Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 5th, 2006
Synopsis
Paul Gross plays Geoffrey Tennant, a once celebrated actor who had a meltdown during a performance of Hamlet. Now he’s trying to mount The Tempest at the head of a broke company about to be evicted from its premises. Meanwhile, his former mentor, Oliver Welles, has just mounted a dispiriting version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the New Burbage Theatre, and very shortly thereafter dies. Tennant is brought in as the new artistic director, and his attempts to stage Ha...let are troubled by the ghost of Tennant, a lunatic director, scheming suits and difficult actors.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 5th, 2006
This is a rather hard review to write. How do you separate the subject matter from the film? What reviewer wants to find himself in the unenviable task of critiquing the likes of a future saint? Certainly the filmmakers must have felt the same burden to do the story justice. But did they succeed? The answer is a not so simple.
The choice of Olivia Hussey was a remarkably inspired one. She portrayed the unselfish passion and self sacrifice as if they were emanating from her very soul. From her first moments on screen it is not hard to believe, while perhaps imagined, that we are seeing just a hint of something divine. The supporting cast does a fine job but can’t help but be overshadowed by Hussey. The location cinematography is also handled nicely with a great realistic approach that creates just the right touch of reality to it all. If the film is flawed at all, it is in its length. At 2 hours, it is overlong to maintain such powerful imagery, yet the running time is far too short to do justice to such a life that has touched and inspired the world. The film doesn’t start at the beginning. We find Mother Teresa already a nun and about to begin her mission to help the poor. Nor is that story complete. Huge gaps in time lead us all too quickly to aged and dying saint apparent. You don’t need to be Catholic to appreciate the film. Few would dare to challenge the purity and good works of Mother Teresa’s life. World leaders have been brought to tears, and more importantly to action, because of her example. Many films have spared no expense in graphic f/x to try and show us a face that is truly evil. Few have attempted to bring us such a picture of goodness. This film shows us how simply it can be done. The film is worth a look on those grounds alone.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 5th, 2006
Synopsis
Paul Gross plays Geoffrey Tennant, a once celebrated actor who had a meltdown during a performance of Hamlet. Now he’s trying to mount The Tempest at the head of a broke company about to be evicted from its premises. Meanwhile, his former mentor, Oliver Welles, has just mounted a dispiriting version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the New Burbage Theatre, and very shortly thereafter dies. Tennant is brought in as the new artistic director, and his attempts to stage Ha...let are troubled by the ghost of Tennant, a lunatic director, scheming suits and difficult actors.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 5th, 2006
Synopsis
Anthony Michael Hall steps into Christopher Walken’s considerable shoes as Johnny Smith, a man who wakes up after years in a coma to discover that not only has life moved on without him, but he has psychic powers, and with them comes visions of politician Greg Stillson (Sean Patrick Flanery, taking on the role essayed by Martin Sheen in the Cronenberg film) bringing about some kind of apocalypse. Smith’s struggle against Stillson makes up the central arc of the series, and this season...opens with Smith trying to stop his friend Rebecca from attempting to assassinate Stillson, and act that will result in her death.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 4th, 2006
I admit, when I received this film in the mail for review, I was extremely suspicious of it. I am not a conspiracy theorist, and though I am interested in the facts surrounding the 9-11 tragedy, I am not one that buys into all the theories surrounding the day. The cover of this disc, and the fact that it came to me by itself in a plain brown envelope, made me believe that I was in for another crackpot theory.
When I started to watch the film, however, I realized that this was going to be a film that was much ...ore aligned with my interests than I originally thought. The main premise of this film is to dispute the growing belief in the United States that the Jews were behind the attacks of 9-11. specifically, the focus is on an ancient manuscript called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which is said to be the minutes of a meeting of a group of Jews, and outlines their plans for world domination.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 4th, 2006
Fox has done a really great thing with their Fox Film Noir line. There are tons of great film noirs from the 40's and 50's, and Fox has done an excellent job of grabbing those classic films and presenting them in great new affordable editions for modern viewers to experience for the first time. I Wake Up Screaming is one of 18 films currently in the series, and I am sure that number will only continue to grow over time.
Betty Grable shows up here in a starring role that is a departure from her u...ual flirty faire. Here she plays a secretary, the sister of a murdered model. The film is told in flashbacks through the police interrogation process, as the investigation into who murdered this mysterious woman slowly unfolds. We discover that Grable's character has fallen in love with the prime suspect, and the more questions the police ask, the deeper the story goes. Plot twists, quick dialog and shady characters fill this film, and the whole sorted affair builds to a gutsy surprise ending.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 2nd, 2006
Doctor Who is much more of a cultural phenomenon in the UK than it is here in the States. In fact, the series about a time traveler who fights evil is very much on par with the Star Trek series in North America in terms of its rabid cult following. The original series ran for a staggering 26-seasons on the BBC before finally fading away. The show has become one of the most popular Science Fiction programs of all time.
In 2003, the dead show was brought back as a new series, following the same ba...ic storyline as the original. The Doctor in question is actually an alien who fights evil with the aid of his rickety and unreliable time machine, which is cleverly disguised as a British police box. Though such boxes have become a bit rare in today's society (in much the same way as the common pay telephone has disappeared in the U.S.), the boxes are still fairly inconspicuous, which allows the good Doctor to leave the machine sitting about without too much interference from the general public.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 2nd, 2006
The Brilliant But Cancelled DVD series is the brainchild of the web site of the same name, run by the Bravo network. As of now, there are just two titles in the series, a set of four different crime dramas, and this show. EZ Streets was a show from the 1996/1997 television season that was something of a precursor to The Sopranos. Hardly the same quality, but a similar idea. This time, Joe Pantoliano plays the boss of a crime family simply called the EZ. Ken Olin plays an undercover police detect...ve who has infiltrated the organization, and is sometimes torn between his job and his loyalty to his new friends. Meanwhile, Jason Gedrick plays a gangster that is fresh out of prison, struggling between his desires to play it straight and his need to rejoin the high income lifestyle of his friends.
The show may have been Canceled because it was just a bit ahead of its time. It's possible that America wasn't ready for a sympathetic look at the lives of career criminals on network television in 1996. As a result, the show only got an eight episode run on the air, including a two-part pilot. That pilot is included on this disc, as are episodes 6 and 7 from the shows short broadcast run. It seems odd to only present the series' first episode and two mid-season episodes. The episodes don't flow together, so there is no overarching storyline.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 1st, 2006
God bless producer Irwin Allen for aiming high in just about everything he did. He would make large scale productions, some focused on disasters (like his next film after this, The Towering Inferno), but he also produced Lost in Space for TV and made other contributions like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and an incarnation of The Lost World. He may not have had a DeMille-like grip on his project because the studios had so much control still in the early '70s, but he sure dreamt big, which is always a good thing.
In The Poseidon Adventure, based on the novel from Paul Gallico, the S.S. Poseidon has set sail and its cast and crew will be celebrating New Year's Eve on the water. When captain Leslie Nielsen (Airplane!) receives a notice about a tidal wave from an earthquake, he prepares for the worst. The wave hits the ship and turns it over, and it leaves a handful of passengers left to try and reach the water's surface before the ship sinks. Among those are Reverend Frank Scott (Gene Hackman, fresh off The French Connection), Mike and Linda Rongo (Ernest Borgnine (From Here to Eternity) and Stella Stevens (The Ballad of Cable Hogue), respectively), Belle and Manny Rosen (Shelly Winters, (Lolita) and Jack Albertson (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), respectively, Acres (Roddy MacDowall, Planet of the Apes) James Martin (Red Buttons, The Longest Day) and Susan Shelby (Pamela Sue Martin, Dynasty).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 1st, 2006
David Boreanaz is better known as the guy who played Sarah Michelle Gellar�s love interest in Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the first three seasons of its existence. Being used sparingly in some parts and shining in his occasional showcase episodes, helped convince Buffy creator Joss Whedon and producer David Greenwalt to give the guy his own spin-off series. And by having the Buffy writers and directors pull some double duty in the beginning before gently phasing in some new creative influences, it's grown into a spin-off show that, in its fourth season now, arguably gives Buffy a run for its dramatic money. Since Angel was a semi-regular on Buffy but was mysterious, it was safe to assume that more things have to be explained for the show to work. The supporting characters had to be given some more depth as well. Buffy cast regulars were brought in for the occasional show, even two, depending on the storyline. Even Faith was brought in as part of two very episodes late in the season that finally gave Buffy and Angel some long-awaited closure.
Initially, the only character that went straight from Buffy to Angel was Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), but Wesley (Alexis Denisof) became a mid-season addition who was later included in the regular cast. A couple of new characters were introduced in the mix. Kate Lockley (Elisabeth Rohm) was brought in as a Los Angeles detective who really didn't provide much in substance outside from showing up to provide Angel information for cases he was pursuing. Although she did find out about Angel's vampire past which was a nice twist on things.There were a couple of episodes that were done to give her some depth also, and her main conflict was with her father who was also a recently retired LA cop, and the hot and cold relationship the two shared, until his killing by a demon late in the season. Another character named Gunn (J. August Richards) was added in the last 3 episodes of the season, and subsequently became part of the permanent cast just in time for the start of Season 2. Alan Francis Doyle (the late Glenn Quinn) started on the first episode as a half-demon that received visions of people in assistance, which helped Angel in helping people out each week. He was a bit of a mystery in the beginning, until we later find out more about his past (he was married briefly) and his feelings for Cordelia, while having reservations about telling her about his demon side. Sadly, Doyle was killed off of the show in the middle part of the first season, and transferred the power of the visions to Cordelia for future episodes. The recurring protagonist in the show is a legal firm named Wolfram and Hart, a firm that even "Johnnie Cochran wouldn't join", and with mind readers, shamans, and other forces helping them in their pursuit of evil in LA, they seem like the perfect group to have hatred for.
