Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 16th, 2006
I really enjoy stand-up DVDs, but they're pretty formulaic. The show starts, there is usually a short un-funny skit, and then the stand-up portion starts. The comic does his show, the credits roll, and that's it.
This is really something unique and innovative, however. This film is something of a musical comedy, skit, music video stand-up film. It's a lot to squeeze into a 72-minute film, but is is done surprisingly well. The transitions work out well, and it really shakes up the standard notions of what a co...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 15th, 2006
Tommy Lee Jones makes his directorial debut with The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, a new take on the western genre. Set in modern times, this is a unique revenge picture with a more positive message than most. Jones also stars as Pete Perkins, an old cowboy, who embodies all the classic western ideals. Estrada (Julio Cesar Cedillo) is his Spanish-speaking friend and ranch hand, who falls victim to an unfortunate shooting at the barrel of trigger-happy border patrolman Mike Norton (Barry Pepper). After a...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 15th, 2006
Lately, I've been wondering out loud about what will happen to these over-produced teen pop stars who are thrown all this media exposure by their parents (to the point of exploitation). When are we going to start seeing some Playboy or Maxim photo shoots? When are we going to see someone on Cinemax After Dark, or even Night Calls? I mean, it's obvious at this point that Ashley Simpson can't sing, and she's starting to look more and more like her sister in an attempt to become her, without the appeal. And since there's a rumor floating around that she turned down a multimillion dollar Playboy photo shoot (after the proverbial "great deal of thought"), it seems to be the next logical step.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 15th, 2006
Frank (Peter Mullan, Braveheart) has been designing and building ships in a British shipyard for 36 years. Suddenly and very cruelly, Frank is let go without any pension or prospects, and is left wondering what to do. An attempt at job searching finds him virtually at the feet of his sister-in-law, so he is basically left to walk around this nameless London suburb stunned and unsure of what to do with himself.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 13th, 2006
Teddy Roosevelt once delivered a speech with a bullet lodged in his chest from an assassination attempt. It was that kind of bravado that made him one of America’s most colorful Presidents. I’m into Presidential history, having taught it for many years. I also live in Tampa, so have an increasingly avid interest in this particular American figure. Tampa was the staging and training grounds for the Rough Riders before they embarked for Cuba. It was also from a cigar warehouse in Tampa that Roosevelt’s orders were sent hidden in a cigar.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 12th, 2006
I guess because of some anniversary related to the initial version on Disney, someone decided to do a remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and not only lengthen it, but turn it into a miniseries. Built over a couple of parts, the piece, adapted by Brian Nelson (Hardy Candy) and directed by Rod Hardy (December Boys) stars some familiar names and faces, but is it really worth it?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 11th, 2006
When Star Trek: The Next Generation began, we were introduced to a new crew and a new Enterprise. What I remember most about that first episode, however, was the new villain of sorts: Q. John De Lancie has created one of Star Trek’s most memorable and endearing characters. Some claim the Q character was really introduced in the Original Series episode Squire of Gothos. William Campbell plays the all powerful gamester Trelane who turns out to be a child of omnipotent parents who was merely playing with Kirk and his crew.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 11th, 2006
Gregory Peck plays Francis Chisholm. After losing his parents as a young boy, and then his sweetheart (to moral turpitude, it seems), Francis enters the priesthood. His unorthodox ways make him a failure initially, but kindly bishop and mentor Edmund Gwenn sees potential in the man, and sends him off to China to be a missionary. There too, things get off to a rocky start, but a turnaround happens when he saves the son of a local mandarin. His struggles are far from over, but through it all, he remains a triumphantly decent man.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 10th, 2006
A lot has been said about Roger Ebert and Russ Meyer. Ebert has been called the most famous film critic this side of Pauline Kael (he certainly is the most informative one since I've started becoming a wee critic myself), and Meyer certainly found a niche audience directing and producing films with large-breasted women. So when Fox got the two of them together and had them come up with a script that would be a pseudo-followup to The Valley of the Dolls, one would be interested to see what became of it.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 10th, 2006
Synopsis
Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are two down-on-their-luck jazz musicians in Prohibition-era Chicago. They witness a gangland massacre, and in order to hide from the hoodlums, dress up in drag and join an all-female jazz band that is off to play an extended gig in Florida. The vocalist of the band is none other than Marilyn Monroe, and though it is Lemmon who first casts designs for her, it is Curtis who engages in the wooing. Lemmon, meanwhile, has his hands full when billionaire Joe E. Brown f...
