Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 16th, 2004
Synopsis
Devastated by being dumped by his fiancee (Minnie Driver), Colin Firth flees to OldeEngland for New, attracted by the refuge offered by the name of the town of Hope. There hemeets wild child of nature Heather Graham, and begins to fall in love. Re-enter Minnie Driver,and a revelation that complicates things considerably. How will the triangle be resolved?
And do you care? Firth doesn’t stretch much, filtering the stiff befuddlement of his Mr.Darcy variations from < ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 15th, 2004
Synopsis
Spencer Tracy arrives in the research department of the “Federal Broadcasting Company”to install a computer. He is sworn to secrecy by the president of the network, however, and soresearch head Katherine Hepburn and her co-workers assume they are to be made redundant.Sparks are clearly flying between her and Tracy, however, even if this romantic tension remainsvery much an undercurrent to their witty banter. Also on the scene is Gig Young, Hepburn’srather callow and thought...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 12th, 2004
Synopsis
Sofia Milos has been widowed for years, but still refuses to start dating again. Her daughter(Emmy Rossum) tries to set her up, but with disastrous results. Jason Isaacs is a slightly seedybut charming-in-his-own way gambler who falls for Milos when he sees her sing. His clumsypursuit appears doomed to failure, until Rossum makes him a deal: if he teaches her how to countcards, she’ll help him win Milos.
Nothing in this film can really be said to be surprising. Once...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 12th, 2004
Synopsis
Carlo (Stefano Accorsi) and his live-in girlfriend (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) aren’t married,and he has no inclination yet to change this. She is pregnant, however, and the spectre of totalcommitment sends him into a blind panic. Also freaking out over adulthood and responsibilitiesare his buddies. Meanwhile, Mezzogiorno’s mother (Stefania Sandrelli) is dismayed by the ideaof becoming a grandmother, and, feeling rejected by her distant husband, seeks to revive an oldromance of ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 11th, 2004
Synopsis
Vincent D’Onofrio plays Valentino, AIDS-stricken former porn star who is the centre ofa subcultural social whirl in NYC. He splits his affections between male prostitute Thomas Janeand in-your-face-and-then-some waitress Salma Hayek. As the disease takes its toll, Jane andHayek must overcome their differences to support D’Onofrio. Then there’s the fact that Hayekis pregnant...
The film is very affectionate toward its collection of flamboyantly non-mainstreamcharac...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 9th, 2004
The Final Countdown belongs to that subculture of science fiction that asks the time related what if’s. There have been a great number of books and stories about alternative histories. The Civil War has long been one of the most fertile grounds for this speculative fiction. Most scenarios about World War II generally involved the killing of Hitler as a child or sometime before his leadership. This film not only explores a different aspect of the War but is brave enough to not resolve the question. What would happen i...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 29th, 2004
Hot on the heels of The Great Race, Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines was a bit of silliness and fun for 20th Century Fox. The Monty Python-styled opening credits set the tone for this British humor film, also known as How I Flew From London To Paris in 25 Hours and 11 Minutes. If the film suffers at all, it is the length. At almost 2 1/2 hours, it takes quite a while to get to the race. It’s almost 2 hours before the meat of the film begins. While there are many clever and memorable...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 28th, 2004
Often, the success of one film in theaters will bring on a wave of classics on DVD with a similar theme. In this case, the new films are Pirates of the Caribbean and Master and Commander. These modern box office successes have prompted 20th Century Fox to release some classic films about the high seas onto DVD. One such film is A High Wind in Jamaica.
There are quite a few problems with this film, but most of them lie within the narrative. The technical aspects are all handled well, wit...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 26th, 2004
Hayden Christensen is the very incarnation of smarm as Stephen Glass, hot-shot writer for The New Republic. His stories are all fabulous, seemingly too good to be true. Which is, in fact, the problem. His tissue of lies begins to unravel when Steve Zahn, reporter for Forbes Digital, tries to follow up one of Christensen’s articles, and can’t find a single legitimate fact. Peter Sarsgaard is Chuck Lane, Christensen’s editor, and he begins to smell a very big rat.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 23rd, 2004
Synopsis
Bloodthirsty pirate Henry Morgan (Robert Stevens) is starving Jamaica by seizing almostany ship that tries to make it there. He seems impregnable in his fortress on the island of Tortuga.Privateer Captain Bart (Ken Scott) arrives to find some way to defeat Morgan. His journey to theCaribbean is complicated somewhat by the presence of stowaway Meg (Leticia Roman), aspririted...er... wench... who has dreams of being a lady.
You always thought My Fair Lady would...
