Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 21st, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 15th, 2004
Slam is one of the rarest of films, an intelligent urban drama. These days, most films that deal with inner city African American youth either glorify the violent world that they live in, or turn into an After School Special on just saying "no". Slam disses both of these paths, and instead, forges its own path. Luckily, this path leads to truth, to knowledge, and to awards at Sundance.
This is the story of one young man coming to grips with his time and place in the history of the world. Being pinche... for possession of narcotics, the talented poet finds himself locked down while he awaits trial. While on the inside, he develops his talents as a writer as well as his views on violence and loyalty to the street life that he has been living in.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 6th, 2004
Sometimes, movies are just inexplicably bad, and as a DVD reviewer, I get to see a lot of them. These are films that are so horrible that I sometimes don’t know where to begin. It is often times hard to place blame in one are or another, when the whole production is flawed.
In the case of Lost and Delirious, however, the blame is easy to place. This film is not half bad… the premise is decent, the film looks and sounds better than expected, and the acting, while not fantastic, is respectable. The pro...lem here is the script. The horrible, awful, appalling, embarrassing script. The dialog in this film makes the whole piece feel not… quite… right. It is riddled with so many nonsensical non sequiturs that makes the viewer wonder if the author has been around teenagers at all in the past forty years. Do people really think that teens speak this way?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 3rd, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 20th, 2003
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 20th, 2003
I often wonder what would make a good actor star in a bad film. Of course, the true answer almost always involves money, but I still hold out the hope that there is a greater purpose behind these little thespian mysteries. Did the actor know ahead of time that it was going to be a bad film? Was it a risk that just didn’t pay off? Did he owe someone a favor? Just what exactly would cause an actor to put his career at risk for a paycheck?
Shadow Fury boasts Karate Kid’s Pat Morita on it’s front-...f-box list of stars. Granted, Pat Morita hasn’t exactly been Hollywood’s favorite leading man since teaching Ralph Macchio to wax on and wax of, but I was still surprised to see his name prominently listed on the front of the box for this film. “Maybe this is a hidden gem”, I thought; “a kung-fu diamond in the rough”. The ploy worked, my interest was peaked, and I watched the film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 17th, 2003
I hate to see great ideas go to waste. These days, it's rare that anyone ever has any new ideas in Hollywood. Everything has been done before, usually more than once. Sometimes concepts are adapted, and sometimes whole films are re-done… the most blatant slap in the face of creativity. When a film comes along that actually is original, I get excited. In fact, I'll even settle for a new twist on an old story. I get so tired of the same old thing, that even an ounce of creativity goes a long way with me.
It i... with this spirit that I morn for this film. Sure, this type of thing has been tried before, but not exactly in this way. It is basically a new thought… poison a dinner party, so that they might be given the chance to purge themselves of their wrongdoings, and live new lives, free from their secrets and burdens of guilt. Always before, films in the horror and suspense genres have involved an antagonist that kills out of spite, evil, or some other wrong spirit. This one, however, is doing everything he can to give his friends a better life. That is a new and exciting twist.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 16th, 2003
Generally speaking, I am not a fan of trendy relationship films. Cameron Crowe's Singles aside, they are just not my kind of thing. They typically embody too much neurosis and whining from the female characters, and either overly sensitive or overly dense men. Plot elements are rarely believable (the two main characters often bump into each other at some all-too-fortuitous locale), and I frequently leave the theater feeling as if I have been manipulated into believing the story would actually be possible if it...happened in real life.
I also tend to not enjoy independent films that put too much power in the hands on one individual. Again, there are exceptions to this rule, such as Jon Favreau's Swingers, but as a whole, I find that it is always better to have input from others when crafting a film. Especially when the others in question have actually made a film before. This is almost always the case when it comes to first-time directors and/or writers. When they try to do it all themselves, I feel that it forces them to bite off more than they can chew, so to speak, and the quality of the work suffers as a result.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 22nd, 2003
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 18th, 2003
Synopsis
