Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 27th, 2005
Gone in 60 Seconds is a guilty pleasure - its vacuous and superficial, full of typical Hollywood produced "guy-movie" cues. Cars, guns, explosions, anti-heros, and Angelina Jolie abound, as well as comically evil villains, comically thin plot devices, and comically honourable car thieves. All that being said, though, the movie is great for what it is - a typical Bruckheimer celebration of over-the-top action. Its fun to get lost in the action, and director Dominic Sena imparts a great sense of ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 21st, 2005
Synopsis
Diabolik (John Phillip Law) is a master criminal, pulling off one spectacular robbery after another to the endless frustration of the police. Ruthless and amoral, he nonetheless deeply loves Eva (Marisa Mell), and will risk everything to protect her. As his crimes become ever more spectacular, and the government teeters on the brink of chaos, even organized crime is pressed into service in order to capture the man.
There were plenty of films of this type in the late sixties in the ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 2nd, 2005
Synopsis
Steve McQueen is Doc McCoy, master thief. Having just been denied parole, he asks wife Ali McGraw to make a bargain with political fixer Ben Johnson to get him out. This she does, but what McQueen doesn’t realize is that the deal not only involved McQueen’s participation in a bank job, but also McGraw sleeping with Johnson. In short order, the robbery goes wrong, and husband and wife are on the run.
From its punchy, jaggedly edited credit sequence on, this is Peckinpah at his most ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 27th, 2005
Synopsis
Jimmy Wang Yu is trying to scrape together the cash for his sister’s eye operation, but hekeeps getting involved in fights, and the need to pay fines and whatnot is actually pushing thefamily towards bankruptcy. Meanwhile, in Japan, a ferocious grandmother has been training herthree grandsons their entire life to be killing machines intent on taking revenge on the man sheblames for her wartime suicides of her daughter and son-in-law. That man is Jimmy’s father. Thestage is ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 22nd, 2005
Assault on Precinct 13 is a remake of the 1976 John Carpenter classic (which is remake of the Howards Hawks western Rio Bravo). The plot scenario is something we've all seen before. Our heroes are holed up in an indoor arena (in this case, a precinct), trying to keep the outside forces at bay. In this case, the hero is Jake Roenick (played by Ethan Hawke). On New Year's Eve, and with the closing of the precinct looming, crimelord Bishop (played by Laurence Fishburne)is dumped off at the office. A s...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 16th, 2005
The Bodyguard is silly. Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner star this decade old thriller/romance. Houston plays Rachel Marron, a pop singer. Not much of stretch back then, these days...not so much. Costner plays Frank Farmer, bodyguard to the stars. It seems as though Marron is receiving death threats. Enter Frank Farmer. A romance eventually develops. This is this the stuff of high camp. Instead, we get low camp. The Bodyguard is not quite bad enough to be Showgirls, and not quite good ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 6th, 2005
There are a lot of dumb movies out there. But there's a good kind of dumb and a bad kind of dumb. National Treasure falls into the good dumb category. Nicholas Cage plays Ben Gates, a treasure hunter, an archaeologist I'm really not sure. But his mission is to steal the Declaration of Independence in order to prevent the "bad" archaeologists from taking it. Make sense? There are hidden clues, apparently, in this document which lead to hidden treasure. A treasure Gates' grandfather (played by Christophe...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 1st, 2005
When first reading the synopsis of Control I thought that it would be something similar to the Michael Keaton-Andy Garcia movie Desperate Measures, and how violent criminals can be reformed somehow. Lee Ray (Ray Liotta, Goodfellas), a convicted criminal sentenced to death, is offered the chance to start life anew with the help of counseling from Dr. Copeland (Willem Dafoe, Spider-Man), along with some behavior suppressing drugs.
And of course, Lee Ray resists at first, but soon g...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 1st, 2005
Synopsis
This is an interesting collection, with two of the films being among the most famous SteveMcQueen was ever involved with, and the other two being noticeably less high profile. TheMagnificent Seven (1960) is one of the last and greatest of the straightforward westerns,before the deconstruction of the genre at the hands of Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah, andeven here the death of the west is foregrounded theme, with Yul Brynner, McQueen, JamesCoburn, Charles Bronson an...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 28th, 2005
Sony once again hits us with not only a double dip, but a triple dip release of xXx. What started out as a Special Edition, evolved into a Superbit release, and has now ultimately become the Uncensored Unrated Director’s Cut of the film. What is different this time around you ask… well, you get 8 more minutes of action and skin.
Let me guess… you want more specifics don’t you? Well here is what has been added… The scene with the girl “dancing” in Xander’s room has been extended. The...
