Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 29th, 2006
When The Passion of the Christ was released on DVD several years ago, I didn't buy it, opting instead to wait for the strongly-rumored special edition release to come. Here we are almost three years later, and no such release is being discussed. The funny thing is, The Big Question is essentially an extra for that non-existent DVD package. This documentary, which discusses questions of faith, was shot on the set of The Passion of the Christ, amongst the actors and artisans that were gathered from all parts of the planet for the production. This is a wonderful idea, and it makes for a great documentary featurette to support the film, but I just don't feel that there is enough here for a stand-alone release.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 19th, 2006
The only thing worse than films about filmmaking are artsy films about filmmaking. These are hazardous affairs at best. Don’t get me wrong; I thrive on a steady diet of behind the scenes features and film trade magazines. But a film in that vein can’t help but become pretentious. Enter I Love Your Work. It’s very hard to tell when Adam Goldberg is trying to be serious and when he’s aiming for satire. I hope it was mostly the latter.
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not really out to g...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 31st, 2006
Synopsis
Lie With Me is proclaimed in its trailer to be a film in the tradition of Y Tu Mama Tambien and Sex, Lies and Videotape. But at its core, it’s more along the lines of another one of director Clement Virgo’s film influences, Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris. The characters in Lie With Me experience each other rather provocatively at the start of their relationship, and work their way outwards.
Based on a book by Tamara Berger, the film tells a story of Le...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 24th, 2006
Synopsis
A fractious rock band known as the Choke, on the verge of breaking up (did all its members but know it) is supposed to play a gig at a local nightclub. But a killer has other plans, and (after a very long preamble) the members of the band find themselves trapped in the locked warehouse/nightclub, being picked off one by one. Suspicion falls first on one character, then another.
Creative young people trapped in a locked building with a killer. It’s been done well, but as Stagefri...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 1st, 2006
Synopsis
I never thought that a 90 minute documentary surrounding one joke could be so entertaining. And for all the praise that critics have heaped onto The Aristocrats, I was curious to see what the hype was. The film’s creators, comedians Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller) spend the time interviewing many different comedians, and all of them share their thoughts about the joke. But it does a little more than that. Along with various versions of the joke, there is a deconstruction...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 1st, 2006
One of the few positive side-effects of the popular era of reality TV that we live in today is that the desire for the real has also crossed over to film. This has provided an excellent opportunity for documentary filmmakers to get their product seen by a large audience that just a few short years ago would never have taken the time to watch a documentary film. In fact, documentaries have become so mainstream that Murderball is produced in association with MTV Films. While a wheelchair rugby documentary sounds...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 3rd, 2005
Synopsis
Jennifer (Cheryl Dent) has just been released from a mental institution where she was incarcerated after a psychotic episode during which she clawed out the eyes of her co-star during the shooting of a porn flick. After being waylaid in the desert by a couple of thugs, she is rescued by a group of flower children, who soon turn out to be more dangerous yet. They head to house with a bad reputation, and then the murderous hippies start being killed off one by one. By Jennifer, or by something...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 20th, 2005
Synopsis
Troy Duffy, bartender, writes a script and suddenly is given a lucrative deal by Miramax to make this film, and his band is promised a recording contract. The script is for The Boondock Saints, that stunning little word-of-mouth success that has found quite a life of its own on DVD. But this is what happened before the film became a cult hit, as filmed by two of Duffy’s then-friends who were hired to do a making-of documentary. What we see is a man whose talent, though (on the basis o...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 22nd, 2004
Synopsis
Ten years after the events of Epoch 2000 (didn’t see it? then be prepared to beconfused), scientist David Keith and his son (apparently the result of an immaculate conceptionthanks to alien intervention) are on the run from the Genesis Coalition (a well-funded group ofnutcases devoted to expunging all things alien from the world). Alien rock formations, called“toruses” (they look like frozen tornadoes) rise from the ground, and good guys and bad guysdescend on them to discov...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 21st, 2004
Synopsis
Meteors plunge to Earth in the 12th Century, unleashing a horde of dragons from outer space(!). They destroy the castle of nasty king John Rhys-Davies. He and a few followers take refugein the castle of a good and wise king, plotting to overthrow him when opportunity arises.Meanwhile, a lone-wolf hunter is conscripted into hunting down the dragons, with the help ofa disparate band (including a martial arts expert -- don’t ask).
This is another pic that follows the standard ...
