Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 16th, 2007
Volume 4 of Warner’s Film Noir Classic Collection series raises the bar over its wonderful predecessors by doubling the number of movies on offer: ten this time around.
Very briefly:
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 14th, 2007
Written by Evan Braun
I came to the second season of The Closer with an interesting piece of baggage: I hadn't seen the first season. And still haven't. Seeing as I'm a bit of a completionist, this was initially driving me nuts. That said, by the time I finally gave the show a chance, I felt like I'd been in it my whole life.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 14th, 2007
Written by Evan Braun
I am something of a news junky. For lack of anything better to do, I'll routinely flip my television over to CNN for countless hours of 24/7 up-to-the-minute coverage. Of all the talk shows on the airwaves today, there is no match for the great Larry King. Oprah only wishes she were this good. The ladies on The View should bow down to Mr. King, who is so good at what he does that even his most famous guests seem to open up to him in ways they would normally know better than to do in front of a camera. Whether you're looking for something light and funny, the hardest news story, or the insights into the most intriguing public figures in the world today, this DVD set is your one-stop shop.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 14th, 2007
Written by Evan Braun
If I had to find one single word to completely encapsulate this show, and particularly its first season, it would be: Cute. No, wait ... scratch that. Make it: Nauseauting.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 12th, 2007
There are often stories about burn patients who lose part of their face or leave their other body parts horribly disfigured. It is sad and unfortunate. But what if you had horrible chemical and fire burns and had to take refuge in warehouses and underground? You had the strength of ten men, but could create a mask that you could use to duplicate your enemies or be the man you used to be? However, that face only lasted 99 minutes. This is the story of Darkman. A trilogy of movies that developed a cult following for its subject matter and campy presentation. Part action, part sci-fi, part thriller. But a great time as long as you left your brain at the door.
The first film directed by Sam Raimi (Spiderman, Evil Dead) features Liam Neeson as Dr. Peyton Westlake, a brilliant scientist on the verge of finding the solution to liquid skin cells or synthetic skin. This in time would help burn patients or disfigurements replace unwanted and dead skin tissue. The problem is he can only make it last for 99 minutes. One day his lab gets ransacked by a group of thugs led by Robert G. Durant (played by Larry Drake) who are in search of a memorandum. Peyton is horribly burned in the fire and presumed dead when his body can't be found in the explosion. He later resurfaces as a John Doe burn victim who is given a radical new treatment that cuts off his nerve impulses. He breaks out of the hospital and retreats to a condemned warehouse. He then goes back to the wreckage of his lab and tries to salvage his work. Using what is left of his work and vigilante money that is collected from thieves and bad guys that he fights he attempts to recreate faces of his enemies so that he may take revenge on the Durant crime syndicate. He also attempts to get back in touch with his girlfriend (played by Frances McDormand) by putting on his face and spending time with her. However, he realizes he can only put on the charade for so long and continually he descends back to the darkness as Darkman. He prevails over Durant, but the pain and suffering he endures from day to day stays with him.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 9th, 2007
There must be very few people out there who haven’t seen Taxi Driver or at the very least muttered the words, “you talking to me?†Regardless, this thirty year old film is easily a classic, and still on the top of many critics lists. It marked the blooming of an epic and ongoing relationship between Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorsese, the spawn of Jodie Foster’s career and arguably Harvey Keitel’s as well. At any rate Taxi Driver managed to receive four Academy award nominations as well as gaining a huge cult following. I don’t think it’s a surprise that I’ve already seen and love this movie, but how does the newly released DVD pan out?
Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro, Heat) is an ex-marine who had recently fought in the Vietnam War. He has since developed several psychological disabilities as showcased throughout the movie including insomnia, obsession, and depression. He works as a nighttime taxi driver and spends his sleepless days in pornography movie theatres or watching presidential aide Betsy (Cybill Shepherd, Alice). He finally garners the courage to approach Betsy and ask her on a date, initially she in intrigued by Travis, but after he takes her on a date to a pornographic film she ditches him and takes a cab home. This acts as a catalyst for Travis’ depression and increasingly paranoid and delusional behavior. He begins having vigilante fantasies and acquires several handguns. One night a 12 year prostitute named Iris (Jodie Foster, Silence of the Lambs) jumps in to his cab trying to escape a beating from her pimp. Travis has a moment of realization about the decaying world around him. From here he begins toying with the notion of killing Senator Charles Palatine and Iris’ pimp (Harvey Keitel, Reservoir Dogs).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 6th, 2007
In the United States, we tend to take for granted; influences. In the case of movies, we take certain film styles for granted. We just figure that they always existed. Doesn't really matter where they came from, we just know we like that style of movie; over and over and over again. Enter Hard Boiled, a 1992 film directed by John Woo. This featured Chow Yun-Fat as Tequila, a hard nosed cop who is on a quest to derail an arms smuggling ring that has both cops and innocent civilians dead in its wake. The movie also featured Tony Leung as Alan, an undercover cop who is in deep cover as a Triad hitman who tries desperately to keep his sanity and protect his true identity. But what set Hard Boiled apart from other films and that was duplicated time and time again was over the top action and no-nonsense gunplay. In the first five minutes alone with the teahouse scene, you see more dead bodies fly across the screen than most action movies deliver in a couple of hours. But it wasn't just dead bodies, you can rent George Romero Dead movies if you want to see lifeless bodies. It was the style, you had the imagery of three guns emptying from the bottom of a birdcage, Tequila jumping in the air and killing two gangsters with a gun in each hand; and sliding down a staircase with such grace. This would continue in other scenes where similar heroics would come into play. For over two hours, your breath would escape you and somehow return by the final bell.
Hard Boiled was a film that made no apologies and has only amassed popularity as time goes on. The term cult classic would be more of an insult to the film as it has gone beyond that premise. In addition to two fine leading roles, the film included many popular supporting roles; primarily on the villains' side. Anthony Wong played the devious Johnny Wong, a character that had no morals and whose only real mission was to control the arms smuggling ring of China and get all the money in the process. Phillip Kwok (also known as Cheung Jue-Luh) played the role of Mad Dog (or One-Eye), the action counterpart to Wong's character as he enforced what Johnny didn't want to dirty his hands on. These characters developed a chemistry that produced memorable dialog with and without words. This was especially true when it came to the characters of Tequila and Alan once they get on-screen together. It was a flow of actions and reactions that had you enthralled for every last phrase that was used. The film's only negative would be the scenes where they decide to spend an inordinate amount of time surrounding getting the infants to safety. Once you dive into the extras on Disc Two, you start understanding that the babies actually were to be the main plot point or original concept of the film. So as a result they contributed to a major scene. The movie is still a masterpiece even with that small discordance with its amazing action and a hard running story that lead to be an influence of many future Asian and American action movies.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 3rd, 2007
One hundred years after Abraham Van Helsing and allies fail to annihilate Dracula, the vampire arrives in a small American town looking for an amulet that, if destroyed at the prescribed moment, will usher in a reign of darkness. Recruited to aid in this project are versions of the Wolfman, the Frankenstein Monster, the Mummy and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Opposing Dracula is the titular Monster Squad, a group of monster-crazy boys and one very little (and very adorable) sister, who befriends the Monster.
I first caught this film during its original theatrical run, and enjoyed it then. Twenty years later, it looks even better. This is the kind of movie that Stephen Summers (The Mummy, Van Helsing) evidently thinks he is making, even though he is utterly unable to do so. Director Fred Dekker’s acknowledged model is Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and as in that film, the monsters are treated with respect, remaining figure of fear, not of fun. There is much humour in the film, but the stakes are real. There is a sense that the battles could have a real cost to them (and when the monsters attack, people do actually die). There are also enormously poignant, heartfelt moments (when was the last time you teared up at a Summers film?). The special effects have aged somewhat, but have accrued all the more charm for that. Dekker’s love of the classic Universal films imbues every frame, right down to replicating the out-of-place armadillos and phony-looking bats from the original Dracula. This is, from top to bottom, the dream of every classic monster fan made flesh.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 28th, 2007
I still remember the first time I watched a Spawn animated episode. I was with my parents in my younger years on what I believe was the last vacation we ever took together. It was a hotel we were staying at which had HBO (I never had that channel growing up). I had read Spawn but didn't even know of the animated series. The fact it was late at night and on a premium movie channel meant it had to be good. I was simply blown away and remember telling my parents that we had to be back at the hotel to watch it again the next night. I remember that later I would procure used copies of the series. All beat up, in snapper cases, it didn't matter. I soon dumped those copies in a couple of years and hoped that it would get reissued in a nice box set. That time has come, Spawn has come home.
Spawn is Todd McFarlane's baby; his issue of defiance when he and a group of artists started Image Comics. Great art, compelling stories and no boundaries. Spawn was the story of Al Simmons who sold his soul to the demon Malebolgia so that he come back to avenge his death and be with his wife Wanda one more time. Problem was once that occurred he was to become an undead "hellspawn". So he fights that control constantly along with enemies from that conflict and those enemies in the human world that would bring him harm. He is not a superhero so much but the boogieman, a character that lives in the shadows and comes out at night to take care of business and then return to those same shadows by morning.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 26th, 2007
Written by Evan Braun
I don't particularly like boxing, or wrestling for that matter. Martial arts don't usually turn my crank either, so it's a little inexplicable for me to be such a UFC fan. And yet, I am. Very much so.
