Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 19th, 2002
Synopsis
The plot is very simple, as the spectacular song-and-dance numbers are the real star of theshow. Gene Kelly and Jean Hagen are big stars of the silent screen. But sound is arriving, andHagen’s voice sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard (and she has a personality to match). Kellyfalls in love with Debbie Reynolds, a struggling dancer with a terrific voice. This is enough of aframework on which to hang the production numbers, but the comedy in between is oftenhowlingly fun...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 14th, 2002
Plot? What plot? Oh right: traumatized telekinetic teen accidentally raises Jason from the bottom of the lake. Jason kills folks. That’s about it. But you don’t watch these for the plot --you watch them for the killings. These are, sad to say, relatively restrained, and some of Jason’s tool acquisitions are silly (where did he get that electric hedge trimmer from?). The characters (I use the word loosely) are even more interchangeable than ever, and the continuity goes all to #%&@ in the latter part of the film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 14th, 2002
Synopsis
Rod Steiger, obsessed with his dead mother, adopts one disguise and accent after another(Irish priest, German plumber, gay hairdresser, you name it) as he kills women and marks theirforeheads with lipstick. Frustrated cop on the case is George Segal, perpetually harassed by hiscartoonish Jewish mother, but also falling in love with Lee Remick. Good fun to be had here,especially from Steiger -- an actor who always had a propensity to ham it up, and here he is givenfree reign...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 2nd, 2002
Synopsis
In an opening sequence that chills no matter how many times you see it, the little daughter ofDonald Sutherland and Julie Christie drowns. The action then shifts to Venice some time later, asthe couple move through the mourning. A blind woman claims to be a medium with visions ofthe daughter. Christie believes, but Sutherland will have none of it. But then why does he keepseeing a little figure in a red raincoat, a figure that might be his daughter...
Director Nicol...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 2nd, 2002
Synopsis
Twenty years ago, there was a mining disaster. The only survivor wreaked bloody revengea year later. Nineteen years later, he seems to be back, and the usual bunch of kids is in trouble.Neat looking killer, cool setting, and some unintentionally hilarious acting and dialogue are theorder of the day. The killings aren’t as graphic, sadly, as some of the publicity stills. The moviewas cut prior to release, and this is still not the restored version. Who know if we’ll ever see...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 13th, 2002
Synopsis
The Masque of the Red Death is one of Corman's most sumptuous Poe pictures. Vincent Price plays the decadent Prince Pospero, presiding over sadistic revels while the plague rages outside his castle walls. The plague, however, is personified here, and has plans for Prospero. In The Premature Burial, Ray Milland is obsessed with the fear that he will be buried alive. Guess what happens? Though not as good as Masque, this film has long been absent from home video, and its appearance here is ver...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 27th, 2002
Synopsis
The second season still shows a strong connection to the Robert Altman film, with the movie's closing credits narration, for instance, still being used, and the first episode still finding it necessary to let us know who the characters are. At the same time, while still following traditional sitcom patterns, the series is also clearly pushing against that envelope.
Audio
The soundtrack is the original mono. The sound reproduction is clear and unmuddied, and th...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 25th, 2002
Synopsis
Paul Newman's Frank Galvin has seen better days. Now he's a broken-down, alcoholic ambulance-chaser. But then his last chance arrives in the form of a negligence case being brought against two doctors who gave a young woman the wrong anaesthetic, reducing her to a vegetable. Though Galvin at first is planning to settle out of court, he changes his mind, and the result is a David-and-Goliath courtroom struggle.
Though a 1982 release, The Verdict still has much of the feel of a 70s f...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2002
Synopsis
1941. Field Marshal Rommel's forces are sweeping across Africa. The only thing blocking him from the Suez Canal is Tobruk. The British and Australian forces are hopelessly outmanned and outgunned, but their orders are to hold out, and hold out they will. Richard Burton is placed in charge of a battalion of green Australians. Though his toughness doesn't endear him to his him, Burton nevertheless whips them into combat and commando troops.
The characters are familiar. Burton's comm...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 8th, 2002
The title catches your eye. A mob film, you suspect. And you’re right. But a mob film from 1968, BEFORE The Godfather defined the genre as we know it today, and the difference is apparent.
Synopsis
Kirk Douglas is big-shot Mafioso living in retirement in Sicily. He’s old-fashioned, and believes in the old “values” of the Cosa Nostra. From the States comes his brother, who wants to make his name with the mob. His assignment, as it turns out, is to kill Douglas. Set entirely in rura...
