Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 27th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 27th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 27th, 2004
If you’re passing through the video store and see a movie on a shelf that looks like the cover of Motley Crue’s album “Too Fast for Love”…you’ll be disappointed…or relieved (depending on how you feel about the Crue). The movie is James Cox’s Wonderland. Wonderland is a film about the porn star John C. Holmes (Val Kilmer) at the end of his tether. Towards the end of his life, Holmes, famously, got involved in a series of crimes known as the Wonderland Murders, which are dramatized in this movie. I wo...’t spoil how it turns out. But the movie is part love story, part biography, and part murder mystery. Sounds like there’s a lot of meat here (pardon the pun), but that’s what’s most problematic about the film. It tries to be too many things, and like Holmes’ life, spins out of control.
The director James Cox throws a lot of “style” into the soup. We got your split screens, freeze frames, fast motion, long takes, jump cuts, animation, and even a little bit of Steadicam tracking. Pretty much all the “modern” innovations in shot technique are tossed in here. Is it all for show? I don’t really think so. In a way…all the pizzazz puts the audience in the mind of the strung out John C. Holmes. Cox does a commendable job of juggling a lot of balls in air (no pun intended)…but has trouble maintaining focus.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 26th, 2004
Synopsis
Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) is on the job again with anotherpolitically charged case. In this instance, a skeleton is dug up that might be that of a young blackwoman. Her disappearance six years ago was badly handled by the police, to the point thatcharges might be laid. The investigation is not only explosive racially, but the way it plays outcould help or destroy careers, Tennison's among others.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 26th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 25th, 2004
Homicide: Life On The Street began when Baltimore reporter David Simon spent an entire year with the day shift of Baltimore’s Homicide Squad. His subsequent book was a New York Times Best Seller and drew tremendous critical acclaim. Barry Levinson, Paul Attansio and Tom Fontana took the spirit of that book and created the NBC series. The first two seasons were spotty and featured only a handful of episodes each year. Season 3 marks the first full season of this remarkable show. Simon’s book detailed the psychology of...the detectives as much as the killers, and the series drew heavily from that work. Unlike most cop shows, Homicide didn’t contain car chases and the typical action sequences. Instead, this show counted on smart writing. The City of Baltimore is wisely used as a character on the program. Richard Beltzer’s Munch now appears on Law and Order’s SVU.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 23rd, 2004
Sightings: Heartland Ghost is based, apparently, on a true story. One is reminded of that other “true story” haunted house movie, The Amityville Horror. But both films have the same hokey quality in common. (no blood in the toilet in Sightings, however). Sightings starts with the “new couple moving to the neighborhood”. They slowly learn that there is something “not quite right” about their new house. Enter paranormal debunker (Beau Bridges) and his T.V crew. Bridges’ character host... a quasi-reality show about ghosts and other worldly behavior. Like the couple, Bridges comes face to face with the history of sin and murder that took place in this house. He is forced to deal with his cynicism about the paranormal and becomes changed by the whole experience. Sounds good, huh. It’s not.
Beau Bridges is a fine actor. Why is he in such a cheesy movie? Times must be tough. Beau, like his brother Jeff, always brings a sense of humanity to his roles. The case is still true here. The movie is laughably bad at times (see spoiler notes). But Bridges grounds the movie and gives it a depth it doesn’t deserve.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 23rd, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 22nd, 2004
In 1967, a top secret document was commissioned by the government, tracing the United States’ history with the Vietnam war. This history went as far back as the 1940’s. The result was a 7,000 page document. In 1971, a defense department official and former Rand corporation employee, Daniel Ellsberg, secretly photocopied these “Pentagon Papers” and released them to the New York Times. Then President, Richard Nixon, called Ellsberg’s act “treasonable”. FX and Paramount’s television production of The Pentagon Pa...ers details this period in Ellsberg’s life and times.
The opening credit sequence (with its shadowy images and sounds) sets up the expectation that this movie will be a taut political thriller. Perhaps in the style of The Parallax View or Winter Kills (which are must sees, by the way). Unfortunately, the sequence belies the film’s true events. It’s really a carefully crafted character piece; at least, it tries to be. James Spader plays Ellsberg with a kind of indirect integrity. In any given performance, you’re never quite sure where Spader is coming from. And you probably think he’s into something kinky. In The Pentagon Papers, Spader’s indirect and unconventional qualities are a good match for Ellsberg.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 22nd, 2004
The third season of South Park was a bittersweet one. It seemed that season 2 had floundered just a little. Most of us wondered if the talents of Stone and Parker had already run out of gas. Season 3 turned out to be one of the funniest yet. This was also the year that Mary Kay Bergman committed suicide. Mary Kay had provided ALL of the female voices for the show. This left the crew in a scramble to deliver episodes before they could find a replacement. This unfortunate turn did produce some memorable episodes, howev...r.
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