Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 13th, 2006
Synopsis
Andy Garcia plays Rick... er... I mean Fico, who runs a lavish nightclub in Batista-era Havana. The revolution is brewing, and two of his brothers are drawn to the cause. Fico is apolitical, putting family above all, but the revolution will transform his life whether he wants it or not, and then there’s the problem of falling in love with his brother’s wife.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 12th, 2006
Synopsis
Hurricane Eve descends upon the Florida coast, wreaking particular havoc on the rural town of Homestead. The central characters are a park ranger, his two children, a reporter who is the ranger’s second wife, his conspiracy-nut brother (channelling Jack Black), his ex-wife and her second husband (the always suspicious-looking William Fichtner). As if the devastation weren’t enough, there are all those weird lights, and... hey... some people are acting kinda strange, like they’re might not be...human at all.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 8th, 2006
Helen Hunt is horribly miscast as a 1930’s infamous seductress on the prowl for vulnerable rich husbands. There’s not a moment in the film she doesn’t look and sound completely out of character for the role. Fortunately Scarlett Johansson is better suited for her performance. Still, most of the cast seems ill-placed. The film is based on the Oscar Wilde play “Lady Windermere’s Fan” which I have never seen. Of course, things are never what they appear to be throughout the film. While the dialogue contains the tradem...rk Wilde flair for wit, the plot simply doesn’t go anywhere. It’s a shame, really. The film had potential. The cinematography is very appealing. The period costumes and Italian locations make for a rich atmosphere that unfortunately nothing of import happens within. Even the stylized Wilde twist falls flat in the end.
Video
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 7th, 2006
Jean Harris made international headlines in 1980 for killing her on again off again lover and fiancée. Of course, such crimes are rather commonplace and would hardly merit all the attention let alone a feature film. The victim, however, in this case, was the famous Dr. Herman “Hi” Tarnower, better known to you and me as the “Scarsdale Diet Doctor”. The film claims to base its script on actual testimony from the well publicized trial. While this may in principle be true, the tale is obviously intended as a satire. T...e style very much lends itself to camp and black comedy. The murder is really the punch line to a very long joke. The testimonials are more like short theatrical vignettes. The feel is more like a staged production than a film. Even if the accuracy claims can be believed at all, they are most certainly exaggerated liberally. The story is obviously slanted heavily toward Jean Harris’ version of events. Given the title, I suppose this might be somewhat appropriate, if the filmmakers didn’t make her into some kind of a hero in the supplemental feature.
Mrs. Harris would quite honestly be a total loss if not for the performances of its two stars, Ben Kingsley and Annette Bening. Both deliver marvelous over the top performances that don’t feel so over the top. Kingsley in particular is devilishly great in his self absorbed role. Bening plays a convincing victim. Unfortunately even these performances can’t bring this film to anything more than camp. Harris contended she planned on killing herself and not Dr. Tarnower. Her explanation that the shots were the result of a struggle form the premise of the film as unrealistic as four shots from a struggle can be. Another unreal moment occurs when the detective allows Harris to wash her blouse in the cell sink after her arrest. I guess Nagey hasn’t watched too many episodes of CSI.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 6th, 2006
What is it about The Roman Empire that fascinates us so? The answer is far too complicated to address in this forum, if you can pardon the pun. The influences of Rome are all around us. From the very form of government we practice to the grand arenas we watch our ballgames in, Rome can be found literally around every corner. Hollywood has recognized the allure since the early days of filmmaking. Classics like Ben Hur and Spartacus eventually gave way to the more modern epic Gladiator.
It is 52 BC and...Rome stands at a crossroads. Long ago established as a great Republic to rival the likes of Greece, the fledgling empire suffers from within. Senators appear to the common man as merely wealthy aristocrats who have long since lost any connection to the problems of everyday Roman life. Sound familiar? Gaius Julius Caesar (Hinds) controls an elite legion of Roman soldiers fighting for the glory of Rome in Gaul. His co-consul in Rome, Pompeius Magnus (Cranham) has grown impatient with Caesar’s many years of absence from Rome. The resulting civil war would eventually lead to collapse of a Republic and the beginning of dictatorship and empire that would drive Rome for centuries hence.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 3rd, 2006
Synopsis
Protestors and loggers are in conflict over the cutting of trees on an isolated island. Unbeknownst to both groups, the logging company has been experimenting with something dangerous, and when this substance gets into the blood of an injured logger, he becomes a flesh-eating zombie, quickly spreading the virus. The son of the chairman of the board flies in to see why contact has been lost, and is quickly caught up in the desperate battle for survival.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 23rd, 2006
Synopsis
Imagine my surprise that there was a miniseries made about the threat of bioterror, and that this cloak and dagger miniseries (that aired at some time on network TV) sported two Oscar winners, neither of them men! Anjelica Huston (Prizzi’s Honor) and Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite) are part of a wide ranging series that is set over several continents, and explores the possibility of a bio-terror attack in the US.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 20th, 2006
Synopsis
So when you’re the head of Fox prime time programming, and you’ve got a television staple like The Simpsons on your Sunday night lineup, and Arrested Development wins the Best Comedy Series Emmy in its first season, what do you do? Well you callously trim the order of episodes from 22 to 18, put The Simpsons as its lead-in without a lot of fanfare, and almost even more egregiously barely hype guest appearances by well-established comic performers like Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Se...nfeld), Ed Begley Jr. (Spinal Tap) and Zach Braff (Scrubs).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 19th, 2006
Clearly, I am in the minority when it comes to Veronica Mars. Reviewers go on and on about the sharp writing on this show, but I just don't see it. With character names like “Beaver”, “Butters”, “Weevil” and my favorite, “Dick Casablancas”, this is a show where the writing is actually one of the things that is wrong with this show. (And yes, Beaver and Dick are friends. How's that for creativity?) The character of Wallace is an African American stereotype that is embarrassing, and stinks of what old while people think young black men are like. Not only are these characters one-dimensional and unrealistic, but some of them are borderline offensive.
Veronica Mars is really just Nancy Drew for the 21st century. The writers have tried their best to add some real adult drama to the series by throwing in a murder mystery, but they have somehow managed to make even that seem soft, thanks to the amateurish acting. Story lines are basically teen faire, meaning that things are made to appear much more tragic than they actually are. That's fine if you are a teen girl, but for the majority of the population this should not be a desired trait in an hour-long drama.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 19th, 2006
Written By Jeff Mardo
This disc certainly had me fooled. I though I was in for another one of those lame teenage “comedies” where the emphasis is on lame and cliché jokes and the occasional glimpse of gratuitous nudity. What I wound, however, was a wonderful movie that is the very definition of an indie film. If you liked Kevin Smith's first foray into filmmaking, then you will probably like this piece as well. I would contend that Clerks was a better film, but this Mexican film certainly has it's on charm as well. While Smith's fi...ms are packed full of dialog, Fernando Eimbcke has crafted a piece that is about those moments when there is nothing to say.
