diabolikdvd.com.jpg

1.85:1 Widescreen

Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 9th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Okay. I admit it. I’m guilty. I’m probably one of the few people on the planet Earth who has never seen Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Not because I’m an art film snob or anything (which I’m not…usually). I just never got around to it. I heard all the hype, heard a lot of the famous lines. But I’ve never actually seen the movie. Until now.

The Special Edition of Fast Times is now available and it’s worth picking up. For all the rest of the planet that has seen it, the movie takes plac…
Read More

The Beast

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 8th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

The setting is the home of a decaying family of French aristocrats. The Marquis del’Espérance (whose name is deliberately ironic) is desperate to marry his son Maturin to heiressLucy Broadhurst. Their marriage is in the will of ancestors, but with many conditions. Maturin’sgreat-uncle is desperate to stop the marriage, believing for some reason that it will kill Maturin.Meanwhile, Lucy has vivid dreams of Romilda de l’Espérance who, two centuries before, had avery erotic encounter with a beast in the woods.

Falling from Grace

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 7th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

John Mellencamp plays a darker, fictionalized (one hopes) version of himself as a rock starwho returns to his home town in Indiana. He is accompanied by his wife (Mariel Hemingway),and his journey stirs up a veritable hornet’s nest of resentments in his family and friends. KayLenz is married to his brother, but still resents Mellencamp for not choosing her, and the twobegin a very prickly flirtation and affair. As he begins to fall from grace, the question is whetherour her…
Read More

Little Women (Classic DVD and Book Collection)

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 5th, 2004

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/lwrept5/public_html/Upcomingdiscs.com/wp-content/themes/upcomingdiscs/functions.php on line 453

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

For the audience this film is aimed at, a synopsis should be superfluous. At any rate, this isthe tale of March family, consiting of mother Marmee (Susan Sarandon) and her four daughters:protagonist Jo (Winona Ryder), proper Meg (Trini Alvarado), delicate Beth (Claire Danes) andyoungest Amy (first Kirsten Dunst, cute as a button, then Samantha Mathis). We begin during theCivil War, with the father absent, and the family dealing with the privations of that time, andthen move…
Read More

Sense and Sensibility (Classic DVD and Book Collection)

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 5th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Jane Austen’s tale concerns the Dashwood sisters. Elinor (Emma Thompson) is sensible tothe point of excessive caution in matters of the heart. Marianne (Kate Winslett) is the opposite,so passionate that she might follow her heart into trouble. Their lives (and those of their littlesister and their mother) are made difficult by their loss of fortune. They are at the mercy ofselfish in-laws, though the brother of the gorgon-in-chief is the extremely likeable Hugh Grant(with w…
Read More

Mulholland Falls

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 31st, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Nick Nolte (in full bruiser form) heads up the Hat Squad, a team of LA detectives composedof himself, Chazz Palmiteri, Michael Madsen and Chris Penn. We first see them in actionroughing up a gangster by tossing him down a cliff (hence the joke of the title). Their next caseis the body of a woman, found flattened in the sand, every bone in her body broken. Nolte israttled by the sight of the victim, because she is Jennifer Connelly, with whom he had an affair(kept secret fro…
Read More

Raising Helen

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 27th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Kate Hudson is the golden girl at a modelling agency, scouting out talent and being very much the apple of ruthless boss Helen Mirren’s eye. She enjoys her cosmopolitan Manhattan lifestyle to the fullest, and then everything goes to smash. Her elder sister is killed in a car accident, leaving the care of her young’uns not to middle sister Joan Cusack (humourless and annoying) but to Hudson, who is promptly fired by Mirren and forced to move to Queens and work at a car dealership. Fortunately…
Read More

Dark Heaven

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 25th, 2004

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/lwrept5/public_html/Upcomingdiscs.com/wp-content/themes/upcomingdiscs/functions.php on line 453

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Officer Gabriel Goodman (and yes, the name is supposed to be allegorical) comes to on thefloor of his precinct. He is alone, and his watch is running backwards. Strange enough, but thenhe stumbles outside to discover that the city is deserted. He follows a hooded figure, andencounters a priest who is locked out of his own church, and has apparently gone mad. Moreshadowy figures lure Goodman into a school, and he is soon locked in conflict with the priest,mysterious beings, …
Read More

Van Helsing

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 21st, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Gabriel (?!) Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman), 19th-Century James Bond/Batman action guy forthe Vatican, is dispatched to Transylvania, where Dracula is up to no good. Dracula wants to usethe Frankenstein Monster’s life force to bring to life his thousands of vampire offspring, littlebat-gremlin thingies that so far only live for a few moments before expiring. Should Draculasucceed, the world will be overwhelmed with vampires. Jackman is aided by Kate Beckinsale (ina wildly anach…
Read More

Ed Wood

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 19th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

This is the story of Edward D. Wood, Jr., who gave the world such classics as Glen orGlenda? and Plan 9 From Outer Space. Tim Burton’s film follows Wood (JohnnyDepp) from his dismal theatre days through to the premiere of Plan 9, along the wayexploring his friendship with various misfits, including Bela Lugosi (an Oscar-winning turn byMartin Landau), not to mention Wood’s own cross-dressing proclivities.

Purists can complain about the factual in…
Read More

Happy Birthday to Me

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 18th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Erstwhile Little House on the Prairie fixture Melissa Sue Anderson is recoveringfrom the death of her mother and her own brain injury. She seems to be doing okay, despite aloss of memory, for which she seeks the help of psychiatrist Glenn Ford. She is one of thepopular kids at her college. All is not well, however, as the friends start being killed one by one.Who has it in for the Top Ten?

Happy Birthday to Me has no more plot than the usual slasher, b…
Read More

White Chicks

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 15th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Shawn and Marlon Wayans are two FBI agents. After screwing up royally (busting an ice-cream salesman instead of a drug dealer), they are anxious to redeem themselves. Charged withescorting the heiress Wilson sisters (read: Hilton) to the Hamptons where they will be bait fora socialite kidnapper, they mar the sisters’ faces, and so go themselves, made-up as the WhiteChicks of the title. Misunderstandings, racial and sexual, ensue.

I’ll grant the brothers this: there …
Read More

Heartlands

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 4th, 2004

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/lwrept5/public_html/Upcomingdiscs.com/wp-content/themes/upcomingdiscs/functions.php on line 453

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Michael Sheen plays Colin, a very ineffectual but well-meaning sort, who is obsessed bydarts and has a bored wife. When she takes off with the captain of Colin’s dart team, Colindecides to travel to Blackpool (“the Las Vegas of the North”) to win her back. He mounts hisscooter and heads off on a picaresque adventure, and each encounter he has along the way hasa transformative effect.

I confess, I had my reservations. The first act is set in what is rapidly becoming …
Read More

I Wanna Hold Your Hand

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 4th, 2004

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/lwrept5/public_html/Upcomingdiscs.com/wp-content/themes/upcomingdiscs/functions.php on line 453

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

It’s 1964 and The Beatles are about to make their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.Teenage girls are losing their minds. We focus on four (with two boys in tow) who head off toNew York to try to crash the show and meet the band. Our heroines are the Shrieking Fan, theWould-Be Photographer, the New-Fiancee-Who-Has-Other-Things-On-Her-Mind and theBeatles-Hater.

This was a bomb in 1978, perhaps because it wasn’t hugely different from the sort of thing…
Read More

Track Down

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 30th, 2004

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/lwrept5/public_html/Upcomingdiscs.com/wp-content/themes/upcomingdiscs/functions.php on line 453

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Kevin Mitnick (Skeet Ulrich) is cyberoutlaw supreme, breaking into computer networksright, left and centre. The police are trying to catch him, but our hopelessly outclassed. Mitnickencounters an opponent more worthy of his talents when he hacks into the files of securityconsultant Tsutomu Shimomura (Russell Wong). The latter uses his own formidable computerskills to track Mitnick, but meanwhile Mitnick is busy trying to crack the encryption on one ofShimomura’s files, a pr…
Read More

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 27th, 2004

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/lwrept5/public_html/Upcomingdiscs.com/wp-content/themes/upcomingdiscs/functions.php on line 453

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Jim Carrey wakes up on Valentine’s Day in a funk. On the spur of the moment, he takes offto Montauk, where he meets Kate Winslet. Sparks fly, and a relationship seems about to be born.We suddenly flash back in time, and realize that, though they no longer remember it, these twohave previously had a relationship. When it collapsed, Winslet availed herself of the services ofLacuna, a company that erases unpleasant memories. Carrey has been removed from hermemory. Dist…
Read More

Garfield – The Movie

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 24th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Garfield goes about his happy existence, scarfing lasagna, tormenting the neighbourhooddog, and taking advantage of fellow cat Nermal’s stupidity. Chaos arrives when Jon (BreckinMeyer), hoping to impress vet Liz (Jennifer Love Hewitt) adopts Odie the dog. Garfield doesall he can to remove Odie from the home, but when Odie actually is kidnapped by an evil animalshow host, Garfield heads off to the city on a perilous rescue.

Other than Garfield’s look and an appropria…
Read More

My Name is Modesty

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 24th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

An orphan who learned to survive in the cauldron of the war-torn Balkans, Modesty Blaise(Alexandra Staden) now runs a casino in Tangiers for kingping Mr. Louche. But her boss iskilled, and armed men invade the casino, taking Modesty and fellow employees hostage.Modesty plays for time by engaging the leader of the gang (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) in endlessrounds of roulette, with the prizes being the liberation of hostages versus the truth of herbackground.

This is an…
Read More

Demon Within, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 21st, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Katie Wright is an English art student studying in San Francisco. She is a bit of an odd duck,and after being disturbed by her inability to see a first date through, she avoids the boy who askedher out. She is having problems in class too, as she keeps sculpting not the model before her, butthe faces of the man we know is her neighbour: insane actor Jeff Fahey. Things get even worsewhen Wright winds up sculpting one of Fahey’s victims.

Having the heroine unintentionally pro…
Read More

Whole Ten Yards

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 20th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

The Whole Nine Yards was a pretty funny film. It wasn’t outstanding. It wasn’t classic cinema. It certainly didn’t cry out for a sequel. The Whole Ten Yards goes one yard too far. Most of the original cast is back, but the film has no life. Even the laughs are forced. By now the novelty of the characters has long since worn thin. Bruce Willis seems to be acting for acting’s sake. The mood swings and unnecessary facial exaggerations seem to provide Willis with some distraction from how empty the rest of the film is. I…
Read More

My New Gun

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 20th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Diane Lane’s jerk of a husband, always imitating his best friend, buys her a gun she does notwant. Bizarre neighbour James LeGros asks to borrow the gun. Lane turns down the request, butLeGros helps himself anyway, and a chain of events as bizarre as it is low key is sent inmotion.

Owing some of its dry, absurd humour to David Lynch, My New Gun is also morefirmly grounded in a recognizable world than is Lynch’s work. The pace might be a tad too muchon the l…
Read More

Chastity

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 17th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Chastity (Cher) is a runaway, careening from one encounter to the other in a desperate searchfor herself and an attempt to escape the nightmare of her past. Mostly this means wanderingaround in an extremely sullen mood and treating everyone around her like dirt. How verysympathetic. This 1969 effort pretty much encapsulates everything that could make a sixties filmintolerable. Precious and portentous, it achieves a certain degree of unintentional comedy. SEE!The endless ope…
Read More

Good Times

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 17th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

When sinister businessman George Sanders offers to produce a film starring Sonny and Cher,Sonny can’t wait to get started, though Cher has severe doubts. It turns out the shooting scriptis impossibly bad, and Sonny has ten days to come up with an alternative. We see his fantasiesof various film possibilities (western, mystery, jungle adventure), each one clearly a catastrophein its own right.

This was the directorial debut of William Friedkin. Of course it was! Obvi…
Read More

Unspeakable

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 15th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Psychologist Dina Meyer has a device that, all jargon put aside, permits one to literally seeinto the mind of a subject. Since it has no legal standing, this machine is of no help to aninnocent death-row inmate. Nor, for that matter, is the warden (Dennis Hopper), a fundamentalisttyrant, nor the governor (Jeff Fahey), a greasy political operator who, behind his Family Valuesimage, once got an underage Meyer pregnant. Into the prison comes serial killer Pavan Grover,who is n…
Read More

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 15th, 2004

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Very much an allegory, the film moves through the seasons of the title, each one representinga season in a man’s life. In Spring, then, he is a little boy. In Summer, an adolescent. And so on(young man, middle-aged man, older man). The scene remains the same: a Buddhist templefloating on a lake, surrounded by mountains. The other characters are the elderly monk who israising the boy, and the young girl who enters his life in adolescence. The story is told with aminimum of d…
Read More

«< 48 49 50 51 52 >»