Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 15th, 2004
Slam is one of the rarest of films, an intelligent urban drama. These days, most films that deal with inner city African American youth either glorify the violent world that they live in, or turn into an After School Special on just saying "no". Slam disses both of these paths, and instead, forges its own path. Luckily, this path leads to truth, to knowledge, and to awards at Sundance.
This is the story of one young man coming to grips with his time and place in the history of the world. Being pinche...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 15th, 2004
Synopsis
The format is familiar (as is pointed out by the series creator): this is a “precinct” show. Onlyinstead of cops, we’re dealing with spies, who fight against threats to Great Britain, whilejuggling complicated personal lives. Given the combination of ensemble cast, investigations, andsnazzy, futuristic look of the MI-5 headquarters, you might want to imagine a cross betweenNYPD Blue and La Femme Nikita. The performances are strong, the productionvalues are hig...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 15th, 2004
Synopsis
Evan Rachel Wood plays Tracy. As our tale begins, the 13-year-old is still on good terms with her mum (Holly Hunter), and is very much one of the nice girls in junior high. In that environment, you get devoured, and it isn’t long before she resorts to theft to befriend the popular Evie (co-writer Nikki Reed). Cue the rapid descent into crime, sex and drugs.
These are the teen years as chronicled from the lower circles of Hell. The handheld camera matches the high energy...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 13th, 2004
If you are a fan of space flight, this DVD is your holy grail.
While the Spacecraft Films series of releases is full of high-quality products covering the history of space flight, Apollo 11 – Men on the Moon pushes their usual high standards to the outer reaches. The few frustrations that I had with their previous titles have all been remedied here, and the result is an absolutely fantastic DVD set covering every aspect of NASA's famed Apollo 11 mission.
The amount of footage and informatio...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 11th, 2004
Legends of vampires and werewolves are almost as old as time itself. Long before Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney defined these creatures for Hollywood, the myths persisted. Cave drawings in South America depict stories of changelings and blood suckers that were told 5,000 years ago. Underworld offers a refreshing spin on both tales. What if the clans of Vampires and Werewolves were at war for over a thousand years? The dark, seedy “Underworld” is visually compelling. Let’s not even talk about Kate Beckinsale. The wonderfully photographed blend of Gothic and modern settings owes much to the European locations.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 8th, 2004
It seems to me that B-level actors sometimes agree to do a movie for the experience and practice as much as to further their career and get a paycheck. Other times, the opposite is true, and major stars purposely chose to do a small independent production following a major success, knowing that they could never top their last picture. Often times, it is obvious when an actor has their personal motives in mind when choosing to do a film. Kate Winslet's decision to shoot Hideous Kinky following the hugely-succes...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 8th, 2004
Synopsis
Paul Rudd is a college student carrying on a long-distance relationship with his blandlybeautiful and rather sickening girlfriend when he learns (he thinks) that she is cheating on him.With the help of Reese Witherspoon, a fellow student moonlighting as a stripper, he composes anexcoriating letter (plus accompanying materials) and sends this to her on overnight delivery. Nosooner has he done this than he finds out that the "other man" is, in fact, a Chihuahua. A cross-count...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 8th, 2004
Synopsis
Set during the Opium Wars in the 19th Century, Fist of the Red Dragon tells the tailof two masters of marital arts. One of them leads the battle against the opium trade. The other(played by lead Donnie Yen) is a brash, cocky young man who falls under the spell of the evilprince who rules the territory. Yen must undergo some painful experiences before he realizeswho his real enemy is.
When the fight scenes happen, they are reliably entertaining, with much by w...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 6th, 2004
Sometimes, movies are just inexplicably bad, and as a DVD reviewer, I get to see a lot of them. These are films that are so horrible that I sometimes don’t know where to begin. It is often times hard to place blame in one are or another, when the whole production is flawed.
In the case of Lost and Delirious, however, the blame is easy to place. This film is not half bad… the premise is decent, the film looks and sounds better than expected, and the acting, while not fantastic, is respectable. The pro...
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on January 5th, 2004
When the PS2 and Xbox were released both promised to be full home entertainment units. No questions that they both shined with the cutting edge graphics and sound as well as performing admirably as DVD players with both Dolby Digital and DTS decoders built in. This year both systems have tried to push another venue into home entertainment : Karaoke. Love it or hate it Karaoke looks like it’s here to stay. Earlier this year, X-Box had the X-Box Music Mixer which provided karaoke features – with mixed results. Could th...
