Fox

Last Sin Eater, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 8th, 2007

Having heard exactly zilch about The Last Sin Eater before receiving my review copy, I expected it to be a low-budget horror flick. Boy, was I wrong. This film is based on a bestselling novel by Francine Rivers, a popular writer of Christian-themed fiction. Produced under the 20th Century Fox FoxFaith brand, it’s intended for an Evangelical Christian audience.

The story is set in 1850’s Appalachia, where a group of early Irish settlers have made their home. When the grandmother of 10-year-old …
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Fantastic 4

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 4th, 2007

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With the release of Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer just around the corner, it’s no surprise to see the studio rolling out a double-dip of the first film. Fantastic 4 – Extended Edition revisits the film with an extra 20 minutes of footage, and a second disc full of special features. But is it a worthy acquisition for your collection?

First, a bit about the film for the uninitiated. This is the Fantastic Four’s origin story, including how they came to have their super powers, and who Dr…
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Adventures of Marco Polo, The – MGM Movie Legends

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 30th, 2007

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Synopsis

Gary Cooper plays the title character, sent by his father on a perilous journey to the Far East to open up trade relations with China. Once in the court of Kublai Khan, he becomes involved in the palace intrigue, falling in love with the emperor’s daughter, and running afoul of evil councillor Basil Rathbone.

Cooper is hardly Italian, but in a film that offers us the spectacle of Alan Hale having his eyes narrowed by make-up to play a Chinese warlord, and Rathbone in shoe polish to…
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Ball of Fire

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 25th, 2007

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Synopsis

Gary Cooper and seven colleagues are introverted academics working on a new encyclopedia. When Cooper realizes this his slang entry is hopelessly out of date, he bravely ventures outside the ivory tower to learn what the new lingo actually is. The most fluent slang speaker he encounters is nightclub performer Barbara Stanwyck. When her gangster boyfriend (Dana Andrews) is wanted for murder, she hides from the police by moving in on the professors, ostensibly to help them with their project. …
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Constellation

Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 20th, 2007

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Synopsis

Interracial relationships in movies tend to be hit or miss. If treated fairly, it can make the movie an uplifting picture, one that will make people stand up and cheer for a satisfying ending. Misused, and it just becomes an ugly context for the movie to hide around. Constellation starts out with the love story between Carmel Boxer (played by Gabrielle Union), an african-american lady and her white boyfriend & solider Bear (young version played by …
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Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 18th, 2007

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Synopsis

My life has been a strange journey. Recently I found myself divorced after a three year marriage. Needless to say I’m probably need a bit of soul searching. Perhaps I need to cleanse my spirit before setting back out into the world from which I came. Now I’ve never been a religiously deep person but I do take myself on as a spiritual one. So to see a surprise title in my queue with the words The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success would bring at least a little …
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That Thing You Do!

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 16th, 2007

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Following the success of back-to-back hits Forest Gump and Apollo 13, Tom Hanks wanted to shake things up. His project of choice? Writing and directing his first feature film.

The result was That Thing You Do!, a light, enjoyable comedy about a 60’s pop band that makes it big on the strength of one hit song. Barely together a few weeks, The Oneders (pronounced “Wonders”) win a small-town talent contest, which lands them their first gig, playing at a local bar. Before they can adjust to …
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Night at the Museum

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 6th, 2007

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Synopsis

Holy crap, this movie made a boat load of money for Fox when it came out around Christmas 2006, making $250 million and running second only to the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel for box office money. And to see Ben Stiller finally appear in a film that could be considered a blockbuster success was nice too. And in Night at the Museum, he gets to play Larry, night security guard in the New York Museum of Natural History.

Based on a book by Milan Trenc, the story contains man…
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Thr3e

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 4th, 2007

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Synopsis

A serial killer who sounds just like Jigsaw (only rather less interesting) and kills exclusively using explosives (!) blows up the brother of a criminal psychologist, then turns his unwanted attentions to seminary student Marc Blucas, taking his life apart one explosion at a time. Blucas is convinced that the killer is a dark figure from his past, and turns amateur sleuth even as he is consumed by guilt. Most of his time, however, he puts his energy into being one of the whiniest protagonist…
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Les Misérables

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 1st, 2007

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Synopsis

After serving ten years as a galley slave for having stolen a loaf of bread, Jean Valjean returns to the outside world a bitter man. He is transformed by the saintliness of a bishop who gives him shelter and the gift of the very items he was trying to steal. Starting his life over again, he becomes Mr. Madeleine, highly respected pottery plant owner and eventually mayor. He even adopts young Cosette, whose mother is dying. But the relentless Inspector Javert feels he recognizes Madeleine as …
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History Boys, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 23rd, 2007

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The History Boys is a film version of the award-winning play of the same name. The link between film and play is especially strong here, as not only was it adapted and directed by the original writer and stage director, but each member of the stage cast also reprised his or her role for the film.

Set in the early 80’s, The History Boys is about a group of bright young men preparing for their futures and the teachers helping them along. The boys have just received top marks at their grammar sch…
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Anna Karenina

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 18th, 2007

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Synopsis

Anna Karenina (Vivien Leigh) is married to a rigid and boring politician (Ralph Richardson). Despite herself, she falls in love with the dashing young Kieron Moore. Richardson retaliates by cutting her off from her son. And though having an affair is tolerated by upper class Russian society, the couple wind up challenging convention too far, and Anna finds herself completely ostracized.

In Gone with the Wind, Leigh took a character in Scarlett O’Hara who, on the face of it, …
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Jane Eyre

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 16th, 2007

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Synopsis

A young Jane Eyre thinks she is escaping Hell when she is sent from the home of her unloving aunt to a boarding school, but she has simply traded one Hell for another. Despite the attempts of sadistic Henry Daniell, she survives her years at the school with her spirit intact, and, now a grown woman (Joan Fontaine), she goes to work as a governess at the gothic home of Edward Rochester (Orson Welles). She perceives something good behind his forbidding extrior, and finds herself falling in lov…
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Michael Shayne Mysteries Volume 1

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 12th, 2007

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Synopsis

Lloyd Nolan stars in this quartet of films about Michael Shayne. Less hard-boiled than he was in other media, here he’s an inveterate wisecracker and the films are sometimes more comedies than thrillers. Our boy takes his first bow in <>i>Michael Shayne, Private Detective (1941), where he’s hired to keep an heiress (Marjorie Weaver) out of trouble. But when one of the dubious people she’s been hanging out with turns up killed, apparently by Shayne’s gun, the detective must stay one step …
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Notes on a Scandal

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 10th, 2007

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Notes on a Scandal is an unsettling film, uncomfortable to watch because it highlights some of the darkest aspects of the human condition. It’s a film about loneliness, secrecy and obsession, and thanks to incredible performances by its leading ladies, it succeeds as a thriller.

Barbara Covett (Judi Dench, Mrs. Henderson Presents) is an aging schoolteacher and a voracious diarist. When young, beautiful Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett, The Aviator) shows up as the high school’s new art teache…
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Garfield and Friends: An Ode to Odie

Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 8th, 2007

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Synopsis

As a kid, I read Garfield on a daily basis. I collected the little books they would put out every so often (still have most of them). The cartoon show, Garfield & Friends; I always found funny & I even went to the first movie though I found it a little puzzling (like why would you animate Garfield but have a real live Odie, doesn’t make much sense). In my head, I had even teased the idea of owning the Volume sets of Garfield & Friends. So when this title came across my desk, I wa…
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Turistas

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 2nd, 2007

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Turistas is a horror film about six hard-bodied 20-somethings whose vacation in paradise turns bad when they’re drugged, robbed and kidnapped on behalf of a crazed doctor who wants to harvest their organs while they’re still alive.

I think that about sums it up. Now let’s talk about why this film isn’t any good. First, while I realize characters in horror movies are supposed to fall into traps, never before have I seen characters this stupid. They don’t just make one or two dumb choices. No, these kids take every single chance they get to put themselves in danger.
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The Last King of Scotland

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 22nd, 2007

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The Last King of Scotland generated quite a bit of buzz at this yearï¿½s Oscars, most notably the performance by Forest Whitaker. Based upon the book of the same name, which was in turn based upon the Ugandan dictator between 1970 and 1979; Idi Amin. Although the movie involves a completely fictional protagonist it apparently shadows the life of Idi Amin quite well, which offers a nice mix of fiction and reality.

Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) recently graduated from medical school and decides to lead his expertise to a small countryside hospital in Uganda.
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Eragon

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 21st, 2007

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Eragon is based upon the best selling book, which was written by then nineteen-year-old Christopher Paolini. This film was met with much hype, but initially to me seemed to be another generic Lord of the Rings type rip-off, with the addition of a dragon. Not usually my type of movie, but The Lord of the Rings trilogy did more that just amaze me maybe Eragon has a trick or two up its sleeve.
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Cinderella Liberty

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 17th, 2007

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James Caan is a sailor whose stopover in Seattle becomes much longer than he expects, as first he has to wait for new orders when a medical exam forces him to miss shipping out with his crewmates, and then his records disappear. During this time, he meets Marsha Mason, a prostitute with an 11-year-old son. Caan falls for both of them, and a finely developed sense of responsibility sees him moving heaven and earth to make life good for all three. His task won’t be an easy one.

Romeo + Juliet (Music Edition)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 15th, 2007

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No matter where you grew up or what books youï¿½ve read, you have undoubtedly come across the workings of William Shakespeare, and especially his Romeo and Juliet. This film takes the dialogue from the original play pretty much word for word but depicts it in a more modern time, with, of course, then-teen heart throbs Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes as our star-crossed lovers.

Instead of swords and castles, there are guns and skyscrapers. The famous opening argument with Benvolio, Tybalt and Mercuteo is a public firefight that kicks off the film.
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Conversations With God

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 14th, 2007

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Based on a true story Conversations With God tells the story of Neale Donald Walsch, an average guy who loses his job, gets into an automobile accident and breaks his neck, and finally loses his family to a divorce. It wasn’t long after this tragic chain of events, with his hospital bills rising and nobody wanting to hire a middle-aged man with health problems, that Walsch finally became homeless.

Hitting rock bottom with no prospects for improving his predicament, he begins to audibly question God. Wa…
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John and Mary

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 14th, 2007

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Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow wake up in bed together, having just met the night before. Much cautious circling of the one another ensues in the apartment, and as they go their separate ways, more anxious debating follows regarding whether they should get together again. Is Farrow the one for Hoffman, and what about the fact that he doesn’t even know her name?

This is a film that could only have been made in 1969 (unless your name is Woody Allen), what with its incessant interrogation of character neuroses and a very self-conscious attempt to present us with How Romance Works In The New Scene.
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Revenge of the Nerds (Panty Raid Edition)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 11th, 2007

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Dubbed as the frat boy comedy that started it all, Revenge of the Nerds is a 80ï¿½s cult classic making its way to DVD as a special Panty Raid Edition – Basically you get a standard slipcover and a handful of features thrown at you. I remember seeing this movie about ten years back I found it amusing then, so I look forward to being able to watch it again, maybe this time Iï¿½ll get more of the jokes.

The movie takes place where two nerds played by Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards are off to attend the fictional Adams College.
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Borat – Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 11th, 2007

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If youï¿½ve been anywhere on the planet over the past year then thereï¿½s no doubt that youï¿½ve at least heard the name Borat in passing, well Borat – Cultural Learning of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan has finally made its way to DVD. Although Iï¿½ve wanted to see this movie since I saw its preview before Jackass 2, this is the first time Iï¿½ll actually be watching it and I eagerly anticipate it; Iï¿½ve heard lots of things about this controversial mockumentary comedy. Adding to my anticipation of the film is the fact that Seinfeld writer Larry Charles is the director.
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