Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 26th, 2003
Synopsis
The version of the story these films tell much the same, given that the 1941 Spencer Tracyeffort was a remake of the 1932 Fredric March production. Handsome Dr. Henry Jekyll,frustrated over being denied an earlier marriage to his fiancee (Rose Hobart in 1932, Lana Turnerin ‘41), quaffs a potion and becomes the monstrous Edward Hyde. Hyde’s principle victim is Ivy(Miriam Hopkins/Ingrid Bergman), the woman on whom Jekyll’s now unleashed sexuality ventsits fury.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 22nd, 2003
Synopsis
In what Stiller himself describes as a misfired precursor to the Gary Shandling Show,the central conceit here is that a fictionalized version of Stiller gives us a behind-the-scenes lookat the series between skits, an gradually reveals himself to be the Boss From Hell. The skitsthemselves are in the Mad TV/SCTV vein, parodying rockumentaries, movie trailers, and so on.There is some clever stuff, but I’ll confess that I seem have some kind of a jinx when it comes...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 10th, 2003
Ray Harryhausen and Ray Bradbury, along with Famous Monster Forry Ackerman, have been friends since childhood. It’s no wonder that when Harryhausen was given his first chance to completely control a production that he would turn to his boyhood friend who happened to become one of the world’s best known science fiction writers. Actually, the original production team had already fashioned a script based on Bradbury’s short story without giving credit to the writer. Both Rays created an iconic creature.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 3rd, 2003
Willis O’Brien, the f/x magician behind King Kong and The Lost World, had always wanted to do a cowboys and dinosaurs film. It is no surprise that his prodigy Ray Harryhausen would accomplish the task. Using some of O’Brien’s design ideas, Harryhausen credibly put these two film icons together with mixed results. The script is certainly not the best Harryhausen had to work with. More Bronco Billy than Jurassic Park, this is more an entertaining film than anything to be taken seriously. James Franciscus does a fine job of playing to the f/x.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 29th, 2003
Synopsis
OSS major Matt LeBlanc has a track record of ALMOST successfully completing no end ofmissions. His current assignment: infiltrate an all-female factory in Berlin and steal an Enigmacode machine. His team: a pencil pusher, a geek, and a transvestite. This last, played by EddieIzzard (Chaplin in The Cat’s Meow) coaches the rest of the crew in the finer arts ofpretending to be women. The mission goes wrong immediately when the factory turns out not tobe where it ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 28th, 2003
Most fans of the NBA have strong feelings about Allen Iverson. While some feel that he his the most dominant player in the game today, others feel that he is selfish, a player who is more concerned with his own numbers than the welfare of his team. Iverson is usually embroiled in some sort of controversy, and I suspect that he likes it that way. While it is true that his rough image is probably not what the NBA has in mind as a league player, his talent simply cannot be denied.
This hour-long documentary ha...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 25th, 2003
Ben Franklin once said that two things one should never see being made are sausages and laws. So far there haven’t been any pilots occurring in a meat factory. Politics aside, Aaron Sorkin has created a first-rate TV show. The real success here is the casting. I’ve always preached to whoever would listen that its character chemistry that makes for good drama. Star Trek was successful not because of the f/x. The character triumvirate of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy was everything. Sorkin appears to know that lesson.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 16th, 2003
Synopsis
Unjustly convicted of murdering his wife, Vincent Parry escapes from San Quentin. He ispicked up and helped by Iris Jansen (Lauren Bacall), who has always believed in his innocence.Parry, whose face we never see (much of the first half hour of the movie is shot from his POV),but whose voice is clearly Bogart’s, undergoes plastic surgery, eventually emerging as Bogart.He wants to clear his name, but the murder of his best friend only makes things worse. Centralto his ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 11th, 2003
Everybody has their favorite Looney Tunes character and particular cartoon shorts. That’s the largest obstacle facing Warner Brothers in this ambitious project to restore and release these shorts on DVD. The first collection features 56 all time great shorts plus a ton of extras. If your favorites were not included, take heart. This is only the first of many promised releases. All in all it would take a Dickens’ Scrooge not to find something to love about this collection. It doesn’t matter if you’re 5 or 105, these cartoons have been a vital part of growing up for all of us.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 11th, 2003
Soylent Green is an… interesting movie. Its one of the seventies movies that’s funny to look back on and recognize that people in the seventies thought that people in the year 2020 would still be dressing like… people in the seventies. Soylent Green steps beyond the traditional seventies sci-fi flick and into the boundaries of social activism, however, adding a further layer of irony to the film: as an apocalyptic tale its interesting to see how we haven’t traveled down the frightening route envisioned in Soylent Gre...
