Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 21st, 2007
A remake of writer/director John Waters' 1988 cult hit, Hairspray is an exhuberant movie musical that builds off the smash-hit Broadway production to recreate the excitement on film for a new generation. Whether it's bigger and better than previous iterations, I can't say, because this DVD release marks my first Hairspray experience. What I can say is if Waters' original and the Broadway show are even half as good, they're definitely worth your time.
If that doesn't convince you, this Hairspray also presents John Travolta as an obese, middle-aged woman — a transformation that required plenty of make-up and, more importantly, allowed Travolta to finally reveal his true self for all to see.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 25th, 2007
There are plenty of reasons to be grateful for public domain rules, as they make plenty of movies easily available that wouldn’t be otherwise. But there are pitfalls as well, and there is no clearer example of this than what has befallen George A. Romero’s classic film. The great man barely saw a dime from his work, but all and sundry can fiddle with Night of the Living Dead as they see fit, and here is a textbook case. The basic premise is intact: young woman and her brother visit cemetery, are attacked by zombies, and heroine winds up part of a besieged group. Sid Haig lends his presence to liven things up a bit, but he have any real role to play until the movie is almost half-over, by which point many viewers will be sunk in boredom. The zombie attacks are tediously realized, and this is easily the most gore-free version of the story. So what is more pointless than a flesh-eating zombie film with almost no flesh-eating? A zombie movie with a twist, that’s what. Talk about pointless. A twist is to zombie movies what bicycles are to fish, but here we are stuck with one, just to irritate us further. The 3D has novelty value, and will be discussed further below, but that’s about it.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 8th, 2007
Some portions of this review regarding general show information are shared with the Season 1 and Season 2 reviews.
After watching the first two seasons of CSI Miami I was pleased with the shows story arc, and although the latter season was starting to get a bit dull with regards to the character development, the case loads were just as engaging and bizarre. As I've said before, I hope that in Season 3 a few of the weaker aspects form the past two season can be rectified like the sometimes endless dialogue.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 8th, 2007
Some portions of this review regarding general show information are shared with the Season 1 and Season 3 reviews.
Before I saw Season 1 of CSI Miami I was quite skeptical about the shows ability to live up to the original. After watching the first season I was impressed with most aspects of the show, ranging from character development to entertaining and interesting cases. I don't want to over praise the show though, because it does have its flaws, and can drag on a bit at times, but I'm hoping that Season 2 might just improve on these aspects.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 7th, 2007
Some portions of this review regarding general show information are shared with the Season 2 and Season 3 reviews.
When the original CSI was put on the air, I was a huge fan. At the time it was totally unique, entertaining, and to a certain degree educational. Not to say that hasn't changed over the years, but it has certainly lost its uniqueness over the course of two spin-offs. However I won't judge the quality of these spin-offs because I've never actually watched them before, who knows maybe they still have the integrity of the original show. But when you have a show staring David Caruso, it's going to be hard to win me over, so I'm hoping for some developed storylines and engaging character arcs.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 30th, 2007
Sometimes films sport an ensemble cast with intertwining storylines that have large aspirations. The films wind up being acclaimed on several different levels and are memorable in the long term. In previous outings, this technique is usually mastered by the late Robert Altman, but when it’s not remotely successful, it becomes self-indulgent and overly pretentious.
Take the case of Even Money. Written by Robert Tannen in his screenwriting debut and directed by Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond), the film covers the lives of several different people. Carol (Kim Basinger, L.A. Confidential) is married to Tom (Ray Liotta, Goodfellas). She’s a writer suffering through a block while Tom works as a teacher. Clyde (Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland) works hard as a plumber while his younger brother Godfrey is a star basketball player (Nick Cannon in a “one of these things is not like the other” role). Walter (Danny DeVito, Hoffa) is an aspiring magician who tries to get closer to an old mysterious businessman named Ivan, but only gets as far as a man named Victor (Tim Roth, Pulp Fiction). There’s even a doctor (Carla Gugino, Sin City) who is dating the muscle for a bookie. I give the last part of this away a little bit, as all the characters and their storylines involve gambling in one form or another.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 26th, 2007
The style of "Grindhouse" films were something of a cult legend. More often than not, they were crazy over-the-top horror movies or action movies that had insane action that usually involved a body count that could rival an Arrrrrnold flic. These were referred to commonly as "B" flics due to the shoddy quality of the films. Video would be scratched up, missing reels were all over the place and audio would drop at the most inconvenient moment. More often than not they would be shown at some crusty drive-in for the change in your pocket. Fast forward to 2007 where Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez decided to resurrect the forgotten genre and brings us two movies (Death Proof and Planet Terror) to the screen.
The films unfortunately did not do so well at the box office. They were scrutinized for being too long (due to the Double Feature, the movie experience was roughly 4 hours) and many people just didn't get "it". When it came time for the two movies to be released on dvd, they decided to release them separately. Planet Terror would be released in mid-October and the focus of this review: Death Proof would be released in mid-September. I had the opportunity of picking it up at Best Buy with a special limited edition tin that included three discs rather than the standard two found in the other editions. Being the huge Kurt Russell fan, I leapt right in and paid at the counter.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 12th, 2007
Writer note: Apologies to Brendan who did the fine HD-DVD review for this flic. Some hack had to pick up the slack for the regular DVD and present a slightly alternate view. (and a different interpretation of english grammar)
Ever see Shaun of the Dead? No? Don't worry, not too many people did either. This fine film directed by Edgar Wright was a parody and homeage to the George Romero Dead films. Full of comedy and nods to the genre, it was a very good but mostly forgotten flic. Fast forward to 2007 and Edgar Wright along with Simon Pegg (who would also play the character of Nicholas Angel) decide to write the homeage to action movies: Hot Fuzz.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 18th, 2007
There was a time when break dancing was the hottest thing around. For this film, that time is 1986, when a talented young dancer goes too big in a dance contest, flips off the stage and winds up in a coma. He wakes up 20 years later, a grown man with the mind of a 12-year-old, an unhealthy passion for break dancing and a crush on the girlfriend he almost had two decades earlier.
With that premise, how can you go wrong? Plus, you know Kickin' It Old Skool is a righteous movie because it spells 'School' with a 'k.'
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 14th, 2007
In the advertisements we are promised a thrilling heist film. I’m happy to report that those promises were quite wrong. The heist is pretty lame and never keeps up with the many superior attempts. Honestly, we’ve had too many of these multiple twist heist films, culminating in the Ocean franchise which went two films too long. Instead, what we get here is something far better. The Lookout is a compelling character study brought off entirely by a sweet performance by the lead. Who would have believed that Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the dweeb kid from 3rd Rock From The Sun, had pretty nice acting chops? Never a fan of the quirky series, I thought the acting considerably bad, so I certainly would not have been among the Gordon-Levitt faithful. The Lookout is a wonderful breakout performance that should, rightly enough, bring folks like myself into the fold. He carries the entire film on his shoulders. The entire success of this movie hinges on the emotional ride that Gordon-Levitt takes us on. This has to be one of the best portrayals of mental deficiency I’ve seen. Forget Forrest Gump or Rainman; this role isn’t cute or over the top. Here we’re confronted with a convincing enough performance that it might even be hard to watch if your own family has been touched in this way.
Writer/director Scott Frank doesn’t waste any time pulling us into his film. We start out with an adolescent midnight joyride that you just know will end badly for the passengers. Your prediction quickly proves correct, and Frank Scott is ready to move on. He doesn’t bother lingering on the tragic events, instead allowing us to see the tragedy not in the bloody remnants of the crash, but in the emotional aftermath for the driver. Chris (Gordon-Levitt) finds himself four years later scarred both physically and mentally. He has suffered brain damage, and this causes him difficulty in concentration and sequencing events. He has gone from a high school hockey hero from an influential family to a bank night janitor barely in control of his own life. Jeff Daniels spices up the film a bit as Chris’s roommate, Lew. Lew is blind and relatively cynical about most things in life. He offers a symbiotic relationship with Chris and both have obviously fallen into a routine. One of the best lighter moments in the film is Lew’s desire to open a café called “Lew’s Your Lunch”. Things change for Chris when a man who identifies himself as an ex boyfriend of his sister enters his life. Gary (Goode) invites Chris into his tight circle, which includes the attractive Luvlee Lemon (Fisher) who appears interested in Chris. Finding himself a part of a family, of sorts, creates a strong bond for Chris, until he discovers he was being recruited to rob the bank he works at. We are nearly an hour into the film before the mechanics of the heist begin and the action really starts. The true climax of the film, however, isn’t the bank heist; it’s Chris’s discovery that he has been manipulated into taking the fall for the crime. Now Chris must bring out whatever abilities his mind might still possess to get himself out of danger.
