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:
This is an episodic biopic about Bettie Page, moving from her glory days as a model for the pin-up photographer Bunny Yeager and fetish actress for Irving Klaw, maker of B&D shorts. All is well until a Senate investigation into obscenity, and Bettie herself pines for more mainstream, respectable roles. A fair bit of running time consists of B&W recreations of lost Klaw films, wit...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 7th, 2006
Synopsis
Christmas in Wichita Falls, but there’s not much comfort and joy going around. John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton have just stolen two million bucks from mob boss Randy Quaid. If they can keep things together for just a few hours, they will be home free and off to warmer climes with their loot. But a huge thug is looking for them, Cusack keeps drawing attention to himself, and then there’s the question of whether these two can really trust each other.
Harold Ramis’ comic noir/black...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 6th, 2006
Synopsis
The Bennet family is not rich, and when Mr. Bennet (Donald Sutherland) dies, the estate will pass out of the family’s hands and into those of a rather pompous little twit of a parson. There are five daughters, and their future can only be achieved through marriage. Elizabeth Bennet (Keira Knightley) is the second daughter (improbably described as plain). Her path repeated crosses that of Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen), an aloof, brooding gentleman who apparently has little use for her or her ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 5th, 2006
Synopsis
Well, a Terry Gilliam children’s film might seem like a bit of an oxymoron, however writing a film with fellow Monty Python alum Michael Palin actually resulted in a funny, and even philosophical film, reflecting on themes of good and evil.
In a futuristic, technological world of the early 1980s, young Kevin (Craig Warnock) sees a medieval knight and horse burst from his wardrobe closet and run into the woods. The next night he prepares for something similar, but instead meets a gr...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 3rd, 2006
Synopsis
In the late fifties, Lanny Morris (Kevin Bacon) and Vince Collins (Colin Firth) are a top-rated comedy duo, hosts of a polio telethon. At the height of their career, everything comes crashing down when the body of a young woman is discovered in the bathtub of their hotel suite. They have cast-iron alibis, but the team is dissolved. Fifteen years later, up-and-coming journalist Karen O’Connor (Alison Lohman) lands a sweetheart deal to write a book about Vince, and he is being paid a million d...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 28th, 2006
Synopsis
Valentina Cortesa plays a survivor of the Belsen concentration camp. She has lost everything in the war. Her best friend in the camp is a woman whose infant child is being looked after in the USA, and when this woman dies shortly before liberation, Cortesa decides to adopt her identity, since no one alive would remember what she looks like. Once in the States, she meets and falls in love with Richard Basehart, the guardian of her “son.” Moving into their home in San Francisco, she sense host...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 28th, 2006
Utter the simple phrase of Harry Potter to any age, and it is nearly guaranteed that they will know what you are speaking about. Since becoming a worldwide phenomenon in 1999, the Harry Potter series have been turned into everything from video games to bathing products. Most notably, the series have been turned into a set of excellent films that are successful, for the most part, in recreating the major elements presented in the novels by author J.K.Rowling.
With this being the fourth film in the series of ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 28th, 2006
Synopsis
Dana Andrews was never an actor who radiated warmth, and here he is perfectly cast as a hardboiled con artist on the lookout for number one. He arrives in a small town and falls hard for sultry waitress Linda Darnell. She is holding out for marriage, but marriage with financial stability, which Andrew can’t offer. So he sets about seducing Alice Faye with the idea of fleecing her of her fortune.
Director Otto Preminger’s follow-up to Laura had Andrews doing fine work again, ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 25th, 2006
Synopsis
I think that by revisiting Unbreakable, and looking at it outside of M. Night Shyamalan’s other films (The Sixth Sense and Signs), there’s actually a pretty good movie going on there. I mean, a movie that grossed $95 million domestically can’t be considered a failure, right? It did, however, do amazing overall numbers, the international totals brought the film up to a near $250 million gross. However, I guess when you put them up against Signs ($227 million domestic, $40...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 24th, 2006
Get ready, all you pre-teen Emilio Estevez fans, for this new special edition of Repo Man from Focus Features. I had no idea this film had such a following, and after viewing, I can’t seem to make sense of it. Not always sure of its genre, Repo Man is a film oddity that mixes drama, comedy, and goofball science-fiction with a meandering plot and questionable performances to get one of the strangest and most forgettable B-movies this side of Bride of the Monster. I was joking about a pre-teen Este...
