Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 22nd, 2005
Synopsis
Victor Mature is an ex-con driven by financial desperation to take part in a jewel heist. The job goes wrong, and he is nabbed. He’s sent to prison, and agonizes over his family. When he’s double-crossed by his lawyer, he agrees to DA Brian Donlevy’s deal and testifies against psychotic hoodlum Richard Widmark. He gets out, and starts his life over, but then Widmark beats the wrap, and is on the prowl for revenge.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 20th, 2005
If your first introduction to William L. Petersen is through CSI, then you’re missing some real treats with his short-lived film career, which burned brightest about fifteen years before he ever became Gil Grissom and investigated his way onto our small screens and, subsequently, into our hearts. Both of his cinematic outings never got the respect due them until after Petersen reminded us he was still alive, still well, and still acting. His best effort was Manhunter, Michael Mann’s adaptation of the Th...mas Harris novel Red Dragon. While the most recent effort stuck more to the letter of Harris’s novel, Manhunter proved the superior film through Mann’s unmistakable style, and the straight-laced, troubled, and obsessive portrayal of Agent Graham by Petersen.
In To Live and Die in L.A., Petersen again dons a badge, this time as Federal Agent Richard Chance for the U.S. Treasury Department. He’s after a murderous counterfeiter (Willem Dafoe), and he has zero qualms about cracking heads and breaking rules to bring down his adversary. As the film progresses, director William Friedkin throws us quite a few surprises, and yet another breathless car chase. It’s too bad Friedkin’s career is remembered for only two films: The Exorcist and The French Connection. Because his courtroom-serial killer thriller Rampage, and this 1985 action-drama are solid efforts, and much better deserving of success than most anything Hollywood puts out today.
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 Archive Authors on November 19th, 2005
Phone director Byeong-ki Ahn admits he wanted to take the premise of Ringu and incorporate cell phones as the primary transmitter of terror instead of VHS tapes. (Just when these vengeful spirits will make the jump to DVD is uncertain -- and when they do, will it be Blu-Ray or… oh, I’ll save it for another time.) Anyway, he puts together an impressive-looking package with this horror tale, but unfortunately, the film itself falls flat on the wings of derivative, copycat storytelling.
Ji-Won H... is a hard-nosed journalist, who, we soon learn, has blown a sex scandal wide open and made a slew of enemies in the process. Does she care? Of course not. But someone has a mind to make her, as a series of harassing phone calls from a deep-voiced male leads her to believe someone wants her real dead, real soon.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 18th, 2005
Synopsis
Operation Market Garden is the most famous Allied defeat in the Second World War. An audacious plan scuppered by bad luck and worse decisions, it is recounted in this visually spectacular film. The goal is to seize a group of bridges across Holland, culminating in the brdge at Arnhem. Everything imaginable goes wrong. Richard Attenborough’s film stars just about every big name actor under the sun, and his re-enactment has so many extras and so much hardware that one feels he could have convi...cingly remounted the entire operation. The stellar cast isn’t required to do very much other than be manly, but the battle staging is undeniably spectacular.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 14th, 2005
Written by Clayton Self
The cult classic "Office Space" from creator Mike Judge (Bevis and Butthead) found a huge following on its initial release on DVD. The movie stars Ron Livingston as Peter Gibbons, a software analyst for the computer giant Initech. Fed up with his condescending boss (Gary Cole) and the frustrations of his job in general, he visits a hypno therapist who puts him in a state of well being and relaxation. The therapist dies of a heart attack before the procedure is complete, leaving Peter permanately care free. Peter ...ses his new confidence to ask out a local waitress (Jennifer Aniston) and to plot with his co-workers to install a virus that will take fractions of a cent from Initech's money transactions and place them into an account for them. Also of mention is the paranoid nuerotic Milton (Stephen Root).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 13th, 2005
In the event you had to move under a rock in 1997 and just crawled out from under it last week, James Cameron’s TITANIC – winner of 11 Academy Awards - recounts the tragic sinking of the supposedly indestructible ship seen through the eyes of two young lovers on board. Though the romance is fictional, it serves as a guide that will walk us through one of the most memorable events of the twentieth century.
There isn’t much to be said about this film that hasn’t been said a thousand times over in the ...ast few years. If you’re looking for some master thespians, you won’t find them here although the supporting cast, with the likes of Frances Fisher, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Victor Garber and more is quite rich. While Winslet was more than capable as Rose, a young, passionate woman betrothed to a rich asshole (Billy Zane), DiCaprio, in the main role of Jack Dawson, teetered on horrendous at times although in his defense, some of the dialogue he was given was cheese worthy of George Lucas’ best work. Both however, proved more than apt at giving us a fantastic point of view at the very real events depicted in the movie. That realism is precisely what propels Cameron’s film into the stratosphere of “historical epics”. Yes, there may be a few inaccuracies that were modified for dramatic purposes but heck, even documentaries have those. The realism was in the success Cameron had in bringing the ship and the people on it back to life for a few precious hours in order to put their story in perspective. The Kate and Leo show took up most of the screen time but in the end, it paled in comparison to what was happening to the ship itself.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 10th, 2005
Synopsis
Frustrated by vicissitudes of Depression-era life, Dorothy wishes she were somewhere else. She gets her wish in ways she couldn’t have imagined, as a tornado drops her into the magical world of Oz. Accompanied by the brain-free Scarecrows, heartless Tin Man and cowardly Lion, she sets out on a quest to return home. In order to be granted that wish by the all-powerful Wizard, she must first defeat the Wicked Witch of the West.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 9th, 2005
Synopsis
Alain Delon is a cool-as-ice contract killer. After pulling off his latest contract, he is picked up by the police on suspicion, but is released for lack of evidence. The gangsters who hired him consider him a liability, however, and attempt to have him killed. He must now evade the police long enough to track down his killers before they get him.
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...uly enjoy. I wish Hollywood made more films like this. Now, I certainly have a soft spot for the standard hard R flicks, but who doesn't love a good classic (mostly) wholesome adventure tale?
In addition to being the highlight of Antonio Banderas' questionable career, this film brought the movie-going world a wonderful gift in the package of Catherine Zeta-Jones. Michael Douglas will eternally be grateful for this inspired casting choice, as she became an instant superstar after her scene-stealing performances in this film.
