DVD

Swimmer, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 14th, 2003

Synopsis

Burt Lancaster, a member of the New England aristocracy, wanders out of the forest andleaps into some friends’ swimming pool. After much overly hearty banter, he realizes that thereis an unbroken link of swimming pools between here and his home. He sets off, and at each pool,there is a revelatory encounter of some sort. We gradually find out more and more about him, andit soon becomes clear that all is not sweetness and light in his world. The film is extremelystylized, and…
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X-Files – The Complete Seventh Season

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

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The X-files was one of the best written and directed shows on television, this unfortunately is the last year that the show held onto it‘s audience and originality. We start the season off with the two part season opener “The Sixth Extinction” and “The Sixth Extinction II” with Scully in Africa looking for a cure for Mulder’s mental state. In the middle we have the strangely sublime “X-cops” that finds Mulder and Scully on patrol with the Cops TV crew. We also find the typical mix of X-files weird and wonderfulness i…
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Dream with the Fishes

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

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Synopsis

David Arquette, terminal loser, utterly verklempt, and unable to get over the death of hiswife, decides to jump off a bridge. He is talked down by selfish sleaze Brad Hunt, who convinceshim to take sleeping pills instead. The pills turn out to be vitamins. Hunt, however, actually isdying, and has only a few weeks to live. He strikes a deal with Arquette. If Arquette will bankrollHunt’s last spree, indulging in all his fantasies (nude bowling, etc.), he will kill Arquette at t…
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Love is a Many-Splendored Thing

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 12th, 2003

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Synopsis

The year is 1949, and mainland China is falling to the Communists. Eruasian doctor HanSuyin (Jennifer Jones, and the casting should be a bit of a clue as to what you’re in for) has asuccessful professional life in Hong Kong, but her personal life has been nonexistent since thedeath of her husband. Then reporter Mark Elliot (William Holden) waltzes into her life, refusingto take no for an answer. Of course, their love is beset by all sorts of obstacles, be it racialsuspicio…
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Secretary

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 12th, 2003

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Synopsis

Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a young woman utterly lacking in self-confidence, andgiven to deliberately cutting herself. She gets her first job as secretary to E. Edward Grey (JamesSpader), as tightly wound and ferociously self-isolated and individual as you could imagine.What happens when the sadist meets the masochist? Sparks fly. Low key and sharply sly, thiswinning film shows (along with Amelie and Kissing Jessica Stein) that there is life in theromantic comedy g…
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Red Dragon

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 10th, 2003

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Red Dragon is not only the prequel to The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, but it is also a remake of a film called Manhunter. The story fits nicely into the Hannibal Lector trilogy, and the story holds true to Manhunter.

Synopsis

After a brush with death and Hannibal Lecter, FBI agent Will Graham (Edward Norton) is called back into service to capture an elusive new killer “The Tooth Fairy”. Forced to face his fears and Doctor Lecter once again Will starts to get pulled into the …
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Disney’s Sing Along Songs – Sing a Song With Pooh Bear and Piglet Too

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 8th, 2003

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Synopsis

A synopsis is beside the point here. The main feature is song clips from various Winnie ThePooh cartoons with animated captions encouraging the kids to sing along. I do wonder about theaudience for such bits as the Tigger song: this piece moves so fast that you need to be a speedreader to keep up, and so probably too old for the DVD.

Audio

No sound effects to speak of, naturally, since music is the whole point of the DVD. Themusic sounds fine. It is…
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Best of the Power Rangers – The Ultimate Rangers

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 8th, 2003

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Synopsis

Five Power Rangers adventures, three of which are two-parters, add up to almost three hours-worth of material. The cheerful super-powered teens go up against the regular batch of rubber-suited bad guys. If you want your kids to develop an early appreciation of camp, this is just theticket. If you’re not already familiar with the basic premise of the series, the plot lines could be alittle confusing.

Audio

Ouch. The 2.0 surround is a very harsh mix. …
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Disney’s Sing Along Songs – The Lion King Circle of Life

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 8th, 2003

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Synopsis

Nothing really to summarize here: 13 clips of musical numbers from everything from TheLion King to Pinocchio to Aladdin. Captions encourage viewers to sing along. There are severalnew songs from recent direct-to-video movies too.

Audio

This isn’t a sound effects disc, so what is of interest is the music, and the 5.1 mix is verysolid: distortion free but not too deafening.

Video

Strong and sharp, with the colours generally vi…
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Adventures of Pluto Nash, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 7th, 2003

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Synopsis

Eddie Murphy is Pluto Nash, ex-smuggler, now owner of the Moon’s most successful nightclub. He refuses to sell his business to mysterious casino operator Rick Crater, with the resultthat his club is blown up, and various and sundry goons are after him. What follows is all sortsof barely motivated running around sets that appear to have waltzed off outtakes from TotalRecall. The film makes little sense, isn’t very funny, isn’t very exciting, and doesn’t have verygood special…
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What to Do in Case of Fire

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 7th, 2003

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Synopsis

In 1986, a group of anarchists cobble together a home-made bomb and plant it in a hatedbuilding. Something goes wrong with the mechanism, and the bomb doesn’t go off until 2000, bywhich point most of the group have moved on with their lives. The fact that they filmedthemselves making the bomb presents a problem, however, and the reunited group must find away to break into police headquarters to recover the incriminating evidence. This film is not ablanket condemnation of se…
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Secret Ballot

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

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Synopsis

In a beautiful opening shot, a plane flies across the screen at sunrise, parachuting a box tothe ground. The in the case is a ballot box, and a solider stationed on a deserted beach is to watchover the election agent who comes for the box. Together they criss-cross the island in search ofvotes, which is not the straightforward task you might think. This is very low-key satire, whereevery nuance counts for something. The extremely long, often motionless takes furtherconcentr…
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Path to War

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2003

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Synopsis

Elected with the greatest majority of any US president, Lyndon Johnson (Michael Gambon,who will be replacing Richard Harris as Professor Dumbledore) begins his administration withgreat hopes for the positive transformation of American society. But he listens to the wrongpeople about Vietnam (Alec Baldwin instead of Donald Sutherland), and little by little everythinggets swallowed up by the war. Though long, this is one compelling drama, and much of thedialogue is spooky in …
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Brown Sugar

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2003

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Synopsis

Sanaa Lathan is a music journalist, and Taye Diggs is a hip-hop star. They’ve been friendssince childhood, but not a romantic couple. Diggs is about to get married to someone else, whichcauses Lathan to reconsider her feelings. The naturalism of the performances and the importanceof the setting make this a refreshing break from too many cookie-cutter romances.

Audio

The environmental effects aren’t bad, with decent use of sound effects. The music, how…
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I Spy

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

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Synopsis

Owen Wilson is an agent for the fictional Bureau of National Security. He doesn’t have avery good track record, and so is constantly stuck with substandard equipment. He is sent toHungary to recover the Switchblade, a super-stealth plane stolen by Malcolm McDowell. He ispartnered up with egotistical boxer Eddie Murphy, and the usual buddy hijinks ensue. There issome fun to be had in the frantic action sequences, and in a Cyrano de Bergerac moment whenMurphy is trying to coa…
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Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie

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

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Synopsis

On their way to a kid’s concert, the Veggies’ bus runs off the road, and they go for help ina seafood restaurant. At this restaurant are the “pirates who do nothing,” who teach one of theyoungsters a lesson in compassion through their tale of their adventures with Jonah. Nicelyanimated, Jonah for the most part avoids the ham-fisted didacticism that plagues many similarefforts.

Audio

A very strong, powerful mix. The music is a particular standout. Th…
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White Oleander

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

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Synopsis

Alison Lohman is the daughter of the chillingly beautiful Michelle Pfeiffer. Dangerouslyself-possessed, Pfeiffer murders her boyfriend when he cheats on her, and is sentenced to 35-years-to-life. Lohman then bounces from one foster home to another, and among her fostermothers are Robin Wright Penn (as a born-again ex-stripper) and Renee Zellweger (as a fragileformer actress). Tragedy and hardship are present around every bend, and as if that weren’tenough, Pfeiffer does her…
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Troop Beverly Hills

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

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Synopsis

A wealthy Phylis Nefler (Shelly Long) has everything money can buy, except a husband. Freddy (Craig T. Nelson) is leaving her for good unless she can prove to him that she is still the dynamic and energetic person he married. She becomes the leader of her daughters Wilderness Girls troop and heads off into the wild blue yonder.

Video

Remeastered in High Definition like a lot of the Columbia Tri-star re-releases have been lately the video quality is better then ave…
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Who Framed Roger Rabbit

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

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Originally released in 1988 this film received 4 Academy awards (Best film editing, best sound effects editing, best visual effects, special achievement in animation direction) and was the first film to feature a combination of live action and traditional cell drawn animation. Before any of the other big budget animation films of the 90’s (think the Little Mermaid, The Lion King, etc.) there was Roger Rabbit. This film spawned the animation revolution of the 90’s and there still to this day is nothing like it. One pa…
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Drumline

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 3rd, 2003

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Synopsis

Nick Cannon plays Devon Miles, brilliant drummer with attitude to burn, who arrives at acampus with one of the most prestigious marching bands in the US. What follows is essentially atraining film, the kind of thing you see in To the Shores of Tripoli and GI Jane, only this timemusic, rather than war, is the goal. The usual ups and downs and character conflicts are present(you can set your watch by the predictability of the script), but the performances are engaging,and the…
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Other Side of Heaven, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 3rd, 2003

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Synopsis

Christopher Gorham plays a 19-year-old Mormon who is sent on a three-year mission toconvert the islanders of the Tonga. After some initial stumbles, he learns the local languagethanks to a four-day Bible reading marathon (that’s what it looks like, anyway), and is soon goinggreat guns, despite such hardships as a vicious rival minister and a hurricane. This is anunbelievably retrograde film. Setting aside whatever doubts one might have regarding the entiremissionary project…
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Lucus

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

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Synopsis

Being the outsider at school is never an easy thing and for 14 year old Lucas who has been accelerated in his schooling it is especially difficult. He is more interested in bugs and symphonies then football and popularity. This all changes after he befriends the new girl in town during summer break, she turns into a cheerleader who only has eyes for the quarterback and Lucas will stop at nothing to get her to notice him. This includes joining the football team! A coming of age film staring C…
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Evelyn

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 2nd, 2003

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Synopsis

When Pierce Brosnan’s wife up and leaves him, decamping with another man for Australia,his attempts to be a single parent are quickly derailed by the government. Since he is currentlywithout work, his children (including the title daughter Evelyn) are placed in group homes runby nuns (where Evelyn goes) and monks (where the two boys go). Once he is back on his feetfinancially, he still isn’t granted custody, as the children will not be released without the consentof both pa…
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Death to Smoochy

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 1st, 2003

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Synopsis

Kiddie-show host Rainbow Randloph (Robin Williams), up to his armpits in graft, is nailedby the FBI and turfed from his slot. Replacing him is Smoochy the Rhino (Edward Norton), arelentlessly nice and upstanding individual. Being so nice makes the target not just of theobsessive and psychotic Randolph, but also of the mob (headed, in a brilliant piece of casting, byHarvey Fierstein). Almost everyone in the film is a nasty piece of work, which makes the blackhumour all the m…
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Bushwacked

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 30th, 2003

Synopsis

Daniel Stern stars as bumbling package delivery man “Mad Max” Grabelski who finds himself on the wrong side of the law after a get rich quick scheme makes him a murder suspect. He heads for the hills and is mistaken for a world famous scout leader and things just go down hill from there. Your pretty low end stab at slap stick kids comedy this film falls short and really disappoints on all fronts

Audio

This disc has a simple Dolby stereo audio track so there is not…
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