1.33:1 Fullscreen

Muppets’ Wizard of Oz, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 23rd, 2005

Synopsis

Aspiring singer Ashanti (there’s some imaginative casting for you) and her pet Toto (Pepe the king prawn) are transported to Oz by a tornado. The story then plays out in familiar form, with the roles of the Scarecrow, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion and Wicked Witch of the West being essayed by, respectively, Kermit, Gonzo, Fozzy and Miss Piggy.

Though I have reservations about forging on with the Muppets after Jim Henson’s death, there is still evidence of the old spirit here. The Muppet S…
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Boudu Saved From Drowning

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 20th, 2005

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Boudu Saved From Drowning is a style of film that is quite popular in the modern independent film scene. Tales of understanding the outcasts and what it means to fit in with the status quo have always been powerful, especially ones such as this one, where the moral is that no particular group or culture is without its drawbacks.

This film tells the story of Boudu, a homeless man who decided to commit suicide by jumping off of a bridge, but is saved by a man of “integrity”. He is then taken in to the ma…
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Columbo – The Complete Third Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 14th, 2005

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Synopsis

Another eight Columbo mystery movies are included here. The formula they follow is familiar: a murder is committed (and we generally know whodunit right off the bat), and we watch as Columbo, apparently absent-minded, closes in on the culprit, making said individual sweat like the dickens before he closes in for the kill. The episodes here also feature turns by such stars as Martin Sheen, Vincent Price and Johnny Cash, which makes this nostalgic trip all the more fun. These short movies-of-t…
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Paranoid

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 12th, 2005

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Synopsis

Model Jessica Alba heads off to a party in the country with her current boyfriend. The house is owned by the members of a once-popular rock band, and there are creepy dolls and a deaf-mute young woman about. Alba wakes up the next morning abandoned by her boyfriend and imprisoned by the family. The only person who might be able to help her is the obscene caller who’s been causing her so much grief.

This is one of those movies that you forget even as you watch it, because almost eve…
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Home Improvement – The Complete Second Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 11th, 2005

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Synopsis

Tim Allen was fortunate enough to ride a couple of trends and nurture them into a steady paycheck without really having to do anything. He was a stand-up comic in the mid ‘80s and early ‘90s and was pretty good at it. And like many other stand-ups during the time, he was given a sitcom with which to basically recycle his act onto a smaller stage. And to his benefit, the public enjoyed it, and Allen’s pet project Home Improvement was a smash hit, and would later go on to enjoy eight seasons o…
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Warm Summer Rain

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 9th, 2005

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Synopsis

Kelly Lunch plays a young woman who begins the movie by attempting suicide. She is saved, and annoyed by the friends and family who visit her in the hospital, she takes off in her hospital clothes and a coat, hopping on a bus and getting off in the middle of a desert nowhere. One drunken night later, she wakes up in a house married to a stranger. Cue a whole bunch of sex scenes and psychological drama.

The film certainly aims high, with an arty tone set in the opening seconds, usin…
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Illegally Yours

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 7th, 2005

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Synopsis

Peter Bogdanovich may be the victim of having too much too soon, as he was well known for his work in the early 1970s, starting with The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon, but experienced a string of poorly received work as well. Following the 1980 murder of his girlfriend Dorothy Stratten (at the hands of her estranged husband), he stayed out of the business (and was bankrupt) for awhile, but returned in 1985 with the excellent film Mask. In Illegally Yours, he manages t…
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Film Noir Classic Collection Vol. 2

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 3rd, 2005

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Synopsis

There are two Lawrence Tierney vehicles here, and the first is the one that made his name, the 1945 Dillinger. Told in flashback for no visible reason, this chronicles Dillinger’s rise from naive and incompetent thief to ruthless, brutal gang leader, and his ultimate fall. There are some startlingly brutal scenes here, for the time, and if Tierney isn’t quite as scary as James Cagney in White Heat, he’s still plenty menacing.

He’s even scarier as an out-and-out psycho…
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Lost in Space – Season 3 (Volume 2)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 2nd, 2005

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By the last half of season three Lost In Space was certainly showing its wear. The stories would sink to simply camp with little or no redeeming value remaining. It’s no surprise that this once smart bit of space humor was on the way out after season 3. By now it appears the writers were fresh out of anything new and opted to recycle already tired formulas. Just how many times can Smith sell the family out for a long-shot return to Earth? Will and the Robot remain the best reason for watching the show.

Wild Orchid 2: Blue Movie Blue

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 1st, 2005

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Synopsis

In the 1950s, Blue (Nina Siemaszko) travels from town to town with her itinerant jazz musician father (Tom Skerritt). When Dad is killed, Blue winds up under the thumb of brothel madam Wendy Hughes, and after some initial difficulty, assumes her new identity. But she pines for the boy (Brent Fraser) she met before her life went to hell, and she eventually fights to leave the addictive world of decadence she has entered. Escape will not be easy.

Writer/director Zalman King gave us t…
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Gas

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 30th, 2005

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Synopsis

The frustrating thing in watching Gas is just how familiar it is to The Cookout, Barbershop, Beautyshop, and other films that involve groups of African-American men getting together in the neighborhood and having fun, and getting the most successful family member in touch with their roots. What’s next, Sunday Church? Or Night at Silver Diner?

There are even a couple of parallels to The Cookout in this film. While Damien in this film is played by “Flex” …
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The Noose Hangs High

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 27th, 2005

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It’s another case of mistaken identity that gets our boys (Abbott and Costello) in trouble, this time with a couple of gangsters. I’ve always been an Abbott and Costello fan but somehow missed this 1948 film over the years. It’s possible that because it was one of only a few pictures the duo did outside of Universal it did not enjoy the wide release their other works had. A few gems from the boys’ routines can be found. Look for the “horse eating his fodder” and “I’ll bet you you’re not here”. There is none of the Big Band Era song and dance routine to slow this film’s pace.
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Because of Winn-Dixie

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 27th, 2005

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Synopsis

Anna Sophia Robb is a little girl named Opal, who has just arrived in the small town of Naomis with her single-parent father (Jeff Daniels), a preacher. Opal finds it hard to fit in and make new friends, until she adopts a rambunctious dog she finds in the Winn-Dixie supermarket. The dog’s extroverted nature helps make connections not only between Opal and the town, but between the townspeople as well.

A very kind little movie, but a completely unoriginal one, too. Between this and…
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Sliders — The Third Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 26th, 2005

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Synopsis

The premise should be familiar to anyone interested in the third season: Jerry O’Connell and friends continue sliding from one universe to another, encountering a different alternate earth in each episode, always trying to find the way back home. The range of possibilities is naturally pretty wide, so our heroes wind up in a deadly war game show (granted not the most original idea), in a world devastated by electric tornadoes, and so on. It’s all done with engaging humour and energy, though …
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Alien 3000

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 26th, 2005

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Synopsis

Guarding a treasure of what looks like a few novelty store swords and chocolate dollar coins in a cave that could almost be the fabled Bronson Caverns of many a 50s B-movie is a monster that sometimes looks like a bad CGI centipede, but most of the time is a guy in a baggy rubber suit. The treasure, we are told, was left by Viking Conquistadors, and yes, you read that correctly. Why the alien monster is guarding the treasure is never explained. Anyway, the beast slaughters a bunch of people …
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Cleopatra 2525 – The Complete Series

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 26th, 2005

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Synopsis

In the year 2525, humanity has been forced to seek refuge deep in the earth from robots known as “Baileys.” The title character is a stripper from our century, who went in for a breast enhancement and wound up cryogenically frozen until now. Thawed out, a stranger in a dangerously strange land, she winds up joining forces with two other female freedom fighters.

Though much is made of Sam Raimi’s involvement as exec-producer on this series, his direct role on the creative side is pr…
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Island in the Sky

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 24th, 2005

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Synopsis

John Wayne plays Dooley, a transport pilot. He and his crew become lost over the frozen wastes of Labrador, and are forced to land in the middle of nowhere. A concerted search is launched for the missing men, and the film becomes a race against time as the rescuers search for a needle in a haystack, and the downed crew must survive with no food against unforgiving weather.

As downed airplane movies go, this is no The Flight of the Phoenix (1965). The premise is very simple (…
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Led Zeppelin

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 22nd, 2005

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Synopsis

Many people have provided screwed up metaphors as to just how important Led Zeppelin has been to music in the last 35 years. So of course, I’ve gotta throw one in. Imagine today’s rock musicians as workers in a factory, all punching in and out for work at a time clock each day. Led Zeppelin is the clock. There really was nothing before it that could compare to it, and while there have been some imitators, real or implied (Whitesnake and Kingdom Come being two names from the 80’s hair band metal day…
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Weekend at Bernie’s

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 22nd, 2005

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Synopsis

Well, considering that there were so many different strange film ideas in the 1980s, it was only a matter of time that someone write and produce a film about a dead guy, right? Well, you’re in luck, as two names from the period (Andrew McCarthy, St. Elmo’s Fire and Jonathan Silverman, Brighton Beach Memoirs) fulfill your wish as Weekend at Bernie’s finally comes to DVD.

McCarthy and Silverman play insurance reps with bigger aspirations in a owned by Bernie Lomax (Ter…
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Homicide Life on the Street – The Complete First & Second Seasons

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 20th, 2005

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Synopsis

Let me get this out of the way first: I’m a Homicide junkie. While I’m grateful it got the run it did, to see it almost eternally on the graveyard TV timeslot of Friday at 10pm crushed me. And to see it get beaten in it’s time slot by Nash Bridges and remain virtually anonymous in the shadow of NYPD Blue discouraged me. But I’m a fanboy. It was filmed in my hometown (Baltimore), and while some of its actors were noteworthy elsewhere (among those were Ned Beatty, Yaphet Kotto an…
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Mickey Mouse Club – The Best of Britney, Justin & Christina

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 20th, 2005

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Synopsis

Before they became the musical powerhouses that adolescents have grown to love and adore as part of the entertainment landscape, it’s common knowledge that Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera all appeared on Disney’s “Mickey Mouse Club” show in the early ‘90s. But what you may not have known is just how many other semi-recognizable names appeared in the show during its run. Not only was another boy band musician on the show (JC Chasez), but you also had quality acting talents i…
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Tales from the Crypt — The Complete First Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 20th, 2005

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Synopsis

Hugely popular in the 1950s, but politically excoriated and ultimately shut down, EC Comics such as Tales from the Crypt saw their stories revived first in the theatrical Amicus anthologies of the early 70s, and then as this TV series. Here is the first season (a mere six half-hour episodes), directed by the likes of Richard Donner, Walter Hill, Robert Zemeckis and Mary Lambert, among others. The stories are very faithful to the spirit of the comics (and are taken from actual stories)…
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Manson Family Movies

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 19th, 2005

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Synopsis

Shot in 1974, this is one peculiar piece of work. Springing from director’s John Aes-Nihil’s not altogether healy obsession with the Manson murders, this takes the rumour that the Family filmed their activities and tries to make it flesh. What you see is a series of very convincing-looking Super 8 mm reels of the Family doing their thing, culminating in re-enactments of the Tate-La Bianca murders. Frankly, I’m somewhat at a loss for how to rate this. The home movies look very real, right dow…
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In Old Chicago

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 19th, 2005

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Synopsis

Mother O’Leary and her brood arrive in Chicago just as it is beginning to transform into a metropolis. Her sons grow up to become the amoral Dion (Tyrone Power), who never misses a bet and hooks up with the similarly canny cabaret performer Belle (Alice Faye), and the idealistic lawyer Jack (Don Ameche). Betraying political boss Brian Donlevy, Power arranges for his brother to become mayor, but then finds himself in the targeting sights of Ameche’s reforms. The family feud builds to the nigh…
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Brady Bunch – The Complete Second Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 15th, 2005

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“Here’s the story…of a lovely lady…”. We all know the beginning of this familiar ditty. It’s the Brady Bunch. And they’re back in The Brady Bunch – The Complete Second Season. All 24 episodes are classic Brady Bunch fare. Oh to live in a world of ice cream contests, science projects, and slumber parties; and the worst thing you could do was “smoke” *sigh*. Alice, the housekeeper, is along for this harmless ride. The astroturf front yard is still there. The Brady Bunch is a trip back to the “garden”…
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