Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 19th, 2007
Cupt Epics here presents five films identified as "underground" (a fluid term at the best of times). Certainly, they are all deliberately transgressive, though not all are equally successful. Two are by Nico B. - the perviously released "Pig" and "Hollywood Babylon." The former has been reviewed here before, but briefly, its catalogue of murder and S&M horrors, working out a killer's fantasies, is rather too self-conscious about its own transgression. The latter is a 4-minute tribute to Kenneth Anger, taking in exhibits at the Museum of Death. It's not a bad little piece, but it is interesting to note that its existence confirms once and for all that now even the underground film community has an established history to look back on. "Dislandia" is a half-hour, plotless portrayal of a little girl (whose face is covered in a mask) doing odd things and moving through a gritty, disconnected landscape. Interesting visually, the film is sufficiently obscure in its goals that one's mind does begin to wander. "Adoration," on the other hand, is gruelling, brutal, intelligent and effective. Based on an actual case, we see a young man invite a woman to his apartment, record her reading poetry, then kill and eat her. All of this is seen through the eyes of a camera he has place on a wall. The unblinking gaze is explicitly equated with the audience's own, and many uneasy questions about art and voyeurism are thus raised. Finally, "Le poéme" is the one that most viewers will find hardest to deal with: we watch an actual autopsy while listening to the poem "Le bateau ivre" by Arthur Rimbaud. Difficult though the film is, it is also, like "Adoration," quite beautiful.Audio
The sound is 2.0, and the actual sound quality depends primarily on the source material. In fact, "Adoration" is largely silent. But at any rate, the overall audio quality is perfectly satisfactory. There isn't too much by way of surround, and what emerges from the rear speakers isn't always perfectly placed, but the job is generally quite effectively done.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 15th, 2007
Long the bad boy of French novelists, Jean Genet directed this 25-minute short in 1950. Borderline pornographic, it is a silent portrayal of (literally) imprisoned desire. Two prisoners convey their longing for one another through the prison walls, while a voyeuristic guard watches, becoming aroused and frustrated to the point of violence. Poetic, fetishistic, and intensely personal, it is a startling and historic piece of underground cinema.Audio
Consider the rating a place-holder, because we don't have a star equivalent for "Not Applicable." This is a completely silent film. Not even a score. As for the extras, they are clear enough.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 15th, 2007
Warner Bros. had the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, Disney had the Silly Symphonies. This is the second volume collecting those shorts, covering the years 1929 to 1938. The shorts are selected on a menu that can be presented in alphabetical or chronological order, and it is the latter approach that is the most enlightening, as we can see the cartoons evolve. There is no dialogue in these shorts – the point was to fuse animation and music. And while that is an end in itself in the earlier cartoons (and quite the technological feat at that), more and more narrative content develops over the years. The culmination of this form of animation would, of course, be Fantasia, and in such early pieces as “Hell’s Bells,” one can see in embryonic form the ideas that would become, for instance, the “Night on Bald Mountain” segment.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 27th, 2006
Coach is one of those shows that never seemed to make a lot of noise. I can’t remember any year it was on that it burned up the ratings or scored many awards. Still, it was the little show that could. It ran for nine seasons, always holding on to a loyal core audience. I’m sure most of the success belongs to the underrated talents of Craig T. Nelson. I’ll admit that this guy just never showed up on my talent radar until his unexpected turn at drama during The District. It was then I learned to appreciate his self-effacing subtle abilities. Now I watch Coach with a somewhat renewed interest. Dick Van Dyke’s lesser known brother in comedy, Jerry is also a huge reason for the show’s stamina, if not outright success. The bumbling Luther was my favorite part of the show. The first season of Coach is a short one. I also appreciate the way it begins. It assumes you already know these guys and doesn’t feel the need to explain why everyone is here. The Coach is already in his position with his staff that we’ll soon get to know better. It’s a quirky show, and not at all one of my favorites, but certainly worth a second look on DVD.
Video
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 9th, 2006
Synopsis
As one of the discs in this set is exactly the same as the previous release, my review is the same too:
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 19th, 2005
Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a middle-aged divorcee with a blue-collar job and a rundown home in the New Jersey suburbs. When his ex-wife unexpectedly drops his estranged kids—ten year old Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and sixteen year old Robbie (Justin Chatwin)—off for the weekend, Ray is less than pleased. He’s always struggled with his parental duties, but now finds it increasingly difficult to communicate with his children. However, events beyond his control are about to force Ray to come to terms with his responsibili...ies. Bizarre lighting storms herald the arrival of alien tripods, which explode from beneath the Earth’s surface and begin dispensing death and destruction on the surrounding countryside. Narrowly avoiding the first attack, Ray returns home, grabs his kids and embarks on a frantic journey across country to find their mother in Boston.
Tom Cruise is likeable in the lead role, and manages to pull off the everyman act fairly convincingly for someone as famous as he is. He’s definitely grown as an actor in recent years—starting with his turn in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia—and I am becoming increasingly interested in his work. Of the rest of the cast, only Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin have any real screen time. In this movie Fanning isn’t really required to do much beyond acting like a terrified ten year old girl, which she does with her usual brilliance. I’m constantly amazed by how self-assured and composed she remains in the presence of superstars such as Cruise and De Niro (not to mention a director like Spielberg). Chatwin also puts in a decent performance as Ray’s moody teenaged son, accurately portraying the kind of sullen resentment that many children of broken marriages harbor towards their ‘unfit’ parents.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 11th, 2005
Synopsis
Akira Kurosawa’s impact on filmmaking and storytelling will be part of Western cinema for decades to come. Despite being slightly underappreciated in his later years in his native Japan, some of the work he put to film is some of the greatest and most influential ever seen. His work, such as Rashomon, The Hidden Fortress and The Seven Samurai, to name a few, have been remade or cited as major influences in the films and/or careers of George Lucas, Clint Eastwood and James Cobur..., among others. I’ve become increasingly interested in Kurosawa’s work, and I recently picked up the Kurosawa DVD Collection, which is available as an Amazon.com exclusive as part of a limited edition run of 5,000. The 3-disc set contains the documentary on the sensei (Kurosawa’s nickname), aptly titled Kurosawa. The other two discs house Kurosawa’s last film, Madadayo, and the Masterworks Edition of Ran. In terms of packaging, it’s a bit hard to describe, the box opens much like your standard amaray case. On the left side, Kurosawa is at the bottom, and on the top, there is a greeting card sized package of materials. Aside from the obligatory certificate of authenticity, four 5x7 glossy cards that are Kurosawa storyboard illustrations for Madadayo and Ran are here, as well as a small booklet that is mainly comprised of biographical information. The discs for Madadayo and Ran are on the right side, as well as a small board (Amazon says it’s a “Japanese-style miniature shoji screen”) that has art from Ran on it. It’s nice artwork, plus it’s been clear-coated to help prevent damage to it. To round out the goodies, there is a reproduction of the poster that trumpeted the re-release of Ran in 2000, but the poster is reduced to a more manageable size to fit the case.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 14th, 2005
First off, let me say that if you have only seen Showgirls on VH-1, then you haven’t had the full experience. It’s bad on network television, but the sheer scope of how truly awful it is can only be experienced in the full, uncut version. Laughing at an idiot is one thing. Laughing at a naked idiot is something else entirely. It’s amazing how un-sexy this film really is. Showgirls is funny in the same way that it was funny to make fun of the fat kid riding in the front of the bus in Junior High. ...art of you feels sorry for Elizabeth Berkeley, and part of you secretly gets a certain satisfaction out of watching her fail so horribly and famously on film. The point is, this film is truly enjoyable, in the most twisted of ways.
This trashy flick is the very definition of a film so bad that it’s good. For those of you that live in a cave in Afghanistan, this is the story of a small-town girl who goes to Vegas to make it big as a showgirl (because you have to have goals, right?). Once she gets there, she finds that Sin City is called that for a reason, and she fights through catty co-workers, sleazy managers and her own blind ignorance to get her shot at the big time. I think I might have died of boredom if this movie wasn’t so gloriously horrible.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 20th, 2004
Everybody’s favorite guy in a construction hat is back. No, not Sully from Sesame Street It’s Bob the Builder! He stars in Snowed Under: The Bobblesberg Winter Games. To join in on the fun, Bob has his favorite buddies along too, Lofty, Scoop, Muck, Roley, Travis, Spud, Wendy, Dizzy. And there’s even a new character to the crew, Benny. What trouble does Bob have to fix this time? Well…let me tell ya kids. It’s the Bobblesberg Winter games and the course is snowed under. And it’s up to Bob and h...s crew to fix and re-build everything before the opening ceremonies. Can he fix it?? Well…what do you think.
This is a full length Bob episode (just over 50 minutes). It’s about 5 times longer than a normal episode, so the kids might get restless. And there’s a feature where you loop the movie. So the kids can watch the same episode over and over again while Mommy can do the mommy stuff upstairs. Is it worth repeated viewings? The episode length is stretching it a bit. But there is an air of familiarity for the hard-core Bob viewers. The main characters are exactly like expected (even though Scoop seems a little more bossy than usual). But the alpine scenery, action and yodeling are enough to keep the kids attention.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 8th, 2004
The setting is the home of a decaying family of French aristocrats. The Marquis del’Espérance (whose name is deliberately ironic) is desperate to marry his son Maturin to heiressLucy Broadhurst. Their marriage is in the will of ancestors, but with many conditions. Maturin’sgreat-uncle is desperate to stop the marriage, believing for some reason that it will kill Maturin.Meanwhile, Lucy has vivid dreams of Romilda de l’Espérance who, two centuries before, had avery erotic encounter with a beast in the woods.
Borowczyk takes the story of Beauty and the Beast to its logical conclusion, and the result isdream-like, surreal, poetic, shocking, and very funny. His style has long been noted for itsfetishization of inanimate objects and its attention to the erotics of the small details, and nowhereis this clearer than in The Beast. The visuals are gorgeously lush, drawing the viewer intoa world of heady eroticism. Among Cult Epics’ erotica releases, this is the jewel in the crown.A major release.
