1.78:1 Widescreen

Angel Rodriguez

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 13th, 2006

Angel Rodriguez is a realist film that covers a 36-hour snapshot of the lives of two people: a troubled young man and his guidance counsellor.

I have to admit right off the top that this type of film is not my bag ï¿½ realism to me pretty much means boring. While there may great artistic merit to writer-director Jim McKayï¿½s little film, itï¿½s not particularly entertaining. Interesting, maybe.

Angel is a young man struggling with life in the inner city. His father has kicked him out of the house, and the film follows the story of Angel and his guidance counsellor, Nicole, whoï¿½s trying to help him.
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Nightmares & Dreamscapes – From the Stories of Stephen King

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 10th, 2006

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In the wake of cable television’s recent success in the horror anthology genre, TNT brings us 8 tales from the mind and pen of Stephen King. Showtime’s hugely popular Masters of Horror series set a high standard while proving that this time-honored method of storytelling could survive. Cable’s unique ability to circumvent many of the censorship problems that plague network television puts them at a distinct advantage. Here it’s easier to tell compelling stories, with limitations, for the most part, only in the imag…
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Keane

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 9th, 2006

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William Keane (Lewis) has apparently lost his daughter, abducted from a New York Subway station. The film opens with a frantic Keane searching for anyone who might have seen her. But did any of it really happen? At first Damian Lewis’s performance completely sells the abduction. Every nuance of his acting tugs at our heartstrings for his horrible loss. His incessant searching and constant probing of his own memory draws us deeper and deeper emotionally into the set-up. It doesn’t take us very long at all to questio…
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An Evening With Kevin Smith 2 – Evening Harder

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 7th, 2006

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I can’t imagine anyone who’s not a Kevin Smith fan renting, buying, or otherwise arranging to view this DVD. The gist of this review is simple: if you like Kevin Smith and/or his work, you’ll enjoy An Evening With Kevin Smith 2 – Evening Harder.

Since I haven’t seen the original An Evening With Kevin Smith, I can’t offer a comparison. That said, I’d be willing to guess that this release is both more of the same and a whole new experience.

This sequel DVD set presents two standup “concerts” on two discs
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Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, The — The Gruesome Edition

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 3rd, 2006

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Synopsis

The murderous, cannibalistic Sawyer family is at it again, carving up yuppies and winning chili contests. Obsessed Texas Ranger Dennis Hopper is tracking them down, hoping for a final chainsaw duel. DJ Caroline Williams tries to help out, attracting the attention of the Sawyers, and, as it turns out, the puppy love of Leatherface.

Any follow-up to Tobe Hooper’s masterpiece is a fool’s endeavour. That said, this effort, by the man himself, is leaps and bounds beyond the other sequel…
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Conviction – The Complete Series

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 2nd, 2006

Conviction: The Complete Series ran thirteen episodes, a run of such brevity that one might ask as he looks at the tag, “From the Creator of Law and Order,” why Dick Wolf finds it necessary to add one more courtroom-based show to his laundry list of similarly themed projects. I was prepared for another simulation of the basic L&O format, and that did not excite me. And who knows? Perhaps Conviction is a needless clone of Wolf’s other more successful ventures. As someone, who has never…
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Population 436

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 1st, 2006

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There are so many sub-genres of horror these days. There is the ever-popular teen slasher flick, there is Japanese horror, gore, zombie, thrillers and even the recent popularity of the 70’s throwback. This one falls into the dramatic slow-burn category. The plot here sounds like something out of one of the better Steven King short stories. Someone in the federal government discovers that the population of little Rockford Falls seems to have remained steady for over a hundred years. An official is sent to investigate this anomaly, and what he finds is a mixture of small-town life, strong religious beliefs and some eerily strange goings-on.

Looking For Kitty

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 1st, 2006

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Looking For Kitty is an interesting, witty and somewhat slow-moving film. I enjoyed the understated story up until the last 20 minutes, when I lost interest because I thought the film should have been over.

The story is straightforward. A sad-sack little league baseball coach, Abe Fiannico (David Krumholtz), hires Jack Stanton (Edward Burns), a down-on-his-luck private investigator, to find his missing wife, Kitty (Ari Meyers). Working together, they look for Kitty, who has apparently run off with a moderately successful rock singer named Ron Stewart (Max Baker)
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The Book of Daniel – The Complete Series

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 31st, 2006

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NBC pulled the plug on The Book of Daniel after just four episodes. That explains why this 2006 mid-season replacement show came and went so fast I never even knew it existed. Now that I’ve watched all eight episodes, I’m disappointed that there won’t be more.

Apparently, the show was canceled for being too controversial. Christian organizations like Focus on the Family protested the series’ portrayal of Jesus, the church and homosexuality, and yet more groups were offended by such things as perceivednegative Catholic and Italian stereotypes (one of the supporting characters is a Catholic priest with ties to the mob).
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Big Love – The Complete First Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 30th, 2006

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Synopsis

Bill Paxton is a polygamist. He and his three wives (Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloë Sevigny and Ginnifer Goodwin) and their children live in three adjoined houses, and must constantly be careful not to let the secret of their lifestyle be revealed. That might be stress enough, but Paxton is having trouble keeping up on the sexual front, there is tension and competition between the wives (Tripplehorn is the alpha, Sevigny is manipulative and a shopaholic, Goodwin is insecure), and one of his fathe…
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Ghost Whisperer – The Complete First Season

Posted in 1.78:1 Widescreen, Box Set, Disc Reviews, Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), DVD, Paramount, Television by Archive Authors on October 28th, 2006

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”My name is Melinda Gordon. I just got married, just moved to a small town, just opened up an antique shop. I might be just like you…except from the time that I was a little girl I knew that I could talk to the dead. ‘Earthbound spirits’, my Grandmother called them. The ones who’ve not crossed over because they have unfinished business with the living, and they come to me for help. To tell you my story, I have to tell you theirs.”

So goes the opening for each episode of this first season of Ghost Whisperer, a series that blends drama, horror and comedy to carry its audience to an emotional place.
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Hellbent

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 28th, 2006

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OK, let’s just get this out of the way at the start. Hellbent is a film from a cable network called Here!, which is America’s foremost gay and lesbian television network. Consequently, this made-for-TV film is based solely around homosexual couples, as is all of the programming on the network. They make all manner of programming, including feature films, that deal primarily with homosexuality.

Now, here is my complaint. If you want to make programming that has homosexuals in it, I’m fine with that.
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Slight Case of Murder, A

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 21st, 2006

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Written By Jeff Mardo

TNT is slowly becoming the poor man’s HBO. Their programing quality has improved dramatically over the past couple of years, and even their original films are starting to look more like features than made-for-TV time wasters. More often than not, they provide quality programming that is a step above what you usually find on cable television.

This particular TNT original was both written and directed by William H. Macy. Predictably, Macy stars in the film as well. He pays a movie reviewer who is involved in an…
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Little Mermaid, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 17th, 2006

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Synopsis

Ariel is the rebellious teen daughter of King Triton. She falls in love with a human prince (whom she rescued from drowning), but her father will not hear of it. So she makes a bargain with the evil Ursula – she will be granted legs for three days (but no voice), and if she has not been kissed by then… well… you know how deals with Evil generally go.

After a long time in the dolldrums, this was a return to form for the Disney studios, and marked something of a second golden age…
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Slither

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 16th, 2006

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Synopsis

A meteor lands in your typical SF/horror movie Small Town (and it could well be the same meteor that brought the original Blob to town). Bullet-headed mug Michael Rooker stumbles over it one drunken night, and promptly becomes infected with carniverous slug-parasites from outer space. He sets about spreading the good news, as it were, and before long the entire town is a chaos of slithering nastiness and zombiefied townspeople.

After scripting the slick but soulless remake of Da…
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Supernatural – The Complete First Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 11th, 2006

Synopsis

I first thought that Supernatural was a pointless, stupid show that Jared Padalecki was starring in, because I kind of liked his character on the Gilmore Girls (I’m a married male, by the way), and doing this show that I didn’t know that much about smelled like an instant disaster.

However, when you open up the DVD package, anyone who has seen the shows sees that there are a lot of creative members of the team that come from other shows with supernatural-like themes. Some of…
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They All Laughed

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 9th, 2006

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Peter Bogdanovich’s The All Laughed is a classy, bittersweet film. It’s plot is pretty thin, but here’s the gist: a New York City private detective agency is hired to keep tabs on two women suspected of infidelity. Things get interesting when the gumshoes on the trail begin falling for their lovely targets.

The best part of this film is its cast. Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzara, John Ritter, Dorothy Stratten, Patti Hansen, Colleen Camp, Blaine Novak and George Morfogen all fit their parts so well, it’s not surprising to learn in the bonus material that Bogdanovich wrote the parts with exactly these actors in mind.
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Blackwater Valley Exorcism

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 9th, 2006

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I don’t watch a lot of horror movies, but when I do I want them to be scary or amusing, or both. I found Blackwater Valley Exorcism to be none of the above.

The story centers around the demonic possession of a young woman, and the efforts a group of people make to save her. This group includes her family, her father’s farmhands, a sheriff, a veterinarian and a priest who’s never dealt with this sort of thing before. Luckily, one of those farmhands just happens to be a former priest who has conducted an exorcism.
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Cedric the Entertainer – Taking You Higher

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 8th, 2006

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Cedric the Entertainer – Taking You Higher is Cedric’s first solo HBO Comedy Special. He made his mark in the biz as a top-notch, critically acclaimed stand-up comedian, and has also appeared in a series of lackluster films like Be Cool and Big Momma’s House. I don’t think many would argue against the assertion that Cedric is at his best on stage, doing stand-up.

For proof, look to this hour-long HBO Special. Cedric the Entertainer lives up to his name in this show, which offers up about four parts stand-up, one part song and dance.
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The King

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 8th, 2006

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A letter from the filmmakers included with this disc reads, ”I guess some people will find… The King pretty extreme.” I had barely heard of this indy film going in, so I had few presuppositions to influence my experience. But before hitting play I read the letter, and that statement stuck with me as I watched. I wanted to know whether I was one of those people.

It turned out that I was. Sort of. There are aspects to this story that are so dark and twisted that I often found myself squirming as the scenes unfolded.
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Avenger

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 7th, 2006

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Sam Elliott is a fine actor, but he is almost always typecast as a cowboy. He is an excellent cowboy, tall and thin with a weathered face and a deep drawl. The thing is, he is a fine actor in more traditional roles as well. While I frequently enjoy his work as a cowboy, I have always felt that he may have turned in his finest performance as White House Chief of Staff Kermit Newman in The Contender.

He breaks out of his traditional role yet again with The Avenger, a TNT original film that stars Elliott as a mercenary hired to find a lost aid worker in Serbia, and discovers much more than he is looking for in the process.
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Stargate SG-1 – Season 9 Boxed Set

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 6th, 2006

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I admit it. I thought our heroes at Stargate Command had finally had it for sure. Were the replicators back? How about the dreaded G’Ould? Perhaps another serious malfunction of the Gate caused by Carter’s meddling was about to tear a hole in the time/space continuum. What was I so sure might spell doom for Earth’s last line of defense? We’ve already escaped fiendish bombs and other devious devices. Plagues and epidemics? No problem. Just business as usual at the SGC. No. These things are just minor worries compar…
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My Name is Earl – Season One

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 4th, 2006

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Synopsis

Jason Lee plays Earl, about as thorough a definition of “poor white trash” going. He’s not about petty theft, but life has thrown him some curveballs as well – neither of the children he is raising are his, for instance. When he hits it big on a scratch lottery ticket, he is promptly hit by a car and loses his ticket. Doped up on morphine in the hospital a talk show comment about karma acts as an epiphany, and he determines to turn his life around, righting all the wrongs he has committed. N…
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Desperate Housewives – Season 2

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 3rd, 2006

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Synopsis

Being as I’m rather baffled by what’s going on, as once again Mr. Late-to-the-Party, here’s how the box summarizes what’s up this season: “discover Bree’s new life without Rex, Lynette’s chaotic return to the working world, and what becomes of Susan’s on-again, off-again relationship with Mike.” And that’s just for starters, of course. Let’s not forget the descent of Rex’s OTT mother on Bree, and Eva Longoria’s fight with the nun in the church.

It’s comedy, it’s a drama, and it’s c…
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The 4400 – The Complete Second Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 3rd, 2006

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The second season of USA Network’s The 4400 picks up one year after the events of the four-part season one. This time around, we know the 4400 once-missing people were not returned from alien abduction, but rather from the future.

That revelation aside, this series is still chock full of mystery. What is the nature of the fate the 4400 are meant to save us from? How were they selected? What impact will their return continue to have on the collective future of humankind? Will the government’s role be one of interference, or protection?
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