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Drama

Heart of Me, The

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

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Synopsis

In 1934, Helena Bonham Carter comes to live with sister Olivia Williams and her husband,Paul Bettany. Bonham Carter is the bad girl, always rebellious, while Wiliams is very proper andsomething of a cold fish. Williams wants to fix her sister up with a man, but she clearly didn’tcount on that man being her husband. Bettany and Bonham Carter begin a furtive affair, whichtakes a sudden turn when she becomes pregnant. Flash forward to 1946. Bettany appears to havebeen killed i…
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Little Red

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 16th, 2004

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Film

Ah, Baltimore. The Inner Harbor, Camden Yards, Preakness, corrupt government officials, devastating crime rate, as well as a nasty STD epidemic to boot. You gotta love my hometown. But what Baltimore has in negative traits, it makes up for it with creativity. If you have caught HBO’s The Corner or The Wire, you see that Baltimore’s issues can make for captivating television. While Little Red isn’t on the level of these excellent shows, it does have a certain level of amateur charm …
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Grapes of Wrath, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 15th, 2004

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Synopsis

Henry Fonda is Tom Joad, returning home after serving four years in prison for killing aman. He arrives to find the farms of Oklahoma devastated by drought, and all the familiesdispossessed of their land. He and his family become part of the great migration from the DustBowl to the Eden of California. There they face exploitation, persecution and misery, andFonda’s rage at the injustice grows.

John Steinbeck’s enormous novel found a stunning screen incarnation in th…
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Playboys, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 12th, 2004

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Synopsis

Robin Wright is Tara. Not only is she the most beautiful woman in her small village, she isalso a single mother, which means some tough sledding in the Ireland of 1957. She is turned onand persecuted by the community, even as the men lust after her. Constable Albert Finney isparticularly obsessed with winning her, and he doesn’t take it well at all when she falls for AidanQuinn, who arrives with an itinerant band of actors.

There are plenty of serious topics being d…
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Tully

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

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Film

While walking in a junkyard, a character says, “This place has a lot of treasures.” That statement could also be used to describe one of the many powerful scenes that are treasures in this film. Not that this film is anything close to a junkyard. Nominated for a few Independent Spirit Awards in major categories, Tully is a moving film that uses several wonderfully understated performances to tell its story about a troubled family.

On a Nebraska farm, patriarch Tully Coates, Sr. (Bob B…
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Beyond Borders

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

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Synopsis

In 1984, Angelina Jolie has just married into English society when a charity ball she isattending is crashed by Clive Owen, who rails against phony, self-serving gestures towardsforeign aid. Stung, Jolie travels to Ethiopia to work with Owen at a refugee camp during thefamine. She finds her calling. The film then jumps forward, and we see Jolie periodically leavingEngland and her failing marriage to travel to a hot spot (Cambodia, Chechnya). Each time, herrelationship with …
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Tempted

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 9th, 2004

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I’ve found a new crime genre: New Orleans noir. I’ve seen a few of these in the past month. The films seem to be about the flawed people of Louisiana (the Pelican State, by the way) and center around steamy murders and love affairs. All made with a certain bayou charm. Tempted is another movie that fits this pattern. It has all the makings of a guilty pleasure.

Tempted stars, Stroker Ace himself, Burt Reynolds as a well known New Orleans business magnate who hires a young stud employee (…
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Angels Don’t Sleep Here

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 8th, 2004

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Angels Don’t Sleep Here is the stuff of crime melodrama: long forgotten murders, revenge, twin brothers, and corrupt public officials. It’s a mild foray into the genre. The film knows the notes but not the music; but the actors, or the instruments, (if we continue the music metaphor) really save the day.

Dana Ashbrook (from Twin Peaks) plays a forensic specialist who returns to an unnamed city to start poking around about his long lost twin brother. The trail leads to a DA (Kelly Rutherford)…
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Lush

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 5th, 2004

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Warning: Do not be taken in by the cover of this DVD. With iron gates, murky lighting, and a creepy stone angel, Lush has the appearance of a gothic horror film. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Lush is one of those quirky crime dramas. You know the ones I mean…eccentric characters, a unique soundtrack, off kilter comedy scenes, and a murder plot. The Coen Brothers have made an art out of this kind of film. Lush tries really hard to make inroads into the genre.

The story …
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Masked and Anonymous

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 3rd, 2004

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Synopsis

The setting is an unnamed country, that could be the US, or could be somewhere in LatinAmerica. Either way, the government is repressive and corrupt, the economy is in a shambles,guerilla warfare is constant, and society is approaching total collapse. Bent impresarios JohnGoodman and Jessica Lange are mounting a TV benefit concert, but the only star they can get isJack Fate, a thinly disguised version of Bob Dylan, played by the man himself. Cynical reporterJeff Bridges is …
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Liability Crisis

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 1st, 2004

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Liability Crisis tells the tale of Paul, a man obsessed with Hitler and the Holocaust. This obsession threatens relationships with the women in his life. Sounds like an interesting premise. But art is all in the execution.

The leads in the film are played by Jim Helsinger and Mirjana Jokovic. Helsinger has the potential to look good on screen, but the bad lighting gives off an unnatural brown pallor to his skin. His performance fluctuates between veracious and just plain awkward. Jokovic, an ac…
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Without a Trace (Sin Dejar Huella)

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 27th, 2004

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Synopsis

Two young women, each with their own problems. Marilu is a con artist, currently involvedwith selling fake Mayan art. She has to deal with the Mexican police, and one officer inparticular, who has carnal designs on her. Aurelia is coming to the end of her maternity leave,and is facing going back to work at a sweatshop. Said sweathshop is in an area where some 250women have already been killed by a serial killer. Aurelia steals her drug-dealer boyfriend’s stashand money, and…
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Baby, The Rain Must Fall

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 27th, 2004

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Synopsis

Lee Remick travels to Columbus, Texas, so her young daughter can meet the father she hasnever known. Steve McQueen is but recently out of jail, and rather than settling down, dreams ofbeing a songwriter and singer. He is surprised to see Remick and daughter, but welcomes them.He is too volatile for life to be happy, however, and in spite of the best efforts of gentle deputyDon Murray to keep things in line, the situation grows every more dire.

Lee Remick is one of c…
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Naked Jane

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 27th, 2004

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Synopsis

Jane (Renee Stahl) drifts through contemporary LA. She wants to be a writer, but is reluctantto share her uncompleted work in her writing class. She makes a living typing up term papers.She has a model boyfriend, who is off doing a shoot in Italy and misses her terribly, but she isn’tsure what she feels about him (if anything at all). Then there’s the memory of a car crash thattorments her. Enter an young artist, with whom she begins an affair…

This is very much a…
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Wonderland

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 27th, 2004

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If you’re passing through the video store and see a movie on a shelf that looks like the cover of Motley Crue’s album “Too Fast for Love”…you’ll be disappointed…or relieved (depending on how you feel about the Crue). The movie is James Cox’s Wonderland. Wonderland is a film about the porn star John C. Holmes (Val Kilmer) at the end of his tether. Towards the end of his life, Holmes, famously, got involved in a series of crimes known as the Wonderland Murders, which are dramatized in this movie. I wo…
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Grand Hotel

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

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Synopsis

We are in a magnificent art deco hotel in Berlin. Here we come to know a disparate groupof characters: the world-weary ballerina (Garbo), the gentleman thief (John Barrymore), thedying man on a last spending binge (Lionel Barrymore), the scheming stenographer (JoanCrawford), and the unsavoury tycoon (Wallace Beery). These characters’ lives intersect andcollide over the course of a momentous night.

This is not the best-written Hollywood production. The plot is implau…
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Bang, Bang, You

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 22nd, 2004

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Synopsis

On the outside, Rivervale High seems like a typical suburban school, filled with a largely white, middle-class population. New student Jenny Dahlquist (Jane McGregor) quickly discovers the divisive cliques that polarize the campus when she tries to find a seat in the cafeteria. Cheerleaders, jocks, druggies, preppies, skateboarders, nerds—they’ve all staked their territory in the lunchroom, and don’t tolerate outsiders. At an empty table sits Trevor, the ultimate loner/outcast. Dubbed “The M…
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Pentagon Papers, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 22nd, 2004

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In 1967, a top secret document was commissioned by the government, tracing the United States’ history with the Vietnam war. This history went as far back as the 1940’s. The result was a 7,000 page document. In 1971, a defense department official and former Rand corporation employee, Daniel Ellsberg, secretly photocopied these “Pentagon Papers” and released them to the New York Times. Then President, Richard Nixon, called Ellsberg’s act “treasonable”. FX and Paramount’s television production of The Pentagon Pa…
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Blow-Up

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 21st, 2004

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Synopsis

David Hemmings is a jaded photographer plying his trade in Swinging Sixties’ London. Outtaking pictures in a park, he shoots a series of pictures of a couple apparently having anargument. The woman in the pictures (Vanessa Redgrave) subsequently turns up at Hemmings’studio, wanting the pictures back. Even more mysterious is a shot Hemmings took sometimelater, after the argument. Is there a body in the picture? The more he blows up the picture,seeking the answer, the grainie…
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Great Ziegfeld, The

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

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MGM keeps rolling out the Best Picture award winners. A few weeks ago it was Mutiny on the Bounty, this time it’s The Great Ziegfeld . I think Ziegfeld belongs in the category of those Best Picture winners that aren’t necessarily the best films for that year (Driving Miss Daisy?? C’mon). I actually prefer Frank Capra’s Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Gregory La Cava’s seminal screwball comedy My Man Godfrey (starring Ziegfeld’s own William Powell). The Great Ziegfeld al…
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Wuthering Heights (MTV)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 18th, 2004

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MTV is getting used to productions about provocative love affairs. Just look at Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson at this year’s MTV produced Super Bowl. So in their production of a modern updating of Emily Bronte’s novel “Wuthering Heights”, MTV throws in everything but the nipple.

“Wuthering Heights” is a benchmark of Gothic Romantic literature. It tells the tale of a doomed and frenzied love between the two protagonists, Heathcliff and Cathy. “Wuthering Heights” has been adapted for film and tel…
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Mrs. Miniver

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 18th, 2004

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Synopsis

Our story begins in 1939, just before the outbreak of WWII. The Minivers (Greer Garsonand Walter Pidgeon) enjoy an idyllic existence in a charming town where the biggest controversyis over whether the station master Henry Travers should be entering his rose against localaristocrat Dame May Witty’s in the flower competition. But then the war comes, and little bylittle, it reaches into the lives of the townspeople, wreaking ever more havoc. Through it all,Garson remains a tow…
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American Gun

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

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Synopsis

When James Coburn’s daughter (Virgina Madsen) is senselessly killed, he becomes obsessedwith tracing the ownership of the gun that killed her. He criss-crosses the country, wrestling withhis own demons (such as his terrible memories of the World War II) at the same time as wewitness the bloody history of the gun.

Mourning is an almost completely undramatic condition, a fact that hobbled (to a degree)In the Bedroom and The Son’s Room. American Gun’s solution is to adda quest narrative to the story of grief, and this does provide a needed dramatic arc, though thetone barely fluctuates from low-key misery. The resolution is problematic. It drives home thetragedy of guns, but does so perhaps a bit too obviously – anyone watching this film will alreadybe on-side. Even more troublesome is the pat conclusion that is created, one very much at oddswith the rest of the film. Interesting work then, and a fine final turn from Coburn, but a mixedsuccess, at best.

Audio

The 2.0 track is a very effective example of its kind. This is, for the most part, a very quietfilm, so there often isn’t any sound to be distributed to the front and rear. When there are soundeffects available (such as during Coburn’s war flashbacks), the surround is excellent, withproperly deafening explosions. The music is well handled too, with some nicely sensitiveplacement (the music fading to the rear, for instance, just as dialogue emerges from the frontspeakers). There is one moment where a character sighs, and the sound of the sigh turns into asurround effect, which is jarring.

Video

The picture is has good flesh tones and moody, dark colours that are never muddy. Theblacks are fine. The image is, generally, quite sharp, though some of the long shots are softer thanI would like. The edge enhancement is generally minimal, barring the odd instance where itbecomes noticeable.

Special Features

The menu is basic. Other than trailers for Dirty Pretty Things, The MagdaleneSisters and Only the Strong Survive, there’s an A&E Biography episode onCoburn.

Closing Thoughts

A very worthy effort, even if it is a bit too didactic for its own good.

Special Features List

“James Coburn: Bang the Gong” A&E Biography
Trailers

Lost in Translation

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 14th, 2004

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If Sofia Coppola hasn’t redeemed herself from the whole The Godfather, Part III debacle by now, then it simply can’t be done. Lost in Translation is a beautiful film, the likes of which are rarely seen on this side of the Atlantic. (Of course, to be fair, the film was filmed entirely on location in Tokyo.)

Shot on a shoestring budget, Coppola has definitely made a mountain out of a molehill with this film, taking her small story of two ships that cross in the night, and making that night as br…
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Peyton Place

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

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Synopsis

Welcome to Peyton Place, a charming New England town, and as picture-perfect a postcardof the 1950s as you could hope to fine. Except for all the rape, incest, and murder, that is. LanaTurner is the repressed mother trying to protect her daughter from the real world. Lee Philips isthe dashing new principle who courts Turner. Arthur Kennedy is the drunken janitor withunhealthy designs on his step-daughter. Russ Tamblyn is the quiet boy with the domineeringmother, and he year…
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