Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 26th, 2005
Synopsis
A pair of human smugglers accidentally take off with the baby of one of the immigrants they dropped off inside the Czech republic. They bring the baby to a pawn shop, where it is subsequently sold to a woman who is so desperate to have a child that she tries to abduct someone else’s. Her husband is soccer hooligan trying to go straight. He might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he recognizes trouble when he sees it. Meanwhile, the mother of the baby has sought help with a refugee...agency, which is run by a woman whose long-time lover has a brain tumour, and would finally like a divorce from his long-separated wife.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 24th, 2005
Synopsis
Rebel Without a Cause (1955) is the landmark, because of its star, and because of its subject matter. This intense, rich portrayal of juvenile delinquency triggered a flood of largely exploitive imitators, but it remains a powerful film, not least for the sympathy with which it treats its characters, and for its understanding. It shows why the Dean, Natalie Wood and company behave the way they do, and does not demonize. This was Dean’s second film, but the first to be released, and hi... performance here remains his most iconic role.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 16th, 2005
Fever Pitch is an American-ized version of the Nick Hornby novel and subsequent British Film. American-ized usually means “watered downâ€, and there’s no doubt a lot of the bite from the original source material is missing. But I am a big fan of the movies High Fidelity and About a Boy. Instead of soccer, the protagonist’s obsession, in this Fever Pitch is baseball (in particular the Red Sox). This obsession gets in the way of having healthy relationships. I think the change of...sport still works; pitch is an apt baseball term. And the correlation between heartbreak in love and heartbreak in Red Sox fans is also relevant. But how is the movie?
Well, the movie is directed by the Farrelly Brothers. So there’s the typical physical and gross out humor one might expect from the fraternal duo. But this is a more, shall we say, “mature†work? The Farrelly’s are really subdued here (sometimes bordering on tepid). Shallow Hal this ain’t. But the material doesn’t lend itself to their hi-jinks. Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore are the stars of this truthful romantic comedy. After the embarrassing Taxi, Fallon shows some range here. Barrymore also surprises with the degree of emotional truth in some scenes. The movie gains steam as it goes along, much like a baseball season, and the combination of smarts and schmaltz (from veteran writers Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel) did win me over in the end. And I’m a Red Sox fan.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 7th, 2005
Synopsis
When Glynis Johns’ car breaks down, she seeks help at the mansion run by Dr. Caligari (Dan O’Herlihy), who promptly makes her prisoner. He won’t let her leave, he says, until she tells him everything about her most intimate life. All of the other guests at the house won’t help her, and everyone has a tendency to speak in riddles. Our heroine descends deeper and deeper into a nightmarish psychological trap.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 5th, 2005
Synopsis
In 19th-Century Edinburgh, medical doctor Timothy Dalton needs bodies in order to further medical science. He avails himself of the services of two scoundrels (Johnathan Pryce and Stephen Rea), who provide him with extremely fresh specimens. Disturbingly fresh, as assistant Julian Sands is quick to realize. Dalton contends that the ends justify the means, even if those means are murder.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 4th, 2005
Synopsis
Based on Henry James’ novella The Turn of the Screw, this is the tale of a repressed governess (Deborah Kerr), who arrives at a country estate to care for two young children. She soon becomes convinced that the ghosts of the valet and the previous governess are haunting the place, and have evil designs on the children.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 19th, 2005
Synopsis
Charlton Heston is the title character, a Union officer who determines on his own hook to track down a group of Apache raiders. He gathers together a ragtag group of raw recruits, criminals and Confederate prisoners, and heads off to Mexico. His second-in-command is Confederate officer Richard Harris, and the two men have a long history of mutual hatred and respect. Heston forges ahead despite all obstacles, and despite the costs both to his men and to the civilians they encounter.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 12th, 2005
This is one of those films that is depressing solely for the sake of being depressing. There was a string of these kinds of films in the 90's, but they have gone out of style as of the past seven years or so. This particular film tells the story of what happens to a dysfunctional family when one of the members commits suicide. Apparently, each member of the family grieves in his or her own way, all of which are wildly dangerous. Sexual promiscuity, substance abuse, lawlessness and despair abound in this tale of miser... and woe. In fact, just when you don't think this film can get any more screwed up, it goes one step further.
The acting is top-notch, but the script is painfully sub-par. Plot twists are easily perceived way in advance, and the inevitable questions that arise after a suicide are addressed in a way that, quite frankly, seems to make the answers a bit to easy. Let's face it, suicide is an extremely heavy subject, and one that is very hard to discuss. This film attempts a monumental task, and gives it an admirable try, but just doesn't quite live up to the goals it sets for itself.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 9th, 2005
The term Reivers, it is explained, is a turn of the century word for thieves. From that explanation one might expect an action adventure heist film. What you get instead is a Faulkner coming of age story. While the film has quite a few memorable moments of pure Americana, there seems little point in anything that happens on screen. Even the wonderful acting of Steve McQueen leaves most of the film muddied in a period piece about nothing at all. Burgess Meredith does a fine job of narrating the film from the point of view of an old man recalling a moment in his 11th year. I think I would have rather had Meredith providing a books on tape version of the original Faulkner work. The cinematography appears older than its 1969 production year implies. I don’t feel like I got to know these characters enough to simply want to be with them. The adventure is anything but. There’s a questionable moral character to the entire premise.
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 8th, 2005
Synopsis
The surviving characters from the cliffhanger ending of Dracula II: Ascension pick up the chase. Pursuing Dracula (or rather, the much-older being who uses that name, and who was said to be Judas in earlier installments, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore, either) are Jason Scott Lee as Uffizi, the vampire-killing priest now slowly turning into a vampire himself, and Jason London, whose girlfriend was snatched at the end of the last film. They travel through a Romania beset ...y civil war, where vampires run rampant not only through the countryside, but apparently in the government as well.
