Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 9th, 2005
I started watching this movie expecting something akin to a National Lampoon episode – a goofy motorcycle road trip populated by harmless and amusing stoners. Those of you who are Easy Rider fans, or who have seen and appreciated the film should be chuckling now at my ignorance. This film, as well as Rambo: First Blood and Vanishing Point have now made it adequately clear to me that I’ve completely missed an entire genre of filmmaking. For those who share my ignorance, what I’m referring to is th...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 9th, 2005
Synopsis
The Date crime family is unwillingly drawn into a mob war with the much more powerfulTendo group. This war disrupts the happy existence of one small sub-family, consisting of Muto,the boss more interested in his model planes than in crime, and his two loyal soldiers Seiji andYoshifumi. Muto promises to kill a high-ranking Tendo member to prove his worth, but Seijiknows he isn’t up to it. He arranges for Muto to be packed safely off to jail instead, and thenstages an attack ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 8th, 2005
Synopsis
Teenagers Mai and Yu have just become girlfriend and boyfriend when Mai is killed in atraffic accident. Her distraught father uses her digitized physical characteristics and memoriesto create an AI resurrection. The new Mai gradually becomes more and more human and fullysentient (think a digital Pinocchio), and she winds up in the Yu’s laptop. A megalomaniacal CEOwants the technology in order to download his own consciousness into the Net and thereby rulethe world. His mini...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 8th, 2005
Synopsis
China is under the rule of the Ching dynasty, who send out assassins to kill anyone whochallenges the regime. Greatest of these assassins is the blind master of the flying guillotine. Hesets out to kill the One-Armed Boxer (don’t ask me why all these guys have disabilities). Thecharacters come together at a huge martial arts tournament (this is where Mortal Kombatcomes from, kiddies). The plot is no more developed than that of a typical porno. The film’sreason for be...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 8th, 2005
Synopsis
David Strathairn is a melancholy children’s magician. He is stuck looking after his irritablewife’s deaf father, because she wants nothing to do with him. His day is complete after a fender-bender with pawn shop owner Nicky Katt. And, as it happens all the time in real life, the twodrivers soon become fast friends. One of their bonds is that Katt’s daughter is also deaf. Whata coincidence! The performances are all agreeably low key, and the dialogue and editing havesome occ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 7th, 2005
Synopsis
These films represent the Marx Brothers at their most anarchic and creative. Though theymade other very strong films, these are the comedians at their peak.
The Cocoanuts (1929) is the most dated of the bunch. The pacing is pretty sluggish,but we are also at the dawn of sound movie here. Groucho runs a Florida hotel here, and thisprovides a suitable setting for varied shenanigans as well as plenty of dancing girls. The film alsohas a certain charming rawness ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 6th, 2005
Synopsis
Jim Carrey wakes up on Valentine's Day in a funk. On the spur of the moment, he takes offto Montauk, where he meets Kate Winslet. Sparks fly, and a relationship seems about to be born.We suddenly flash back in time, and realize that, though they no longer remember it, these twohave previously had a relationship. When it collapsed, Winslet availed herself of the services ofLacuna, a company that erases unpleasant memories. Carrey has been removed from hermemory. Distraught, ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 4th, 2005
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement is the sequel to the popular Disney feature The Princess Diaries. How is our princess (Anne Hathaway) now? Well, life isn’t so easy in Gevonia. While trying to dodge Machiavellian plots and ill-suited suitors, the princess Mia tries to find love and (more importantly) herself.
The Princess Diaries 2 feels like one of those “phoned-in” sequels. All the notes are there, but none of the music. Veteran director Garry Marshall does a poor job o...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 4th, 2005
Synopsis
Here we go, five W.C. Fields movies, and the range of the collection should be very pleasingto fans. The earliest feature here is 1933's International House. This uses the slightpremise of a crowd of eccentric characters assembled in a Shanghai hotel to see a new invention(a television, here called a “radioscope”) to showcase a parade of comic and music stars, amongthem Fields, but also George Burns and Gracie Allen, Cab Calloway, and that supreme master ofcom...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 31st, 2004
On the DVD cover of The Door in the Floor, the writing promises “surprises”, “shocks”, and “cuts like a knife”. One would think this movie would be a thriller. False advertising can get you nowhere. The Door in the Floor is far from a thriller, but more in the meditation on love, loss, and loneliness genre. Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger star as a dysfunctional married couple. Things are far from blissful. Bridges is a writer of children’s fiction; Basinger is, well, I’m not sure what she does. Bu...
