Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 9th, 2006
Well, there’s nothing quite like your first, and when producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman decided to bring about a barely 30 year old Scotsman named Sean Connery, whose most recent work was as a British soldier in The Longest Day, into the film version of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, who had any idea that Dr. No would become a culture landmark, let alone a movie franchise?
Now, one of the first things that comes to mind when you watch Dr. No, if you haven’t watched it in aw...ile (or at all) is that Michael Myers seems to liberally steal from this film when it comes to the Austin Powers trilogy. Connery (as Bond) goes to Jamaica to discover the reasons behind a disappearance of a colleague. There he meets his American CIA contact Felix Leiter (holy crap, that’s Jack Lord from Hawaii Five-O!) and with the help of some of the locals, they meet a mad scientist named Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman, Viva Zapata!), and he captures Bond and a female companion named Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress, Clash of the Titans), feeds them a lavish dinner while telling them about a plan to destroy the world for money, and James and Honey get out of the trap to eliminate them while James saves the world while telling Michael York about it (wait, stumbled into the wrong film there).
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...eds at all. She is underappreciated, despite her calm, sweet demeanor, and routinely thrown out of her husband's aunt's room at the nursing home. It's during one of these rejections that she meets Nanny Threadgoode (Tandy), a positive old woman determined to get her house back, and eager for the chance to talk about her past.
But it isn't her own life that Nanny wants to tell her new friend about - it's the friendship of two women, Idgie (Mary Stuart Masterson) and Ruth (Mary-Louise Parker), whom Nanny used to know, that gets the old woman talking. Be forewarned. There are some hanky moments, but they're all handled with great care. Also, the racial elements of the backstory and an intriguing murder mystery amp up the drama to a reasonably tense and captivating level. Director Jon Avnet keeps the film from ever getting too hoky or melodramatic, though I will say it can't escape predictability. There are some pseudo-surprises you should see coming from a mile away, and even a touch of morbidity toward the film's conclusion. But it all works, thanks in large part to great source material, a strongly adapted script, and the amazing performances of all four women.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 31st, 2006
Synopsis
Jon Voight is a rogue director in the National Security Agency. When politician Jason Robards stands in the way of dangerous bill that would give the NSA almost unlimited powers, Voight has him killed. The murder is captured on tape, and a disc containing the incriminating evidence winds up in the hands of attorney Will Smith. The next thing he knows, his life is turned upside down as Voight sends high-tech minions after him. He seeks the help of retired surveillance whiz Gene Hackman.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 29th, 2006
While V For Vendetta certainly met with some backlash when it was released in theaters earlier this year, having now seen the film myself, I am shocked that it didn't meet with even more opposition; especially from the White House. Of course, if the White House had come out against the film, it would not only have spurred greater ticket sales, but it also would have placed the government in the position of the film's villain. To speak out against this film would be to be to speak out against basic American values.
Set in the near future, this film tells the story of V, a terrorist that rallies against an unjust government. He is something of a modern-day Che Guevara, except he bases himself on a 17th century activist named Guy Fawkes, who was foiled in an attempt to destroy the English Parliament. Among other acts of terror, V plans to succeed where Fawkes failed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 27th, 2006
Not being a big fan of Black Hawk Down, I can't really tell you how many releases of the feature this makes from Sony. I know it's a title, which has seen at least two prior offerings. There is nothing new here to recommend the extended cut over the previous three-disc monster edition; however, it may be the way to go if you've yet to add this Ridley Scott war film to your collection. I'll be the first to admit that Scott does some of his finest work as director in this gritty combat picture; but his style is ...lso the reason why I feel Black Hawk Down fails to deliver, and pack the same emotional punch of a Saving Private Ryan or We Were Soldiers. Most of the young stars involved in this film, and in the grisly fighting, stay masked under a thick layer of dirt and grime throughout the 152-minute running time. While that contributes largely to the chaotic and confusing authenticity during battle scenes, it hinders the audience from getting attached to any of the characters.
I know character development needn't be sacrificed on the altar of battle realism; yet that's exactly what happens in Black Hawk Down. It's the kind of film, which needs Mark Bowden's book on which it was based to fill in the gaps left by the dramatization. The contemporary war efforts mentioned above are proof this sacrifice is an unnecessary one. Still, as disorienting as the film is, you can tell Scott is a seasoned director, who knows his way around a camera. And who knows? Perhaps his style creates some of the most realistic battle scenes known to film. And if this is all he wanted to accomplish, then Scott's film succeeds. But I can't imagine a director actively indifferent towards how his audience feels about the characters. And if this assumption rings true in Scott's case, then he can't look back on Black Hawk Down pleased with how it all turned out.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 23rd, 2006
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...ly Field, who plays the nut-job in question, won an Emmy for best actress for her work in the film. She really is extraordinary here, essentially playing thirteen different roles at once, many of them intertwined and overlapping. It is a role that would have made the film nothing more than a glorified After School Special in the hands of a lesser actress. Instead, Field plays the character(s) deftly and flawlessly, making the movie's three-hour running time fly by. This is an amazing film even by today's standards, and I hope this new edition brings an all-new audience to the film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 11th, 2006
Gregory Peck plays Francis Chisholm. After losing his parents as a young boy, and then his sweetheart (to moral turpitude, it seems), Francis enters the priesthood. His unorthodox ways make him a failure initially, but kindly bishop and mentor Edmund Gwenn sees potential in the man, and sends him off to China to be a missionary. There too, things get off to a rocky start, but a turnaround happens when he saves the son of a local mandarin. His struggles are far from over, but through it all, he remains a triumphantly decent man.And one would expect no less from Gregory Peck, now would we, in this, his screen debut. This is old-fashioned religiosity following in the vein of The Song of Bernadette and Going My Way. It certainly is easy to cynical about it, and there is more than a whiff of cultural imperialism about the affair. Even so, and in spite of the very stately pace, the film is so fundamentally sweet-natured that it is very hard not to be caught up in it.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 10th, 2006
Synopsis
Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are two down-on-their-luck jazz musicians in Prohibition-era Chicago. They witness a gangland massacre, and in order to hide from the hoodlums, dress up in drag and join an all-female jazz band that is off to play an extended gig in Florida. The vocalist of the band is none other than Marilyn Monroe, and though it is Lemmon who first casts designs for her, it is Curtis who engages in the wooing. Lemmon, meanwhile, has his hands full when billionaire Joe E. Brown f...lls head over heels for his female persona.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 10th, 2006
Career criminal Ray Milland shows up at the ranch of Korean vet Anthony Quinn, looking for his old flame, Debra Paget. She is now married to Quinn, but she hasn't adapted well to country life, still carries a torch for Milland, and is in the very process of leaving Quinn. She and Milland rekindle their romance, and are planning to leave town with the million dollars Milland has just scored. When Milland runs over a state trooper, he forces Quinn to guide them through the wilderness to the Mexican border. A struggle for both survival and Paget's love ensues.A welcome reminder of when thrillers didn't have to be two-and-a-half hours long, this is a tight, swiftly paced peace of work. Despite the great physical difference between them, Milland comes across as a worthy adversary for Quinn, there's a great cynical anger to the characters, and the violence is pretty brutal for its era. The location settings tend to make the studio exteriors all the more obvious, but this is a minor quibble This is a fine western noir, worthy of rediscovery.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 7th, 2006
Tyrone Power has been plying his trade as a pirate in the waters near Jamaica. When his former captain becomes the governor of Jamaica, Power goes straight. He has his eye on Maureen O'Hara, who is engaged to a duplicitous aristocrat who is feeding information to unreformed pirate George Sanders (utterly unrecognizable in shaggy red hair and beard). There will be many complications before Power can claim the resisting O'Hara as his own.Compared to the Errol Flynn pirate movies Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk, this one is a bit light on the action, really only getting down to the buckling of swashes in the final act. The romance between Power and O'Hara is a bit difficult to take in this day and age as well, especially in the first part of the film as it dances into rape fantasy territory. But be that as it may, this is still a first-class adventure.
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