Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 27th, 2003
Synopsis
The Miss Daisy of the title is played by Jessica Tandy. After she wrecks her car, her son (Dan Aykroyd) hires a chauffeur (Morgan Freeman) for her. Miss Daisy is fiercely resistant to the supposed loss of independence this represents, but she eventually lets Freeman do his job. A strong friendship grradually develops between the two. In the background, we catch glimpses of the changing American South as the film moves from 1947 to 1972. Prejudice, both racial and anti-semitic, lurks just und...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 5th, 2003
Synopsis
Ordinary family man Gene Wilder is innocently parking his car at work one day when hesees Kelly Le Brock doing a Marilyn Monroe routine over a hot air grate. He is immediatelysmitten, and throws his life into chaos pursuing the woman of his dreams. The original Frenchfilm wasn’t anything to write home about in the first place, but it did star Jean Rochefort, whosesomber dignity just begs to be overthrown. Wilder, on the other hand, isn’t that dignified to beginwith.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 5th, 2003
Synopsis
A corrosive satire of stardom in general, and the theatre world in particular, All About Evestars Bette Davis as an insecure theatre diva, and Anne Baxter as Eve, the young woman whobefriends Davis but is a the conniving, fawning sociopath who will stop at nothing for her ownstab at stardom. George Sanders (stealing every scene he’s in as a sublimely cynical critic) is onelof the only people who can see through Eve. Baxter overdoes the fawning, so it becomes difficultto bel...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 3rd, 2003
Synopsis
The setting is turn-of-the-century Wales, and a way of life is coming to an end as economiccrises hit. The film chronicles the saga of the Morgan family, headed by stern but lovingpatriarch Donald Crisp, and we get all this through the eyes of young Roddy McDowall. Analternative title might be “Cavalcade of Misery” and the answer to the film’s question might be“not very,” given the endless tragedies that afflict our loving family. The film hasn’t weatheredthe passing years ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 31st, 2002
Synopsis
Gregory Peck is a freelance writer recently arrived in New York. Hired to write a series onanti-Semitism, he hits on the idea of passing himself off as Jewish. The angle works only toowell, and he experiences prejudice first-hand, in ways that threaten to completely derail his life.The performances are universally excellent, and the actors are really put to the test when theyhave to mouth the painfully moralizing speeches at the end of the film. Until the disappointingconcl...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 6th, 2002
Synopsis
Robert De Niro is Rupert Pupkin, supreme loser. He has delusions of greatness, andconstantly fantasizes he has a wonderful friendship with talk show host Jerry Langford (JerryLewis, superb). Pupkin is determined to get his moment in the limelight, and he will stop atnothing, not even kidnapping, to make sure he gets what’s coming to him. Along for the ride issimilarly obsessed (and grotesque) fan Sandra Bernhard. Look out. Incredibly smart, incrediblyfunny, incredibly uncom...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 22nd, 2002
Synopsis
Wayne is veteran Lt. Col. Yorke, bedevilled by the fact that the Apaches attack and thenretreat across the Rio Grande, while the cavalry can’t pursue into Mexico. Further complicatinghis life are the arrival in camp of his young son as a fresh recruit, and his estranged wife(O’Hara) wanting to bring sonny home. This isn’t the greatest of Ford’s westerns, largely becauseof its meandering plot. But it does have those great Monument Valley vistas, and it is goodfun.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 19th, 2002
Synopsis
Sir James Bond (David Niven), a superhuman prude with a stutter, is forced out of retirementto discover who is killing off all the world’s spies. He recruits a whole load of other 007s, fromPeter Sellers to Ursula Andress (don’t ask), and the villain turns out to be Woody Allen.Comedies should rarely run more than 90 minutes. This clocks in at 137. Interminably,mortifyingly dull. I defy anybody to sit through this.
Audio
The sound comes in both 5.1 ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 24th, 2002
Synopsis
Three episodes from the first season, plus the pilot with its opening seconds restored as much as possible. The series is a landmark in television comedy, no doubt there, though, for my tastes, the schtick hasn't aged particularly well.
Audio
The sound is, of course, mono. No too much to say, therefore, except that the mono is crisp and clear, especially on the actual season episodes.
Video
The picture is as good as one could expect,...
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...
