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Dolby Digital 2.0 (Spanish)

Cheaper by the Dozen

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 22nd, 2005

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This remake ofCheaper by the Dozen, like the original, focuses on the Baker family. Father Tom Baker (Steve Martin) and mother Kate Baker (Bonnie Hunt) decided to have 12 children. The children range from 5 years old to 22 years old. Nora (Piper Perabo) is the oldest child and the one who lives outside the home. Tom coaches Division III football at the small Lincoln College. When Tom’s old teammate Shake Maguire (Richard Jenkins) shows up to offer Tom a big fat contract to coach Division I at Illinois Poly Uni…
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To Live and Die in L.A.

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 20th, 2005

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If your first introduction to William L. Petersen is through CSI, then you’re missing some real treats with his short-lived film career, which burned brightest about fifteen years before he ever became Gil Grissom and investigated his way onto our small screens and, subsequently, into our hearts. Both of his cinematic outings never got the respect due them until after Petersen reminded us he was still alive, still well, and still acting. His best effort was Manhunter, Michael Mann’s adaptation of the Th…
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Kingdom of Heaven

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 14th, 2005

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Written by Clayton Self

Kingdom of Heaven is a handsome epic by Gladiator director Ridley Scott. It is an underrated film due to a less than successful theatrical release, but at closer examination, this film is a deeply important tale of courage, faith and self-sacrifice. It focuses on a relatively lesser-known period of the crusades, when peace was trying to be made between Christian and Muslim.

Orlando Bloom stars as Balian, a blacksmith in a French village, who has just lost his wife and child. Balian was …
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Office Space

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 14th, 2005

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Written by Clayton Self

The cult classic “Office Space” from creator Mike Judge (Bevis and Butthead) found a huge following on its initial release on DVD. The movie stars Ron Livingston as Peter Gibbons, a software analyst for the computer giant Initech. Fed up with his condescending boss (Gary Cole) and the frustrations of his job in general, he visits a hypno therapist who puts him in a state of well being and relaxation. The therapist dies of a heart attack before the procedure is complete, leaving Peter permanately care free. Peter …
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Titanic

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 13th, 2005

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In the event you had to move under a rock in 1997 and just crawled out from under it last week, James Cameron’s TITANIC – winner of 11 Academy Awards – recounts the tragic sinking of the supposedly indestructible ship seen through the eyes of two young lovers on board. Though the romance is fictional, it serves as a guide that will walk us through one of the most memorable events of the twentieth century.

There isn’t much to be said about this film that hasn’t been said a thousand times over in the …
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Mask of Zorro, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 9th, 2005

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The Mask of Zorro was the Pirates of the Caribbean of its day. A classic swashbuckling story packed with action and romance, yet still presented in a family-friendly style that hearkened back to the days of the old Saturday afternoon matinée. Indiana Jones was conceived in this style, as was Disney’s National Treasure, in a way. There is a ton of room in the marketplace for PG and PG-13 rated films like this, as it provides something that the whole family can not only attend at the theater, but t…
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Girl in the Cafe, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 30th, 2005

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The Girl in the Café is an interesting idea for a movie. It’s a blend of romantic comedy with a political agenda. The film doesn’t really work, but it’s nice to see something different. The romantic pair is played by Bill Nighy and Kelly MacDonald. Both are fine actors, and they have an awkward, engaging chemistry. Nighy plays a lonely civil servant and MacDonald plays a damn sexy woman. They “meet cute” in, you guessed it, a café, and they end up going to the G8 summit in Iceland (go figure). The scri…
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Lilo & Stitch 2

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 27th, 2005

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Synopsis

Wow, take a look at the vocal talent that lends a hand to this straight-to-video sequel! As Lilo, you’ve got that child actress next to be exploited by her parents in Dakota Fanning (War of the Worlds). Lilo’s custodian is Nani (Tia Carrere, Wayne’s World). Stitch’s alien friends are voiced by David Ogden Stiers (M*A*S*H*) and Kevin McDonald (The Kids in the Hall). Jason Scott Lee (Dragon) plays Nani’s love interest David.

Maybe I’m surprised that a cast…
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Fly II, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 3rd, 2005

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Synopsis

The son of Seth Brundle, the unfortunate man-fly, is born with his mixture of human and fly DNA. He turns out to be uncannily brilliant, but also reaches adulthood (played by Eric Stoltz) in only five years. He grows up in the Bartok Industries facility, and is asked to carry on his father’s work. Inevitably, the fly genes make themselves felt, and he begins to transform, and love interest Daphne Zuniga wants to save him.

The director is Chris Walas, who handled the makeup FX in th…
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SpongeBob SquarePants — The Complete 3rd Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 27th, 2005

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Synopsis

And here we go again with some 37 stories of inspired stupidity. Among the crazed storylines we find the classic sitcom scenario of Plankton swapping lives with Mr. Krabs and discovering he can’t take the heat, Squidward being drawn willy-nilly into a plastic conch shell-worshipping club of SpongeBob and Patrick, the non-swimmer SpongeBob becoming a lifeguard with disastrous consequences, and so on. It’s all bright, cheerful, unobtrusively self-aware, and refreshingly silly in a way that har…
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I Love Lucy – The Complete Fifth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 23rd, 2005

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I Love Lucy changed the fledgling television industry in the 1950’s. This was a time when network television was less than a decade old. Most folks had never heard of television just 15 years earlier. I Love Lucy defined the concept of a sitcom. The show was driven by the very strong personalities of the cast. Desi Arnaz was considered a charismatic Latin lover by American women. Lucy played the perfect foil and found a mountain of gold to mine in strong physical comedy. So many modern shows owe their roots to this classic that it would be impossible to mention them all here.
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Fever Pitch (2005)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 16th, 2005

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Fever Pitch is an American-ized version of the Nick Hornby novel and subsequent British Film. American-ized usually means â€œwatered downâ€, and thereâ€™s no doubt a lot of the bite from the original source material is missing. But I am a big fan of the movies High Fidelity and About a Boy. Instead of soccer, the protagonistâ€™s obsession, in this Fever Pitch is baseball (in particular the Red Sox). This obsession gets in the way of having healthy relationships. I think the change of…
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Blues Brothers, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 13th, 2005

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Synopsis

The orphanage where brothers Jake (John Belushi) and Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) grew up is going to be expropriated unless back taxes are paid, and our heroes are resolved to help. The nun in charge won’t accept any of their ill-gotten gains, however, and so they embark on a frenetic cross-county chase to reassemble their old band for a benefit gig. Cue many famous music cameos, and massive car chases.

As happened in the sixties, the eighties were plagued by a particular form of bloated,…
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Killer Tomatoes Eat France

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 3rd, 2005

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Synopsis

Narrowly escaping the guillotine thanks to the intervention of the evil tomatoes, Professor Gangreen (John Astin) sets up shop with Igor in a medieval castle/tourist attraction. A young American tourist, embarrassed at starring in a killer tomatoes movie, pretends to be Michael J. Fox (thus landing a comely French girlfriend), and winds up fighting against the evil doctor and his vegetables. (Or are tomatoes a fruit?)

There are some chuckles to be had in the opening credits, but th…
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Killer Tomatoes Strike Back

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 3rd, 2005

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Synopsis

Professor Gangreen (John Astin) and his evil killer tomatoes are back with yet another attempt to take over the world. This time, the mad scientist and his hapless assistant Igor are spreading their message by running a trashy TV daytime talk show out of their base on Crystal Mountain (kinda like Crystal Lake, geddit? Cue Friday the 13th parody). Investigating are a clueless hardboiled cop and the oh-so-hot tomatologist.

It is astonishing that a one-joke title spawned an ent…
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Out of Sight

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 27th, 2005

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Synopsis

After being the hunk of the moment on E.R., George Clooney came out of the starting blocks as a film actor in a few films, ranging the gamut from cult favorite (From Dusk ‘Til Dawn) to somewhat critically praised (The Peacemaker). He was also played the starring role in the film that put the Batman franchise on life support. One of his first smart acting choices came in Out Of Sight, directed by Steven Soderbergh, before Soderbergh became the Hollywood flavor of the mont…
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Whole Shebang, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 31st, 2005

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On the one hand, I have pretty low expectations for movies that were made for TV. On the other hand, this is an HBO film, so my expectations are just a bit higher than normal. My interest was further peaked when I saw that this was a romantic comedy. It is nice to see the network famous for drama branch out into comedy, and I was curious to see the results.

The plot of this film reminded me somewhat of the Keanu Reeves sleeper hit A Walk in the Clouds. In this case, however, the family business is not …
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Because of Winn-Dixie

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 27th, 2005

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Synopsis

Anna Sophia Robb is a little girl named Opal, who has just arrived in the small town of Naomis with her single-parent father (Jeff Daniels), a preacher. Opal finds it hard to fit in and make new friends, until she adopts a rambunctious dog she finds in the Winn-Dixie supermarket. The dog’s extroverted nature helps make connections not only between Opal and the town, but between the townspeople as well.

A very kind little movie, but a completely unoriginal one, too. Between this and…
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Weekend at Bernie’s

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 22nd, 2005

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Synopsis

Well, considering that there were so many different strange film ideas in the 1980s, it was only a matter of time that someone write and produce a film about a dead guy, right? Well, you’re in luck, as two names from the period (Andrew McCarthy, St. Elmo’s Fire and Jonathan Silverman, Brighton Beach Memoirs) fulfill your wish as Weekend at Bernie’s finally comes to DVD.

McCarthy and Silverman play insurance reps with bigger aspirations in a owned by Bernie Lomax (Ter…
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Spider Man: The Venom Saga

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 4th, 2005

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Synopsis

The thing that surprised me about this animated version of Spider-Man was not that it ran for over 60 episodes during afternoons in the early ‘90s, but that there was a decent level of voice talent on the show. Ed Asner (Elf) is the voice of J. Jonah Jameson, Roscoe Lee Browne (King) does Kingpin, and the voice of the Venom character is done by Hank Azaria (The Simpsons). And they put together a fairly decent storyline also.

The saga involves the story of Venom, a cha…
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Hoffa

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 4th, 2005

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Synopsis

Among the more unjustly ignored performances was Jack Nicholson’s turn as Union boss Jimmy Hoffa in Hoffa. Fox finally decided to put out the Danny DeVito directed, David Mamet written film on DVD. Mamet’s script seems to romanticize Hoffa, portraying him as more of a Union man, as one who was forced to make deals that could compromise his integrity, but he overlooks his integrity in order to help benefit the American working man. The story is told in the point of view of Hoffa aide Bobby Ci…
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Hide and Seek

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 24th, 2005

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Synopsis

After the suicide of his wife, psychologist De Niro takes his traumatized daughter Dakota Fanning off to a house in the woods to recover. Fanning begins to exhibit strange, hostile behaviour associated with her imaginary friend, Charlie. Then, as the violence escalates, De Niro realizes that Charlie might well be real after all.

Sigh. Another thriller with a twist. Half a second of thought will probably tell you what it is, since it’s the same twist we’ve seen in just about every p…
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School Daze

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 23rd, 2005

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Synopsis

The setting is a prestigious black college, and the set-up is along the lines of what you would expect in a college-set musical: conflicts between the black-uniformed frat brothers and the political activists (of which the leader is a young Laurence Fishburne), gender wars and misunderstandings right, left and centre, and plenty of music. It’s all very lively, but not nearly as funny as Lee clearly thinks it is (see notes on commentary below). The bigger question is whether the satire and po…
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Dodgeball

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 20th, 2005

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Synopsis

The superbly obnoxious Ben Stiller plans to have his Globo Gym take over and destroy the building that houses the apathetic Vince Vaughn’s Average Joe’s. Unless Vaughn and his friends raise $50,000.00 before the end of the month, all will be lost. Their only hope is to win a dodgeball championship. They’re no damn good, but help comes in the form of psychotic ex-dodgeball champ Rip Torn and Christine Taylor as an accountant with a killer throw.

The premise is ludicrous enough to be…
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Man on Fire

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 2nd, 2005

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Man on Fire is a stylish thriller with excellent performances at the heart. Denzel Washington plays Creasey, an ex CIA/assassin who is too tired of the killing. Now out of the game, Creasey sticks to drinking in Mexico City. Enter Rayburn, an old buddy (played by the wonderful Christopher Walken). He has a potential job for the down and out Creasey. A string of abductions and kidnappings in the city (Mexico City is the real life kidnap capital of the world) forces a young industrialist (Marc Anthony)and h…
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