Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 5th, 2004
So many people believe the “buddy cop” routine started with Lethal Weapon, or maybe Running Scared. Truth be told, Starsky and Hutch was quite a breakout from the cop shows of the time. The studio was picketed for the amount of violence portrayed, which by today’s standards wouldn’t raise an eyebrow.
This is typical 70’s from the film stock to the wardrobe. The unique Ford Grand Torino was so popular that Ford ended up manufacturing a limited number of the replicas. David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser had s...ch good chemistry that even Michael Eisner, then in charge of programs for ABC, told the producers he wanted to “hang out” with the duo. Unfortunately both did such a great job with their character they were never able to break out of the mold, and their acting careers suffered. Glaser has had recent success with producing other shows for TV. Soul had a short-lived music career, ending up a “one-hit-wonder” with his “Don’t Give Up On Us Baby”.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 4th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 2nd, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 1st, 2004
Liability Crisis tells the tale of Paul, a man obsessed with Hitler and the Holocaust. This obsession threatens relationships with the women in his life. Sounds like an interesting premise. But art is all in the execution.
The leads in the film are played by Jim Helsinger and Mirjana Jokovic. Helsinger has the potential to look good on screen, but the bad lighting gives off an unnatural brown pallor to his skin. His performance fluctuates between veracious and just plain awkward. Jokovic, an ac...or from Yugoslavia, still looks beautiful despite the poor cinematography. Her moments are much better. The rest of the acting, unfortunately, is just a step up from soft core porn.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 27th, 2004
Star Trek Voyager was the third spin-off from the original Star Trek following the Superior Next Generation and the inferior Deep Space Nine. While the idea was quite an original premise, the cast never seemed to gel. The obvious attempt at political correctness gives us the most diverse cast yet on Star Trek, including the first female captain. Kate Mulgrew is the weakest captain to date on Star Trek. (I know I’ll catch heat for this.) The reason is not her gender but such a lack of strength. She never walks but see...s to glide across the bridge when she moves. The strongest characters come in Tom Paris, the Federation inmate, and Torres, the half klingon half human hybrid. There is real passion in those characters that keep the cast interesting enough. The combination of Federation and Marquis (a rebel Federation group) members was a great setup that too quickly gets tossed aside in later years. There’s plenty of Star Trek eye candy and a whole new quadrant of aliens to meet here. It had been quite some time for me since I had seen Voyager. It was refreshing to watch this first season, perhaps the best before the late addition of 7 of 9.
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 26th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 26th, 2004
Synopsis
Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) is on the job again with anotherpolitically charged case. In this instance, a skeleton is dug up that might be that of a young blackwoman. Her disappearance six years ago was badly handled by the police, to the point thatcharges might be laid. The investigation is not only explosive racially, but the way it plays outcould help or destroy careers, Tennison's among others.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 26th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 25th, 2004
Homicide: Life On The Street began when Baltimore reporter David Simon spent an entire year with the day shift of Baltimore’s Homicide Squad. His subsequent book was a New York Times Best Seller and drew tremendous critical acclaim. Barry Levinson, Paul Attansio and Tom Fontana took the spirit of that book and created the NBC series. The first two seasons were spotty and featured only a handful of episodes each year. Season 3 marks the first full season of this remarkable show. Simon’s book detailed the psychology of...the detectives as much as the killers, and the series drew heavily from that work. Unlike most cop shows, Homicide didn’t contain car chases and the typical action sequences. Instead, this show counted on smart writing. The City of Baltimore is wisely used as a character on the program. Richard Beltzer’s Munch now appears on Law and Order’s SVU.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 23rd, 2004
Sightings: Heartland Ghost is based, apparently, on a true story. One is reminded of that other “true story” haunted house movie, The Amityville Horror. But both films have the same hokey quality in common. (no blood in the toilet in Sightings, however). Sightings starts with the “new couple moving to the neighborhood”. They slowly learn that there is something “not quite right” about their new house. Enter paranormal debunker (Beau Bridges) and his T.V crew. Bridges’ character host... a quasi-reality show about ghosts and other worldly behavior. Like the couple, Bridges comes face to face with the history of sin and murder that took place in this house. He is forced to deal with his cynicism about the paranormal and becomes changed by the whole experience. Sounds good, huh. It’s not.
Beau Bridges is a fine actor. Why is he in such a cheesy movie? Times must be tough. Beau, like his brother Jeff, always brings a sense of humanity to his roles. The case is still true here. The movie is laughably bad at times (see spoiler notes). But Bridges grounds the movie and gives it a depth it doesn’t deserve.
