Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 15th, 2004
Synopsis
In 1944, supernaturally inclined Nazis open up a other-dimensional portal, through whichcomes a demon infant. Rescued from such evil foster-parents, the baby grows up, under the wingof John Hurt, into Hellboy (a perfectly cast Ron Perlman), who now fights monsters undercoverfor the US government. Said government isn’t ecstatic about the clandestine work of Hellboyand other creatures (these guys get none of the respect of the Men in Black). But the need for thissupernatural ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 10th, 2004
Synopsis
An act of sabotage releases a deadly virus (it kills you and turns you into a flesh-eatingzombie) inside the Hive, the underground R&D headquarters of the Umbrella Corporation.Descending into the Hive to find out what went wrong is a team of security operatives,accompanied by Mila Jovovich, who is a apparently another security operative, but is currentlysuffering from amnesia. It isn’t very long before the team is attacked by hordes of zombies, andtheir numbers dwindle alar...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 6th, 2004
Synopsis
As a young man, Mike Blueberry (Vincent Cassel) falls in love with a prostitute, but theirtryst is rudely interrupted by the black-hearted Michael Madsen. The woman is killed, andBlueberry is badly wounded. He is taken in and nursed back to health by Native Americans, andthus taps into a bunch of mystical hugger-mugger as well. Years later, he is the town marshal,and who should ride into town but Madsen again, now possessed of supernatural power andintent on capturing the s...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 3rd, 2004
Synopsis
Writing a synopsis for Gone with the Wind must be as silly an exercise as doing onefor King Kong or Casablanca. But for what it’s worth, this is the tumultuous sagaof Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh), spoiled southern belle at Tara, whose life is turned upsidedown by two things: Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) and the Civil War. Her love affair(s) with Rhettare almost as fiery as the chaos of war, and in that crucible she is forced into becoming a self-suffici...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 29th, 2004
Synopsis
A plague is sweeping the world: the dead are rising to bite and eat the living, turning theirvictims into yet more ferocious zombies. A group of survivors (headed by Sarah Polley and VingRhames) take refuge in a mall. Tensions keep threatening to tear the group apart, not to mentionthe fact that they don’t know what their next course of action should be. Outside, the zombiesgather in ever increasing numbers.
This is the unrated version, running nine minutes longer t...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 27th, 2004
Synopsis
Kate Hudson is the golden girl at a modelling agency, scouting out talent and being very much the apple of ruthless boss Helen Mirren’s eye. She enjoys her cosmopolitan Manhattan lifestyle to the fullest, and then everything goes to smash. Her elder sister is killed in a car accident, leaving the care of her young’uns not to middle sister Joan Cusack (humourless and annoying) but to Hudson, who is promptly fired by Mirren and forced to move to Queens and work at a car dealership. Fortunately...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 26th, 2004
Synopsis
Nine years ago, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) met in Vienna and spent a magical night together, their conversation blossoming into love. But they did not meet six months later as promised, and they moved on with their lives. Now Jesse has come to Paris to promote his book (inspired by that one night), and Celine comes to his book signing. He has an hour or so before his flight, and they head off together for coffee. Their conversation ranges over all manner of topics, graduall...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 15th, 2004
Synopsis
Shawn and Marlon Wayans are two FBI agents. After screwing up royally (busting an ice-cream salesman instead of a drug dealer), they are anxious to redeem themselves. Charged withescorting the heiress Wilson sisters (read: Hilton) to the Hamptons where they will be bait fora socialite kidnapper, they mar the sisters’ faces, and so go themselves, made-up as the WhiteChicks of the title. Misunderstandings, racial and sexual, ensue.
I’ll grant the brothers this: there ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 27th, 2004
Synopsis
Ewan McGregor and Peter Mullan are barge workers, and one morning they fish the corpseof a young woman out of the river Clyde. McGregor tries to put the body out of his mind byseducing Mullan’s wife, Tilda Swinton. We soon learn, however, that McGregor knows moreabout the body than he lets on: the dead woman’s name is Cathy, and she is an old girlfriend ofhis. In fact, he knows how she died, and he is even more disturbed when a man he knows to beinnocent is charged with mur...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 27th, 2004
Synopsis
Jim Carrey wakes up on Valentine's Day in a funk. On the spur of the moment, he takes offto Montauk, where he meets Kate Winslet. Sparks fly, and a relationship seems about to be born.We suddenly flash back in time, and realize that, though they no longer remember it, these twohave previously had a relationship. When it collapsed, Winslet availed herself of the services ofLacuna, a company that erases unpleasant memories. Carrey has been removed from hermemory. Dist...
