Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 9th, 2007
Four years after Jackass: The Movie took the popular MTV franchise to the big screen, Johnny Knoxville and his gang returned to theatres with Jackass - Number Two. The sequel is bigger, bolder and much more disgusting. But is it better?
In my humble opinion, the sequel equates to more of the same. If you loved the original, you'll eat this up. If you hated it - and we both know those are the only two options - you can happily make indignant remarks to any friends or family in the "love it" camp.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 8th, 2007
Sven Garrett plays the Photographer, who, when not exercising his profession of photographing beautiful women, is busy torturing and killing them. His girlfriend’s little sister (Jade Risser) thinks there’s something creepy about him, but isn’t listened to. Meanwhile, the bodies pile up.
There’s not a heck of a lot more to the plot than that. The title is an apt description of the film: it is basically a collection of set pieces. References to Nazi Germany and footage of 9/11 are tossed in to no very compelling purpose. The acting is painful, as is the dialogue (what one can make out of it – more on this below). This is a film that has stirred up quite a fuss among the critics, horror or otherwise, but viewers wanting to see what all the fuss is about won’t be enlightened by this release. The film originally ran 105 minutes, according to IMDB. This version runs 83. So when I said this is a collection of set pieces, I should have said “truncated” set pieces, and all the really nasty stuff is completely absent. The result is akin to a hardcore porn film with the sex removed. The actual technical aspects of the film are quite slick, but that doesn’t make it watchable.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 7th, 2007
Truth be told ladies and gentlemen, before receiving The Breakfast Club in for review, I couldn�t even begin to fathom the fan base this film has had since its 1985 release. After all how interesting does a film where 5 students are put in detention sound? After seeing the film, I believe the interest lies not necessarily in the basic premise of the film, but the overall impact the five students have on themselves and, more importantly, the viewer.
Crammed inside their school library, 5 different students all of different social status, intelligence and build must spend their Saturday serving detention. We have the Jock (Emilio Estevez), the Brian (Anthony Michael Hall), the Criminal (Judd Nelson), the Princess (Molly Ringwald) and the Kook (Ally Sheedy), most of who have never spoken a word or even glanced at one another. Even though these 5 different students never got along with each other before this day, by the end of the film they all develop a bond none of them figured they ever would. Each open themselves up revealing sides about themselves never heard before. As the tagline tells us, to the outside world these 5 students were the Jock, the Brian, the Criminal, the Princess and the Kook, but to each other they will always be The Breakfast Club.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 7th, 2007
For the longest time I avoided Field of Dreams. This is simply because I�ve never really liked Kevin Costner as an actor, and mainly because I figured a film about baseball starring him would be boring. Boy was I wrong on this one. Sure Field of Dreams isn�t the best film ever made, but damn if it�s not a film that one can�t help but enjoy slowly falling for the story, characters and surroundings.
Ray Kinsella (Costner) is a simple man who has a lovely wife named Annie (Amy Madigan). Ray decides to move to Iowa soon buying a farm. One night, while in the crops, Ray beings to hear a calm, subdued voice that repeats, �if you build it, he will come�. Ray begins to think it�s a sound truck or a bunch of kids playing a joke. Soon the chant happens again only this time Ray sees a vision of a baseball field. (Remember the scandal surrounding the 1918 White Sox where 8 of them were suspended over apparently being paid to throw the World Series). Once the field is built, Ray�s young daughter Karin (Gaby Hoffmann) tells her daddy that a strange man is walking in the field. Ray goes out and sees none other than Shoeless Joe Jackson (the always fabulous Ray Liotta). The rest of the film follows Ray receiving more clues that lead him to meeting more players including one particularly important player.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 5th, 2007
Here we go, with another rise and fall story in the underworld. Two young friends in Jamaica, Biggs and Wayne, grow up separately to become powerful gangsters (the “shottas” of the title). After a prolonged separation, they reunite in Kingston, and the story takes them back and forth between that city and Miami as they climb the drug totem pole, heading for the inevitable fall shown pre-credits.
All the characters speak Jamaican patois, making subtitle necessary. This and the vision of the grinding poverty of Kingston give a certain freshness to the film, but the storyline is utterly hackneyed, and we know nothing about the characters we are following, let alone have any reason to sympathize with them. Attitudes toward women are, as one might expect, antediluvian. Imagine a Grand Theft Auto storyline presented with all the humour and satire removed, and this is what you’d get.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 5th, 2007
You may have heard this one before. Annabelle (Erin Kelly, channelling Leelee Sobieski) is the hellraising daughter of a US Senator, sent to a Catholic girls’ school to be out of sight and out of trouble. Her rebellious ways continue, however, and she falls in love with her poetry teacher Simone (Diane Gaidry). Much angst, particularly on Simone’s part, ensues, not to mention inevitable walks on the beach and much Lilith Fair-style musical noodlings (our heroines would clearly die of shock if they had a run-in with Maria Beatty), before the consummation and the rather sudden ending of the movie arrive.
Kelly and Gaidry turn in good work, and succinctness of the storytelling keeps the viewer’s interest. There is a larger problem, though, than the movie’s rather overdone storyline and not-terribly-original narrative technique. In the making-of featurette, writer/director Katherine Brooks acknowledges the inspiration provided by Mädchen in Uniform, and how she had wished the student and teacher had gotten together in that film because that would have been “hot.” All right, so that makes this pic something a fantasy. Fair enough. But she also wants a real-world tie-in to all the stories in the news about teachers arrested for having sex with their students, only her take is sympathetic. This leads to some intellectual dishonesty. Having the student actively seduce the teacher is a neat but cheap cop-out from dealing with the unbalanced, predatory power dynamic such a relationship implies. Any truly ethical teacher would have run in a blind panic from a student making the advances Annabelle does, but Simone only utters one line at the end of the film to suggest that her many haunted looks might have been caused by the notion that what she is tempted to do might be wrong. I have this sense of the film trying to have things both ways, and it simply can’t. But even with these knocks against it, it remains a not unengaging romance.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 2nd, 2007
On its surface, The Promise seems to have a good pedigree backing it up. You've got the guy who directed Farewell, My Concubine and the cinematographer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, combining forces for a Chinese film that is epic in scope, similar to the Zhang Yimou films Hero and House of Flying Daggers.
The problem with The Promise is that the story rambles a bit, and the characters are ones that you don't care about. The stunts aren't even breathtaking either, as the visual effects are apparently done with wires and green screens, and can be made out so obviously, they lack the magic and wonder of the Yimou films, or even other films like Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 30th, 2006
Comments on the supplemental material on this edition have been ported over from Ryan Erb's excellent (and recent) review of the HD DVD, which also can be enjoyed on this site. Now onto this review...
Remember when it was announced that far-left conspiracy theorist (and resident Castro admirer) Oliver Stone would be making a film about the September 11 attacks? Of course you do. In fact, the collective pucker of the nation tightened in horror and trepidation when the notion was first thrown around, and later grew in suspicion as the film's realization became closer and closer.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 29th, 2006
Hilary Duff vehicle Material Girls hit theatres in August 2006, and failed miserably. That fact was my only comfort while I wasted 98-minutes of my life watching this movie.
I fully expected to dislike this teeny-bop flick, but I was actually surprised by just how bad it actually was. Hilary Duff and sister Haylie probably wish they'd never made this movie, though I imagine the paycheck would make up for this blotch on their filmography. I'm hoping the same is true for Angelica Huston (The Royal Tenenbaums) and Brent Spiner (Star Trek's Data), who play cringe-worthy supporting roles.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 22nd, 2006
In case Rain Man didn’t give you your fill of films about autistic characters, Ron Bass, writer of Rain Man, has decided to give us an unnecessary sequel. OK, this isn’t really a sequel, but it might as well be. Honestly, this film has everything Rain Man had except for a good scripts, solid performances, and oh yeah, Dustin Hoffman. Still, this romantic nonsense utilizes the same theme. Unfortunately autism here is reduced at times to stereotyping that appears grossly unfair to the millions of people who suffer from the disability and their loved ones. Some of the actors appear to be having a blast with their portrayals. They should be ashamed of the glee they derive from these “crazy” routines. They are neither entertaining nor fair. I’m sure none of this was the intent of the filmmakers, but it is insulting just the same. This is a huge part of the reason this film never has or never will capture the critical acclaim of Rain Man. In fairness, the leads Josh Hartnett and Redhe Mitchell take the roles more seriously than the pathetic supporting cast. There isn’t enough compelling for any of this to work on anything more than an emotional level.
Guts may make a good first impression, but this film has neither guts nor a good impression. The film pretends to have incredible bravado, but the mask of cowardice prevails. Except for the romantic interactions of the leads, we are never allowed too far beneath the surface of any of these complex individuals. Because of this fatal flaw, the romantic quirkiness loses all of its charm. An over-explanation of who these people are is a not so subtle attempt to remind us these folks suffer from autism. Show me, don’t tell me, is what my writing teachers have always said. Bass might benefit from a refresher course. Quirkiness like this is much more interesting the less it is explained. Allow these limitations to be part of the character without so many “remember we have autism” lines. The title is very confusing until you get to a pivotal Halloween party. Life is far too accelerated to be appreciated here. Issues arise from out of nowhere and are just as quickly resolved or simply forgotten. Wherever this tale is going, it missed a connection somewhere up the line. Save your nickels and watch Rain Man again. You’ll thank me for it.
![The Breakfast Club [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-breakfast-club-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
![Field of Dreams [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/field-of-dreams-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
