Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 26th, 2003
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (LXG) might best be described as a Movie of Bizarre Moments. Attempting to blend Gothic Batman imagery with an Indiana Jones cast, director Stephen Norrington shows his relative newness to directing. The film is at times awkward and unbalanced, but overall entertaining and visually impressive enough to justify watching.
The Plot: The story of LXG is an interesting one. A band of miscellaneous folk hero’s and mythological urban characters are brought together to f...rm a “Special Forces” commando squad for turn of the century (that is the prior century – 1899) Britain. Their task – prevent the warmongering terrorist activities of the mysterious villain “The Fantom.” Apparently this is all based on a comic book from some number of years ago, and you have to approach the movie ready to acknowledge that it is a fantasy in a more aggressive sense than in Indiana Jones – the laws of physics, the technologies employed, and the existence of some of the characters have to be taken as they are. This plot is Mission Impossible style over-the-top, and by end I was ready for a break from last minute twists.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 23rd, 2003
So, it’s like a… Space Western?
Having never seen this show, this was the question posed to me by my wife halfway through the pilot episode. Honestly, I wasn’t sure myself. It certainly appeared to be a space western, but the characters were randomly speaking in Chinese. It was drama, yet it was dark humor. This was a truly odd program indeed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 18th, 2003
Synopsis
Any synopsis is probably beside the point. If you haven’t been watching Buffy by this season,your chances of understanding what the hell is going on will be severely curtailed. Highlights ofthis season include Buffy’s encounter with Dracula, and the moving episode (“The Body”) aboutthe death of her mother.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 15th, 2003
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 10th, 2003
X2:X Men United is the follow-up film to the original X-men film from 2000. The original film did a good job of setting up the universe of the X-men and introducing us to the core characters that the comic books have always centered around. This film expands on this universe and brings along some of the coolest characters from the comics, this being Pyro, a brief glimpse of Juggernaut and lets not forget Nightcrawler. In this film we see the good and band mutants joining forces to defeat a common enemy. This is a little disappointing as we get to see cool new good characters but not really any super new baddies, but it also keeps the storyline fresh instead of it just being the good mutants versus the bad mutants.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 22nd, 2003
The Hills are back! Hank, Peggy, Bobby and Luanne have returned for more down home shenanigans. After a successful first season that followed in the footsteps of the Simpsons, King of the Hill was a surprising hit from the creative mind of Mike Judge, formerly responsible for the heavy metal antics of Beavis and Butthead. The second series picks up where series one left off albeit with improved writing and further exploration of the characters. I particularly like the characterization of Hank as a true redneck – ... particularly sexually inhibited redneck at that.
There are some great moments in the second season that continued to define the pathological relationships between the Hill family – from the twisted father/son relationship that blossoms due to Bobby’s uncanny accuracy at shooting things which then allows us some insight into Hank’s own poor relationship with his war-vet father. There are some classic digs into American life as one episode gives us a little more background into Luanne as she is returned to the trailer park from whence she came, in time for the trailer park to be hit by a tornado. While this is happening, Dale’s wife, Nancy the TV weather girl, comments on air, “Why is it that tornado’s always hit trailer parks?”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 22nd, 2003
Go up front and live with one of music’s fasting rising young stars. Then follow her behind the scenes and find out what she is like in real life.
Video
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 22nd, 2003
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 19th, 2003
The eighth season of the X-files brought major changes to one of Fox’s strongest running series. And whenever major changes occur there is always a concern about what is going to happen to the integrity of the show. By the end of the 7th season the worries about what David Duchovny was going to do left fans of the show in limbo. Luckily, the creative team behind the X-files (one of the best in television history) was up to the task.
The season opened with the introduction to Agent Fox Mulder’s replace...ent – John Doggett (Robert Patrick – best known as the lethal liquid metal T-1000 from T2). There was an initial great exchange between Scully and Doggett in which she throws a cup of water in Doggett’s face. The writers anticipated that this is exactly what the fans would have wanted to happen (how dare they replace Mulder?). Doggett was a great contrast to Mulder – a complete straight shooter and team player. A very similar premise reminiscent of the first season was replayed with a reversal of roles – Dogget was the skeptic and Scully was the believer. In addition a second addition to the cast occurred early with the appearance of Agent Monica Reyes – a true believer in the purpose of the X-Files with a weird new age feel about her that added some levity to Doggett’s “straight by the book” attitude. Scully was transformed throughout the season as her pregnancy progressed with worries about not only the health of her unborn child but also questions about its genetic make-up. How alien would it be? And what are the implications of its birth?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 16th, 2003
Synopsis
