Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 2nd, 2002
Intro
From the washed out video to the sappy Barry Manilow songs the best that can be said about this disc is it might be a good babysitter for a 3 year old.
Synopsis
The story is derived from the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairytale Thumbelina. After Thumbelina falls in love with a fairy prince she is kidnapped by a family of show toads, and upon her escape goes from one adventure to the next in trying to find her true love.
Audio
The audio is presented in Dol...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 2nd, 2002
"Imagine where you will be and it will be so". That was how Maximus comforted his troops before battle. If you imagine yourself in Rome during the days of the Gladiator then Ridley Scott makes it very easy to do. Russell Crowe plays the role of a lifetime as Maximus. I have often heard film lovers state that they don?t make classics anymore. Whether Gladiator is the exception that proves the rule or proof against the rule is uncertain. What is sure is that Gladiator will become a true classic.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 2nd, 2002
Intro
A labour of love…the director (Gillian Grisman) has taken home movie and live performance footage to create a compelling documentary about the friendship between her father (David Grisman) and the late Jerry Garcia.
Jerry Garcia best known as the lead guitarist of the Grateful Dead and the lesser known, at least in my musical knowledge, mandolin maestro David Grisman could easily have been separated at birth. The “twin” musicians have a sound all there own and even if the music isn’t to your...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 30th, 2002
Written By Kelly Stifora
Intro
Kim Basinger and Dan Larroquette upstage Bruce Willis in his tepid debut as a leading man. Don’t let the fact that Blake Edwards directed blind you: this is a dud.
Synopsis
Walter (Willis) gets set up on a blind date with Nadia (Basinger) for an incredibly important business dinner at which his boss is expecting him to make a good impression on a prospective client. After being explicitly told not to let Nadia imbibe, Walter heads straight out to get a bottle of champagne and sta...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 30th, 2002
Written By Kelly Stifora
Intro
Arliss Howard narrates this piece of child-oriented Americana (in the vein of Stand By Me and The Wonder Years) about a group of 1962 youngsters, their obsession with baseball, and the gigantic dog that lives over the left field fence.
Synopsis
Scotty Smalls (Tom Guiry) is the new kid in town. Regarded as a geek by the boys who hang out at the local sand lot playing scratch baseball for his inability to throw or catch, Scotty wants nothing more than for his inattentive step dad (...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 29th, 2002
Fred Olen Ray, director of B-movies beyond counting, strikes again, with a DVD release some steps up from what many movies of this type receive.
Synopsis
In 1991, Iraqi agents blow up a secret US government lab, releasing genetically modified rattlesnakes (don’t ask). Over the years, these snakes breed, and in the present, minor earthquakes drive them to the surface, and they infect whoever they bite with a virulently fatal virus. Treat Williams is the small town doctor who must save the day, while...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 29th, 2002
Intro
This is the new film from writer/director Scott Reynolds, who brought us The Ugly, a stylishly weird psycho-thriller from a few years back.
Synopsis
Radha Mitchell runs a diner and a motel by herself in a middle-of-nowhere little town. One morning, she opens her diner and strange young man comes in. He’s been stabbed in the gut, and he needs her help. He’s terrified of a group of surfers who arrive shortly after him. He says they’re after him. Should Mitchell believe him?
I...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 27th, 2002
posted by Marc Atonna
Everything must either be high in something or low in something else. You have to love a film where a priest defends, “the tit was spread with peanut butter!”
Synopsis
Dennis Bagley is a hard, calculating advertising executive who was happy in every way he could conceive. Upon worrying about an overdue campaign for a boil ointment, he sprouts a boil himself. Not a problem, you’d think; that is, until the boil starts speaking. Dennis seems batty to all who hear the random boil comments or feel h...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 27th, 2002
Written By Kelly Stifora
Intro
Director Terry Zwigoff follows up his acclaimed documentary on R. Crumb with an adaptation of the cult underground comic by Crumb-inspired artist/writer Daniel Clowes, who collaborated closely with Zwigoff on the film.
Synopsis
Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) are two caustic high school graduates too intent on annoying the hapless souls in their neighborhood to realize their dream of having their own place. As Rebecca drifts toward a responsible life and Enid ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 26th, 2002
Say the name Bruce Willis and what is the first thing that comes to mind? Lately Willis has excelled in roles that have redefined him as an actor. Of course, I’m talking about films like “The Sixth Sense”. But when I hear Bruce Willis I think of John McClane. Die Hard was the film where Willis “made his bones” in Hollywood and revolutionized the action film forever.
Synopsis
John McClane just can’t catch a break. It seems his wife has moved from their home in New York City, where John’s a cop, to L.A.
