Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 17th, 2004
Synopsis
We’ve all known (or been -- be honest, now) Napoleon Dynamite at some point in highschool. He’s too tall for his own good, lives in a fantasy world of his own, and is a socialcatastrophe. At home, his thirty-something brother Kip is just as odd, and when their hard-partying grandmother winds up in the hospital, Uncle Rico (permanently reliving his supposedglory days of 1982) comes to look after things, and generally makes everything worse. ButNapoleon is also coming out of ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 17th, 2004
Synopsis
Ben Stiller wants to propose to sweetheart Teri Polo, but first he has to impress her dad --Robert De Niro. The weekend with the parents proceeds as one would expect a movie with BenStiller in the lead: disastrously. De Niro is an over-protective ex-CIA control freak, and Stillerinevitably finds the way to wreak the most humiliating havoc possible.
As the embarrassments mount, and yet more loom ominously over the horizon, you findyourself wishing you could look away...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 15th, 2004
Synopsis
Alan is the youngest member of the Tracy family, and would dearly love to be a full memberof International Rescue, but is stuck in school and is treated as a kid by his bothers and father.But then it is up to him and his two young friends to save the day when The Hood (BenKingsley) takes over IR’s base, traps the Tracys up in space, and plans to turn the Thunderbirdvehicles to evil uses (starting with robbing the Bank of England).
What I want to know is why oil rig ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 10th, 2004
After learning about lawsuits filed by two obese women against McDonald’s - accusing the fast-food giant of making them obese - Morgan Spurlock decided to eat nothing but food from McDonald’s for 30 days to see what would happen. Even his doctors didn’t expect the eventual results: Spurlock gained 30 pounds, became depressed, experienced a diminished sex drive, and teetered on the edge of liver failure. His doctors even warned him that failure to change his diet immediately would cause death - and he still had a week...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 6th, 2004
Synopsis
The storytelling is oblique in the extreme, but as near as I can discern it, the film tells the story of a young woman (Gong Li) who, after reading a collection of poems by Chen Ching (Tony Leung Ka-Fai) called Zhou Yu’s Train, attempts to imaginatively recover the experience of Zhou Yu (Gong Li again). Zhou Yu is an artisan who travels vast distances by train twice a week to keep up an increasingly troubled romance with Chen Ching. The other major figure is a veterinarian (Sun Hongle...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 5th, 2004
Synopsis
Drifter Billy Burke’s car breaks down near the town of Lost Junction. He accepts a ride fromNeve Campbell, and very quickly is drawn into a web of mysteries that surround her. Why is sheliquidating her bank account? For that matter, where is her husband? Caught, Burke may bemystified, worried, and threatened, but he cannot tear himself away. Before he knows it, he’s onthe run with Campbell, pursued by the authorities.
The characterizations are quirky, and there is a...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 2nd, 2004
Smooth Talk is a “coming of age” story that won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. It stars Laura Dern as Connie, a teenage girl from a small southern town. She’s at that rebellious age. In the words of Britney Spears, “she’s still a girl, not quite a woman”. Connie is curious about the opposite sex and a world outside the town. She’s searching for something, but what she finds, she might not want.
Treat Williams plays Arnold Friend. Friend, as it turns out, is nobody’s frien...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 2nd, 2004
Rob (Benjamin Ratner) and Melanie (Angela Vint) are a couple that think they’ve found the key to solving all relationship problems - simply break up after 19 months. By then, all the romance, lust, and excitement of a relationship has worn off and both people involved are ready to test the dating waters. So, they agree to do just that, only they’ll remain friends with benefits until they each find someone else. To prove that their theory is correct, Rob and Melanie even allow a film crew to follow them around and ma...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 30th, 2004
Synopsis
Dismayed by the corruption of the Church, Martin Luther (Joseph Fiennes) preaches against the selling of indulgences and other practices that combine tyranny and greed. His teachings find a receptive audience, much to the dismay of the Pope. A power struggle erupts, threatening to tear Christianity apart.
This effort is both compelling and wonky. Luther himself remains a cypher, with Fiennes portraying him as a rather disagreeable pasty-faced neurotic, little more than a mouthpiece...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 30th, 2004
Peep Show is a 9 minute award winning short film. It’s about a private “peeping booth” for females. But the women don’t see anything sexual. The male performers say exactly what a woman wants to hear. Well…what we think they want to hear, “I want to commit, can I wash your hair, etc”. It’s an amusing sketch and just the right length. Since we’re told what the “joke” is fairly early on, and since there’s no surprise or twist, the film ends before things get stale. The performances are on target.
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