collectorz.com.jpg

Criterion Collection

Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 4th, 2005

Buy at Amazon.com

Wes Anderson has been a breath of fresh air since he hit the Hollywood scene in 1996 with his first feature length film Bottle Rocket. Since then, Anderson has continued to stretch the imagination of film-goers with fabulous films such Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), and now with The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). Anderson’s films are not for every joe-schmo film fan; his work could even be described as an acquired taste. But from a creative and visual perspective,…
Read More

Rushmore

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 28th, 2005

Buy at Amazon.com

The sophomore effort of Wes Anderson, Rushmore brings together a 15 year old who flunked out of private school, and a steel tycoon in his 40s, and shows the lengths that people go to sometimes to try and win the heart of the one they love.

That would be too easy an effort, wouldn’t it? Well, Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman, I Heart Huckabees) is attending Rushmore Academy on scholarship, and he loves Rushmore. So much so, that he creates a club for just about everything that hasn’t had an esta…
Read More

The Complete Monterey Pop Festival

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 28th, 2005

Buy at Amazon.com

The Monterey Pop Festival has been mostly ignored by a lot of people, compared to the two other two large concerts that occurred after it, Woodstock, and Altamont. Those who do remember Monterey always mention the one incident it is most known for, Jimi Hendrix’ appearance on the U.S. stage. Jimi had been tearing it up in England, and he ended by setting his guitar on fire, which turned out to be a defining moment in music history. Criterion brings this event and others back to life in a comprehensive 3 disc set which is designed not only to showcase Jimi’s set during the show, but also breathes new life into the festival in general.
Read More

Short Cuts

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 16th, 2005

Buy at Amazon.com

The barometer for those interested in Robert Altman’s Short Cuts is usually whether or not they liked Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia. Hell, it’s the question I posed to my fiancée when we were trying to figure out what to watch over the Thanksgiving holiday. The comparisons are pretty conventional; both are large ensemble films with intertwined plotlines set in California, both have a 3 hour runtime. Both even have Julianne Moore in predominant roles.

Based on short stories by Raymond Carver…
Read More

Slacker

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 13th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Welcome to Austin, Texas. Here, in a series of short, interconnected vignettes, we will meeta huge diversity of characters, who are variously eccentric, insane, disaffected, apathetic,coasting, and so on. Director/writer/producer Richard Linklater’s approach is not unlike RobertAltman taken to the next level. Plot, as such, finally disappears completely. Instead, the camerafollows one character (or set of characters) for a minute or two, then leaves them to trail someonewho…
Read More

I Vitelloni

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 18th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

The folks at Criterion continue their quest to make every one of Fellini’s heirs millionaires with their release of I Vitelloni, the famed director’s second solo effort. This semi-autobiographical tale follows the lives of a group of young men who are on the verge of growing up and making something of their lives, but haven’t quite gotten there yet. Part American Pie, part About a Boy, and all Fellini, this film is an important addition to any foreign film collection.

The film garnered …
Read More

Charade

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 26th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

At a time when the women’s liberation movement was picking up steam, Hollywood was changing the kinds of stories they told, and some of films most beloved personalities were aging and leaving the spotlight, the stars aligned perfectly for Stanley Donen to make the incredibly charming “Charade”. Both a send-up of James Bond films and a genuinely engaging mystery, “Charade” was the perfect film at the perfect time.

The story revolves around a young woman (played by the graceful and immensely likeable Audre…
Read More

Diabolique

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 26th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Revenge is the theme of what many people consider H.G. Clouzot’s finest film, the 1955 thriller “Diabolique”. This is the story of two women who want to kill the same man. One is his kind and gentle wife, and the other is his attractive but hard-hearted mistress. The two work together to end his life, devising a plan that comes to fruition surprisingly early in the film. What initially appears to be a film about the plotting of a murder turns into a film about something else… something more sinister and unexpected. A…
Read More

Chasing Amy

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 15th, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Film

The film starts out in a comic convention, where we are introduced to Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Jason Lee), the co-creators of the smash hit book “Bluntman and Chronic.” Holden is an artist who feels trapped into his commercial success, afraid he’ll always be known as “the guy who invented Bluntman and Chronic.” His partner and best friend of 20 years, Banky, is justifiably unapologetic for their success; he likes having his name on something that everyone recognizes. It’s …
Read More

Rebecca

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 2nd, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Film

To film fans, the clause “Directed by Alfred Hitchcock” has almost become an adjective in and of itself. It has come to mean suspense created by using the viewer’s imagination and mind as a part of the film, first and foremost. These films didn’t have the freedom of CG, and consequently had to invent ways to achieve visual effects (Watch the documentary on Birds or Rear Window for example). Besides the lack of freedom of creation that digital filmmaking now provides, the filmmak…
Read More

Down By Law

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 2nd, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Film

Jack, a pimp, ends up in prison when a competing pimp frames him for child prostitution. Zack, a down-on-his luck deejay, is there because an associate paid him a thousand dollars to drive a car across town, unaware of the contents of the trunk. In the same cell, they bemoan their situation: each man innocent of their crimes, but vaguely guilty of something, we’re never sure what. When a third man shows up, an Italian tourist named “Bob,” he seems to brighten the dour men as much as can …
Read More

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 1st, 2003

Buy at Amazon.com

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas can be and has been described in many ways, but one of the things that this movie isn’t is a Cheech and Chong road movie about a couple of whacky buddies on a drug binge in the city of sin. There’s no going to strip clubs, no hilarious misunderstandings that make one of them have to dress in drag and be involved in a stage show, in fact, there isn’t even any gambling. This movie is more accurately described as a scalding epitaph to the counterculture of the sixties, a re…
Read More

Spellbound

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 5th, 2002

Synopsis

Ingrid Bergman is a psychoanalyst and, according to her male colleagues, a cold fish. Thischanges when Gregory Peck shows up as the new head of the psychiatric institution. The onlyproblem is, Peck is not who he says he is. In fact, he doesn’t even know who he really is.Bergman is determined to help him find out, but meanwhile, the man whose identity Peck hasassumed is missing, perhaps murdered… The psychoanalysis in the film is pure hokum, and theplot’s contrivances are …
Read More

Royal Tenenbaums, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 28th, 2002

Buy at Amazon.com

Film

Criterion has done it again! Along with Buena Vista, Criterion has transformed this flawlessly executed film into a masterpiece on DVD. For you Rushmore fans out there, you will absolutely love this film… I actually liked this film more then Rushmore. If you have not seen any works by Wes Anderson (director), you should really check this film out.

“The Tenenbaum kids were all once child prodigies, despite growing up with an ineffective father. Determined to make things …
Read More

M

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 3rd, 2002

Buy at Amazon.com

Film

Fritz Lang became one of the earliest masters of filmmaking. Known mostly for such classic silents as Metropolis and Spies, Lang delivers a startling film definitely ahead of its time with M. This is also the very first film for the talented Peter Lorre who would later shine in Corman’s Poe series, and of course, along-side Bogart in The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca. M is a disturbing film that constantly assaults the viewer with stark images of a city’s underworld life. Th…
Read More

Traffic

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 6th, 2002

Buy at Amazon.com

Starting a few years back with Out of Sight and continuing on with The Limey and Erin Brokovich, director Steven Soderbergh had been riding a remarkable streak of winning films that fulfills the blazing promise of his first film, sex, lies, and videotape. With his most complex film to date, Traffic, Soderbergh once again proved that he is one of America’s most inventive filmmakers. He doesn’t play it safe – with each and every new outing, Soderbergh proves that he’s not afraid to …
Read More

Beastie Boys Video Anthology

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 24th, 2002

Buy at Amazon.com

Written By Kelly Stifora

Intro

The bad boys from Brooklyn dish up an audio/video career retrospective from seemingly endless angles, and raise the bar on the entire DVD format just as they’ve always done in the worlds of rap and music videos.

Synopsis

Three geeky white kids from the Brooklyn underground punk scene form a band, calling themselves the Beastie Boys. A couple of years later they release their first album, Licensed to Ill, helping to spawn both the rap and the rap/rock genres. In the ensuing two de…
Read More

How to Get Ahead in Advertising

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 27th, 2002

Buy at Amazon.com

posted by Marc Atonna

Everything must either be high in something or low in something else. You have to love a film where a priest defends, “the tit was spread with peanut butter!”

Synopsis

Dennis Bagley is a hard, calculating advertising executive who was happy in every way he could conceive. Upon worrying about an overdue campaign for a boil ointment, he sprouts a boil himself. Not a problem, you’d think; that is, until the boil starts speaking. Dennis seems batty to all who hear the random boil comments or feel h…
Read More

1 2