David Annandale

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Sunday Bloody Sunday

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 4th, 2003

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Synopsis

Glenda Jackson is a job placement consultant who wants to resign. Peter Finch is a doctorwho has more than his fair share of neurotic patients. Both Finch and Jackson are in love withMurray Head, a young artist who really loves himself more than either of his two lovers. Jacksonand Finch know about each other, and try to reconcile themselves with having to share Head. Asensitive character study, Sunday Bloody Sunday rivets with its superlative performancesand …
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Haunted Palace / Tower of London, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 3rd, 2003

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Synopsis

Made at the height of Roger Corman’s successful Edgar Allan Poe series (with his perennialstar Vincent Price), these two pictures, while similar in tone to the Poe films, adapt two differentwriters. Tower of London, a remake of the Basil Rathbone/Boris Karloff film from 1935,is a version of Shakespeare’s Richard III, with Price taking on the role of the villainoushunchback, plotting and killing his way to the throne of England. The Haunted Palace,…
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Scorcher

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 3rd, 2003

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Synopsis

Get this: Chinese nuclear tests have jolted the Pacific tectonic plate into accelerated motion,causing terrible volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and massive venting of gasses that will soonheat the Earth to unlivable conditions. The only way to set things right is to set off acounteractive nuclear blast. In downtown LA. Now, I have a very soft spot in my… er… head fordisaster movies, but Scorcher tested even my patience. The FX consist largely of footageli…
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Lair of the White Worm, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 3rd, 2003

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Synopsis

Loosely (to put it mildly) based on a Bram Stoker novel, this is the tale of the town ofD’Ampton, where once there was a monster (a clear reference to the Lambton Worm of legend).Archaeologist Peter Capaldi digs up the skull of what appears to be a giant snake. He andaristocrat Hugh Grant come to realize that a snake-worshipping cult is active in the area, and theysuspect Lady Sylvia Marsh (Amanda Donohoe). They’re right: Donohoe is a snake-woman intenton sacrificing…
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House of Cards Trilogy, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 2nd, 2003

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Synopsis

Ian Richardson is Sir Francis Urquhart (FU to his friends), a scheming politician whocombines the guiles of Richard III and Iago. In House of Cards, the first mini-series ofthe trilogy, he is the Tory Chief Whip, and has just been disappointed in his expectations by anew prime minister he considers weak. Furious, Urquhart sets about the destruction of his ownprime minister. In To Play the King, Urquhart, now PM, comes up against the willfulnew king (who…
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Omega Man, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 28th, 2003

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Synopsis

Charlton Heston drives around deserted Los Angeles. In the wake of a biological war, he isthe only human survivor of the plague. But he is not alone. At night, psychotic albino zombiescome out to kill him. After two years of war with the zombies (led by TV anchor turned madpreacher Anthony Zerbe), Heston discovers other human survivors. The race is on to see if hisblood can supply an antidote before these last people also perish of the plague. The first half ofthe fi…
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Burnt Offerings

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 28th, 2003

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Synopsis

Mother Karen Black, father Oliver Reed, young son Lee Montgomery and great-aunt BetteDavis escape New York to spend the summer at a country home. They get the huge mansion fora song, but the only catch is that they have to look after the aged owner of the house. Black takescharge of providing for the unseen old woman, and soon becomes dangerously obsessed withthe house. Strange accidents befall the family, and with each bad thing that happens to them, thehouse, which…
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Raw Meat

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 28th, 2003

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Synopsis

People have been disappearing from the Russell Square station of the London Underground.The attention of the police is only really drawn, however, when one of the vanished turns out tobe a man well-placed in the Ministry of Defence. Inspector Donald Pleasance (wonderfullycranky and rude) is on the job. Meanwhile, two university students are also caught up in themystery. The reason people have been going missing is because they are being kidnapped andeaten by the last…
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Comedy of Terrors / The Raven

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 27th, 2003

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Synopsis

Richard Matheson, one of the most important talents in the horror field (his filmed novelsinclude Hell House, The Shrinking Man and I Am Legend — the latterdone twice, as The Last Man On Earth and The Omega Man), scripts this twoblack comedies. In The Comedy of Terrors, Vincent Price is the scheming owner of afuneral home. He has taken over the business from doddering and deaf Boris Karloff, and,desperate for money, forces t…
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Bringing Down the House

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 27th, 2003

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Synopsis

Steve Martin plays a tax lawyer who has let his job consume his life. This has already costhim his marriage, and might soon cost him his children. He engages in some chat room romance,but the woman he meets isn’t the blond lawyer he was expecting, but escaped con Queen Latifah,out to clear her name. She turns his life upside down, but all for the better, naturally. A good-natured, but hardly side-splitting comedy, with most of its big laughs given away in the trailer….
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Anger Management

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 27th, 2003

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Synopsis

Adam Sandler plays Dave Buznik, an introverted executive who internalizes all of his anger.His life spins out of control when, on a business flight, a simple request for headphones leadsto his being charged with assault. He is obliged to submit to anger management therapy, underthe direction of the deeply unorthodox Jack Nicholson, whose role in life seems to be to makeSandler as miserable as possible. The set-up is extremely promising, the two leads clearly havegrea…
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Squirm

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 27th, 2003

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Synopsis

A violent storm drops power lines into the swamp area of Fly Creek, Georgia. Driven madby the electricity, hundreds of thousands of giant, biting worms rise to the surface, and are heldback only by daylight. Three young people realize that something is up, but the adults won’tlisten, just as in The Blob, one of Squirm’s models. Come nightfall, the wormsattack. Squirm takes its time getting to the main event, and most of the build-up has aHardy Bo…
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Casablanca

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 26th, 2003

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Synopsis

Surely you know the story. It’s WWII. France has fallen. Refugees from Europe are flowing into Casablanca. Humphrey Bogart is the cynical owner of Rick’s Cafe. His life is disrupted byt he reappearance of former lover Ingrid Bergman, who is married to Resistance leader PaulÂ Henreid. They need to escape to the US. Which way will Bogart go? Will he obey the demands of his heart? His greed? His honour? The film hasn’t aged a day since its release, its grip is as powerful as …
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Identity

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 26th, 2003

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Synopsis

On a dark and stormy night, a series of strange (coincidental?) events trap a group of peopleat an isolated hotel. They are all strangers, and yet more bizarre coincidences appear to link themto each other somehow. As if that wasn’t enough, someone is killing them off, one by one. Allvery mysterious and suspenseful, and the cast is excellent. Unfortunately, there’s a twist, and notonly does the twist take a thriller that was setting itself up as something daring and ne…
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Ghoul, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 26th, 2003

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Synopsis

Egyptology professor Boris Karloff is on his deathbed. He has just spent his fortuneacquiring a jewel he believes will open up the gates of the afterlife for him, and he demands to beburied with it, threatening to come back from the grave if his wishes are denied. Naturally, thejewel is stolen, and as a group of interested parties descend on his mansion, Karloff rises. ThisBritish film, made in the wake of the huge success of the early Universal horror classics, is als…
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Down With Love

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 25th, 2003

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Synopsis

The time is the 60’s. Renée Zellweger is Barbara Novak, freshly arrived in New York Citywith a barnstormer of a book about to be published. The book is Down With Love, and itturns into an instant bestseller, turning gender relations on their heads. Womanizing CatcherBlock (Ewan McGregor), hotshot writer at Know Magazine, is determined to bring downthe woman who has spoiled his skirt-chasing lifestyle. In disguise, he sets about seducing Novak.Neither ch…
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Sinatra: The Classic Duets

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 12th, 2003

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Synopsis

Eighteen duets, many never seen since their original broadcast. Here is Sinatra along withsuch luminaries as Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Louis Armstrong, Ethel Merman, Bing Crosby,Dean Martin, Elvis Presley, and so on, and so on. In between each song are laudatory commentsby Sinatra’s children Nancy, Tina and Frank Jr.

Audio

The sound is mono, which is to be expected: these are recordings from the late 50’s-early60’s. Don’t expect miracles here — t…
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From Justin to Kelly

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 12th, 2003

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Synopsis

Set during that vison from Hieronymous Bosch known as spring break in Fort Lauderdale,this is a return to the Annette Funicello-Frankie Avalon beach movies of the 60’s, right down tothe PG rating. People stopped making those movies for good reasons, but that didn’t stop theproducers of this effort. Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini, playing characters with their ownfirst names (groan) meet, fall in love, but have their romance undermined by Clarkson’s blondbitch of a…
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Forbidden Fruit

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 12th, 2003

Synopsis

Michael Kremko plays Adam, dashing young priest. Nadia Mansouri is a young woman whohas a crush on him. Her name is Eve. Get it? If you don’t, Jake Simons as a gay dancechoreographer helpfully points out the symbolism for us. Sure enough, Adam is tempted from thestraight and true path and begins a torrid affair with Eve. The jealous Simons starts underminingthe two characters. The dialogue is banal, even as it has pretensions to deal with Really BigIssues of faith and free …
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Nuts

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 12th, 2003

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Synopsis

Claudia Draper (Barbra Streisand) has been charged with first-degree manslaughter. Hermother and stepfather try to have her declared incompetent to stand trial, so she will go to apsychiatric hospital rather than jail. Claudia refuses to be railroaded, punching out her lawyer incourt. Public defender Richard Dreyfuss winds up saddled with her case, and decides to fight forStreisand’s right to have her day in court. The role of Claudia is big, scenery-chewing exercisefor Str…
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Main Event, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 12th, 2003

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Synopsis

Barbra Streisand is a perfume tycoon who, due to the dishonesty of an employee, suddenlyfinds herself broke. Her only remaining asset is a contract with a washed-up boxer (RyanO’Neal). Streisand decides to turn her fortunes around by managing O’Neal. The pair take aninstant dislike to each other, and squabble all their way into romance. The Main Eventmimics the rapid-fire delivery of the classic screwball comedies, but the effect is not so muchfunny as shrill and tir…
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La Femme Nikita – The Complete First Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 10th, 2003

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Synopsis

Peta Wilson takes on the role previously incarnated by Anne Parillaud and Bridget Fonda.Once a street person, Nikita is forcibly recruited by an ultra-secret government organization andtrained as an assassin. Many adventures ensue. While Wilson certainly has the requisitetoughness and sexiness demanded by the role, the character herself has been largely defanged. Inits film incarnations, the story already ran into problems in the second half, as the formerlyferocious street…
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Up the Sandbox

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 10th, 2003

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Synopsis

Barbra Streisand is happily married and raising three children. This isn’t to say that lifedoesn’t have its pressures, of course. (Just try raising three children.) She finds out she ispregnant again, and living in a world which values her husband’s time and accomplishments farabove hers, she begins to engage in a series of elaborate and bizarre fantasies in which, one wayor another, she breaks completely with her current life. (An affair with Fidel Castro a big enoughbreak…
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Levity

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 9th, 2003

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Synopsis

Twenty-two years ago, Billy Bob Thornton killed a cashier in a botched robbery. He hasdwelt on this crime ever since, and doesn’t want to be released from prison. He is, though, and re-enters society very much adrift. His life begins to take on a sense of direction when he meetsand strikes up relationships with an embittered preacher (Morgan Freeman), a young woman onauto-destruct (Kirsten Dunst) and the sister of the man he killed (Holly Hunter). Low key,gorgeously photogr…
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Howling, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 9th, 2003

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Synopsis

Dee Wallace is an intrepid TV reporter who tracks down a serial killer, and is almost killedfor her troubles. Traumatized, she withdraws to a rural resort, which at first seems idyllic.Gradually, evidence mounts that she is in fact staying in the middle of a werewolf colony. Stillone of the more satisfying werewolf films yet made (though Ginger Snaps has arguablycaptured the crown for best ever), Joe Dante’s film is a delight not only for the grislytransformations, b…
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