Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 4th, 2005
Synopsis
Wesley Snipes (Major League) and straight to video really provide for several comedic moments. I don’t really know that much about Snipes, aside from some anonymous reports about just how nice he was on the set of the third Blade movie, along with the “cataract problem” he has. Nevertheless, his role in this film of the strong, silent type who is some Army special forces member provides him the chance to say a small amount of dialogue for what is presumably a lot of cash.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 24th, 2005
John and Jane Smith are a seemingly happy couple. They live a pretty normal but almost mundane existence of shared meals, kissed farewells and chats about the color of their curtains. They even go to therapy together, purportedly to iron out their differences. It turns out, however, that they have a lot more in common than they both realize. You see, they both have secret lives—they are both assassins. We're not talking some street-punks you might hire in a bar, or leather coat wearing mafia hit-men, they are the bes... at their game. Armed to the teeth with the latest military equipment, they swoop into high risk situations, execute their targets with professionalism and glide out using gadgets that would make Bond jealous. Of course they don't know what each other truly do for a living, lying and pretending on a daily basis and always staying one step ahead of being caught until one day they meet on an operation and suddenly—understandably—everything changes. Cue lots of matrimonial gunplay, fisticuffs and general banter as the fight their way to a stalemate before deciding what they are going to do from then on. Needless to say the respective agencies that employ them are none too happy about the situation that they are in and require each one to kill the other. Will they be able to survive and—more importantly—save their marriage?
Mr. and Mrs. Smith is a romantic comedy action vehicle which weighs heavily on the final element to keep audiences gripped. Many of movies over the years have adopted a similarly strange mix to lighten an otherwise potentially serious subject and make the proceedings more appealing for a wider audience, but with debatable results. The trouble is, if you go for a Last Action Hero-style near-spoof, you risk losing all sense of dramatic tension and potentially all interest that the audiences might have in the film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 24th, 2005
John and Jane Smith are a seemingly happy couple. They live a pretty normal but almost mundane existence of shared meals, kissed farewells and chats about the color of their curtains. They even go to therapy together, purportedly to iron out their differences. It turns out, however, that they have a lot more in common than they both realize. You see, they both have secret lives—they are both assassins. We're not talking some street-punks you might hire in a bar, or leather coat wearing mafia hit-men, they are the bes... at their game. Armed to the teeth with the latest military equipment, they swoop into high risk situations, execute their targets with professionalism and glide out using gadgets that would make Bond jealous. Of course they don't know what each other truly do for a living, lying and pretending on a daily basis and always staying one step ahead of being caught until one day they meet on an operation and suddenly—understandably—everything changes. Cue lots of matrimonial gunplay, fisticuffs and general banter as the fight their way to a stalemate before deciding what they are going to do from then on. Needless to say the respective agencies that employ them are none too happy about the situation that they are in and require each one to kill the other. Will they be able to survive and—more importantly—save their marriage?
Mr. and Mrs. Smith is a romantic comedy action vehicle which weighs heavily on the final element to keep audiences gripped. Many of movies over the years have adopted a similarly strange mix to lighten an otherwise potentially serious subject and make the proceedings more appealing for a wider audience, but with debatable results. The trouble is, if you go for a Last Action Hero-style near-spoof, you risk losing all sense of dramatic tension and potentially all interest that the audiences might have in the film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 22nd, 2005
Synopsis
One of the first scenes in Out of Sight was the main character robbing a bank using only his words. That same kind of knack for thinking quickly under pressure is employed in Catch Me If You Can, which tells the story of Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio), who, after witnessing the end of the marriage of his parents (Christopher Walken and Nathalie Baye), decides to flee, and begins to bounce checks. Not only does he bounce over $2 million in checks, but he also impersonates a tea...her, a doctor, a lawyer and an airline pilot, all by his 21st birthday. DiCaprio’s foil in the movie is the FBI agent pursuing him, Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), who is dedicated to pursuing "paper hangers" like DiCaprio. The 2 hour movie is spent on the chase and friendly jousting between the two, and puts you right by DiCaprio as he makes sure not to say the wrong thing in the situations he runs into. One of the other subplots given attention is the relationship between Frank and Frank Sr., portrayed by Christopher Walken, who earned an Oscar nomination for his brief work in the film. Unconditionally, despite whatever financial woes he suffered, Frank Sr. loved his son, and despite Frank Jr.’s attempt to ease his father’s pain, his father seems to be a proud man, and never accepts his gifts, however extravagant they may be. As a funny postscript, Abagnale not only worked with the FBI as part of his parole to assist in check fraud cases, but also helped developed check security protocols for many corporations, and has made millions from those also.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 20th, 2005
If your first introduction to William L. Petersen is through CSI, then you’re missing some real treats with his short-lived film career, which burned brightest about fifteen years before he ever became Gil Grissom and investigated his way onto our small screens and, subsequently, into our hearts. Both of his cinematic outings never got the respect due them until after Petersen reminded us he was still alive, still well, and still acting. His best effort was Manhunter, Michael Mann’s adaptation of the Th...mas Harris novel Red Dragon. While the most recent effort stuck more to the letter of Harris’s novel, Manhunter proved the superior film through Mann’s unmistakable style, and the straight-laced, troubled, and obsessive portrayal of Agent Graham by Petersen.
In To Live and Die in L.A., Petersen again dons a badge, this time as Federal Agent Richard Chance for the U.S. Treasury Department. He’s after a murderous counterfeiter (Willem Dafoe), and he has zero qualms about cracking heads and breaking rules to bring down his adversary. As the film progresses, director William Friedkin throws us quite a few surprises, and yet another breathless car chase. It’s too bad Friedkin’s career is remembered for only two films: The Exorcist and The French Connection. Because his courtroom-serial killer thriller Rampage, and this 1985 action-drama are solid efforts, and much better deserving of success than most anything Hollywood puts out today.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 14th, 2005
Written by Clayton Self
Kingdom of Heaven is a handsome epic by Gladiator director Ridley Scott. It is an underrated film due to a less than successful theatrical release, but at closer examination, this film is a deeply important tale of courage, faith and self-sacrifice. It focuses on a relatively lesser-known period of the crusades, when peace was trying to be made between Christian and Muslim.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 9th, 2005
The Mask of Zorro was the Pirates of the Caribbean of its day. A classic swashbuckling story packed with action and romance, yet still presented in a family-friendly style that hearkened back to the days of the old Saturday afternoon matinée. Indiana Jones was conceived in this style, as was Disney's National Treasure, in a way. There is a ton of room in the marketplace for PG and PG-13 rated films like this, as it provides something that the whole family can not only attend at the theater, but t...uly enjoy. I wish Hollywood made more films like this. Now, I certainly have a soft spot for the standard hard R flicks, but who doesn't love a good classic (mostly) wholesome adventure tale?
In addition to being the highlight of Antonio Banderas' questionable career, this film brought the movie-going world a wonderful gift in the package of Catherine Zeta-Jones. Michael Douglas will eternally be grateful for this inspired casting choice, as she became an instant superstar after her scene-stealing performances in this film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 26th, 2005
Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme. When is the last time you heard those two names? I'll bet it has been quite some time. Lundgren is the poor man's Schwarzenegger, and Van Damme is best known as the Canadian action superstar that is long on physical talent, but horrid at dialog. These two team up in Universal Soldier, a film that is filled with as much action as possible, with as little actual story as possible. This is the action film equivalent of pornography... give the viewers what they want, and a...d a little story in at the end to loosely tie together all of the set pieces.
The story involves two excellent Vietnam-era solders, who die on the battlefield and are reincarnated as... what?...zombie soldiers?... many years later to become super-soldiers. Unfortunately, the two gradually gain some of their memory back from their past lives, remember that they don't like each other, and go to war. Somewhere in the middle of all of this, a girl shows up. I was really shocked to see how much of this film was "borrowed" from the original Terminator film. For mindless action, this film has plenty of it. Just don't expect to go into this and find anything resembling a cohesive plot.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 23rd, 2005
The 80's was the time of the birth of the mindless action movie. The popularity of this type of film has waned somewhat in recent years, but at the time such movies were all the rage. Perhaps the mother of all mindless action flicks came from 80's film darling Sylvester Stallone, with the ashamedly-fun Rambo series. The first film in this series, First Blood, has recently been released on UMD for Sony's PSP entertainment system.
This is a fitting decision, as the PSP has begun something of a renaissanc... in the over-the-top action flicks of the 80's. Such films are a perfect match for the PSP, as viewers will most likely be watching these movies on the go. Films with lots of action and an easy to follow plot allow viewers to watch a film spread out over three or four different occasions, yet still be entertained.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 16th, 2005
This release is identical in every respect but one (the colourization) to the previous Studio Classics edition, and so what follow below is the same review, with an additional note about colour.
Synopsis
