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Genre

Double Life, A

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 19th, 2003

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Synopsis

Ronald Colman, in an Oscar-winning performance (1948), plays an actor who takes methodacting to the extreme. He truly disappears into his roles, and this becomes a problem when hiscurrent project is Othello. Little by little he loses touch with reality, with consequences that provedeadly for waitress Shelley Winters. Filled with delicious portraits of the New York theatrescene, with top talent both behind and in front of the camera, this is a strong thriller. Highlyrecommen…
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Blood on the Sun

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 19th, 2003

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Synopsis

James Cagney plays a hard-boiled newspaper editor in pre-WWII Tokyo. He gets wind ofa Japanese baron’s plans for world conquest, and risks his life (with the help of Chinese-American spy Sylvia Sidney) to expose the dastardly plot. We even get some early martial artsaction with Cagney jodo-chopping his way through men twice his (diminuitive) size. Be aware,though, that the film was made in 1945 and shows it, with all but one of the Japanese charactersportrayed as unidimensi…
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My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 17th, 2003

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If ever a movie could be negatively affected by monstrous box office numbers, it’s My Big Fat Greek Wedding. When a five million dollar film rides a tsunami of critical buzz and excellent word-of-mouth past the two hundred million dollar box office gross (finally ending somewhere over $230 million), it’s impossible to see it for the first time completely free of expectation. Perhaps this was my mistake, because I went into my first viewing of the king of sleeper hits excited to a super-duper romantic comedy. …
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Nightstalker

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 17th, 2003

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Synopsis

The time is the summer of 1985, and Richard Ramirez, who became known as theNightstalker, is roaming the streets, randomly entering homes and slaughtering the peopletherein. Rookie cop Roselyn Sanchez becomes involved in the search to find the killer, andstruggles both with inexperience and hostility from her male colleagues. That’s about all thereit to the plot, which is simplified almost to the point of short-hand, and in place of more elaboratedevelopment we get extended…
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Gangs of New York

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 17th, 2003

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In 1927 Herbert Asbury published a book entitled The Gangs of New York: An informal history of the Underworld. This book would prove to be the inspiration for Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. This film was originally supposed to start filming in the late 1970’s, and after numerous delays and many financial issues, the film finally came to fruition in 2002.

It is an epic film of staggering proportions about a little known part of the history of the United States and New York City. We follow a story filled with both real and fictional characters through the slums of the lower Manhattan’s Five Points.
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Mute Witness

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 16th, 2003

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Synopsis

Marina Sudina is Billy Hughes, a make-up artist on an American film being shot in Moscow.She is also mute. Accidentally locked in the studio after hours, and unable to call for someoneto let her out, Sudina stumbles upon the making of a snuff movie. Pursued by the murderers, sheescapes, but her problems are only beginning. The snuff-makers are highly connected, andSudina soon doesn’t know whom to trust. The heroine’s muteness is deployed for maximumsuspense, and the first h…
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Implicated

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 16th, 2003

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Synopsis

Amy Locane thinks she has found her soulmate in William McNamara, but in reality he issimply using her in a complicated kidnapping scheme. He fools her into believing that she isbabysitting a young girl, when in fact she is the unwitting accomplice of the kidnapping. Howwill she escape and save the child without running afoul of the police herself? Though blessedwith some stylish (if derivative) flourishes, the film is sunk by flat performances and the jaw-dropping banality…
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Vampires

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 16th, 2003

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As a film, John Carpenter’s Vampires leaves a lot to be desired. The story is average and has been done before, and the acting is questionable at best. I just cannot appreciate James Woods as a bad ass Vampire Killer. Vampires does contain a number of scenes that build tension and effectively instill some horror, but you will not be traumatized by the scariness of this film. Yes, there are a few sequences that look very good in terms of the cinematography, and there is some nice gore and violence, but you w…
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Devil Commands, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 15th, 2003

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Synopsis

Boris Karloff adds Dr. Julian Blair to his collection of mad doctor roles. Here he starts offperfectly sane and well-respected, having just developed a device that records brain-waves.When his wife is killed in an accident, he is overcome with grief, and, one night in his lab, hismachine records a new transmission of his wife’s brain-waves. Karloff becomes obsessed withcommunicating with her, stopping at nothing in his quest, along the way frying the mind of hisservant and …
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Chasing Amy

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 15th, 2003

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Film

The film starts out in a comic convention, where we are introduced to Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Jason Lee), the co-creators of the smash hit book “Bluntman and Chronic.” Holden is an artist who feels trapped into his commercial success, afraid he’ll always be known as “the guy who invented Bluntman and Chronic.” His partner and best friend of 20 years, Banky, is justifiably unapologetic for their success; he likes having his name on something that everyone recognizes. It’s …
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City Hunter

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 14th, 2003

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Quite possibly the worst Jackie Chan film ever … strike that … quite possibly one of the worst films ever, City Hunter is a live-action film based off of the Japanese anime of the same name. Here, Chan plays private detective Ryu Saeba, who, along with his partner, Kaori (Joey Wong), are hired to track down the missing daughter of a wealthy Japanese publishing tycoon.

Ryu is quite the ladies man and his initial thoughts of turning the job down vanish once he sees a picture of the magnate’s beautiful ru…
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The In-Laws (1979)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 13th, 2003

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The In-Laws was one of those films that just never fit neatly into any safe category. Recently I’ve been ask to describe it to others who had not seen it before. If your only point of reference is the recent remake with Michael Douglas, run to your nearest rental store and look up this gem of an original. Peter Falk is best known, of course, for the rumpled-raincoat detective, Columbo. While many of his Columbo mannerisms are in evidence in this film (that outstretched hand to the head and his gravelly low mumbles) the character is really quite removed from Columbo.
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I Love You to Death

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 13th, 2003

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Synopsis

Rosalie Boca is married to Joey, a pizza maker and womanizer. When she catches him with another woman she decides that he must go. With the help of her mother, the new age busboy and drug-addled cousins Harlan and Marlon, she attempts to send Joey on his way to the big pizza pie in the sky. Based on a true story truth really is stranger then fiction in this story of love and infidelity.

Video

Presented in both a 1.85:1 widescreen format and a 1.33:1 fullscreen v…
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Inn of the Sixth Happiness, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 12th, 2003

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Synopsis

Based on the life of Gladys Aylward, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness features IngridBergman as Aylward (granted, Bergman’s accent makes her an unlikely Englishwoman, but shealso played a cockney wench in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, so what the hell). Desperate to be amissionary, but turned down by the society she approaches, Bergman makes her own way toChina, where her extreme goodness soon wins over everyone in sight. At the climax, during theJapanese invasion of China, she must…
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Loving

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 11th, 2003

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Synopsis

Brooks Wilson (George Segal) is a professional illustrator. His career is muddling along, butwill take a giant leap forward if he can land Sterling Hayden as a client. His marriage with EvaMarie Saint is closing in on some dangerous shoals, and the same is true of his affair with JanisYoung. His life is very close to spinning out of his control, and over the course of the film, thatis exactly what happens. Ignore the case, which refers to Loving as “a shattering tale of roman…
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O Brother Where Art Thou?

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 11th, 2003

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Joyously unhinged and very inventive, O Brother Where Art Thou? is the latest film from the imaginative minds of the Coen brothers. Based very roughly (and loosely) on Homer’s “Odyssey”, it’s a Depression-era musical about three convicts who escape from a chain gang to unearth a buried treasure, get one of the men home to be reunited with his wife, become overnight musical sensations as “The Soggy Bottom Boys”, and at the same time, elude a bloodthirsty team of Mississippi lawmen. For those of you who don’t …
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Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PC Games)

Posted in Game Reviews by Archive Authors on July 10th, 2003

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Written by Jason Franz

I can’t remember the last time I’ve installed a game on my PC that had so many entertaining qualities matched with such brilliant gameplay. All too often PC developers focus on the eye candy and give gameplay little thought. WithGTA: Vice City, Rockstar not only avoided that problem, but they take us back to the glory days of fun PC gaming.

After an effortless installation I fired up the game, configured my settings and began my journey as Tommy Vercetti, on my way to terrorizing the b…
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Target, The

Posted in 1.33:1 Fullscreen, Action, Artisan Entertainment, Disc Reviews, Dolby Digital 2.0 (English), Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), DVD by Archive Authors on July 10th, 2003

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Synopsis

Professional hit man Christopher Lambert is given a new contract, but this one doesn’tinvolve killing. He is to travel from Europe to Cape Town (where his parents were killed whenhe was but a wee lad) and protect Dennis Hopper, a businessman with mob ties who is going totestify against psychopathic gangster Christo. Even in jail, Christo’s reach is long and deadly, andLambert has his work cut out for him protecting the very unpleasant Hopper and his daughter.So far, so conventional…
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All That Jazz

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 9th, 2003

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It’s showtime!

Dead for nearly two decades now, choreographer/director Bob Fosse (Cabaret, Lenny, All That Jazz) created this sardonic semi-autobiographical tale that takes a long, hard look at his compulsive and neurotic life that was rife with women, sex and smokes, as well as some rather serious alcohol and drug abuse.

In All That Jazz, Fosse is embodied in Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider), a Broadway choreographer who can’t face the day without his usual regiment …
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Shield, The – Complete First Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 9th, 2003

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FX decided to jump on the cable bandwagon last year and come up with their very own original series, The Shield. The show stars Michael Chiklis, formerly of The Commish, as Vic Mackey, a hard-nosed Los Angeles detective that gives bad cops a good name – but in a bad way.

Mackey is head of a tactical Strike Team that is comprised of plainclothes officers working in one of the most crime-ridden areas of Los Angeles – the Farmingdale District. Mackey’s group shows impressive results however – s…
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Avenging Angelo

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 9th, 2003

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Synopsis

Sylvester Stallone is Frankie Delano, bodyguard to Anthony Quinn (in his final filmappearance). Quinn, an aging mobster, is tidying up his life, and spending most of his timewatching his daughter (Madeleine Stowe) from a distance. He had to give her up in her infancy,otherwise she would have been killed in a vendetta, and she does not know who her father is.Stallone, natch, has long since fallen in love with Stowe after decades of watching her from afar.When Quinn is murder…
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UHF

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 9th, 2003

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UHF is one of those cult films that has gained quite a following over the years. Fans of the film have been clamoring for a DVD release for many months now and somewhere in the hallowed halls of MGM, someone did something about it. The company is going to release a full-blown DVD of the film on June 4th that will appease the dozens and dozens of “Weird Al” Yankovic fans everywhere.

UHF is total satire and plays almost like the old Landis Kentucky Fried Movie from the 70’s. It’s target…
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Mutant Aliens

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 8th, 2003

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Synopsis

Twenty years ago, astronaut Earl Jensen blasts off into space, only to be betrayed Earthsideby the evil Dr. Frubar. Earl loses his fuel and drifts off into space. In the present, he returns, benton revenge, and accompanied by a group of strange and ferocious creatures. Summarized thus,the film sounds nowhere near as bizarre as it actually is. But wait until you see what happenedto Earl while he was in space for 20 years. This you should discover for yourself, but I will say…
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Intacto

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 7th, 2003

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Synopsis

The central premise is that luck is a real force, a gift that people are born with but can betaken away. Deep in the bowels of a mysterious casino (one that sits in the middle of mountainwasteland) lives Max Von Sydow in Howard Hughes-like seclusion. He appears to be the darkgod of luck, capable of stealing any trace of your like by a single touch, and this is precisely whathe does to a protege who wants to strike out on his own. This latter, deprived of his own luck,seeks …
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Tsui Hark’s Vampire Hunters

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 7th, 2003

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Synopsis

The plot is an almost completely disconnected series of set pieces, and so defies easysynopsis. Essentially, a group of vampire hunters track a vampire king to the home of a richeccentric. Many battles ensue, and they are the main reason for watching this. The comedy islame, and the characterization non-existent. So many things happen, but for so little reason andwith so little relation to each other, that the story manages to be both frenzied and meandering.Apart from a fe…
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