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DVD

From Justin to Kelly

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 12th, 2003

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Synopsis

Set during that vison from Hieronymous Bosch known as spring break in Fort Lauderdale,this is a return to the Annette Funicello-Frankie Avalon beach movies of the 60’s, right down tothe PG rating. People stopped making those movies for good reasons, but that didn’t stop theproducers of this effort. Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini, playing characters with their ownfirst names (groan) meet, fall in love, but have their romance undermined by Clarkson’s blondbitch of a…
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Forbidden Fruit

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 12th, 2003

Synopsis

Michael Kremko plays Adam, dashing young priest. Nadia Mansouri is a young woman whohas a crush on him. Her name is Eve. Get it? If you don’t, Jake Simons as a gay dancechoreographer helpfully points out the symbolism for us. Sure enough, Adam is tempted from thestraight and true path and begins a torrid affair with Eve. The jealous Simons starts underminingthe two characters. The dialogue is banal, even as it has pretensions to deal with Really BigIssues of faith and free …
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Nuts

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 12th, 2003

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Synopsis

Claudia Draper (Barbra Streisand) has been charged with first-degree manslaughter. Hermother and stepfather try to have her declared incompetent to stand trial, so she will go to apsychiatric hospital rather than jail. Claudia refuses to be railroaded, punching out her lawyer incourt. Public defender Richard Dreyfuss winds up saddled with her case, and decides to fight forStreisand’s right to have her day in court. The role of Claudia is big, scenery-chewing exercisefor Str…
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Main Event, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 12th, 2003

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Synopsis

Barbra Streisand is a perfume tycoon who, due to the dishonesty of an employee, suddenlyfinds herself broke. Her only remaining asset is a contract with a washed-up boxer (RyanO’Neal). Streisand decides to turn her fortunes around by managing O’Neal. The pair take aninstant dislike to each other, and squabble all their way into romance. The Main Eventmimics the rapid-fire delivery of the classic screwball comedies, but the effect is not so muchfunny as shrill and tir…
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Simpsons – The Complete Third Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 11th, 2003

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Popular culture aficionados and entertainment critics alike have been saying for quite some time now that the last ten or twelve years of television has seen some of the worst shows in the medium’s history. The nineties were filled with more flashes in the pan than an Iron Chef marathon, and even the longer running shows seem to be forgettable tripe the further away they get in our collective rear view mirrors. It’s mindboggling to think a show like Mad About You ran the better part of the decade, isn…
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La Femme Nikita – The Complete First Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 10th, 2003

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Synopsis

Peta Wilson takes on the role previously incarnated by Anne Parillaud and Bridget Fonda.Once a street person, Nikita is forcibly recruited by an ultra-secret government organization andtrained as an assassin. Many adventures ensue. While Wilson certainly has the requisitetoughness and sexiness demanded by the role, the character herself has been largely defanged. Inits film incarnations, the story already ran into problems in the second half, as the formerlyferocious street…
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Up the Sandbox

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 10th, 2003

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Synopsis

Barbra Streisand is happily married and raising three children. This isn’t to say that lifedoesn’t have its pressures, of course. (Just try raising three children.) She finds out she ispregnant again, and living in a world which values her husband’s time and accomplishments farabove hers, she begins to engage in a series of elaborate and bizarre fantasies in which, one wayor another, she breaks completely with her current life. (An affair with Fidel Castro a big enoughbreak…
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Levity

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 9th, 2003

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Synopsis

Twenty-two years ago, Billy Bob Thornton killed a cashier in a botched robbery. He hasdwelt on this crime ever since, and doesn’t want to be released from prison. He is, though, and re-enters society very much adrift. His life begins to take on a sense of direction when he meetsand strikes up relationships with an embittered preacher (Morgan Freeman), a young woman onauto-destruct (Kirsten Dunst) and the sister of the man he killed (Holly Hunter). Low key,gorgeously photogr…
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Howling, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 9th, 2003

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Synopsis

Dee Wallace is an intrepid TV reporter who tracks down a serial killer, and is almost killedfor her troubles. Traumatized, she withdraws to a rural resort, which at first seems idyllic.Gradually, evidence mounts that she is in fact staying in the middle of a werewolf colony. Stillone of the more satisfying werewolf films yet made (though Ginger Snaps has arguablycaptured the crown for best ever), Joe Dante’s film is a delight not only for the grislytransformations, b…
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Ghoulies / Ghoulies II

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 9th, 2003

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Synopsis

In Ghoulies, a young man inherits a run-down home, only to succumb gradually tohis warlock legacy, summoning the title creatures and turning them loose on his friends. TheGhoulies strike back in the sequel, this time finding their way into a carnival and creating no endof havoc there. Neither film takes itself seriously — how could they, with little rubbery puppetsfor monsters. There is something likeable about the enthusiastically silly cheese up there on thescreen…
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Sherlock Holmes Collection, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 8th, 2003

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Synopsis

There are four 90-minute telefilms here: “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” “The Sign ofFour,” The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire,” and “The Royal Scandal.” They are of varyingand iffy degrees of fidelity to the Conan Doyle stories. Starring as Sherlock Holmes and Dr.Watson are, respectively, Matt Freuer and Kenneth Welsh, who essay British accents to varyingdegrees of success. Ex-Max Headroom Freuer puts plenty of energy into his role, but takes it soover-the-top that he co…
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Tinto Brass Collection, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 8th, 2003

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Synopsis

There are three movies here: Miranda, The Key and All Ladies Do It(whose Italian title, Cosi Fan Tutti sounds much less awkward). Though taking place indifferent periods (the first two are set in Fascist Italy, while the third is more modern), all threeshare some similarities in terms of plot: a dark haired-beauty has a long series of eroticencounters, but her true love belongs to one man. Handsomely mounted, with nice attention tocolour and costume, the…
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Countess Dracula / The Vampire Lovers

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 8th, 2003

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Synopsis

Countess Dracula features Ingrid Pitt as a fictionalized version of Countess ElizabethBathory, who slaughtered hundreds of women to bathe in their blood. Here the body count is notthat high, but the bloodbaths actually work: the aged countess becomes young again, andromances a young soldier while pretending to be her own daughter. Unfortunately, old age keepspouncing back on her without notice. The Vampire Lovers (which also stars PeterCushing) is based on J. …
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Keep Your Eyes Open

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 7th, 2003

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Extreme sports films come in two flavors first there are the sport specific show off films and then there are the documentary like Ultimate X that show what extreme sports are about. Keep Your Eyes Open rides the line between these two types of films, it looks at six of the wildest sports out there by looking at the athletes. We get an understanding of what motivates them, how they got into it and we also get lots of footage of them doing what they do. Starring Marc Frank Montoya and Mike and Tina Basich (snowboardin…
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Tom Green Show – Subway Monkey Hour

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

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Let me start out and admit that I never really understood this show to begin with. The DVD can at times be mildly humorous, but never once can I say I really enjoyed this disc. I’m sure fans of the show will “get” a few inside jokes. Tom Green’s act is reminiscent of some of David Letterman’s much more clever street sketches throughout New York City. In this show, Tom Green travels through Japan begging for laughs, mostly by pretending not to understand the people around him.

Junior

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 6th, 2003

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Synopsis

Our two heroines head out to the Dutch countryside for a holiday. They run into car trouble,and blunder into The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or so the available evidence would haveone believe. They stop at the wrong gas station, and it isn’t long before first one, then the otherare prisoners of a deranged family and their masked, hulking youngster. You’ve seen this before,and done so much better.

Audio

Both 5.1 and 2.0 soundtracks are available,…
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Laurel & Hardy

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 6th, 2003

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Synopsis

Misadventures aplenty are in store for our hapless duo. On offer are “Sons of the Desert”(which, at 65 minutes, counts as feature-length), “The Music Box” (which won an Oscar),“Another Fine Mess,” “Busy Bodies” and “County Hospital.” In virtually every case, a simplepremise (such as delivering a player piano or visiting a friend in the hospital) is milked formaximum chaos. A terrific introduction to two comedic geniuses.

Audio

There are two versions…
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Paper Moon

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 6th, 2003

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Synopsis

The Great Depression. Ryan O’Neal is an itinerant con man, selling bibles to newly widowedwomen. Unexpectedly, he winds up saddled with Tatum O’Neal, a sharp, cynical child who mayor may not be his daughter — she certainly shares his gift for the fast move. The two engaged ina picaresque journey, which pulls of the neat trick of being funny but not wacky, moving but notsentimental. The last film of Bogdanovich’s golden period (following Targets, TheLast Picture S…
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Best of Bonanza – Volume One

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

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In the late 1950’s Westerns accounted for six of the top ten programs on TV. Only Gunsmoke had a longer run than Bonanza. From 1959 to 1973 Ben Cartwright and his boys rode across the small screen. Years later in syndication the series re-emerged as Ponderosa and a handful of TV movies continued the tale into the 90’s.We never have grown tired of the genre that gave us such heroes as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. While I am far more in favor of season sets, this best-of collection is a might heapin’ helping of tall tales.
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Rodentz

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 6th, 2003

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Synopsis

When a strange formula (cooked up in beakers and coloured a bright green) gets into thesewage system and is consumed by escaped lab rats, trouble ensues for a small group of young(and inexpensive) actors. At the climax, they have to face off against a super-rat, whose costumemakes the inside-out bear of Prophecy look like a high point of SFX technology.Extremely cheap, but not without some amusement for connoisseurs of bad film.

Audio

The sou…
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Targets

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 5th, 2003

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Synopsis

Boris Karloff plays aging horror film star Byron Orlok — in other words, himself. He feelsthat he has become a joke, that the type of horror movies he stars in can no longer stand up to thereal horrors in the world. He is about to find out just how right he is, as he is on a collisioncourse with an all-American boy (Tim O’Kelly), who is about to embark on a motiveless killingspree as a sniper. Chilling and relevant to this day, Targets is also a dazzlingly cleverexe…
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Wait Until Dark

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 5th, 2003

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Synopsis

Audrey Hepburn is recently blind, and still adjusting to her new condition. Unfortunatelyfor her, three criminals are convinced that a load of heroin has been stashed in her apartment,and they want it. Most sinister of the trio is Alan Arkin, playing a complete psychopath. Thetension builds until Hepburn must defend herself against a madman in her darkened apartment.Perfect sweaty-palms material, with a very famous jolt (and believe me, you’ll know it when yousee it).

House of Wax / Mystery of the Wax Museum

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 5th, 2003

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Synopsis

The plot of both films is identical: a meticulous sculptor of wax figures has his life and workdestroyed in a fire set by an unscrupulous business partner. Years later, now confined to awheelchair and deprived the use of his hands, the sculptor is back in business. This time, thewaxworks are made by murdering people and dipping their bodies in wax. Lionel Atwill playsthe sculptor in 1933’s Mystery of the Wax Museum, while Vincent Price takes over in1953. Both films w…
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Titanic

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 3rd, 2003

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Synopsis

Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck are an estranged couple aboard the Titanic. In ahilariously caricatured Europe vs US conflict, he is elitist snob, and she is the paragon ofMidwestern values, fighting to save her children from corruption. Naturally, Webb will redeemhimself once the ship starts sinking. Though the focus on these two characters gives the storya firm centre, the result is very soap-operatic. The sinking scenes in the last 30 minutes are good,but very sanitize…
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Sure Thing, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 2nd, 2003

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Synopsis

An early Rob Reiner film, The Sure Thing features a young John Cusack as a collegefreshman. Tired of having no luck with the ladies at his East Coast college, Cusack is lured onwest by the promise of hooking up with the titular sure thing (Nicolette Sheridan). Hiscomplicated road trip is further complicated by his having to share the journey with DaphneZuniga, a classmate who wants nothing to do with him. You can probably guess where this isgoing to go, but it gets t…
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