Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 3rd, 2007
Monty (Idris Elba, 28 Weeks Later) is a father struggling for custody of his three children. This has become of utmost importance to him especially since his ex wife is involved with a local drug dealer. He enlists the help of attorney Julia (Gabriel Union, Bad Boys 2) to get his children back. Of course sparks begin to fly between the two, and the children seem to take the backseat. I’ve seen this type of movie way too many times before, and I would be completely content if I didn’t have to again.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 2nd, 2007
Having never seen or heard of this program, I had to do a bit of research into the history of this show. I’ll share my findings with you in case you are new to the series as well. Johnny Smith (Anthony Michael Hall, The Breakfast Club) was involved in a car accident that left him comatose for six years. Upon waking up he has a special gift, when he touches people or things he can see into the future, and sometimes prevent awful things from happening.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 1st, 2007
I can just feel already, what an epic teen comedy Surf School is going to be, much pun intended of course. But appearance isn’t everything and I hope that this film can somehow surprise, as much as I doubt it.
Laguna Beach High School is tough for everyone, especially the outcasts, the non surfers. But when a group of social misfits band together, they decide to beat the schools reigning champions in a surf competition. The group goes to Costa Rica to learn, meeting some interesting people along the way. I bet you can already guess how this one ends, and trust me there are no surprises.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 1st, 2007
Tyler Perry, best known for Madea's Family Reunion, is responsible for yet another film in Lionsgate's line of movies about nice black people. In Daddy's Little Girls, the writer-director explores the conflict between the ghetto-class African Americans we've seen so much of in films and the black middle- and upper-class we haven't. While this aspect of the conflict is relatively fresh in cinema, what the premise really boils down to is an age-old tale of love between princess and pauper.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 24th, 2007
The latest in Lionsgate's line of movies about nice black people (see Daddy's Little Girls and Akeelah and the Bee), Pride presents a well-tread story with a few tweaks.
Its formula is the sports team underdog winning against all odds. The sport is swimming, which I don't think we've seen much of in the past. All of the usual players are here, though: the frustrated coach inspired to lead, the unlikely athletes who are too poor and too black to succeed, the rival team too rich and too white to be beaten, the crusty old guy who helps out and the token love interest for our protagonist coach.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 1st, 2007
The Lost Room was a Sci-Fi Channel 3 part mini-series. There are actually 6 separate segments on the DVD. We are quickly introduced to a special old style motel key. Yes, before we all got those slide cards. This key is apparently quite valuable, as it is the subject of an underground meet to purchase it. The deal looks like one of those Hollywood drug buys we’re used to seeing, and like those plays, this one goes horribly awry. Enter Detective Joe Miller (Krause), assigned to deal with the aftermath of this meet. ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 29th, 2007
Synopsis
Coming of Age is a film about a girl who goes to private school in New York City, and with the help of her friends, tries to find a way to achieve an orgasm. It sounds eerily family to The OH in Ohio, a more recent Parker Posey film I watched and enjoyed.
The only differences between that film and this one are that Coming Soon was released several years before The OH in Ohio was conceived, but that ironically enough, OH was executed a lot more efficient...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 28th, 2007
Synopsis
Video game movies tend to fall into two groups; those that are based on video games (The Tomb Raiders, the Resident Evils) and those that follow video games and usually speaks on how it affects a person, driving their addiction. Often the latter pick it as a device of social commentary. Some do it in humor (Grandma's Boy) but more often than not they manipulate it as something that will take over your brain and kill you. Enter in Gamebox 1.0. Gamebox 1.0 is the story of a video ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 16th, 2007
Synopsis
When the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series came out on DVD, they decided to go the 12 episodes on one disk Volume approach. Sure it was only $10, but when you are looking at near 200 episodes and realized that it would 16+ volumes to make it complete, it was a bit overwhelming. Add that to the fact they were only releasing a new volume every 4-6 months, you were looking at well over 5 years to get all of the episodes. Plus some major shelf space. Thank ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 20th, 2007
Ben Affleck is a good actor. So why does he make so many bad choices? I can understand how mistakes like Pearl Harbor could happen on the front end, but how do you explain the fact that he did wonderful work in Hollywoodland and he shows up in a low-budget film like this one all in the same year? He was wonderful in Good Will Hunting and ate up every scene he was in in Boiler Room. Then he did Gigli. This guy is all over the place.
What's frustrating is that he's pretty good...