Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 16th, 2007
Synopsis
Dustin Hoffman plays Max Dembo, a burglar out on parole after serving six years. He initially makes a committed effort to reintegrate into society, getting a nowhere job in a can factory and dating placement agent Theresa Russell. But when parole officer M. Emmet Walsh unfairly targets him, Hoffman gives it up and returns to a life of crime, his violent and self-destructive urges making a bad situation that much worse.
Interestingly, the more unlikable Hoffman’s character becomes, ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 27th, 2007
It was the final hours of the Civil War, and incompetent Captain Parmenter (Ken Berry) gave off a sneeze and sent his men in the wrong direction. By sheer luck the enemy was there and forced to retreat, making Parmenter a hero of sorts. His reward was to be placed in command of the frontier outpost Fort Courage. And that’s the set-up for F Troop. In the first season this story was told in the opening credits, but these were cut short for season two and beyond. Westerns have not traditionally been good fodder for co...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 27th, 2007
Mission Impossible didn’t really enter into its by now famous format until this, the second season. The IMF team was run by Daniel Briggs, played by Steven Hill. Hill was never really happy and left after the first season, citing a refusal to work on the Sabbath as his reason for leaving. While Hill was never bad in the role, his departure was our gain. Peter Graves immediately stepped up as the iconic Mr. Phelps, and Mission Impossible as we know it was born. I should add a word of caution and say this is really ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 27th, 2007
Synopsis
There isn’t a lot that connects these films, other than the fact that they are all budget-conscious SF and were released in 1958. All are joys for fans of the genre, however.
The Giant Behemoth was director Eugene Lourié’s second giant-dinosaur-on-the-loose film, after The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) and before Gorgo (1960). It is also the weakest of the three, but not without its charms. Signs of an intensely radioactive being are proliferating on the Eng...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 25th, 2007
Synopsis
An undersea earthquake leads to the loss of an undersea lab. There is, however, no sign of the wreckage, and so it is presumed that the lab slid deep into a trench. In the faint hope that there might be survivors, the submersible Neptune descends into the depths, where it encounters all sorts of gigantic sealife.
In my review of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, I said it was the most idiotic sub movie out there. I stand by that, but The Neptune Factor keeps the...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 20th, 2007
Synopsis
An overheated Cold War plot sees a scientist, crucial to American interests, felled by a blood clot. The only way of saving his life consists in shrinking a submarine and specialist crew to microscopic size and injecting them into the his body. They must make their way up the circulatory system to the brain and there destroy the clot. But on top of all the hazards they encounter in the body, there is also a saboteur aboard.
Who could this saboteur be? No way it’s heroic Stephen Boy...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 16th, 2007
I’m kicking myself. Martin Scorcese’s The Color of Money has long been a favourite of mine, but for some reason I never knew it was a sequel to The Hustler, a film 25 years older and three times better.
Starring a young Paul Newman (Road to Perdition) in a role that earned him his second Oscar nomination, The Hustler is about a cocky pool player hustling his way to the top. When “Fast Eddie” Felson (Newman) challenges undefeated straight-pool champ Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason,...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on June 10th, 2007
Synopsis
Hello, all you happy people. Growing up, many people of my generation when turning to classic cartoons turned to Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse or even Popeye. I wasn't normal (who would have guessed?). I found my cartoon home when I wasn't watching Transformers or He-Man in the old Tex Avery cartoons of yesteryear. My favorite character was Droopy, the little dog with the deadpan wit and a penchant for outsmarting the big bad Wolf or Spike/Butch the bulldog. Tex was fa...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 8th, 2007
There's a heat-wave in January, and dozens of meteorites are falling from the sky. The plane carrying a princess explodes, but the princess has somehow survived, though she has no memory of her former self and believes herself to be Venusian, come to warn humanity of impending calamity. In due course, this calamity arrives as one of the meteorites transforms into King Ghidorah. Earth will be destroyed unless Mothra manages to convince Godzilla and Rodan to stop fighting each other and instead take on King Ghidorah.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 8th, 2007
A mysterious new planet is discovered, and an expedition there discovers a civilization under threat from King Ghidorah. The inhabitants of Planet X ask to transport Godzilla and Rodan to their home for help. Earth agrees, and at first it seems that all has gone well, as Godzilla sends Ghidorah packing. But then it turns out that the Xians are actually invaders, and plan to use all three monsters to subjugate Earth.
If you thought Godzilla grabbing at his butt after being zapped by Ghidorah in Ghidorah, ...
