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Dolby Digital 5.1 (English)

Constantine

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 19th, 2005

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I’ll bet the script to this film read like a dream. The Exorcist meets Hellboy meets The Mummy. Surely this is the ideal vehicle for Keanu Reeves following his three picture run on The Matrix. Sound too good to be true? Unfortunately, it is. Now, there is a lot that is admirable in this film. For example, the acting, which is is far above the tired bar set by most modern action/sci-fi flicks. Furthermore, the special effects in Constantineare simply fantastic. In fact, I would go so…
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Momentum

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 19th, 2005

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Synopsis

A gang of thieves using telekinetic powers is on the loose. They are the result of CIA experiments decades ago, but only about-to-retire Louis Gossett, Jr. (remember when he had a theatrical release career?) takes the threat seriously. He enlists a similarly powered young physics professor to infiltrate the gang. Meanwhile, FBI agent Teri Hatcher is also on the case. The poor prof is soon in over his head.

Nothing here that hasn’t been done before and better. Take Firestarter, for instance, and that movie isn’t even that good. The production is workmanlike but ho-hum, and the telekinetic drafted to fight bad guys by means of budget-conscious special effects puts me in mind of a failed TV pilot I saw back in the 70s: The Man With The Power.

Audio

The audio is a generous 5.1 (one of the few generous things about this bare-bones disc). The placement of the sound effects is good, and the sense of an environment is quite nicely done. The dialgoue is clear and undistorted. The music sounds fine, though it isn’t exactly booming.

Video

The colours are very strong, with excellent flesh tones. The blacks are deep, the contrasts fine, and the image is sharp. In other words, a very good transfer. So even if what’s on the screen isn’t really worth watching, it looks nice.

Special Features

Nothing here but a trailer for Sin City and (surprise, surprise) Desperate Housewives. The menu is basic.

Closing Thoughts

Deeply ordinary stuff. Don’t waste your time.

Special Features List

Trailers

Imaginary Heroes

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 12th, 2005

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This is one of those films that is depressing solely for the sake of being depressing. There was a string of these kinds of films in the 90’s, but they have gone out of style as of the past seven years or so. This particular film tells the story of what happens to a dysfunctional family when one of the members commits suicide. Apparently, each member of the family grieves in his or her own way, all of which are wildly dangerous. Sexual promiscuity, substance abuse, lawlessness and despair abound in this tale of miser…
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Kung Fu Hustle

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 12th, 2005

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Synopsis

In the 1930s, the dreaded Axe Gang is taking over all organized crime, terrorizing the city. One of the only places they don’t control is a slum complex ruled by a formidable landlady and her henpecked husband. Into this place come a couple of con artists, who pretend to be members of the Axe Gang. They set in motion an chain of events that leads to one apocalyptic battle after another, with ever more bizarre and powerful Grand Masters of Kung Fu turning to fight either for or against the Ax…
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Star Trek Enterprise – The Complete Second Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 12th, 2005

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Season Two of Star Trek Enterprise was without a doubt the weakest of the series. It’s no mystery that the show’s demise was already being talked about by the time Year Two was finished. The stories were unoriginal and it appears budgetary concerns often meant unimaginative bottle shows. The words Star Trek were finally added to the title. Rick Berman has always tried to distance himself from Gene Roddenberry. When Enterprise was first released he felt it was time to finally cut the umbilical cord and drop the franchise tag.
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The Reivers

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 9th, 2005

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The term Reivers, it is explained, is a turn of the century word for thieves. From that explanation one might expect an action adventure heist film. What you get instead is a Faulkner coming of age story. While the film has quite a few memorable moments of pure Americana, there seems little point in anything that happens on screen. Even the wonderful acting of Steve McQueen leaves most of the film muddied in a period piece about nothing at all. Burgess Meredith does a fine job of narrating the film from the point of view of an old man recalling a moment in his 11th year.
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Dracula III: Legacy

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 8th, 2005

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Synopsis

The surviving characters from the cliffhanger ending of Dracula II: Ascension pick up the chase. Pursuing Dracula (or rather, the much-older being who uses that name, and who was said to be Judas in earlier installments, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore, either) are Jason Scott Lee as Uffizi, the vampire-killing priest now slowly turning into a vampire himself, and Jason London, whose girlfriend was snatched at the end of the last film. They travel through a Romania beset …
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Target

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 7th, 2005

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Synopsis

Lately various studios have been releasing films with Gene Hackman onto DVD, films like Scarecrow and Twice in a Lifetime. And after a run in 1983’s Uncommon Valor, he teamed with Matt Dillon (The Flamingo Kid) in 1985’s Target, the proverbial Cold War spy thriller.

Directed by Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde) Walter (Hackman) and Chris Lloyd (Dillon) are a father and son who don’t get along very well, as Walter wants Chris to do something with his …
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Cypher

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 3rd, 2005

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Synopsis

Jeremy Northam plays the rather insecure Morgan Sullivan, who applies for a job as a corporate spy for Digicorp. His first few missions under the identity of James Thursby go well, but he is tormented by headaches and strange nightmares. Then he encounters Lucy Liu, who reveals that his missions are a sham and that Digicorp is brainwashing him to believe that he really IS Thursby, and so will be the perfect double agent to spy on another company.

Then the plot gets complicated. Thi…
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Whole Shebang, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 31st, 2005

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On the one hand, I have pretty low expectations for movies that were made for TV. On the other hand, this is an HBO film, so my expectations are just a bit higher than normal. My interest was further peaked when I saw that this was a romantic comedy. It is nice to see the network famous for drama branch out into comedy, and I was curious to see the results.

The plot of this film reminded me somewhat of the Keanu Reeves sleeper hit A Walk in the Clouds. In this case, however, the family business is not …
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Gas

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 30th, 2005

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Synopsis

The frustrating thing in watching Gas is just how familiar it is to The Cookout, Barbershop, Beautyshop, and other films that involve groups of African-American men getting together in the neighborhood and having fun, and getting the most successful family member in touch with their roots. What’s next, Sunday Church? Or Night at Silver Diner?

There are even a couple of parallels to The Cookout in this film. While Damien in this film is played by “Flex” …
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Stone Cold

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 30th, 2005

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Synopsis

Poor Tom Selleck. The guy has had to deal with the Magnum P.I. stigma for so long, whenever he tries to play darker characters in a film noir-style TV movie, people just don’t buy it, as what seems to be the case in Stone Cold.

But Selleck actually does a pretty decent job in the film, playing Jesse Stone, a chief of police in a small New England town who has to deal with a serial killing husband and wife combo. Jesse has moved from Los Angeles, where he lost his job and his…
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Crow: Wicked Prayer, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 28th, 2005

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Synopsis

A small mining town is torn apart by strife between the workers at the toxic mine that is about to be closed down, and the Native Americans on whose land the mind is, and who are about to erect a casino over the closed facility (but won’t that make a for a dangerous contaminated entertainment complex?). Stirring up trouble is Satanist David Boreanaz and his cohorts (which include Tara Reid, whom we first see as a sniper, so you know the audience is in deep, deep trouble here). As part of a r…
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Because of Winn-Dixie

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 27th, 2005

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Synopsis

Anna Sophia Robb is a little girl named Opal, who has just arrived in the small town of Naomis with her single-parent father (Jeff Daniels), a preacher. Opal finds it hard to fit in and make new friends, until she adopts a rambunctious dog she finds in the Winn-Dixie supermarket. The dog’s extroverted nature helps make connections not only between Opal and the town, but between the townspeople as well.

A very kind little movie, but a completely unoriginal one, too. Between this and…
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Led Zeppelin

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 22nd, 2005

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Synopsis

Many people have provided screwed up metaphors as to just how important Led Zeppelin has been to music in the last 35 years. So of course, I’ve gotta throw one in. Imagine today’s rock musicians as workers in a factory, all punching in and out for work at a time clock each day. Led Zeppelin is the clock. There really was nothing before it that could compare to it, and while there have been some imitators, real or implied (Whitesnake and Kingdom Come being two names from the 80’s hair band metal day…
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Ice Princess

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 21st, 2005

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Synopsis

Michelle Trachetenberg is a gifted science student, and her mother (Joan Cusack), a committed feminist, is pushing her to forge her way through college. But her Trachtenberg’s true love is figure skating, and she manages to combine the two in a physics project, which opens the door to more skating for her. What to do when she turns out to be really good at skating? That or more academic pursuits? Her opposite number is Hayden Panettiere, the stuck-up blonde whose mother (Kim Cattrall) is a f…
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High and the Mighty, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 15th, 2005

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Synopsis

Grand Hotel (1932) was the model: a large cast of known faces with soap opera problems. The High and the Mighty takes this set-up and puts the characters in a plane flying from Hawaii to San Francisco, then blows out an engine and has the fuel leak away. John Wayne is the Co-Pilot With The Tragic Past, Robert Stack is the Pilot Losing His Nerve, and they are surrounded by a collection of other very recognizable types: the Cute Kid, the Charming Dying Man, the Loud Couple From N…
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Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack (Xbox)

Posted in Game Reviews by David Annandale on July 13th, 2005

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Gameplay

The maps range from the enormous to the intimate. The biggest are Containment and Terminal. Containment is a vast, snowy valley with fortresses at either end and tunnels running the lengths of the mountain walls. This is a map that makes one wish the multiplayer limit was greater than 16, as even the biggest parties can all but disappear in here. Its size does make it the map most amenable to vehicle combat outside of Coagulation. Terminal, on the other hand, is an urban environment reminisc…
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D.E.B.S.

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 9th, 2005

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Synopsis

I didn’t know what quite to expect from watching D.E.B.S. for the first time. So, it looks like a group of college girls who double as CIA assassins, right? OK, I can buy that, I mean, I’m a fan of Alias, so I can dig it. You’ve got Amy (Sara Foster, The Big Bounce), D.E.B. Academy’s top notch student with her pick of anywhere she wants to go; her friend, the tough and ambitious Max (Meagan Good, The Cookout), along with the younger Janet (Jill Ritchie, Herbie Fully L…
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Jackass – The Movie

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 9th, 2005

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Synopsis

One could make an attempt at witty prose by comparing Jackass to the works of Kubrick, Cassavettes, Scorsese, or what have you. But look, it’s a bunch of guys, some of whom have reputations in other circles, such as skateboarder Bam Margera and acclaimed director Spike Jonze, doing stunts that you may not have thought, dared or remotely considered doing, and keeping parts of the general public off guard. The gang made a huge splash on MTV, and scores of crazed teens wanted to try what these guys we…
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Hoffa

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 4th, 2005

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Synopsis

Among the more unjustly ignored performances was Jack Nicholson’s turn as Union boss Jimmy Hoffa in Hoffa. Fox finally decided to put out the Danny DeVito directed, David Mamet written film on DVD. Mamet’s script seems to romanticize Hoffa, portraying him as more of a Union man, as one who was forced to make deals that could compromise his integrity, but he overlooks his integrity in order to help benefit the American working man. The story is told in the point of view of Hoffa aide Bobby Ci…
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Beyond the Sea

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 3rd, 2005

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Synopsis

For several years, unbeknownst to a lot of people, Kevin Spacey (American Beauty) was a fan of Bobby Darin and had a film project in the works about the singer’s life. One of the reasons why the project took so long is that even with someone of Spacey’s caliber, the toughest part is always the financing. Spacey’s project was definitely a labor of love, as he wrote and directed the film, and even sung such Darin standards as “Splish Splash”, “Dreamlover” and of course, the hit that shares the…
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Admissions

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 29th, 2005

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Synopsis

Lauren Ambrose is a Candide-like figure, wide-eyed in her approach to the world, and she really doesn’t want to go to college, so her interviews are disasters. She reads her poems to her mentally handicapped sister and no one else, and when this sister starts spouting the poems (she memorizes very well), her mother (Amy Madigan) thinks something wonderful has happened. Ambrose doesn’t clear things up, and events soon spiral out of control.

This could easily turn into a soggy mess o…
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Weird Science

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 29th, 2005

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Synopsis

When it comes to 80’s films, you can talk about Spielberg, Lucas, or whomever, but those in the know will always put John Hughes at, or near, the top of influences of that era. Take a look at the 7 year run that he had in the 80’s when it came to writing movies in that era. From 1983 to 1990, the list brings up a flood of kitsch and nostalgia for any movie going kid during that time – Mr. Mom, Vacation, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty In Pink, Ferri…
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Even Stevens Movie, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 29th, 2005

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Synopsis

Out of the blue, the Stevens family (whacky dad, brainy sister, dorky brother, and so forth) finds out they’ve won a trip to a tropical paradise. Unbeknownst to them, they have in fact been selected to participate in an over-the-top reality TV show, and their holiday turns into a series of slapstick catastrophes.

Collapsing temples, rampaging squirrels, lots of yelling and double-takes. This is Disney slapstick at its most uninspired. Extremely undemanding younger viewers might get…
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