Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 13th, 2002
Film
Robert DeNiro has built a tremendous career out of portraying men who are to be feared. Starting with Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II through Good Fellas, DeNiro has established himself as the Hollywood Don. Analyze This is a brilliant comedy that cashes in on that long body of work. There’s no setup required for us to accept DeNiro as the head of a crime family. What makes the film work on an even higher level is the addition of Billy Crystal and the fact that both powerful actors play against what you would expect.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 8th, 2002
Synopsis
Tyrone Power is the intensely irritating American flyboy who flies a delivers a bomber to England to earn some money. Once there, he spots old flame Betty Grable, and enlists in the RAF so he can woo her back. Grable is also being courted by Power's commanding officer, who possesses all the decent qualities Power lacks (i.e. just about everything).
The romance, which central to the film, is not exactly enthralling, since you're rooting for the wrong man. The combat scenes, however,...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 4th, 2002
Synopsis
A synopsis is pretty pointless. Either you watch the series or you don't. But for what it's worth, Buffy is a high-school student who is also one of the chosen heroes of history whose purpose in life is to combat and destroy vampires. The big complication this season is the fact that she's fallen love with one (Angel).
Audio
The Dolby 2.0 audio is acceptable, but nothing special. While generally clean, the dialogue does occasionally have some buzz to it. The music ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 1st, 2002
It’s hard to imagine, but in the 1930’s sequels were almost unheard of. If a work was considered to be a franchise, it was released in serial form before the main features. By today’s standards, Bride of Frankenstein would be no surprise. James Whale was reluctant to continue the Frankenstein saga as was the Monster himself, Boris Karloff. Universal was relentless and the world is the benefactor of its greed. Bride of Frankenstein not only lives up to its original but in many ways surpasses it. The sets are far more grand and the story was Universal’s most compelling.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 30th, 2002
Synopsis
Child-like nun Meg Tilly is found one night lying on the floor of her cell, covered in blood, a strangled newborn in her wastebasket. Psychiatrist Jane Fonda is called in to determine whether or not Tilly is fit for trial. Mother Superior Anne Bancroft is convinced that she is not, and does not want skeptical Fonda destroying Tilly's innocence. Meanwhile, Tilly, it seems, cannot remember anything about that night, and certainly denies ever having been pregnant.
Audio
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 28th, 2002
Synopsis
The tale is told in flashback. We begin in 1950, in a labour camp in Czechoslovakia. Franta Sláma (Ondrej Vetch ) is imprisoned there for having flown with the RAF during World War II – his reward for having helped liberate his country. From this beginning, we move back to see Sláma's experiences in England, his fatherly relationship with his protégé Karel Vojtisek (Krystof Hádek), and their love triangle with the married Englishwoman Tara Fitzgerald.
The impressive battle sequence...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 25th, 2002
Synopsis
Paul Newman's Frank Galvin has seen better days. Now he's a broken-down, alcoholic ambulance-chaser. But then his last chance arrives in the form of a negligence case being brought against two doctors who gave a young woman the wrong anaesthetic, reducing her to a vegetable. Though Galvin at first is planning to settle out of court, he changes his mind, and the result is a David-and-Goliath courtroom struggle.
Though a 1982 release, The Verdict still has much of the feel of a 70s f...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 23rd, 2002
Synopsis
Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan), is on his way home from visiting his father at the hospital when he finds a human ear. He turns the ear over to the police, but the mystery eats at him, and, with the help of a detective's daughter (Laura Dern), he begins his own investigation. Very quickly, he gets in over his head, becoming involved with the masochistic Isabella Rossellini, and her deeply disturbed, deeply sadistic boyfriend, Dennis Hopper (in his most terrifying role).
This is...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 20th, 2002
“Even a man who is pure at heart and says his prayers at night can become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the moon is full and bright.” Curt Siodmak penned that poem over 60 years ago as the centerpiece for a film that was to feature Boris Karloff. The film was to be called “Destiny” and provide Karloff with a less lumbering creature than his Frankenstein’s monster. The project was put on hold and would eventually re-emerge as “The Wolf Man”, this time starring the son of the man of a thousand faces, Lon Chaney, Jr. Chaney would later in life claim this as his favorite role because unlike the Monster or the Mummy it was “completely my own”.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2002
Synopsis
Randolph Scott is a young man who refuses to live up to his potential. Though very skilled, and possessing every attribute necessary to excel as a marine, he refuses to do so. When not training, he does one of two things: engage in a battle of wills with the crusty sergeant (John Payne) who knows what Scott should be capable of; or court sensible nurse Maureen O'Hara (who also expects more of Scott than he does of himself).
Don't approach this hoping for an action flick. Despite t...
