Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 9th, 2002
Intro
In this world of political correctness it’s a breath of fresh air to revisit this classic film from 1976. Sadly, it’s been given a completely lackluster DVD release.
Synopsis
A washed up former minor league baseball player (Walter Matthau) is given the task of taking a hapless group of kids and turning them into a team. With the help of his secret pitching weapon (Tatum O’Neal) they take a run at the pennant.
Audio
Presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and Mono. Gi...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 29th, 2002
Intro
This is the new film from writer/director Scott Reynolds, who brought us The Ugly, a stylishly weird psycho-thriller from a few years back.
Synopsis
Radha Mitchell runs a diner and a motel by herself in a middle-of-nowhere little town. One morning, she opens her diner and strange young man comes in. He’s been stabbed in the gut, and he needs her help. He’s terrified of a group of surfers who arrive shortly after him. He says they’re after him. Should Mitchell believe him?
I...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 29th, 2002
Fred Olen Ray, director of B-movies beyond counting, strikes again, with a DVD release some steps up from what many movies of this type receive.
Synopsis
In 1991, Iraqi agents blow up a secret US government lab, releasing genetically modified rattlesnakes (don’t ask). Over the years, these snakes breed, and in the present, minor earthquakes drive them to the surface, and they infect whoever they bite with a virulently fatal virus. Treat Williams is the small town doctor who must save the day, while...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 26th, 2002
Say the name Bruce Willis and what is the first thing that comes to mind? Lately Willis has excelled in roles that have redefined him as an actor. Of course, I’m talking about films like “The Sixth Sense”. But when I hear Bruce Willis I think of John McClane. Die Hard was the film where Willis “made his bones” in Hollywood and revolutionized the action film forever.
Synopsis
John McClane just can’t catch a break. It seems his wife has moved from their home in New York City, where John’s a cop, to L.A.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 25th, 2002
Intro
Before Wes Craven’s career was revived by Scream, and before Eddie Murphy’s was by The Nutty Professor, the two of them made this.
Synopsis
Eddie Murphy is Maximillian, the last vampire, and he has come to Brooklyn looking for the one woman in the world who, if she becomes his mate, will save his race. That woman turns out to be Angela Bassett. Along the way, various denizens of Brooklyn run afoul of the supernatural creature.
This rather unusual collaboration doesn’t exact...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 25th, 2002
Intro
The makers of this DVD have thought of just about everything to deliver a film that has as many layers as an onion and can be enjoyed by both children and adults alike. A parent is able to let their child watch their own full-frame version of the film on one disc while they watch the widescreen version on another. Thereby preventing the young one from continually asking, “Daddy, why do you keep laughing when they say Farquaad?”
Synopsis
The classic fairytale spun on its head. ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 23rd, 2002
Intro
Think of this John Hughes script as the logical conclusion to the Home Alone phenomenon.
Synopsis
Baby Bink lives in pampered luxury, cared for by his nanny while his two twitty parents carry on with their twitty upper class lives. Three bumbling crooks kidnap Baby Bink and take him downtown. It’s not long, however, before he escapes, and blithely crawls around the city. Our crooks chase after him and into one catastrophe after another.
Audio
The music is good,...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 22nd, 2002
In 1993, Virginie Despentes burst onto the French literary scene with Baise-Moi (“F**k Me”), a snarling novel who’s unblinking, deadpan, yet philosophically pointed excess places it in the tradition of Sade. In 2000, Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi co-directed and scripted this adaptation, which has already forced the French government to re-evaluate its ratings rules.
Synopsis
Nadine (Karen Bach) is a prostitute. Manu (Raffaela Anderson) has done porn films, and has just been raped (in a t...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 20th, 2002
Intro
This release has added interest now for the later careers of its director and star: Stephen Sommers is now best known for his Mummy films, and Elijah Wood is currently sporting a British accent as Frodo Baggins.
Synopsis
Based on Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the original American picaresque, the film follows Huck Finn, fleeing his terrifying father, and Jim, an escaped slave, as they travel down the Mississippi in search of freedom, encountering no end of colo...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 5th, 2002
Intro
We’ve just had one recent battle-of-the-rogues release with Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Here’s a more recent film in a similar vein, with Martin Lawrence and Danny De Vito duking it out. Curiously, Glenne Headly features in both.
Synopsis
Martin Lawrence is a charming thief. Danny De Vito is a charmless businessman. When De Vito catches Lawrence robbing his home, he turns the tables and steals Lawrence’s precious ring. This, of course, means war, as the two men use all the means at ...
