Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 13th, 2004
Following in the tradition of This Is Spinal Tap, Mark Hamill’s Comic Book: The Movie is a “mockumentary” that delves into the lives of those obsessed by comics and those that try to make money off of these people i.e. heartless Hollywood types who want to cash into the comic book craze by bastardizing a classic comic book hero into a major Hollywood blockbuster. Hosted by longtime comic geek Donald Swann (Hamill), this new ‘documentary’ shows the evolution of legendary character Commander Courage. Orig...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 13th, 2004
Synopsis
Michael Vartan plays Tyler Briggs, a man who separates from his redneck family in order to leave the past behind him and start a new life for himself. Following the passing of his mother, his father tries to re-establish contact with him and tracks him to his new home, a secluded beach town where he spent time as a child. Accompanying his father are his law breaking brothers who continue their lawless ways after Tyler decides not to return to their ways. They assault his girlfriend and bruta...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 12th, 2004
Synopsis
Robin Wright is Tara. Not only is she the most beautiful woman in her small village, she isalso a single mother, which means some tough sledding in the Ireland of 1957. She is turned onand persecuted by the community, even as the men lust after her. Constable Albert Finney isparticularly obsessed with winning her, and he doesn’t take it well at all when she falls for AidanQuinn, who arrives with an itinerant band of actors.
There are plenty of serious topics being d...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 12th, 2004
Film
While walking in a junkyard, a character says, “This place has a lot of treasures.” That statement could also be used to describe one of the many powerful scenes that are treasures in this film. Not that this film is anything close to a junkyard. Nominated for a few Independent Spirit Awards in major categories, Tully is a moving film that uses several wonderfully understated performances to tell its story about a troubled family.
On a Nebraska farm, patriarch Tully Coates, Sr. (Bob B...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 12th, 2004
Synopsis
Jonathan Harker, his fiancee Mina and their friends are partying it up in Budapest when anone Vlad Tepes makes them an offer they can’t refuse. Lured by the dollar signs, Harker hieshimself off to Rumania to the castle of Count Tepes. The Count, of course, is exactly who youthink he is, and soon he and an Italian version of Dr. Van Helsing are locked in a familiarbattle.
In its broad lines, the film is actually quite faithful to Stoker’s novel. The characters’nati...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 11th, 2004
A miner from the Gold Rush days of ’49 comes back to life to terrorize a group of youngsters. Sound familiar? Yeah... vaguely sounds like that Scooby Doo episode with the Miner 49er. Alas... I’m not talking about Rooby Roo himself. The movie is Miner’s Massacre. And I would advise eating a whole pouch of Scooby snacks before watching this abomination.
Indeed, the movie is about an old miner that comes back to life to haunt whoever takes his “gold”. Of course, there is a gaggle of young kids re...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 11th, 2004
Synopsis
Mimicking the format of Spellbound, On Edge introduces us to a group offigure skating hopefuls. The principles are Veda, an ice queen driven by her imperious bitch-on-wheels mother; Wendy, overweight but very talented and desperate for attention; and J.C., thecynical, self-taught trailer trash. These three triumph in the local competition, and move on tothe regionals, shooting for the coveted Golden Horn.
The figure skating scene is so ripe for parody,...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 9th, 2004
Synopsis
After a museum heist goes awry, Lorenzo Lamas works off his debt to Lance Henriksen bysigning on as part of a team for an even bigger job: stealing $250 million from a 747 in mid-flight. We follow the team of expert thieves prepare for heist, and then the big event goes down.But Lamas doesn’t trust everybody he’s working with, and he is right not to.
Remember the heist that kick-starts the action in Cliffhanger? That’s pretty muchwhat you have here, only now that job...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 9th, 2004
Synopsis
An ocean floor lab is attacked by intelligent sharks. Subsequently, sleazy oceanographer con-artist Lorenzo Lamas and partner-in-crime Simmone Jade MacKinnon (she of the extremelyshaky American accent) are forcefully recruited by the man Lamas blames for the death of hisfather. They are forced to take Lamas’ private sub down to the lab. Everything goes wrong, andin the wake of another shark attack, the survivors are picked up by a US sub commanded by alunatic. The sub is the headqu...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 9th, 2004
I’ve found a new crime genre: New Orleans noir. I’ve seen a few of these in the past month. The films seem to be about the flawed people of Louisiana (the Pelican State, by the way) and center around steamy murders and love affairs. All made with a certain bayou charm. Tempted is another movie that fits this pattern. It has all the makings of a guilty pleasure.
Tempted stars, Stroker Ace himself, Burt Reynolds as a well known New Orleans business magnate who hires a young stud employee (...
