Studio

Stealing Candy

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 31st, 2004

Synopsis

Con man Alex McArthur joins up with brutal thug Coolio and computer genius DanielBaldwin in one of those “can’t miss” schemes: kidnap actress Jenya Lano and force her to havesex in a pay-per-view Internet session. The kidnapping goes well, but frictions between the triothreaten the alliance, and all is not as it appears.

Easily one of the more tasteless premises for a thriller in recent years, and the film showslittle awareness of its own sleaziness. But then, the p…
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Morituri

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 31st, 2004

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Synopsis

Marlon Brando plays a German pacifist who fled his country at the outbreak of the WWII,and is living in comfortable seclusion in India. The British authorities blackmail him into takinga mission. Assuming the identity of an SS officer, he must board a blockade runner (captainedby Yul Brynner) and disarm its scuttling charges so it can be captured by the Allies. Needlessto say, nothing works out quite as it should.

Even running over two hours, this is a taut thriller…
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S.I.C.K.

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 30th, 2004

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Synopsis

Ken Hebert (lead actor and film’s producer) invites three friends out to his cabin in thewoods. Oddly, these friends are either people he hasn’t seen in years, or barely knows. Along theway, they pick up another young woman who’s been having some hitch-hiking problems. Thatnight, the stranger tells a gruesome story about a killer clown. And wouldn’t you know it? Oneby one, the cast starts being killed by that very figure.

It’s amateur hour, folks. Looks like a bunch…
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Quicksand

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 30th, 2004

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Synopsis

Michael Keaton is a straight-arrow banker arriving in Nice to investigate some dubiousfinancial dealings at a film studio. The production is, in fact, a total scam, a front for whiteslavery operations run by the Russian mob. Keaton pokes his nose in where it isn’t wanted,refuses a bribe, and is promptly set up as the fall guy when a crooked police chief (on the outswith the Russians) is assassinated. On the run, Keaton must prove his innocence and take downthe mob. Also mix…
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Dark Harvest

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 30th, 2004

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Synopsis

In 1932, in Carson County, West Virginia (or, as the name appears on the screen, “WestVirGINA”), a farmer kills his wife and hangs her up as a scarecrow. Cut to the present, and adistant descendant inherits the cursed property. He and the usual gaggle of teenaged friends headout for the farm, after some wandering around and skinning dipping, are set upon by a demonicscarecrow with glowing eyes.

The film follows the stereotypical slasher plot in perfect lock-step, wi…
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Uncovered

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 29th, 2004

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Synopsis

Kate Beckinsale plays an art restorer. While working on her current commission, shediscovers a previously hidden inscription, which points to a murder conspiracy 500 years ago. Asshe tries to solve the mystery, whose key lies in the paintings depiction of a chess game, peoplearound her, connected in one way or another to the painting, begin to die. Is the past reaching outto wreak vengeance on the present? And who is the Black Queen?

I won’t tell you, except to say …
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MASH – The Complete Sixth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 29th, 2004

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Synopsis

The most notable aspect of the evergreen series’ sixth season was the replacement of LarryLinville’s Frank Burns with David Ogden Stiers’ Winchester. The transition happens over thecourse of a double-length season opener, with Burns’ misadventures and ultimate reassignmenthappening off-screen, while Winchester arrives to be, so the poor sap thinks, a temporaryreplacement. Still plenty of strong writing, and jabs of deadly seriousness permeating through thecomedy.

Great Escape, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 27th, 2004

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All too often, films with an ensemble cast are a dream for the studio’s marketing department, but end up being a nightmare for the moviegoer. They are the very definition of the phrase, “too many Chiefs and not enough Indians”. There are exceptions to this rule (such as Steven Soderberg’s re-make of Ocean’s 11), but more often than not, such films fall flat, as everybody leads in their own direction, and nobody follows.

Thankfully, this is one of those rare exceptions. Each member of the cast of T…
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Serial Killing 101

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 27th, 2004

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Synopsis

Justin Urich is a disaffected high school student. He is unable to stomach dissection inbiology class (despite his love of horror movies), and he is perpetually tormented by the martinetgym instructor (Thomas Haden Church). When, in a counselling course, he declares that hewants to be a serial killer, he attracts the attention of goth chick Lisa Loeb. She will help himlearn what he needs to know to become a serial killer, on the condition that she be his firstvictim. Urich’…
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Prime Suspect 6

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 26th, 2004

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Synopsis

Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) is now a Detective Superintendent, with 24 murder casesunder her supervision. The most recent one is that of a young Bosnian woman. Tennisonbecomes directly involved with the investigation, which reveals the presence of a protectedBosnian war criminal in London. Tennison’s obsession with the truth, as well as some mistakesof her own, threaten to derail her career, destroying her life’s work.

As with the other entries in this series, the …
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Stay Hungry

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 26th, 2004

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Synopsis

Jeff Bridges plays the black sheep of an aristocratic Southern family. Shiftless and callow,he is involved in a shady real-estate deal headed up by Joe Spinell (ex of The Godfather,later to gain notoriety as the title character in Maniac). In order to complete the deal,Bridges has to buy out a fitness club, populated by such characters as gym instructor Sally Field,would-be Mr. Universe Arnold Schwarzenegger (now there’s casting against type) and hishappy-go-l…
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Company, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 25th, 2004

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Synopsis

The Company deals with a fictional season in the life of the Joffrey Ballet ofChicago. In between elaborately filmed ballet numbers, we see the behind the scenes strugglesand preparations, injuries and heartbreaks. The principle characters are Neve Cambell as a dancerwhose moment in the spotlight has finally come. She has attracted the attention of flaky artisticdirector Malcolm McDowell, and finds relief in arms of restaurant chef James Franco.

In some ways,…
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Creeping Flesh, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 25th, 2004

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Synopsis

In 1893, scientist Peter Cushing returns home with a remarkable find: a giant skeleton, whichturns out to belong to a being that was the very incarnation of evil. Where water touches thebones, flesh regenerates, and Cushing isolates the blood cells that contain evil. Obsessed withprotecting his daughter from the insanity that destroyed his wife, he attempts to inoculate her.His experiment goes horribly wrong, and also attracts the attention of half-brother and scientificriv…
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Samurai Jack – Season One

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 24th, 2004

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Easily the best animated series to hit the airwaves over the past decade, Gennedy Tartovsky’s Samurai Jack has developed a devoted following owing to it’s superior storytelling and cinematography (if you can call it cinematography when it’s on TV).

It follows the story of Samurai Jack – a time displaced samurai looking to restore order to the planet by destroying the demon responsible for his, and the earth’s predicament. Aku, a powerful demon attacked Jack’s village destroying his home and family. Jack sw…
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Complete Sixth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 24th, 2004

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Following what may be one of the best season finales ever (i.e. Buffy sacrifices herself for her sister Dawn) Buffy is raised from the dead by the ever increasing powers of Willow. She returns disoriented just in time to battle a horde of motorcycle riding demons hell-bent on turning Sunnyvale into their own personal property. It is during the opening two episodes that it becomes clear that secrets are going to play a major role in the sixth season.

Buffy’s friends believe that as a result of the events of…
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Prey for Rock & Roll

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 23rd, 2004

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Synopsis

Gina Gershon, leader of the Clam Dandys, is about to turn 40, and still hasn’t had her bigrock & roll break. She is insecure about aging, and can’t maintain a relationship with either menor women. Also in her band are Lori Petty (guitar teacher by day), Petty’s lover Shelly Cole (thevery young drummer), and the drug-and-booze-and-loser-boyfriend addled Drea De Matteo (thebass player). Then two things happen: there is the possibility that the band might finally get itsbreak,…
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Funny About Love

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 23rd, 2004

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Synopsis

Gene Wilder is Duffy Bergman, a “controversial” cartoonist (though the brief glimpses ofhis cartoons fail to explain his wild success). After a traditional romantic comedy “meet cute,”he and Christine Lahti fall in love and marry. When Wilder’s growing obsession with having ababy meets with frustration, the marriage cracks apart.

Let us consider the subject matter of Nimoy’s directorial track record: Baby Boom.Three Men and a Baby. The Good Mother>. This piece. Bit of a trend, wouldn’tyou say? At any rate, this effort is nothing to write home about: unfunny comedy andmanipulative tear-jerking. Yawn.

Audio

The sound arrives in both 5.1 and 2.0, but one has to wonder why anyone went to the troubleof creating a 5.1 mix, when the result is essentially undetectable. There is virtually no surroundto speak of, except when music is playing — all sorts of obvious opportunities for envelopingsound effects (as when Wilder and Lahti are in a taxi stuck in New York traffic) are wasted.

Video

The picture gets off on the wrong foot, with a very grainy and dirty opening. The picturequality improves after the credits, but dirt and specks continue to show up sporadically. Theblacks, flesh tones and colours are fine. An acceptable transfer, then, but the print could be inbetter shape.

Special Features

None.

Closing Thoughts

Late-career stuff for Gene Wilder. In other words, steer clear.

Back to the Beach

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 23rd, 2004

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Synopsis

Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello essentially play themselves. Once a teen surf idol andMouseketeer, they are now, respectively, a stressed-out car salesman and a neurotic housewife.Their son is a leather-bedecked punk who addresses the camera directly to itemize the failingsof his parents. A trip to LA revives aging pair’s youthful spirit, however, thanks also to cameosfrom everyone from Bob Denver (in Gilligan outfit) to Pee-Wee Herman.

Nostalgia is one thing, …
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Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 21st, 2004

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Synopsis

Directed by Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill, this is the follow up to Broomfield’sAileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer. This summarizes some of what was dugup in that film, particularly the sleazy attempts by all and sundry to capitalize on theirconnections to Wuornos and her case, and the corruption of justice that ensued. The newnarrative picks up with Wuornos’ final appeal against the death penalty (which fails), and theninterviews her (and the people…
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Saving Private Ryan

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 20th, 2004

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Synopsis

The plot is as simple as that of any 40s or 50s World War II movie: in the immediateaftermath of the D-Day invasion, eight men (led by Tom Hanks) are sent on a dangerous missionto find the only surviving son of a decimated family and send him home.

On this simple framework, Spielberg hangs the most viscerally intense evocation of theSecond World War yet committed to film. The exhausting Omaha Beach sequence that opens thefilm has been justly celebrated, but there ar…
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President’s Analyst, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 20th, 2004

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Synopsis

James Coburn is Dr. Sidney Schaefer, a rather self-satisfied analyst. His ego is given anenormous boost when he is assigned a new patient: the President (who is never seen). Barely hashe begun his new job when he realizes that he is being watched, and his paranoia goes throughthe roof. But just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you. And they are.Every spy agency imaginable, foreign and domestic, wants Dr. Schaefer — either alive to get hissecrets,…
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Around the Fire

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 19th, 2004

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The time of being a teenager and self discovery can be a difficult one. We watch the life of Simon mainly through flashbacks as he is dealing with his drug addiction. We see a young man who doesn’t seem to fit in with his rich family friends. He finds friendship and comfort with a group who follows bands like Phish and The Dead around the country, getting high and having fun. Simon’s descends into drug addiction driven by the memory of his father betraying his mother just before she dies. The plot has the potential t…
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Purgatory Flats

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 19th, 2004

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A doctor looking to escape his past gets stuck in Purgatory Flats and drawn into a circle of deceit with the wild Sunny. Sunny is looking for a ticket out of the one horse town and will do anything to get out including killing her husband. The plot is as thin as one of Sunny’s little skirts and grates on you like the desert sand in a windstorm.

Video

The 1.33:1 full screen transfer looks pretty bad; I have seen worse but this one ranks up there. Colors are over really saturated… I assume …
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Stealing Time

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 19th, 2004

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What do you when you are in your mid 20’s and are diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and only given a short amount of time to live. Do you move home and surround yourself with those who you love or do you enlist your friends to help you rob a bank and see if you can go out in a blaze of glory. This is an interesting film with a somewhat original storyline, there is a nice little twist at the end that you can see coming but overall it was an entertaining watch.

Video

The 1.33:1 full …
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Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 19th, 2004

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Synopsis

The collapse of the studio system was followed by the rise of the independents, and the late-60s to the early 70s saw what is sometimes termed the American Renaissance. This is the era thatsaw the rise to prominence of Dennis Hopper, Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola, MartinScorsese, and Sam Peckinpah, among other, along with, most fatefully, Steven Spielberg andGeorge Lucas. Based on the book of the same name, Kenneth Bowser’s film narrates the rise and(often drug-fu…
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