Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 29th, 2004
Synopsis
American mathematician Dustin Hoffman has moved to the English home town of his wifeSusan George. The adjustment is difficult. A gang of local louts is taking forever to assemblehis garage, and he simply cannot stand up for himself or his wife. She, filled with contempt,teases the locals with predictable results. Finally, a crisis looms involving the simple-mindedDavid Warner, and Hoffman takes a spectacularly violent stand.
Peckinpah’s gift for cinematic violence i...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 24th, 2004
Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern are the last-word in star-crossed lovers. Pursued by theminions of Dern’s psychopathic mother Diane Ladd, they engage in a nightmarishly picaresquejourney across the American south, encountering one grotesque after another (most memorablyWillem Dafoe’s deeply creepy Bobby Peru). The over-the-top sex and violence is held togetherby a narrative that is a dark remake of The Wizard of Oz.
This was David Lynch’s follow-up to Blue Vel...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 8th, 2004
Synopsis
Miguel Ferrer plays a screenwriter sent down to a rather rough Mexican city to research themurder his script is based on. He quickly discovers that the crime is not what was given out forpublic consumption, and he begins to rework his script in consequence. He also runs intoLeilani Sarelle. Smitten, he follows her to the beach, but is conked on the head and comes tominus a kidney. Then it seems that the organ thieves want his other one.
Writer/director David Marconi...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 31st, 2004
Synopsis
Nick Nolte (in full bruiser form) heads up the Hat Squad, a team of LA detectives composedof himself, Chazz Palmiteri, Michael Madsen and Chris Penn. We first see them in actionroughing up a gangster by tossing him down a cliff (hence the joke of the title). Their next caseis the body of a woman, found flattened in the sand, every bone in her body broken. Nolte israttled by the sight of the victim, because she is Jennifer Connelly, with whom he had an affair(kept secret fro...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 6th, 2004
Synopsis
William Baldwin is the leader of a group of friends in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen area. Theyare all on the periphery of the crime world, and the local kingpin is Armand Assante (with a mostsinister scar on his cheek). Two of the five become involved in a scheme that has them passingincompetently counterfeited hundred-dollar bills, and Assante demands their lives. Baldwininvestigates the death of one of them, and gradually realizes the depth of the betrayal.
The plot is rathe...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 30th, 2004
Synopsis
Kevin Mitnick (Skeet Ulrich) is cyberoutlaw supreme, breaking into computer networksright, left and centre. The police are trying to catch him, but our hopelessly outclassed. Mitnickencounters an opponent more worthy of his talents when he hacks into the files of securityconsultant Tsutomu Shimomura (Russell Wong). The latter uses his own formidable computerskills to track Mitnick, but meanwhile Mitnick is busy trying to crack the encryption on one ofShimomura's files, a pr...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 8th, 2004
Synopsis
Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) boards the Orient Express with his friend Martin Balsam(playing an Italian). On the train is an eccentric group of characters: sullen millionaire RichardWidmark, his twitchy aide Anthony Perkins, motor-mouthed Lauren Bacall, Bible-obsessedIngrid Bergman, aristocratic couple Michael York and Jaqueline Bisset, army officer SeanConnery, his lover Vanessa Redgrave, princess Wendy Hiller, and so on and on, each with anaccent more outrageous than th...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 7th, 2004
Synopsis
Let’s start with the two biggest titles in the collection, which have a life outside thiscollection. North by Northwest is arguably Hitchcock’s greatest exercise in sheer roller-coaster thriller entertainment. As in so many of the director’s films, an insane chain of eventsis set in motion by the smallest of actions, in this case Cary Grant signalling a bell boy just asthe latter is calling out a name. Grant is thus misidentified by the villains, and he is suddenlyrunning fo...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 4th, 2004
Synopsis
Boston is in a panic as a maniac stalks the streets, strangling women in their own homes. Thefirst half of the film follows the police investigation, headed up by Henry Fonda and GeorgeKennedy. A huge task force tracks down lead after lead, picks up suspect after suspect, all to noavail. The second half of the film shifts to Tony Curtis, who is the killer, only he doesn’t knowit: he suffers from a multiple personality disorder. The question, when he finally is caught, iswhe...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 28th, 2004
Duel was the first “ made for television” movie directed by Steven Spielberg. This thriller could best be described as a cross between the Rutger Hauer classic, “ The Hitcher,” and the Steven King inspired “Maximum Overdrive.” Dennis Weaver plays David Mann, a salesman on his way home from a cross state trip. During his return, he passes a rusted out old gasoline truck on the highway without giving it much thought. As the film unfolds, the truck begins to pursue him and initially just appears to annoy him on the r...
