Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 20th, 2004
A couple of years ago, my wife and I found ourselves watching an episode of The Lizzie McGuire Show on a lazy Saturday morning, when nothing else was on. While we are certainly not the target market, we were both pleased to find that the half-hour was genuinely entertaining. Saturday mornings are a perfect time to watch this show, as it is mildly humorous, yet still benign enough that you don’t really have to get your brain working to enjoy it. It has since become a fairly-regular part of our weekend routine.< ...p>
This disc features four episodes with that ever popular sitcom convention; the guest star. The stars in question here are the unbelievably arrogant Aaron Carter, surprisingly funny Frankie Muniz, rock god Steven Tyler, and Raymond’s own Doris Roberts. Once viewers get past the horrible Aaron Carter episode, the remaining segments (including a bonus featuring Erik Estrada) are the same kind of entertaining family faire that viewers have come to identify with Lizzie.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 19th, 2004
Most American Doctor Who fans are most familiar with the Tom Baker Who. There is no question he added a flair to the role. In this 10th Anniversary special episode we get to see the first 3 Doctors in action. John Pertwee was the current Who. He teams up mostly with 2nd Doctor Patrick Troughton. The first Doctor was played by William Hartnell and was limited to view screen images as he was quite aged and ill. The idea would occur again with the 5 Doctors to celebrate 20 years of Doctor Who. The story is a bit contriv...d even for a Doctor Who episode. The Lava Men are quite laughable. I approached this episode mostly from a historic perspective. In that light it is quite fun to watch.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 19th, 2004
The biggest compliment that I can pay to this film is that I have seen worse. The acting is bad, but not painful. The plot is sub-par, but not entirely horrible. The dialog is forced, but not filled with bad teenage slang. Yes, this is a horrible film, but I have seen worse.
Truth be told, The Brotherhood III is more like an excruciatingly long short film. The main emotion that I felt as I moved through this disc was… boredom. Huge segments of the film are simply without dialog or action of any kind....The first half-hour of this 83-minute film contains a total of seven minutes of dialog. The remaining 23 minutes are filled with slow motion shots of a single character walking down a hallway. Sometimes, this character is followed by the killer, sometimes they are not.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 17th, 2004
Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat… this is a title intended for viewing by small children. Very small children. As a result, all of my usual judging criteria (picture quality, sound quality, character development) are pretty much unimportant. The target audience for this title has trouble forming words, so I am willing to bet that the more subtle nuances of the narrative will be lost on them. Nevertheless, I will continue on as best as I can.
If you are still reading this, you are most likely a...parent, or will soon become one. Personally, I don’t have children. Having said that up front, I feel that this is a tremendous title that would prove to be invaluable in the task of teaching young minds to recognize colors, shapes, and even words. The content is presented in a way that would be interesting to children, with a nice mix of bright colors, moving images, animation and live action. Vocal narration is virtually nonexistent, as the people at Baby Einstein allow the images to speak for themselves.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 16th, 2004
If you were one of the few of people who were waiting with bated breath for a sequel to the low-budget laugher, The Circuit, well thank your lucky stars because the day has finally come. If you sense sarcasm, you are right, because The Circuit 2 is even more of a stink-fest than the original, which is a feat in and of its self.
When we last left Dirk Longstreet (Olivier Gruner), he was recovering from infiltrating an underground fighting circuit to save his brother who had become wrapped up i... it. Now, Dirk is about to propose to his reporter girlfriend, Nicole (Gail Harris), who is once again trying to uncover an illegal-fighting ring, this time in the local state prison. As she is researching the story she is brutally attacked and left for dead. Dirk isn’t too happy about this and becomes an undercover inmate in the prison to learn more about the attackers. This time another reporter friend aids him, played by Lorenzo Lamas.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 16th, 2004
The Frightening, as the DVD cover says, is “a new class of horror”. This play on words foreshadows the premise of the movie. There’s a “new kid” at Hallows End High School. His name is Corey (Matt Twining), and he’s having a few problems “adjusting”. Corey has a “past”. But that’s not the “real” problem of this school. Okay…I’ll stop using quotation marks. The major problem at Hallows End High School, nicknamed “Halloween High” (sorry…I couldn’t stop), is that the corpses are piling up. Someone…or som... thing…or some group of things….is killing the students. Who or what is behind these murders? Why are students being killed? It’s just one spoiler note away, or you can just rent the movie.
The Frightening is direct to DVD horror cheese. It’s laughable and not to be taken seriously. The deaths aren’t realistic, as every corpse-to-be (no matter how they die) seems to spurt fake looking blood from their mouths. The acting is mediocre at best, even though Matt Twining has a natural Ryan Phillippe pouty quality. And I guess…a nice bod? This is why (I gather) there are many scenes of Twining, among other male cast members, walking around in nothing else but boxer briefs. The writer, Matthew David Walsh, pulls out elements from a lot of horror movies like The Shining to downright ripping off The Sixth Sense.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 16th, 2004
Film
Ah, Baltimore. The Inner Harbor, Camden Yards, Preakness, corrupt government officials, devastating crime rate, as well as a nasty STD epidemic to boot. You gotta love my hometown. But what Baltimore has in negative traits, it makes up for it with creativity. If you have caught HBO’s The Corner or The Wire, you see that Baltimore’s issues can make for captivating television. While Little Red isn’t on the level of these excellent shows, it does have a certain level of amateur charm ...hat makes up for what it lacks.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 16th, 2004
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 16th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 15th, 2004
Synopsis
