Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 1st, 2006
Synopsis
As one who has a brother that is (or was) a bit of a Stephen King fanatic and loves goofy King adaptations like Pet Cemetery, I’d never seen The Dead Zone, and I’m a Christopher Walken (True Romance) fan. I’m also a David Cronenberg (Dead Ringers) fan. And now that I’ve finally seen The Dead Zone, I can consider myself having a fairly complete existence now.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 30th, 2006
Synopsis
Thankfully, some of the larger studios are beginning to produce films that are either good old-fashioned family films, or are films touting religious value and piety. Walden Media, who were behind such films as Holes and How to Eat Fried Worms, have produced and released another film with similar concepts behind them, a charming little piece of celluloid entitled Hoot.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 30th, 2006
Synopsis
I can honestly say that a one-hour standup special might result in my shortest review ever, but if that’s how the chips fall this time, so be it. Bob Newhart is certainly not without his admirers, he’s been an established comedic force for decades. He didn’t get his big break until the ‘60s, and parlayed that success into television shows in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and aside from the occasional movie appearance, shows up from time to time with late night talk show hosts that run out of material.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 30th, 2006
Synopsis
The film opens with the Senate pornography hearings of the 1950s, which cracked down on bondage-movie purveyor Irving Klaw. As Bettie Page (Gretchen Mol) waits to be called to testify, she flashes back to the events that brought her to this point. After an abusive childhood in Tennessee, a failed marriage and a gang rape, she flees to New York, where she becomes first a glamour model, and eventually the most highly sought-after bondage queen.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 27th, 2006
The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift is not as solid as the previous two in the Furous series, but the addition of a totally new local does add quite a bit to the film’s strength. Anyhow, Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) is your typical high school character. He loves fixing his car, racing and subsequently gets into a lot of trouble. After ‘gawking’ at the girlfriend of Clay (Zachary Ty Bryan), an immediate race occurs through the backlot of a new development. Chaos ensues and the police, due to Sean’s high...trouble rate, end up sending Sean to live with his father in Tokyo. So let me understand this… If I were to get into a lot of trouble and my father lived in a foreign country, I would avoid jail time and get to go stay with him? Riggghhhttt.
Anyhow, besides this minor story flaw, Sean soon arrives in Tokyo and promises his father he won’t do any street racing. Obviously Sean quickly becomes involved in an underground “drifting” racing scene (which is totally new to him) after meeting Twinkie (Bow Wow). For some reason, Sean gets to prove himself by racing the ultra famous Drift King (Brian Tee) who goes by DK. Han (Sung Kang), one of DK’s friends, (Sung Kang) lets Sean borrow his vehicle. It being Sean’s first time “Drifting”, he ends up destroying Han’s car. To repay his debt, Han enlists Sean as his new boy. The two quickly develop a friendship and Han decides to have Sean become one of his racers, but first Sean must learn the art of drifting.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 27th, 2006
Synopsis
Adam Sandler plays Michael Newman, stressed-out workaholic who, overwhelmed by his job though he is, is allowing it to interfere with his family life. At the end of his tether one night, he sets out to buy a universal remote, but Christopher Walken (apparently playing Christopher Lloyd) sells him a truly universal remote.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 27th, 2006
Synopsis
Following the success of The Cartoon Network’s entertaining Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, someone decided to include one of the characters from the show as part of a spinoff series. The Brak Show recalls the encounters of the space cat of sorts, as he’s placed in a home with a loving mother and father, sort of in the vein of a Leave it to Beaver scenario.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 25th, 2006
Synopsis
So what we have here is Season 4, Volume 1 – i.e. the first 20 episodes of the season. I’m not sure I’m wild about this new trend to trap us into shelling out our hard-earned dollars into buying TWO box sets per season, but there you have it. None of which is to take away from the actual qualities of the show. Either I’m growing softer in the head with age (an entirely likely event) or the series just keeps growing funnier. Everything here is funny, but some are epically so, forcing you to r...wind (after a bout of painful-to-the-ribs laughter) to confirm that you really saw what you think you did. “Mermaidman & Barnacleboy VI – The Motion Picture” is a case in point. Here SpongeBob and Patrick make a movie with their heroes, and the final result is as concentrated a does of rapid-fire, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it hilarity as I have seen in recent years.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 25th, 2006
Ron Howard’s Backdraft tells the story of two brothers, Brian and Steve McCaffrey (William Baldwin and Kurt Russell), who are part of Engine Company No. 17 in Chicago. The two brothers always seem to have a sense of rivalry in their blood. Ever since their father passed away, Steve has always tried to prove to Brian that he is the true firefighter in the family. Well, despite all their problems, Steve and Brian soon find out that they will have to put aside their differences rather quickly since there is an ar...onist going around setting fires that are meant to kill off selected firefighters.
Having never seen this film before, I had only read numerous praise for this film. Critics loved the acting and, most importantly, the drama presented. Possibly because I saw the film Ladder 49 first, I couldn’t really get into Backdraft all too much. Granted I did enjoy the acting by Kurt Russell and Robert De Niro, but I couldn’t ever find myself feeling a connection to these characters. All I felt like I was watching a scene after scene of a huge fire explosion followed by Brian and Steve arguing. Speaking of the characters, I felt the role played by De Niro, albeit kind of useless in terms of using his acting abilities, was one of the only positives here.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 25th, 2006
Synopsis
Boy, this haunted technology stuff is getting out of hand. Seems a body can’t touch a single appliance or toy without some evil spirit emerging in smite-mode. In this instance, the problem is a survival-horror video game called Stay Alive, which not only refuses to let you stop playing, after your character dies, you die in the same way. At the root of it all is the Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who has been the subject of many a film already. Unaware of this, our usual batch of charact...rs (the Regular Guy, the Regular Girl, the Goth Chick, Her Annoying Brother and the Nerd) must try to beat the game in real life before it beats them.
![The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-fast-the-furious-tokyo-drift-large.jpg)
