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MGM

Troll / Troll 2

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 23rd, 2003

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Synopsis

In Troll (**), a family headed up by Michael Moriarty and Shelley Hack move intotheir new apartment. Unfortunately the young daughter is kidnapped and impersonated by a troll,who goes about turning the other residents into greenery or fairy creatures. Among thosesuffering this fate are Sonny Bono and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, who can’t have been too happy tohave this hunk of cheese lurking on their CVs. Mediocre as Troll is, it does at least havefairly high ambiti…
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Silkwood

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 23rd, 2003

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Synopsis

Meryl Streep copped another Oscar nomination for her performance as Karen Silkwood, low-level employee at an Oklahoma nuclear power plant. She is driven to activism once she realizeshow her life and those of her fellow employees are being endangered by the shoddy safetystandards. Streep is backed up by fine performances from Kurt Russell and Cher, but Nicholstakes his own sweet time with the direction.

Audio

A mono soundtrack, and this is a film fro…
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Fargo

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 18th, 2003

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Synopsis

Terminal loser William H. Macy hatches a scheme to get out of his debt problems: hire SteveBuscemi and Peter Stormare to kidnap his wife, then get the ransom from his father-in-law.Naturally enough, everything goes spectacularly wrong. Bodies pile up, and hugely pregnantSheriff Frances McDormand investigates. All the elements of prime Coen work are present:wonderful character turns from a top cast, dialogue to die for, cinematography that will take yourbreath away, and a sc…
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Outer Limits: Complete Second Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 14th, 2003

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Maybe there wasn’t anything wrong with your television set, but what were the network executives thinking? It’s hard to believe that a show as influential and as well known as The Outer Limits never made it to the end of its second season. The original Outer Limits was cancelled just 17 episodes into season 2. Like Star Trek after it, this short-lived show found its footing in later syndication and revival projects. It is fortunate indeed that today’s general rule of 100 episodes to qualify for syndication did not exist in the 1960’s.
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Nicholas Nickleby

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 10th, 2003

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Synopsis

At the at of 19, Nicholas Nickleby loses his father. He, his sister Kate and their mother go toLondon to seek the help of a rich uncle, played with villainous gusto by Christopher Plummer.Plummer packs Nicholas off to be teacher at a hellish Yorkshire boarding school, while keepingthe women in London under his thumb. At the school, Nicholas befriends the crippled Smike,and soon begins to stand up against the tyrants. So begin his adventures, during the course ofwhich he gat…
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Stargate SG-1 – The Complete Fourth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 9th, 2003

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The fourth season of Stargate SG-1 started with one of the largest f/x episodes of the series. The Replicants, which look a lot like the mecha-spiders from the Lost In Space film are threatening Earth, and it seems all is lost. Of course, fans of the series know that SG-1 will save the day. The stories have continued to build in expanse as the series enters its fourth year. Stargate SG-1 just keeps getting bigger and better. By now I think this might have become the best sci-fi series on TV, rivaling even the …
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Mark of Zorro, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 8th, 2003

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Synopsis

Returning to California after some years in Spain, Don Diego de Vega (Tyrone Power) finds that hisfather has been deposed and that the region is ruled by a venal, corrupt governer under the thumbof tyrannical lieutenant Basil Rathbone. Pretending to be a useless fop by day, Diego dons maskand sword by night as Zorro, fighting for the liberation of the poor and the downtrodden. Powerspends surprisingly little time in the Zorro get-up, and the climactic duel comes earlier than …
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Carrie (2002)

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 6th, 2003

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Synopsis

Carrie White (Angela Bettis) is going through the last word in high school hell. She has nofriends, she is tormented on all sides, and she has no comfort at home, thanks to her religiousfanatic mother. Carrie also has a powerful psychokinetic talent, one that will inevitably beunleashed once the pressure builds too high. Cut down from a 180-minute mini-series to 132minutes, this version will disappoint those who wanted to see the whole thing, but at the samet…
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I, Madman

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 6th, 2003

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Synopsis

Jenny Wright is Virginia. She works at a used bookstore by day, and by night freaks herselfout with the frightening books of Malcolm Brand. Her life becomes a nightmare when themonstrous protagonist of Brand’s I, Madman appears to her in the real world, and startsre-enacting his crimes. Appearing well before the postmodern exercises of the Screamseries, In the Mouth of Madness and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, this littlefilm anticipates tha…
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Sunday Bloody Sunday

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 4th, 2003

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Synopsis

Glenda Jackson is a job placement consultant who wants to resign. Peter Finch is a doctorwho has more than his fair share of neurotic patients. Both Finch and Jackson are in love withMurray Head, a young artist who really loves himself more than either of his two lovers. Jacksonand Finch know about each other, and try to reconcile themselves with having to share Head. Asensitive character study, Sunday Bloody Sunday rivets with its superlative performancesand …
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Haunted Palace / Tower of London, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 3rd, 2003

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Synopsis

Made at the height of Roger Corman’s successful Edgar Allan Poe series (with his perennialstar Vincent Price), these two pictures, while similar in tone to the Poe films, adapt two differentwriters. Tower of London, a remake of the Basil Rathbone/Boris Karloff film from 1935,is a version of Shakespeare’s Richard III, with Price taking on the role of the villainoushunchback, plotting and killing his way to the throne of England. The Haunted Palace,…
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Burnt Offerings

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 28th, 2003

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Synopsis

Mother Karen Black, father Oliver Reed, young son Lee Montgomery and great-aunt BetteDavis escape New York to spend the summer at a country home. They get the huge mansion fora song, but the only catch is that they have to look after the aged owner of the house. Black takescharge of providing for the unseen old woman, and soon becomes dangerously obsessed withthe house. Strange accidents befall the family, and with each bad thing that happens to them, thehouse, which…
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Raw Meat

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 28th, 2003

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Synopsis

People have been disappearing from the Russell Square station of the London Underground.The attention of the police is only really drawn, however, when one of the vanished turns out tobe a man well-placed in the Ministry of Defence. Inspector Donald Pleasance (wonderfullycranky and rude) is on the job. Meanwhile, two university students are also caught up in themystery. The reason people have been going missing is because they are being kidnapped andeaten by the last…
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Comedy of Terrors / The Raven

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 27th, 2003

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Synopsis

Richard Matheson, one of the most important talents in the horror field (his filmed novelsinclude Hell House, The Shrinking Man and I Am Legend — the latterdone twice, as The Last Man On Earth and The Omega Man), scripts this twoblack comedies. In The Comedy of Terrors, Vincent Price is the scheming owner of afuneral home. He has taken over the business from doddering and deaf Boris Karloff, and,desperate for money, forces t…
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Squirm

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 27th, 2003

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Synopsis

A violent storm drops power lines into the swamp area of Fly Creek, Georgia. Driven madby the electricity, hundreds of thousands of giant, biting worms rise to the surface, and are heldback only by daylight. Three young people realize that something is up, but the adults won’tlisten, just as in The Blob, one of Squirm’s models. Come nightfall, the wormsattack. Squirm takes its time getting to the main event, and most of the build-up has aHardy Bo…
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Ghoul, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 26th, 2003

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Synopsis

Egyptology professor Boris Karloff is on his deathbed. He has just spent his fortuneacquiring a jewel he believes will open up the gates of the afterlife for him, and he demands to beburied with it, threatening to come back from the grave if his wishes are denied. Naturally, thejewel is stolen, and as a group of interested parties descend on his mansion, Karloff rises. ThisBritish film, made in the wake of the huge success of the early Universal horror classics, is als…
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Y Tu Mama Tambien

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 22nd, 2003

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Don’t be fooled into thinking that Y Tu Mama Tambien is just another trite love triangle movie, one that would have some catchy Sum 41 or Weezer song in all the promos. This movie is about far more than that. It’s about the nature of friendship, the consequence of action, teenage machismo, self-realization and learning what it means to enjoy life. This isn’t the Mexican version of Road Trip, either. They don’t get into wacky hijinks or the comedy of the absurd. Almost everything about Y Tu Mama T…
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Howling, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 9th, 2003

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Synopsis

Dee Wallace is an intrepid TV reporter who tracks down a serial killer, and is almost killedfor her troubles. Traumatized, she withdraws to a rural resort, which at first seems idyllic.Gradually, evidence mounts that she is in fact staying in the middle of a werewolf colony. Stillone of the more satisfying werewolf films yet made (though Ginger Snaps has arguablycaptured the crown for best ever), Joe Dante’s film is a delight not only for the grislytransformations, b…
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Ghoulies / Ghoulies II

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 9th, 2003

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Synopsis

In Ghoulies, a young man inherits a run-down home, only to succumb gradually tohis warlock legacy, summoning the title creatures and turning them loose on his friends. TheGhoulies strike back in the sequel, this time finding their way into a carnival and creating no endof havoc there. Neither film takes itself seriously — how could they, with little rubbery puppetsfor monsters. There is something likeable about the enthusiastically silly cheese up there on thescreen…
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Countess Dracula / The Vampire Lovers

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 8th, 2003

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Synopsis

Countess Dracula features Ingrid Pitt as a fictionalized version of Countess ElizabethBathory, who slaughtered hundreds of women to bathe in their blood. Here the body count is notthat high, but the bloodbaths actually work: the aged countess becomes young again, andromances a young soldier while pretending to be her own daughter. Unfortunately, old age keepspouncing back on her without notice. The Vampire Lovers (which also stars PeterCushing) is based on J. …
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Sure Thing, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 2nd, 2003

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Synopsis

An early Rob Reiner film, The Sure Thing features a young John Cusack as a collegefreshman. Tired of having no luck with the ladies at his East Coast college, Cusack is lured onwest by the promise of hooking up with the titular sure thing (Nicolette Sheridan). Hiscomplicated road trip is further complicated by his having to share the journey with DaphneZuniga, a classmate who wants nothing to do with him. You can probably guess where this isgoing to go, but it gets t…
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Valley Girl

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 31st, 2003

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Synopsis

Welcome to the world of Julie (Deborah Foreman) and Randy (Nicolas Cage). Randy is apunk, and Julie is the eponymous Valley Girl, she of the instantly recognizable slang (“totally,”“grody,” “gag me,” etc.). Theirs is a light-hearted Romeo and Juliet story, as they fall in lovedespite the disapproval of peers. Don’t be expecting the outrageousness and excess of somethinglike American Pie. Rather, this is a sharply observed comedy, driven more by characterthan by slaps…
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Last American Virgin, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 31st, 2003

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Synopsis

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. So there are these three friends, right? They’re allsomewhere on the geeky spectrum, but you’ve got the macho dude, the fat boy, and the sensitivetype. And they all want to get laid. And there’s also one special girl that the sensitive type hasfallen for… You’ve seen it before, you’ve seen it better. You’ve seen it as an after-school special(minus the nudity). Worth a look though, if only to see the only abortion sequence scored toU2.< ...
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Bowling for Columbine

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 29th, 2003

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Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore’s film Bowling for Columbine has done more then just win the Academy Award for best documentary film, it has also ruffled a lot of feathers. Moore’s extreme views, which are embraced by many, also seem to piss off a lot of people.

Moore’s extreme bias on the topic of gun control and U.S. war mongering has lead many to believe that Bowling for Columbine is more of a 2-hour speech then an award winning documentary. You may not like what he has to say, but y…
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UHF

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 9th, 2003

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UHF is one of those cult films that has gained quite a following over the years. Fans of the film have been clamoring for a DVD release for many months now and somewhere in the hallowed halls of MGM, someone did something about it. The company is going to release a full-blown DVD of the film on June 4th that will appease the dozens and dozens of “Weird Al” Yankovic fans everywhere.

UHF is total satire and plays almost like the old Landis Kentucky Fried Movie from the 70’s. It’s target…
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