Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 30th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 30th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 30th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 29th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 29th, 2004
The 100 Mile Rule, as a corny salesman puts it, means that when you are more than 100 miles from your wife, cheating doesn’t count. It is some kind of moral loophole used by salesmen who travel frequently, allowing them to be unfaithful to their wives. While the phrase is quite original, the film is made up of parts belonging to other movies, a kind of Frankenstein if you will. Not to say that 100 Mile Rule resembles that monster, because it is actually quite enjoyable. However, you will need to get past the m...ny references and duplications of other movies to enjoy it.
Bobby (Jake Weber) is a married salesman who is attending a sales convention in Los Angeles with colleagues Jerry (David Thornton) and Howard (Michael McKean). Jerry and Howard are oversexed and desperate older men while Bobby loves his wife and kids and misses them while he is away. However, when Monica (Maria Bello), a beautiful cocktail waitress and struggling actress starts pursuing him, Bobby can’t fight the attraction. After a one night stand, Bobby finds himself in a blackmail plot, needing to come up with 60,000 dollars to prevent a tape of the affair from being sent home to his wife.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 29th, 2004
Hot on the heels of The Great Race, Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines was a bit of silliness and fun for 20th Century Fox. The Monty Python-styled opening credits set the tone for this British humor film, also known as How I Flew From London To Paris in 25 Hours and 11 Minutes. If the film suffers at all, it is the length. At almost 2 1/2 hours, it takes quite a while to get to the race. It’s almost 2 hours before the meat of the film begins. While there are many clever and memorable...scenes, mostly involving a certain sewer farm, the joke gets stale and begins to wear thin. The highlight of the film is of course the vintage planes built with the same materials as the originals they were modeled from.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 28th, 2004
Gothika starts out with tremendous promise. The story appears that it will be more original and rewarding than most horror/thrillers. Halle Berry certainly rises above the usual B-list acting. Even Downey, Jr. seems suspiciously at home in the film’s prison setting. The trouble begins for the audience shortly after it does for Berry. Soon the film begins to get predictable and ordinary. Only the terrific cinematography and convincing atmosphere save the film from sinking to the depths of the many who have gone before...
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 26th, 2004
Hayden Christensen is the very incarnation of smarm as Stephen Glass, hot-shot writer for The New Republic. His stories are all fabulous, seemingly too good to be true. Which is, in fact, the problem. His tissue of lies begins to unravel when Steve Zahn, reporter for Forbes Digital, tries to follow up one of Christensen’s articles, and can’t find a single legitimate fact. Peter Sarsgaard is Chuck Lane, Christensen’s editor, and he begins to smell a very big rat.
Utterly absorbing stuff. The fall from grace has the structure of a tragedy, but Christensen’s Glass is such a skin-crawling phony that his destruction carries the deep satisfaction of black comedy. Christensen’s oil is perfectly foiled by Sarsgaard, who has the dead-eyed, exhausted integrity of the honest man who has already seen it all far too many times. This is a film is small details and quiet conversations, and it flies by with the pace of an action thriller.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 23rd, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 22nd, 2004
Brother Bear is the story of a boy who becomes a man by becoming a bear. Kenai (Joaquin Phoenix) is a young man set on revenge against a bear he feels is responsible for his brother’s death. Going up against the beast and winning the battle, the great Spirits who guide Kenai transform him into a bear himself. As Kenai tries to undo the spell placed on him by the spirits, he meets Koda (Jeremy Suarez) a young cub who was separated from his mother. As the story unfolds Kenai becomes more find of Koda and “adopts... him, however, his main desire is to once again become human. Kenai’s journey takes himself and Koda to the salmon spawning grounds where they meet a group of other bears led by a huge black bear voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan. It is here that we learn that Koda’s mother was the bear that Kenai did battle with at the beginning of the film – he learns that Koda’s mother was attempting to protect Koda from ‘the hunters’ i.e Kenai and his brothers. Because of Kenai’s anger at the bear he attacked and as a result is the reason for Koda being without his mother. The climax of the movie comes when Kenai faces off against his remaining brother who believes that Kenai, in his bear form, is responsible for the death of Kenai and their older brother. While Kenai tries to avoid harming his brother he is torn when his brother starts going after Koda. Kenai does his best to protect Koda and at this point the spirits intervene and transform Kenai back to his human form. Kenai is finally reunited with his brothers but his joy is overcome with the responsibility that he feels for Koda and in the end makes the decision to remain as a bear and care for his brother bear.
While this sounds very serious, the comedy provided here is some of the best that Disney has offered in a long time. Now I am a huge SCTV fan so keep that in mind. The comedy relief is provided by Rutt and Tuke, a couple of moose voiced by none other than Bob and Doug themselves, Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas. How cool is that? And where else are you going to hear a line like, “How do you total a mammoth (referring to the trip that they all took on the backs of a herd of mammoths that Rutt and Tuke ‘crashed’ offscreen)?”
