Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 3rd, 2003
A Ranger training exercise goes horribly wrong. The instructor (Samuel L. Jackson) and halfthe cadets are missing. There are two survivors. One is injured, and the other was seen engagedin a firefight with one of the other cadets. Investigating are Connie Nielsen and John Travolta,who bounce back and forth between the two survivors as the stories they tell keep changing,Rashomon-style. The twists pile upon twists, and so few are motivated by anything in the storythat audience good will is soon exhausted, despite the decent atmosphere and performances. Bythe end, one final twist makes total nonsense of the plot, and I was hard-pressed to avoid hurlingthe remote into the TV screen.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 3rd, 2003
Synopsis
Nick Tellis (Jason Patrick) is an undercover narcotics officer who is placed on suspension after a shootout with a dealer gone very wrong. He is brought back to active duty to shadow another officer who might have had something to do with the death of his partner.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 2nd, 2003
Like The Brady Bunch Movie, this effort combines several incidents from the TV series and strings them together with a loose central premise, and the result is actually funnier than the first film. This premise is that Tim Matheson shows up pretending to be Carol Brady’s long-lost husband. He is after a priceless horse sculpture in the Bradys’ living room. The innocent/rude tone of the first film is carried through here, and given extra impetus by the addition of an is-it-incest-or-not? subplot involving Greg and Marcia’s attraction for each other. Added fun comes by way of a tying together of several seminal TV series from the 70s, and a hilarious moment of interaction between The Brady Bunch and Homicide: Life on the Streets (complete with hand-held camera).
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 1st, 2003
The plot, such as it is, is a pastiche of several episodes of the TV series, all twisted just enough to send them into a sunny version of the Twilight Zone. So the Bradys are going to lose their house if they don’t raise $20,000.00 by the end of the week, and Marcia’s nose is flattened by a football before the school dance, and Jan is jealous of the attention her big sister receives, and so on. The Brady's are just as oblivious to how the rest of the world perceives themas they are to the (sometimes very funny) innuendos and double-entendres they constantly (and inadvertently) utter. While not exactly hysterical, the film did have me grinning much of the time.For those who can actually remember the original show (I’m afraid I can’t), the effect should be even better.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 1st, 2003
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas can be and has been described in many ways, but one of the things that this movie isn't is a Cheech and Chong road movie about a couple of whacky buddies on a drug binge in the city of sin. There’s no going to strip clubs, no hilarious misunderstandings that make one of them have to dress in drag and be involved in a stage show, in fact, there isn’t even any gambling. This movie is more accurately described as a scalding epitaph to the counterculture of the sixties, a re...ognition that the “Peace and Love” generation’s collective ideas about changing the world had largely failed. Fear and Loathing is a disdainful look in the rear view mirror at a generation's potential unfulfilled, lying on the side of the road embarrassed and worthless, like a 52 year old groupie trying to fit in with the youngsters, doing balloon hits at a Dead concert. In a more critical sense, I can describe it in a single word: overrated.
The movie has cultivated an impressively large cult following its release in the summer of 1998, and after three viewings, I can’t really put my finger on why. By design, it doesn’t follow any real solid narrative structure. We know we’re watching a couple of totally altered guys try to stumble their way through a weekend in Vegas, but their adventures basically include getting really high on something, freaking out somewhere, then returning to their trashed room to recover. Sure, some things actually happen; Azocar meets and has sex with a minor, Duke goes to the motorcycle race, meets some strange people, quits his assignment, there’s an ironic DA convention in town. None of these events are here to prop up a story structure; they’re true events, so they just sort of happen and move on. It’s never long before he’s just getting whacked out again and the story returns to its strange “stagnant wandering” roots. Usually, I’m pretty good at connecting with the European-style, open-ended, non-traditionally structured films, but this one just left me flat.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 30th, 2003
Brad Johnson plays Jake Grafton, one of the top A-6 Intruder pilots, stationed on an aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam in 1972. He is frustrated by the useless missions he is constantly sent on, fruitlessly bombing trees. His frustration turns to rage when his bombardier is killed during one of these missions. He is subsequently paired up with borderline rogue bombardier Willem Dafoe, and before long these two cowboys decide to perform their own unilateral mission into the heart of Hanoi, whatever their commanding officer (Danny Glover) might think. Based on a novel by Stephen Coonts (who deserves better), and produced by Mace Neufeld, Flight of the Intruder has the same handsome production values that grace Neufeld’s Tom Clancy movies. There are some nice flying sequences, but the plot meanders far too much, and the climax is so silly it comes dangerously close to the Hot Shots films, wiping out any trace of tension.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 30th, 2003
Black Mask 2 doesn’t really seem to have anything to do with the first film. Instead what you get is a cheesy Japanese version of The X-Men. With the help of less than special effects, professional wrestlers change into hilarious creatures that are more loony tunes funny than actually dangerous. It doesn’t help that newcomer Andy On has the large fists of Jet Li to fill. Even fans of the original won’t find too much to like about this odd sequel.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 30th, 2003
We are all familiar with the so called “great wars” of American history. Hollywood has supplied more hours of World War II film than the actual war itself. From classics like Torra Torra Torra to Saving Private Ryan, we have gotten to know every inch of those wars. Vietnam became a popular subject by the mid 80’s with films like Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket. “Peace-keeping” missions like the U.N. directed effort s like the one in Somalia in the 1990’s isn’t the “stuff” of heroes it seems. Leave it to Ridley S...ott to change all of that forever. One of the most intense missions in our military history occurred without a full scale war when a Black Hawk helicopter went down in a hostile neighborhood in Somalia. We lost 19 officers and thousands of Somalians lost their lives. This film never lets up. Once Black Hawk goes down, the action literally never ceases until the end credits. Credit a well-cast collection of actors and this film is one of the best.
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 24th, 2003
Synopsis
Charlie is a hairdresser with a mob boss for a step father; Booker is his best friend and a bumbling idiot. Together they find themselves in the outback of Australia after hitting a kangaroo and loosing $50K of mob money. They need to recover the money from the kangaroo or they are dead. They meet a cast of interesting characters along the way to catching the kangaroo (who they have dubbed Jacky Legs) and manage to get themselves in and out of all kinds of funny situations.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 23rd, 2003
In 1939 Warsaw is invaded by Nazi Germany, Wladyslaw Szpilman is performing live on a radio station as it is dive bombed by the Luftwaffe. He continues to play until he is almost killed. This opening scene sets the tone for the story of a man so driven by his passion for music even in the face of adversary. As the film continues we watch the establishment of the Warsaw ghetto and the beginning of the reign of hate towards the Jews by Nazi Germany.
The Warsaw ghetto is full of stark contrasts we watch as people die in the streets from hunger and others prosper by bribing guards and importing goods, we see Germans helping Jews escape from the ghetto and Jews who join the ghetto police in an attempt to save themselves. At one point in time the ghetto contained over 500,000 people, as the war continues Wladyslaws family and most of the residents of the ghetto are loaded onto trains and shipped off to concentration camps never to be seen again. Those who are left over are formed into work camps by the Germans and start an uprising. Threw all this Wladyslaw survives even when he comes face to face with a Nazi officer who finds him hiding in their headquarters. The officer knows that the war is almost over as the Russian army is fast approaching and brings him food in exchange for listening to him play.
