Video

Blind Date

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 30th, 2002

Written By Kelly Stifora

Intro

Kim Basinger and Dan Larroquette upstage Bruce Willis in his tepid debut as a leading man. Don’t let the fact that Blake Edwards directed blind you: this is a dud.

Synopsis

Walter (Willis) gets set up on a blind date with Nadia (Basinger) for an incredibly important business dinner at which his boss is expecting him to make a good impression on a prospective client. After being explicitly told not to let Nadia imbibe, Walter heads straight out to get a bottle of champagne and sta…
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Venomous

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 29th, 2002

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Fred Olen Ray, director of B-movies beyond counting, strikes again, with a DVD release some steps up from what many movies of this type receive.

Synopsis

In 1991, Iraqi agents blow up a secret US government lab, releasing genetically modified rattlesnakes (don’t ask). Over the years, these snakes breed, and in the present, minor earthquakes drive them to the surface, and they infect whoever they bite with a virulently fatal virus. Treat Williams is the small town doctor who must save the day, while…
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When Strangers Appear

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 29th, 2002

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Intro

This is the new film from writer/director Scott Reynolds, who brought us The Ugly, a stylishly weird psycho-thriller from a few years back.

Synopsis

Radha Mitchell runs a diner and a motel by herself in a middle-of-nowhere little town. One morning, she opens her diner and strange young man comes in. He’s been stabbed in the gut, and he needs her help. He’s terrified of a group of surfers who arrive shortly after him. He says they’re after him. Should Mitchell believe him?

I…
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Die Hard

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 26th, 2002

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Say the name Bruce Willis and what is the first thing that comes to mind? Lately Willis has excelled in roles that have redefined him as an actor. Of course, I’m talking about films like “The Sixth Sense”. But when I hear Bruce Willis I think of John McClane. Die Hard was the film where Willis “made his bones” in Hollywood and revolutionized the action film forever.

Synopsis

John McClane just can’t catch a break. It seems his wife has moved from their home in New York City, where John’s a cop, to L.A.
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Shrek

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 25th, 2002

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Intro

The makers of this DVD have thought of just about everything to deliver a film that has as many layers as an onion and can be enjoyed by both children and adults alike. A parent is able to let their child watch their own full-frame version of the film on one disc while they watch the widescreen version on another. Thereby preventing the young one from continually asking, “Daddy, why do you keep laughing when they say Farquaad?”

Synopsis

The classic fairytale spun on its head. …
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Vampire in Brooklyn

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 25th, 2002

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Intro

Before Wes Craven’s career was revived by Scream, and before Eddie Murphy’s was by The Nutty Professor, the two of them made this.

Synopsis

Eddie Murphy is Maximillian, the last vampire, and he has come to Brooklyn looking for the one woman in the world who, if she becomes his mate, will save his race. That woman turns out to be Angela Bassett. Along the way, various denizens of Brooklyn run afoul of the supernatural creature.

This rather unusual collaboration doesn’t exact…
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Baby’s Day Out

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 23rd, 2002

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Intro

Think of this John Hughes script as the logical conclusion to the Home Alone phenomenon.

Synopsis

Baby Bink lives in pampered luxury, cared for by his nanny while his two twitty parents carry on with their twitty upper class lives. Three bumbling crooks kidnap Baby Bink and take him downtown. It’s not long, however, before he escapes, and blithely crawls around the city. Our crooks chase after him and into one catastrophe after another.

Audio

The music is good,…
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Boycott

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 22nd, 2002

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Intro

Now this is a pretty rare achievement: a film that has an educational goal, but reaches that goal while being exciting cinema. And once the film has you wanting to know more, the DVD obliges.

Synopsis

We are in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. Rosa Parks has just been arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. This incident sparks the civil rights movement, and a young pastor named Martin Luther King, Jr. is about to begin his rise to prominence. The respons…
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Baise-Moi

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 22nd, 2002

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In 1993, Virginie Despentes burst onto the French literary scene with Baise-Moi (“F**k Me”), a snarling novel who’s unblinking, deadpan, yet philosophically pointed excess places it in the tradition of Sade. In 2000, Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi co-directed and scripted this adaptation, which has already forced the French government to re-evaluate its ratings rules.

Synopsis

Nadine (Karen Bach) is a prostitute. Manu (Raffaela Anderson) has done porn films, and has just been raped (in a t…
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Adventures of Huck Finn

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 20th, 2002

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Intro

This release has added interest now for the later careers of its director and star: Stephen Sommers is now best known for his Mummy films, and Elijah Wood is currently sporting a British accent as Frodo Baggins.

Synopsis

Based on Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the original American picaresque, the film follows Huck Finn, fleeing his terrifying father, and Jim, an escaped slave, as they travel down the Mississippi in search of freedom, encountering no end of colo…
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My Bodyguard

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 14th, 2002

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Intro

Fox’s recent set of Family Features includes a couple of films aimed at older viewers, and are that rare thing: the smart teen comedy. This is one (the other is Breaking Away).

Synopsis

Chris Makepeace plays Clifford, the new kid in school. The son of a hotel manager, he’s a fairly laid-back sort, dealing without blinking with his flamboyant grandmother (Ruth Gordon of Harold and Maude) and the various characters at the hotel. School becomes a trial, however, when he runs afoul o…
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Breaking Away

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 14th, 2002

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Intro

Eccentric and heartfelt, this Oscar-winning coming-of-age story deserves rediscovery.

Synopsis

Dennis Christopher is Dave, cycling enthusiast. Since the world’s greatest cyclists are Italian, Dave tries to become Italian, much to the low-key bemusement of his parents. Dave and his friends (played by Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern and Jackie Earle Haley) are from the working class end of town, and are constantly at odds with the college boys, and this class rivalry ultimately climaxes…
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What’s the Worst That Could Happen?

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 5th, 2002

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Intro

We’ve just had one recent battle-of-the-rogues release with Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Here’s a more recent film in a similar vein, with Martin Lawrence and Danny De Vito duking it out. Curiously, Glenne Headly features in both.

Synopsis

Martin Lawrence is a charming thief. Danny De Vito is a charmless businessman. When De Vito catches Lawrence robbing his home, he turns the tables and steals Lawrence’s precious ring. This, of course, means war, as the two men use all the means at …
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Smashing Pumpkins Video Collection

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 30th, 2001

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Posted in Disc Reviews by Carly Peters

Intro

I had to dab the drool from the corner of my mouth when I was handed this beauty. The Smashing Pumpkins are considered to be one of the most musically and visually creative bands of the Twentieth century. This DVD features every music video released by the Pumpkins from Gish to Machina, and includes some live footage that was not released previously.

Audio

The audio sounds exactly like CD quality. The music is clear, rich and full, with no auditable distortion. Unfortunately thi…
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Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 23rd, 2001

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Intro

This is a deeply, deeply silly film. But it takes being silly deeply, deeply seriously.

Synopsis

Peter Weller is Buckaroo Banzai: brain surgeon, physicist, rock star, fighter of evil. He and his merry men, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, fight to save the world from destruction caused by a war between the Black Lectroids (good aliens) and the Red Lectroids (bad aliens). The deadpan cast includes good guys Jeff Goldblum and Ellen Barkin, and, on the side of evil, John Lilthgow and Christ…
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Vertical Ray of the Sun

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 12th, 2001

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Intro

The most recent film from Tran Anh Hung, writer/director of The Scent of Green Papaya, continues his restrained, low-key examination of human interaction.

Synopsis

In some ways, providing a synopsis for movies like this is to do them a disservice. This is not meant to imply that there is no story. There is: three sisters prepare a feast to mark the anniversary of their parents’ death, and we explore their relationships with each other and with the men in their lives. But above an…
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War of the Roses

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 9th, 2001

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Intro

Mean-spirited. Nasty. Spiteful. Evil. All words that apply to this comedy. And they’re compliments.

Synopsis

Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas are Barbara and Oliver Rose. They’ve had seventeen wonderful years together. But their marriage collapses. Their hatred for each other emerges, and a tit for tat battle erupts, each indignity that one inflicts on the other inviting greater retaliation. The war escalates into a total domestic Armageddon. This is uncompromising black comed…
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What’s Eating Gilbert Grape

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 4th, 2001

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Intro

1993 isn’t that long ago, but watching this film makes that year seem much further back than it is, given the subsequent career paths of some of the cast.

Synopsis

Johnny Depp is Gilbert, our hero and narrator. He lives in the US heartland small town of Endora, with a family that includes his mentally impaired brother Leonardo DiCaprio (in a performance that reminds us that yes, he really is a good actor) and his enormous mother (Darlene Cates), who has not been out of the house …
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Of Mice and Men

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 30th, 2001

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Gary Sinise (who also produced and directed) is George, the smart one. John Malkovich (in a role light years from his usual creepy venom) is Lennie, child-like but enormously strong. The two best friends wander Depression-era California, looking for work. They find what seems likea long-term gig at the Tyler Ranch, but trouble rears its head in the form of the unhappy Sherilyn Fenn, trapped in an abusive marriage. It isn’t long before everything goes to hell.

Willow

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 26th, 2001

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Intro

The timing on this release is just about perfect: close enough to the theatrical release of The Lord of the Rings for people to be eager for some high fantasy, but far in advance enough that comparisons will be less likely.

Synopsis

The story, by George Lucas, should be familiar to followers of his work. Once again, there is the promised deliverer, this time in the form of a baby girl. A quest ensues to save her, and the leader of this quest is Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis), a Lu…
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Beethoven’s 4th

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 24th, 2001

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Intro

Once a franchise is launched, it seems, it is by definition unstoppable, even when, as is the case for this series of films involving a large St. Bernard, the franchise has moved into the direct-to-video realm.

Synopsis

Beethoven, with his slobbery, chaotic ways, is making life impossible for the Newton family. He is thus packed off to obedience school. Meanwhile, we are introduced to Michelangelo, the impeccably behaved St. Bernard owned by the impossibly rich Sedgwicks. The Sed…
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Backyard Dogs

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 19th, 2001

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Intro

Um. Okay. If anyone ever asks you for a quick definition of “niche marketing,” hand them this DVD. Maybe it’s a sign that I’m hopelessly out of touch, but I’d never heard of backyard wrestling before now. If you’re like me, here’s your chance to correct that oversight.

Synopsis

Scott Hamm and Walter Emanuel Jones play ambitious backyard wrestlers (wrestlers who take part in amateur bouts staged in, yes, backyards). They enlist Bree Turner to film their exploits and market them ov…
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Bride of the Wind

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 19th, 2001

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Intro

From seemingly out of nowhere comes this period piece, directed by Bruce (Driving Miss Daisy) Beresford.

Synopsis

This biopic tells the story of Alma Mahler, a fiercely independent woman in turn-of-the-century Austria. She is attracted by art and artists, and is successively wife of composer Gustav Mahler, lover (then wife) of architect Walter Gropius, lover of painter Oksar Kokoschka, and lover of novelist Franz Werfel. Alma’s love life is not a happy one, as each man seems dest…
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Now, Voyager

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 16th, 2001

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The melodrama is a tricky form. Done wrong, the result is risible. Done right, as it is here, and the result can be compelling.

Synopsis

Bette Davis is Charlotte Vale. Charlotte is, thanks to the brutal tyranny of her mother, a repressed, ugly duckling spinster. Then psychiatrist Claude Rains steps in, and she transforms completely. Her rebirth is completed on an ocean cruise when she falls in love with the unhappily married Paul Henreid. What follows is a story of romantic sacrifice and the triump…
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Planet of the Apes (2001)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 15th, 2001

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I have heard a lot of mixed reviews about this film. I will sum it up like this… If you are expecting amazing acting and storyline, you will be disappointed. But, on the other hand, if you are expecting to see a bunch of Apes jumping around and some very fun visual effects, you are in for a treat….

Synopsis

In the year 2029, interstellar reconnaissance missions are relegated to chimpanzee pilots from the Space Station Oberon in deep space. On such a mission, a chimp loses communication and vanis…
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