pure. What shows up, however, is the beautiful but duplicitous Angelina Jolie, who has larceny rather than matrimony on her mind. Her scam runs smoothly at first,...
