Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 18th, 2004
Love Nest is one of those films that has a great plot, but is unable to follow through on the script. The idea behind this film is simple; a man returns home from the war to find that his wife has purchased an apartment building, and they are now landlords. Every one of their tenants is crazy in their own way, and mad-cap adventures ensue.
After the first act, the story really settles in on one tenant in particular… a sneaky old Casanova who makes his money by pretending to fall in love with rich old...women. Unfortunately, his mannerisms and dialog are completely transparent, so while the characters in the film are fooled, his true nature is blatantly obvious to even the casual viewer. A much more interesting storyline deals with Marilyn Monroe’s role as an old Army buddy of the landlord. His wife is obviously quite jealous of this sexy young woman, and her suspicions about how well her husband knew her during the war are comedic fodder that could have carried this film much farther than it went otherwise.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 15th, 2004
It seems that the producers of many long-running television shows are starting to catch on to what the viewing public has known for years; it’s best to go out on top. Shows such as Seinfeld, Friends and even Frasier (to an extent) have decided to pull the plug while the material is still operating on an acceptable level. It’s rare that shows can successfully pull the great switch like ER did, and replace virtually every member of the cast, while still not losing what made them great in the...first place.
I only wish that Chris Carter bought into this school of thought. While the Ninth season of The X-Files was still one of the better sci-fi dramas on television, it just wasn’t the same. The departure of David Duchovny left a hole in the cast that could not be filled. Now, that’s not to say that Robert Patrick isn’t great as Agent Doggett, it’s just that he’s not the same character. It was like those episodes of The Cosby Show that focused on Theo or Vanessa. It’s the same show, but there is a big piece missing.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 13th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 13th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 11th, 2004
Everything But The Girl is a group that has always been a bit of an enigma to me. I have never heard any of their albums, but I consistently run into one of their songs on the odd movie soundtrack or occasional visit to the record store. I am always struck by how different one song sounds from the next, much like the brilliant work of Blur, and I assumed that this was because most of the songs that I have heard are B-sides, or as I stated before, tracks that were donated to compilations or soundtracks. This disc has ...eally helped me to pull my view of EBTG into focus. Surprisingly, my initial beliefs are correct… they are in fact a group whose sound is that they have no sound.
Now, that’s not entirely fair of me to say. After all, Tracey Thorn’s voice is unmistakable. That is a sound in itself, much like fellow songstress Natalie Merchant. However, this career-spanning collection of videos (nine in all) really shows how the group has evolved, from jazz to folk to pop to dancehall tunes. Personally, the newest stuff is by far my favorite. While the video for the Simon and Garfunkel cover “The Only Living Boy in New York” is fantastic (as is the song), it’s the inclusion of the electronic tracks that really get me interested in this band.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 6th, 2004
I’m not a big fan of “Reality TV.” I do watch Survivor, and I think that’s a really good show, but I don’t watch any of the others. When I first heard of the concept of “The Mole,” I have to admit that I was intrigued. Reality TV is all about real people reacting to each other’s most annoying personality traits and translating that friction into ratings. Well, “The Mole” puts a different spin on that concept by adding a dissenting element - one of the participants is “a mole” i.e. a nefarious agent of the producers ...laced to lead the group astray and prevent them from attaining the big cash rewards. I have to admit intriguing, but not intriguing enough to get me to watch week to week, until now.
Celebrity Mole: Hawaii takes a group of B-list celebrities (Stephen Baldwin, Corbin Bernsen, Michael Boatman, Kim Coles, Kathy Griffin, Frederique Van Der Wal, and Erik Von Detten) and pits them against each other in various games to win cash, and avoid termination (i.e. elimination – one person leaves the game at the end of each show) while figuring out who the mole is.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 3rd, 2004
In today’s age of manufactured talent less pop stars you have to hand it to the artists that still write and actually perform their own original material. Versus the one’s who simply head into the studio with a team of writers and producers and who don’t even have the talent to actually sign live but instead just lip sync. Jewel whether you like her music or not is an artist, she writes her own material and even co-produced her last album. At times she is incredibly engaging at other times slightly annoying but, her ...yrics are richly textured and captivate the imagination.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 2nd, 2004
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 1st, 2004
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 30th, 2004
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