Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 12th, 2003
Synopsis
Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a young woman utterly lacking in self-confidence, andgiven to deliberately cutting herself. She gets her first job as secretary to E. Edward Grey (JamesSpader), as tightly wound and ferociously self-isolated and individual as you could imagine.What happens when the sadist meets the masochist? Sparks fly. Low key and sharply sly, thiswinning film shows (along with Amelie and Kissing Jessica Stein) that there is life in theromantic comedy g...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 8th, 2003
Synopsis
Five Power Rangers adventures, three of which are two-parters, add up to almost three hours-worth of material. The cheerful super-powered teens go up against the regular batch of rubber-suited bad guys. If you want your kids to develop an early appreciation of camp, this is just theticket. If you’re not already familiar with the basic premise of the series, the plot lines could be alittle confusing.
Audio
Ouch. The 2.0 surround is a very harsh mix. ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2003
Synopsis
Elected with the greatest majority of any US president, Lyndon Johnson (Michael Gambon,who will be replacing Richard Harris as Professor Dumbledore) begins his administration withgreat hopes for the positive transformation of American society. But he listens to the wrongpeople about Vietnam (Alec Baldwin instead of Donald Sutherland), and little by little everythinggets swallowed up by the war. Though long, this is one compelling drama, and much of thedialogue is spooky in ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 4th, 2003
Synopsis
On their way to a kid’s concert, the Veggies’ bus runs off the road, and they go for help ina seafood restaurant. At this restaurant are the “pirates who do nothing,” who teach one of theyoungsters a lesson in compassion through their tale of their adventures with Jonah. Nicelyanimated, Jonah for the most part avoids the ham-fisted didacticism that plagues many similarefforts.
Audio
A very strong, powerful mix. The music is a particular standout. Th...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 3rd, 2003
Synopsis
A wealthy Phylis Nefler (Shelly Long) has everything money can buy, except a husband. Freddy (Craig T. Nelson) is leaving her for good unless she can prove to him that she is still the dynamic and energetic person he married. She becomes the leader of her daughters Wilderness Girls troop and heads off into the wild blue yonder.
Video
Remeastered in High Definition like a lot of the Columbia Tri-star re-releases have been lately the video quality is better then ave...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 30th, 2003
Synopsis
Daniel Stern stars as bumbling package delivery man “Mad Max” Grabelski who finds himself on the wrong side of the law after a get rich quick scheme makes him a murder suspect. He heads for the hills and is mistaken for a world famous scout leader and things just go down hill from there. Your pretty low end stab at slap stick kids comedy this film falls short and really disappoints on all fronts
Audio
This disc has a simple Dolby stereo audio track so there is not...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 30th, 2003
Synopsis
A rare glimpse inside a world rarely seen by outsiders we have the story of a young, brash captain (played by Matthew Modine) on a quest to reclaim the America’s Cup (that he lost) to an arrogant Australian (played by Jack Thompson). Entangled in the battle of wits on the water we also have a classic love story of two people separated by their own personal ambition and reunited by a shared dream.
Audio
I suspect that the original audio for this film was a simple ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 27th, 2003
Steven Bochco is no stranger to innovative television. Hill Street Blues is arguably the best cop show ever made. Even his failures are praised for their innovativeness and freshness. Remember Cop Rock? NYPD Blue didn’t just push the prime time envelope. It tore the envelope to pieces and blew it away with hurricane force winds. George Carlin made a career out of his “7 words you can’t say on television”. Along comes NYPD Blue and Carlin just might need a new act. Language and nudity made this the first R-Rated primetime program.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 27th, 2003
Synopsis
In 1959, US sailors stash a load of money on an island not far from Cuba. Flash forward tothe present, and one of those sailors (Daniel J. Travanti!) and his wife (poor Faye Dunaway)convince John Laughlin (the son of one of the other sailors) and his wife Kim Cattrall to sail outto get this cash. Naturally, all is not what it seems. Travanti is badly miscast as the villain, andthe plot takes so long to get in gear that you have plenty of time to realize this makes nosense.< ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 27th, 2003
Synopsis
An all-around sleaze is found murdered (and the discovery of his body is, I have to admit,pretty damn funny). All sorts of evidence points to hot-tempered cop Burt Reynolds, and he ischarged with murder. Defending him is a very wooden Theresa Russell. She and Reynolds areconvinced he was framed, and they begin to dig. There are loose ends all over the place by thetime the film wraps up, but it is decently entertaining along the way.
Audio
The sound ...
