Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 6th, 2003
Synopsis
When a strange formula (cooked up in beakers and coloured a bright green) gets into thesewage system and is consumed by escaped lab rats, trouble ensues for a small group of young(and inexpensive) actors. At the climax, they have to face off against a super-rat, whose costumemakes the inside-out bear of Prophecy look like a high point of SFX technology.Extremely cheap, but not without some amusement for connoisseurs of bad film.
Audio
The sou...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 6th, 2003
In the late 1950’s Westerns accounted for six of the top ten programs on TV. Only Gunsmoke had a longer run than Bonanza. From 1959 to 1973 Ben Cartwright and his boys rode across the small screen. Years later in syndication the series re-emerged as Ponderosa and a handful of TV movies continued the tale into the 90’s.We never have grown tired of the genre that gave us such heroes as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. While I am far more in favor of season sets, this best-of collection is a might heapin’ helping of tall tales.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 5th, 2003
Synopsis
The plot of both films is identical: a meticulous sculptor of wax figures has his life and workdestroyed in a fire set by an unscrupulous business partner. Years later, now confined to awheelchair and deprived the use of his hands, the sculptor is back in business. This time, thewaxworks are made by murdering people and dipping their bodies in wax. Lionel Atwill playsthe sculptor in 1933's Mystery of the Wax Museum, while Vincent Price takes over in1953. Both films w...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 3rd, 2003
Synopsis
Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck are an estranged couple aboard the Titanic. In ahilariously caricatured Europe vs US conflict, he is elitist snob, and she is the paragon ofMidwestern values, fighting to save her children from corruption. Naturally, Webb will redeemhimself once the ship starts sinking. Though the focus on these two characters gives the storya firm centre, the result is very soap-operatic. The sinking scenes in the last 30 minutes are good,but very sanitize...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 31st, 2003
Synopsis
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. So there are these three friends, right? They’re allsomewhere on the geeky spectrum, but you’ve got the macho dude, the fat boy, and the sensitivetype. And they all want to get laid. And there’s also one special girl that the sensitive type hasfallen for... You’ve seen it before, you’ve seen it better. You’ve seen it as an after-school special(minus the nudity). Worth a look though, if only to see the only abortion sequence scored toU2.< ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 29th, 2003
Synopsis
The complete set of episodes from the second season, with our 20th-Century hero nowrelatively well adapted to life in the far-flung future. The characters by this point are wellestablished and a fairly broad ensemble. The series has never struck me as being quite as funnyas the The Simpsons in their prime, but there is still lots of choice material.
Audio
The audio is a 2.0 mix. This is pretty common for TV discs, though it is certainly notnecessary...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 27th, 2003
Attorneys Chris Paget (David James Elliot) and Terri Peralta (Daphne Zuniga) are lawyers who come together to defend Chris’s ex-lover Mary Carelli (Sharon Lawrence). As they get deeper into the case they become closer; when Terri’s estranged husband is found dead and Chris is charged with the murder, things change. This film plays out like a three hour episode of Melrose places and it could have easily been two movies instead of one with two almost unrelated storylines.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 17th, 2003
Synopsis
The time is the summer of 1985, and Richard Ramirez, who became known as theNightstalker, is roaming the streets, randomly entering homes and slaughtering the peopletherein. Rookie cop Roselyn Sanchez becomes involved in the search to find the killer, andstruggles both with inexperience and hostility from her male colleagues. That’s about all thereit to the plot, which is simplified almost to the point of short-hand, and in place of more elaboratedevelopment we get extended...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 17th, 2003
If ever a movie could be negatively affected by monstrous box office numbers, it’s My Big Fat Greek Wedding. When a five million dollar film rides a tsunami of critical buzz and excellent word-of-mouth past the two hundred million dollar box office gross (finally ending somewhere over $230 million), it’s impossible to see it for the first time completely free of expectation. Perhaps this was my mistake, because I went into my first viewing of the king of sleeper hits excited to a super-duper romantic comedy. ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 16th, 2003
Synopsis
Marina Sudina is Billy Hughes, a make-up artist on an American film being shot in Moscow.She is also mute. Accidentally locked in the studio after hours, and unable to call for someoneto let her out, Sudina stumbles upon the making of a snuff movie. Pursued by the murderers, sheescapes, but her problems are only beginning. The snuff-makers are highly connected, andSudina soon doesn’t know whom to trust. The heroine’s muteness is deployed for maximumsuspense, and the first h...
