Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 8th, 2006
Poseidon doesn’t waste any time getting to the action so I won’t waste any time with an introduction to this review. Yes, it’s a remake of the 1972 film, The Poseidon Adventure. Yes, it is chock full of convenient cardboard characters (a former Navy man, a fireman, a nurse, etc...). But we don’t watch movies like Poseidon for character exposition, do we?
Poseidon is a rip-roaring 90 minutes of intensity and even delivers some gory goods. Yes, I said gory. I know Poseidon...is a PG-13 movie, but it is chock full of carnage. It's also very exhausting. I haven’t had a movie leave me feeling beaten down in a long time, if ever. Does that make Poseidon an excellent movie? No. But it’s 100% effective for a disaster film – and deserved a better fate at the box office.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 8th, 2006
Helen Hunt is horribly miscast as a 1930’s infamous seductress on the prowl for vulnerable rich husbands. There’s not a moment in the film she doesn’t look and sound completely out of character for the role. Fortunately Scarlett Johansson is better suited for her performance. Still, most of the cast seems ill-placed. The film is based on the Oscar Wilde play “Lady Windermere’s Fan” which I have never seen. Of course, things are never what they appear to be throughout the film. While the dialogue contains the tradem...rk Wilde flair for wit, the plot simply doesn’t go anywhere. It’s a shame, really. The film had potential. The cinematography is very appealing. The period costumes and Italian locations make for a rich atmosphere that unfortunately nothing of import happens within. Even the stylized Wilde twist falls flat in the end.
Video
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 8th, 2006
Synopsis
Jean Peters is Vicki, a top New York model, who is found murdered in the opening scene. Burnt-out cop Richard Boone comes pounding back from his vacation, rabid to take over the case. He is convinced her press agent Elliott Reid is the guilty party, and the screws are put to Reid. In flashback, we see Vicki’s rise to fame, and the effects it has on the people around her, including her sister Jeanne Crain, who might harbour feelings for Reid.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 7th, 2006
Jean Harris made international headlines in 1980 for killing her on again off again lover and fiancée. Of course, such crimes are rather commonplace and would hardly merit all the attention let alone a feature film. The victim, however, in this case, was the famous Dr. Herman “Hi” Tarnower, better known to you and me as the “Scarsdale Diet Doctor”. The film claims to base its script on actual testimony from the well publicized trial. While this may in principle be true, the tale is obviously intended as a satire. T...e style very much lends itself to camp and black comedy. The murder is really the punch line to a very long joke. The testimonials are more like short theatrical vignettes. The feel is more like a staged production than a film. Even if the accuracy claims can be believed at all, they are most certainly exaggerated liberally. The story is obviously slanted heavily toward Jean Harris’ version of events. Given the title, I suppose this might be somewhat appropriate, if the filmmakers didn’t make her into some kind of a hero in the supplemental feature.
Mrs. Harris would quite honestly be a total loss if not for the performances of its two stars, Ben Kingsley and Annette Bening. Both deliver marvelous over the top performances that don’t feel so over the top. Kingsley in particular is devilishly great in his self absorbed role. Bening plays a convincing victim. Unfortunately even these performances can’t bring this film to anything more than camp. Harris contended she planned on killing herself and not Dr. Tarnower. Her explanation that the shots were the result of a struggle form the premise of the film as unrealistic as four shots from a struggle can be. Another unreal moment occurs when the detective allows Harris to wash her blouse in the cell sink after her arrest. I guess Nagey hasn’t watched too many episodes of CSI.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 6th, 2006
Synopsis
A young Richard Basehart climbs out onto the ledge of his fifteenth-floor hotel room. He could jump at any moment. Paul Douglas is the traffic cop who is first on the scene, and becomes the only person Basehart will willingly talk to. Hour after hour goes by as the authorities do everything they can to bring the troubled young man in.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 6th, 2006
The boys are at it again in Season 8 of South Park. To say that this season provides more of the same would be a tad unfair. It appears to me that South Park optimally matures in its eighth year. No, not that kind of maturity. Cartman and the gang are as raunchy as ever, and yes, still at times over the top. The kind of maturity I refer to is more subtle. South Park no longer has to rely on the running gags epitomized by the old Kenny deaths. The show isn’t afraid to feature some of the more peripheral characters. ...utters, Timmy, and Jimmy get a lot more to do, and I find them suddenly to be far more compelling characters. No longer simply foils for the usual suspects, they have come into their own. A good example can be found in “Up The Down Steroid”. While Cartman and one of his schemes are appropriately the center of the episode, the Timmy and Jimmy characters have some outstanding moments. “AWESOM-O” brings us face to face with a more endearing Butters. I must say that in this year of South Park I found myself enjoying these moments considerably. More than adding some dimension to the series, it has, I believe, given the show stronger legs leading into the years that follow.
Video
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 6th, 2006
What is it about The Roman Empire that fascinates us so? The answer is far too complicated to address in this forum, if you can pardon the pun. The influences of Rome are all around us. From the very form of government we practice to the grand arenas we watch our ballgames in, Rome can be found literally around every corner. Hollywood has recognized the allure since the early days of filmmaking. Classics like Ben Hur and Spartacus eventually gave way to the more modern epic Gladiator.
It is 52 BC and...Rome stands at a crossroads. Long ago established as a great Republic to rival the likes of Greece, the fledgling empire suffers from within. Senators appear to the common man as merely wealthy aristocrats who have long since lost any connection to the problems of everyday Roman life. Sound familiar? Gaius Julius Caesar (Hinds) controls an elite legion of Roman soldiers fighting for the glory of Rome in Gaul. His co-consul in Rome, Pompeius Magnus (Cranham) has grown impatient with Caesar’s many years of absence from Rome. The resulting civil war would eventually lead to collapse of a Republic and the beginning of dictatorship and empire that would drive Rome for centuries hence.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 5th, 2006
Synopsis
Maybe it’s because of their funny accents, or maybe it’s because of the natural desire to see ancient history relived, but the British sure have a knack for their period piece dramas and making everyone want to watch. And when Elizabeth I aired on HBO over a two-part miniseries during the spring of 2006, it won a truckload of Emmy awards, not only for the production, but also for the title character, played by Helen Mirren (Excalibur) and one of the supporting actors (Jeremy Irons, <b ...Reversal of Fortune).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 5th, 2006
Synopsis
Anna Faris takes a job as a social worker, moving into a house with the evil presences we know and love from The Grudge. Meanwhile, next door, Craig Bierko is about to deal with The War of the Worlds. And off we go, as the movie riffs one parody of recent films after another.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 5th, 2006
Something must be drawing Michael Douglas to the upper-crust "man in peril" role. He's been stalked by a woman who likes to boil rabbits, sexually harassed by his sexy boss, and is currently being framed for the assassination of the President in The Sentinel. Douglas plays Peter Garrison, a Secret Service veteran who is also having an affair with the wife of the man he is sworn to protect, First Lady Ballentine (Kim Basinger, still looking good at 53). When Garrison is framed by the assassins (one of who... may be another Secret Service Agent), he must stay one step ahead of former protege Agent Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland, doing Jack Bauer as a SS agent) and rookie agent Jill Marin (an underused but gorgeous Eva Longoria), who are hot on his trail, believing he really is trying to kill the President.
The plot is lifted from dozens of other films and simply injected into different surroundings. Instead of a doctor and a one-armed man, it's a Secret Service agent and a plot to kill the President. Despite the lack of plot originality, director Clark Johnson (The Shield, The Wire) and the professional cast, especially Douglas and Sutherland, always keep things moving at an economical clip. The Sentinel never lingers on anything long enough for us to question it, and it hits all the right marks in its 108 minute running time. It even takes some time to show us the daily grind of a Secret Service agent, which adds to the film's authenticity.
