Anniversary Edition

Fried Green Tomatoes

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 2nd, 2006

Kathy Bates and the late Jessica Tandy star in Fried Green Tomatoes, a wonderfully surprising film about four strong women finding friendship, loyalty, and strength in each other. Sounds boring, right? I thought so, too, until I actually sat down and gave the extended anniversary edition a chance. The film, based on Fannie Flagg’s novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, is really two stories in one. Bates plays an unhappy Southern woman stuck in a marriage routine, which doesn’t favor her n…
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Sybil

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 23rd, 2006

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Sybil is one of those movies that has turned into something of a running joke. It certainly didn’t start out that way, though. Probably no other made-for-TV movie is as famous as this one, based on a true story about a woman that had an astonishing 13 distinctly different personalities. Looking back on the film now, there are some definite cheesy moments. However, the vast majority of the film is really quite compelling, especially when the viewer reminds themselves that this is a true story.

Sa…
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Sgt. Bilko – The Phil Silvers Show

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 20th, 2006

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The Phil Silvers Show was groundbreaking for several reasons, but to look at the list of those who appeared on the show during its four season run is to look at a “Who’s Who” of television ancestry and history. Allen Melvin played Sam the Butcher on The Brady Bunch, Harvey Lembeck previously appeared in Stalag 17 and his son Michael became an accomplished television director. Joe Ross played one half of the cop team in Car 54, Where Are You? next to a guest star of the show, a guy named Fred Gwynne, who also appeared in a show called The Munsters.
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Ten Commandments, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 12th, 2006

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Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments hits store shelves in a new three-disc special edition, just in time for the release of the new made-for-TV mini-series. While the film classic is no stranger to DVD, it has yet to be released with this kind of gusto. At over three-and-a-half hours long, the film is simply too much for one disc to hold. The first disc contains the first 140 minutes, while disc two finishes up with the last 80. Plus, as a bonus, we get the original 136-minute silent version (also a DeMill…
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Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 16th, 2006

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Synopsis

Audrey Hepburn is Holly Golightly, a young woman to her name born. Flighty, hopping from party to party, she waits for her life to match her ideal. Into her apartment moves writer George Peppard, who is certainly not the millionaire our heroine imagines will sweep her off her feet. Peppard himself is a kept man, and his keeper is Patricia Neal. Peppard does have a more realistic view of how life works, in the long run, and that is a lesson that Hepburn must learn before romance can follow it…
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Five Heartbeats, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 5th, 2006

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The concept of the musical biopic is nothing new. We have seen many films come and go, some good and some bad. A majority of these musical biopic films try to tell the rising of a group, whether or not the group is a reality, in a manner that will connect with the audience. Robert Townsend’s The Five Heartbeats is a prime example of a film that connects with its audience by taking this concept of the musical biopic just that one step further than we might expect from a film like this.

The Five Hea…
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Whoopi: Back to Broadway

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 11th, 2006

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Synopsis

I’ve long held the somewhat chauvinistic belief that female stand up comedians are simply not funny. I’ve given people like Ellen DeGeneres, Paula Poundstone and Margaret Cho as much unbiased time as I can give, and I just don’t laugh at them. Their sense of humor is softer than any comparable male comedians, and is far more subtle. Does that make me a cro-magnon male with a large forehead? Probably.

To her credit, Whoopi Goldberg is the closest thing there is to an exception to the rule,…
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Muppet Christmas Carol, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 29th, 2005

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Director Brian Henson continues a family tradition with father Jim’s creations, The Muppets. He also carries on another tradition, this time in the form of the long-told tale “A Christmas Carol” by legendary author Charles Dickens. The combination goes so well together I can hardly understand why it wasn’t done sooner, as in by Jim himself before his untimely death. Michael Caine does an extraordinary job, as usual, in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge, a hopeless miser, who receives visits from three very different ghost…
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State Fair

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 7th, 2005

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Synopsis

Things don’t get much more anodyne than this storyline, showcasing an impossibly idealized family and their trials of love and prize pigs as they travel to the eponymous event. This is strictly for the nostalgic and pure fans of Rodgers and Hammerstein (the songs generally are not as culturally engrained as those of Oklahoma!). There are two versions of the film here, and the 1945 take is easily the better of the two. The 1962 remake (and the third film by this name, a non-musical ver…
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Blues Brothers, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 13th, 2005

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Synopsis

The orphanage where brothers Jake (John Belushi) and Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) grew up is going to be expropriated unless back taxes are paid, and our heroes are resolved to help. The nun in charge won’t accept any of their ill-gotten gains, however, and so they embark on a frenetic cross-county chase to reassemble their old band for a benefit gig. Cue many famous music cameos, and massive car chases.

As happened in the sixties, the eighties were plagued by a particular form of bloated,…
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Pocahontas

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 21st, 2005

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Pocahontas is Disney’s animated version of the Pocahontas myth. This movie is not history, but a Disney-fied version of it. European settlers came to North America and disrupted the Native American way of life. John Smith (voiced by Mel Gibson) and his British plunderers attempt to rob the “New World” of its riches. Chief Powhatan, and his daughter Pocahontas (voiced by Irene Bedard), might have something to say about this. In the end, in typical Disney fashion, a moral emerges: both cultures have a lot…
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Apollo 13

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 6th, 2005

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What kid growing up in the 60’s and 70’s wasn’t totally and completely captivated by the moon landings? We were equally on the edge of our seats when, for a brief moment in time, it appeared we were going to lose our first men in space. Seldom can a film be successful when the audience has most of the story’s details burned into the core of their memory. After all, we know how this one comes out. Still, the film manages to create the intense tension and anticipation as if we were experiencing it all for the first time.
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Easy Rider

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 9th, 2005

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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…
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Mary Poppins

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 12th, 2004

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Synopsis

If you don’t know what this movie is about, you grew up in a cave. If you’ve never seen it,ditto. This is the tale, it need hardly be said, of Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews), the nanny whoarrives to take charge of two children whose imaginations have been repressed by theirexcessively proper father. In the care of Mary, and accompanied by chimney sweep Bert (DickVan Dyke), the children bounce from one magical mix of dance, live action and animation toanother.

A more…
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Reality Bites

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 29th, 2004

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Synopsis

The title says it all as far as our principle characters are concerned. They are coming of age ina world so inimical to them (thank you, Baby Boomers) that their survival response is cynicismand disengagement. The leads are Winona Ryder as a would-be filmmaker in a humiliating job,Ethan Hawke as the slacker who can’t express his true feelings for Ryder, and Ben Stiller as thecareer guy who also courts Ryder. Also here are friends Janeane Garofalo and Steven Zahn asequally c…
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Blazing Saddles

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 9th, 2004

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Synopsis

All the expected characters from a typical western are present in this parody, but everythingis turned on its head and made ridiculous. Cleavon Little, formerly a slave, then a railwayworker, becomes sherif (cue the racial humour) in a town besieged by the forces of the evilrailway baron Harvey Korman and henchman Slim Pickens. Also in on the fun are sharpshooterGene Wilder and saloon singer Madeline Kahn.

So the American Film Institute named this #6 on its Top 100 …
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Saving Private Ryan

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 20th, 2004

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Synopsis

The plot is as simple as that of any 40s or 50s World War II movie: in the immediateaftermath of the D-Day invasion, eight men (led by Tom Hanks) are sent on a dangerous missionto find the only surviving son of a decimated family and send him home.

On this simple framework, Spielberg hangs the most viscerally intense evocation of theSecond World War yet committed to film. The exhausting Omaha Beach sequence that opens thefilm has been justly celebrated, but there ar…
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Planet of the Apes

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 24th, 2004

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Synopsis

An arrogant, misanthropic Charlton Heston leads a trio of astronauts who left Earth in 1972for a trip they expected to last some 900 years. 2000 years later, they crash-land on what theysuppose to be another planet. They encounter mute, primitive humans, but then are set upon bycivilized apes. Heston is the only survivor, and is befriended by ape scientists Roddy McDowalland Kim Hunter, who challenge the religious and scientific orthodoxy of their society bybelieving that a…
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Pumping Iron

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 12th, 2003

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Synopsis

Part documentary, and part (as Schwarzenegger points out in the extras) total fabrication,Pumping Iron follows Arnie as he prepares to compete for the Mr. Olympia title onemore time. His principle competitor, as presented here, is future Hulk Lou Ferrigno. All sorts ofmachinations ensue between the various body builders. Most of the character stuff is, it nowappears, pure fiction, but it serves the purpose of making the film more interesting. The freakshow qualities …
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dc Talk – Free At Last: The Music and the Movie

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 5th, 2003

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DC Talk made the jump from playing small churches and clubs to playing arenas following their Dove and Grammy award winning album, “Free At Last”. Though some of the songs sound a bit cheesy and dated now, they were right on target when released in the mid nineties, as evidenced by the packed arenas shown during the performances on this disc. The band was getting so big, in fact, that they decided to release a concert video/documentary to major movie houses nationwide. The footage was shot, the project was edited, t…
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Scarface

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 16th, 2003

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“Say hello to my little friend!”

This is just one of the many cultural references that have come out of Brian DePalma’s 1983 epic film, Scarface. Al Pacino plays Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee that arrives in the United States with nothing, and leaves with everything. It’s a story about the American Dream, about excess, and about ambition. A fantastic supporting cast (including Michelle Pfeiffer, F. Murray Abraham and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), and a script by Oliver Stone makes Scarface one of the…
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National Lampoon’s Vacation

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 26th, 2003

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It’s hard to imagine that it’s been 20 years since the Griswald family packed up the Family Truckster and stumbled their way halfway across the country to Wally World.Truth be told, I am not much of a Chevy Chase fan. I often find his buffoon act trying and old, but the Vacation films are a notable exception. With today’s political correctness it’s doubtful that the family dog would meet such a horribly funny end (Before you write to tell me how cruel I am, I own a Siberian husky who is loved no matter how much trouble she gets into).
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