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Dolby Digital 5.1 (English)

Singin’ in the Rain

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 19th, 2002

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Synopsis

The plot is very simple, as the spectacular song-and-dance numbers are the real star of theshow. Gene Kelly and Jean Hagen are big stars of the silent screen. But sound is arriving, andHagen’s voice sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard (and she has a personality to match). Kellyfalls in love with Debbie Reynolds, a struggling dancer with a terrific voice. This is enough of aframework on which to hang the production numbers, but the comedy in between is oftenhowlingly fun…
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Insomnia (2002)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 19th, 2002

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Written by Dan Bradley

I’ve experienced sleepless nights, as I’m sure most everyone has at some point in their life. But for some, this conscious prison can linger for many days, sometimes weeks at a time. Christopher Nolan’s remake of Insomnia manages to capture this feeling through terrific writing and strong sensory cues littered throughout.

On the verge of a departmental decision that could jeopardize his career, detective Dormer (Al Pacino) travels to Alaska with his partner, Detective Ekhart (Martin Donovan) to investigate…
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Frailty

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 18th, 2002

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“I think they pulled it together in a way only Texans working together could.”
David Blocker – Producer, Frailty

Well, those Texans certainly did bring it together in a unique fashion, and Lions Gate has packaged it in an excellent DVD release. Bill Paxton’s directorial debut captures a family’s descent in dementia in 1979 in a performance that is surreal and believeable. The everyday and the unexpected are blended into a nightmare world where the mundane and supernatural are superimposed…
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Band of Brothers

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 17th, 2002

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Band of Brothers, as should be expected from multiple emmy award winner, is an amazing miniseries. Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks have collaborated on creating a memorable and poignant story that can be appreciate by all.

”Based on Stephen E. Ambrose’s nonfiction bestseller, BAND OF BROTHERS tells the story of Easy Company, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, U.S. Army. Starting with their rigorous training in Georgia in 1942, it recounts the achievements of the elite rifle company fr…
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Vampires: Los Muertos

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 16th, 2002

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Tommy Lee Wallace. Not John Carpenter. Do not be fooled. Just because “Vampires: Los Muertos” (V:LM) says “Presented by John Carpenter” on the front, doesn’t mean it has anything to do with John Carpenter. It was directed, in fact, by Tommy Lee Wallace, who is a Grade B king, responsible for such other gems as “Stell Chariots” and “Danger Islands”. Whether Carpenter was involved or not (no big prize after Ghosts of Mars, anyway), V:LM was a fairly large disappointment anyway. The sound and video are fine, but the mov…
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Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 14th, 2002

Plot? What plot? Oh right: traumatized telekinetic teen accidentally raises Jason from the bottom of the lake. Jason kills folks. That’s about it. But you don’t watch these for the plot –you watch them for the killings. These are, sad to say, relatively restrained, and some of Jason’s tool acquisitions are silly (where did he get that electric hedge trimmer from?). The characters (I use the word loosely) are even more interchangeable than ever, and the continuity goes all to #%&@ in the latter part of the film.
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April Fool’s Day

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 14th, 2002

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Synopsis

A group of college friends gathers at the isolated island home of Muffy St. John for an AprilFool’s weekend. One by one… Well, you know how the rest of it goes, don’t you?

SPOILER WARNING: …or do you? The film’s main distinction (other than having somevery funny pranks and actors playing something approaching real characters) is that all of themurders turn out to be a practical joke – no one gets killed. Does this make or ruin the film? Hardto say – my own feeli…
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Ice Age

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 13th, 2002

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As my odds-on favorite to win Best Animated Film at this years Academy Awards, Ice Age combines a wonderful mix of breathtaking digital animation, and a wonderful story full of entertaining characters. Fox, with this film, has jumped into the upper echelon of digital animation studios, along with Disney and Dreamworks.

”Twenty thousand years ago, the Earth was being overrun by glaciers, and creatures everywhere were fleeing the onslaught of the new ICE AGE. In this time of peril, we meet the…
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Behind the Red Curtain

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 12th, 2002

Synopsis

This is all special features. So see below.

Audio

It’s a Baz Luhrmann production, so the sound is as spectacular as those on the discs, withspecial emphasis on the music. The narration of the various documentaries is clear though, andnot overwhelmed by the music.

Video

A million different formats (video, film, etc.), and a million different looks, but the transferserves them all well, at least as far as spectacular colour is…
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Jason X

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 10th, 2002

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Written by Dan Bradley

Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) has been about everywhere on earth, including to hell and back. It only seems fitting that his tenth feature takes him not only into space, but into the future as well. With the highest production value of a Jason movie to-date and one of the niftiest extra features I’ve ever seen, Jason X’s futuristic settings, slayings and familiar action feel right at home on DVD.

The plot for Jason X is simple, albeit a huge departure from previous slasher films. After repeated execution at…
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Rats, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 8th, 2002

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Synopsis

A colony of genetically mutated rats is making more and more violent forays into the livesof New Yorkers. Department store security head Madchen Amick and exterminator VincentSpano are on the front lines, determined to stop the assault. The plot and characters are standard-issue TV fare. This is the R-rated version of the film, so you see stuff that won’t be showing upon the TV broadcast, and it’s pretty obvious what that stuff is: an ear-removal moment, and somelaughably g…
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Life or Something Like It

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 7th, 2002

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Synopsis

Jolie is a Seattle-area news reporter whose apparently perfect life is derailed when streetprophet Tony Shaloub predicts she is going die in a week. Becoming convinced that Shaloub isright, Jolie re-examines her priorities. She is helped out by cameraman Ed Burns, with whom she(naturally) has an extremely prickly relationship when the story begins. Jolie and Burns are bothsuperb, and the film has a slick look to it. On the minus side, the film seems to have some prettyharsh…
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X-Files – The Complete Sixth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 5th, 2002

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Synopsis

The conspiracies are in full swing in this season. There are some very ambitious episodeshere too, notably “Triangle” — a time travel tale shot primarily with very long takes.

Audio

Very, very nice sound. As with most TV shows, the music dominates the surround, but thereare some good contributions from the sound effects as well. The result is an expansive feel to thesound unusual for television productions.

Video

Though there is a …
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Brotherhood of the Wolf (3-Disc)

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 5th, 2002

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Synopsis

In eighteenth-century France, a mysterious beast is terrorizing the countryside. Sent toinvestigate is naturalist Gregoire de Fronsac, who arrives with Mani, his Native Americansidekick (who is a dab hand at martial arts, among other useful skills). The film is completelynuts and completely silly, and its racial politics are a postcolonial theorist’s wet dream, but it isalso hugely entertaining.

Audio

Absolutely flabbergasting. At the level of volum…
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Unforgiven

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 1st, 2002

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Long before tough cop Dirty Harry made our day, Clint Eastwood defined the modern western with his Spaghetti Westerns. It is no surprise that a Western would define Clint Eastwood as an Academy Award winning producer and director. Unforgiven is unlike any movie Eastwood has ever done. It is loaded with extraordinary actors surrounding his own stellar performance. Names like Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, and Richard Harris are rarely found in such supporting roles. Unforgiven also sets itself apart from Eastwood’s previous films in the way it portrays the West that Eastwood glorified for so many years.
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Hard Day’s Night, A

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 30th, 2002

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Written by Dan Bradley

Rifling through my father’s LP collection as a child produced many musical memories, ranging from Kiss and Pablo Cruise to the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. It wouldn’t be until years later when I would fully understand the impact those very Beatles had on the world’s culture then and continued to influence today.

For most Beatles fans, their memories are relived through new digital masters of the original recordings on compact disc. With this digital revolution, the Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night can f…
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Swingers

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 29th, 2002

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Swingers originally debuted on DVD when the format was still in its infancy. As with most titles released during that time, it suffered from a lackluster 2.0 audio track, non-anamorphic transfer, no trailers and hideous packaging. Now roughly five years later, Swingers has returned to DVD, this time in a spiffy new Collector’s Series edition from Miramax. With every issue the first release was plagued by addressed, this release is everything a fan of Swingers could ever hope for.

Swingers’ story focuses on…
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Collateral Damage

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 28th, 2002

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Films addressing domestic and international terrorism have been around for a long time. We’ve come to accept them and tell ourselves it can never happen except in the movies. On September 11, 2001, America’s security was incinerated in a series of horrific attacks on the United States. For Arnold Schwarzenegger, this put a halt to the release of his new film Collateral Damage, which dealt with issues that closely mirror the events of that day. The release was delayed for several months into early 2002 where it was sh…
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Crossroads

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 25th, 2002

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It was bound to happen sooner or later; Britney Spears would make the jump to the big screen. While most guys would rather she made the jump to Playboy first, others will take what they can get from Ms. Spears. Unfortunately, Crossroads was written as a vehicle for Britney to touch the souls of other young women who can make a difference in the world. When translated to the screen, it just isn’t entertaining. In fact, it’s downright boring.

Britney plays Lucy, a recent high school graduate living under the…
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Showtime

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 24th, 2002

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What do you get when you splice together Meet the Parents with Beverly Hills Cop? You get a rarely comedic, intense or interesting action movie that suffers from never finding its own identity. And flat screenwriting. And long lulls.

Detective Preston (Robert DeNiro) and Trey Sellers (Eddie Murphy) are brought together as unlikely partners to star in a new reality TV cop drama, produced by Chase Ransey (Rene Russo) of Maxis TV. As expected, they are at each others throats the entire movie until the end, wh…
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National Lampoon’s Van Wilder

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 24th, 2002

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During my years at college in Philadelphia, there was a guy who lived at the end of the freshman hall whom had been around far longer than any other freshman. He gathered a following and essentially coached his young ones, myself included, on how to have fun on and off campus. As National Lampoon’s Van Wilder began to spin, I couldn’t help but remember those glorious days and revere Van as he celebrated his life at Coolidge College.

Van Wilder, played perfectly by Ryan Reynolds, returns to Coolidge for y…
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Changing Lanes

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 24th, 2002

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Changing Lanes never appealed to me during its theatrical run and I blame that entirely on Paramount’s marketing department. The commercials were not enticing in the least and quite frankly made me forget the film in a matter of minutes after viewing them. With the release of the DVD, I was willing to give Changing Lanes a try and am I glad I did. Propelled by a dynamic script and stellar performances, Changing Lanes gives life to an urban drama which tests the ideals of two men on the brink of insanity.

Last Orders

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 22nd, 2002

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We find out early in the film that the term Last Orders is an English tradition along the lines of a last will and testament. There’s really nothing very complicated about this film. There are some wonderful moments of acting particularly by Bob Hoskins. The major complaint is that there are actually four stories being told from four different timelines making it extremely confusing at times.

Mickey’s House of Villains

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 15th, 2002

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Synopsis

Disney’s villains converge on Mickey’s House of Mouse (his variety theatre). They plan totake it over, but along the way we get to see a bunch of Halloween themed cartoons. The superbanimation in the classics does tend to show up the more limited stuff in the new segments(though this is still better than the Saturday morning variety).

Audio

The soundtrack is technically fine, but you should be aware of something regarding the 5.1mix. The new segment…
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Iron Maiden: Rock in Rio

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 11th, 2002

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Synopsis

I’ll confess, I saw Maiden myself, lo these many years ago on their Powerslave tour, so I was sort of partial to this disc. The big favourites (“Number of the Beast” and “Run to the Hills” among them) are present and correct. As with all concert films, there are only so many ways of filming largely motionless people and making them look interesting, but the main point is the sound, when you get down to it.

Audio

The sound is BIG. A hugely powerful mix. I was suspic…
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