Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 9th, 2003
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 4th, 2003
Synopsis
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 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.
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
Charlie Kaufman is a neurotic, narcissistic, self loathing writer who is hired to adapt Susan Orlean’s novel The Orchid Thief into a film. The only problem is that he is suffering from writers block, add in a twin brother who is also writing a screenplay and his inability to interact with people and hang-on for a wild ride. Charlie tries a number of different approaches to writing the script and suddenly finds himself being written into the story. What starts out as an adaptation of a book into a film turns into a completely different story all together. It turns into a tongue and cheek story about movie making in Hollywood and a person’s ability to adapt and change to fit their surroundings.
Video
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 12th, 2003
This is the story of Frida Kahlo, now recognized as one of Mexico’s greatest artists. Most particularly, the film is the story of her tempestuous love affair with fellow artist Diego Rivera --their loves, their clashes, their politics, their infidelities, their betrayals, and so on. So much attention is paid to this relationship that Kahlo’s art itself slips into the background, which is too bad. That said, this is a tremendously engaging film, with great performances all round.It is also a spectacular movie to look at. If Kahlo’s art doesn’t take centre stage in the narrative, it does in the look of the film, informing almost every frame. The visual impact is not simply eye candy,however. Every colour is thematically relevant. This is a film made by creators very conscious of the visual possibilities of cinema.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 24th, 2003
Analyze This was funny for several reasons, not the least of them being that it came from out of nowhere. We always knew that Billy Crystal could be rolling-in-the-aisles funny, but Robert DeNiro really isn’t “the King Of Comedy”. The movie worked because of chemistry more than anything else. Analyze That is no different. If anything the interplay between DeNiro and Crystal has improved. While not nearly as original (and how could it be?) Analyze That is just as funny as the first film. I still find Lisa Kudrow as irritating as ever, but on balance this one could make Janet Reno laugh.
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 19th, 2003
Synopsis
Jason Lee plays Paul who is engaged to Karen (Selma Blair), after his bachelor party he wakes up to one of the Tiki girls (Becky played by Julia Stiles) in bed with him, to make matters worse he discovers that she is his fiancée’s cousin. SO he does “The Guy Thing” and does everything he can to cover things up but, when Becky’s pscho ex starts stalking Paul things start to get out of hand.
