Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 22nd, 2005
Synopsis
Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell and Ann Sothern are three wives in an upper-middle-classneighbourhood. Just as they head off on an outing with a group of children, they receive a letterfrom the narrator (a silken-voiced Celeste Holm) that she has left town with one of theirhusbands. Which one? Unable to get home until the end of the day, the three women must waitand wonder, and in flashback we see the strains in each of their marriages. Crain is the formerfarmgirl who doesn’t f...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 21st, 2005
Synopsis
The salvage ship Mother III comes across a derelict ship that has been floating in space for50 years. The crew (oh-so-cleverly named after the main characters in Bram Stoker’s novel)board the ship, and before you know it, are up against Dracula himself. The idea is halfwayinteresting, what with a setting of eternal night in a future where no one believes in God. UdoKier even puts in an appearance as the video diary of the derelict’s deceased captain, in a niceecho of the ep...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 21st, 2005
Synopsis
Danny Morgan (Rhys Ifans), a concrete layer in Australia, is very excited about his upcomingholiday, but then his girlfriend (Justine Clarke), who thinks she’s better than he is, scraps theirgetaway so she can close a real estate deal and flirt with a local newscaster. Danny is despondent,and during his week off has too much time on his hands, which means trouble. At a barbecue, heattaches helium balloons to his deck chair, and then sails off into the big blue yonder. He come...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 20th, 2005
Synopsis
Shirley Booth is Dolly Levi, impoverished matchmaker, who has set her designs on matchingrich curmudgeon Paul Ford with herself. Ford, meanwhile, has his eye on young ShirleyMacLaine, who is so desperate to get married that she feels any man will do. Fortunately, there issomeone more her age lurking about: Anthony Perkins, pre-Psycho, when it was possibleto imagine him as a romantic lead.
That this is an adaptation of a play is painfully obvious, what with th...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 18th, 2005
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...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 17th, 2005
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...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 16th, 2005
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...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 13th, 2005
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...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 13th, 2005
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...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 12th, 2005
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 ...
