Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2005
“It’s been a long time getting from there to here.” 35 years to be exact. Enterprise is the fourth spin-off from the original 1960’s hopeful series. Rick Berman decided to set this series about 100 years before the days of Kirk and Spock. Enterprise has certainly taken a ton of heat since its debuted just 4 years ago. While much of the whining by the “get a life” fans can be delegated to the “Nitpicker’s Guides,” much of it is well deserved.
The most egregious infraction is the liberty the show has taken with established timeline of Star Trek. At times it does appear Berman has decided to insult the very fans that have made the program so enduring. The writers try too hard to make Enterprise the underdog in every fight. It sure seems like everybody else has shields and better weapons. Makes you wonder how Earth became the dominant member of the Federation. With that said, I have found this to be the most entertaining Star Trek since Picard and his crew flew their Enterprise in The Next Generation. The characters, with the notable exception of Hoshi, are the most compelling in many years. Finally there is a trinity of characters reminiscent of the Kirk, Spock, and McCoy relationships. Great effort has been made to create this chemistry with Archer, Trip, and T’Pol, the newest Vulcan. I particularly liked the nice touch of having the three often dine together while discussing the business of exploring space.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 11th, 2005
What the Bleep Do We Know!? appears to be a New Age film without actually saying the words “New” or “Age.” Consider this, the film, produced by Captured Light & Lord of the Wind Films, is about “a life-changing journey with Amanda (Marlee Matlin, Children of a Lesser “God), a divorced photographer who tumbles down a metaphysical rabbit hole.”
Now, that premise sounds interesting enough, you’re unsure where Amanda will wind up or how she’ll get there. But read on…”Her mind-bending voyage throug... the worlds of science and spirituality includes revelations by quantum physics experts, playful animation and even a conversation with a 35,000 year-old being.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 10th, 2005
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 8th, 2005
Farscape is an acquired taste. Honestly, it took me a few viewings to get hooked. It is unlike any sci-fi show ever produced, with stories that are often too complicated to follow with a casual viewing. It requires your full attention or you can become hopelessly lost. The characters are never cut and dried good or evil, and the stories do not always end on a happy note and seldom with all of the loose ends brought together. The Henson creature creations are the most outstanding examples of puppetry I’ve ever seen in television or the big screen.
The Sci-Fi Channel relied on Farscape for the first three years to anchor its original programming. Having a smart and totally original program elevated the once repeat wasteland to the ranks of a premier program outlet. After the third season Sci-Fi committed to a fourth and fifth season of Farscape. Unfortunately, Bonnie Hammer, the president at Sci-Fi, decided not to honor her commitments. Near the end of season four the station abruptly decided to end the show. Fans were angry and “save Farscape” campaigns began to pop up like Hynarians at a buffet. It seemed that Farscape was doomed to end with a cliffhanger fans would never see resolved. That was until Henson and his crew pushed hard enough to secure financing and eventually an airdate for a mini-series that would conclude at least this incarnation of Farscape.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 8th, 2005
Based on real events, The Last Shot is a Hollywood comedy about an FBI sting operation. The joke (and the real life event) is that the sting is a Hollywood production. Get it? The sting operation will employ mob level types, who are toughing there way into the movie industry. Will the FBI catch the bad guys? Will this fictional movie get made? Rent it and find out.
Alec Baldwin and Matthew Broderick are the two stars of the film. Baldwin plays Joe Devine, the FBI agent running the opera...ion from the inside. Broderick plays Steven Schats (yes, the last name does sound like that), an aspiring screenwriter. The Last Shot also sports a great supporting cast: Tony Shalhoub, Toni Collette, Ray Liotta, Buck Henry, Tim Black Nelson, Calista Flockheart, and an always hilarious Joan Cusack. It's a great premise for a film. And I was hoping the "real" screenwriters who got duped would've written the screenplay. Jeff Nathanson, a veteran screenwriter but a newbie director, goes for a Get Shorty style satirical Hollywood stab, but also tries to create a quirky comedy. Both attempts are mildly successful. The strength of the film is Broderick and Baldwin. They create characters that, seemingly, are worlds apart. But really, these two men are looking for the same thing.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 7th, 2005
So how come a doughy looking white guy like me enjoyed these performances, and didn’t watch a single part of the Martin Scorsese miniseries that covered Blues music? It’s because growing up, the first big musical influence in my life was Jimi Hendrix, so I was a bit familiar with the Electric Blues sound that Jimi had. And names like Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and Leadbelly were not new ones to me. And with the help of Led Zeppelin, I also learned about Robert Johnson too.
So while Antoine Fuqua (King Ar...hur) and Scorsese teamed to help revitalize the blues further with a 2003 concert at Radio city music hall, I certainly don’t bear any ill will at them for making blues fashionable or something stupid like that. It’s nice to see more people appreciate some uniquely American music legends for a change. The songs of the above artists, along with others including B.B. King and Billie Holliday are performed by the original artists or modern ones. The list, albeit lengthy, is:
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 7th, 2005
Kiss the Bride tells the story of a fairly large Italian family living in Rhode Island as Danni (Amanda Detmer, The Majestic) is preparing to marry Geoffrey (Jonothon Schaech, That Thing You Do!) and her sisters come home for the wedding. You have Nikki (Brooke Langton, Swingers), the oldest daughter with a degree but yet still shows up in a belly shirt on the beach each week on a popular TV show. Chris (Vanessa Parise) is a New York financial manager/workaholic, and Toni (Monet Mazur) as ...he youngest who will do anything to get attention. The mother and father will look familiar to you, as they are played by Talia Shire and Burt Young, who played Adrian and Paulie in the Rocky films.
Produced, written and directed by Parise, the film has been slightly compared to My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and may be, if that film had snorted a two foot line of cleanser, I could buy the comparison. This film is substantially darker and goes into each of the individual women’s conflicting emotions about the family and each other, but because the family’s so large, there’s nothing that carries out, or it’s left unresolved altogether. The scene that most typifies the movie is when Nikki and her boyfriend, whose relationship is deteriorating, are almost arguing (in between something between two other sisters), and the boyfriend asks if anyone wants to go out to play football, and everyone happily jumps at the chance. Just when you think the film may go somewhere, it goes into another direction.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 7th, 2005
Racing Stripes is a “family film” about a zebra (with the original name “Stripes”) who’s only dream is to race with the other horses. Stripes, you see, was abandoned and then rescued by horse farmer Nolan Walsh (played by Bruce Greenwood). Nolan’s younger daughter, Channing (played by Hayden Panettiere), takes the young zebra under her wing, and she helps Stripes realize his dream: to race with the horses. Stripes’ litany of zany friends include a pelican, a lazy bloodhound, flies, roosters, a wise goat, an... some Shetland ponies. That’s the story in a nutshell.
But is the movie any good? Well…the human actors are solid. And the list of voice actors is like a roll call of the star studded. There’s Dustin Hoffman, Whoopi Goldberg, Jeff Foxworthy, David Spade, Snoop Dogg, Joe Pantoliano, Michael Clarke Duncan, Mandy Moore, and Frankie Muniz (Malcolm in the Middle himself) as Stripes. What a cast! But what’s the problem? Other than having a live animal’s mouth move in a computer generated manner? That looks a little weird. But, as they say, it all starts with the script.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 6th, 2005
There are a lot of dumb movies out there. But there's a good kind of dumb and a bad kind of dumb. National Treasure falls into the good dumb category. Nicholas Cage plays Ben Gates, a treasure hunter, an archaeologist I'm really not sure. But his mission is to steal the Declaration of Independence in order to prevent the "bad" archaeologists from taking it. Make sense? There are hidden clues, apparently, in this document which lead to hidden treasure. A treasure Gates' grandfather (played by Christophe... Plummer) told him about when he was a child. In essence, this movie is part Indiana Jones and part Da Vinci's Code.
There are plenty of explosions and chases, no worries there. There's a high level of silliness here, not to mention Scooby Doo logic. But Nicholas Cage is perfectly cast. He is an actor who can walk that fine line between gravity and camp. There's also a love interest and a wise cracking sidekick (played by Diane Kruger and Justin Bartha, respectively). Both performances, particularly Bartha's, take a refreshing crack at the action movie archetypes. Sean Bean is also along for the ride as the main baddie. Bean is always worth watching.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 5th, 2005
Synopsis
