DVD

Devil Commands, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 15th, 2003

Synopsis

Boris Karloff adds Dr. Julian Blair to his collection of mad doctor roles. Here he starts offperfectly sane and well-respected, having just developed a device that records brain-waves.When his wife is killed in an accident, he is overcome with grief, and, one night in his lab, hismachine records a new transmission of his wife’s brain-waves. Karloff becomes obsessed withcommunicating with her, stopping at nothing in his quest, along the way frying the mind of hisservant and …
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Chasing Amy

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 15th, 2003

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Film

The film starts out in a comic convention, where we are introduced to Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Jason Lee), the co-creators of the smash hit book “Bluntman and Chronic.” Holden is an artist who feels trapped into his commercial success, afraid he’ll always be known as “the guy who invented Bluntman and Chronic.” His partner and best friend of 20 years, Banky, is justifiably unapologetic for their success; he likes having his name on something that everyone recognizes. It’s …
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City Hunter

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

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Quite possibly the worst Jackie Chan film ever … strike that … quite possibly one of the worst films ever, City Hunter is a live-action film based off of the Japanese anime of the same name. Here, Chan plays private detective Ryu Saeba, who, along with his partner, Kaori (Joey Wong), are hired to track down the missing daughter of a wealthy Japanese publishing tycoon.

Ryu is quite the ladies man and his initial thoughts of turning the job down vanish once he sees a picture of the magnate’s beautiful ru…
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The In-Laws (1979)

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

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The In-Laws was one of those films that just never fit neatly into any safe category. Recently I’ve been ask to describe it to others who had not seen it before. If your only point of reference is the recent remake with Michael Douglas, run to your nearest rental store and look up this gem of an original. Peter Falk is best known, of course, for the rumpled-raincoat detective, Columbo. While many of his Columbo mannerisms are in evidence in this film (that outstretched hand to the head and his gravelly low mumbles) the character is really quite removed from Columbo.
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I Love You to Death

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 13th, 2003

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Synopsis

Rosalie Boca is married to Joey, a pizza maker and womanizer. When she catches him with another woman she decides that he must go. With the help of her mother, the new age busboy and drug-addled cousins Harlan and Marlon, she attempts to send Joey on his way to the big pizza pie in the sky. Based on a true story truth really is stranger then fiction in this story of love and infidelity.

Video

Presented in both a 1.85:1 widescreen format and a 1.33:1 fullscreen v…
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Inn of the Sixth Happiness, The

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

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Synopsis

Based on the life of Gladys Aylward, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness features IngridBergman as Aylward (granted, Bergman’s accent makes her an unlikely Englishwoman, but shealso played a cockney wench in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, so what the hell). Desperate to be amissionary, but turned down by the society she approaches, Bergman makes her own way toChina, where her extreme goodness soon wins over everyone in sight. At the climax, during theJapanese invasion of China, she must…
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Loving

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 11th, 2003

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Synopsis

Brooks Wilson (George Segal) is a professional illustrator. His career is muddling along, butwill take a giant leap forward if he can land Sterling Hayden as a client. His marriage with EvaMarie Saint is closing in on some dangerous shoals, and the same is true of his affair with JanisYoung. His life is very close to spinning out of his control, and over the course of the film, thatis exactly what happens. Ignore the case, which refers to Loving as “a shattering tale of roman…
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O Brother Where Art Thou?

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

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Joyously unhinged and very inventive, O Brother Where Art Thou? is the latest film from the imaginative minds of the Coen brothers. Based very roughly (and loosely) on Homer’s “Odyssey”, it’s a Depression-era musical about three convicts who escape from a chain gang to unearth a buried treasure, get one of the men home to be reunited with his wife, become overnight musical sensations as “The Soggy Bottom Boys”, and at the same time, elude a bloodthirsty team of Mississippi lawmen. For those of you who don’t …
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Target, The

Posted in 1.33:1 Fullscreen, Action, Artisan Entertainment, Disc Reviews, Dolby Digital 2.0 (English), Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), DVD by Archive Authors on July 10th, 2003

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Synopsis

Professional hit man Christopher Lambert is given a new contract, but this one doesn’tinvolve killing. He is to travel from Europe to Cape Town (where his parents were killed whenhe was but a wee lad) and protect Dennis Hopper, a businessman with mob ties who is going totestify against psychopathic gangster Christo. Even in jail, Christo’s reach is long and deadly, andLambert has his work cut out for him protecting the very unpleasant Hopper and his daughter.So far, so conventional…
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Avenging Angelo

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

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Synopsis

Sylvester Stallone is Frankie Delano, bodyguard to Anthony Quinn (in his final filmappearance). Quinn, an aging mobster, is tidying up his life, and spending most of his timewatching his daughter (Madeleine Stowe) from a distance. He had to give her up in her infancy,otherwise she would have been killed in a vendetta, and she does not know who her father is.Stallone, natch, has long since fallen in love with Stowe after decades of watching her from afar.When Quinn is murder…
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Shield, The – Complete First Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 9th, 2003

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FX decided to jump on the cable bandwagon last year and come up with their very own original series, The Shield. The show stars Michael Chiklis, formerly of The Commish, as Vic Mackey, a hard-nosed Los Angeles detective that gives bad cops a good name – but in a bad way.

Mackey is head of a tactical Strike Team that is comprised of plainclothes officers working in one of the most crime-ridden areas of Los Angeles – the Farmingdale District. Mackey’s group shows impressive results however – s…
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UHF

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 9th, 2003

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UHF is one of those cult films that has gained quite a following over the years. Fans of the film have been clamoring for a DVD release for many months now and somewhere in the hallowed halls of MGM, someone did something about it. The company is going to release a full-blown DVD of the film on June 4th that will appease the dozens and dozens of “Weird Al” Yankovic fans everywhere.

UHF is total satire and plays almost like the old Landis Kentucky Fried Movie from the 70’s. It’s target…
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All That Jazz

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 9th, 2003

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It’s showtime!

Dead for nearly two decades now, choreographer/director Bob Fosse (Cabaret, Lenny, All That Jazz) created this sardonic semi-autobiographical tale that takes a long, hard look at his compulsive and neurotic life that was rife with women, sex and smokes, as well as some rather serious alcohol and drug abuse.

In All That Jazz, Fosse is embodied in Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider), a Broadway choreographer who can’t face the day without his usual regiment …
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Mutant Aliens

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

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Synopsis

Twenty years ago, astronaut Earl Jensen blasts off into space, only to be betrayed Earthsideby the evil Dr. Frubar. Earl loses his fuel and drifts off into space. In the present, he returns, benton revenge, and accompanied by a group of strange and ferocious creatures. Summarized thus,the film sounds nowhere near as bizarre as it actually is. But wait until you see what happenedto Earl while he was in space for 20 years. This you should discover for yourself, but I will say…
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Intacto

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 7th, 2003

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Synopsis

The central premise is that luck is a real force, a gift that people are born with but can betaken away. Deep in the bowels of a mysterious casino (one that sits in the middle of mountainwasteland) lives Max Von Sydow in Howard Hughes-like seclusion. He appears to be the darkgod of luck, capable of stealing any trace of your like by a single touch, and this is precisely whathe does to a protege who wants to strike out on his own. This latter, deprived of his own luck,seeks …
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Tsui Hark’s Vampire Hunters

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 7th, 2003

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Synopsis

The plot is an almost completely disconnected series of set pieces, and so defies easysynopsis. Essentially, a group of vampire hunters track a vampire king to the home of a richeccentric. Many battles ensue, and they are the main reason for watching this. The comedy islame, and the characterization non-existent. So many things happen, but for so little reason andwith so little relation to each other, that the story manages to be both frenzied and meandering.Apart from a fe…
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Dude, Where’s My Car?

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

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To be completely fair, Dude, Where’s My Car? was neither the worst movie of last year, nor the worst movie of its kind during the year. Heck, at times, it even showed signs of comedic inspiration. However, before I seem too kind, Dude, Where’s My Car? is as dumb and crass as its title implies.

Taking obvious cues from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure from years gone by, Danny Leiner’s Dude, Where’s My Car? follows in those same footsteps of the past in an almost slavish manne…
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Naked Killer

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 7th, 2003

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Synopsis

Kitty (Chingmy Yau) and Tinam (Simon Yam) have just met and are falling in love. Theirrelationship faces a few obstacles, however: he’s a cop so traumatized by his role in theaccidental shooting of his brother that he can no longer draw his gun without throwing up; shehas an explosive temper, and has already stabbed her unpleasant hair stylist in the groin. They areseparated after their first date: Kitty’s father is killed, and she takes revenge by shooting up theoffice of …
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Simon and Garfunkel – The Concert in Central Park

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 6th, 2003

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When one thinks of the “Golden Age” of rock, the middle sixties to the middle seventies, a cornucopia of big name, big time acts usually surfaces in discussion. The big three, of course: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin. Some impressive but undoubtedly second tier acts follow: The Who, Cream, Black Sabbath. Solo acts like Bowie, Elton John, Marvin Gaye and Jimi Hendrix stand out. One musical act that seems to get lost in the glare of these musical supernovas was a pair of soft-spoken, poetic friends …
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All About the Benjamins

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 6th, 2003

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I could sit here and type away for hours, deconstructing the finer points (using the term loosely) of the latest Ice Cube project, All About the Benjamins, were I so inclined. I could tell you about Bucum the bounty hunter (Cube), his target-turned-partner Reggie (Mike Epps, otherwise known as “Hey, that isn’t Chris Tucker!”) losing a sixty million-dollar lottery ticket and accidentally learning about a diamond heist while being relentlessly pursued. I could tell you about Bucum’s complicated motivation for …
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La Femme Nikita

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 4th, 2003

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Synopsis

Drugged-out, hyper-aggressive street punk Nikita (Anne Parillaud) is recruited (whether shelikes it or not) by a top-secret government agency. The first act of the film sees her rebelliousnature gradually being channelled by Tcheky Karyo, and Nikita becomes a glamorous assassin.The action scenes are terrific (so much so that John Badham replicated them shot-for-shot in theremake Point of No Return), and the flick, as with all Besson pictures, has style to burn. I’venever be…
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Dark Blue

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

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Synopsis

We are in the last five days before the Rodney King verdict will set LA on fire. Movingthrough the mean streets is one mean cop — Eldon Perry (Kurt Russell). Perry is very much avintage Ellroy character: hard, mean, utterly corrupt, but still possessing the glimmerings of asoul. He is contrasted by his younger partner Scott Peedman, who still has ideals and wants tobe a good cop, and his boss Brendan Gleeson, who is a complete monster in the Dudley Smithmould. Investigatin…
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Basic

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

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A Ranger training exercise goes horribly wrong. The instructor (Samuel L. Jackson) and halfthe cadets are missing. There are two survivors. One is injured, and the other was seen engagedin a firefight with one of the other cadets. Investigating are Connie Nielsen and John Travolta,who bounce back and forth between the two survivors as the stories they tell keep changing,Rashomon-style. The twists pile upon twists, and so few are motivated by anything in the storythat audience good will is soon exhausted, despite the decent atmosphere and performances.
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Narc

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

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Synopsis

Nick Tellis (Jason Patrick) is an undercover narcotics officer who is placed on suspension after a shootout with a dealer gone very wrong. He is brought back to active duty to shadow another officer who might have had something to do with the death of his partner.

Henry Oak (Ray Liotta) is a short tempered renegade cop intent to find out who killed his partner. AS they start to dig deeper into the life of Oak’s partner we find that things are not as they may seem. We see some intere…
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Rebecca

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 2nd, 2003

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Film

To film fans, the clause “Directed by Alfred Hitchcock” has almost become an adjective in and of itself. It has come to mean suspense created by using the viewer’s imagination and mind as a part of the film, first and foremost. These films didn’t have the freedom of CG, and consequently had to invent ways to achieve visual effects (Watch the documentary on Birds or Rear Window for example). Besides the lack of freedom of creation that digital filmmaking now provides, the filmmak…
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