Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 9th, 2004
Synopsis
The crew of jaded Robert Mitchum’s destroyer is bored. Their craving to see some action,any kind of action, is answered when they encounter a U-Boat captained by the disillusioned CurtJurgens. From this point on, the entire film consists of the battle between the two brilliantcaptains, each one anticipating the other’s moves.
The fact that Jurgens, thoroughly sick of the war and the Nazis, is so sympathetic has an oddeffect on the film’s suspense. On the one hand, t...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 8th, 2004
Synopsis
Jessica (Dark Angel) Alba hangs up her guns to play Honey Daniels, cutting edgehip-hop dancer looking to be discovered. Soon enough, a big-shot video director spots her andshe revitalizes his videos. Before long, she’s also in charge of choreography. Meanwhile, sheis becoming involved with street kids, trying to save them from lives of crime and abuse bygetting them involved in dancing. A test of her values looms too: will she succumb to the slickdirector’s wiles, or...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 7th, 2004
Synopsis
Samula Le Bihan is an ex-con trying to go straight. He and his partner are trying to have anormal life, and trying to have a child. Unfortunately, the old life won’t let go. His youngerbrother is a hot-head looking to make his mark in the organized crime scene, and his best friend(Samy Naceri), the local gang leader, is a little bit TOO attached to him, and is determined to pullhim back into the life.
The scene is very gritty, and the dialogue is extremely naturalis...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 7th, 2004
Synopsis
In 1957, the British studio Hammer, having already produced a number of classic SFthrillers, turned to gothic horror, which had been effectively dead since 1946, and brought it backwith a vengeance. Their revolutionary entry was The Curse of Frankenstein (****1/2),which introduced colour, gore and sex to the classic horror formula, and made Peter Cushing (asFrankenstein) and Christopher Lee (as the Creature) into stars. Unlike the Universal Frankensteinfilms of the 3...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 6th, 2004
I’m not a big fan of “Reality TV.” I do watch Survivor, and I think that’s a really good show, but I don’t watch any of the others. When I first heard of the concept of “The Mole,” I have to admit that I was intrigued. Reality TV is all about real people reacting to each other’s most annoying personality traits and translating that friction into ratings. Well, “The Mole” puts a different spin on that concept by adding a dissenting element - one of the participants is “a mole” i.e. a nefarious agent of the producers ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 6th, 2004
Synopsis
This is a fascinating collection, but be warned that this isn’t a “Best Of” by any means. Thereis no Duck Soup here. After leaving Paramount, the Marx Brothers moved to MGM,where (as we learn in the commentaries), studio head Irving Thalberg gave their movies a newform: big, lavish production numbers, and more linear plots.
With the first effort, A Night at the Opera (1935) (****), this approach producedwonders. The formula for all the other films in t...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 5th, 2004
As a music lover, the phrase, “written by Paul McCartney” almost always signifies excellence in the performance to come. For a movie lover, this is not necessarily the case. Sure, A Hard Day’s Night is a great film, Help! is better than average, and Yellow Submarine is a fun departure from mainstream animation. Heck, even Magical Mystery Tour has a campy sort of charm to it.
Apparently, the same rule that applies to music also applies to cinema; without the rest of The Beatles, P...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 3rd, 2004
In today’s age of manufactured talent less pop stars you have to hand it to the artists that still write and actually perform their own original material. Versus the one’s who simply head into the studio with a team of writers and producers and who don’t even have the talent to actually sign live but instead just lip sync. Jewel whether you like her music or not is an artist, she writes her own material and even co-produced her last album. At times she is incredibly engaging at other times slightly annoying but, her ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 3rd, 2004
Synopsis
Structured around 11 “life lessons” learned by former Secretary of Defense Robert S.McNamara, Errol Morris’ documentary takes us through McNamara’s life and concentrates onhis role in the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War. Extensive war footage is intercut withMcNamara’s direct address to the camera, while off-screen we occasionally here Morris askquestions. Still incredibly vigorous and forceful in his 80s, McNamara is a compelling speaker.His descriptions of just h...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 3rd, 2004
The Monsters of Universal Studios during the 1930’s to the 1950’s truly are a legacy. This collection, while including many films already released, is an important set. Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein Monster, and Lon Chaney’s tortured Larry Talbot/The Wolfman have inspired generations of filmmakers, writers, and f/x engineers. The influence on our culture is impossible to deny. When asked about Frankenstein, most of us conjure the classic Karloff image long before we think of Mary Shelley or any ...
