Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 3rd, 2005
Synopsis
There are two Lawrence Tierney vehicles here, and the first is the one that made his name, the 1945 Dillinger. Told in flashback for no visible reason, this chronicles Dillinger’s rise from naive and incompetent thief to ruthless, brutal gang leader, and his ultimate fall. There are some startlingly brutal scenes here, for the time, and if Tierney isn’t quite as scary as James Cagney in White Heat, he’s still plenty menacing.
He’s even scarier as an out-and-out psycho...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 22nd, 2005
Synopsis
In 1927, young Charlotte Hollis’ married lover (a young Bruce Dern) is hacked apart with a meat cleaver, and Charlotte’s blood-stained dress points to her as the murderer. There is never sufficient evidence, however, and she is never charged, but lives on as the subject of endless gossip, slowly going mad. In 1964, Charlotte (Bette Davis) is decaying as much as her house, which is about to be torn down to make way for a highway. She refuses to give up the house or her past, and, convinced th...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 24th, 2005
Synopsis
After the suicide of his wife, psychologist De Niro takes his traumatized daughter Dakota Fanning off to a house in the woods to recover. Fanning begins to exhibit strange, hostile behaviour associated with her imaginary friend, Charlie. Then, as the violence escalates, De Niro realizes that Charlie might well be real after all.
Sigh. Another thriller with a twist. Half a second of thought will probably tell you what it is, since it’s the same twist we’ve seen in just about every p...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 2nd, 2005
Man on Fire is a stylish thriller with excellent performances at the heart. Denzel Washington plays Creasey, an ex CIA/assassin who is too tired of the killing. Now out of the game, Creasey sticks to drinking in Mexico City. Enter Rayburn, an old buddy (played by the wonderful Christopher Walken). He has a potential job for the down and out Creasey. A string of abductions and kidnappings in the city (Mexico City is the real life kidnap capital of the world) forces a young industrialist (Marc Anthony)and h...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 31st, 2005
Synopsis
This remake of The Street With No Name shifts the scene from mid-40s US to mid-50s Japan. Robert Ryan heads up a ruthless gang of ex-GIs, and uses pachinko parlours as acover for his robberies. He recruits Robert Stack into his gang, little suspecting that Stack is, infact, an undercover investigator.
Samuel Fuller’s reworking plays up the homoerotic undercurrent (which Richard Widmarknonetheless conveyed quite effectively in the original), and Robert Stack i...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 30th, 2005
Synopsis
Tyrone Power is the amoral Stan, a carny worker who will use anybody, especially women,to facilitate his climb to the top. Joan Blondell is the carnival medium who teaches him the tricksof the trade. He dumps her for Coleen Gray, and is soon a performer in the big nightclubs. Butthat isn’t enough for him, and he overreaches when he allies himself with Helen Walker, anunscrupulous psychologist who is an even smarter operator than he is.
A noir-drenched rise and fall ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 29th, 2005
Guilt’s a bitch. It can drive you down the road to insanity, and turn your life upside-down. The Machinist is an interesting story that leaves you guessing right until the end. The story moves a little slow, but the performances are impressive and the cumulative tale is well done. Watching Christian Bale portray lead character Trevor Reznik is both impressive and disturbing. Bale looks like a shell of himself; shedding an astounding 63 pounds to play this role. Bale is so thin that you can see every rib ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 28th, 2005
Synopsis
The FBI, determined to crack a gangland case involving two murders, sends undercoveragent Mark Stevens to the mean streets. Posing as a lowlife, he is recruited by sinister crime bossRichard Widmark. Stevens soon discovers that Widmark is indeed the man responsible for thekillings, but he needs concrete evidence before the FBI can move in. Meanwhile, Widmark hasan agent of his own in the ranks of the police, and Stevens’ cover may soon be blown.
The opening minutes ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 27th, 2005
Fascination is a potboiler without a pot. It loosely follows the plot of Hamlet. Adam Garcia plays Scott Doherty, a spoiled young artiste who sulks more than Anakin Skywalker. Scott's father dies (played by James Naughton) under mysterious circumstances, and his wife (played by the "still a hotty" Jacqueline Bisset") returns from a cruise with a new beau (Stuart Wilson). Scott smells something fishy, and with the help of a new stepsister/lover (Alice Evans), he tries to get to the bottom of this crime. So...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 24th, 2005
White Noise borrows much from the successful cycle of modern horror films. There is a tremendous likeness to both The Ring and FearDotCom. The use of a television screen for eerie f/x and a few shocks reminds us of the former, while the torture of the kidnapped victim in industrial and dank surroundings is taken right out of the latter. White Noise has some wonderfully disturbing moments. The atmosphere is rank with just enough possibility to be truly scary at times. Michael Keaton adds that element of respectability and believability which carries a weak script much farther than it deserves. I should also point out that the cinematography is simply brilliant.
