Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 17th, 2003
If ever a movie could be negatively affected by monstrous box office numbers, it’s My Big Fat Greek Wedding. When a five million dollar film rides a tsunami of critical buzz and excellent word-of-mouth past the two hundred million dollar box office gross (finally ending somewhere over $230 million), it’s impossible to see it for the first time completely free of expectation. Perhaps this was my mistake, because I went into my first viewing of the king of sleeper hits excited to a super-duper romantic comedy. ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 13th, 2003
The In-Laws was one of those films that just never fit neatly into any safe category. Recently I’ve been ask to describe it to others who had not seen it before. If your only point of reference is the recent remake with Michael Douglas, run to your nearest rental store and look up this gem of an original. Peter Falk is best known, of course, for the rumpled-raincoat detective, Columbo. While many of his Columbo mannerisms are in evidence in this film (that outstretched hand to the head and his gravelly low mumbles) the character is really quite removed from Columbo.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 24th, 2003
Synopsis
Charlie is a hairdresser with a mob boss for a step father; Booker is his best friend and a bumbling idiot. Together they find themselves in the outback of Australia after hitting a kangaroo and loosing $50K of mob money. They need to recover the money from the kangaroo or they are dead. They meet a cast of interesting characters along the way to catching the kangaroo (who they have dubbed Jacky Legs) and manage to get themselves in and out of all kinds of funny situations.
Vid...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 23rd, 2003
Converting Tom Wolfe’s classic book The Right Stuff was undoubtedly a difficult task. The original 7 Mercury astronauts were epic figures in American history. Perhaps the last of Earth’s true explorers, astronauts are the stuff that every kid’s fantasies are made of. It seems nearly impossible to capture such incredible bravery and charisma in the scope of even a 3 hour movie. Philip Kaufman somehow achieved the impossible. It starts with one of the most dynamic casts since The Godfather. Names like Jeff Goldblume, Dennis Quaid and Ed Harris were all relative unknowns at the time.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 20th, 2003
In 1962 Ed Sabol purchased the rights to film the NFL and history was made. NFL films came to pioneer so many styles of filming that are still in use today like slow motion and the tight spiral football shot. The footage contained in these discs have never been seen before, it is old archived footage that was never used and it is amazing. The three discs are as follows…
Disc 1 – The Creation (1962-1965): This film looks at the beginning of what would become NFL Films. Watch as Ed Sabol and his ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 6th, 2003
The topic for this documentary are the Shakers, more properly the “United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing.” The Shakers weren’t around that long: they were celibate, which meant no offspring. However, as the film explores, that didn’t stop them from having a profound impact on American life (they were, for instance, feminist and anti-slavery well ahead of the game).
Audio
A mono soundtrack. Though it might have been nice to hear the Shaker songs in stereo, the sound is still very clean, and without distortion.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 6th, 2003
Synopsis
Fans of blue-collar/redneck humour are in for a treat here. Comics Ron White, Larry theCable Guy, Bill Engvall and Jeff Foxworthy (in that order) perform their routines to a largeconcert hall audience, then team up for a comedy jam. Whether the humour works for you willdepend on your personal taste, of course, but there is some pretty funny material here.
Audio
Dolby 5.1 Surround is arguably overkill for a stand-up routine. Hell, mono would get the jo...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 6th, 2003
A history and a meditation on the American Congress, both at the institutional and at the architectural level -- there are many beautiful shots of the Capitol, and the building becomes as much a character as any of the politicians who strode the stage within its walls. A fascinating documentary, enlivened not only with Burns’ usual fine use of period paintings and photographs,but also with film clips from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Advise and Consent.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 4th, 2003
In 2176, the world is a grey, sterile place. All history has been lost. Four scientists (led by David Cassidy of Partridge Family infamy) travel back in time to recover the American Constitution, and revive history. Unfortunately, their time machine malfunctions, and they windup in 1976. Cue the stupidity. Unfortunately, the laughs are very few and far between. We already know that this period had many risible qualities. Just showing them to us isn’t enough.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 3rd, 2003
Spanning a good thirty years, Giant tells the tale of the Benedicts, a Texas family on an immense cattle range. The patriarch is Rock Hudson, whom we first meet as a young man visiting Maryland to buy a horse. There he meets Elizabeth Taylor and falls in love. His new bride initially finds Texas difficult to adjust to, and Texas has difficulty adjusting to her, as she does not hold with the local attitudes towards women and, most especially, Mexicans. The third major player is James Dean, a rather sullen ranch hand who winds up changing everybody’s lives when he strikes oil on his small parcel of land.
