Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 5th, 2005
Synopsis
Robert Redford narrates, but his on-screen avatar is Craig Sheffer. He and Brad Pitt are the sons of Presbyterian minister Tom Skerritt. The sons react to their stern father’s teachings in different ways. Sheffer is the good boy who becomes the scholar, while Pitt is the hell-raising journalist with the bad gambling debts. But both brothers do inherit their father’s love of fly fishing, and that is the act that bonds the three men together.
For a film that has very little by way of...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 9th, 2005
The Mask of Zorro was the Pirates of the Caribbean of its day. A classic swashbuckling story packed with action and romance, yet still presented in a family-friendly style that hearkened back to the days of the old Saturday afternoon matinée. Indiana Jones was conceived in this style, as was Disney's National Treasure, in a way. There is a ton of room in the marketplace for PG and PG-13 rated films like this, as it provides something that the whole family can not only attend at the theater, but t...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 19th, 2005
I'll bet the script to this film read like a dream. The Exorcist meets Hellboy meets The Mummy. Surely this is the ideal vehicle for Keanu Reeves following his three picture run on The Matrix. Sound too good to be true? Unfortunately, it is. Now, there is a lot that is admirable in this film. For example, the acting, which is is far above the tired bar set by most modern action/sci-fi flicks. Furthermore, the special effects in Constantineare simply fantastic. In fact, I would go so...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 2nd, 2005
Synopsis
Steve McQueen is Doc McCoy, master thief. Having just been denied parole, he asks wife Ali McGraw to make a bargain with political fixer Ben Johnson to get him out. This she does, but what McQueen doesn’t realize is that the deal not only involved McQueen’s participation in a bank job, but also McGraw sleeping with Johnson. In short order, the robbery goes wrong, and husband and wife are on the run.
From its punchy, jaggedly edited credit sequence on, this is Peckinpah at his most ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 9th, 2005
Synopsis
This documentary gives us the birth of skateboarding culture as we know it today. In theearly seventies, the Z-Boys of the title, a group of surfing enthusiasts from a hard luckneighbourhood, move from surfing to more and more elaborate skateboarding tricks, worked onin guerilla fashion in the empty swimming pools and the like. Director Stacy Peralta (who alsomade the surfing documentary Riding Giants) was one of those skaters, and so he ispretty damn close to the ma...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 7th, 2005
Synopsis
Jean Reno plays Léon, a preternaturally gifted hit man. Shortly after taking down a smallarmy of goons in a high rise, he finds himself having to look after 11-year-old Mathilda (NataliePortman), whose family has been wiped out by Gary Oldman (whose performance goesshamelessly over the top). In between mega-massacres at the beginning and end of the film, wesee the development of the relationship between precocious Mathilda and child-like Léon.
And that is where many...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 8th, 2005
Synopsis
China is under the rule of the Ching dynasty, who send out assassins to kill anyone whochallenges the regime. Greatest of these assassins is the blind master of the flying guillotine. Hesets out to kill the One-Armed Boxer (don’t ask me why all these guys have disabilities). Thecharacters come together at a huge martial arts tournament (this is where Mortal Kombatcomes from, kiddies). The plot is no more developed than that of a typical porno. The film’sreason for be...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 10th, 2004
Synopsis
An act of sabotage releases a deadly virus (it kills you and turns you into a flesh-eatingzombie) inside the Hive, the underground R&D headquarters of the Umbrella Corporation.Descending into the Hive to find out what went wrong is a team of security operatives,accompanied by Mila Jovovich, who is a apparently another security operative, but is currentlysuffering from amnesia. It isn’t very long before the team is attacked by hordes of zombies, andtheir numbers dwindle alar...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 7th, 2004
Synopsis
This is the story of the tragic arc traced by the relationship of three friends. Kevin Bacon isa cop, Sean Penn is a shady grocery store owner, and Tim Robbins is a hollow man, irreperablydamaged after being kidnapped by paedophiles as a youth. The three had grown apart, but theirlives intersect fatefully when Penn’s daughter is murdered. Bacon investigates the case, andRobbins cannot satisfactorily account for his actions the night of the murder, much to themounting distre...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 5th, 2003
Synopsis
The Kids Are Alright is an combination of footage of performances by The Who(covering the fifteen years of their career up to 1979) and interview excerpts. There are all sortsof historic moments here, one of which occurs right off the top, where we see the band’sappearance on the Smothers Brothers TV show, where an overdone explosion set PeteTownsend’s hair on fire (and perhaps was responsible for his hearing loss). If you’re not a fan ofthe group, this will p...
