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Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 19th, 2003

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Based one the wildly successful Harry Potter series of novels, this film is based on book two of the series. As sophomore jinx’s go this one could have been far worse, the problem here is we no longer have the wonder of a new world to explore but, we still have characters that are not fully fleshed out yet either. The plot is somewhat predictable in that we have the same villain as the previous novel, albeit in a different form. Harry Potter and the usual cast of characters return for another year of adventure at Hog…
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American Family – The Complete First Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 19th, 2003

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Synopsis

The protagonists are the members of the Gonzales family, who live in East LA. The serieschronicles their many ups and downs, some comical — struggles between the father and hisfirebrand activist daughter, the drama queen aunt confronted by her daughter’s desire to be asingle mother — and other are less so, as in the recently paroled son who finds the difficulties ofparenting compounded by legal entanglements. The makers of the series are proud that this is thefirst of its…
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Borderline

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 17th, 2003

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Synopsis

Gina Gershon is a prison psychiatrist. She is in the middle of a custody battle with her ex-husband, and she loses the case. The night her kids are taken from her, however, someone killsthe ex and his new wife. Gershon’s recently released patients are investigated by her newboyfriend, cop Michael Biehn. Looks like Sean Patrick Flanery is the one obsessively in lovewith Gershon, and will stop at nothing to bring them together. Competently staged, but no more.Nothing new here…
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Darkness Falls

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 17th, 2003

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Synopsis

A woman, wrongly accused of killing children, is hanged and curses the town of DarknessFalls. Now she is the Tooth Fairy, vulnerable to light, but otherwise deadly. If you peak whenshe comes for your tooth, you’re toast. In what is the scariest scene of the film, young Kyle seesher and escapes with his life (though his mother doesn’t). Twelve years later, the young brotherof Kyle’s old crush Caitlin is similarly haunted. Kyle is drawn back to Darkness Falls, there toconfron…
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Eye of God

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 17th, 2003

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Synopsis

The film unfolds in a series of interlocking scenes, all occurring at different times. The talebeing told concerns the arrival in a small Oklahoma town of an ex-con (Kevin Anderson), whodeveloped a prison-correspondence romance with shy Martha Plimpton. In the present, SheriffHal Holbrook is investigating a murder, and the flashbacks to Anderson and Plimpton, as wellas another series of flashbacks involving a quiet, somewhat disturbed teenager (Nick Stahl),show us what led …
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Walk, Don’t Run

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 15th, 2003

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Synopsis

Cary Grant plays Sir William Rutland, British industrialist. He has arrived in Tokyo two daysearlier than his hotel reservation, and what with the Olympics going on, there isn’t a room to behad. He fast-talks his way into sharing the apartment of Samantha Eggar, a young woman withobsessive clock-watching habits. She isn’t thrilled to be sharing her apartment with a man, and iseven less thrilled when Grant brings home prickly architect/Olympic athlete Jim Hutton. Eggar iseng…
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X-Files – The Complete Seventh Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 14th, 2003

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The X-files was one of the best written and directed shows on television, this unfortunately is the last year that the show held onto it‘s audience and originality. We start the season off with the two part season opener “The Sixth Extinction” and “The Sixth Extinction II” with Scully in Africa looking for a cure for Mulder’s mental state. In the middle we have the strangely sublime “X-cops” that finds Mulder and Scully on patrol with the Cops TV crew. We also find the typical mix of X-files weird and wonderfulness i…
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Swimmer, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 14th, 2003

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Synopsis

Burt Lancaster, a member of the New England aristocracy, wanders out of the forest andleaps into some friends’ swimming pool. After much overly hearty banter, he realizes that thereis an unbroken link of swimming pools between here and his home. He sets off, and at each pool,there is a revelatory encounter of some sort. We gradually find out more and more about him, andit soon becomes clear that all is not sweetness and light in his world. The film is extremelystylized, and…
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Dream with the Fishes

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 13th, 2003

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Synopsis

David Arquette, terminal loser, utterly verklempt, and unable to get over the death of hiswife, decides to jump off a bridge. He is talked down by selfish sleaze Brad Hunt, who convinceshim to take sleeping pills instead. The pills turn out to be vitamins. Hunt, however, actually isdying, and has only a few weeks to live. He strikes a deal with Arquette. If Arquette will bankrollHunt’s last spree, indulging in all his fantasies (nude bowling, etc.), he will kill Arquette at t…
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Secretary

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 12th, 2003

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Synopsis

Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a young woman utterly lacking in self-confidence, andgiven to deliberately cutting herself. She gets her first job as secretary to E. Edward Grey (JamesSpader), as tightly wound and ferociously self-isolated and individual as you could imagine.What happens when the sadist meets the masochist? Sparks fly. Low key and sharply sly, thiswinning film shows (along with Amelie and Kissing Jessica Stein) that there is life in theromantic comedy g…
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Red Dragon

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 10th, 2003

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Red Dragon is not only the prequel to The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, but it is also a remake of a film called Manhunter. The story fits nicely into the Hannibal Lector trilogy, and the story holds true to Manhunter.

Synopsis

After a brush with death and Hannibal Lecter, FBI agent Will Graham (Edward Norton) is called back into service to capture an elusive new killer “The Tooth Fairy”. Forced to face his fears and Doctor Lecter once again Will starts to get pulled into the …
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Best of the Power Rangers – The Ultimate Rangers

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 8th, 2003

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Synopsis

Five Power Rangers adventures, three of which are two-parters, add up to almost three hours-worth of material. The cheerful super-powered teens go up against the regular batch of rubber-suited bad guys. If you want your kids to develop an early appreciation of camp, this is just theticket. If you’re not already familiar with the basic premise of the series, the plot lines could be alittle confusing.

Audio

Ouch. The 2.0 surround is a very harsh mix. …
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Disney’s Sing Along Songs – The Lion King Circle of Life

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 8th, 2003

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Synopsis

Nothing really to summarize here: 13 clips of musical numbers from everything from TheLion King to Pinocchio to Aladdin. Captions encourage viewers to sing along. There are severalnew songs from recent direct-to-video movies too.

Audio

This isn’t a sound effects disc, so what is of interest is the music, and the 5.1 mix is verysolid: distortion free but not too deafening.

Video

Strong and sharp, with the colours generally vi…
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Disney’s Sing Along Songs – Sing a Song With Pooh Bear and Piglet Too

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 8th, 2003

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Synopsis

A synopsis is beside the point here. The main feature is song clips from various Winnie ThePooh cartoons with animated captions encouraging the kids to sing along. I do wonder about theaudience for such bits as the Tigger song: this piece moves so fast that you need to be a speedreader to keep up, and so probably too old for the DVD.

Audio

No sound effects to speak of, naturally, since music is the whole point of the DVD. Themusic sounds fine. It is…
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Adventures of Pluto Nash, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 7th, 2003

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Synopsis

Eddie Murphy is Pluto Nash, ex-smuggler, now owner of the Moon’s most successful nightclub. He refuses to sell his business to mysterious casino operator Rick Crater, with the resultthat his club is blown up, and various and sundry goons are after him. What follows is all sortsof barely motivated running around sets that appear to have waltzed off outtakes from TotalRecall. The film makes little sense, isn’t very funny, isn’t very exciting, and doesn’t have verygood special…
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Secret Ballot

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 6th, 2003

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Synopsis

In a beautiful opening shot, a plane flies across the screen at sunrise, parachuting a box tothe ground. The in the case is a ballot box, and a solider stationed on a deserted beach is to watchover the election agent who comes for the box. Together they criss-cross the island in search ofvotes, which is not the straightforward task you might think. This is very low-key satire, whereevery nuance counts for something. The extremely long, often motionless takes furtherconcentr…
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Path to War

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2003

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Synopsis

Elected with the greatest majority of any US president, Lyndon Johnson (Michael Gambon,who will be replacing Richard Harris as Professor Dumbledore) begins his administration withgreat hopes for the positive transformation of American society. But he listens to the wrongpeople about Vietnam (Alec Baldwin instead of Donald Sutherland), and little by little everythinggets swallowed up by the war. Though long, this is one compelling drama, and much of thedialogue is spooky in …
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Brown Sugar

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2003

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Synopsis

Sanaa Lathan is a music journalist, and Taye Diggs is a hip-hop star. They’ve been friendssince childhood, but not a romantic couple. Diggs is about to get married to someone else, whichcauses Lathan to reconsider her feelings. The naturalism of the performances and the importanceof the setting make this a refreshing break from too many cookie-cutter romances.

Audio

The environmental effects aren’t bad, with decent use of sound effects. The music, how…
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I Spy

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 4th, 2003

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Synopsis

Owen Wilson is an agent for the fictional Bureau of National Security. He doesn’t have avery good track record, and so is constantly stuck with substandard equipment. He is sent toHungary to recover the Switchblade, a super-stealth plane stolen by Malcolm McDowell. He ispartnered up with egotistical boxer Eddie Murphy, and the usual buddy hijinks ensue. There issome fun to be had in the frantic action sequences, and in a Cyrano de Bergerac moment whenMurphy is trying to coa…
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Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 4th, 2003

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Synopsis

On their way to a kid’s concert, the Veggies’ bus runs off the road, and they go for help ina seafood restaurant. At this restaurant are the “pirates who do nothing,” who teach one of theyoungsters a lesson in compassion through their tale of their adventures with Jonah. Nicelyanimated, Jonah for the most part avoids the ham-fisted didacticism that plagues many similarefforts.

Audio

A very strong, powerful mix. The music is a particular standout. Th…
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White Oleander

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 4th, 2003

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Synopsis

Alison Lohman is the daughter of the chillingly beautiful Michelle Pfeiffer. Dangerouslyself-possessed, Pfeiffer murders her boyfriend when he cheats on her, and is sentenced to 35-years-to-life. Lohman then bounces from one foster home to another, and among her fostermothers are Robin Wright Penn (as a born-again ex-stripper) and Renee Zellweger (as a fragileformer actress). Tragedy and hardship are present around every bend, and as if that weren’tenough, Pfeiffer does her…
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Troop Beverly Hills

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 3rd, 2003

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Synopsis

A wealthy Phylis Nefler (Shelly Long) has everything money can buy, except a husband. Freddy (Craig T. Nelson) is leaving her for good unless she can prove to him that she is still the dynamic and energetic person he married. She becomes the leader of her daughters Wilderness Girls troop and heads off into the wild blue yonder.

Video

Remeastered in High Definition like a lot of the Columbia Tri-star re-releases have been lately the video quality is better then ave…
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Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 3rd, 2003

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Originally released in 1988 this film received 4 Academy awards (Best film editing, best sound effects editing, best visual effects, special achievement in animation direction) and was the first film to feature a combination of live action and traditional cell drawn animation. Before any of the other big budget animation films of the 90’s (think the Little Mermaid, The Lion King, etc.) there was Roger Rabbit. This film spawned the animation revolution of the 90’s and there still to this day is nothing like it. One pa…
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Drumline

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 3rd, 2003

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Synopsis

Nick Cannon plays Devon Miles, brilliant drummer with attitude to burn, who arrives at acampus with one of the most prestigious marching bands in the US. What follows is essentially atraining film, the kind of thing you see in To the Shores of Tripoli and GI Jane, only this timemusic, rather than war, is the goal. The usual ups and downs and character conflicts are present(you can set your watch by the predictability of the script), but the performances are engaging,and the…
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Lucus

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 3rd, 2003

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Synopsis

Being the outsider at school is never an easy thing and for 14 year old Lucas who has been accelerated in his schooling it is especially difficult. He is more interested in bugs and symphonies then football and popularity. This all changes after he befriends the new girl in town during summer break, she turns into a cheerleader who only has eyes for the quarterback and Lucas will stop at nothing to get her to notice him. This includes joining the football team! A coming of age film staring C…
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