Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 24th, 2005
Who doesn’t have a soft spot in their heart, if not their DVD collection, for The Andy Griffith Show? The denizens of Mayberry have been with many of us our entire lives. For most of America, The Andy Griffith Show has become the template for any small rural town. The characters stand as prerequisite citizens in any said town. The town drunk, the local barber, the motherly little old lady, and the corner mechanic all look like Otis, Floyd, Aunt Bee, and Goober to most of us now.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 24th, 2005
Synopsis
After the suicide of his wife, psychologist De Niro takes his traumatized daughter Dakota Fanning off to a house in the woods to recover. Fanning begins to exhibit strange, hostile behaviour associated with her imaginary friend, Charlie. Then, as the violence escalates, De Niro realizes that Charlie might well be real after all.
Sigh. Another thriller with a twist. Half a second of thought will probably tell you what it is, since it’s the same twist we’ve seen in just about every p...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 24th, 2005
What happens after a physics student works on the Manhattan Project? Well, at least for this person, he becomes the most influential recording engineer in music history. This man is Tom Dowd. In Mark Moorman's fascinating documentary, Tom Dowd and the Language of Music, we are taken through the development of modern music through one of its most famous guides. The film is a mixture of interviews with Tom Dowd, as he also takes us to various biographical and musical locales in New York cities, and testament...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 23rd, 2005
Synopsis
The setting is a prestigious black college, and the set-up is along the lines of what you would expect in a college-set musical: conflicts between the black-uniformed frat brothers and the political activists (of which the leader is a young Laurence Fishburne), gender wars and misunderstandings right, left and centre, and plenty of music. It’s all very lively, but not nearly as funny as Lee clearly thinks it is (see notes on commentary below). The bigger question is whether the satire and po...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 22nd, 2005
Synopsis
Two girls meet on the beech, and a lifelong friendship is formed. Hilary is the shy rich girl (horse riding and the whole thing, don’t you know) and she grows up to be Barbara Hershey. CC is the working class extrovert, and becomes Bette Midler. As adults, they become roommates, and we follow the entire arc of their friendship through their lives, with conflicting romances, plenty of ups and downs, and then, in the last act, the inevitable Hollywood Fatal Illness.
My sarcastic capi...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 21st, 2005
Only could Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the (gulp) geniuses behind South Park, could come up such a wildly crazy (and funny) film such as Team America: World Police. What is so wild about this film you ask? Well, the actors are marionette puppets, every other word is an f-sharp, and almost every big Hollywood actor is portrayed negatively. And what is wrong with this? Absolutely nothing. This film will not be for everyone, but for the loyal fans of South Park, this film is pure bliss. Not o...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 21st, 2005
Synopsis
Diabolik (John Phillip Law) is a master criminal, pulling off one spectacular robbery after another to the endless frustration of the police. Ruthless and amoral, he nonetheless deeply loves Eva (Marisa Mell), and will risk everything to protect her. As his crimes become ever more spectacular, and the government teeters on the brink of chaos, even organized crime is pressed into service in order to capture the man.
There were plenty of films of this type in the late sixties in the ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 21st, 2005
Only could Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the (gulp) geniuses behind South Park, could come up such a wildly crazy (and funny) film such as Team America: World Police. What is so wild about this film you ask? Well, the actors are marionette puppets, every other word is an f-sharp, and almost every big Hollywood actor is portrayed negatively. And what is wrong with this? Absolutely nothing. This film will not be for everyone, but for the loyal fans of South Park, this film is pure bliss. Not o...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 20th, 2005
Stargate SG-1 is about to enter its ninth year. There was speculation that after season 8 the series would bow out gracefully with the anticipated exit of Richard Dean Anderson. With that plan in mind the folks at Stargate Command decided it was time to spin off the franchise, and so was born Atlantis. Stargate Atlantis boasts pretty much the same team as SG-1. The quality of the production and tight storytelling have translated well to this sister series. The only flaw in this plan is that fans don’t want to let go of the original.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 20th, 2005
Synopsis
In a perpetually gray, rainy, decrepit Bucharest, a series of strange murders is taking place. Brutal street-cop in search of redemption Sean Pertwee is paired up with enigmatic Interpol agent John Light. Light is not, of course, what he seems. Angels and demons are at war, as ever, and the demarkation lines of the battle are very blurry. Are there any good guys at all? Hard to sasy, but Kari Wuhrer had better hope so, as she is being used and stalked, respectively, by the different sides, a...
