Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 26th, 2005
Synopsis
There was a period in Francis Ford Coppola’s (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now) life where he went through a bit of a phase, where he was making films based on relatively obscure material. And he went through another smaller phase in the early ‘80s where he was making films from source material of author S.E. Hinton (The Outsiders). And Rumble Fish was one of those.
Based on Hinton’s novel, the film details the life in a small town, with a tough neighborhood kid n...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 26th, 2005
Four Brothers starts off as a solid drama about a group of orphans (Marky Mark, Tyrese Gibson, Andre Benjamin, and Garrett Hedlund) who were raised by a sympathetic woman (Fionnula Flanigan) in downtown Detroit. When she is murdered, the brothers reunite and stay in their mother’s old house. They sit at the dinner table and stare at her now empty seat. They horse around with one another in her living room. And in some cases they even wear her old clothes. In scenes like these, the actors do a good job of makin...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 23rd, 2005
Synopsis
Angie Dickinson is a single mother of two teenage girls (whom the film very explicitly characterizes as “ripe” – boy howdy, they don’t make movies like this anymore). Money is tight during the Depression, and after a fiasco of an interrupted wedding, mother and brood hit the road to seek their fortune, and before you know it, they’re robbing banks.
A low budget, tongue-in-cheek variation on Bonnie and Clyde (minus Clyde), this is a nicely produced bit of period sleaze. The d...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 22nd, 2005
Synopsis
In the year 2000, the United States (and much of the rest of the world, it seems) is under the dictatorial rule of Mr. President, and the masses are kept passive with the Transcontinental road race, where the competitors must not only race from the remains of New York to the remains of LA in record time, but kill as many pedestrians as possible. Chief rivals are fan favourite Frankenstein (David Carradine) and the villainous Machine Gun Joe Viterbo (Sylvester Stallone).
You know yo...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 15th, 2005
Written by Clayton Self
The Polar Express is a milestone in digital film making. Making use of “performance capture” (little attachments connected to the body to mimic human movement) and green screens, Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future) has created a stunning visual world that is sure to find its way into homes of millions to be enjoyed during the Holiday season. Labeled by some as creepy because of the not quite real, yet not quite fake digital characters, The Polar Express is nothing more than an epic Christmas a...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 10th, 2005
Every now and then, a film comes along that I really think is something special, but for whatever reason, the movie-going public doesn't agree. For me, The Truman Show is one of those films. Maybe it was because this was Jim Carrey's first serious role. Maybe it was because it felt too gimmicky with the popularity of The Real World at the time, and being released around the same time as the similarly-themed film EdTV. Maybe it was because the premise was just a little too far outside of the norma...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 9th, 2005
Synopsis
We all know the story, even if we haven’t seen the film. Risk-taking (and potentially criminally irresponsible) documentary maker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) charters a ship and sets off for an uncharted island. On board are first mate Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot) and Ann Darrow (Fay Wray), the woman Denham has tapped for the lead in his film. They arrive at Skull Island, and before long, Ann is kidnapped and offered as a sacrifice to Kong. The giant ape falls for Ann, and a romantic trian...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 8th, 2005
Sometime during the 1990’s, big-budget blockbusters stopped getting by on special effects alone. Even though Independence Day, Godzilla, and Armageddon showed us that ground-breaking special effects don’t translate into quality films, Hollywood kept making them -- and people kept spending their hard-earned money to see them.
Stealth is the newest movie in that mold. Heavy on great visuals and special effects, it fails to deliver any character development, emotion or common sense, result...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 5th, 2005
Happy Endings is one of those films that makes you rethink being a DVD reviewer. I sat through this excursion into pretentious observations about the way the world is, and the way "average people" are, and thought, "Yeah, sure, this is a slice-of-life. I bet." Oh, I don't mean to say the characters' lives are way too screwed up to be believable. Lord knows, under every ordinary average guy... or gal... there lurks a whole slew of skeletons banging their bony fists against the inside of the closet door. But the extent to which these screwed-up folks bang into one another like aimless bumper cars at a county fair makes one say, "Enough already."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 22nd, 2005
This remake ofCheaper by the Dozen, like the original, focuses on the Baker family. Father Tom Baker (Steve Martin) and mother Kate Baker (Bonnie Hunt) decided to have 12 children. The children range from 5 years old to 22 years old. Nora (Piper Perabo) is the oldest child and the one who lives outside the home. Tom coaches Division III football at the small Lincoln College. When Tom’s old teammate Shake Maguire (Richard Jenkins) shows up to offer Tom a big fat contract to coach Division I at Illinois Poly Uni...
