David Annandale

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Hotel Rwanda

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 30th, 2005

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Synopsis

Don Cheadle plays Paul Rusesabagina, house manager of the luxury Hotel Mille-Collinesin Kigali. He does business with everybody, and strokes the egos of the powerful, and doesn’treally believe the anti-Tutsi sentiment being built up will really amount to anything. He is wrong,he discovers, when the genocide is unleashed. He gathers some 1200 refugees in the hotel, and,deprived of any help from the outside, must use all his wits to keep these people, along withhimself and hi…
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Something Short of Paradise

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 29th, 2005

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Synopsis

“They keep falling in and out of love,” reads the tagline, and that quite nicely sums up thefilm. David Steinberg is the neurotic manager of an art-house cinema, and Susan Sarandon hascome to NYC to become a journalist. They are different, but there’s chemistry, BUT sometimesthe chemistry is of the wrong kind, and the movie charts the ups and downs of their relationship.“In the tradition of Annie Hall” the case boasts, and the case could be made that it is alittle to…
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Bob Dylan World Tours 1966-1974

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 29th, 2005

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Synopsis

Director Joel Gilbert, who could charitably be said to be obsessed with Bob Dylan (he playsthe Dylan role in the Highway 61 tribute band, whose performances provide the film’ssoundtrack), travels about, visiting places and people that had something to do with this period ofDylan’s career (or at least something to do with chronicling it). The primary focus isphotographer Barry Feinstein, and plenty of his pictures are on display here. Part history, partpersonal odyssey, this…
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All Grown Up: Interview with a Campfire

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 29th, 2005

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Synopsis

The Rugrats extend their pop culture empire with this TV series, where the kids are now inearly adolescence. The central story here involves a trip to summer camp, with all the usualassortment of spooky plot elements (combined with the fact that one of our heroes is trying tomake a horror movie). There are also two other episodes. No one is going to compare the level ofwit on display with The Simpsons or The Family Guy, but I’ve seen worse. Muchworse.

Aud…
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Lady in a Cage

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 29th, 2005

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Synopsis

Olivia de Havilland is recovering from a broken hip, and uses a home elevator to get to thesecond floor of her very big house. One this particular sweltering day, her smothered son drivesoff, accidentally bumping a electric pole with is car, and cutting off the power to the house justas the elevator is reaching the upper floor. De Havilland is trapped in a cage, suspended a goodfifteen feet off the floor. Then a wino discovers her predicament, and helps himself to some ofhe…
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In The Weeds

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 29th, 2005

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Synopsis

Welcome to an eventful night in a posh New York restaurant. The joint is ruled over by thetyrannical Eric Bogosian, and the staff is the expected group of would-be actor (self-obsessed),writer (morose), cynical old hand (Molly Ringwald), newbie, effeminate manager, and so on.Also familiar are the tensions, loves, hatreds and other crises that afflict our characters. Whilenone of this is particularly groundbreaking, it is nonetheless delivered with both conviction andan agre…
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Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 25th, 2005

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Synopsis

The scene is Mexico, and the time is now, though it might as well be the 19th Century. A richlandowner’s daughter is pregnant, and her father goes as far as breaking her bones to find outwho the father is. He then demands the man’s head. Squads of minions fan out over Mexico.Two (Gig Young and Robert Webber) happen upon Warren Oates, who know the man they’relooking for. When Oates finds out that Garcia is already dead, he smells easy money, and salliesfor with girlfriend Is…
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Wonder Woman — The Complete First Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 23rd, 2005

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Synopsis

Lynda Carter is Wonder Woman, the Amazon from Paradise Island who dons large glassesto disguise herself as Diana Prince, secretary in the war department during WWII. Love interestis Major Steve Trevor (Lyle Waggoner), and together the two battle one Nazi plot after another.The pilot sees the arrival of Wonder Woman in the US, and thereafter we have such adventuresas the Nazis seeking Paradise Island and the mysterious element Feminum (groan) that gives ourheroine her powers…
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Love Rites

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 23rd, 2005

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Hugo (Mathieu Carrière) sets out on an errand, but is sidetracked in the Paris metro whenhe chances upon the seductive Myriam (Marino Pierro). Their eyes meet, he follow her, theybeing to chat, and a dance of seduction ensues. They make their way through Paris to anapartment where they have sex, and then nothing turns out as Hugo expected.

That’s about it as far as plot is concerned. So what? you ask. You wouldn’t expect anythingmore from an avowedly erotic film. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the rest of the film is anorgy of naked flesh, however.
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Stella Street

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 22nd, 2005

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Synopsis

Stella Street is a quiet, residential street in suburban England, which becomes a haven forcelebrities seeking refuge from fame. It has been so since the 60s, when the Beatles and RichardBurton roomed here. Long-term resident Michael Caine is our guide through the community,where a flood of new arrivals (Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, David Bowie, Madonna, Mick Jagger,and so forth) arrive. They think they’ve found their utopia, but their simple lives will soon bedisrupted.

Barbary Coast

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 21st, 2005

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Synopsis

During the gold rush, Miriam Hopkins arrives in the lawless new city of San Francisco, onlyto discover that her fiancé has been killed. Penniless, but determined to make her way, she hastop-dog casino owner Edward G. Robinson fall in love with her, though she strategically holdshim at bay. She makes a financial killing, but the price she has paid is driven home when sheencounters poet/prospector Joel McCrea.

McCrea is an odd casting choice as a poet, and he is a poe…
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Barbra Streisand Collection, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 19th, 2005

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Synopsis

All three of thiese films have previous been seen release on DVD (one quite some time ago,from the look of things), and they are of varying importance to Streisand’s career.

The most notable of the bunch is The Way We Were (1973). Directed by SydneyPollack, this charts the relationship of Streisand (fiery activist) and Robert Redford (writer in theF. Scott Fitzgerald mould) from their college days in the 1930s to their inevitable breakup in1950s Hollywood. Th…
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Citizen King (American Experience)

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 17th, 2005

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Synopsis

The focus of this documentary is on the last few years of Martin Luther King’s life, as hisactivism moved beyond the struggle for civil rights to encompass the other progressive battlesof his era. There’s a real richness here in terms of documentary footage of the man himself andinterviews new and old with those who were close to him.

Audio

The dialogue here is crisp and clean, with no distortion, sibilance, or other such issues (I amreferring here,…
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Fidel Castro (American Experience)

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 17th, 2005

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Synopsis

Few figures in our era have managed to polarize opinion so consistently and for so long ashas Fidel Castro. This portrait of the man is a (thankfully) non-hysterical approach to the subject,and presents thoughtful views from a wide range of participants, representing all kinds ofopinions. There are plenty of fascinating clips, including some footage of Castro when he visitedthe states BEFORE that 40-plus-year squabble began.

Audio

The sound quality …
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America Beyond the Color Line (American Experience)

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 17th, 2005

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Synopsis

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., chair of Harvard’s Afro-American Studies, takes the pulse of BlackAmerica as he travels the country, interviewing the famous (Colini Powell, Morgan Freeman,Maya Angelou, and so on and so forth) and the everyday. The results are interesting indeed,though the interviews might perhaps have been a little more rigorous and a little less chummy.Still, an engaging, personal work.

Audio

The 2.0 track is perfectly serviceable for the …
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Question of God: Sigmund Freud & C.S. Lewis with Dr. Armand Nicholi, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 17th, 2005

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Synopsis

Taking as its starting point a course offered by Harvard professor Dr. Armand M. Nicholi(and his book of the same name), this is a debate between belief and skepticism. A round tableled by Nicholi bounces of a series of recreations of events from the lives of C.S. Lewis andSigmund Freud, and the two historical figures make their cases for their respective sides of theargument. At 225 minutes, this is a pretty involved undertaking. It attacks its subject withadmirable ambiti…
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Punky Brewster Season Two

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 16th, 2005

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Synopsis

If you have any interest in this series, then a synopsis is surely unnecessary. I can’t imaginenew fans flocking in droves to this soggy material. Punky Brewster (Soleil Moon Frye) is thespunky former street urchin who is now the ward of lovable curmudgeon Henry (GeorgeGaynes). We follow Punky to school and elsewhere, and see her learn all sorts of life lessonsthrough what passes for humour. This is total pap, and a reminder of just how depressingly badthe sitcom form can b…
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Easter Parade

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 15th, 2005

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Synopsis

In a fit of pique when Ann Miller dumps him as both dance partner and boyfriend, FredAstaire declares that he can find a new partner out of the first girl he sees, and he happens to pickbar singer Judy Garland. She turns out, of course, to be exactly the partner he should have had allalong, as they rise to fame.

Plot, in the case of this musical, is pretty much irrelevant — but hell, they have to squeeze 17songs into a mere 103 minutes. There are plenty of favourit…
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Krakatoa, East of Java

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 15th, 2005

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Synopsis

Krakatoa is about to erupt in one of the most gargantuan explosions in recorded history. Thisis an event that literally shook the world. However, that’s not good enough for this movie, whichpiles in a ludicrous plot that sees Captain Maximilian Schell is unknowingly taking his ship intothe jaws of danger on a quest for a sunken treasure of pearls. Along for the ride are a diver whoselungs are wrecked, Italian balloonists, troublesome prisoners, and so on. Cute kids and awful…
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Band Wagon, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 14th, 2005

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Synopsis

Fred Astaire plays a song-and-dance man who has seen better days, and is past his prime asfar as Hollywood is concerned. He arrives in New York to star in a new show written by two oldfriends (Nanette Fabray and Oscar Levant). The project is taken on by a pretentiousproducer/director/actor (Jack Buchanan), who brings in ballet dancer Cyd Charisse. Astaire andCharisse clash initially, and Buchanan is intent on turning the sprightly musical comedy into amodern version of Faus…
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Dead End

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 13th, 2005

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Synopsis

Welcome to the Lower East Side, where the high-rise apartments of the super-rich abut thetenements on the riverside. Here Joel McCrea, a poor would-be architect, is infatuated with richgirl Wendy Barrie, while poor girl Sylvia Sidney pines for him, all the while trying to save heryounger brother from a life of crime on the streets. Into the scene strides Humphrey Bogart as awanted killer, coming home to try to reconnect with his mother and an old flame. Intersectingwith the…
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Green Acres – The Complete Second Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 13th, 2005

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Synopsis

The set-up for Green Acres is that we have a city couple (Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor) whohave forsaken the big city sophistication of New York for the titular verdant acres near the townof Hooterville. So there’s plenty of fish-out-of-water humour (Albert dressing in a suit in thecountry, Gabor a completely incapable housfrau), not to mention numerous slack-jawed yokels.This is pretty standard late-60s sitcom humour, so we’re not talking enormous sophisticationhere, and the…
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Bustin’ Loose

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 12th, 2005

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Synopsis

Incorrigible and not altogether competent small-time crook Richard Pryor has pulled one fastone too many. His exasperated parole officer threatens him with a long jail term unless he agreesto drive a group of special education students in a rickety bus from Philadelphia to Seattle, wherethey will find a new home. All sorts of misadventures await along the road trip.

There’s a vaguely gritty atmosphere, which helps defuse some of the sentimentality, and thekids are h…
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Cat Returns

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 10th, 2005

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Synopsis

Poor Haru is have a rough day at school, and it isn’t like this is an exception. She can’t seemto fit in, and is filled with self-doubt. On her way home, she rescues a cat from traffic, and isastonished when the cat speaks to her. It turns out that she rescued the prince of the CatKingdom. By way of thanks, the Cat King decides she should become his son’s bride. Harudoesn’t like this idea. Coming to her aid is the Baron, an elegant cat figurine come to life, alongwith his f…
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La Femme Nikita – The Complete Second Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 9th, 2005

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Synopsis

As with such other series as The X-Files, this is less about single-episode adventuresthan about a long, complex storyline. As a result, I can’t even pretend to understand what the hellis going on here, and so turn the synopsis over to the box copy: “‘You’re one of us now,’Nikita is told. But has she truly abandoned her compassionate nature and become anunquestioning member of the soulless covert organization called Section One? Or has shemastered the group’s knack f…
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