Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 24th, 2005
White Noise borrows much from the successful cycle of modern horror films. There is a tremendous likeness to both The Ring and FearDotCom. The use of a television screen for eerie f/x and a few shocks reminds us of the former, while the torture of the kidnapped victim in industrial and dank surroundings is taken right out of the latter. White Noise has some wonderfully disturbing moments. The atmosphere is rank with just enough possibility to be truly scary at times. Michael Keaton adds that element of respectability and believability which carries a weak script much farther than it deserves. I should also point out that the cinematography is simply brilliant.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 23rd, 2005
As is the trend for today, this is the Special Edition re-release of The Day After Tomorrow tagged as the All-Access Collector's Edition. As much of this set is the same as the original release, pieces of this review will be taken from our prior review of The Day After Tomorrow.
Storms both freakish and intense devastate the planet. Climatologist Dennis Quaid realizes that the world is on the brink of a sudden new ice age.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 21st, 2005
Kinsey, starring Liam Neeson, is a film that seems more relevant today. Albert Kinsey, known to his students as Prok, had to fight societal conservatism to get his work published and recognized. The movie is part biography/part sociological study. The director/writer Bill Condon traces Kinsey’s life from early childhood to older age. The flaws of the film are a matter of narrative clarity: in two hours, Condon tries to pack too much in. However, Kinsey sports a strong cast, which makes the two hou...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 21st, 2005
There’s nothing like a big Hollywood epic. And Martin Scorsese is the man to deliver. The Aviator is a tantalizing blend of Old Hollywood and modern filmmaking panache. The movie tells the story of Howard Hughes. He rose to fame as a Hollywood producer and aviator extraordinaire. Eventually, Hughes descended into a crippling OCD affliction. The movie gives us a taste of the tragedy to come, but doesn’t dwell on it. The Aviator is a thrilling ride into the world of a complicated man.
The...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 11th, 2005
What the Bleep Do We Know!? appears to be a New Age film without actually saying the words “New” or “Age.” Consider this, the film, produced by Captured Light & Lord of the Wind Films, is about “a life-changing journey with Amanda (Marlee Matlin, Children of a Lesser “God), a divorced photographer who tumbles down a metaphysical rabbit hole.”
Now, that premise sounds interesting enough, you’re unsure where Amanda will wind up or how she’ll get there. But read on…”Her mind-bending voyage throug...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 6th, 2005
Synopsis
The setting is a top New York publishing house, and our central characters are three womenbeginning their careers at the bottom of the secretarial ladder. Hope Lange is the smart one witha will, who might make a first-class editor. Diane Baker is the naive innocent, doomed to bepreyed on. Suzy Parker wants to dump the office pool for acting, and she begins a difficultrelationship with theatre director Louis Jourdan. Meanwhile, there is tyrannical editor JoanCrawford (whose ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 6th, 2005
There are a lot of dumb movies out there. But there's a good kind of dumb and a bad kind of dumb. National Treasure falls into the good dumb category. Nicholas Cage plays Ben Gates, a treasure hunter, an archaeologist I'm really not sure. But his mission is to steal the Declaration of Independence in order to prevent the "bad" archaeologists from taking it. Make sense? There are hidden clues, apparently, in this document which lead to hidden treasure. A treasure Gates' grandfather (played by Christophe...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 5th, 2005
Synopsis
Antonio (Jeremy Irons), silently in love with his friend Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes) acts asguarantor for a loan Bassanio needs in order to woo the beautiful Portia (Lynn Collins). Theyborrow the sum from Shylock (Al Pacino) who demands, should Antonio default, a pound offlesh (literally). Bassanio’s adventures in love are successful, but Antonio’s ships founder, andShylock, distressed over his daughter’s elopement and incessant anti-Semitism he hasexperienced, demands his te...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 4th, 2005
Wes Anderson has been a breath of fresh air since he hit the Hollywood scene in 1996 with his first feature length film Bottle Rocket. Since then, Anderson has continued to stretch the imagination of film-goers with fabulous films such Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), and now with The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). Anderson’s films are not for every joe-schmo film fan; his work could even be described as an acquired taste. But from a creative and visual perspective,...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 1st, 2005
Synopsis
This is an interesting collection, with two of the films being among the most famous SteveMcQueen was ever involved with, and the other two being noticeably less high profile. TheMagnificent Seven (1960) is one of the last and greatest of the straightforward westerns,before the deconstruction of the genre at the hands of Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah, andeven here the death of the west is foregrounded theme, with Yul Brynner, McQueen, JamesCoburn, Charles Bronson an...
