Paramount

SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 15th, 2005

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/lwrept5/public_html/Upcomingdiscs.com/wp-content/themes/upcomingdiscs/functions.php on line 453

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Passed over for promotion to manager, SpongeBob SquarePants is ticked at Mr. Krabbs, butnot to the point of wishing him dead. That is the fate that awaits his employer, after he is framedby Plankton for the theft of King Neptune’s crown. SpongeBob and Patrick must brave no endof dangers on their long journey to Shell City to recover the crown. On the way, they encountereverything from a hit man named Dennis (voiced by Alec Baldwin) to monsters, to DavidHasselhoff (as himsel…
Read More

Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 10th, 2005

Buy at Amazon.com

Ah, the 80’s. I remember slapping on the vinyl for the new Def Leppard album, “Pyromania”. And what an album it was. “Photograph”, “Rock of Ages”, the list of singles go on. Def Leppard seemed to be poised for superstardom. Then tragedy struck. Their drummer lost his arm in a car accident. But they still rocked on. “Hysteria” was their most popular album, but a bit too sugary for me. Now we have a movie that charts the rocky road to stardom and beyond, Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story is a heavy m…
Read More

New Kind of Love, A

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 10th, 2005

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Paul Newman is a womanizing lout of a journalist. After unknowingly seducing the wife ofhis boss, he is packed off to the Paris bureau of the newspaper (and he reacts as if this is somesort of punishment). Joanne Woodward is a fashion spy for a discount chain. She’s a toughcookie, as you can tell from the fact that her hair is short and she wears sunglasses in dark rooms.She and her boss head to Paris too on a reconnaissance mission. Woodward and Newman collide,hate each ot…
Read More

Taxi – The Complete Second Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 2nd, 2005

Buy at Amazon.com

There is cause for joy for TV sitcom fans. Taxi‘s second season is now on DVD. It’s an important season to own, since the show develops more memorable characters like Reverend Jim and Simka (played by the great Christopher Lloyd and Carol Kane). But series regulars, like Alex, Latka, Louis, Nardo, Tony, and Bobby Wheeler, all show more depth here. Taxi really came into its own in the second year, and its multiple Emmy awards were justified. All 24 episodes are here. Farcical but human, Taxi…
Read More

Testament

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 2nd, 2005

Buy at Amazon.com

Fear of nuclear proliferation was a definite threat in the Reagan era 80’s. Movies like The Day After played into those fears. Another film that deals with the consequences of nuclear fallout is 1983’s Testament. Testament is a small, quiet film about the effects of nuclear fallout on a family and a community. The director, Lynne Littman, is a veteran of documentary films, and she brings a certain truth and realism to the story. There are no mushroom clouds or special effects, just human eff…
Read More

Without a Paddle

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 30th, 2005

Buy at Amazon.com

Written by Jason Franz

Synopsis

Without a Paddle is the story of three childhood playmates (Seth Green, Matthew Lillard and Dax Shepard), re-united by the death of a close friend. The four young boys dreamed of one day finding the lost fortune of legendary hijacker, D.B. Cooper. After the funeral of their friend, the trio discovers that their departed friend had kept the dream alive and was hot on the trail of Cooper’s treasure before he died.

In memory of their friend, the three continue whe…
Read More

Star Trek Voyager – The Complete Seventh Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 30th, 2005

Buy at Amazon.com

In Season Seven, Voyager returns home and like Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation, the third Star Trek spin-off wraps up. The final episode “Endgame” is not as dramatic as the finales for the other shows. I guess it becomes anticlimactic when you have known for 7 years how this was going to end. The f/x are some of the best in Trek TV history, however. This is truly a visually stunning episode. The season is about on par with Season 6. Stories continue to grow stale. Even the Seven of Nine s…
Read More

I Love Lucy – The Complete Third Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 26th, 2005

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Season Three of the much-loved series, and the ad copy can describe what’s here better thanI could. I quote: “Laugh out loud as Lucy and Ethel rip each other’s dresses to shreds during theirtelevised duet of Cole Porter’s ‘Friendship.’ Watch the fireworks when Lucy has to go 24 hourswithout telling a fib. Follow Lucy as her quest to recover a contest-winning dollar bill lands herin a giant starch vat.” And so on. This is the series that pretty much set the standards for sitco…
Read More

Monster

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 22nd, 2005

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Charlize Theron doesn’t play Aileen Wuornos, she incarnates her. At the end of hertether, highway prostitute Aileen meets 18-year-old Selby (Christina Ricci) when she accidentlywalks into a lesbian bar. They click, and suddenly, Aileen has a reason to live. She tries to turnher life around, but with the implacability of Greek tragedy, her attempts end in failure and shereturns to turning tricks. One date goes turns ghastly, and she kills the brutal john in self-defense…
Read More

Metallica – Some Kind of Monster

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 20th, 2005

Buy at Amazon.com

Exit light…enter night. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster is a documentary about the inner workings of the band. But it’s not a “behind the music” type piece or a concert movie. The filmmakers attempt to gnaw away at the troubling trials of fame, addiction, and friendship. It’s fascinating stuff. Now, I’m not a big fan of Metallica, but I’ve been in creative collective situations. The personal relationships are constantly shifting. You bicker one minute, you love one another the next. In Metallica’s cas…
Read More

Star Trek Voyager – The Complete Sixth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 20th, 2005

Buy at Amazon.com

Season Six signaled the inevitable decline of Star Trek Voyager. While there were certainly strong episodes, such as Pathfinder, there were far too many episodes like The Spirit Folk. The addition of the Borg children was, perhaps, the final push into the abyss. They are constantly irritating. It’s like a pack of Wesley Crushers without the passion. Voyager may have been struggling to get back to the Alpha Quadrant, but it was clear the writers were struggling even harder to keep the show fresh without resorting to o…
Read More

Matchmaker, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 20th, 2005

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Shirley Booth is Dolly Levi, impoverished matchmaker, who has set her designs on matchingrich curmudgeon Paul Ford with herself. Ford, meanwhile, has his eye on young ShirleyMacLaine, who is so desperate to get married that she feels any man will do. Fortunately, there issomeone more her age lurking about: Anthony Perkins, pre-Psycho, when it was possibleto imagine him as a romantic lead.

That this is an adaptation of a play is painfully obvious, what with th…
Read More

Frasier – The Complete Final Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 20th, 2005

Buy at Amazon.com

After a very successful 11 year run on NBC, the cast, crew and writers of Frasier decided to call it quits. Unlike other series that went on far too long and seemed to die a slow and painful death, the Frasier team left an indelible mark on television history with excellent writing and great comedic performances. Just to give you an idea about how important this series was in the history of television, over the course of its run it garnered over 37 Emmys for excellence in acting, writing and direction in a comedy ser…
Read More

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 13th, 2005

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

In his patented style (plenty of vintage stills and, in this case, vintage film footage combinedwith compelling narration and actors voicing the actual words of the subjects), documentaristKen Burns unveils the story of Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight boxing champion. Histriumph was intolerable for white society, and that included the American government. Narratedby Keith David, with Samuel L. Jackson providing the voice of Johnson, this is a powerful lookat the r…
Read More

SpongeBob SquarePants – Home Sweet Pineapple

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 9th, 2005

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Eight more episodes of adventures with SpongeBob and friends. One of the highlights is thetitle episode which reworks an old comedy chestnut (two sleepers fighting over the bedclothes)into a moment of truly sublime hysteria. There are plenty of other comic gems, and I will confessthat, over the years, SpongeBob has grown on me. Yes, I’m a fan now. I would be giving thiscollection a higher rating, but the fact that two of the episodes (“Band Geeks” and “RippedPants”) have al…
Read More

Star Trek Voyager – The Complete Fifth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 2nd, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Things were pretty much over the peak when Voyager warped into Season 5. The Seven Of Nine tension was begin to feel played out by now. The prominence of the girl Naomi I found to be a bit irritating. This would also be a year of rebellion as quite a few crew members cause Janeway more than her fair share of grief. The Borg continue to be the master villains and account for the bright spots in an otherwise mediocre season. Season 5 does bring us to that magical 100th episode with “Timeless”. “Dark Frontier” would be…
Read More

Taxi – The Complete First Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 19th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Taxi was a very funny sitcom that is most notable for the number of future stars it produced. Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Tony Danza, and Judd Hirsch all went on to bigger and better things when the Taxi ride ended. Andy Kaufman’s life and early death provided one of the more bizarre stories in Hollywood history. The truth is that season 1 was not quite that funny. Sure, Lloyd makes an appearance here, but the lovable Rev. Jim would not get behind the wheel of a taxi until the second season. We can only be glad …
Read More

C.S.I. Crime Scene Investigation – The Complete Fourth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 28th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

CSI hasn’t changed much in its first four years. Expect more of the same here. The unique photography and f/x material is pretty much as solid as it was in the first episode. I’m not sure I like the “scruffy” Grissom look, but the show is as good as it’s ever been. As in each of the previous season, Gil Grissom leads a team of Crime Scene Investigators (CSI) on the night shift in Las Vegas.

Audio

This Dolby Digital 5.1 sound once again reinvents TV sound. Highs and lows both exhibit dynam…
Read More

Friday the 13th: From Crystal Lake to Manhattan

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

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

These are the first eight installments of the slasher franchise, a franchise that is now bathedin the warm glow of nostalgia. The basic premise for all the movies is the same: a vengefulmaniac hacks up teenagers in retaliation for the drowning of little Jason Voorhees back in 1958.The films resemble each other so closely, and their plotting is so minimal, that viewers may beforgiven for having trouble keeping them straight. Herewith, a brief reminder of the salientdifferences.

Untouchables, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 23rd, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

The time: Prohibition. The smell of bootleg gin and the sound of bullets lingers in the urban air. It’s Chicago. It’s Good vs. Evil. Elliott Ness vs. Al Capone. Kevin Costner vs. Robert DeNiro. Brian De Palma directs this wonderful period piece. The film drips with as much stylish atmosphere as outlawed booze. I’m not sure if the credit belongs to David Mamet’s imaginative script or De Palma’s direction. Both were at the top of their game with this film. Sean Connery must certainly bear mention as the no nonsense me…
Read More

Star Trek Voyager – The Complete Fourth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 16th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Season 4 of Voyager is most notable for the addition of Jeri Ryan’s Seven Of Nine character. The stories grew a bit more complex. The season appears to have regarded style above substance in year 4. There is a modest attempt to develop a mother/daughter kind of relationship between Seven Of Nine and Janeway. The problem is that, like the potential for conflict inherent with the addition of the Maquis members of the crew, this conflict is all to often resolved in a Brady Bunch “What have you learned from this, Seven …
Read More

Star Trek: Generations

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 20th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

With the success of Star Trek as both a television and film franchise, it made perfect sense to eventually pass the baton from the Kirk era to the Next Generation. Generations had promise, but could and should have been a far better film. The f/x were for the most part inferior to previous Trek films. The destruction of the Enterprise D is the notable exception. Perhaps it was unwise to attempt to blend the established film environment with the too recently completed television series.

The film might have …
Read More

White Dawn, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 16th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Based on true events (or at least on tales told by the Inuit), The White Dawn is setin 1896, when three whalers are stranded on Baffin Island, and are rescued by an Inuitcommunity. The three men are Timothy Bottoms (who is instantly converted to this way of life),Lou Gossett (who is skeptical) and Warren Oates (who’s just plain trouble). The meeting ofcultures is not an easy one.

The film is leisurely, but never dull, and much of the running time is spent sho…
Read More

Real Olympics, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 13th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

In the shadow of the Olympics’ return to Athens, PBS has decided to take a look back at the original games. This mildly-interesting program that feels more like a documentary that might be screened in a High School classroom than one you might watch on television in your free time. Such is the difference between PBS and the History Channel, I suppose. It is a good documentary, but certainly not great.

That’s not to say that the disc is all dry, though. There is some interesting background into some aspects …
Read More

Murder on the Orient Express

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 8th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) boards the Orient Express with his friend Martin Balsam(playing an Italian). On the train is an eccentric group of characters: sullen millionaire RichardWidmark, his twitchy aide Anthony Perkins, motor-mouthed Lauren Bacall, Bible-obsessedIngrid Bergman, aristocratic couple Michael York and Jaqueline Bisset, army officer SeanConnery, his lover Vanessa Redgrave, princess Wendy Hiller, and so on and on, each with anaccent more outrageous than th…
Read More

«< 33 34 35 36 37 >»