Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 3rd, 2004
Synopsis
Jean-Hugues Anglade plays Zorg (yup, that’s his name), a handyman living in a beach-front house, scribbling away quietly in his spare time. Not so quiet is his tempestuous affair with Betty (Beatrice Dalle), whose passions overwhelm both of them. First she moves in on him with no warning. Then, when she discovers his writing, she decides that they must move to Paris so he can have a career as a writer. To make sure Zorg complies, she burns his house to the ground. Once in Paris, her plans fo... him fall apart, and so, bit by bit, does she.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 26th, 2004
Species III comes from good genes. The original was kind of fun (and starred Ben Kinglsey!), but the first sequel was not as fun. But here comes the second sequel. It has the original alien girl Natasha Henstridge, but her appearance is short (I’ll just leave it at that). The director, Brad Turner, is a veteran of action television shows like 24. Is this direct to DVD release the best one of the “species”? The answer tilts towards the negative.
But Species III has a few things goi...g for it. If you like the gore, there are some nice effects here. In fact, Species III plays like a horror film more than sci-fi. The budget constraints limit the movie to a few locations, so its scope isn’t as broad as the other Species siblings. Sunny Mabrey, who bares a striking resemblance to her alien mother (Henstridge), plays the new daughter. This species chick can kick some serious a$#. And the filmmakers, in this unrated cut, make sure to show off Sunny’s other features (yes, there is above the waist nudity).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 24th, 2004
Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern are the last-word in star-crossed lovers. Pursued by theminions of Dern’s psychopathic mother Diane Ladd, they engage in a nightmarishly picaresquejourney across the American south, encountering one grotesque after another (most memorablyWillem Dafoe’s deeply creepy Bobby Peru). The over-the-top sex and violence is held togetherby a narrative that is a dark remake of The Wizard of Oz.
This was David Lynch’s follow-up to Blue Vel...et, and with this he earned a Palmed’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It is filled with memorable characters and scenes, but thelunatic humour prevents the movie from being as intense as its predecessor. For that matter, Ifind Lost Highway a more satisfyingly committed descent into weird nightmare (though Iacknowledge being in a minority on this). Nonetheless, flaws aside, this is spectacularfilmmaking.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 21st, 2004
Synopsis
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 18th, 2004
One Christmas Eve, an infant crawls into Santa’s sack while the big man is visiting an orphanage, and isn’t discovered until Santa (Ed Asner) is back at the North Pole. Adopted by the Papa Elf (Bob Newhart), the baby grows into Buddy (Will Ferrell). Though Buddy does his best, he is enormously clumsy by elf standards. He decided to head off to New York City to meet his birth father (James Caan), the Scrooge-like editor of a children’s book publisher. Buddy descends on the big city with infectious naivete, and has no end of misadventures while he tries to inculcate the Christmas spirit back into his father.
This was a delightful surprise, infinitely better than the uninspiring trailers had led me to believe. Ferrell is the very incarnation of bouncing, wide-eyed, über-innocence, and his collisions with NYC realities are frequently side-splittingly funny. There are numerous extremely quotable lines, and the syrupy sentimentality that plagues most self-consciously Christmas-oriented movies is largely kept to a minimum. The forced perspective in the North Pole scenes is howlingly obvious, but the fanciful production design makes up for that flaw. The case has been made (convincingly, I think), that there have been no legitimate Christmas classics made since1983's A Christmas Story. It is, of course, far too early to tell how Elf will stand the test of time, but its mix of sharp wit and child-like whimsy makes it a serious contender. It is also entirely fitting that Peter Billingsley, the star of A Christmas Story makes a cameo here as the head elf.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 16th, 2004
Released approximately at the same time as Mean Girls, Sleepover is an attempt to make an impact on the teen demographic. But after watching this movie, there’s really no impact. In fact, it barely makes a dent. Four best friends go on a crazy all night scavenger hunt against the “popular” girls. The winner of the hunt gets to sit at the “popular” lunch hang out. The loser…well…gets to hang out with the losers. Pretty trite stuff, eh?
Sleepover is supposedly a throwback to those...zany teen, staying up all night adventure comedies. The characters get themselves into some pretty weird situations. One of these “situations” includes Julie, the main character (she’s 14), sneaking into a bar because the scavenger hunt requires her to get a photo of herself being treated to a drink by a grown-up (???). Weird. The grown-up happens to be her teacher (???). Double weird. But if you’re looking for incisive commentary about teen life, this is not the movie. It plays more like an extended Lizzie McGuire episode. At least the Lizzie show was only half an hour.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 15th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 15th, 2004
The Ranch is a movie about life in bawdy high class brothel. It’s supposedly based on a real life place. Somewhere in Nevada I think. The Ranch is advertised as unrated and uncut. And it’s also SINsational; well…I’m not so sure of the sational part. And maybe not even about the sin. There are some naked breasts from time to time, and some matter of fact and tasteful sex scenes. But there’s nothing really too hot. If this movie is salsa, it would be mild.
But if you’re doing a disserta...ion on prostitute movies then The Ranch is your gold mine. It has every cliché in the book. SPOILERS AHEAD. Let’s see, there’s the prostitute with the kid, and of course the “lady of the evening” is worried that she’s not the proper role model. There’s the prostitute who quits “the life” and has to lie to her fiancé about what she used to do for a living. There’s the prostitute with the “dark past”, and her old pimp comes a runnin’. And there’s the prostitute who starts dating a man in a “real” relationship and well…the dialogue goes something like, “we’re gonna date and you’re gonna watch me take guys to my room all night?”. I could go on. But I’ll just start a new paragraph.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 10th, 2004
Synopsis
