Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 15th, 2005
Synopsis
Well, I’m unsure how many people would see a romantic comedy involving a 59 year old man and a 26 year old woman (unless you saw Autumn in New York awhile ago), but the romance between Clark Gable (Gone With the Wind) and Sophia Loren (El Cid) in It Started in Naples is just a little creepy for me. Especially when you consider Gable seemed to always appear in his mid-60’s.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 15th, 2005
"Here's the story...of a lovely lady...". We all know the beginning of this familiar ditty. It's the Brady Bunch. And they're back in The Brady Bunch - The Complete Second Season. All 24 episodes are classic Brady Bunch fare. Oh to live in a world of ice cream contests, science projects, and slumber parties; and the worst thing you could do was "smoke" *sigh*. Alice, the housekeeper, is along for this harmless ride. The astroturf front yard is still there. The Brady Bunch is a trip back to the "garden"...
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 14th, 2005
Synopsis
Expropriated from his castle by the Romanian government (the place is going to be turned into a training facility for Olympic athletes), Count Dracula (George Hamilton) and Renfield (Arte Johnson, mimicking Dwight Frye’s laugh from the 1931 Dracula) make their way to New York. Dracula has fallen for a fashion model (Susan Saint James), convinced that she is the reincarnation of a woman he has loved before. Though something of a fish out of water, Dracula does his best to adapt to his ...ew surroundings and romance Saint James, while being opposed by Richard Benjamin, his rival for Saint James’ affections.
Posted in: Game Reviews by David Annandale on July 13th, 2005
Gameplay
The maps range from the enormous to the intimate. The biggest are Containment and Terminal. Containment is a vast, snowy valley with fortresses at either end and tunnels running the lengths of the mountain walls. This is a map that makes one wish the multiplayer limit was greater than 16, as even the biggest parties can all but disappear in here. Its size does make it the map most amenable to vehicle combat outside of Coagulation. Terminal, on the other hand, is an urban environment reminisc...nt of Zanzibar and Headlong, only on steroids. Asymmetrical, and set up very deliberately with the idea of one team attacking (armed with Warthog and Ghost) and one defending (with Wraith), this map also features the most exciting dynamic addition of the set: a lightning fast and utterly lethal train that hurtles along the tracks every few seconds. The train is an important factor, given that the energyh sword is located over the tracks, and the hill in Crazy King often places itself in the path of the train.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 13th, 2005
The Carol Burnett Show - Let's Bump Up the Lights! is the DVD re-issue of an original CBC broadcast. The content is in the form of one of Carol's famous Q & A sessions that started every show. Carol answers questions, she does her Tarzan yell. Burnett does there here too. But she asks other cast regulars (Tim Conway, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, and Lyle Waggoner) to join in. Clips from the show are interspersed to back up the answers to the questions.
The 42 minute disc is too short to make a...y real impact. Perhaps this is just a teaser for putting out "The Carol Burnett Show on DVD. But, I must confess, I have a sentimental place in my heart for the show. I used to watch it as a kid. The sketches were funny, in a broad sort of way. The cast seemed like a perfect fit. "The Carol Burnett Show" is a landmark show for its "style". The improvisational aspect kept as watching, and the characters became more endearing.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 12th, 2005
Synopsis
The opening scene is a montage of a couple in love, while a voice-over reads Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee” – a sure sign that things are not going to end well. Sure enough, in the next scene, the young woman takes a fatal fall while climbing after a kitten. The boyfriend cannot bear to part with the corpse, and off he goes with the body, making his way cross-country to the lake where we first saw them in love, and all the time the corpse and his mind are slowly rotting away.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 11th, 2005
Synopsis
Captain Blood (1935) is the picture that made Errol Flynn a star, and paired him for the first time of many with Olivia De Havilland. There had been pirate movies before (Douglas Fairbanks was the star in them), but this became the new high watermark of the genre. Flynn plays a doctor who is unjustly accused of treason and shipped off to a life of slavery in the colonies. He fights back, eventually becoming the pirate of the title, but always remaining an honourable man, of course. Th...s is a terrific swashbuckler, and its worthy descendant today would not be the entertaining but shallow Pirates of the Carribean, but Master and Commander.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 10th, 2005
Prisoner of Paradise is the haunting story of German film and theatre actor, Kurt Gerron. This Oscar nominated documentary follows his rise and fall. Gerron was one of Germany's most popular stage and screen actors before World War II. He was the original singer, in fact, of "Mack the Knife" in Brecht's "Three Penny Opera". Gerron's popularity, however, took a different turn with the rise of Hitler's Germany. Gerron was Jewish and, eventually, was forced to flee. But later he was captured and then hired...to make a propaganda concentration camp film. This documentary is a fascinating tale of history, as well as being a moving character study. The narration by Ian Holm is clinically precise.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 10th, 2005
Years before she was a resident on Wisteria Lane, and even before she was a notorious Bond girl, Teri Hatcher played Lois Lane on the New Adventures of Superman. Along with Dean Cain who played Clark Kent (aka Superman), these two actors brought the traditional story (unlike the recent Smallville) of superman once again to the small screen. Although Cain has not been able to reach the recent success that Hatcher has, the pair did share good chemistry on this show – creating an enjoyable television ex...erience.
”Casting a fresh look on a timeless legend, this exciting, action-packed update of the DC Comics Superman captures the daring exploits of the mysterious visitor from another planet and brings the city of Metropolis to life. Originally aired in the 90's on ABC, this humorously romantic action/adventure hour-long series puts a modern twist on the time-honored, legendary superhero, bringing to life the comic book characters Clark Kent (Dean Cain); his superhuman alter-ego, Superman; and Lois Lane (Teri Hatcher), fiction's first lady of the press, in the most unrequited romance of all time.” – Warner Home Video
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 10th, 2005
Years before she was a resident on Wisteria Lane, and even before she was a notorious Bond girl, Teri Hatcher played Lois Lane on the New Adventures of Superman. Along with Dean Cain who played Clark Kent (aka Superman), these two actors brought the traditional story (unlike the recent Smallville) of superman once again to the small screen. Although Cain has not been able to reach the recent success that Hatcher has, the pair did share good chemistry on this show – creating an enjoyable television ex...erience.
”Casting a fresh look on a timeless legend, this exciting, action-packed update of the DC Comics Superman captures the daring exploits of the mysterious visitor from another planet and brings the city of Metropolis to life. Originally aired in the 90's on ABC, this humorously romantic action/adventure hour-long series puts a modern twist on the time-honored, legendary superhero, bringing to life the comic book characters Clark Kent (Dean Cain); his superhuman alter-ego, Superman; and Lois Lane (Teri Hatcher), fiction's first lady of the press, in the most unrequited romance of all time.” – Warner Home Video
