Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 15th, 2002
Intro
Every so often, the Marquis de Sade comes back into vogue. The last couple of years saw the release of Quills and Sade close on each other’s heels. Their rather romantic views of Sade are as nothing, however, compared to this 1969 film.
Synopsis
Returning to the now decrepit castle in which he lived, Sade (Keir Dullea of 2001: A Space Odyssey fame) encounters his corrupt clergyman uncle, played by John Huston (hilariously mangling French names and doing a lip-smackingly creepy wa...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 11th, 2002
Intro
The hero is a kitchen sponge. I think I’ve seen everything now.
Synopsis
Ten episodes of the Nickelodeon cartoon series, starring the terminally nerdy Spongebob Squarepants. He lives in the Goo Lagoon, and has a thing for Sandy, a squirrel in a diving outfit. The humour will either work for you or it won’t.
Audio
The sound is clear, but a bit thin. The surround effects are limited almost entirely to the music, and even that isn’t as rich as it might be. The big...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 26th, 2002
The sort of film it seems comes out of Hollywood only as a fluke, but emerges regularly out of Europe: the intellectual romantic comedy.
Synopsis
Camille, leading lady of an Italian-language theatre troupe, has returned to Paris for the first time in three years. Though her lover is the director Ugo, she seeks out her ex, Pierre, and her feelings are not exactly simple. Ugo, meanwhile, is searching for a rare play, and is attracted to the daughter of the woman who owns the manuscript. The set-up is...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 29th, 2002
Fred Olen Ray, director of B-movies beyond counting, strikes again, with a DVD release some steps up from what many movies of this type receive.
Synopsis
In 1991, Iraqi agents blow up a secret US government lab, releasing genetically modified rattlesnakes (don’t ask). Over the years, these snakes breed, and in the present, minor earthquakes drive them to the surface, and they infect whoever they bite with a virulently fatal virus. Treat Williams is the small town doctor who must save the day, while...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 22nd, 2002
In 1993, Virginie Despentes burst onto the French literary scene with Baise-Moi (“F**k Me”), a snarling novel who’s unblinking, deadpan, yet philosophically pointed excess places it in the tradition of Sade. In 2000, Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi co-directed and scripted this adaptation, which has already forced the French government to re-evaluate its ratings rules.
Synopsis
Nadine (Karen Bach) is a prostitute. Manu (Raffaela Anderson) has done porn films, and has just been raped (in a t...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 14th, 2002
Intro
Eccentric and heartfelt, this Oscar-winning coming-of-age story deserves rediscovery.
Synopsis
Dennis Christopher is Dave, cycling enthusiast. Since the world’s greatest cyclists are Italian, Dave tries to become Italian, much to the low-key bemusement of his parents. Dave and his friends (played by Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern and Jackie Earle Haley) are from the working class end of town, and are constantly at odds with the college boys, and this class rivalry ultimately climaxes...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 5th, 2002
Intro
We’ve just had one recent battle-of-the-rogues release with Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Here’s a more recent film in a similar vein, with Martin Lawrence and Danny De Vito duking it out. Curiously, Glenne Headly features in both.
Synopsis
Martin Lawrence is a charming thief. Danny De Vito is a charmless businessman. When De Vito catches Lawrence robbing his home, he turns the tables and steals Lawrence’s precious ring. This, of course, means war, as the two men use all the means at ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 3rd, 2002
It’s one of the oldest childhood nightmares: your parents die, and evil guardians take over your life. The story has been told by countless fairy tales. The Glass House transposes the tale to contemporary California.
When Ruby (Leelee Sobieski) and Rhett (Trevor Morgan) are orphaned, they are taken into the care of Terry and Erin Glass (Stellan Skarsgård and Diane Lane). This couple seems to good to be true, and, of course, they are. Erin is a junkie, and Terry is in hock to the mob.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 12th, 2001
Intro
The most recent film from Tran Anh Hung, writer/director of The Scent of Green Papaya, continues his restrained, low-key examination of human interaction.
Synopsis
In some ways, providing a synopsis for movies like this is to do them a disservice. This is not meant to imply that there is no story. There is: three sisters prepare a feast to mark the anniversary of their parents’ death, and we explore their relationships with each other and with the men in their lives. But above an...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 9th, 2001
Intro
Mean-spirited. Nasty. Spiteful. Evil. All words that apply to this comedy. And they’re compliments.
Synopsis
Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas are Barbara and Oliver Rose. They’ve had seventeen wonderful years together. But their marriage collapses. Their hatred for each other emerges, and a tit for tat battle erupts, each indignity that one inflicts on the other inviting greater retaliation. The war escalates into a total domestic Armageddon. This is uncompromising black comed...
