Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 7th, 2003
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 3rd, 2003
Synopsis
Nick Tellis (Jason Patrick) is an undercover narcotics officer who is placed on suspension after a shootout with a dealer gone very wrong. He is brought back to active duty to shadow another officer who might have had something to do with the death of his partner.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 30th, 2003
Black Mask 2 doesn’t really seem to have anything to do with the first film. Instead what you get is a cheesy Japanese version of The X-Men. With the help of less than special effects, professional wrestlers change into hilarious creatures that are more loony tunes funny than actually dangerous. It doesn’t help that newcomer Andy On has the large fists of Jet Li to fill. Even fans of the original won’t find too much to like about this odd sequel.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 24th, 2003
Synopsis
Charlie is a hairdresser with a mob boss for a step father; Booker is his best friend and a bumbling idiot. Together they find themselves in the outback of Australia after hitting a kangaroo and loosing $50K of mob money. They need to recover the money from the kangaroo or they are dead. They meet a cast of interesting characters along the way to catching the kangaroo (who they have dubbed Jacky Legs) and manage to get themselves in and out of all kinds of funny situations.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 23rd, 2003
In 1939 Warsaw is invaded by Nazi Germany, Wladyslaw Szpilman is performing live on a radio station as it is dive bombed by the Luftwaffe. He continues to play until he is almost killed. This opening scene sets the tone for the story of a man so driven by his passion for music even in the face of adversary. As the film continues we watch the establishment of the Warsaw ghetto and the beginning of the reign of hate towards the Jews by Nazi Germany.
The Warsaw ghetto is full of stark contrasts we watch as people die in the streets from hunger and others prosper by bribing guards and importing goods, we see Germans helping Jews escape from the ghetto and Jews who join the ghetto police in an attempt to save themselves. At one point in time the ghetto contained over 500,000 people, as the war continues Wladyslaws family and most of the residents of the ghetto are loaded onto trains and shipped off to concentration camps never to be seen again. Those who are left over are formed into work camps by the Germans and start an uprising. Threw all this Wladyslaw survives even when he comes face to face with a Nazi officer who finds him hiding in their headquarters. The officer knows that the war is almost over as the Russian army is fast approaching and brings him food in exchange for listening to him play.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 23rd, 2003
Charlie Kaufman is a neurotic, narcissistic, self loathing writer who is hired to adapt Susan Orlean’s novel The Orchid Thief into a film. The only problem is that he is suffering from writers block, add in a twin brother who is also writing a screenplay and his inability to interact with people and hang-on for a wild ride. Charlie tries a number of different approaches to writing the script and suddenly finds himself being written into the story. What starts out as an adaptation of a book into a film turns into a completely different story all together. It turns into a tongue and cheek story about movie making in Hollywood and a person’s ability to adapt and change to fit their surroundings.
Video
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 20th, 2003
Steven Seagal is certainly showing his age in Half Past Dead. To ardent fans of his tough-guy act, this might be a bad thing. To those of us just looking for a good film, I think it’s actually a good thing. With Seagal’s ass-kicking held more in check there appears more room for a story to grow. This one is above average. Seagal’s age also means a stronger supporting cast and this one has a nice one. Mia Peoples is stunning as one of the main villains. Ja Rule and Kurupt add the necessary urban reality and some comedy relief when called for. Morris Chestnut is a believable baddie and Hill Street Blues alum Bruce Weitz provides a very refreshing convicted killer found God. Don Michael Paul does a splendid job as director. The story moves constantly and the fight scenes are neatly filmed. You’ll find enough bullets and martial arts to fill a Matrix sequel, but for a change they aren’t extended dance scenes but rather tightly staged moments of action.
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 15th, 2003
Synopsis
A knock on your door in the middle of the night can change your life forever for Kathryn Lyons this knock comes after her husband’s plane crashes off the coast of Ireland. As the investigation starts to piece together that there was an explosion on board and that her husband may have had something to do with it here perfect life starts to unravel. As she starts to look into her husbands life in an attempt to clear his name she starts to discover that she really did not know her husband at al....
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 15th, 2003
Forget Lethal Weapon and Beverly Hills Cop; Midnight Run has got to be one of the funniest cop-buddy films of the genre. True, Midnight Run did not break any records at the box office and was actually panned by a few well-known critics of the time, but the comic action just never lets up. Robert DeNiro and Charles Grodin share a rare chemistry. The overkill plot developments just wouldn’t work with any other combination. In all fairness, I wasn’t too thrilled about this one when it first hit the theatres. My wife suggested it and I agreed more out of guilt for all the genre films I’ve inflicted on her. I walked out still laughing.
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 13th, 2003
AIDS is at the forefront of the gay community’s consciousness, and Jeffrey (Steven Weber)is frustrated by how complicated sex has become. His solution is to swear it off, and naturally he immediately meets and falls for Steve (Michael T. Weiss). What to do, especially when you are neurotic like Jeffrey. Fortunately (or unfortunately), Jeffrey has plenty of friends and family who want to help out, including Patrick Stewart, whose line about looking like “a gay superhero”suddenly has more bite than it did in 1995.
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