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Special Edition

Heat

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 11th, 2005

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I don’t remember hearing anything about Heat when it was coming out, but once I saw who was in it, I was hooked. With Al Pacino’s 8 Oscar nominations (with 1 award) and Robert DeNiro’s 6 nominations (and 2 awards), the two have had quintessential acting performances over the past 30 years, and the impact they have had on cinema speaks for itself.

The names of the characters are hardly consequential, as they are used to further storylines more than develop character. But Pacino plays a cop who is tr…
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Orgazmo

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 8th, 2005

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Synopsis

Director Trey Parker plays Joe Young, a Mormon on a rather losing missionary trip toHollywood. A chance encounter lands him (reluctantly) as the lead in Orgazmo, a pornflick about the titular super-hero. The film becomes a runaway success, and Joe finds himself anunwilling porn superstar. Meanwhile, his co-star in the film has developed a real, workingversion of the hero’s Orgazmarator (or something like that), which causes orgasms at a distance.It is only a matter o…
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Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 7th, 2005

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Synopsis

Two brothers, Jin-seok and Jin-tae, are drafted into the South Korean army when war eruptsin 1950. Jin-seok is bookish and has a bad heart — there is no way he can survive the war withouthis older, stronger brother’s help. Jin-tae takes on one insanely risky mission after another,having been given the hope that if he performs sufficient acts of bravery, his brother will be senthome. He begins to lose sight of this goal, however, as he starts to like the glory of being a hero…
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Philadelphia Story, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 27th, 2005

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Synopsis

Reluctant scandal-mag reporter James Stewart and photographer Ruth Hussey are sent toinfiltrate and report on the upcoming marriage of New England aristocrat Katharine Hepburn.They are brought into the house by Hepburn’s first husband, Cary Grant. Sparks, friendly andnot, fly in all directions, and Hepburn’s relationships with the men in her life becomeincreasingly complex. She is also taught to have, as her father puts it, “an understandingheart.”

There’s an echo…
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Bringing Up Baby

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 26th, 2005

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Synopsis

Cary Grant is a straightlaced paleontologist about to be married to a woman even morestraightlaced than he. His life flies into pieces when he runs into the flighty socialite KatharineHepburn. Falling instantly in love, Hepburn does all she can to keep Grant nearby, no matter theconsequences, and she embroils him in the task of bringing a leopard named Baby to heraunt’s country estate.

What follows is every conceivable (and even some inconceivable) sort of misunders…
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Chariots of Fire

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 8th, 2005

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Synopsis

In the years leading up to the 1924 Paris Olympics, Ben Cross is Harold Abrahams, who useshis speed as a runner to fight back against the quiet but persistent anti-Semitism of Britishsociety. Ian Charleson is Eric Liddell, the profoundly religious Scot who runs for God. Wefollow their lives and training, along with those of Abrahams’ college friends, up to theOlympics, with a few smallish tribulations along the way.

And that’s about it, really. There are plenty of s…
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Malcolm X

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 7th, 2005

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Synopsis

Denzel Washington plays Malcolm X, the black leader white folks DIDN’T feel comfortableabout. Beginning in the 1940s, when Malcolm is a zoot-suited cool cat with best friend Shorty(Spike Lee), the film then flashes back to just before his birth, and proceeds in properly epicfashion to trace the life of the charismatic, and extremely controversial, leader.

Questions can, and have, been asked about some aspects of the film. Time Out, for instance,raises the issue of t…
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October Sky

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 1st, 2005

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Synopsis

Coalwood, West Virgina, is a typical mining company town in 1957. For most of the malepopulation, the only future is a descent into the mines, with all the hardships and early death thatentails. Jake Gyllenhaal hopes for better, and he is inspired by the launch of Sputnik to build hisown rocket, a project which involves three of his friends, and is encouraged by teacher LauraDern. Against Gyllenhaal are the skepticism of the town, the difficulties of the project, and thetro…
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Predator 2

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 30th, 2005

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Predator vs. Alien was not as successful at the box office as was hoped. It seems that this 2-disc edition of Predator 2 might be intended to build interest for the troubled fusion of the two popular space creatures.

This film has had its share of detractors since its release in 1990. I, for one, find it to be as good as, if not better than, the original film. Watching the two governors Arnold and Jesse take on the Predator in the Columbian jungles was certainly a hoot. Let’s be honest…
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Monster

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 22nd, 2005

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Synopsis

Charlize Theron doesn’t play Aileen Wuornos, she incarnates her. At the end of hertether, highway prostitute Aileen meets 18-year-old Selby (Christina Ricci) when she accidentlywalks into a lesbian bar. They click, and suddenly, Aileen has a reason to live. She tries to turnher life around, but with the implacability of Greek tragedy, her attempts end in failure and shereturns to turning tricks. One date goes turns ghastly, and she kills the brutal john in self-defense…
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Festival Express

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 20th, 2005

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What a find! Film footage from a landmark 1970 concert sat in a producer’s garage for almost 3 decades. So finally, after all the music rights and remastering were taken care of, we have a landmark rockumentary. Thank the maker. Festival Express is a rock concert movie about a 3 city train tour, with stops in Toronto, Winnipeg, and Calgary (not to mention a stop in Saskatoon for booze). The performers included The Grateful Dead, The Band, Buddy Guy, and Janis Joplin (among many, many others).

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Witch Who Came From The Sea, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 12th, 2005

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Synopsis

Molly (Millie Perkins) is seriously disconnected from reality. She tells her two nephewswonderful tales about their grandfather, whom she declares a saint, even though we see (indisturbing flashbacks), that he repeatedly raped her. She also enjoys ogling well-built men andfantasizing about their violent deaths. But she doesn’t stop at fantasizing…

Well! Here she is, Anne Frank herself (from the 1959 film) all grown up and castrating menwith safety razors. This is …
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De-Lovely

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 11th, 2005

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De-Lovely is a musical bio-pic based on the life of Cole Porter. Now, Porter was an American genius, responsible for writing such song classics as “Love for Sale” and “Anything Goes”. Porter’s personal life was also legendary. He had a wife, but also had affairs with men. Porter also suffered a horse riding accident in the late 1930’s that debilitated him for the rest of his life (to his death in 1964). Sounds like the great makings of a movie, right? Well….

Kevin Kline plays Cole Porter, and h…
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Riding Giants

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 31st, 2004

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Synopsis

Riding Giants is both a history of big-wave surfing (and, to a degree, of surfinggenerally) and a profile of the big names in the sport over the generations, specifically Greg Noll,Jeff Clark and Laird Hamilton (who, as executive producer, also gets the lion’s share of thecoverage). Spectacular footage is mixed with vintage home movies, and the result is quitecompelling. The film does devolve into hero-worship, however, and when a drowned surfer isreferred to as a fa…
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Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 23rd, 2004

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Synopsis

Apocalypse picks up where the first Resident Evil left off. The sinisterUmbrella Corporation re-opens its underground lab, and in so doing unleashes the T-Virus onRacoon City. The metropolis is cordoned off to contain the infection, and there are only a handfulof survivors left who, led by the now superhuman Alice (Mila Jovovich), must escape the citybefore it is sanitized (i.e.nuked).

The scale is far more grandiose than the first film, and there is m…
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Meet the Parents

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 17th, 2004

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Synopsis

Ben Stiller wants to propose to sweetheart Teri Polo, but first he has to impress her dad –Robert De Niro. The weekend with the parents proceeds as one would expect a movie with BenStiller in the lead: disastrously. De Niro is an over-protective ex-CIA control freak, and Stillerinevitably finds the way to wreak the most humiliating havoc possible.

As the embarrassments mount, and yet more loom ominously over the horizon, you findyourself wishing you could look away…
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Spider-Man 2

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 10th, 2004

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Spider-Man 2 is a superior film to the first. While it is rare for sequels to live up to expectations, there are rare moments in film history when the sequel may even surpass the first film’s quality. The Godfather Part II and Bride of Frankenstein are two well known examples. But for Every T2 there are usually 20 Jaws 3-D’s. Doc Ock was the perfect choice as the story’s villain; Alfred Molina was a wonderful selection to bring this fan favorite to life on the big screen. Peter Parker’s life is more multi-dimensional…
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Wild at Heart

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 24th, 2004

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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…
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Sleepover

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 16th, 2004

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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…
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Shawshank Redemption, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 10th, 2004

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Synopsis

Convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, Tim Robbins is sentenced to serveconsecutive life sentences at the horrific Shawshank prison. He looks like the sort who wouldn’tlast a week in such circumstances, let alone decades, but he survives, and begins to transformall around him, most prominently long-time resident and operator Morgan Freeman. Robbinsnever gives up his dream of freedom, however, and so the film is, in some ways, about thelongest prison escape ever. But…
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Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 9th, 2004

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Okay. I admit it. I’m guilty. I’m probably one of the few people on the planet Earth who has never seen Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Not because I’m an art film snob or anything (which I’m not…usually). I just never got around to it. I heard all the hype, heard a lot of the famous lines. But I’ve never actually seen the movie. Until now.

The Special Edition of Fast Times is now available and it’s worth picking up. For all the rest of the planet that has seen it, the movie takes plac…
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Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 3rd, 2004

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Synopsis

Sterling Hayden, as the demented General Jack D. Ripper, sends a squadron of bombers offto nuke the Soviet Union. The principle bomber pilot is the equally demented Slim Pickens.Captain Mandrake (Peter Sellers) desperately tries to stop the bombers. The President (PeterSellers again) summons his principle aids to the war room and the assembled characters(including George C. Scott, and Sellers again as the titular character) do all they can to avert adoomsday scenario.

Ed Wood

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 19th, 2004

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Synopsis

This is the story of Edward D. Wood, Jr., who gave the world such classics as Glen orGlenda? and Plan 9 From Outer Space. Tim Burton’s film follows Wood (JohnnyDepp) from his dismal theatre days through to the premiere of Plan 9, along the wayexploring his friendship with various misfits, including Bela Lugosi (an Oscar-winning turn byMartin Landau), not to mention Wood’s own cross-dressing proclivities.

Purists can complain about the factual in…
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Breakin’ all the Rules

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 30th, 2004

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Synopsis

Dumped on the night he was to announce his engagement, Jamie Foxx turns his pain into abestselling breakup manual. When his cousin, Morris Chestnut, thinks his girlfriend GabrielleUnion is going to break up with him, Foxx is enlisted to help, which leads to a massive chainreaction of mistaken identities and misunderstandings.

The structure is clearly and consciously that of a classical farce. Though the film neverachieves the proper frenzy requires of a farc…
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Tess

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 21st, 2004

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Synopsis

The peasant father of Tess (Nastassja Kinski) discovers that their family is of noble descent,and, hoping to improve their fortunes, he sends Tess to work for a well-to-do family. Shebecomes a victim of the rakish son of the household. Abandoned, she eventually falls in lovewith parson’s son Peter Firth, but her past catches up with her.

As is typical of Thomas Hardy novels, the story is about a slow decline into misery anddeath. The intensity one associates with Po…
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