Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 5th, 2004
As a music lover, the phrase, “written by Paul McCartney” almost always signifies excellence in the performance to come. For a movie lover, this is not necessarily the case. Sure, A Hard Day’s Night is a great film, Help! is better than average, and Yellow Submarine is a fun departure from mainstream animation. Heck, even Magical Mystery Tour has a campy sort of charm to it.
Apparently, the same rule that applies to music also applies to cinema; without the rest of The Beatles, P...ul McCartney’s talent is just not the same. Sure, he can act fairly well, and the music is way above average, but taken as a whole, this film just plain stinks. The plot here is extremely thin. I have seen many _ hour sitcoms with more plot lines than this film. If you were to take out all of the musical numbers, you would probably have about 40 minutes of actual dialog. The rest of the film is filled with musical breaks.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 3rd, 2004
In today’s age of manufactured talent less pop stars you have to hand it to the artists that still write and actually perform their own original material. Versus the one’s who simply head into the studio with a team of writers and producers and who don’t even have the talent to actually sign live but instead just lip sync. Jewel whether you like her music or not is an artist, she writes her own material and even co-produced her last album. At times she is incredibly engaging at other times slightly annoying but, her ...yrics are richly textured and captivate the imagination.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 3rd, 2004
The Monsters of Universal Studios during the 1930’s to the 1950’s truly are a legacy. This collection, while including many films already released, is an important set. Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein Monster, and Lon Chaney’s tortured Larry Talbot/The Wolfman have inspired generations of filmmakers, writers, and f/x engineers. The influence on our culture is impossible to deny. When asked about Frankenstein, most of us conjure the classic Karloff image long before we think of Mary Shelley or any ...ther incarnation. These images are burned into our collective imaginations. They are signposts of fear that have been passed down from father to son and even mother to daughter. They are in essence our inheritance from an era long gone but somehow never forgotten. It is true that these films are tame by today’s standards. They have long ago lost the ability to terrify. That says more for the sadness of our own age than any blemish to these masterpiece classics. We are a hard people to frighten today, but no one ever did it better than these Universal classics.
The Monster Legacy Collection is made up of three individual monster collections which you can purchase separately…
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 1st, 2004
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 30th, 2004
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 29th, 2004
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 28th, 2004
When I first glanced over the cast of this film, I was certain that it was shot in the 80’s. These days, names such as Deborah Harry, Ally Sheedy, Ralph Macchio and Robin Givens just don’t show up together on a movie poster. Of course, this is no ordinary gangster film, either. In fact, for a director trying to make a name for himself, this casting strategy is pretty brilliant. If Quentin Tarrantino has taught us anything, he has taught us that old actors don’t lose their chops, they just become less fashionable. If ...ou can get a name with skill at a bargain rate, then by all means, do so.
From the opening title sequence, I was hooked on the visuals of this film. It is clear that Singer has fun as a director, and that enthusiasm bleeds over into the feel of the film. In fact, the whole piece is cut like a feature-length trailer, with lots of action going on behind the camera, and respectable acting in front of it.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 28th, 2004
I spent many an evening as a child watching the Peanuts gang in one of their famous holiday specials. I looked in my backyard for The Great Pumpkin at Halloween, and I often times decorated my very own Charlie Brown Christmas tree at Christmastime. Obviously, I was not alone in my enjoyment of these cartoons, as the very same shows are aired even now, during the appropriate time of year.
The popularity of these cartoons has not escaped the attention of the estate of Charles Schultz, either. In an attempt to...keep a good thing going, the Peanuts gang is back in an all new special, Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown. Often times, any effort to capture the magic of a classic in an all-new feature fails miserably, but thank goodness that is not the case here. This special is just as much fun as the originals were, complete with the determined spirit of underachieving Chuck, the cruel nature of loudmouth Lucy, and the mannish (dare I say homosexual?) tendencies of Marci.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 28th, 2004
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 26th, 2004
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