collectorz.com.jpg

Dolby Digital Mono (English)

Beast From 20,000 Fathoms

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 10th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Ray Harryhausen and Ray Bradbury, along with Famous Monster Forry Ackerman, have been friends since childhood. It’s no wonder that when Harryhausen was given his first chance to completely control a production that he would turn to his boyhood friend who happened to become one of the world’s best known science fiction writers. Actually, the original production team had already fashioned a script based on Bradbury’s short story without giving credit to the writer. Both Rays created an iconic creature.
Read More

The Valley of Gwangi

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 3rd, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Willis O’Brien, the f/x magician behind King Kong and The Lost World, had always wanted to do a cowboys and dinosaurs film. It is no surprise that his prodigy Ray Harryhausen would accomplish the task. Using some of O’Brien’s design ideas, Harryhausen credibly put these two film icons together with mixed results. The script is certainly not the best Harryhausen had to work with. More Bronco Billy than Jurassic Park, this is more an entertaining film than anything to be taken seriously. James Franciscus does a fine job of playing to the f/x.

Glory Boys, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 29th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Rod Steiger is an Israeli nuclear scientist on a speaking tour of England. He is targeted forassassination by a group of Palestinian terrorists. While the French police manage to kill twoof the assassins, the third makes it to England, where he hooks up with an IRA fixer (who justhappens to be the spitting image of Conan O’Brien). The British Security Service calls inAnthony Perkins to head up the protection detail around Steiger. What follows is a Day ofthe Jacka…
Read More

Looking Glass War, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 21st, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

A British agent is killed trying to get information back to England, information that mightconfirm or refute the presence of a Russian nuclear missile at a particular location in EastGermany. The British Secret Service, operating on a budget, decides to recruit a Polish civilian,offering him asylum if he will travel to East Germany to find out in person if the missile is thereor not. Much of the film is taken up by his training. Our hero is extremely cynical, and the o…
Read More

Dark Passage

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 16th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Unjustly convicted of murdering his wife, Vincent Parry escapes from San Quentin. He ispicked up and helped by Iris Jansen (Lauren Bacall), who has always believed in his innocence.Parry, whose face we never see (much of the first half hour of the movie is shot from his POV),but whose voice is clearly Bogart’s, undergoes plastic surgery, eventually emerging as Bogart.He wants to clear his name, but the murder of his best friend only makes things worse. Centralto his …
Read More

Darling

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 15th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

The opening credits set the tone, as we see a Relief for Africa billboard being replaced byone advertising the tell-all autobiography of the glamorous Diana Scott (Jule Christie). Yup, it’sall very symbolic, folks: all kinds of close-ups ram the point home just in case we missed it. Therest of the film is no more subtle. See! Diana sleep her way to the top of the modelling world.Feel! John Schlesinger’s contempt for horrible rich people pretending to do good for the ThirdWo…
Read More

Soylent Green

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 11th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Soylent Green is an… interesting movie. Its one of the seventies movies that’s funny to look back on and recognize that people in the seventies thought that people in the year 2020 would still be dressing like… people in the seventies. Soylent Green steps beyond the traditional seventies sci-fi flick and into the boundaries of social activism, however, adding a further layer of irony to the film: as an apocalyptic tale its interesting to see how we haven’t traveled down the frightening route envisioned in Soylent Gre…
Read More

Looney Tunes Golden Collection

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 11th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Everybody has their favorite Looney Tunes character and particular cartoon shorts. That’s the largest obstacle facing Warner Brothers in this ambitious project to restore and release these shorts on DVD. The first collection features 56 all time great shorts plus a ton of extras. If your favorites were not included, take heart. This is only the first of many promised releases. All in all it would take a Dickens’ Scrooge not to find something to love about this collection. It doesn’t matter if you’re 5 or 105, these cartoons have been a vital part of growing up for all of us.

Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 10th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Before Buffy, before Jesus Christ, there was Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter. Ahandsomely if inexpensively mounted period piece, this sees the dashing swordsman of the titlebattling vampires in the English countryside. In this instance, the vampire doesn’t suck blood,but youth. The plotting is very haphazard, and the action scenes leave something to be desired,but there are fun turns by the usual set of British character actors, and Caroline Munro lends herever-smould…
Read More

Horsemen, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 4th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Omar Sharif is the son of Jack Palance (nobody said the casting was ethnically authentic) andis a proud champion of Buzkashi, an unbelievably rough sport which consists of a group ofhorsemen whipping the hell out of each other as they struggle to grab a headless calf. Sharifbreaks his leg in the championship game, and heads out on a long, treacherous journey to regainhis pride. With him are his magnificent horse, his increasingly treacherous servant, and aduplicitous nomad …
Read More

Ship of Fools

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 2nd, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

In 1933, a luxury liner sails from Mexico to Germany. On board: Vivien Leigh, who is bitterat the loss of her youth; Simone Signoret, a Spanish countess who is being deported; OksarWerner, the ship’s doctor with the bad heart condition who falls in love with Signoret; JoseFerrer as the rude, crude, stupid Nazi mouthpiece; Lee Marvin as the washed-up ball player; andso on and so on and so on. The format of big stars and their multiple interlocking tales was firstperfected in…
Read More

Brooklyn Bridge

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 27th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

From its inception onward, here is the history of the Brooklyn Bridge, with special attentiongiven to the lives of the men whose dream this bridge was. As with Burns’ other documentaries,this is fascinating stuff, with great archival material, and some gorgeously evocative shots of thebridge.

Audio

The sound is mono, but stereo isn’t really necessary for this documentary. The main pointis whether or not the narration is clear, and it is. The accompa…
Read More

Charade

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 26th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

At a time when the women’s liberation movement was picking up steam, Hollywood was changing the kinds of stories they told, and some of films most beloved personalities were aging and leaving the spotlight, the stars aligned perfectly for Stanley Donen to make the incredibly charming “Charade”. Both a send-up of James Bond films and a genuinely engaging mystery, “Charade” was the perfect film at the perfect time.

The story revolves around a young woman (played by the graceful and immensely likeable Audre…
Read More

Warner Legends Collection

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 21st, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

The titles and the stars speak for themselves: Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone and Olivia deHavilland in The Adventures of Robin Hood; James Cagney in Yankee DoodleDandy; Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Of the three,Yankee Doodle Dandy, a musical biopic of singer/dancer/songwriter George M. Cohan,is the one that has been treated the least kindly by the years. Its front and centre flag-waving canbe a bit much, though Cagney’s trem…
Read More

Complete Are You Being Served? Collection (Series 6-10)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 20th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

This wonderful British comedy comes to DVD once again… this time in a Vol. 6-10 box set. If you are not familiar with this outrageous show, it ruled BBC airwaves from 1972-1985, and continues to entertain today on DVD. Taking place solely on a single floor of a department store, this show covers the lives and misadventures of the staff who are employed there.

Audio

Not much can or should be expected from an aging British television audio track such as this. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono …
Read More

Christmas Wish, A

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 16th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Jimmy Durante and his family, penniless circus performers, move into a run-down rentalhome. Also living in the house is Rupert, a trained squirrel (brought to life primarily throughstop-motion animation). The miserly owner of the rental is stashing money in his walls, and asfast as he can do this, Rupert halls the money out and dumps it into the rental living room.Durante’s wife (Queenie Smith) sees money floating down from the ceiling, and thinks it is theanswer to her pra…
Read More

Ox-Bow Incident, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 15th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Henry Fonda and Henry Morgan are two outsider cowhands who ride into town just as wordarrives that a popular ranchers has been killed. A posse, or, more accurately, a lynch mob, forms,and Fonda and Morgan go along. Three men (including Dana Andrews and Anthony Quinn) arefound and blamed for the crime. The mob decides to kill them, even though Fonda and a fewothers become convinced of their innocence. Though a bit heavy-handed at getting its messageacross, and resorting to u…
Read More

I Love Lucy Season One, Volumes 7-9

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 14th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Each disc contains four episodes of the series, moving forward in the order they wereoriginally broadcast (so volume 9 ends gets us as far as episode 35). These are valuable historicaldocuments of TV’s pioneer days, and the show, at the time, was hugely impressive from aproduction standpoint in that it used multiple cameras (and employed such luminaries aslegendary cameraman Karl Freund). I’ll admit Lucille Ball’s style of slapstick doesn’t do muchfor me, but I guess I just…
Read More

Troll / Troll 2

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 23rd, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

In Troll (**), a family headed up by Michael Moriarty and Shelley Hack move intotheir new apartment. Unfortunately the young daughter is kidnapped and impersonated by a troll,who goes about turning the other residents into greenery or fairy creatures. Among thosesuffering this fate are Sonny Bono and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, who can’t have been too happy tohave this hunk of cheese lurking on their CVs. Mediocre as Troll is, it does at least havefairly high ambiti…
Read More

Silkwood

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 23rd, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Meryl Streep copped another Oscar nomination for her performance as Karen Silkwood, low-level employee at an Oklahoma nuclear power plant. She is driven to activism once she realizeshow her life and those of her fellow employees are being endangered by the shoddy safetystandards. Streep is backed up by fine performances from Kurt Russell and Cher, but Nicholstakes his own sweet time with the direction.

Audio

A mono soundtrack, and this is a film fro…
Read More

Almost Perfect Affair, An

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 20th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Keith Carradine plays an independent director who has come to Cannes, hoping to sell hismovie (to which he has devoted two years of his life). French Customs seizes the film and won’tlet him bring it into the country. He is helped out by Monica Vitti, wife of a powerful Italianproducer. Before long Carradine and Vitti are in each other’s arms. While we are constantlyaware of Vitti’s guilt and worry about cheating on her husband, all references to Carradine’sgirlfriend back …
Read More

Roger & Me

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 18th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

This comic-yet-scathing documentary begins as an autobiography, as Michael Moorerecounts his formative years in Flint, Michigan, accompanied by all kinds of amusing stockfootage. From here we segue to the closing of GM’s Flint plants, a move that devastated thetown. Moore begins a quixotic quest to confrong Roger Smith, the head of General Motors, andalong the way winds up in all kinds of amusing (yet revelatory) situations. He also meets manycolourful characters in his hom…
Read More

Carrot Top Rocks Las Vegas

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 10th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Also apprently titled “Casino Dreams,” this is concert footage of Carrot Top in Las Vegas,interspersed with fantasy sequences. You either like this guy or you don’t. Personally, I find himdull. And if you are a fan, be warned that the feature is only 50 minutes long.

Audio

Mono sound, and very boring, sucking all the life out of the pounding music. Carrot Top’sdelivery is clear enough, but the feel is of a rather cheap recording.

Video

The picture (fullscreen) looks just as cheap. The concert footage looks like it was done onsomeone’s camcorder, and has very harsh colours. The dream sequences have a lot of grain, andthe orange is pushed much too far.

Special Features

The only extra is a behind-the-scenes feature, 23 minutes long, that is more of the same kindof stuff as the movie itself (all kinds of flashy editing and goofing around). The menu is fullyanimated and scored.

Closing Thoughts

Everything about this package, with the exception of Carrot Top’s stage setting, screamscheap.

Special Features List

Behind-the-Scenes Feature

Mark of Zorro, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 8th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Returning to California after some years in Spain, Don Diego de Vega (Tyrone Power) finds that hisfather has been deposed and that the region is ruled by a venal, corrupt governer under the thumbof tyrannical lieutenant Basil Rathbone. Pretending to be a useless fop by day, Diego dons maskand sword by night as Zorro, fighting for the liberation of the poor and the downtrodden. Powerspends surprisingly little time in the Zorro get-up, and the climactic duel comes earlier than …
Read More

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 4th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Glenda Jackson is a job placement consultant who wants to resign. Peter Finch is a doctorwho has more than his fair share of neurotic patients. Both Finch and Jackson are in love withMurray Head, a young artist who really loves himself more than either of his two lovers. Jacksonand Finch know about each other, and try to reconcile themselves with having to share Head. Asensitive character study, Sunday Bloody Sunday rivets with its superlative performancesand …
Read More

«< 24 25 26 27 28 >»