Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 2nd, 2005
Synopsis
Steve McQueen is Doc McCoy, master thief. Having just been denied parole, he asks wife Ali McGraw to make a bargain with political fixer Ben Johnson to get him out. This she does, but what McQueen doesn’t realize is that the deal not only involved McQueen’s participation in a bank job, but also McGraw sleeping with Johnson. In short order, the robbery goes wrong, and husband and wife are on the run.
From its punchy, jaggedly edited credit sequence on, this is Peckinpah at his most ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 31st, 2005
Synopsis
This remake of The Street With No Name shifts the scene from mid-40s US to mid-50s Japan. Robert Ryan heads up a ruthless gang of ex-GIs, and uses pachinko parlours as acover for his robberies. He recruits Robert Stack into his gang, little suspecting that Stack is, infact, an undercover investigator.
Samuel Fuller’s reworking plays up the homoerotic undercurrent (which Richard Widmarknonetheless conveyed quite effectively in the original), and Robert Stack i...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 30th, 2005
Synopsis
Tyrone Power is the amoral Stan, a carny worker who will use anybody, especially women,to facilitate his climb to the top. Joan Blondell is the carnival medium who teaches him the tricksof the trade. He dumps her for Coleen Gray, and is soon a performer in the big nightclubs. Butthat isn’t enough for him, and he overreaches when he allies himself with Helen Walker, anunscrupulous psychologist who is an even smarter operator than he is.
A noir-drenched rise and fall ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 29th, 2005
Synopsis
You should know the drill by now. More lunatic stories, with a cavalcade of gags that haveyou exclaiming at the whole thing is stupid even as you are convulsed with laughter. The KrustyKrab, Mr. Krabs and food in general play a big role in a number of the episodes here, and muchfun is had with Mr. Krabs’ avarice (“Arrgh!”, where he becomes obsessed with finding a piratetreasure, is a standout). All in all, 95 minutes of goofy fun.
Audio
Par for the ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 29th, 2005
Synopsis
Costello is a big-hearted soul who takes in every stray (human or animal) that comes along.He runs afoul of the authorities, who deem him an unsuitable father for the two orphans he hasadopted. Meanwhile, Abbott, the black sheep Costello has taken on, is an inveterate gambler whoowes the mob a huge sum. Cue the running around.
This was the last film the two comedians made together, and the humour is getting ratherhere. There is also something very odd about having C...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 28th, 2005
Synopsis
The FBI, determined to crack a gangland case involving two murders, sends undercoveragent Mark Stevens to the mean streets. Posing as a lowlife, he is recruited by sinister crime bossRichard Widmark. Stevens soon discovers that Widmark is indeed the man responsible for thekillings, but he needs concrete evidence before the FBI can move in. Meanwhile, Widmark hasan agent of his own in the ranks of the police, and Stevens’ cover may soon be blown.
The opening minutes ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 27th, 2005
Synopsis
Irritable, repressed Sylvia Stickles (Tracy Ullman) is conked on the head, and the concussiontransforms her into a sexual dynamo, one of the followers of sexual healer and prophet Ray-Ray(Johnny Knoxville). The streets of Baltimore are the battleground of a culture war between theanti-sex Neuters, led by Sylvia’s mother-in-law Big Ethel, and the forces of the polymorphouslyperverse. The result is a little bit like a George Romero zombie movie, where getting headingthe bonked transf...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 27th, 2005
Synopsis
Jimmy Wang Yu is trying to scrape together the cash for his sister’s eye operation, but hekeeps getting involved in fights, and the need to pay fines and whatnot is actually pushing thefamily towards bankruptcy. Meanwhile, in Japan, a ferocious grandmother has been training herthree grandsons their entire life to be killing machines intent on taking revenge on the man sheblames for her wartime suicides of her daughter and son-in-law. That man is Jimmy’s father. Thestage is ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 27th, 2005
Synopsis
Little Tim is convinced the boogeyman is in his closet. He’s right, and it gobbles up his dad.Fifteen years later, after many years of therapy devoted to convincing him that he didn’t reallysee a monster that night, Tim (Barry Watson) is still afraid of closets and is haunted by terrifyingvisions. When his mother dies, he returns to his home town for the funeral, and decides to stay atthe old house in order to confront his demons. Big mistake.
The basic set-up is no...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 23rd, 2005
As is the trend for today, this is the Special Edition re-release of The Day After Tomorrow tagged as the All-Access Collector's Edition. As much of this set is the same as the original release, pieces of this review will be taken from our prior review of The Day After Tomorrow.
Storms both freakish and intense devastate the planet. Climatologist Dennis Quaid realizes that the world is on the brink of a sudden new ice age.
