Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 11th, 2006
It’s rather stunning to discover that My Neighbor Totoro was made way back in 1988, long before the days of CG and all automatic illustration. And perhaps that animation does detract from the overall experience from the film, but if that’s the only reason that it would be a problem, then people simply need to get their taste in order.
In another film from legendary Japanese film director Hayao Miyazaki (who made the Oscar-winning film Spirited Away), the film follows sisters Mei and Satsuki, w...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 6th, 2006
Ever since the original Survivor first became extremely successful, it seemed like every network was trying to get a piece of their own reality television fame. We had FOX give us The Chamber and MTV throw us the Jackass series. One had success while one crashed and burned very quickly. This proved that not every idea would make a successful reality show. Naturally FOX is not one to give up and knew what to do next. Coming off her, probably, un-welcomed fame, Paris Hilton was approached by FOX to...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 6th, 2006
Hmm. Another made for television sci-fi series. Most of the recent sci-fi made for television series have been quite disappointing mainly because they usually run too short, are horrible condensed forcing the creators of the show to either A. introduce characters very quickly, B. have extremely poor set design, or C. have another random plot that has been done a million times over. While The Triangle plot is nothing brand new, the director by Craig R. Baxley with production by Bryan Singer (X-Men) and D...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 6th, 2006
One of the great things about television today is the trend of extreme diversification. Where there used to be a specialized channel called ESPN, that has now been broken down into ESPN Deportes, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPN U... the list goes on and on. Whatever your interest, there is a very specialized niche available that it fits into. The nice thing is, all of this specialization has allowed some truly creative (and bizarre) programing to creep out onto the airwaves. Robot Chicken is a great example of this trend...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 24th, 2006
After the transformation of the Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings books into hugely successful films, it was only a matter of time before someone decided to tackle C.S. Lewis’s famous novels The Chronicles of Narnia. Both of the aforementioned books into movies were excellent because, even though they didn’t include every little detail presented in the novels, fans still embraced the films for what they were. They brought a majority of the presented themes and ideas in the books and showed u...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 20th, 2006
Synopsis
Set in an imaginary European country on the verge of war, in a vague time period that is approximately Edwardian, this is the story of Sophie, a young girl who encounters Howl, the handsome wizard who lives in a gigantic, clattering contraption of a mobile castle. The interest Howl has in Sophie arouses the angry jealousy of the Witch of the Waste (voiced by Lauren Bacall in the English dub), who curses Sophie with instant old age. Sophie, no longer recognized by Howl, takes up residence in ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 19th, 2006
Synopsis
The world greatest rock band’s story about the rise to power, born from Satan, and ready to rock the world, may not be as accurate as one would perceive. As Jack Black and Kyle Gass (Jables and KG to those in the know), Tenacious D received a small run of episodes during the HBO series Mr. Show in 1999 that resulted in good word of mouth for the pair. It was only until last year, when the long-awaited first album finally dropped, that the world discovered just how good they were. And the alb...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 10th, 2006
Synopsis
Three directors, three doses of uncompromising Asian horror. The first, and nastiest, is “Dumplings” (directed by Fruit Chan), which tells the story of a woman who purchases some very expensive dumplings said to restored youth. What is the secret ingredient? The worst thing you can think of, trust me. And the film leaves nothing to the imagination. Where others would imply the horror and let your imagination do the rest of the work, “Dumplings” gets your imagination working, and then tops it...
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 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...
