Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 22nd, 2003
Synopsis
Our quartet continue to get laid, or not, depending on the ups and downs of decreed by thefates. There is a baby among them now (whose baptism or not is a point of contention), andCarrie gets a book deal. As the appeal of this series remains utterly mystifying to me, I shallrefrain from further comment.
Audio
The audio is in 5.1 and 2.0, but hardly strains the capabilities of either format. The music getnice treatment, but it is virtually the...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 21st, 2003
Synopsis
Jamie Lee Curtis is the harried big-name therapist with the bestselling book. Lindsay Lohanis her teenage daughter going through the meat-grinder of high school. They are at each otherhammer and tongs, neither understanding the stresses of the other’s life. Then, of course, theywake up one Friday in each other’s bodies, and the fun begins. Not only must each survive inthe other’s environment, but two major events loom: Curtis’ marriage and Lohan’s band’saudition. Pos...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 20th, 2003
Synopsis
A group of college friends head off into the woods for a holiday in a remote cabin. They havean bloody encounter with a gruesomely sick stranger, and he passes his infection on to them. Oneby one, they fall ill, and their friendships are violently torn asunder as they uninfected try toquarantine, by any means necessary, the infected.
Riddled with references to other horror movies, mostly from the 70s (the theme song fromLast House on the Left keeps pla...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 20th, 2003
Well, this movie was a let down, and the DVD release is nothing special. Not one of Fox’s better efforts.
The Plot: The Order, disappointingly, turned out to be not much more than a Heath Ledger vehicle, apparently targeted at Goth teenage girls with vaguely Euro pretensions. Without letting out any spoilers, trust me when I say that you’ll be disappointed if you expect anything like what the trailer portrays. The trailer says implies that the Vatican is “..using a killer with supernatural powers to ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 18th, 2003
Synopsis
Jackie Chan and partner Yuen Biao are in Tokyo, tracking down a bent Hong Kong cop. Thisvillain has teamed up with a Yakuza boss and his army of Ninjas, and Biao is captured. Indesperation, Chan gets hold of his superior officer and asks him to assemble his childhoodfriends. As these losers are all petty criminals, Chan reasons that they’ll be able to get close to theYakuza without being suspected.
If the above logic sounds a little shaky, it is. The storylin...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 17th, 2003
I hate to see great ideas go to waste. These days, it's rare that anyone ever has any new ideas in Hollywood. Everything has been done before, usually more than once. Sometimes concepts are adapted, and sometimes whole films are re-done… the most blatant slap in the face of creativity. When a film comes along that actually is original, I get excited. In fact, I'll even settle for a new twist on an old story. I get so tired of the same old thing, that even an ounce of creativity goes a long way with me.
It i...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 16th, 2003
Generally speaking, I am not a fan of trendy relationship films. Cameron Crowe's Singles aside, they are just not my kind of thing. They typically embody too much neurosis and whining from the female characters, and either overly sensitive or overly dense men. Plot elements are rarely believable (the two main characters often bump into each other at some all-too-fortuitous locale), and I frequently leave the theater feeling as if I have been manipulated into believing the story would actually be possible if it...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 15th, 2003
Show
It would be a boldfaced lie to say that Alias is the best show of its kind on television. The truth is that it is the ONLY show of its kind on television. Alias certainly contains writing that rivals even the award-gobbling Sopranos. The photography is film quality. The character chemistry, which I rank as the most important element in any show, is wonderful. The characters are compelling. You really start to care about these guys; even the villainous Sloan demands sympathy at times.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 15th, 2003
Synopsis
Shu Qi and Zhao Wei are sisters who, after the murder of their parents, have become a top-of-the-line assassination-for-hire team, combining martial arts and weapons expertise with acomputer program that allows them to tap into any closed-circuit camera anywhere on Earth.Karen Wok is the tough-as-nails detective who is on their trail. All three women run afoul of acorrupt businessman who wants them dead.
The Charlie’s Angels can only wish they were thi...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 15th, 2003
Synopsis
The year is 1976, and the Vietnam war has just ended. In a Dirty Dozen-style plotdevelopment, ten military prisoners are recruited to be flown into Vietnam to blow up a depotof missiles abandoned by the US army. Heading up the motley crew is the unjustly convictedSammo Hung. In-country, then hook up with female Cambodian guerillas. No one, other thanthe colonel leading the mission, knows precisely what their orders are.
What follows is a stirring serie...
