Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 5th, 2006
Synopsis
Knowing that Stormy Weather is the title of a song that helped vault Lena Horne (The Wiz) into celebrity fandom, I had very little other ideas about her. But the cool thing that I discovered while watching the film is that, for the age of this film, it’s better than anyone would possibly think.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 16th, 2005
Synopsis
Pooja (Kirti Reddy) dreams of being a film director, but the old boys at the ad agency she works for are constantly brushing her off. When she meets singer Kabir (Abhishek Bachchan), she thinks she could use his talent, but he is hoping for a more romantic relationship. She, meanwhile, is attracted to her boss’s son, but then things become further complicated when she has to pretend to be engaged to Kabir in order to save her job.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 7th, 2005
Synopsis
Three of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s fantastic tales were made into an opera by Jacques Offenbach, and that opera was in turn transformed into this 1951 film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Robert Rounseville takes the lead as a fictional version of Hoffmann himself. While pining after a ballerina, whose love is being stolen from him by an evil aristocrat, he spins three tales of unrequited and doomed love, where in he falls in love first with an automaton, then a soul-stealing (literally) c...urtesan, and then with a consumptive singer. Light as the music often is, and explosively colourful as the fantastic sets are, there is still a lot of darkness in the film, as befits the subject matter (the automaton story, for instance, is based on “The Sandman,” possibly Hoffmann’s creepiest tale). An entirely sung film won’t find favour with every audience, but this is a very effective transposition to cinema (it isn’t stagy at all), and is a visually unique work of art.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 23rd, 2005
Inspired by the 1936 anti-marijuana propaganda film, Reefer Madness is a musical by Showtime. The film stars Steven Weber as Jack, Ana Gasteyer as Mae, John Kassir as Ralph, Amy Spanger as Sally, Neve Campbell as Miss Poppy, and Robert Torti as Jesus. The film was a pretty fun watch especially if you enjoy musicals.
Directed by Andy Fickman from the screenplay by Kevin Murphy & Dan Studney based on their musical stage play, the three men also serve as the film's executive producers. Reefer Madness< ...i> is musical that works best if you have a knowledge of the original subject. The basic story of Reefer Madness remains basically the same as the 1936 version, although now Bill and Jimmy are combined so the kid in trouble is now Jimmy "the Cannibis Killer" Harper (Christian Campbell).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 17th, 2005
Synopsis
Subtitled “The Best of the Tony Awards,” this is a collection of 23 performances from the Awards show broadcasts. The net is cast pretty wide here as far as the years are concerned, so you get to see a young Jerry Orbach (for instance) performing “Promise, Promises” from 42nd Street. Carol Channing, Robert Goulet, Tommy Tune and Harvey Fierstein are the hosts. Fans of musical theatre should expect miracles here, but this is of considerable archival interest.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 10th, 2005
Synopsis
Frustrated by vicissitudes of Depression-era life, Dorothy wishes she were somewhere else. She gets her wish in ways she couldn’t have imagined, as a tornado drops her into the magical world of Oz. Accompanied by the brain-free Scarecrows, heartless Tin Man and cowardly Lion, she sets out on a quest to return home. In order to be granted that wish by the all-powerful Wizard, she must first defeat the Wicked Witch of the West.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 7th, 2005
Synopsis
Things don’t get much more anodyne than this storyline, showcasing an impossibly idealized family and their trials of love and prize pigs as they travel to the eponymous event. This is strictly for the nostalgic and pure fans of Rodgers and Hammerstein (the songs generally are not as culturally engrained as those of Oklahoma!). There are two versions of the film here, and the 1945 take is easily the better of the two. The 1962 remake (and the third film by this name, a non-musical ver...ion having appeared in 1933) has Pat Boone in the lead (never a good sign) and is even more plastic. This version does, however, have Ann-Margaret pulling a bit of a show-stopper with her dance number.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 4th, 2005
Synopsis
You don’t really care about the plot, do you? Gordon MacRae is romancing famr girl Shirley Jones, but thuggish Rod Steiger also has designs on her. And so on. But it’s the songs that matter: “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,” “The Surrey with the Fringe On Top,” “I’m Just a Girl Who Can’t Say No.” And one could go on for much longer. The list is of tunes that one is familiar with without even knowing it, so completely have they permeated the mass consciousness. Fred Zinnemann’s film is handsome...and energetic without placing it in the same league as Singin’ in the Rain, and one might suspect that there is a touch too much attention paid to the technical, spectacle side of things, something that is reflected in the extras, but more on that below.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 23rd, 2005
Synopsis
The setting is a prestigious black college, and the set-up is along the lines of what you would expect in a college-set musical: conflicts between the black-uniformed frat brothers and the political activists (of which the leader is a young Laurence Fishburne), gender wars and misunderstandings right, left and centre, and plenty of music. It’s all very lively, but not nearly as funny as Lee clearly thinks it is (see notes on commentary below). The bigger question is whether the satire and po...nted politics are able to survive the knockabout gags, and whether the movie actual works as a cohesive whole.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 15th, 2005
Synopsis
