Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 12th, 2004
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 12th, 2004
There was a time, even as late as the 90’s, when making an anti-American film was still taboo in Hollywood. Of course today, movies like Fahrenheit 9/11 are big money makers, but for many years, such films were discouraged. Air America is one of the rare exceptions to this rule. This may be due to the fact that it was disguised as a comedy about the Vietnam conflict, but no matter how you look at it, the film is quite critical of the US government, and it makes some pretty scathing accusations about our...involvement there. Only in a comedy would audiences openly accept the accusation that the US government ran drugs for rebels in Laos during Vietnam.
These accusations would have been taken much more seriously had the film actually have been any good. See, that’s the problem… if you are going to use a film to make a serious statement, it better be a darn good film. Otherwise, your statement will be lost in the mire of mediocrity. Such is the case with Air America. Films like Platoon and Good Morning Vietnam were able to make effective statements about the government’s actions in the 60’s because they were great films first. What we have here is a film that is average at best, which makes the political statements look average at well.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 12th, 2004
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 10th, 2004
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 9th, 2004
When I was a kid in the 80’s, Predator was one of those films that you weren’t supposed to watch, but everybody did anyway. Over-the-top action, invincible heroes, cheesy one-liners and big, big explosions made this a film that was a favorite of pre-pubescent boys everywhere. Going into this disc, I found myself wondering if the film would stand up to the harsh tests of time and maturity.
The answer to that question is both “yes”, and “no”. In the “no” column, it is very apparent early on in the film...that there is very little here in the way of plot. Some soldiers are hired to go behind enemy lines to rescue an American politician that has been kidnapped by generic terrorists. Once the team arrives at their location, they discover that they have actually been sent on the mission for different reasons altogether, though those reasons are never really made clear. On their way back to the rendezvous point, they have multiple encounters with an evil and mysterious creature who tries to kill them (and occasionally succeeds). That’s about it. Beyond these basic plot outlines, dialog is basically reserved to screaming profanities and the aforementioned goofy one-liners.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 2nd, 2004
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 1st, 2004
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 31st, 2004
Comic book characters have provided a large slate of movie productions in recent years. This really isn’t anything new; both Superman and Batman have each fueled successful film franchises (It should be noted that both are soon to return). Spider-Man’s record take opened a new floodgate. Some have been quite disappointing (The Hulk and The Punisher) while a few (X-Men and Spider-Man) have provided outstanding products. Hellboy fits somewhere in the middle. The character is somewhat lesser known and considerably more ...ecent. Ron Perlman is perfectly cast here. He almost makes this larger than life creature believable. Guillermo Del Toro creates a convincing world of dark hues with tremendous style that never gets pretentious or interferes with the story. At first this film looks unsettling, but as you allow yourself to be immersed in the rich shadows, you are completely transported away. It’s a hell of a fast 2 hours.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 31st, 2004
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 30th, 2004
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