Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 27th, 2004
All too often, films with an ensemble cast are a dream for the studio’s marketing department, but end up being a nightmare for the moviegoer. They are the very definition of the phrase, “too many Chiefs and not enough Indians”. There are exceptions to this rule (such as Steven Soderberg’s re-make of Ocean’s 11), but more often than not, such films fall flat, as everybody leads in their own direction, and nobody follows.
Thankfully, this is one of those rare exceptions. Each member of the cast of T...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 24th, 2004
Easily the best animated series to hit the airwaves over the past decade, Gennedy Tartovsky’s Samurai Jack has developed a devoted following owing to it’s superior storytelling and cinematography (if you can call it cinematography when it’s on TV).
It follows the story of Samurai Jack – a time displaced samurai looking to restore order to the planet by destroying the demon responsible for his, and the earth’s predicament. Aku, a powerful demon attacked Jack’s village destroying his home and family. Jack sw...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 20th, 2004
Synopsis
The plot is as simple as that of any 40s or 50s World War II movie: in the immediateaftermath of the D-Day invasion, eight men (led by Tom Hanks) are sent on a dangerous missionto find the only surviving son of a decimated family and send him home.
On this simple framework, Spielberg hangs the most viscerally intense evocation of theSecond World War yet committed to film. The exhausting Omaha Beach sequence that opens thefilm has been justly celebrated, but there ar...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 26th, 2004
Synopsis
Bill Paxton accompanies James Cameron on another expedition to the Titanic, and narratesthis documentary about their exploration of the ship. Though the narration is hobbled by anendless stream of pseudo-profundities, the underwater photography is simply stunning. Thanks totwo remote-controlled robots, we get to see the interior of the ship. Computer animation andsuperimposed extras (the ghosts of the title) both re-create the ship as it once was, and help usvisualize where...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 20th, 2004
Synopsis
Three men are after a fortune in gold, and they will stop at nothing to get it. Boiled down toits essentials, that is the plot of TGTBTU. Granted, there are all sorts of betrayals anddouble-crosses along the way, but they don’t change the fact that the story is essentially a verysimple one, and you might wonder how the film takes up three hours. It certainly doesn’t throughcharacter development. In fact, there is very little that sets the characters apart (which is par...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 10th, 2004
Synopsis
After the multi-story Prime Suspect 4, the series returns to the single case format.“Errors of Judgement” sees Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) finds herself banished from Londonand shipped off to Manchester. This series was clearly not authorized by the Manchester TouristBoard, as the city comes across a bit like a crime-ridden Soviet Gulag, only more depressing.Tennison is up against a whole new hostile crowd on the force here, and her career is goingnowhere fast until...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 10th, 2004
Synopsis
Once again, we return to the dark world of Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren). Though she is nowa Detective Superintendent, don’t think that promotion means life is any easier. Her personal lifeis just as much of a mess as before, and she is still contending with the old boys’ network on theforce. The cases themselves are pretty nasty stuff too. “The Lost Child” is a strong case in point.Here a young mother is found on her kitchen floor, bleeding from a head wound. Her baby girli...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 1st, 2004
Synopsis
The story begins in summer of 1903, some seven months before the World’s Fair arrives inSt. Louis. The film is then divided up into the seasons as we follow the life of the Smith family.At the centre is Judy Garland as Esther Smith, backed up by a very young Margaret O’Brien aslittle sister “Tootie.” In terms of plot, nothing much happens: Garland falls in love, and there issome tension when it seems that the pater familias has landed a job in New York and the familywill ha...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 13th, 2004
Cyborg 009 (pronounced zero zero nine, not double oh nine) is a show about a group of people who are half-human and half-robot – a.k.a. cyborgs. Abducted and experimented on against their will, these cyborgs are revolting against the person who made them, the evil Black Ghost.
This show has the look of an old fashion anime program. Based on a manga strip that started in 1969, the character designs are from that era, with exaggerated facial features (most evidently big noses), sleek lines and big feet. B...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 13th, 2004
Cyborg 009 (pronounced zero zero nine, not double oh nine) is a show about a group of people who are half-human and half-robot – a.k.a. cyborgs. Abducted and experimented on against their will, these cyborgs are revolting against the person who made them, the evil Black Ghost.
This show has the look of an old fashion anime program. Based on a manga strip that started in 1969, the character designs are from that era, with exaggerated facial features (most evidently big noses), sleek lines and big feet. B...
