Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 8th, 2003
Synopsis
Tiger was once a fearsome fighter, but now he is a drunk. We learn, in flashback (and inflashbacks within flashbacks), that he fell from grace after being unintentionally involved in thekilling of his fiancee’s brother. Now his own treacherous brother has kidnapped the fiancee, andthat is all Tiger needs to come roaring back. This is truly awful stuff, with boringly filmed fightscenes, choppy editing, and nonsensical plot.
Audio
Bad as the film is, ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 8th, 2003
Synopsis
China is under the rule of the Ching dynasty, who send out assassins to kill anyone whochallenges the regime. Greatest of these assassins is the blind master of the flying guillotine. Hesets out to kill the One-Armed Boxer (don’t ask me why all these guys have disabilities). Thecharacters come together at a huge martial arts tournament (this is where Mortal Kombat comesfrom, kiddies). The plot is no more developed than that of a typical porno. The film’s reason forbeing is ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 8th, 2003
Synopsis
When terrorists strike New York City (blowing up a ferry, for instance), a courageous TVreporter winds up being the only one who can stop the terror. Extremely low-budget stuff, andthe subject just isn’t as much fun as it once was (though the campiness remains). Interesting,though, to see Adam West as a senator (not to mention all the other cameos).
Audio
The soundtrack is mono. It gets the job done, but there isn’t too much to say about it. Themusi...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 8th, 2003
Synopsis
Ben Cross is a British officer during WWII. After the invasion of Sicily, he becomes themilitary governor of a small town. Naturally, all sorts of characters are present, and he falls inlove with a forbidden woman.
Audio
Mono sound on this disc. It’s acceptable, but certainly unspectacular, and there is somedistortion on the dialogue.
Video
A good news/bad news disc. The picture is widescreen at 1.78:1, but still appears to ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 3rd, 2003
Synopsis
For the first twenty-five minutes, we are in 1950 Havana, where a typical noir tale of crimeand betrayal unfolds. Then we shift into colour, and discover that the hero of the first film, EricA. Leffler, is actually a writer of pulp fiction, and what we saw was the first part of his currentnovel, one that he doesn’t know how to finish. Before long, he gets caught up in a “real-life” noiradventure. This is a very, very low-budget exercise, but its ambitions are admirable, and i...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 2nd, 2003
Synopsis
Young Matt Howard’s father goes off to help the British fight the French and Indian Warsin Ohio, apparently in the cause of liberty, and is killed. Years later, Matt has grown up into CaryGrant (hellishly miscast and looking utterly ridiculous in his Daniel Boone getup). He becomesa surveyor, still imbued with his father’s political ideals and marries into an aristocratic andconservative family. Tensions rise and decisions must be made once the War of Independencebegins. Th...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 1st, 2003
Synopsis
Peter Firth is a young man who has just blinded six horses. Institutionalized, he comes underthe care of psychiatrist Richard Burton. As he digs away, slowly uncovering what led Firth tothis breakdown, Burton comes perilously close to a breakdown himself. Though much-lauded,this is really a rather silly film, with the performances pitched way over the top, and thepsychodrama truly hysterical (when it isn’t hilarious). The stage origins are painfully obvious,and what worked ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 27th, 2003
Synopsis
Welcome to Oceania in 1984, the last word in totalitarian regimes. Winston Smith, a lowlevel functionary, engages in two kinds of thought crime: he falls in love, and he questions BigBrother. The film is as compellingly and utterly bleak as the novel. The vision of future isactually a vision of the past: Oceania is a worst-case version of late-40s Britain. This approach isbrilliant, because, as a result, the film does not date, and its chilling warning, in these days ofTota...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 26th, 2003
Synopsis
A city vamp seduces a country man and convinces him to kill his wife. At the moment heis about to commit the crime, he finds he cannot go through with it. We then follow the husbandand wife through the course of their reconciliation. Put this way, the film sounds flat and boring,but the poetry of its simplicity, imagery and performances is overwhelming. (There’s a stormsequence that must be one of the greatest storms in the movies.) This is emphatically one of thegreat clas...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 23rd, 2003
Synopsis
A flying saucer lands in Washington, causing widespread paranoia. Emerging from thesaucer are the ominous robot Gort, and the human-looking Klaatu (Michael Rennie). Klaatucomes with a warning for Earth (get your act together or be wiped out), but he will speak only torepresentatives from all nations. This turns out to be a difficult proposition. Klaatu escapes fromthe authorities and blends in with the population as he learns about humans. The questionbecomes whether he wil...
