Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 6th, 2004
Synopsis
Robert Hays is a rising corporate star at a major brewery. The company, headed by EddieAlbert, has just taken over some smaller competitors. Hays is sent to streamline one of them,which happens to be in his home town. The city mouse hooks up once again with all his oldcountry mouse friends, and sho’ nuff begins to transform, losing the will to be the corporate hitman he was sent to be.
Did anybody ever find this type of comedy funny? Somebody must have. Now it looks...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 6th, 2004
Synopsis
Sludgers is an aardvark who dreams of being attractive, and of wearing some truly finetrousers. Sludgers also has a terrific sense of rhythm and percussion. Discovered by a caterpillartalent agent, Sludgers is taken to the big city, renamed “Hamilton Mattress,” and is hired to playthe drums behind the scenes while a handsome but untalented bird mimes the gestures. WhenSludgers gets carried away with his drums and almost literally brings the house down, will hislooks stand i...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 6th, 2004
Synopsis
Michael Ironside, in his patented bastard role, is pulling the strings on a secret militaryexperiment in weather control. The test goes wrong, killing the wife of Dale Midkiff and ruiningthe career of pilot Gregor Toerzs. Four years later, an asteroid grazes Earth’s atmosphere, andtriggers a superstorm. If this hurricane isn’t shut down in a matter of hours, it will go critical andrage for centuries. Hauled back in to save the day are Midkiff and Toerzs, now flying a souped-up 747 ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 5th, 2004
Stargate SG-1 suffered a little in its switch to the Sci-Fi Channel. The loss of Michael Shanks was very deeply felt. Jonas wasn’t really a bad character, but it took me a while to get used to him. The guest appearances of Daniel Jackson helped a bit with a couple of pretty good episodes. I felt there might have been too many Earthbound episodes in an obvious effort to curtail the budget. Through most of this season, Anderson had been talking about spending more time back in L.A. with his family. (The show is shot in...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 5th, 2004
Warning: Do not be taken in by the cover of this DVD. With iron gates, murky lighting, and a creepy stone angel, Lush has the appearance of a gothic horror film. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Lush is one of those quirky crime dramas. You know the ones I mean…eccentric characters, a unique soundtrack, off kilter comedy scenes, and a murder plot. The Coen Brothers have made an art out of this kind of film. Lush tries really hard to make inroads into the genre.
The story ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 5th, 2004
So many people believe the “buddy cop” routine started with Lethal Weapon, or maybe Running Scared. Truth be told, Starsky and Hutch was quite a breakout from the cop shows of the time. The studio was picketed for the amount of violence portrayed, which by today’s standards wouldn’t raise an eyebrow.
This is typical 70’s from the film stock to the wardrobe. The unique Ford Grand Torino was so popular that Ford ended up manufacturing a limited number of the replicas. David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser had s...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 4th, 2004
Synopsis
It turns out that everything we thought about Sherlock Holmes is wrong. He is, in fact,hammy actor Reginald Kincaid (Michael Caine), hired by Dr. Watson (Ben Kingsley) to be thepublic face of his own detective work. The relationship between the two men is fractious at best,and they part company. But when Watson discovers that Professor Moriarty is behind amysterious crime, he realizes he needs Kincaid so the police will allow his investigation toproceed.
The premi...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 3rd, 2004
Synopsis
The setting is an unnamed country, that could be the US, or could be somewhere in LatinAmerica. Either way, the government is repressive and corrupt, the economy is in a shambles,guerilla warfare is constant, and society is approaching total collapse. Bent impresarios JohnGoodman and Jessica Lange are mounting a TV benefit concert, but the only star they can get isJack Fate, a thinly disguised version of Bob Dylan, played by the man himself. Cynical reporterJeff Bridges is ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 3rd, 2004
For those of you who are into bands like Phish, Dave Matthews and The Grateful Dead you probably already know who this band is. For the rest of us The String Cheese Incident is made up of a group of fairly accomplished musicians from all different genres that are prone to playing very long songs. The songs tend to journey through all different styles from country to rock to jazz to blues and more. This disc features two different performances at the famous Fillmore in Denver.
Video
The vi...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 3rd, 2004
Synopsis
The title has two meanings. It works as both the common expression, meaning that peopleare strange (which the show certainly demonstrates). But it also presents the “queer” as “folk”:i.e. gay characters are, for once, realistic, ordinary human beings. This aspect goes a long waytoward explaining the series’ popularity. In this season, the continuing threads include apregnancy for Melanie and Lindsay, and the nasty politics surrounding the campaign of thecontroversial Mayor ...
