collectorz.com.jpg

Drama

Judgment at Nuremberg

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 13th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Spencer Tracy arrives in Nuremberg to sit as chief justice at a war crimes tribunal. In thedock are three judges and a prosecutor, accused of crimes against humanity. Chief among theaccused judges is Burt Lancaster, whose record prior to the Nazi era was exemplary. Theprosecutor is Richard Widmark, driven to fight for justice no matter what the wider geo-politicalcontext might be. Defending the accused is Maximilian Schell (who won an Oscar), stopping atnothing to protect h…
Read More

Air America

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 12th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

There was a time, even as late as the 90’s, when making an anti-American film was still taboo in Hollywood. Of course today, movies like Fahrenheit 9/11 are big money makers, but for many years, such films were discouraged. Air America is one of the rare exceptions to this rule. This may be due to the fact that it was disguised as a comedy about the Vietnam conflict, but no matter how you look at it, the film is quite critical of the US government, and it makes some pretty scathing accusations about our…
Read More

Judas

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 11th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

It’s the story of Jesus one more time (stop me if you’ve already heard it), in this instance seenthrough the eyes of Judas (Johnathon Schaech). Enraged by the oppression of his people, Judasis a would-be revolutionary who believes he sees in Jesus the leader he has been hoping for, onewho will lead the Jews in a revolt against the Romans. He is increasingly disillusioned by Jesus’lack of commitment to armed resistance, and the bitter disappointment he feels ultimately leads…
Read More

Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 10th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Based on the life of co-producer/choreographer JoAnn Jansen, this is the tale of RomolaGarai (no more American than her co-star is Cuban, but what the hell), who is uprooted fromthe States when her father is transferred to Havana. Our heroine is very repressed and bookish,but before you know it, she is being taught all sorts of hot moves by waiter Diego Luna.

Situating the love story and the dancing against the backdrop of the looming revolution isadds a bit interes…
Read More

Zorba the Greek

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 26th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Repressed, timid writer Alan Bates arrives in Crete with the goal of re-opening a mine leftto him by his father. On the way to the small village where he will live, he hooks up with theexuberant Zorba (Anthony Quinn, who, as an American of Irish and Mexican extraction, is nomore Greek than Bates). Bates puts Quinn in charge of the mine, and Quinn sets himself themission of teaching Bates how to take risks in life.

The broad arc of the story — repressed Anglo-Saxon …
Read More

Spartan

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 20th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

It seems like there have been quite a few dramatic films over the past three years or so that have fallen into this trap of bad marketing. Curiously enough, they all seem to have the same narrative feel, from Heist to Confidence to Spy Games… and now Spartan. I sometimes have a hard time figuring out why some films become hits, and some don’t. (Of course, if I were a master at that, I would be the highest paid man in Hollywood.) I don’t understand how mindless films like Men in Black II…
Read More

Broken Wings

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 13th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Dafna is a midwife, overworked and underpaid, who lost her husband nine months ago andis only barely functional. She dumps most of the familial responsibilities on her eldest daughter,Maya, and doesn’t notice the price that Maya is paying in having to give up her hopes andaspirations. Eldest son Yair has reacted to the death of his father by adopting a despairingphilosophy and dropping out of school. Younger brother Ido is tormented by bullies and wetshis bed. And youngest …
Read More

3-Way

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 2nd, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

I usually meet discs that contain a movie that I have never previously heard of with a groan. I figure the chances are that if I missed it in theaters, and I have never seen a preview for it, or seen it mentioned on a chat board, there’s probably a good reason. These were my exact feelings on the day that 3-Way arrived on my doorstep. These feelings were further confirmed upon insertion of the disc, when I was greeted by trailers for such classic films as Cruel intentions 2 and 3, and Wild Thi…
Read More

Dreamers, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 29th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

May 1968. Paris is about to explode. Moving at the periphery of events that made whathappened at the same time in the States look like a mild-mannered debate are our threecharacters. American student Michael Pitt is a film buff, religiously attending the screenings atthe Cinémathèque Française. When that institution is closed (an event that helps ignite thepolitical powderkeg), Pitt falls in with two fellow buffs: twin siblings Eva Green and LouisGarrel. When the twins’ parents lea…
Read More

Monsieur Ibrahim

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 29th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

In Paris of the early 60s, a young Moise (Pierre Boulanger) is coming of age. He tends housefor his sullen father, loses his virginity with the help of the local prostitutes, and shoplifts the oddtin from the store of Mr. Ibrahim (Omar Sharif). The older man befriends the boy, and throughhis kindness and wisdom, becomes, effectively, the boy’s true father.

Sharif’s turn as Ibrahim is a performance of immense warmth, one that suffuses the entirefilm. Very welcome to…
Read More

Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 14th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Maggie Smith is Miss Jean Brodie, history teacher at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls in1930’s Edinburgh. Flashy, charismatic, flamboyantly romantic and toweringly arrogant, shegathers around herself a small group of girls who, willing acolytes, follow her everywhere. TheShe is perpetually at war with headmistress Celiea Johnson, has had an affair with married artteacher Robert Stephens (who is still obsessed with her), and is currently dallying with naivemusic teacher Go…
Read More

Park Day

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 14th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Park Day, the opening narration by Steve (Hill Harper) informs us, is a reunion day for theblack community of New Haven, Missouri. On this particular day, the lives of various charactersreach turning points. The most central player is Steve, who wants to be a writer, but meets withresistance from his father, who is pressuring him to go to college to earn a more practicaleducation. Moving through the events of the day is an old man, who may be a supernaturalbeing.

World of Suzie Wong, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 14th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

William Holden is an artist in Hong Kong. After an inane meet-cute, he falls in love withSusie Wong (Nancy Kwan), who turns out to be a prostitute. After the initial romance, all sorts ofteeth-clenching and agonizing of this and that make up the rest of the film. Pure soap-operatics,in other words. Having Holden fall in love with a forbidden woman in Hong Kong is just a bittoo reminiscent of Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (which itself is prettyunintentionally funny…
Read More

Raggedy Rawney, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 11th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

In an unnamed Eurpean country, during an unnamed war (vaguely WWII, but not quite), acompletely green recruit (Dexter Fletcher) is so horrified by his first encounter with combat thathe flees his unit after wounding his commanding officer. He runs across a gypsy caravan, and,disguised as a madwoman (the “rawney” of the title) he joins the band. As if things weren’talready difficult with being pursued by his unit, he also falls in love with the daughter of BobHoskins, the ca…
Read More

Moulin Rouge (1952)

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 11th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Jose Ferrer plays artist Heri de Toulouse-Lautrec. We first see him in full sardonic flight,sketching the denizens of the Moulin Rouge cabaret. He then meets a woman of the streets (whoemphatically does not have a heart of gold) with whom he falls in love, believing she seesbeyond his deformities. She doesn’t. The first half of the film traces this unhappy episode(spending a bit too long in getting to the obvious conclusion), and then we move on to hissuccess as a painter, …
Read More

Wild Party

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 11th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Loosely inspired by the Fatty Arbuckle case, The Wild Party tells the tale of JollyGrimm (James Coco), fading silent movie funnyman. It is 1929, and he is making one last bid fora comeback by premiering his new film at a lavish party that he hosts with his mistress (RaquelWelch). His career is over, though he refuses to admit it. At the party, frustrations, jealousies andsexual shenanigans build to a murderous climax.

I never thought I’d see a film that someh…
Read More

Room with a View, A

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 10th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Joe Queenan is one of my favorite writers. He is the author of wonderfully amusing essays and books dealing with the subject of film. In his book Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler, he is bold enough to take on the challenge of watching every Merchant Ivory film, back-to-back. At one point late in the narrative, he has this to say:

As I sat there in my reclining chair with my kids lighting matches to my feet, I realized that God had created Merchant and Ivory for only one reason: because otherwise …
Read More

Belly of an Architect, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 10th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Brian Dennehy, in perhaps his most colossal performance, plays Stourley Kracklite (how’sthat for a monicker?). This American architect, accompanied by much-younger wife (ChloeWebb), arrives in Rome to curate an elaborate exhibit celebrating an 18th-Century architect withwhom he has been obsessed most of his life. What should be the pinnacle of his career turns intoa nightmare. He suspects his wife is not only having an affair, but that she is poisoning him.

Dennehy’…
Read More

Mystic River

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 7th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

This is the story of the tragic arc traced by the relationship of three friends. Kevin Bacon isa cop, Sean Penn is a shady grocery store owner, and Tim Robbins is a hollow man, irreperablydamaged after being kidnapped by paedophiles as a youth. The three had grown apart, but theirlives intersect fatefully when Penn’s daughter is murdered. Bacon investigates the case, andRobbins cannot satisfactorily account for his actions the night of the murder, much to themounting distre…
Read More

Prick Up Your Ears

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 4th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Joe Orton was at least as controversial (if not more) for who he was than for the plays hewrote. Stephen Frears’ film (say its title aloud and fast and you’ll hear the rude pun) begins withthe murder of Orton (Gary Oldman) at the hands of his lover Kenneth Halliwell (Alfred Molina).Then, as biographer Wallace Shawn sets about reconstructing Orton’s life, the tales of friendsand relations (particularly agent Vanessa Redgrave) lead us into extended flashbacks, showingthe move…
Read More

Company, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 25th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

The Company deals with a fictional season in the life of the Joffrey Ballet ofChicago. In between elaborately filmed ballet numbers, we see the behind the scenes strugglesand preparations, injuries and heartbreaks. The principle characters are Neve Cambell as a dancerwhose moment in the spotlight has finally come. She has attracted the attention of flaky artisticdirector Malcolm McDowell, and finds relief in arms of restaurant chef James Franco.

In some ways,…
Read More

Prey for Rock & Roll

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 23rd, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Gina Gershon, leader of the Clam Dandys, is about to turn 40, and still hasn’t had her bigrock & roll break. She is insecure about aging, and can’t maintain a relationship with either menor women. Also in her band are Lori Petty (guitar teacher by day), Petty’s lover Shelly Cole (thevery young drummer), and the drug-and-booze-and-loser-boyfriend addled Drea De Matteo (thebass player). Then two things happen: there is the possibility that the band might finally get itsbreak,…
Read More

Around the Fire

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 19th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

The time of being a teenager and self discovery can be a difficult one. We watch the life of Simon mainly through flashbacks as he is dealing with his drug addiction. We see a young man who doesn’t seem to fit in with his rich family friends. He finds friendship and comfort with a group who follows bands like Phish and The Dead around the country, getting high and having fun. Simon’s descends into drug addiction driven by the memory of his father betraying his mother just before she dies. The plot has the potential t…
Read More

Sweet Violence (Douce Violence)

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 16th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Welcome to the French Riviera, 1962. The youth are beautiful, aimless, and amoral.Searching for meaning in his life, whiny mope Olivier meets the sweet Barbara. These two mighthave something together, but Olivier must take a wide detour on the way to true love, as he firstfalls in with a pack led by Philippe and Elke (played be, you guessed it, Elke Sommer).

All sorts of hilarious stabs at decadence ensue, as imagined by director/co-scripter MaxPécas, a very conserv…
Read More

Osama

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 16th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

We are in the midst of the Taliban’s brutal rule of Afghanistan. The total suppression of allwomen’s rights means that a widow is on the brink of desperation. She cannot work, or evenleave the house without fearing retribution, as there is no male relative to accompany her. Hermother hits upon a solution born of desperation: the 12-year-old daughter will have her hearshorn, will wear male clothing, and so become “Osama,” a young boy. The subterfuge works. Atfirst.

Read More

«< 76 77 78 79 80 >»