Disc Audio

Two Brothers

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 20th, 2004

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Synopsis

We are in the 1920s. Two young tiger cubs live in what seems to be the tiger version of theGarden of Eden. Then Guy Pearce comes along to ruin everything (though he will subsequentlyrepent). He kills the cubs’ parents, and sells one cub to the circus. The other is also captured andwinds up as the beloved pet of Raoul, the colonial governor’s son. The tension resides in whetherthe brothers will eventually reunite, and will they be allowed to live their lives in peace?

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Where the Red Fern Grows

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 20th, 2004

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Synopsis

Kris Kristofferson narrates the story in flashback, telling the story of his younger self (JosephAshton) during the Depression. The young boy dreams of owning a hunting dog, and afterslaving away on odd jobs for two years, he finally acquires two: “Old Dan” and “Little Ann.”Together they become an unbeatable team, and have various adventures in a setting that is bothbucolic and poverty-stricken. The film is handsomely mounted and genuinely performed (with,interestingly, Dav…
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Napoleon Dynamite

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 17th, 2004

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Synopsis

We’ve all known (or been — be honest, now) Napoleon Dynamite at some point in highschool. He’s too tall for his own good, lives in a fantasy world of his own, and is a socialcatastrophe. At home, his thirty-something brother Kip is just as odd, and when their hard-partying grandmother winds up in the hospital, Uncle Rico (permanently reliving his supposedglory days of 1982) comes to look after things, and generally makes everything worse. ButNapoleon is also coming out of …
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Meet the Parents

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 17th, 2004

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Synopsis

Ben Stiller wants to propose to sweetheart Teri Polo, but first he has to impress her dad –Robert De Niro. The weekend with the parents proceeds as one would expect a movie with BenStiller in the lead: disastrously. De Niro is an over-protective ex-CIA control freak, and Stillerinevitably finds the way to wreak the most humiliating havoc possible.

As the embarrassments mount, and yet more loom ominously over the horizon, you findyourself wishing you could look away…
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Thunderbirds

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 15th, 2004

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Synopsis

Alan is the youngest member of the Tracy family, and would dearly love to be a full memberof International Rescue, but is stuck in school and is treated as a kid by his bothers and father.But then it is up to him and his two young friends to save the day when The Hood (BenKingsley) takes over IR’s base, traps the Tracys up in space, and plans to turn the Thunderbirdvehicles to evil uses (starting with robbing the Bank of England).

What I want to know is why oil rig …
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Lost Innocence

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 14th, 2004

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Synopsis

Janie inherits a strip club from her uncle, and is determined to put the club back in the black,notably by getting all her college friends to strut their stuff on the stage. But not everyone wantsher to succeed, notably one conniving stripper who wants to get her hands on the treasuresecreted somewhere on the premises.

Why am I even bothering provided a synopsis for this poor man’s cross betweenShowgirls and Degrassi High? The plot gets us from one silicone-en…
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Jackhammer Massacre, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 14th, 2004

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Synopsis

Aaron Gaffey plays Jack, whom we first meet in a warehouse, strung out, paranoid andfestering, and who, given some unholy drug cocktail overdose, flips his lid and kills histormentors with a jackhammer (hence, the title). Extended flashbacks then show us how Jackdescended into a hell of drug addiction, and he now takes orders from the hallucination of hisdead best friend. The orders, unsurprisingly, consists in killing as many people as possible withthe jackhammer.

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Office Special, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 13th, 2004

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Synopsis

This is a two-part special episode of The Office, picking up some time after the endof the second season. The loathsome but self-regarding David Brent no longer works in theoffice, but still hangs out there all the time. Gareth is now in Brent’s position, and Brent is tryingto launch a pop career, and at the same time find himself a girlfriend in time to avoid humiliationat the Christmas party.

This is more of the viciously corrosive humour that made this sho…
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Warriors of Heaven and Earth

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 13th, 2004

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Synopsis

Lai Xi (Nakai Kiichi) must complete one last mission for the Emperor before he can returnto Japan: track down and execute mutinous Butcher Li (Jiang Wen), who refused to kill femaleand children prisoners, and is now an outlaw. Li and Lai Xi’s first encounter ends in a draw, andLai Xi agrees to wait for a rematch until Li has completed his current mission: escorting acaravan through bandit country. Lai Xi is soon caught up in the effort to protect the caravan, andthe battles…
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Mary Poppins

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 12th, 2004

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Synopsis

If you don’t know what this movie is about, you grew up in a cave. If you’ve never seen it,ditto. This is the tale, it need hardly be said, of Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews), the nanny whoarrives to take charge of two children whose imaginations have been repressed by theirexcessively proper father. In the care of Mary, and accompanied by chimney sweep Bert (DickVan Dyke), the children bounce from one magical mix of dance, live action and animation toanother.

A more…
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Garden State

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 11th, 2004

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Synopsis

Zach Braff (who also wrote and directed) stars as Andrew Largeman, a young man so heavilymedicated since his childhood that he finds it completely impossible to experience any kind ofemotion. This is true even at his mother’s funeral, for which he returns from LA to New Jersey.There he reconnects with his old friends (chief among them being Peter Sarsgaard), all of whomare living odd, if aimless lives, and encounters Sam (Natalie Portman), whose emotions-on-the-sleeve appro…
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Depeche Mode / Devotional

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 10th, 2004

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I’ve got to be honest. I was never a Depeche Mode fan. My lack of interest in them didn’t really come from their music, which I always thought was different – in a good way. It was just that in the 80’s and 90’s, MTV played their videos 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The video for “Enjoy the Silence” was burned into my eyelids. I couldn’t get away from the band no matter how hard I tried.

My, how things have changed. MTV doesn’t play Depeche Mode videos anymore, or any videos for that matter, and after wat…
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Super Size Me

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 10th, 2004

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After learning about lawsuits filed by two obese women against McDonald’s – accusing the fast-food giant of making them obese – Morgan Spurlock decided to eat nothing but food from McDonald’s for 30 days to see what would happen. Even his doctors didn’t expect the eventual results: Spurlock gained 30 pounds, became depressed, experienced a diminished sex drive, and teetered on the edge of liver failure. His doctors even warned him that failure to change his diet immediately would cause death – and he still had a week…
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Spider-Man 2

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 10th, 2004

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Spider-Man 2 is a superior film to the first. While it is rare for sequels to live up to expectations, there are rare moments in film history when the sequel may even surpass the first film’s quality. The Godfather Part II and Bride of Frankenstein are two well known examples. But for Every T2 there are usually 20 Jaws 3-D’s. Doc Ock was the perfect choice as the story’s villain; Alfred Molina was a wonderful selection to bring this fan favorite to life on the big screen. Peter Parker’s life is more multi-dimensional…
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Facing Windows

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 9th, 2004

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Synopsis

Giovanna Mezzogiorno plays a wife and mother (also named Giovanna) who is frustratedand ground down by her lot in life. Her job is depressing, her marriage has lost all its spark, andshe lives in a building that echoes with the furious battles of dysfunctional couples. She is alsofascinated by the man she sees across the way, whose life in all respects seems to be the oppositeof hers. The catalyst for change in her life is the arrival of Simone, an elderly amnesiac whom her…
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Eyes of Fire

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 8th, 2004

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Synopsis

A minor fire (not the big scorch that case implies) breaks out in the forest, and is quickly extinguished. Nonetheless, there are clear signs of arson, and four teens are involved. The Ranger in charge of the area locks the teens in his station and proceeds to work on ferreting out the truth of what happened. And this fractious group has secrets they would rather not reveal. The film turns into a tale of relationships and coming of age.

But I found it very difficult to care. The fo…
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Popeye’s Voyage: The Quest for Pappy

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 7th, 2004

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Synopsis

Popeye has a nightmare in which his “no-good Pappy” is in mortal danger. Convinced thatthis is actually the case, he scuppers land-locked plans for Christmas with Olive Oyl in order tosearch for Pappy. Off the whole gang goes on the search: Olive, Swee’ pea, Bluto (as firstmate???) and Whimpy.

I’ll give this points for trying, and the animated does have a fluidity lacking in theaccompanying cartoons (about which more below). But Popeye looks odd in three dimensions,…
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Dead End

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 7th, 2004

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Synopsis

Pater familias Ray Wise is driving his squabbling family to his in-laws for Christmas. Whilethe rest of the family dozes, he takes a turn off the Interstate for a change of pace, then almostgets into an accident when he falls asleep himself. Now on an unfamiliar road, the family picksup a mysterious woman in white, and they then find themselves spiralling down into nightmare,where they are picked off one by one by supernatural forces while journeying down a road thatnever e…
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O Genio: Ray Charles Live in Brazil 1963

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 6th, 2004

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With the popularity of the bio-pic Ray, Rhino comes out with O Genio: Ray Charles Live in Brazil 1963. Ray Charles is truly an O Genio, and this disc confirms that. Jazz, gospel, blues, rock n’ roll, this guy did it all. We have two performances recorded live in Sao Paulo. Each performance runs about an hour long. Ray is accompanied by a full brass orchestra and a lovely collection of female back-up singers. The first show gets off to kick-butt start with Charles’s famous hit “What’d I Say”. The …
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Zhou Yu’s Train

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 6th, 2004

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Synopsis

The storytelling is oblique in the extreme, but as near as I can discern it, the film tells the story of a young woman (Gong Li) who, after reading a collection of poems by Chen Ching (Tony Leung Ka-Fai) called Zhou Yu’s Train, attempts to imaginatively recover the experience of Zhou Yu (Gong Li again). Zhou Yu is an artisan who travels vast distances by train twice a week to keep up an increasingly troubled romance with Chen Ching. The other major figure is a veterinarian (Sun Hongle…
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Smallville – The Complete Third Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 6th, 2004

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Despite season two’s unquestionable quality, Smallville’s third season is probably its best — and with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel now completely off of television, it’s pretty much the only thing around that can fill the whole supernatural Scooby gang void.

Of course, one of the big reasons that Smallville helps fill that spot so well is because it has a lot of the same ingredients that powered Whedon’s universe along in its prime: that is, it has a ton of supernatural special effects, and a heal…
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Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 5th, 2004

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Synopsis

The McGuffin here is the titular Blood Orchid, a plant that blooms only once every sevenyears, and which seems to hold the secret to eternal youth. A team is dispatched by amultinational drug company, but the expedition arrives in Borneo (where, as numerous reviewshave already pointed out, anacondas do not exist) at the height of the rainy season, andeverything goes wrong very quickly. Soon our heroes are slogging through the jungle, beset bypoisonous spiders, treachery from within…
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Lost Junction

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 5th, 2004

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Synopsis

Drifter Billy Burke’s car breaks down near the town of Lost Junction. He accepts a ride fromNeve Campbell, and very quickly is drawn into a web of mysteries that surround her. Why is sheliquidating her bank account? For that matter, where is her husband? Caught, Burke may bemystified, worried, and threatened, but he cannot tear himself away. Before he knows it, he’s onthe run with Campbell, pursued by the authorities.

The characterizations are quirky, and there is a…
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King of the Ants

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 4th, 2004

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Synopsis

Chris L. McKenna plays Sean, who seems, at first, to be a typical slacker, working nothingjobs. He is hired by Daniel Baldwin (doing a very fine dissolute turn) first to watch atroublesome city hall accountant (whose wife — Kari Wuhrer — McKenna falls for), then to killhim. McKenna agrees with surprisingly little reluctance. He has a falling out with Baldwin andhis associates (including a brutal George Wendt), and they beat him to within an inch of the life,the idea being to indu…
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Gozu

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 4th, 2004

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Synopsis

A yakuza is charged with eliminating his violently unstable mentor. On the drive to do thedeed, said mentor is (apparently) accidentally killed. But then his body vanishes from the car ofour hero, who is then charged with finding the corpse and making absolutely sure the man isdead, or else. His search takes place in a town populated entirely of grotesques, from a man whohas the same repetitive phone conversation day after day, to another whose face half plaster-white, to a…
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