collectorz.com.jpg

1.85:1 Widescreen

Lost in La Mancha

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 20th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

Before we get into it, just a quick recommendation to check out “Making Movies” by Sidney Lumet, the director of Network, Dog Day Afternoon and 12 Angry Men. While it’s a quick read at 220 pages, it talks about dealing with the actors, rehearsal, a day on the set, and other various forms of a production, and includes stories that happened on his sets also. It’s an intriguing book, worth checking out at your local bookstore. A “Ryan’s Book Club” pick, if you will.
Read More

Wedding Singer, The (Totally Awesome Edition)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 18th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Adam Sandler plays Robbie Hart, wedding singer in 1985, making a living covering other people’s songs, but happy with his life, until he is dumped at the altar. Total professional meltdown then ensues (in the big money scene that everyone saw in the trailers). Hope for romance still exists, however, in the person of Drew Barrymore, a waitress about to be married to a total jerk.

This is the film that demonstrated that Sandler was more than a one-trick pony, that the man could act i…
Read More

White Countess, The

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

Buy at Amazon.com

One reviewer accurately described The White Countess as having “echoes of Casablanca.” More than that, this last production from Merchant-Ivory seems like it lifted its premise entirely from the classic Bogart film. But at the same time, there is enough different about this colorful and mesmerizing piece to distinguish it as something original – or original enough. With murmurings about that Hollywood may one day remake Casablanca (as it seems they have everything else), I hope and pray the gods …
Read More

Millions

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

Buy at Amazon.com

To say that director Danny Boyle has quite an eclectic resume for his directing filmography may be a bit of an understatement. After an impressive first feature in Shallow Grave, he moved on to the cult classic film about heroin addiction called Trainspotting. From there he took an interesting part for a film called A Life Less Ordinary, followed by directing a hot commodity named Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach. He took on an interesting zombie film called 28 Days Later, and that brings him up to the children’s film(?) called Millions.
Read More

Whisper of the Heart

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

Buy at Amazon.com

Whisper of the Heart follows Shizuku, a young girl on the cusp of womanhood as she learns to realize her talents and follow her dreams. She harbors deep admiration for Seiji, a mysterious young man, who shares a strange kinship with her that soon blossoms into love. From the start, Shizuku isn’t sure who she is. She indulges in songwriting and reading. It’s the latter hobby that first links her to Seiji. She starts to notice his name in the histories for every library book she checks out. It seems he’s always …
Read More

Goodfellas (HD DVD)

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

Buy at Amazon.com

Goodfellas tells the story of Henry Hill (Narc’s Ray Liotta), an Irish-Italian kid whose only ambition, it seems, is to be a type of wise-guy kid. In one of the first scenes with Hill we learn that “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be gangster.” This line here tends to set the emotion and mood for the whole film. Hill, as a kid at least, is your typical child who defies his parents, struggles to do well in school and wants to hang out with the older looking tough guys down the street. F…
Read More

Big Momma’s House 2

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

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

FBI agent Martin Lawrence has given up the dangers of field work because of his family responsibilities. Now he’s a safety mascot. But when his first partner is killed, Lawrence surreptitiously dons his Big Momma persona gain, posing as a nanny in the family of the chief suspect, a man who is developing software that could compromise national security.

All of the above, of course, is mere pretext to set up all sorts of kute kid komedy as Big Momma tries to play nanny, and romantic …
Read More

Mercenary for Justice

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

Buy at Amazon.com

Honestly, does the world really need another Steven Segal movie? I think what’s even more depressing than the thought of another Segal flick is the fact that he has attached himself to the project as an executive producer. Clearly, this is the failed actor’s latest attempt in an ongoing quest to regain the successful film career he enjoyed in the 90’s. Of course, his string of hits ended for a very good reason. Sure, there will always be a place for the big, dumb, mindless action movie. The thing is, even mindless ac…
Read More

Jeff Cesario – You Can Get a Hooker Tomorrow Night

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

Buy at Amazon.com

There was a day in the not so distant past when there were about six big name comedians in the country, and everybody pretty much knew who they were. In the past several years, however, stand-up has really taken off in the United States, and it has become increasingly more difficult to keep track of who is who. Jeff Cesario is one of those that has garnered some popularity over the past several years, and is starting to make a big name for himself, but has certainly not arrived on the big stage just yet.

Sinc…
Read More

States of Control

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 28th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

This is another one of those films that is best suited for the international film festival crowd. I’m not sure, however, if even that group will get this one. Jennifer Van Dyck gives one of the silliest and most wooden performances I’ve ever seen as a woman suddenly constrained by normal life. Under the influence of a messed up play director, she is encouraged to experience life through other eyes. Her use of profanity, sleep deprivation, and depravity are just not interesting to observe. I’ve had bouts of sleep de…
Read More

Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 28th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother has everything that Young Frankenstein had except Mel Brooks (although he does make a very brief vocal cameo). With the combined comedic genius of Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, and Marty Feldman, how could this film go wrong? Like Young Frankenstein, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes offers a rich classical mythology to mine for material. A wonderful supporting cast featuring the likes of Dom Deluise can’t miss, right? No so elementary, my dear Watson. Focus. …
Read More

Family Stone, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 27th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Sarah Jessica Parker is the very Manhattan, high stress and rather repressed fiancee of Dermot Mulroney. They head off to small-town New England for Christmas with his family, headed by matriarch Diane Keaton. This is the family Stone of the title, and their free-and-easy lifestyle clashes with Parker’s, and she is seen as an interloper. She is subjected to no end of humiliations, principally at the hands of Rachel McAdams. But when Mulroney’s brother Luke Wilson shows up, Parker finds herse…
Read More

Bachelor Party Vegas

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 23rd, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

When I received Bachelor Party Vegas in for review, I took a quick glance at the cover and the basic plot and thought to myself ‘Oh, I haven’t seen something like this before.’ I suppose a film like this is a guaranteed profit maker since these films are usually pretty cheap to make and don’t need to involve much big talent or production.

The film beings with the apparent 10 Commandments of the Bachelor World. Some of them are amusing barely cracking a smile, while others are down right bordering st…
Read More

KatieBird *Certifiable Crazy Person

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 18th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

After a very rough lovemaking session with her ethically dubious (to say the least) psychiatrist, KatieBird Wilkens (Helen Udy) knocks the sap down, chains him up, and proceeds to torture him, all the while recounting how she came to be a serial killer. Flashback to her childhood, and especially her adolescence, when her mild-mannered father (Lee Perkins) introduces her to the joys of killing. KatieBird (played in her teens by Taylor M. Dooley) develops her own unique way of dealing with her…
Read More

Moonstruck

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 18th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

I always hated Moonstruck… but don’t get me wrong, this is a positive review. See, it seemed like, back in my childhood, every time I wanted HBO or Showtime to play The Goonies, they were always in the middle of yet another airing of this Academy Award-winning romance. It was a boring movie about love with that lady Cher, who needed to stick to the radio, and stay off my movie screens. My, how a little age and maturity can alter perceptions. As a seven-year old boy, I just didn’t have the sensibility fo…
Read More

Dirty

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 17th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

Can good acting make a film? Quite often it can. Dirty is a prime example of a film ending up better than it deserves to be by the powerful performance of a few good actors. Amando Sancho (Collins, Jr.) is an ex-gang kid from the mean streets of L.A. He thinks his street smarts and credibility can be an asset on the police force. Unfortunately we will never know, because he is partnered with corrupt cop Salim Adel (Gooding, Jr.). Both appear to require abject lessons in morality and loyalty, lessons that come too…
Read More

Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo – Little Black Book Edition

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

Buy at Amazon.com

Certainly a surprise upon its initial release, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo exceeded so many box office expectations a sequel was inevitable. From what I’ve heard, European Gigolo represents everything wrong with movies today; however, I did not let that abysmal word-of-mouth prevent me from giving the first installment a chance. Unfortunately, after viewing the original, I can’t see how the sequel could be any worse.

This film has its share of supporters, and I can’t really come down on anyone …
Read More

Greatest Game Ever Played, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 12th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

The Greatest Game Ever Played?
When I saw that title on the DVD case my immediate thought was: “How did Disney find out about my 1981 Marathon game of RISK where I took out Mark “Trip Sixes” Shreader in 9 hours of battle? Of course, I soon decided they meant professional sports. This film would be about the Minnesota Viking playoff whoopin’ of the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Turns out that wasn’t it. Point of fact, not one game of the 1980 World Series victory of the Phillies made the cut. Sudde…
Read More

Ten Commandments, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 12th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments hits store shelves in a new three-disc special edition, just in time for the release of the new made-for-TV mini-series. While the film classic is no stranger to DVD, it has yet to be released with this kind of gusto. At over three-and-a-half hours long, the film is simply too much for one disc to hold. The first disc contains the first 140 minutes, while disc two finishes up with the last 80. Plus, as a bonus, we get the original 136-minute silent version (also a DeMill…
Read More

My Neighbor Totoro

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

Buy at Amazon.com

It’s rather stunning to discover that My Neighbor Totoro was made way back in 1988, long before the days of CG and all automatic illustration. And perhaps that animation does detract from the overall experience from the film, but if that’s the only reason that it would be a problem, then people simply need to get their taste in order.

In another film from legendary Japanese film director Hayao Miyazaki (who made the Oscar-winning film Spirited Away), the film follows sisters Mei and Satsuki, w…
Read More

Passenger, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 11th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Jack Nicholson is a journalist in Africa, fed up with his job and his life. When an acquaintance in an adjoining hotel room dies, Nicholson, struck by the other man’s physical resemblance to himself, switches identities, allowing everyone to believe that he is the one dead. But his new self doesn’t turn out quite to be the escape he had hoped for, as the man he has now become turns out to be an arms dealer.

Though that kind of a set-up is pure thriller, in the hands of Michelangelo…
Read More

Motorcycle Diaries, The

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

Buy at Amazon.com

The Motorcycle Diaries tells the story of an 8,000 mile trip by either motorcycle (hence the name of the film), raft, truck or foot from Argentina to Peru in the year of 1952. Friends Ernesto Guevara de la Serna and Alberto Granado take this journey to travel across the continent. It’s important to note that Ernesto eventually became “Che” Guevara, a man who was involved in the political world. According to wikipedia, “Che” is mostly referred to as a Fidel Castro type figure, which is interesting especially co…
Read More

Thin Blue Line, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 5th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

I am unsure of what the greater tragedy is: a man losing over ten years of his life for a crime he didn’t commit (and very nearly being executed for said offense), or the fact “documentaries” such as Fahrenheit 9/11 enjoy more commercial success than the excellent Errol Morris work The Thin Blue Line. On the surface, the former may seem far worse than the latter, but consider that it’s so-called journalism like that found in F 9/11 that colors false perceptions of reality and bears blame for guys…
Read More

Dark, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 5th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Maria Bello Arrives in Wales with teen daughter Sarah in tow to visit estranged husband Sean Bean. Relations between mother and daughter are tense, to the dismay of the father, who senses something is wrong but can’t divine what it is. Then tragedy strikes, when the duaghter disappears, apparently drowned. While Bean searches frantically for her (or for her body), Bello becomes convinced that Sarah has been abducted into the Welsh land of the dead, and that another girl, dead these fifty yea…
Read More

4 Weddings and a Funeral

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

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

I’ve gotta admit that for a long time, Four Weddings and a Funeral was in a category of movies that I had no intention or curiosity to see because of the title, the cast and the story. Hugh Grant was a significant step down towards the emasculation of man, where are start wearing large sweaters, hang out in pseudo-Starbuck coffee shops and talk about what happened on American Idol or some lame thing along those lines.

Well here I am, 12 years later, apologizing for some of t…
Read More

«< 36 37 38 39 40 >»