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Secondhand Lions

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 20th, 2004

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I can only imagine what it might have been like to be a child during the heyday of Disney’s live films division. Going to see The Parent Trap or Mary Poppins as a young girl must really have been exciting. Experiencing Pete’s Dragon or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the theater must have been a thrill for young lads.

Unfortunately, Disney has not lived up to those high standards in its later days. Part of the wonder of those films was that they were not children’s films, as much as s…
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Great Ziegfeld, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 20th, 2004

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MGM keeps rolling out the Best Picture award winners. A few weeks ago it was Mutiny on the Bounty, this time it’s The Great Ziegfeld . I think Ziegfeld belongs in the category of those Best Picture winners that aren’t necessarily the best films for that year (Driving Miss Daisy?? C’mon). I actually prefer Frank Capra’s Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Gregory La Cava’s seminal screwball comedy My Man Godfrey (starring Ziegfeld’s own William Powell). The Great Ziegfeld al…
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Barbarians (History Channel)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 20th, 2004

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Synopsis

Barbarians is The History Channel’s box set of a series of four interesting documentaries. Each chronicles the rise and fall of one or another of history’s famous “Barbarian” tribes – from their generally agrarian origins, to their bloody warlike height and eventual gradual decline or precipitous fall. Four groups are covered in this box set, on two discs:

The Vikings: Who knew these fierce red-bearded horn-wearing savages ran a sophisticated trade empire extending all of the wa…
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Mrs. Miniver

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 18th, 2004

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Synopsis

Our story begins in 1939, just before the outbreak of WWII. The Minivers (Greer Garsonand Walter Pidgeon) enjoy an idyllic existence in a charming town where the biggest controversyis over whether the station master Henry Travers should be entering his rose against localaristocrat Dame May Witty’s in the flower competition. But then the war comes, and little bylittle, it reaches into the lives of the townspeople, wreaking ever more havoc. Through it all,Garson remains a tow…
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Hope, Gloves and Redemption

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 17th, 2004

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Synopsis

Mickey and Negra Rosario run an inner city boxing center in New York, helping youngpeople not only to do well in the sport, but also to turn their lives around. We learn about theRosario’s lives and courtship (and about Mickey’s time in a gang), and follow a group of theirproteges as they train for an upcoming amateur tournament.

An interesting piece, with a wide variety of voices and theories about boxing. (I particularlyliked what a ref had to say about the sport …
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Thorn Birds, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 16th, 2004

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Synopsis

In 1920s Australia, Father Richard Chamberlain (the king of mini-series) is lusted over byBarbara Stanwyck. He isn’t interested, but not because he is above temptation. Instead, he isfalling for Stanwyck’s niece, who grows up to be Rachel Ward. Love, lust, vengeance andVatican power politics mesh together into a pretty heady brew.

Granted, there’s nothing very subtle about any of this. Right from the get-go, every line delivered is in the servide of graphically mappi…
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Belles on their Toes

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 16th, 2004

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Synopsis

The tale is told in flashback as Myrna Loy witnesses the graduation of her youngest daughter.In this flashback, we see Loy, now recently widowed, struggling to keep her family together,even as various forces try to separate the twelve children. The sequel is even more sentimentalthan the original, and so even harder to take. So heartwarming, it makes The BradyBunch look like The Wages of Fear.

Audio

Urgh! Nasty audio. Not only do we ha…
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Cheaper by the Dozen

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 16th, 2004

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Synopsis

Efficiency expert Clifton Webb is the pater familias of 12 children. He runs his family ratherlike an industry, and is simultaneously loving, stern, eccentric, pompous and goofy. He moves hisbrood from Rhode Island to New Jersey, and we follow the family as they adapt to their newsurroundings, and the new surroundings adapt to them. The film is about as family-friendly asyou could possibly imagine, and is so determinedly warm-hearted it pursues the audience withthe implacab…
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Hangman’s Curse

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 15th, 2004

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Synopsis

Years ago, a tormented teen at Rogers High School committed suicide after stabbing a younggirl to death, or so the story goes. In the present, the jocks on the football team are slipping intocomas after having visions of the ghost of the teen. The put-upon goths and geeks at the schoolare summoning the ghost of Abel Frye and cursing the bullies. Or so it seems. Called in toinvestigate is the Veritas Team, a mom-and-pop-and-two-teenagers outfit whose job is toinvestigate pos…
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Cops 3-Pack (Bad Girls/Caught in the Act/Shots Fired)

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 15th, 2004

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Synopsis

TV-verité as we travel about with police officers, witnessing various arrests, gunfights, carchases, and whatnot. The broadly themed discs have self-explanatory titles, and focus on (youguessed it) female misbehaviour, criminals being caught red-handed, and violent confrontations.A curious piece of pop-culture flotsam, which should push your cynical, voyeuristic anddepressed buttons. Not that this is a recommendation.

Audio

A 2.0 track, here, most n…
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Gaslight

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 13th, 2004

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Synopsis

Many years ago, a murder was committed in a fashionable home on a fashionable square inLondon. The murderer was looking for priceless jewels. Years later, a young woman and herdashing new husband move into the house. Bit by bit, the woman appears to be losing her mind.She forgets where she puts things, and moves paintings around without remembering she hasdone so. Or so it appears. In fact, she is being driven out of her mind by her husband. Could hebe the murderer? And wha…
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Friends – The Complete Sixth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 13th, 2004

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The show that just won’t die returns for it’s sixth season on DVD… and proves why it still belongs in every sitcom fan’s home collection.

Let’s be honest, if you’ve never seen this show before, you are not going to start with Season Six. People who are interested in Season Six are here because they are already loyal followers of the show. I obviously don’t have to sell seasoned fans on the outstanding quality of this sitcom, or on how great the comedy is. You’re a fan. You already know.

So the rea…
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Mutiny on the Bounty

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 9th, 2004

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Synopsis

In 1787, the HMS Bounty sets sail for Tahiti. The journey is long and dangerous, but thecommander, Captain Bligh (Charles Laughton) is an extremely skilled seaman. He is also abrutal, corrupt sadist. Resentment builds amongst the crew, until finally mutiny erupts, led byfirst officer Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable).

Never mind that most of the leads are Americans playing Brits. This is one of the great seaadventures. Its release on DVD is most welcome, what with th…
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Ingmar Bergman Collection, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 8th, 2004

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SynopsisFive films here, making a very coherent package.Persona is probably the most famous of the bunch, and is arguably Bergman’s mosticonic film. The images are among the most famous in cinema, though they are slightly moredifficult to take seriously thanks to SCTV’s parody. The plot concerns Liv Ullmann as an actresswho has suddenly fallen silent, and Bibi Andersson as the nurse hired to look after her. In theface of Ullmann’s silence, Andersson talks and talks …
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Stanley & Iris

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 5th, 2004

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Synopsis

Jane Fonda is recently widowed, and works at a baked good factory. Robert De Niro is thecafeteria cook. He is illiterate, and loses his job when this is discovered. He turns to Fonda,asking her to teach him to read. Slowly, tentatively, romance blossoms.

Plenty of gritty realism in the first half of the film, and the portrayal of the hard lives thesepeople face is pretty unsparing. In this bleak landscape, their relationship becomes a real beaconof hope. One can onl…
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Green Acres – The Complete First Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 3rd, 2004

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The times, they were a-changin’ during the mid-sixties in America. The Vietnam War was heating up, the civil rights movement was making major strides, and it seemed that the whole country would soon be vastly different than it was just a few short years earlier. It was in the midst of these turbulent times that the first episode of Green Acres hit the airwaves.

The idea of metaphorically moving the average American family from the madness of the modern urban landscape and returning them to the simpli…
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Down Periscope

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 2nd, 2004

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Synopsis

Well – this qualifies as one of the most bizarre examples of casting and scripting that I have ever seen in my life. Kelsey Grammer plays what is supposed to be a near-unemployable submarine captain whose insane antics are about to get him kicked out of the naval submarine command program. The movie chronicles his “return,” so to speak, as he overcomes insurmountable odds in a naval war game exercise to win a respectable submarine to command. His weapon – a WWII sub against the modern Americ…
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Best of Mister Ed – Volume One

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 31st, 2004

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I am just old enough to remember when my favorite childhood television channel, Nickelodeon, took on a new evening persona called Nick at Night. “What were they doing to my beloved cartoons?”, I pondered. I still remember those first few weeks of the new format, tuning in during the evening hours after my father had returned home from a long day at work. I was amazed to see that not only were my parents interested in what I was watching, but they actually knew what it was before I did! How was this possible!?

Home Room

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 31st, 2004

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I have had the pleasure of reviewing better films than Home Room; and I’ve certainly suffered through worse. But I am not sure I’ve reviewed a more important film. I’ve been a public high school teacher for over 8 years. Ask any educator and you’ll find that Columbine changed things for everyone, so I wasn’t sure how I would find this study of that kind of violence. The subject is handled with extreme care in Home Room. In a wise decision, the shooting occurs to a black screen. We don’t really pick up the story until after the event.

Black Widow

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 30th, 2004

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Synopsis

Theresa Russell seduces rich men by conforming to their dreams in terms of appearance andbehaviour, marries them, and then kills them. She thinks her means are undetectable. But JusticeDepartment investigator Debra Winger has noticed a pattern, and becomes obsessed withtracking Russell down. She follows her to Hawaii (where she is working on her latest target),befriends her, and the stage is set for a psychological chess game.

The idea is promising, but the executio…
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Marci X

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 30th, 2004

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Timothy Olyphant, in the movie Go, refers to the comic strip The Family Circus in this manner: “it’s always there, in the lower right hand corner, just waiting to suck.” This is one of my all-time favorite movie quotes, and it applies quite nicely when discussing Marci X. Completed in 2000, this is the film that the studio put on the shelf, all the while knowing that eventually they would have to do something with it, because there it was, looming in the corner, waiting to suck.

Finally…
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Our Friend, Martin

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 30th, 2004

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This is a great idea for a children’s video. Our Friend Martin is an animated film that follows the Dickens Christmas Carol format to tell the story of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. When two boys (an underachieving African-American and his slacker white counterpart) visit the birthplace of Dr. King on a school field trip, they are magically transported back in time to experience monumental events in the civil rights movement. Along their journey, they learn of the legacy of Dr. King, and of his…
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Xena: Warrior Princess – Season Three

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 29th, 2004

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Synopsis

If you’re watching the third season, you presumably know where you’re at with our heroine,and you don’t need this synopsis. If you’re not a fan, then this is even more pointless. For whatit’s worth, this season’s major narrative arc concerns Gabrielle’s impending motherhood, and theterrible secrets that come to the surface along with her child, ironically named Hope.

Audio

The score is wonderfully thunderous, suitably stirring in 5.1. there are some s…
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MXP – Most Xtreme Primate

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 28th, 2004

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Synopsis

Jack is supposed to accompany his chimpanzee family and human minder to Mexico, but amix-up at the airport puts him on the wrong plane, and he winds up in Colorado. There hebefriends the new kid in town, and they become snowboarding champions together. Lessons offriendship are learned by all, amid rigidly carboard performances and lackluster comedy. Theanthropomorphisation of Jack and the other chimps reaches such an extreme level that it wouldbe disturbing if the film were…
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Spellbound

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 27th, 2004

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Synopsis

This documentary follows eight children as they compete in that peculiarly Americaninstitution, the National Spelling Bee. The first half of the film profiles each of the eight, andwe see them at home with their families, getting ready for the big competition. The second half isthe Bee itself, brilliantly edited to generate maximum tension in the viewer. One of the film’sremarkable achievements is that, unlike so many other documentaries which centre around acompetition, we…
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