Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 22nd, 2005
Synopsis
Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell and Ann Sothern are three wives in an upper-middle-classneighbourhood. Just as they head off on an outing with a group of children, they receive a letterfrom the narrator (a silken-voiced Celeste Holm) that she has left town with one of theirhusbands. Which one? Unable to get home until the end of the day, the three women must waitand wonder, and in flashback we see the strains in each of their marriages. Crain is the formerfarmgirl who doesn’t f...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 22nd, 2005
Synopsis
Charlize Theron doesn’t play Aileen Wuornos, she incarnates her. At the end of hertether, highway prostitute Aileen meets 18-year-old Selby (Christina Ricci) when she accidentlywalks into a lesbian bar. They click, and suddenly, Aileen has a reason to live. She tries to turnher life around, but with the implacability of Greek tragedy, her attempts end in failure and shereturns to turning tricks. One date goes turns ghastly, and she kills the brutal john in self-defense...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 21st, 2005
Synopsis
Danny Morgan (Rhys Ifans), a concrete layer in Australia, is very excited about his upcomingholiday, but then his girlfriend (Justine Clarke), who thinks she’s better than he is, scraps theirgetaway so she can close a real estate deal and flirt with a local newscaster. Danny is despondent,and during his week off has too much time on his hands, which means trouble. At a barbecue, heattaches helium balloons to his deck chair, and then sails off into the big blue yonder. He come...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 21st, 2005
Synopsis
The salvage ship Mother III comes across a derelict ship that has been floating in space for50 years. The crew (oh-so-cleverly named after the main characters in Bram Stoker’s novel)board the ship, and before you know it, are up against Dracula himself. The idea is halfwayinteresting, what with a setting of eternal night in a future where no one believes in God. UdoKier even puts in an appearance as the video diary of the derelict’s deceased captain, in a niceecho of the ep...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 20th, 2005
After a very successful 11 year run on NBC, the cast, crew and writers of Frasier decided to call it quits. Unlike other series that went on far too long and seemed to die a slow and painful death, the Frasier team left an indelible mark on television history with excellent writing and great comedic performances. Just to give you an idea about how important this series was in the history of television, over the course of its run it garnered over 37 Emmys for excellence in acting, writing and direction in a comedy ser...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 20th, 2005
Exit light…enter night. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster is a documentary about the inner workings of the band. But it’s not a “behind the music” type piece or a concert movie. The filmmakers attempt to gnaw away at the troubling trials of fame, addiction, and friendship. It’s fascinating stuff. Now, I’m not a big fan of Metallica, but I’ve been in creative collective situations. The personal relationships are constantly shifting. You bicker one minute, you love one another the next. In Metallica’s cas...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 20th, 2005
What a find! Film footage from a landmark 1970 concert sat in a producer’s garage for almost 3 decades. So finally, after all the music rights and remastering were taken care of, we have a landmark rockumentary. Thank the maker. Festival Express is a rock concert movie about a 3 city train tour, with stops in Toronto, Winnipeg, and Calgary (not to mention a stop in Saskatoon for booze). The performers included The Grateful Dead, The Band, Buddy Guy, and Janis Joplin (among many, many others).
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 20th, 2005
The best way to describe Season 5 is the calm before the storm. The two more prominent women, Russert and later Kay, leave the show. The season begins with Frank dealing with returning to work after his Season 4 ending stroke. Michelle Forbes of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame opted to join the Homicide cast, giving up the chance to star in the Deep Space Nine edition of Trek. She became Baltimore’s newest M.E. and would be in for a stormy ride. The show maintains its gritty feel and camera movements continue to ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 20th, 2005
Season Six signaled the inevitable decline of Star Trek Voyager. While there were certainly strong episodes, such as Pathfinder, there were far too many episodes like The Spirit Folk. The addition of the Borg children was, perhaps, the final push into the abyss. They are constantly irritating. It’s like a pack of Wesley Crushers without the passion. Voyager may have been struggling to get back to the Alpha Quadrant, but it was clear the writers were struggling even harder to keep the show fresh without resorting to o...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 20th, 2005
Synopsis
Shirley Booth is Dolly Levi, impoverished matchmaker, who has set her designs on matchingrich curmudgeon Paul Ford with herself. Ford, meanwhile, has his eye on young ShirleyMacLaine, who is so desperate to get married that she feels any man will do. Fortunately, there issomeone more her age lurking about: Anthony Perkins, pre-Psycho, when it was possibleto imagine him as a romantic lead.
That this is an adaptation of a play is painfully obvious, what with th...
