Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 13th, 2003
Synopsis
This is, of course, the familiar tale of miser Ebenezer Scrooge (voice of Simon Callow) andhis conversion thanks to his encounters with the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet-To-Come. This version has a few alterations, though: Scrooge’s lost love (Kate Winslet) is still verymuch around, and is trying to get in touch with him; there’s a new subplot involving a hospitalfor poor orphans that shuts down because of Scrooge; and Scrooge’s only friends are two mice,who sca...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 6th, 2003
Often family Christmas movies, while ambitious, often miss the mark with a weak story or bad acting. I was worried that a Muppet Christmas movie would follow in these footsteps. Additionally, some of the previous Muppet movies fell short of the comedic styling that resonated within a generation of kids like myself whom grew up with the Muppet Show. Thankfully I was disappointed on both accounts.
It’s a Very Merry Muppet Movie holds it’s own against the best of the family Christmas movies and in my mind riv...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 3rd, 2003
Arthur Hiller’s films are often quirky and funny like The In-Laws, but just as often confusing. The Hospital left me with a feeling that most of the material was over my head. At times Woody Allen, and at others Alan Greenspan. The jacket promises a look behind the scenes of the modern hospital. What we mostly get is a character study performed exceptionally by George C. Scott, but little else. Important subplots like the hospital’s takeover of a ghetto building are never really fully developed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 23rd, 2003
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...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 23rd, 2003
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...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 18th, 2003
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...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 14th, 2003
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.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 10th, 2003
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...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 9th, 2003
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 ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 8th, 2003
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 ...
