David Annandale

About David Annandale

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Stargate SG-1 – The Complete Second Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 31st, 2002

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Synopsis

If you’ve seen the movie, you know the premise: Earth’s military has found an alien artifact that permits instantaneous travel over vast light years. At the other end of one of the portals, however, is the Goa’uld, a hostile alien race. The special effects are impressive by TV standards, and the characterizations are pretty standard fare.

Audio

The sound is pretty solid stuff, again for TV material. The mix is in 5.1, and while I wasn’t struck by a whole heck of a …
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Razor’s Edge, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 13th, 2002

Synopsis

Bill Murray (finding some difficulty to lose that trademark smirk) plays Larry Darrell, a man who takes nothing seriously until World War I happens to him. Disillusioned, he embarks on a quest to find meaning in life, a quest that will take him to the Himalayas and back to his home town.

Audio

All in all a pretty successful creation of a sound environment. Ambient sound effects are a constant presence, and the music is served well by its mix. Some of the dialogue s…
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SpongeBob Squarepants Halloween

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 11th, 2002

Synopsis

SpongeBob and his friends are up to their usual misadventures. SpongeBob encounters the Flying Dutchman, is turned into a snail, mistakes Squidward for a ghost, and so on.

Audio

The sound is brisk, clean and chipper. There’s not a whole heck of a lot happening surround-wise — mainly music, with the sound effects rather sparse. There is the occasional moment of left-right effect too, but you have to stay alert for those.

Video

The transfe…
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Dinotopia

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 11th, 2002

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Synopsis

Two brothers survive a plane crash (a crash in which their father dies, but they don’t seem too broken up about the sad event), and find themselves washed up on the island of Dinotopia. As the name implies, this is a land where humans and dinosaurs co-exist. We explore this island with the brothers, and get caught up in their quest to help save this world in its hour of peril. The characters here are a long way from believable, and so the main draw is the special effects, which are, by telev…
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Brotherhood of Satan, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 9th, 2002

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Synopsis

Driving through the middle of nowhere, Ben, his daughter KT, and his girlfriend Nicky arrive in a strange little town. It turns out that arriving here is much easier than leaving. And that’s all I’m going to tell you, other than to say that, as the title says, Satanism is at work here. Do not read the summary on the DVD’s case, which gives absolutely everything away. Hit the film cold, and you’ll be impressed by a knockout opening, some truly eerie moments, and a compelling sense of darkness…
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Elvis: His Best Friend Remembers

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 24th, 2002

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Synopsis

“Diamond Joe” Esposito recalls Elvis Presley’s career, from when Esposito first became aware of him, to their shared military service, to the moment he became part of Presley’s entourage. The memories go all the way to Presley’s death and beyond. The disc’s intro is irritatingly self-promotional, and the reverential tone of the piece smacks of an Entertainment Tonight segment stretched to 130 minutes.

Audio

The sound is 2.0 surround, but they really needn’t ha…
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Stuart Little

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 24th, 2002

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Synopsis

The Littles (Hugh Laurie and Geena Davis) head off to the local orphanage to adopt a child. Their son George (Jonathan Lipnicki) is hoping for a little brother, but what he gets is considerably smaller than he had in mind: talking mouse Stuart (voice of Michael J. Fox). We follow Stuart’s misadventures as he adapts to his new family, and they adapt to him. Nathan Lane does the voice of Snowball, the very put-out cat.

Audio

The sound is very clear, and Alan Sil…
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Chat Room

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 24th, 2002

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Synopsis

A group of friends made a bet at the end of high school to see who would bring the most attractive date to the ten-year reunion. That time has come, and the bet is worth $50,000.00. Time to surf the Internet for that perfect woman. This is, apparently, a comedy. Really. Utterly inept in every department (acting, writing, direction, editing, cinematography), this achieves the not-inconsiderable feat of making Corky Romano looking screamingly funny by comparison.

Audio

I Love Lucy Season One, Volume One

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 24th, 2002

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Synopsis

Three episodes from the first season, plus the pilot with its opening seconds restored as much as possible. The series is a landmark in television comedy, no doubt there, though, for my tastes, the schtick hasn’t aged particularly well.

Audio

The sound is, of course, mono. No too much to say, therefore, except that the mono is crisp and clear, especially on the actual season episodes.

Video

The picture is as good as one could expect,…
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Walk to Remember, A

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 18th, 2002

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Synopsis

After a prank goes horribly wrong, almost resulting in the death of another student, high school bad boy Landon (Shane West, doing his best impression of Christian Slater channelling Charlie Sheen), is condemned not to jail, or to community service, but to act in the school play. In this new environment, he becomes more and more acutely aware of self-assured preacher’s daughter Jamie (Mandy Moore). Opposites attract, hard lessons are learned, and redemption is handed out all round. Call it t…
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Corky Romano

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 16th, 2002

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Synopsis

Peter Falk, patriarch of the Romano crime family, is about to be taken down by the FBI. He needs someone to go undercover in the FBI, and find and destroy the evidence against him. The only available man for the mission is black sheep of the family Corky (Chris Kattan). Corky is an assistant vet, and as incompetent and childish as he is sickeningly sweet. Pretty high concept stuff, in the negative sense of the term, and the result is slapstick so old and worn that Jerry Lewis would take a pa…
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Dune

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 15th, 2002

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Synopsis

Herbert’s novel is very complex, and one attempts a synopsis at one’s own risk (this is part of the problem with Lynch’s film). At its most basic, it is about power struggles in a galactic empire, power struggles centred on the planet Arrakis, or Dune, home of the spice, the most vital element in the empire. Paul Atreides, newly arrived on Arrakis, turns out to be the long-prophesied messiah. This is an incredibly ambitious project for a telefilm, and though some of the budgetary limitations…
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MTV – The Real World: Decade of Bloopers

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 26th, 2002

Synopsis

You might wonder how it’s possible for a reality show to have bloopers. How are bloopers different from the other things that go on? Not much, except for those instances where the crew gets involved (cameras falling down, that kind of thing). All of this is strung together by Puck, who seems to think he is entertaining. Beyond boring.

Audio

The audio is a faithful reproduction of the TV experience, for what it’s worth. The music has decent surround presence, a…
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MTV – The Real World You Never Saw: Chicago

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 26th, 2002

Synopsis

This is a collection of clips along with retrospective interviews with the participants. Shower antics, bathroom disasters, lots and lots of digitally fogged nudity. If watching paint dry is just a little too racy for you, then this is just what you’re looking for.

Audio

The source material is TV, and the disc reflects this. Nothing much wrong with the sound, but there’s nothing much to it either: people talking, people yelling, musical interludes. The surroun…
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Mr. Saturday Night

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 5th, 2002

Synopsis

Buddy Young Jr. (Billy Crystal) is in the twilight of his career. Once he had his own television show, but his self-destructive impulses and violent temper torpedoed that (not to mention increasingly alienating his loved ones). Now a senior citizen, he is still trying to make a go of it, still making life miserable for his long-suffering brother. The film flashes back and forth, showing us Buddy’s rise and fall in the past, and his current attempts to make something remotely resembling a com…
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Complete Second Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 4th, 2002

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Synopsis

A synopsis is pretty pointless. Either you watch the series or you don’t. But for what it’s worth, Buffy is a high-school student who is also one of the chosen heroes of history whose purpose in life is to combat and destroy vampires. The big complication this season is the fact that she’s fallen love with one (Angel).

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 audio is acceptable, but nothing special. While generally clean, the dialogue does occasionally have some buzz to it. The music …
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Verdict, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 25th, 2002

Synopsis

Paul Newman’s Frank Galvin has seen better days. Now he’s a broken-down, alcoholic ambulance-chaser. But then his last chance arrives in the form of a negligence case being brought against two doctors who gave a young woman the wrong anaesthetic, reducing her to a vegetable. Though Galvin at first is planning to settle out of court, he changes his mind, and the result is a David-and-Goliath courtroom struggle.

Though a 1982 release, The Verdict still has much of the feel of a 70s f…
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Intimacy

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 11th, 2002

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The film may take place in London, and feature English actors, and be shot in English, but this is definitely French cinema. How do we know? Because the sex scenes hit hardcore explicitness, and none of the characters are particularly happy about any of the proceedings.

Synopsis

Jay is a former musician, now bartender, and left his family some years ago, in a fit of what appears to have been existential ennui/sexual angst. Now he lives in a run-down house, and is visited every Wednesday by woman with whom he has sex.
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Brotherhood, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 8th, 2002

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The title catches your eye. A mob film, you suspect. And you’re right. But a mob film from 1968, BEFORE The Godfather defined the genre as we know it today, and the difference is apparent.

Synopsis

Kirk Douglas is big-shot Mafioso living in retirement in Sicily. He’s old-fashioned, and believes in the old “values” of the Cosa Nostra. From the States comes his brother, who wants to make his name with the mob. His assignment, as it turns out, is to kill Douglas. Set entirely in rura…
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Thief of Hearts

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 12th, 2002

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Let’s take a little trip down memory lane, shall we? Follow me back to that bygone era known as the eighties. Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer were consolidating their formula for slick, commercial fluff, Harold Faltermeyer’s synthesized scores were inescapable, and Steven Bauer actually rated star billing.

Synopsis

Steven Bauer is a professional cat-burglar, aided and managed by cocaine-sniffing restaurant employee David Caruso (looking geekily young). On one particular job, Bauer finds, amid hi…
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Original Sin – Unrated

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 20th, 2002

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The second version of Cornell Woolrich’s novel “Waltz Into Darkness” (previously filmed by François Truffaut’s Mississippi Mermaid), this is a decidedly steamier version, especially here, in its unrated form.

Synopsis

Cuban plantation owner Antonio Banderas advertises for a wife, and the woman who answers his ad is, he believes, plain but pure. What shows up, however, is the beautiful but duplicitous Angelina Jolie, who has larceny rather than matrimony on her mind. Her scam runs smoothly at first,…
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De Sade

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 15th, 2002

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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…
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Spongebob Squarepants: Nautical Nonsense

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 11th, 2002

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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…
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Va Savoir

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 26th, 2002

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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…
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Venomous

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 29th, 2002

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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…
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