Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 14th, 2005
Synopsis
At a gathering of all the gangs of New York City, the messianic leader proposing a unification of all the organizations is gunned down, and the Warriors are unjustly accused. They must make their way from the Bronx to Coney Island with every gang in the city out for their blood.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 8th, 2005
Synopsis
Based on the novel by Clive Cussler, Sahara is a popcorn movie at its purest level. It is equal parts National Treasure and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and God help me, I actually got a kick from watching it. To give you an idea of its popularity, it was nominated for several Teen Choice awards.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 6th, 2005
This is not your father’s Sinbad. The emphasis is on the Bad, very bad. Seek and ye shall find no Ray Harryhausen magic to carry you away to distant lands and grand adventure. Lou Ferrigno was much better as The Hulk than as Sinbad. His much too modern use of slang coupled with a wise-guy barrage of one-liners makes this a difficult film to watch. Trust me. This film is really bad. Most disturbing is the total lack of respect the producers of this mess show for the grand traditions of previous Sinbad films. There is no majesty and mystery. You will also quickly become annoyed with the narration. A woman is telling the story to her all too inquisitive child.There is only mockery and triteness. They even try to pass off some of Lou’s Hercules footage as new stuff shot for this film. Well, the film wasn’t what needed to be shot here.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 26th, 2005
Synopsis
Peter Finch plays Umberto Nobile, an Italian general and explorer who is haunted by his disastrous attempt to fly over the pole in a dirigible in 1928. In the present day, sleepless, he summons the ghosts of his crew and the people affected by the disaster to sit as judge and jury, and the film then proceeds to tell the tale in flashback. When the dirigible crashes, Nobile and his men are marooned on pack ice, while rescue attempts are met with one tragic setback after another. Among those s...arching for Nobile is Roald Amundsen (Sean Connery).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 12th, 2005
Synopsis
In the 1930s, the dreaded Axe Gang is taking over all organized crime, terrorizing the city. One of the only places they don’t control is a slum complex ruled by a formidable landlady and her henpecked husband. Into this place come a couple of con artists, who pretend to be members of the Axe Gang. They set in motion an chain of events that leads to one apocalyptic battle after another, with ever more bizarre and powerful Grand Masters of Kung Fu turning to fight either for or against the Ax... Gang.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 10th, 2005
Synopsis
Evil wizard Basil Rathbone kidnaps a beautiful princess (Anne Helm), and the bland Gary Lockwood, who has loved her from afar, charges to the rescue with his magic horse, armour and sword. Along the way he must confront seven curses set by Rathbone (ogre, burning heat, hideous hag, dragon, and so on), not to mention the treachery of one of his party.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 28th, 2005
Synopsis
A small mining town is torn apart by strife between the workers at the toxic mine that is about to be closed down, and the Native Americans on whose land the mind is, and who are about to erect a casino over the closed facility (but won’t that make a for a dangerous contaminated entertainment complex?). Stirring up trouble is Satanist David Boreanaz and his cohorts (which include Tara Reid, whom we first see as a sniper, so you know the audience is in deep, deep trouble here). As part of a r...tual, Boreanaz & co. slaughter Edward Furlong (an outcast in the community because he once killed a man) and his girlfriend. Furlong rises again for revenge.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 24th, 2005
Synopsis
John Wayne plays Dooley, a transport pilot. He and his crew become lost over the frozen wastes of Labrador, and are forced to land in the middle of nowhere. A concerted search is launched for the missing men, and the film becomes a race against time as the rescuers search for a needle in a haystack, and the downed crew must survive with no food against unforgiving weather.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 15th, 2005
Synopsis
John Woo did not just direct Tom Cruise from a big rock in Mission Impossible:2, nor EVERY recent action movie with featuring either Nicolas Cage or John Travolta. He was only a name you heard about whenever the hot director of the moment (Quentin Tarantino comes to mind) talked about their film influences. Woo was recognized as a top directing talent before his move to the West, and is the one name people consistently mention when talking about the Hong Kong crime/action film genre. This fi...m was his last before coming to the US, his American debut was Hard Target, and following that were several other action films. His creativity and action sequences seemed to resuscitate the American action film, which, until that point, had stagnated for a few years. One can only subject oneself to so many Chuck Norris 80’s action films without losing sanity.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 11th, 2005
Synopsis
Captain Blood (1935) is the picture that made Errol Flynn a star, and paired him for the first time of many with Olivia De Havilland. There had been pirate movies before (Douglas Fairbanks was the star in them), but this became the new high watermark of the genre. Flynn plays a doctor who is unjustly accused of treason and shipped off to a life of slavery in the colonies. He fights back, eventually becoming the pirate of the title, but always remaining an honourable man, of course. Th...s is a terrific swashbuckler, and its worthy descendant today would not be the entertaining but shallow Pirates of the Carribean, but Master and Commander.
