David Annandale

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Soul Showcase Collection

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 18th, 2005

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Synopsis

That Man Bolt is a long way from Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. It’scloser to the Shaft films, but its closest relation is the Bond series, as our man Bolt (FredWilliamson) jets from Hong Kong to Las Vegas and back again, karate-chopping his waythrough the bad guys, working to bring down the crime lord who set him up as a fall guy. Bolteven winds up with a British government liaison. The action scenes are very flat, but theproduction values are high for th…
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Gargoyle: Wings of Darkness

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

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Synopsis

Centuries ago, a gargoyle is shot down by a priest and sealed in the ground. In present-dayRomania, an earthquake breaks the seal and unleashes a host of monsters on Bucharest. CIAoperative Michael Paré is investigating what at first appears to be a series of kidnappings, buteventually finds himself up against the mythical beasts.

The dialogue consists of cobbled-together clichés (and bargain-basement ones at that), andthe plot makes no sense. The Romanian setting i…
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Wimbledon

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

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Synopsis

Paul Bettany once had an almost-promising career in tennis, but he’s on his way out now,and his last hurrah is a wild-card placement he’s landed at Wimbledon. A chance encounter withrising super-alpha player Kirsten Dunst revives his passion for both life and the game, and hesuddenly starts beating all comers. Her game, however, begins to suffer as she becomesdistracted by her new relationship.

As a romantic comedy, this leaves much to be desired. Top-billed Dunst i…
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Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson

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

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Synopsis

In his patented style (plenty of vintage stills and, in this case, vintage film footage combinedwith compelling narration and actors voicing the actual words of the subjects), documentaristKen Burns unveils the story of Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight boxing champion. Histriumph was intolerable for white society, and that included the American government. Narratedby Keith David, with Samuel L. Jackson providing the voice of Johnson, this is a powerful lookat the r…
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Pauly Shore Is Dead

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

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Synopsis

Pauly Shore’s career spirals down into the toilet in the wake of a disastrous Fox sitcom.Desperate, he fakes his own death, thus boosting his popularity. His plan seems to be working,until the terrible backfire when he is caught and sent to jail.

There’s a halfway clever conceit here, given that Shore co-wrote, co-produced and directedwhat plays partly as an exercise in self-loathing, a perspective that viewers can only heartilysupport. There are some amusing cameos…
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Witch Who Came From The Sea, The

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

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Synopsis

Molly (Millie Perkins) is seriously disconnected from reality. She tells her two nephewswonderful tales about their grandfather, whom she declares a saint, even though we see (indisturbing flashbacks), that he repeatedly raped her. She also enjoys ogling well-built men andfantasizing about their violent deaths. But she doesn’t stop at fantasizing…

Well! Here she is, Anne Frank herself (from the 1959 film) all grown up and castrating menwith safety razors. This is …
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Confessions of an American Girl

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

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Synopsis

Jena Malone’s life isn’t what she would like. She lives in a trailer with her mother and oldersister and brother, her boyfriend is a jerk who doesn’t want anyone to know they’re dating, andshe pines for her father, who’s in jail. She has a very idealized memory of her father, and aftermuch pleading, she manages to convince the rest of her very reluctant family to go to the annualprison picnic.

This is a comedy in the vein of The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys …
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Yakuza Demon

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

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Synopsis

The Date crime family is unwillingly drawn into a mob war with the much more powerfulTendo group. This war disrupts the happy existence of one small sub-family, consisting of Muto,the boss more interested in his model planes than in crime, and his two loyal soldiers Seiji andYoshifumi. Muto promises to kill a high-ranking Tendo member to prove his worth, but Seijiknows he isn’t up to it. He arranges for Muto to be packed safely off to jail instead, and thenstages an attack …
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SpongeBob SquarePants – Home Sweet Pineapple

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

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Synopsis

Eight more episodes of adventures with SpongeBob and friends. One of the highlights is thetitle episode which reworks an old comedy chestnut (two sleepers fighting over the bedclothes)into a moment of truly sublime hysteria. There are plenty of other comic gems, and I will confessthat, over the years, SpongeBob has grown on me. Yes, I’m a fan now. I would be giving thiscollection a higher rating, but the fact that two of the episodes (“Band Geeks” and “RippedPants”) have al…
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Andromedia

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 8th, 2005

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Synopsis

Teenagers Mai and Yu have just become girlfriend and boyfriend when Mai is killed in atraffic accident. Her distraught father uses her digitized physical characteristics and memoriesto create an AI resurrection. The new Mai gradually becomes more and more human and fullysentient (think a digital Pinocchio), and she winds up in the Yu’s laptop. A megalomaniacal CEOwants the technology in order to download his own consciousness into the Net and thereby rulethe world. His mini…
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Speakeasy

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 8th, 2005

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Synopsis

David Strathairn is a melancholy children’s magician. He is stuck looking after his irritablewife’s deaf father, because she wants nothing to do with him. His day is complete after a fender-bender with pawn shop owner Nicky Katt. And, as it happens all the time in real life, the twodrivers soon become fast friends. One of their bonds is that Katt’s daughter is also deaf. Whata coincidence! The performances are all agreeably low key, and the dialogue and editing havesome occ…
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Master of the Flying Guillotine

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 8th, 2005

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Synopsis

China is under the rule of the Ching dynasty, who send out assassins to kill anyone whochallenges the regime. Greatest of these assassins is the blind master of the flying guillotine. Hesets out to kill the One-Armed Boxer (don’t ask me why all these guys have disabilities). Thecharacters come together at a huge martial arts tournament (this is where Mortal Kombatcomes from, kiddies). The plot is no more developed than that of a typical porno. The film’sreason for be…
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Marks Brothers Silver Screen Collection, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 7th, 2005

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Synopsis

These films represent the Marx Brothers at their most anarchic and creative. Though theymade other very strong films, these are the comedians at their peak.

The Cocoanuts (1929) is the most dated of the bunch. The pacing is pretty sluggish,but we are also at the dawn of sound movie here. Groucho runs a Florida hotel here, and thisprovides a suitable setting for varied shenanigans as well as plenty of dancing girls. The film alsohas a certain charming rawness …
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 6th, 2005

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Synopsis

Jim Carrey wakes up on Valentine’s Day in a funk. On the spur of the moment, he takes offto Montauk, where he meets Kate Winslet. Sparks fly, and a relationship seems about to be born.We suddenly flash back in time, and realize that, though they no longer remember it, these twohave previously had a relationship. When it collapsed, Winslet availed herself of the services ofLacuna, a company that erases unpleasant memories. Carrey has been removed from hermemory. Distraught, …
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W.C. Fields Comedy Collection

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 4th, 2005

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Synopsis

Here we go, five W.C. Fields movies, and the range of the collection should be very pleasingto fans. The earliest feature here is 1933’s International House. This uses the slightpremise of a crowd of eccentric characters assembled in a Shanghai hotel to see a new invention(a television, here called a “radioscope”) to showcase a parade of comic and music stars, amongthem Fields, but also George Burns and Gracie Allen, Cab Calloway, and that supreme master ofcom…
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Riding Giants

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 31st, 2004

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Synopsis

Riding Giants is both a history of big-wave surfing (and, to a degree, of surfinggenerally) and a profile of the big names in the sport over the generations, specifically Greg Noll,Jeff Clark and Laird Hamilton (who, as executive producer, also gets the lion’s share of thecoverage). Spectacular footage is mixed with vintage home movies, and the result is quitecompelling. The film does devolve into hero-worship, however, and when a drowned surfer isreferred to as a fa…
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Shaun of the Dead

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 29th, 2004

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Synopsis

Shaun (co-writer Simon Pegg) is on the cusp of his thirties, and still has growing up to do.He and girlfriend Liz wind up in the Winchester pub every night, and she’s sick of it, much to thedelight of her roommates Liz and David (the latter being an insufferable twit who pines for Liz).His best friend Ed is a pig, and has crashed permanently in Shaun’s house, much to thedispleasure of his housemate, Pete. Liz dumps Shaun, who thinks his life is over. Then, hegradually becom…
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Open Water

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 29th, 2004

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Synopsis

An over-worked couple (Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis) whose marriage, while not indanger, has clearly reached some difficult shoals, head off on a diving vacation. A mix-up (whichis disturbingly credible) results in the tour ship leaving them behind. Stuck in the middle of theocean, they float together, hoping against hope for rescue, growing cold and hungry. And thenthere is the marine life. Like stinging jellyfish. And sharks…

The trailers made this look like…
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Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 23rd, 2004

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Synopsis

Apocalypse picks up where the first Resident Evil left off. The sinisterUmbrella Corporation re-opens its underground lab, and in so doing unleashes the T-Virus onRacoon City. The metropolis is cordoned off to contain the infection, and there are only a handfulof survivors left who, led by the now superhuman Alice (Mila Jovovich), must escape the citybefore it is sanitized (i.e.nuked).

The scale is far more grandiose than the first film, and there is m…
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Epoch: Evolution

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 22nd, 2004

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Synopsis

Ten years after the events of Epoch 2000 (didn’t see it? then be prepared to beconfused), scientist David Keith and his son (apparently the result of an immaculate conceptionthanks to alien intervention) are on the run from the Genesis Coalition (a well-funded group ofnutcases devoted to expunging all things alien from the world). Alien rock formations, called“toruses” (they look like frozen tornadoes) rise from the ground, and good guys and bad guysdescend on them to discov…
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AVP: Alien vs. Predator

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 21st, 2004

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Synopsis

Set in the near future, well before the Alien films but after the Predatorfranchise, AVP has a group of scientists and security experts in the pay of the LanceHenriksen (Weyland, of the Weyland-Utani Corporation that plays such an important role in theAlien films) arrive in Antarctica. Here they find a pyramid buried deep in the ice, whichturns out to be a Predator training site. A trio of these creatures arrives for training, but thehumans have …
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Dragon Storm

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 21st, 2004

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Synopsis

Meteors plunge to Earth in the 12th Century, unleashing a horde of dragons from outer space(!). They destroy the castle of nasty king John Rhys-Davies. He and a few followers take refugein the castle of a good and wise king, plotting to overthrow him when opportunity arises.Meanwhile, a lone-wolf hunter is conscripted into hunting down the dragons, with the help ofa disparate band (including a martial arts expert — don’t ask).

This is another pic that follows the standard …
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King Arthur

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 21st, 2004

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Synopsis

After fifteen years in the service of the Roman army in Britain, Lancelot (Ioan Gruffudd) andother knights of the round table look forward to being released and returning to their homelandof Samartia. Their leader, Arthur (Clive Owen), pines for Rome. But one last rescue missionturns into a nightmare, and then the Saxons invade. Gradually, our heroes discover that they lovetheir adopted country, and Arthur has his illusions about Rome destroyed one by one.

The look …
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Two Brothers

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 20th, 2004

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Synopsis

We are in the 1920s. Two young tiger cubs live in what seems to be the tiger version of theGarden of Eden. Then Guy Pearce comes along to ruin everything (though he will subsequentlyrepent). He kills the cubs’ parents, and sells one cub to the circus. The other is also captured andwinds up as the beloved pet of Raoul, the colonial governor’s son. The tension resides in whetherthe brothers will eventually reunite, and will they be allowed to live their lives in peace?

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Where the Red Fern Grows

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 20th, 2004

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Synopsis

Kris Kristofferson narrates the story in flashback, telling the story of his younger self (JosephAshton) during the Depression. The young boy dreams of owning a hunting dog, and afterslaving away on odd jobs for two years, he finally acquires two: “Old Dan” and “Little Ann.”Together they become an unbeatable team, and have various adventures in a setting that is bothbucolic and poverty-stricken. The film is handsomely mounted and genuinely performed (with,interestingly, Dav…
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