Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 20th, 2006
After Heather (Agnes Bruckner) sets her parent’s tree on fire out of boredom, she is shipped off to a strange boarding school run by Ms. Traverse (Patricia Clarkson), where the woods surrounding the school seem to be slowly devouring the building itself. There’s also the standard issue legend surrounding the history of the school that involves a coven of witches who murdered the school’s head-mistress years before.
Does any of this result in an interesting film? Let’s take a step back before we delve into ...he quality of The Woods...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 19th, 2006
Tom Hanks is sometimes called this generation's Jimmy Stewart. In an odd sort of way, that is sort of a compliment to both men. Both are extraordinary actors who have secured a place in film history as the best of their time at playing the everyman. While such a role would doom other actors to being typecast as the all-time greatest supporting actor, both Hanks and Stewart have been able to pull off the role with amazing versatility.
Clearly, this is not the definitive set of Stewart's work as an actor. For t...at, you would have to include his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window and one of my all time favorite films, Vertigo. Of course, Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life would also have to receive special treatment. The Spirit of St. Louis, which is in this set, would also be there. But what about The Philadelphia Story or Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, you might ask? Yes, those would have to be there too. We are now approaching the problem with putting together a set of Stewart's best movies. If you were to truly include his greatest films, you still might be left with a 20-disc box set. It's best to look at this release for what it is, and not try to play the “but where is...” game. That is a dead end road.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 19th, 2006
With the possible exception of the Vulcans no race has been given a richer history in Star Trek than the Klingons. We need to forget the drastic change in how these bad guys to allies look. In Enterprise this change is finally explained as a genetic experiment gone bad in an episode conspicuously missing from the set. I’m not sure I can criticize the episode selection, as they were voted on at Startrek.com. Still. I don’t like the over usage of repeats these collection sets are plagued with. It’s not like there are...’t a ton of Klingon episodes to pick from to include repeats like Trials and Tribulations from Deep Space Nine. Worf, perhaps the most recognized Klingon, is certainly one of Trek’s most interesting characters. Michael Dorn has essayed the role brilliantly over the years. Worf has grown throughout his run and Dorn deserves as much credit as the writers on that score. All of the Star Trek runs are represented here.
From Enterprise comes the pilot “Broken Bow” which I assume is included mostly as the first contact between Klingons and Humans. I would rather have seen the two-parter explaining the genetic mishap that changed some of the Klingons to human looking folks.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 19th, 2006
The Sci-Fi Channel has certainly gotten its considerable amount of money’s worth from Ronald D. Moore’s reincarnation of Battlestar Galactica. The trouble, at least for me, is that it is still very hard for me to consider this Galactica at all. It might have been better if, as Jack Webb used to say, the names had been changed to protect the innocent. There isn’t much doubt that this version of Galactica is innovative science fiction in its own right. The cinematography is often mind-boggling, if a bit too dark. T...e stories are also quite dark in tone. Here is where Moore misses the point of the original entirely. The first Galactica and Colonial Fleet were fleeing the destruction of their worlds, but with a great deal of hope in finding their long lost brethren: Us. In Moore’s tale, Earth is an almost impossible dream. The entire atmosphere is one of dread and bleakness. Galactica survives almost just for survival’s sake. No one is really living in this fleet. Not to say that Moore’s version can’t make for some compelling drama. It does. Under a different name I think I might actually be able to somewhat embrace this series. I can’t shake the feeling of watching something dear morphed into something it was never intended to be when I see Katee Sackoff addressed as Starbuck. She’s also one of the weakest actors to grace a major science fiction series since Denise Crosby.
OK. So let’s talk about what I DO like about the show. No question it’s the f/x. Moore has a luxury that not even a million dollars an episode could buy you in 1979. With today’s CGI advances, there isn’t very much that can’t be realistically visualized anymore. The fighters are sleek and the space battles are epic. If anything, these dogfights can get entirely too busy. Edward James Olmos is a fine actor and lends a ton of credibility to what is otherwise a fairly weak cast. His earlier concerns have ceased, either by studio edict or an uncharacteristic change of heart. Remember, it was Olmos who warned fans to stay away, offering that they would not be happy with the new show. The scripts are tight and go into depths the original never even attempted.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 16th, 2006
Synopsis
Marilyn Burns, Paul Partain, Allen Danziger, Teri McMinn, William Vail and Gunnar Hansen individually may not be that well known. Collectively, many people might confuse them with some group of lawyers or something. But film history has afforded them a higher place in memory past their initial endeavors. You see, back during the middle of a particularly oppressive heat wave in 1973 Texas, this group, directed by a then-fledging auteur in Tobe Hooper, combined to make what is widely regarded as one...of the best films in horror movie fame, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 14th, 2006
Synopsis
James Marsden plays Tommy, who broke away from his mob-connected family to join the marines. Something goes wrong during the Gulf War, and he lands in the brig. He’s given a second chance by the authorities if he heads back to his old neighbourhood undercover. As he heads back to hook up with his slow brother and violent cousin (Giovanni Ribisi), we also get flashbacks to their youth in these families.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 14th, 2006
Synopsis
James Marsden plays Tommy, who broke away from his mob-connected family to join the marines. Something goes wrong during the Gulf War, and he lands in the brig. He’s given a second chance by the authorities if he heads back to his old neighbourhood undercover. As he heads back to hook up with his slow brother and violent cousin (Giovanni Ribisi), we also get flashbacks to their youth in these families.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 14th, 2006
Synopsis
The best I can gather from watching Love For Rent is that there’s only one recognizable face to speak of. The problem is that the face in question is Saturday Night Live cast member Nora Dunn, who was only moderately funny on the show, but sank her career when she boycotted the appearance of Andrew Dice Clay in the early 1990s. Now that the times have changed, have the sensibilities moved closer to Dunn’s?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 14th, 2006
Synopsis
I was never that much of a Nintendo kid growing up. I went from the Sega Genesis to the Playstation, then the PS2, before recently landing on the Xbox. I was never that accustomed to the world of Double Dragon, however I’d like to think that I was the bomb at Contra. And the only video game movie I can recall seeing when I was growing up was a film called Joysticks, which was a crude version of Animal House and Hardbodies, with Pac Man, Galaga and the like.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 14th, 2006
Synopsis
While Some Kind of Wonderful may not feature the same kind of young spirit that Pretty in Pink may have had or the kind of older type of intelligence that Say Anything might have had, it’s still a cute, charming little romantic comedy with some recognizable faces penned by ‘80s icon John Hughes, responsible for such teen films as The Breakfast Club and Weird Science, to name a paltry few.
