Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 21st, 2006
Hollywood can sometimes be so enthused to cash in on a certain type of film many decent projects looking to explore a worthwhile subject topple under the weight of the cash-grabbing, money-hungry throng. Such is the case with Director John Woo’s Windtalkers, coming to DVD a third time on April 25 in this director’s cut. Though it’s sometimes overly melodramatic, this Nicolas Cage vehicle makes good use of its characters to forge an intriguing story about Navajo code talkers, and the presumed military practice ...f protecting the code and not the man. Cage plays Joe Enders, a soldier with a death wish and a lot of survivor’s guilt for having made it through battle-after-battle, only to receive another medal, while all of his friends die around him. He has grown to hate the medals because they remind him of this fact, and it seems like his whole mission is to die in battle with honor… not to go on living in a world so terrible that it welcomes the horrors of war. Then, he receives a peculiar mission: the U.S. has found luck with a form of code based on the Navajo language. It’s vital the Japanese do not get their hands on any of the Navajo code talkers, and Enders must do everything in his power to protect the code… even if that means taking the life of a fellow soldier to do it.
Such a situation lends itself to great drama; however, this is still a John Woo film, and his enslavement to self-imposed convention does cause the film to have a few problems. For one, I would like to see Woo – just once – shoot an entire film, edit, and release it, without the use of one slow-motion moment. The reason for this: if the technique is an option, he will abuse it with zero regard – or knowledge of – having done so. After seeing film-after-film of his resort to this overused tactic, I’d say it’s time he laid off. He has a good story, and characters viewers can get emotionally involved with – so why does each fallen soldier have to take an hour to hit the ground? Also, just about every war movie cliché there is turns up at some point, whether it be the bigoted soldier with a change of heart, or the loving husband telling his buddy to make sure his wife gets his wedding band “should anything happen.” (On a side note, any time a soldier says a variation of this in a war film, you know “should anything happen” actually means “when something happens.”) Lastly, there is the clunky dialogue, mostly given to Adam Beach as the featured code talker Enders must protect. With these things said, something intrinsic about the film still manages to hold everything together in a respectable narrative. And I think whatever it is, the stellar cast consisting of Nicolas Cage, Christian Slater, Noah Emmerich, Mark Ruffalo, and Jason Isaacs, has something to do with it.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 19th, 2006
Mel Gibson stars as reluctant guerilla fighter Benjamin Martin in this story of courage, passion, and war, which dramatizes elements from the American Revolution into a gripping fictional narrative that will manipulate every emotion you have until its rousing finale. Martin endures great personal tragedies at the hands of the British - in particular, the despicable Colonel William Tavington (played with the vile gusto of a demon from Hell by Jason Isaacs). Tavington has already killed one of Martin's sons, and it is ...enjamin's concern for his other - as well as his insatiable lust for revenge - that drives him to take up arms for the Continentals and lead them into battle... and perhaps, freedom.
Whether it's tugging at heart strings, or planting viewers right in the middle of primitive warfare (no type of warfare is capable of being anything but), The Patriot maintains control of its audience, and only lets go at the final credits. Be forewarned, if you've never seen it. There will be times when you want to stop the film for fear of what might happen to Benjamin at Tavington's brutal hands. Then, other moments are "damn the torpedoes," kill that expletive-expletive, if it's the last thing you ever do. The point is, it will involve you the way few films can, and will actually have a physical effect on you - of some kind - by the time it reaches its conclusion.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 17th, 2006
Can good acting make a film? Quite often it can. Dirty is a prime example of a film ending up better than it deserves to be by the powerful performance of a few good actors. Amando Sancho (Collins, Jr.) is an ex-gang kid from the mean streets of L.A. He thinks his street smarts and credibility can be an asset on the police force. Unfortunately we will never know, because he is partnered with corrupt cop Salim Adel (Gooding, Jr.). Both appear to require abject lessons in morality and loyalty, lessons that come too...late to be of any true value.
To say this is a disturbing film is putting it quite mildly. If you are at all sensitive to racial epithets being thrown about in casual fashion, this is not a film you want to view. If the depiction of cops as basically all corrupt with a few good eggs is offensive, this film will offend. It is a tragedy that the entire force is portrayed in these negative terms. We get no indication that there’s a clean cop in the film. This film is not so much about doing what’s right or not. The real question here is what is right or wrong. This is a gritty, stark world that reminds us in many ways of Vic Mackey and the Shield’s hopeless universe. The stark difference is that Adel has no respect for anyone. There is no distinction between the good guys and the bad guys. Mackey, at least, appears to believe he’s doing good. Adel simply doesn’t care. On the other hand, Sancho is more swept up with events. He aware of the ghosts that this kind of a life creates. This “day in the life” tale is all about the lack of redemption. I found it to be a pessimistic, dim view of society. While some might claim that perhaps this is reality at its core, what value is a film that has no hope at all? What good is a morality tale if there is no moral? The film is entirely too self-indulgent and a waste of some fine actors.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 11th, 2006
Godzilla is now a hero after being feared for so long? Did I miss something? Anyhow, Godzilla – The Series featured 39 episodes created by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin shortly after the big budget remake. The show was run off the air in 2000 after pretty poor results. This is probably because Emmerich and Devlin transformed Godzilla from a huge monster to a practical little pet we would want to own. The animated series is worth a watch for children as there are only 39 episodes, but don’t expe...t anything groundbreaking. The Monster Mayhem DVD contains 3 random episodes listed below
For a show made for children, I’ll admit that the Godzilla series is not totally awful. The shows are somewhat entertaining, but really can’t be taken serious at all. They kind of remind me a bit of The Mighty Morphing Power Rangers in that the show provides 20 minutes of excitement for children. Maybe if I was a kid I could enjoy the show more.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 11th, 2006
Synopsis
Jack Nicholson is a journalist in Africa, fed up with his job and his life. When an acquaintance in an adjoining hotel room dies, Nicholson, struck by the other man’s physical resemblance to himself, switches identities, allowing everyone to believe that he is the one dead. But his new self doesn’t turn out quite to be the escape he had hoped for, as the man he has now become turns out to be an arms dealer.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 6th, 2006
Synopsis
Roy Scheider is the police helicopter pilot and Vietnam war vet (cue flashbacks) who is tapped to test Blue Thunder, a new helicopter equipped with every conceivable weapon and means of surveillance. He discovers that the machine is at the heart of a conspiracy to undermine all that is good and free, and chief bad guy here is Malcolm McDowell, for whom Scheider has a more than cordial dislike thanks to what happened back in 'Nam. The stage is set for high-tech showdown in the skies over LA..../p>
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 5th, 2006
Synopsis
Maria Bello Arrives in Wales with teen daughter Sarah in tow to visit estranged husband Sean Bean. Relations between mother and daughter are tense, to the dismay of the father, who senses something is wrong but can’t divine what it is. Then tragedy strikes, when the duaghter disappears, apparently drowned. While Bean searches frantically for her (or for her body), Bello becomes convinced that Sarah has been abducted into the Welsh land of the dead, and that another girl, dead these fifty yea...s, has returned in her place.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 3rd, 2006
When it absolutely positively has to be there by next month.
ABC made an effort to bring back the western in 1989. But The Young Riders was more of an extension of the popular Young Guns films than the traditions of Gunsmoke or Bonanza. I didn’t catch this show on its original run, so the DVD’s were a particular treat. A chance to see something new. Still, I never could shake the feeling that I’d seen it all before. Give ABC credit for a decent cast of upcomers. The production values were also far great...r than one usually finds in a network drama series. The major flaw was to base the series on the Pony Express. The premise required the characters to be out on runs for nearly a month at a stretch, which would leave very little time for the interaction and continuity necessary for an ongoing series. The Young Riders solved that problem the old fashioned way. They simply ignored it. The result was a show increasingly less about the Pony Express and more about life on the station’s ranch. The action was more or less provided with the cast helping out damsels in distress and fighting bad guys. It’s a wonder any mail got delivered at all. In an effort to forge some name recognition, the characters are made up from mostly misplaced western legends. If you are at all annoyed with glaring historic inaccuracies, this is not the show for you.
If you can get past the flaws of the premise, there really is some quality television to be found here. The locations are a treat for the eye. John Debney’s music is a wonderful fusion of Western and modern sounds. The cast is also quite a treat. Anthony Zerbe creates a compelling character with his Teaspoon Hunter, the station manager and father figure for the young recruits. Homicide’s Melissa Leo counters as the matriarch figure on the ranch. She is joined by her future Homicide partner’s brother, Stephen Baldwin, as Buffalo Bill Cody. Another famous brother, Josh Brolin, played Wild Bill Hickok. In one of the film’s greatest believability stretches we find Yvonne Suhor as Lou, a girl passing unconvincingly as a boy. Ty Miller plays the enigmatic “The Kid”..
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 2nd, 2006
Synopsis
Music journalist Tre (Andre Royo) arrives at the Hamptons home of his cousin Sky (Chenoa Maxwell) and her cad of a husband (Blair Underwood). Tre is here to interview Summer G (Richard T. Jones), megastar rapper, who has just bought a home in the area. Sky and G have past, and old embers flare to life when they see each other.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 31st, 2006
“Who you gonna call?” By now everyone knows the answer. Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson are the Ghostbusters. As their ad proclaims, they’re ready to believe you. Ghostbusters was originally conceived by Aykroyd as a vehicle for John Belushi and himself. When Belushi died, reportedly from a drug overdose, the project sat on the shelf a few years. Harold Ramis would eventually team up with Aykroyd and finish the script. It’s been said that “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” Leave it to these ...wo knuckleheads to combine the two and create a phenomenon. Like pretty much anyone else, I’ve seen Ghostbusters many times in the last 20 years. And just like all of you, I’m still not tired of it. I am, however, done with the repetitive theme song. This release marks at least the third time Ghostbusters has appeared on DVD. This version appears to be identical to the double package release of both films about a year ago.
Ghostbusters pioneered the big budget comedy. Not since “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” have the genres of comedy and horror combined in such masterful form. Ghostbusters had the quality f/x of a blockbuster sci-fi epic. The casting was nothing short of genius. Each cast member brought a distinctive and integral element to the film. Murray provided the used car salesman aspect. Aykroyd perfected the common wide-eyed man with just enough knowledge to be dangerously funny. Ramis played the 50’s style scientist with the stoicism made famous in films like This Island Earth. Hudson was brilliant as the Joe six-pack, obviously intended to represent us, the audience, on this adventure. Sigourney Weaver weaves in just the right amount of sultry and unintended villainy to complete the palette of colors necessary to pull this all off. The supporting cast features actors destined to become stars themselves in the likes of Rick Moranis and William Atherton. While many of the f/x don’t quite meet today’s exploding expectations, they were state of the art in 1984. Forget Kong. Who can resist the giant Sta-Puft Man?
