Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 31st, 2007
Left alone when his family leaves town to visit relatives, professor Edward G. Robinson hangs out at his club with his two cronies, one of whom is DA Raymond Massey. He is fascinated by a striking portrait of a young woman, and one night, leaving the club late and alone, he runs into the portrait’s model (Joan Bennett). Though he knows better, he accompanies her back to her apartment. A jealous lover bursts in and attacks Robinson, who murders him in self-defense. Panicked by the situation, Bennett and Robinson cover up the event, but both the authorities and a blackmailer circle closer and closer.
Posted in: Brain Blasters, Regular Columns by David Annandale on July 27th, 2007
A little theory, which is mine, regarding film. This theory, at its simplest, holds that the following is a self-evident truth: that the film has not been made that cannot be improved by the addition of dinosaurs. The corollary is that there are strict limits to how bad any film with dinosaurs can be. by extension, the replacement of dinosaurs with a monster of some sort of description is acceptable. I can tell by the skeptical rise of your eyebrow that you don’t believe me.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 26th, 2007
Preston Foster is a bitter ex-cop who masterminds a gigantic robbery. Hiding behind a mask, he forces three cons to work with him, and makes sure they too wear masks, so only he knows everyone’s identity. The heist also involves framing an innocent flower delivery-man (Joe Rolfe), who unfortunately has done his own stint in jail, and so is put through the brutal wringer by the police. Freed but understandably ticked off, Payne sets off on the trail of the men who framed him. Tracking one to Tijuana, Payne adopts his identity and arrives at the resort where Foster and others have gathered. Foster’s master plan is complicated by the arrival of his daughter, who develops an interest in Payne.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 22nd, 2007
George Dolenz is the Montreal scientist working on an atomic something-or-other. Foreign spies (could they be.... Communists??!!) hire exiled American gangster George Raft to get Dolenz and his secret into their clutches. His secret weapon for this project is the seductive power of Audrey Totter. Working for the angels is RCMP detective Edward G. Robinson. The expected race against time ensues.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 20th, 2007
Jim Carrey is an animal control officer whose wife (Virginia Madsen) gives him an odd crime novel for his birthday. The book is narrated by a police detective who becomes violently obsessed with the recurrence of the number 23 in all aspects of life. The book has plenty of strange similarities with Carrey's life, and he becomes consumed with finding the author and knowing what it's all about, not to mention descending into the 23 obsession himself.
Posted in: Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on July 20th, 2007
It’s been a fairly commonplace activity over the last few years to compare our current troubled era with that of the late-sixties/early-seventies, with special attention paid to discussion of parallels (and to what degree they are or are not justified) between the Iraq and Vietnam wars. In that context, it is interesting to consider the way popular culture has dealt with those conflicts, with particular reference to genre offerings.
This is by way of making a bit of a case study of Deathdream (AKA
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 20th, 2007
While expecting her husband home from a business trip, Sandra Bullock receives word that he has died. But the next morning, when she wakes up, he is still alive, and hasn't even left yet on the trip. Next morning, he's dead again, and it's the day of the funeral. Understandably, our poor heroine is a might discombobluated as she deals with having become unmoored in time, struggling to save her sanity, her husband, and her marriage.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 18th, 2007
Synopsis
Danny Kaye plays Jack Martin, entertainer in a Riviera nightclub, as well as Henri Duran, philandering aviator. Duran is being driven to the edge of bankruptcy by a man with which he is forced to do business. Desperate to raise cash, he leaves town, but then his rival is invited to a dinner party. If Duran is not present at the party he is supposed to be hosting, disaster will ensue. So his partners conscript Martin, who has done a pitch-perfect impersonation of Duran at the club, to act as ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 17th, 2007
Synopsis
Famed for his obsessive love of petroleum jelly as a medium for sculpture, Matthew Barney uses 45 000 pounds of the stuff in the creation of Drawing Restraint 9. This film documents the making of that piece, which is both sculpture and film, done aboard a Japanese whaling vessel. Intimately involved in the production is Barney’s collaborator and partner Björk.
For those, such as myself, for whom this is a first exposure to Barney, this film is both intriguing and frustrating...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 16th, 2007
Synopsis
Dustin Hoffman plays Max Dembo, a burglar out on parole after serving six years. He initially makes a committed effort to reintegrate into society, getting a nowhere job in a can factory and dating placement agent Theresa Russell. But when parole officer M. Emmet Walsh unfairly targets him, Hoffman gives it up and returns to a life of crime, his violent and self-destructive urges making a bad situation that much worse.
Interestingly, the more unlikable Hoffman’s character becomes, ...
