Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 6th, 2004
Synopsis
The storytelling is oblique in the extreme, but as near as I can discern it, the film tells the story of a young woman (Gong Li) who, after reading a collection of poems by Chen Ching (Tony Leung Ka-Fai) called Zhou Yu’s Train, attempts to imaginatively recover the experience of Zhou Yu (Gong Li again). Zhou Yu is an artisan who travels vast distances by train twice a week to keep up an increasingly troubled romance with Chen Ching. The other major figure is a veterinarian (Sun Hongle...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 5th, 2004
Synopsis
The McGuffin here is the titular Blood Orchid, a plant that blooms only once every sevenyears, and which seems to hold the secret to eternal youth. A team is dispatched by amultinational drug company, but the expedition arrives in Borneo (where, as numerous reviewshave already pointed out, anacondas do not exist) at the height of the rainy season, andeverything goes wrong very quickly. Soon our heroes are slogging through the jungle, beset bypoisonous spiders, treachery from within...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 3rd, 2004
Synopsis
Jean-Hugues Anglade plays Zorg (yup, that’s his name), a handyman living in a beach-front house, scribbling away quietly in his spare time. Not so quiet is his tempestuous affair with Betty (Beatrice Dalle), whose passions overwhelm both of them. First she moves in on him with no warning. Then, when she discovers his writing, she decides that they must move to Paris so he can have a career as a writer. To make sure Zorg complies, she burns his house to the ground. Once in Paris, her plans fo...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 2nd, 2004
Venus Risingis a laughably bad movie advertised as “in the tradition of Johnny Mnemonic”. Maybe the two movies are in the same ballpark, theme-wise, but quality-wise they’re not even the same sport. Audie England and Costas Manylor play two fugitives who escape from a desert Island. Eve and Vegas, however, are still controlled by drugs from the Pacifica Corporation. The drugs also enable the characters to achieve a “virtual reality” state of mind. Fantasy sequences occur, flashbacks etc. It’s just an exc...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 2nd, 2004
Synopsis
A year after the clash seen in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, the giant robot built around the bones of the original Godzilla is still being repaired. Mothra and her two fairy princesses appear to warn humanity to return the bones to the sea, but the authorities do not listen, and Godzilla, drawn to Mechagodzilla, returns to ravage Tokyo. A titanic battle ensues, with Mechagodzilla and Mothra struggling to save the city from the unstoppable lizard.
The case could certainly ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 30th, 2004
Peep Show is a 9 minute award winning short film. It’s about a private “peeping booth” for females. But the women don’t see anything sexual. The male performers say exactly what a woman wants to hear. Well…what we think they want to hear, “I want to commit, can I wash your hair, etc”. It’s an amusing sketch and just the right length. Since we’re told what the “joke” is fairly early on, and since there’s no surprise or twist, the film ends before things get stale. The performances are on target.
...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 15th, 2004
Synopsis
In 1944, supernaturally inclined Nazis open up a other-dimensional portal, through whichcomes a demon infant. Rescued from such evil foster-parents, the baby grows up, under the wingof John Hurt, into Hellboy (a perfectly cast Ron Perlman), who now fights monsters undercoverfor the US government. Said government isn’t ecstatic about the clandestine work of Hellboyand other creatures (these guys get none of the respect of the Men in Black). But the need for thissupernatural ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 10th, 2004
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...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 9th, 2004
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...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 8th, 2004
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...
