Sony Pictures

Resident Evil

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 10th, 2004

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Synopsis

An act of sabotage releases a deadly virus (it kills you and turns you into a flesh-eatingzombie) inside the Hive, the underground R&D headquarters of the Umbrella Corporation.Descending into the Hive to find out what went wrong is a team of security operatives,accompanied by Mila Jovovich, who is a apparently another security operative, but is currentlysuffering from amnesia. It isn’t very long before the team is attacked by hordes of zombies, andtheir numbers dwindle alar…
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What’s Happening!! – The Complete Second Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 9th, 2004

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What’s Happening!! (that’s right, 2 exclamation marks) had a three year run on ABC in the mid 70’s. The second season is now on DVD, all 22 episodes. The sitcom revolves around a “family” of sorts. The main characters are three best friends, Raj (the nerdy one), Dwayne (the cool one), and Rerun (the goofy one). There’s also Shirley, the waitress at the local soda shop. But Dee (Raj’s little sister) is a distraction. And I’m not talking about the character. The actor’s line readings are terrible and watc…
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Harvest, The

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

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Synopsis

Miguel Ferrer plays a screenwriter sent down to a rather rough Mexican city to research themurder his script is based on. He quickly discovers that the crime is not what was given out forpublic consumption, and he begins to rework his script in consequence. He also runs intoLeilani Sarelle. Smitten, he follows her to the beach, but is conked on the head and comes tominus a kidney. Then it seems that the organ thieves want his other one.

Writer/director David Marconi…
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Falling from Grace

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 7th, 2004

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Synopsis

John Mellencamp plays a darker, fictionalized (one hopes) version of himself as a rock starwho returns to his home town in Indiana. He is accompanied by his wife (Mariel Hemingway),and his journey stirs up a veritable hornet’s nest of resentments in his family and friends. KayLenz is married to his brother, but still resents Mellencamp for not choosing her, and the twobegin a very prickly flirtation and affair. As he begins to fall from grace, the question is whetherour her…
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Renegade

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 6th, 2004

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Synopsis

As a young man, Mike Blueberry (Vincent Cassel) falls in love with a prostitute, but theirtryst is rudely interrupted by the black-hearted Michael Madsen. The woman is killed, andBlueberry is badly wounded. He is taken in and nursed back to health by Native Americans, andthus taps into a bunch of mystical hugger-mugger as well. Years later, he is the town marshal,and who should ride into town but Madsen again, now possessed of supernatural power andintent on capturing the s…
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Sense and Sensibility (Classic DVD and Book Collection)

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 5th, 2004

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Synopsis

Jane Austen’s tale concerns the Dashwood sisters. Elinor (Emma Thompson) is sensible tothe point of excessive caution in matters of the heart. Marianne (Kate Winslett) is the opposite,so passionate that she might follow her heart into trouble. Their lives (and those of their littlesister and their mother) are made difficult by their loss of fortune. They are at the mercy ofselfish in-laws, though the brother of the gorgon-in-chief is the extremely likeable Hugh Grant(with w…
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Little Women (Classic DVD and Book Collection)

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 5th, 2004

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Synopsis

For the audience this film is aimed at, a synopsis should be superfluous. At any rate, this isthe tale of March family, consiting of mother Marmee (Susan Sarandon) and her four daughters:protagonist Jo (Winona Ryder), proper Meg (Trini Alvarado), delicate Beth (Claire Danes) andyoungest Amy (first Kirsten Dunst, cute as a button, then Samantha Mathis). We begin during theCivil War, with the father absent, and the family dealing with the privations of that time, andthen move…
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Godzilla vs Gigan

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 4th, 2004

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Synopsis

An organization claiming to be working for children’s aid builds a Godzilla theme park,complete with bigger-than-life replica of the big guy, here serving as headquarters. In fact, thesenice people are alien invaders, as a cartoonist and his friends discover. When their plans arethreatened, the aliens summon King Ghidorah and Gigan (he of the beak and vaguely disturbingbuzz saw stomach) to their aid. But Godzilla and good friend Anguirus charge in to fight the eviland save …
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Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 3rd, 2004

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Synopsis

Sterling Hayden, as the demented General Jack D. Ripper, sends a squadron of bombers offto nuke the Soviet Union. The principle bomber pilot is the equally demented Slim Pickens.Captain Mandrake (Peter Sellers) desperately tries to stop the bombers. The President (PeterSellers again) summons his principle aids to the war room and the assembled characters(including George C. Scott, and Sellers again as the titular character) do all they can to avert adoomsday scenario.

Sanford and Son – The Complete Fifth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 3rd, 2004

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This really was “The Big One”. Season 5 was probably my favorite year of Sanford and Son. Episodes like the Dickens-inspired Ebenezer Sanford, The classic Sanford and Rising Son and The Oddfather leave me laughing just to think about them. I can’t look at George C. Scott as Patton and not be reminded of the intrepid Sergeant Gork. George Foreman took a break from his fight schedule to appear as himself. Even the clip-loaded Camping Trip is a constant riot. In Season 5 the Sanfords discover NBC is making a TV show abo…
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Godzilla Vs Hedorah

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

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Synopsis

Humanity’s pollution of the seas has given rise to Hedorah, a giant sludgy tadpole creature that feasts on industrial waste and grows bigger and more powerful all the time. Godzilla, protector of Earth and small children, is already angered by the pollution, but concentrates his energies on defeating Hedorah. The first battle goes well, but soon Hedorah is back, bigger and stronger than before.

Godzilla is in full-on superhero mode here, in a film better known in North America as < ...
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Happy Birthday to Me

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 18th, 2004

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Synopsis

Erstwhile Little House on the Prairie fixture Melissa Sue Anderson is recoveringfrom the death of her mother and her own brain injury. She seems to be doing okay, despite aloss of memory, for which she seeks the help of psychiatrist Glenn Ford. She is one of thepopular kids at her college. All is not well, however, as the friends start being killed one by one.Who has it in for the Top Ten?

Happy Birthday to Me has no more plot than the usual slasher, b…
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Frankenfish

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 17th, 2004

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Synopsis

A medical examiner and a biologist travel deep into the Bayou, investigating the death ofa local fisherman. They and the inhabitants of a group of houseboats are soon all-too-aware ofthe what killed the man: giant, genetically modified snakehead fish. The fish lays siege toour unfortunate characters.

Not much more plot to this tight little creature feature than that. It gets right to the point, andwastes precious little time on subplots. Most of the film consists of…
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White Chicks

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 15th, 2004

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Synopsis

Shawn and Marlon Wayans are two FBI agents. After screwing up royally (busting an ice-cream salesman instead of a drug dealer), they are anxious to redeem themselves. Charged withescorting the heiress Wilson sisters (read: Hilton) to the Hamptons where they will be bait fora socialite kidnapper, they mar the sisters’ faces, and so go themselves, made-up as the WhiteChicks of the title. Misunderstandings, racial and sexual, ensue.

I’ll grant the brothers this: there …
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Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 15th, 2004

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Synopsis

Apparently in answer to a mystic’s prophecy, Godzilla returns to wreak havoc. But he doesn’tsound like himself, and battles long-time friend Anguirus. When the real Godzilla turns up, madas hell, the imposter is revealed as the cyborg Mechagodzilla, controlled by aliens from “the thirdblack hole in space.” The first fight ends in a draw, and while the robot is being repaired, ourhuman characters race to summon another monster, King Caesar, who, it is hoped, will help fightt…
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Breakin’ all the Rules

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

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Synopsis

Dumped on the night he was to announce his engagement, Jamie Foxx turns his pain into abestselling breakup manual. When his cousin, Morris Chestnut, thinks his girlfriend GabrielleUnion is going to break up with him, Foxx is enlisted to help, which leads to a massive chainreaction of mistaken identities and misunderstandings.

The structure is clearly and consciously that of a classical farce. Though the film neverachieves the proper frenzy requires of a farc…
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Young Adam

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

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Synopsis

Ewan McGregor and Peter Mullan are barge workers, and one morning they fish the corpseof a young woman out of the river Clyde. McGregor tries to put the body out of his mind byseducing Mullan’s wife, Tilda Swinton. We soon learn, however, that McGregor knows moreabout the body than he lets on: the dead woman’s name is Cathy, and she is an old girlfriend ofhis. In fact, he knows how she died, and he is even more disturbed when a man he knows to beinnocent is charged with mur…
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Tess

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

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Synopsis

The peasant father of Tess (Nastassja Kinski) discovers that their family is of noble descent,and, hoping to improve their fortunes, he sends Tess to work for a well-to-do family. Shebecomes a victim of the rakish son of the household. Abandoned, she eventually falls in lovewith parson’s son Peter Firth, but her past catches up with her.

As is typical of Thomas Hardy novels, the story is about a slow decline into misery anddeath. The intensity one associates with Po…
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227 – The Complete First Season

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

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Synopsis

The scene is a middle-class apartment building in Washington, DC. Our characters are Mary(Marla Gibbs), hard-nosed mother; her best friend and gossip-buddy Rose (Alaina Reed); big-time flirt Sandra (Jackée Harry) and the relevant husbands and offspring. It’s the expectedcollection of wisecracks and Issues Moments in an utterly typical, and I would have thoughcompletely forgotten, sitcom.

Audio

The 2.0 sound may be stereo, but it has no surround pres…
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My New Gun

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

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Synopsis

Diane Lane’s jerk of a husband, always imitating his best friend, buys her a gun she does notwant. Bizarre neighbour James LeGros asks to borrow the gun. Lane turns down the request, butLeGros helps himself anyway, and a chain of events as bizarre as it is low key is sent inmotion.

Owing some of its dry, absurd humour to David Lynch, My New Gun is also morefirmly grounded in a recognizable world than is Lynch’s work. The pace might be a tad too muchon the l…
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Asylum of the Damned

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

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Synopsis

James Bishop arrives at S. Andrew’s Asylum for the Criminally Insane to be a new intern.He suspects things are not as they should be. His clues include obviously mistreated patients,and an asylum director who is exaggeratedly uncaring and speaks with a sinister Britishaccent.

Meanwhile, in the audience, we’re waiting for old James to catch up, as the movie showed usa satanic cult at work in the hospital in the opening five minutes, complete with an extremelycheesy…
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Dawson’s Creek – The Complete Fourth Season

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

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Synopsis

Here we go: it’s the senior year for Dawson, Joen, Pacey, Jen and Jack. Joey and Pacey haveto deal with how their new romance (which concluded the last season) is going to affect theirrelationship with Dawson. As before, we follow dreams crash or flower, and the same withrelationships. The writing is stronger than on many dramas, but sometimes is a little too pleasedwith itself — Pacey’s crack in the opening episode about “the land of poorly written melodrama”which also fo…
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Christine

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 18th, 2004

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Synopsis

Put-upon high-school student Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) buys a decrepit 1957Plymouth Fury named Christine, and sets about restoring her. He does a remarkable job, and asChristine becomes shiny and new again, so Arnie loses his geek image. He goes beyond beingself-confident, however, becoming more and more unpleasant as Christine exerts her hold onhim. She is a jealous lover, and will kill anyone who interferes with her and Arnie.

When you think about, it’s surp…
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Baadasssss!

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 17th, 2004

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Synopsis

Mario Van Peebles plays his father Melvin, and the film charts the making of Melvin VanPeebles’ landmark 1971 film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Obsessed withmaking a film by and about his community, and expressing all the built-up anger of his peopleand his time, Melvin will stop at nothing in the fulfilment of his dream. The economic, personaland health costs are very high.

Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song is arguably where Black cinema begins,…
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Naked in New York

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 15th, 2004

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Synopsis

Naked in New York follows the ups and downs of the relationship between EricStoltz and Mary-Louise Parker. Stoltz is our narrator. He is raised by deeply neurotic singlemother Jill Clayburgh, and he works out his conflicted feelings about his family in some(apparently) promising plays during his college years. It is hear that he meets Parker, who hashuge talent as a photographer, but is very insecure and self-deprecating about her own talent.Their relationship is put…
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