Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 13th, 2004
Synopsis
When three Vietnamese men are found dead, the prime suspect is a war vet who promisedto kill them after they were acquitted of assaulting his wife. Said vet slaughtered an entire villageduring the war, and the man who got him acquitted then, Brian Dennehy, is reluctantly convincedto take on the case. Though at first it seems that the prosecution has an iron-clad case, bit by bitDennehy finds clues that point to a frame-up.
About as typical a made-for-TV mystery as o...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 13th, 2004
Synopsis
Just For You is a Technicolor musical with Bing Crosby as a Broadway producer,and Jane Wyman as his leading lady/fiancee. Though a big financial success, Crosby has beenfalling down on the job as a father, neglecting his adolescent children. At best. He comesperilously close to losing all audience sympathy when he tears into his son’s attempts atsongwriting. He determines to turn over a new life, but his parenting skills are really put to thetest when his son falls i...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 12th, 2004
Synopsis
Six months after the collapse of his marriage, writer Johnny Depp is secluded in his lakecottage, completely blocked. Then his life takes a sinister turn when a menacing John Turturroarrives on his doorstep, claiming Depp plagiarised his story. Unsatisfied with Depp’s response,Turturro begins a campaign of terror and escalating violence, perpetually eluding ineffectivepolice and private investigators.
I will not indulge in the spoiler that most plagued most reviews ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 12th, 2004
Synopsis
Made between 1991 and 2000, these disparate documentaries, complete with British narrator,cover different aspects of the Second World War. Their titles are largely self-explanatory:History of World War II is the big picture disc, with a special emphasis on the Europeantheatre. For those interested in the war with Japan, Pearl Harbor and Kamikaze/Warin the Pacific will address those needs. The Occult History of the Third Reich is evenmore speciali...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 11th, 2004
Synopsis
In an unnamed Eurpean country, during an unnamed war (vaguely WWII, but not quite), acompletely green recruit (Dexter Fletcher) is so horrified by his first encounter with combat thathe flees his unit after wounding his commanding officer. He runs across a gypsy caravan, and,disguised as a madwoman (the “rawney” of the title) he joins the band. As if things weren’talready difficult with being pursued by his unit, he also falls in love with the daughter of BobHoskins, the ca...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 11th, 2004
Synopsis
Jose Ferrer plays artist Heri de Toulouse-Lautrec. We first see him in full sardonic flight,sketching the denizens of the Moulin Rouge cabaret. He then meets a woman of the streets (whoemphatically does not have a heart of gold) with whom he falls in love, believing she seesbeyond his deformities. She doesn’t. The first half of the film traces this unhappy episode(spending a bit too long in getting to the obvious conclusion), and then we move on to hissuccess as a painter, ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 11th, 2004
Synopsis
Loosely inspired by the Fatty Arbuckle case, The Wild Party tells the tale of JollyGrimm (James Coco), fading silent movie funnyman. It is 1929, and he is making one last bid fora comeback by premiering his new film at a lavish party that he hosts with his mistress (RaquelWelch). His career is over, though he refuses to admit it. At the party, frustrations, jealousies andsexual shenanigans build to a murderous climax.
I never thought I’d see a film that someh...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 10th, 2004
Synopsis
Brian Dennehy, in perhaps his most colossal performance, plays Stourley Kracklite (how’sthat for a monicker?). This American architect, accompanied by much-younger wife (ChloeWebb), arrives in Rome to curate an elaborate exhibit celebrating an 18th-Century architect withwhom he has been obsessed most of his life. What should be the pinnacle of his career turns intoa nightmare. He suspects his wife is not only having an affair, but that she is poisoning him.
Dennehy’...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 10th, 2004
Joe Queenan is one of my favorite writers. He is the author of wonderfully amusing essays and books dealing with the subject of film. In his book Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler, he is bold enough to take on the challenge of watching every Merchant Ivory film, back-to-back. At one point late in the narrative, he has this to say:
As I sat there in my reclining chair with my kids lighting matches to my feet, I realized that God had created Merchant and Ivory for only one reason: because otherwise ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 9th, 2004
Synopsis
The unfortunate Renfield (Peter MacNicol) travels to Transylvania, only to be enslaved byDracula (Leslie Nielsen). Dracula uses Renfield to help his move to England, where he preys onLucy Westenra (Lysette Anthony) and Mina (Amy Yasbeck), daughter of Dr. Seward (HarveyKorman) and fiancee of Jonathan Harker (Steven Weber). Seward and Harker fight back withthe help of Dr. Van Helsing (Mel Brooks).
Brooks’ love of vintage horror films, so evident in Young Frankenste...
