Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 23rd, 2006
My name's trouble... and you got some of it lady.
I admit, I wasn't even a big fan of The A-Team back in the day. I mean, I was a boy, and Mr. T was cool and all, but the show itself never really grabbed my attention. Even at a young age, the whole thing just felt a little too unbelievable. I mean, if these guys are a group of deserters and felons who are wanted by the government, then how is it that everybody knows who they are? Plus, Mr. T isn't exactly inconspicuous wearing 832 gold ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 23rd, 2006
Synopsis
When he was a teenager, firefighter Tony Comes was sexually abused by a Catholic priest. When he and his family move to their new home, and he discovers that his victimizer lives just down the street, the shock forces him to come to terms with his past, and to seek redress. The documentary follows what happens, detailing, among other things, the way the Church circled its institutional wagons, and the terrible emotional cost to Comes and his family as the court battle drags on.
The...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 23rd, 2006
Synopsis
What distinguishes Nicolas Cage from other more mainstream actors is that his choices of independent films, providing him the opportunity to take on a wide variety of roles that broaden his range, while periodically taking on the occasional Jerry Bruckheimer production to maintain his box office gravitas and make some money to allow him to work the indie films. It’s a circuitous route that helps to benefit the viewer. Sometimes those lower-level films are hits, while others miss.
In Lo...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 23rd, 2006
Synopsis
What bothers me about music, aside from the sanitized, overmarketing of a band or artist, is the way that those who play it for its enjoyment are cast aside so rudely and without thought. In Frank Zappa’s outstanding “The Real Frank Zappa Book”, he talks about appearing at a jazz festival with his group the Mothers of Invention, and witnessing the legendary Duke Ellington pleading for a $10 advance on his appearance fee. Quoting Zappa’s response; "We’d been together in one configuration or another ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 23rd, 2006
Synopsis
Documentary makers Patrick Farrelly and Kate O’Callaghan followed the creation of the liberal Air America Radio, a deliberate attempt to create an alternative to the all-encompassing right wing dominance of the talk radio airwaves. The making of the film took an unexpected turn when the newly born network suddenly fell into serious financial difficulty, and all sorts of stories of impropriety involving its founder circulated.
The story is therefore quite dramatic, and the filmmaker...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 23rd, 2006
The 1970’s was the decade of the muscle car. Films like Smokey and the Bandit and Cannonball Run raced into theatres, riding on the thrills of speed. If you were a young man, then you were right there ridin’ shotgun. Kicking butt and takin’ names. The Last American Hero makes the unfortunate attempt to combine this “need for speed” with a typical “against all odds” story. The result is a dead end street.
Junior Jackson (Bridges) is the son of a bootlegger with a real talent for running roadblocks. Wh...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 23rd, 2006
The film’s prologue informs us that the sport of sculling captured the nation’s attention long before baseball or football came along. We’re told that this activity created a national obsession with much the same pitfalls of modern sports. Somehow I can’t imagine, in this age of sports bars and ESPN, that rowing would demand the attention this boast assumes. I don’t remember my grandfather or great grandfather for that matter reminiscing about some great rowing move he witnessed with his dad as a child. The film al...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 22nd, 2006
Synopsis
In Spain of the early 70s, Javier Cámara is Alfredo, an unsuccessful door-to-door encyclopedia salesman. His wife, Carmen (Candela Peña), desperately wants a baby, but he refuses because of their dire financial straits. The publishing house he works for decides to move into making sex films, and its remaining door-to-door men must film themselves having sex with their wives or lose their jobs. Carmen sees this as a good opportunity to get pregnant, and convinces Alfredo to give it a try. The...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 22nd, 2006
The longest running show in prime time doesn’t feature cops, doctors, or lawyers. It’s hard to believe that The Simpsons have existed as long as the Fox network. While the series didn’t really begin until Fox’s second year, the characters were part of The Tracey Ullman Show, which did start the first year of Fox. Who could have guessed that an animated short from an otherwise horrible and doomed variety show would explode into such a phenomenon. The Simpsons have not only dominated the pop culture; they have placed...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 22nd, 2006
Eric Idle, Kohn Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and of course Graham Chapman formed Britain’s most famed comedy troupe. The exploits of Monty Python’s Flying Circus were truly “something entirely different”. Their off the wall antics have written an entire chapter in the story of pop culture. There certainly is not near enough space here for me to give the group its just due. So I won’t even try. If you’ve never heard of them, then stop reading, crawl back into the rabbit hole you’ve been living ...
