Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 27th, 2004
Synopsis
Fisherman Richard Harris ignores the warnings of whale expert Charlotte Rampling andattempts to capture a killer whale, the idea being to make a mint by selling it to an aquarium.Everything goes horribly wrong, and he accidentally kills a pregnant female (the scene is prettydamn gruesome). The whale’s mate mounts a vendetta against Harris. It attacks boats and causeshuge fires, turning the town against him, and then lures him out for a final confrontation.
The Ja...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 21st, 2004
Synopsis
Turns out Kong didn’t die at the foot of the World Trade Center. He’s been kept alive(though in a coma) in a University lab for the last ten years. Linda Hamilton has designed a hugeartificial heart for him, but he needs a massive blood transfusion. By lucky coincidence,adventurer Brian Kerwin is wandering around a set that is supposed to be Borneo, and hestumbles upon a female Kong. A half-dozen tribesmen with blowdarts promptly sedate her (asimple solution to monster trou...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 18th, 2004
Synopsis
Recently divorced Diane Wiest moves with her two sons Jason Patric and Corey Haim tothe California community of Santa Carla, where teenage vampires (headed by Kiefer Sutherland)cruise the boardwalk. Patric is initiated into the gang, but resists his vampiric urges, and Haimcalls in gonzo teen vampire hunters Corey Feldman and Jamsion Newlander to fight thebloodsuckers.
During the 1980s, some tributaries of the horror genre flowed into some very stagnant, fetidswam...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 18th, 2004
Synopsis
Goldie Hawn plays Lou Jean, a woman as hysterical as she is stupid (she makes the bag ofhammers look like Kierkegaard), descends on her slightly more intelligent husband, Clovis(William Atherton). Clovis is four months from release from prison, but she insists he break outRIGHT NOW and come with her to fetch their baby Langston from his foster home in Sugarland.They wind up taking Texas State Trooper Michael Sacks hostage, and travel across Texas,pursued by what looks like ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 17th, 2004
Synopsis
Julianne Moore and Pierce Brosnan are two formidable divorce attorneys. Neither has losta case prior to meeting each other. Thereafter, they wind up taking turns going down to defeat. Adrinking contest leads to a night together, one that Moore would rather forget, but we know thesetwo are going to wind up together even as they spar in court. When another drunk binge leads tothe two getting married, they must pretend to love each other, even if they don’t. Or do they?
< ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 16th, 2004
Synopsis
The time is the Great Depression, and the setting is the isolated mountain village of Dogville.One night, a beautiful stranger named Grace (Nicole Kidman) arrives, pursued by gangsters.Would-be writer and pretentious pseudo-philosopher Tom (Paul Bettany) hides Grace, and thenpersuades the town to give her refuge. In order to win the townspeople over, Grace sets out tohelp each household for an hour each day. After some initial reluctance, the townspeopleembrace her and her ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 14th, 2004
Synopsis
Depressed by the US government’s genocide of Native Americans, Frank T. Hopkins (ViggoMortensen) is drinking himself into oblivion while working for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.His horse, a Mustang named Hidalgo, has been called the world’s best endurance racer, whichdraws the ire of an Arabian shiek, who feels his horse owns that title. Honour challenged,Hopkins travels to the Arabian Desert to take part in a gruelling 3,000-mile race.
Having gone out of its way ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 14th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 12th, 2004
There was a time, even as late as the 90’s, when making an anti-American film was still taboo in Hollywood. Of course today, movies like Fahrenheit 9/11 are big money makers, but for many years, such films were discouraged. Air America is one of the rare exceptions to this rule. This may be due to the fact that it was disguised as a comedy about the Vietnam conflict, but no matter how you look at it, the film is quite critical of the US government, and it makes some pretty scathing accusations about our...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 12th, 2004
Synopsis
In 2024, the Earth’s ozone layer has been depleted (or so most assume), and life is protectedby an electromagnetic shield designed by Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert). Eco-crusaderVirginia Madsen, however, believes that the ozone layer has restored itself, and the corporationthat runs the shield is maintaining it for its own purposes. Meanwhile, back in the past, villainMichael Ironside sends assassins to the future to kill Lambert, who is an aging man as the filmbegins...
