Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 5th, 2006
This is a rather hard review to write. How do you separate the subject matter from the film? What reviewer wants to find himself in the unenviable task of critiquing the likes of a future saint? Certainly the filmmakers must have felt the same burden to do the story justice. But did they succeed? The answer is a not so simple.
The choice of Olivia Hussey was a remarkably inspired one. She portrayed the unselfish passion and self sacrifice as if they were emanating from her very soul. From her first moments on screen it is not hard to believe, while perhaps imagined, that we are seeing just a hint of something divine. The supporting cast does a fine job but can’t help but be overshadowed by Hussey. The location cinematography is also handled nicely with a great realistic approach that creates just the right touch of reality to it all. If the film is flawed at all, it is in its length. At 2 hours, it is overlong to maintain such powerful imagery, yet the running time is far too short to do justice to such a life that has touched and inspired the world. The film doesn’t start at the beginning. We find Mother Teresa already a nun and about to begin her mission to help the poor. Nor is that story complete. Huge gaps in time lead us all too quickly to aged and dying saint apparent. You don’t need to be Catholic to appreciate the film. Few would dare to challenge the purity and good works of Mother Teresa’s life. World leaders have been brought to tears, and more importantly to action, because of her example. Many films have spared no expense in graphic f/x to try and show us a face that is truly evil. Few have attempted to bring us such a picture of goodness. This film shows us how simply it can be done. The film is worth a look on those grounds alone.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 4th, 2006
I admit, when I received this film in the mail for review, I was extremely suspicious of it. I am not a conspiracy theorist, and though I am interested in the facts surrounding the 9-11 tragedy, I am not one that buys into all the theories surrounding the day. The cover of this disc, and the fact that it came to me by itself in a plain brown envelope, made me believe that I was in for another crackpot theory.
When I started to watch the film, however, I realized that this was going to be a film that was much ...ore aligned with my interests than I originally thought. The main premise of this film is to dispute the growing belief in the United States that the Jews were behind the attacks of 9-11. specifically, the focus is on an ancient manuscript called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which is said to be the minutes of a meeting of a group of Jews, and outlines their plans for world domination.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 2nd, 2006
Doctor Who is much more of a cultural phenomenon in the UK than it is here in the States. In fact, the series about a time traveler who fights evil is very much on par with the Star Trek series in North America in terms of its rabid cult following. The original series ran for a staggering 26-seasons on the BBC before finally fading away. The show has become one of the most popular Science Fiction programs of all time.
In 2003, the dead show was brought back as a new series, following the same ba...ic storyline as the original. The Doctor in question is actually an alien who fights evil with the aid of his rickety and unreliable time machine, which is cleverly disguised as a British police box. Though such boxes have become a bit rare in today's society (in much the same way as the common pay telephone has disappeared in the U.S.), the boxes are still fairly inconspicuous, which allows the good Doctor to leave the machine sitting about without too much interference from the general public.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 30th, 2006
Synopsis
Ken Stott plays Inspector John Rebus. Working in Edinburgh, Rebus is dogged in his pursuit of the truth, no matter how many years it might be buried. He’s not one to stand on ceremony, doesn’t suffer fools at all, never mind gladly, and is curiously successful in romancing younger women. The two mysteries here, The Falls and Fleshmarket Close take place in very different settings: the former delves into the secrets of the very wealthy, the latter takes place in a high-rise proj...ct.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 27th, 2006
Synopsis
Private Kang (Jan Dong-kun) is a coast guard – i.e. a soldier tasked with watching the South Korean coast for spies from North Korea. He is obsessed with shooting one, even though it is extremely unlikely that he will encounter any. One night, he sees movement and opens fire, killing not a spy, but a teenager having a tryst with his girlfriend. The boy isn’t just shot – he’s riddled with bullets and then blown to pieces with a grenade. No surprise, then, that the girl is traumatized to the p...int of insanity. When Kang realizes what he has done, his mental state disintegrates rapidly as well.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 27th, 2006
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is, it seems, the poor cousin to the likes of the FBI and the Secret Service. It doesn't have all the toys of these other organizations, and appears to have a staff of four (five by the end of the first episode). Mark Harmon heads up the investigative team that delves into mysteries that invariably have a military tone (and thus the stories frequently deal with terrorism and the like).
This is a series that wears its pop-culture influences on its sleeve. Too much so. Everyone watching this will compare it to CSI, and so, naturally, we get a jokey reference to that acronym. But the bigger problem is that though the shows wants to appear as it is Ripped From Today's Headlines, it is instead Ripped Off From Works Ripped From Today's Headlines. Thus, in the pilot episode, we are expected to believe not only in an al-Qaida that is presented in such an insultingly simplistic and fairy-tale that its leader is less Osama bin Laden, more Professor Moriarty, but an al-Qaida that shapes its plans by basing them on Harrison Ford movies. Pretty cheesy stuff, then, though entertaining enough.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 24th, 2006
At the end of the day, The Cavern is an old-school monster movie (of sorts) with some really annoying habits. The shaky camera technique can only take one so far. When a filmmaker tries to use it in place of suspense, it grows old very fast. And when this crew of cave divers enter the mysterious crawlspace of the film's title, writer-director Olatunde Osunsanmi goes hog wild with every gimmick angle he can think of. The result of such activity is the remnant of a good horror film, which builds mood nicely with...some gritty settings, but quickly descends into shoddiness rather than terror. The plot centers on a cave in the deserts of Central Asia, where a team of explorers coping with a tragedy have reunited to explore a neglected passage deep in the earth's crust. Little do they know, someone - or something - has beaten them to the site, and is now intent on keeping the finding for itself in any violent way possible.
Some of the best films are spawned from the simplest of ideas. And The Cavern has a cast, which does its best to capitalize on such simplicity. Despite the film's budget and obscurity, these performers give it their all, and have nothing to be ashamed of; because, for all the film's failures, they keep it from turning into a laughable college film class production from some obscure midwestern university. They do so by actually knowing how to act, and taking the content seriously... even if it doesn't return the favor. Osunsanmi is the real blame for this missed opportunity. He tries so hard to flex his directorial muscles the entire 81 minutes comes across as numbing and disorienting. And while 81 minutes isn't very long in normal film terms, it seems like a lifetime when you are using every moment to try and figure out what the heck is going on.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 23rd, 2006
Synopsis
Masahiro Motoki plays a well-to-do doctor, very much concerned with class difference, eager to distance himself from slum-dwellers, whom he regards as barely human. He is deeply in love with his fiancée, a woman suffering from amnesia. His life collapses in chaos when his parents are murdered by a prowler, who then throws him down a dry well. This prowler turns out to be his twin, who proceeds to take over his identity.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 22nd, 2006
Synopsis
Daniel Auteuil, host of a literary TV talk show, and his wife Juliette Binoche begin receiving strange videotapes. These are hours-long recordings of the front of their house. Nothing else. No explanations. Then child-like but disturbing drawings start to accompany the tapes, and the recordings begin to be of other locations, suggesting that all of this has something to do with Auteuil’s distant past.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 9th, 2006
Synopsis
Not having seen the first season, I confess as to floundering somewhat in my encounter with the second. In the interest of keeping things simple and comprehensible, I thus present the synopsis provided by the box itself. The second season “finds Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary) away from his former crew . . . and working in a Staten Island firehouse. He must come to terms with the havoc his drinking has caused and realizes it’s time to get his problems under control. His comrades back at 62 Truck a...en’t faring much better. Chief Reilly struggles with the recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis of his wife and her deteriorating condition. Franco juggles the responsibilities of raising his daughter while trying to return to work. Lt. Shea discovers just how lonely the single life can be and Laura complicates house relations by getting involved with a colleague.”
