DVD

No Way Out

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 14th, 2006

Synopsis

In his film debut, Sidney Poitier is a newly minted doctor at a downtown hospital. Two patients arrive in the prison ward, shot in the leg by police. One is Richard Widmark, frothing racist. The other is his brother, who dies under Poitier’s care, not from the wound, but from a terminal brain tumour. Widmark blames Poitier, and sets about inflaming racial hatred in his quest to destroy Poitier.

This is far from being your typical Joseph L. Mankiewicz film – we’re a long way from th…
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Last Exit

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 14th, 2006

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Synopsis

Nigel has fled England and is living a loser existence in Copenhagen with a junkie girlfriend he doesn’t love anymore. Desperate for money, he takes on a job from a gangster known as the President. All he has to do is stash some stolen goods until they can be moved. But he begins an affair with Tanya, a prostitute also in the grip of the President, and, in true film noir fashion, he makes some stupid decisions and events spiral violently out of control.

Unless my ears deceived me d…
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Confessor, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 14th, 2006

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Take every Catholic movie cliché you can find, wrap them up in a weak and predictable murder-mystery, throw in Christian Slater and Stephen Rea as they struggle for some semblance of the glory their careers once held, release direct-to-DVD, and you have The Confessor. Slater plays a priest struggling with his own faith, to the point he hasn’t prayed in years. His primary purpose to the Catholic Church is as a fundraiser for whatever causes they deem necessary to support. Of course, all of his higher-ups are st…
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Living Single: The Complete First Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 14th, 2006

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In the first few years of the nineties, hip-hop singer/movie actress Queen Latifah headlined her own comedy show called Living Single. The show went on to last for five seasons. Although it never won much acclaim or any big awards, the show still had viewers. The basic premise for the show saw the day to day life of four twenty-something year old girlfriends and their two male neighbors.

In each episode, the cast sorted out its various issues with life. They also found time to find problems with eve…
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Naked World

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 13th, 2006

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Most of the time, I’m a pretty big fan of HBO’s documentaries, so you can imagine my disappointment when I had to sit through the overly long 76 minutes of Naked World, which follows attention-hungry tit-bag Spencer Tunick, as he embarks on a world tour to find idiots wanting to pose for him. They all have their reasons why they’re baring all for the handful of people, who watch this documentary, but the underlying reason is – much like that of Tunick himself – attention. These lunatics may have even convinced…
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Death Tunnel

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 12th, 2006

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Sigh..Death Tunnel is another low-budget horror flick that is just so dull and mundane that it hurts to sit through the whole film. The film is over-directed, which some may think could be a good trait, but not in this case. Death Tunnel is about five college girls who all agree to spend a night in a horrific old asylum as part of a co-ed type event. Enter a few snickering boys trying to scare them and you have a horror film. Excuse me while I try to regain my thoughts as the film was a big yawn fest. < ...
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South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 11th, 2006

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Synopsis

First off, I never would have thought that a Comedy Central TV show featuring animated eight-year olds who curse like I used to (I still do, who am I kidding?), is transformed into a 94 minute movie with abundant musical numbers and (gasp!) an Oscar-nominated song performed by Robin Williams at said awards ceremony. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone created a dazzling, hilarious, and unpredictable movie, filled with musical numbers, and vocal cameos from George Clooney, Dave Foley and Eric Idle, …
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Death in Gaza

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 11th, 2006

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Synopsis

The first time I became acquainted with the work of documentarian James Miller and reporter Saira Shah was when I first saw the documentary Beneath the Veil some years back, shortly after the September 11th attacks. It was an unnerving and powerful look at life in the Taliban-led area of Afghanistan, where women were brutalized and humiliated beyond comprehension.

Miller had done some work in other countries with similar dangerous environments, and in 2003 with Shah’s help, he unde…
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Three… Extremes

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 10th, 2006

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Synopsis

Three directors, three doses of uncompromising Asian horror. The first, and nastiest, is “Dumplings” (directed by Fruit Chan), which tells the story of a woman who purchases some very expensive dumplings said to restored youth. What is the secret ingredient? The worst thing you can think of, trust me. And the film leaves nothing to the imagination. Where others would imply the horror and let your imagination do the rest of the work, “Dumplings” gets your imagination working, and then tops it…
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Newsradio: The Complete Third Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 10th, 2006

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Newsradio ran for five seasons. Four seasons gave us some of the best work of excellent comedic legend Phil Hartman, but the beginning of the fifth season marked a sadness period from which the show was never able to recover, as Hartman was shot to death by his wife, who committed suicide immediately following. It was the kind of tragedy you still can’t believe – even today – if you knew Hartman or his work. Luckily, season three offers some of his best moments, as well as the comic genius of the undera…
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NYPD Blue – The Complete Third Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 9th, 2006

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In its first year NYPD Blue succeeded through controversy. Language and partial nudity was pretty much all the critics were talking about. Season two brought “the test”. Could the show survive a major cast loss with David Caruso’s well publicized split from the show? Season three, however, is when it all came together. It’s so much fun watching a quality series hit its stride, that season when everything falls into place and we see for the first time that we could be in for a sweet ride.

The cop show …
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Making Love

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 9th, 2006

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Michael Ontkean and Kate Jackson play a married couple dealing with the ramifications of the husband’s newly discovered homosexual behavior. Right off, I’ll say these two seem too happy from the beginning to make the sudden turn believable. Also, the ending [SPOILER ALERT, kind of] is too predictable and cliche to be the least little bit effective. The “I’m okay/You’re okay” resolution, where everyone moves on and everyone’s okay with who they are, and the world is once more a wonderful place, is pure Grade-A drivel …
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Bettie Page: Dark Angel

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 9th, 2006

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Synopsis

As one of the discs in this set is exactly the same as the previous release, my review is the same too:

This is an episodic biopic about Bettie Page, moving from her glory days as a model for the pin-up photographer Bunny Yeager and fetish actress for Irving Klaw, maker of B&D shorts. All is well until a Senate investigation into obscenity, and Bettie herself pines for more mainstream, respectable roles. A fair bit of running time consists of B&W recreations of lost Klaw films, wit…
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MacGyver – Season Five

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 8th, 2006

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MacGyver (v) To act in an extremely resourceful manner. To utilize everyday items in unconventional ways to achieve a difficult task. I predict it will not be long before you can open your trusty copy of Webster’s and find this character has officially entered our lexicon. There is little doubt but that it is an unofficial part of it now. Crossing over from the realm of pop culture and into our language is a phenomenal achievement for a television show.

I came to the MacGyver party rather late. Like …
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Prime

Posted in 1.85:1 Widescreen, Comedy, Disc Reviews, Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), Dolby Digital 5.1 (French), DVD, Universal by David Annandale on March 8th, 2006

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Synopsis

The recently divorced Uma Thurman is seeing therapist Meryl Streep as she tries to put her life back together. She meets Bryan Greenberg, sixteen years her junior, and falls for him. Streep encourages her to go for it, and then discovers that the object of Thurman’s affection is her son, whom she wanted to find a nice Jewish girl. Neither Thruman nor Greenberg know of their connection through Streep and carry on with their relationship, while Streep struggles to carry on with Thurman’s thera…
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Moonlighting – Season Three

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 7th, 2006

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Ahh, Moonlighting. For people of my generation, this may be the golden age of television. That’s not to take anything away from I Love Lucy or The Andy Griffith Show, but when you grew up in the 80’s, there was this, L. A. Law and Miami Vice. For my money, Moonlighting was the best of the three. Even by today’s standards, it is extremely rare to find a show such as this. A genuine drama/mystery program that succeeds in being very, very funny. The fact is, the entire show was …
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Ice Harvest, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 7th, 2006

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Synopsis

Christmas in Wichita Falls, but there’s not much comfort and joy going around. John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton have just stolen two million bucks from mob boss Randy Quaid. If they can keep things together for just a few hours, they will be home free and off to warmer climes with their loot. But a huge thug is looking for them, Cusack keeps drawing attention to himself, and then there’s the question of whether these two can really trust each other.

Harold Ramis’ comic noir/black…
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Pride & Prejudice

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 6th, 2006

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Synopsis

The Bennet family is not rich, and when Mr. Bennet (Donald Sutherland) dies, the estate will pass out of the family’s hands and into those of a rather pompous little twit of a parson. There are five daughters, and their future can only be achieved through marriage. Elizabeth Bennet (Keira Knightley) is the second daughter (improbably described as plain). Her path repeated crosses that of Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen), an aloof, brooding gentleman who apparently has little use for her or her …
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King Kong (2005)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 6th, 2006

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Ever since making the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Director Peter Jackson has almost become a household name that seems to always guarantee success. Don’t get me wrong though, Jackson has not always been successful. Before making the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jackson had the film The Frighteners and a few smaller films where he only produced. The idea of giving this not so successful movie director hundreds of millions of dollars to remake the Lord of the Rings trilogy, made many turn their…
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Magnum P.I. – The Complete Third Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 5th, 2006

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Synopsis

Let me tell you a story. Back in 1904, I used to be in the Army. For 3 glorious years, I went to the office every day from 9 to 4:30 (with an hour and a half for lunch), typing up and processing awards and various evaluation reports and generally doing the best job I could. When I had to, I went out for field training and would (for lack of a better phrase) “play Army”, where I would sit in a communications center for 8 hours at a time, checking to see if the radios worked occasionally.

W…
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Time Bandits

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 5th, 2006

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Synopsis

Well, a Terry Gilliam children’s film might seem like a bit of an oxymoron, however writing a film with fellow Monty Python alum Michael Palin actually resulted in a funny, and even philosophical film, reflecting on themes of good and evil.

In a futuristic, technological world of the early 1980s, young Kevin (Craig Warnock) sees a medieval knight and horse burst from his wardrobe closet and run into the woods. The next night he prepares for something similar, but instead meets a gr…
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Soldiers in the Army of God

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 4th, 2006

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Not only is HBO not afraid of controversial programming, they actually embrace it. It is widely believed that the two topics that cause the most tension among people is politics and religion. Maybe that’s why abortion is such a hot-button issue. No other topic simultaneously evokes such strong political and theological views. Solders in the Army of God is an HBO original documentary that takes a close look look at the “Army of God” organization, the most violent anti-abortion group in the United States.

Now, my interest is not to share my personal beliefs on the subject of abortion, or to try to persuade others to share my viewpoints.
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Week-End in Havana

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 3rd, 2006

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Week-End in Havana manages to entertain, but not by way of its musical numbers. For one, the songwriting is relatively lame and dated. Also, singing isn’t a forte for any of the performers. While Carmen Miranda certainly has a screen presence and a dynamic personality, her voice remains scratchy and flat – and she’s the best vocalist the film has to offer. But that doesn’t condemn it by any means. With films such as these that manage to function well as straight romance, the inclusion of musical numbers is mor…
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Where the Truth Lies

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 3rd, 2006

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Synopsis

In the late fifties, Lanny Morris (Kevin Bacon) and Vince Collins (Colin Firth) are a top-rated comedy duo, hosts of a polio telethon. At the height of their career, everything comes crashing down when the body of a young woman is discovered in the bathtub of their hotel suite. They have cast-iron alibis, but the team is dissolved. Fifteen years later, up-and-coming journalist Karen O’Connor (Alison Lohman) lands a sweetheart deal to write a book about Vince, and he is being paid a million d…
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Mirrormask

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 3rd, 2006

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Neil Gaiman’s Mirrormask is just the sort of mixed bag I expected. While parts are mesmerizing and the performance of Stephanie Leonidas is a joy in itself, the plot fails to make room for credibility when it’s desperately needed. The holes left behind from this weak story cause the film to masquerade as art while carefully avoiding admission to what it really is – a product of sloppy writing. Gaiman is a talented scribe, but with Mirrormask, he’s dangerously close to believing his own hype. Judging fro…
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