Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 9th, 2008
Early on, it's easy to tell that Mr. Brooks doesn't take itself seriously.
At least I hope it didn't.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 8th, 2008
Sarah Caine (Lisa Pepper) is a newspaper columnist whose career is in a rough patch – her work lacks inspiration, and she is barely syndicated anymore (only two newspapers still carry her). But perhaps her muse is soon to be revived. Her Amish sister dies, leaving her children in Sarah’s care. Cue the culture shock as Sarah travels from the Big Smoke (well... Portland, anyway) to the Amish community, and then again as the children come back with her.
The warning signs arrive with the opening credits. The film is a co-production of Believe Pictures and Redemption Films. Uh-oh. The very names of the studios indicated that actual filmmaking is going to take a back seat to proselytizing, and sure enough, that’s what follows. Performances and script are strictly at the level of community theatre. What poor Elliott Gould is doing here (as Sarah’s editor) is anybody’s guess. He does his best to make his lines sound less stale than they are. Here’s hoping he was paid well.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 29th, 2008
Fox re-releases this beloved weepie in a new edition with a number of new extras. Beyond those additions, this version is identical to the one reviewed here previously. Therefore, my deathless prose once again: “On a luxury ocean liner, playboy Cary Grant meets singer Deborah Kerr. Each is involved with someone else, but they fall deeply in love with each other. Upon arriving in New York, they decide to part and, if all goes well, reunite in six months at the top of the Empire State Building, by which time their lives should be in order. If you’ve seen Sleepless in Seattle, you know what happens next. Though this is one the most celebrated weepies ever, I found it curiously uninvolving. The banter on the ocean liner, though amusing, fails to make us believe in the depth of the relationship, and so the tragedy that comes later lacks punch. The plot meanders interminably, is padded out by Sound of Music-style songs involving sweet widdle kiddies, and the reasons for keeping the characters apart during the third act are so contrived that suspension of disbelief crashes and burns. The ‘scope cinematography is nice, and it’s always fun to watch top stars like Grant and Kerr, but if you want a more convincing heart-tugger, see Now, Voyager.”
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on January 22nd, 2008
As expressed before, I have a certain fondness for Garfield. The larger than life orange tabby cat has been a staple of my comic strip reading diet for more than 20 years. I've watched Garfield & Friends, seen the longer animated specials, and even sat through the first of the full length movies (I couldn't stomach the nerve for the second one). So naturally, I was a little excited when I heard that Garfield would be a full CGI showing in a new dvd called Garfield Gets Real I just hoped it would be better than what I've heard about the Tale of Two Kitties
Garfield has become bored with the comic strip world. He lives in his cartoon house with owner Jon and his sidekick Odie. He goes to work (yes, Garfield does work; well in a manner of speaking) with friends like Nermal and Arlene. He shoots a daily comic strip which is seen by many newspapers in the real world. However, when Odie sticks a bone through a hole that leads to the real world, Garfield realizes that this is his ticket to alleviate boredom and soon decides to go through the hole himself. Odie follows (mostly for his bone). Once there, Garfield realizes the real world is quite different from his own (despite looking very similar) despite finding a few cats and dogs to hang out with. Trouble ensues when the newspaper starts looking for a replacement strip and then it is only a matter of time before Garfield is desperately trying to find his way home.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 21st, 2008
This is one of those wholesome movies the entire family can enjoy. From veteran director Michael Apted (Coal Miner’s Daughter), Amazing Grace is the true story of William Wilberforce, the 18th Century political activist who spent nearly his entire adult life campaigning to end the British slave trade. It’s a simple but compelling story wonderfully told, with a superb cast including Ioan Gruffudd (Fantastic Four), relative newcomer Benedict Cumberbatch (Atonement) and stage and screen legends Albert Finney (Big Fish) and Sir Michael Gambon (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban).
The film picks up some time in 1797, well into Wilberforce’s political crusade. The man is in shambles, sick with colitis, addicted to some sort of opiate (for medicinal use only, of course) and suffering nightmares. He has given up the fight to abolish slavery in his beloved Britain, and it will take the introduction of his bride-to-be to get him back on track.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 24th, 2007
In Belle Époque Paris, the can-can is all the rage but also illegal, and Shirley MacLaine’s nightclub is cracked down on by uptight judge Louis Jourdan. MacLaine is defended by libertine lawyer Frank Sinatra. Jourdan falls for MacLaine, who is waiting perhaps in vain for Sinatra to marry her. Maurice Chevalier shows up to chuckle indulgently.
The vision of Paris may be no more convincing than MacLaine and Sinatra playing characters named “Simone” and “François,” but this is a musical, so who cares? The sets are bright, the songs are catchy, and the dance numbers energetic. But the storyline itself is stultifying. Maybe Krushchev was right about this thing after all.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 12th, 2007
There is a certain audience that really gets into what I call "mythic combat". Zena and Hercules on TV, and movies like Reign of Fire, Conan and Dragonslayer all fit into this category for me. While I typically don't enjoy this type of faire, I am a sucker for the more popular versions, such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and 300. After seeing a very promising trailer in the theater, I had high hopes for Pathfinder. Unfortunately, the final film did not live up to the potential of its marketing.
Pathfinder tells a story set in North America, 300 years before Columbus "discovered" the new world. When a band of ruthless Vikings attacks a small native village, a Viking boy shows his true colors, and refuses to kill a defenseless family. Disgraced, the boy is left to die. The natives, however, take him in and raise them as one of their own. When the boy is grown, the Vikings return, and the boy must fight his original kinsmen to defend the only family he has ever known.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 3rd, 2007
A friend that I work with said that if Hollywood ever ran out of creative and original ideas, and that if a studio managed to make a sequel about pirate zombies that lasted three hours long, it would clean up at the box office. But the fact of the matter is that if we survived a nuclear winter, we would be well prepared about what to do when zombies took over the land, because of the prep we had from guys like George Romero. So even though Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later might have presumably sealed the deal when it came to this particular interpretation, someone decided to dredge it up for whatever reason.
The sequel, appropriately titled 28 Weeks Later was written by several Spaniards, including Enrique Lavigne (Sex and Lucia), who also produced the film, and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (Intact), who directed. After the viral epidemic and the subsequent pronouncement that “all was well” in England, the U.S. led NATO troops helped to clean and repopulate the London area. That is slightly down the line of the film’s opening, which has Don (Robert Carlyle, The Full Monty) and his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack, Braveheart) separated when some of the infected invade their countryside cottage, and he manages to get away. Flash forward to the period that shares the film’s title, and Don is a key part of the repopulation effort when his children come back to England. But you know how sequels go, through divine effort or circumstance, London becomes infected again and everything goes straight to hell.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 16th, 2007
Despite its lame title, I've been excited about seeing Live Free or Die Hard since it was announced. The Bruce Willis franchise has been a favourite of mine for a long time, thanks to the original Die Hard which stands as one of the greatest action films of all time.
Willis reveals in the commentary that he and director Len Wiseman (Underworld) set out to make a Die Hard movie that surpasses the middle two in the series and is as good as the first. While Willis apparently feels they succeeded, I beg to differ. Live Free or Die Hard is certainly a good action flick, but nothing can ever surpass Die Hard in my book. Opinions of the film aside, this DVD set is sure to satisfy John McClane fans of any stripe.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 12th, 2007
Bad horror movies are like watching a trainwreck. There are bodies all over the place and everybody is screaming in agony like a little school girl. And you can't turn your head away. So imagine my complete enjoyment when I received the Tripper to review. I screamed like a little school girl, my rabbit fainted and my girlfriend actually was able to turn her head away several times. I understand why they are the stronger sex cause I watched intently and was considering therapy when my 90 minutes was up.
The Tripper is the story of Ronald Reagan gone wrong. The back story indicates trauma to a young kid named Gus (played by Noah Maschan ) who chainsawed a tree hugger who was preventing his father, a lumberjack from performing his job. One would assume he spent the rest of his adolescence in a mental institution and then re-appeared as an axe wielding, Ronald-Reagan mask wearing psycho killer (played by Christopher Allen Nelson).
