Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 15th, 2004
Synopsis
Billy Crudup learns that father Albert Finney is dying, and returns home. He has feltalienated from his father because of the latter’s never-ending tall tales of his life. Crudup wouldlike to hear something true for once in his life, while Finney maintains that he IS telling the truth.Finney tells the tales again, mostly to Crudup’s fiancee, and his improbable life unfolds beforeus, with Ewan McGregor as his younger self. In his quest for his true love, he encounters amysti...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 15th, 2004
Synopsis
Spencer Tracy arrives in the research department of the “Federal Broadcasting Company”to install a computer. He is sworn to secrecy by the president of the network, however, and soresearch head Katherine Hepburn and her co-workers assume they are to be made redundant.Sparks are clearly flying between her and Tracy, however, even if this romantic tension remainsvery much an undercurrent to their witty banter. Also on the scene is Gig Young, Hepburn’srather callow and thought...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 15th, 2004
Synopsis
Here are three cartoons that Paul McCartney backed and scored. They are all lovinglycrafted, even if they don’t always work at the narrative level. “Tropic Island Hum” and “Rupertand the Frog Song” are the weakest (though again, they look stunning). They are little more thanvisually lush excuses to set up underwhelming musical numbers (which tend to reinforce theimpression that McCarney is a creatively spent force in this department). The former apes thelook of classic musical shor...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 13th, 2004
I applaud any film that dares to push at the boundaries that envelop it, be those boundaries artistic, traditional or cultural. That is precisely what is so much fun about many Criterion Collection titles. They have a complete disregard for the filmmaking conventions and social morays of their time, and instead the director creates exactly what he wants, convention be damned.
Marilyn Monroe movies, however, have never really fit into that category. In fact, she was notoriously typecast as the sexy dumb blon...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 13th, 2004
Synopsis
Lance Henriscksen has no luck. He loses his job as FBI bomb disposal guy after the bombhe's trying to deal with goes boom. A year later, heading up a private security firm in Munich, thesame terrorists screw his life again. This time, they've set multiple nukes to go off all overEurope. The detonator is contained somewhere in the terrorist leader's body, and it will betriggered if he dies. The solution? Shrink Henricksen and team to nano-level and inject them intothe wounded terror...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 13th, 2004
Synopsis
Tribes in the Amazonian rain forest have been sabotaging American oil concerns in an effortto preserve their home. Heroine Gabrielle Anwar is reporting on what is supposed to be asuccessful compromise, but finds herself in the middle of a war. It seems the compromise is alie, and the State Department is using Rutger Hauer and his mercenaries to ethnically cleanse thelocals with genetically modified killer bees. As if this weren’t enough, a case of bees winds up ona plane. Among the...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 13th, 2004
Synopsis
Due to the clumsy snake-repelling tactics of novelist William Katt, the passengers of anAfrican river boat find themselves stuck on Snake Island. They don't realize they're in trouble, atfirst, taking time out to party and dance, but soon their numbers stuck being cut down. It seemsthat the snakes on this island have become very smart and are single-minded in their goal ofcleansing the island of humans
The extended party sequence, complete with mandatory (if nonsensical) nu...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 12th, 2004
Synopsis
Summer Phoenix narrates this tale of teen perdition. She and Aaron Paul are hooked onheroin. Phoenix overdoses. Drug-free pal Nick Stahl steps in to try to save her from herself, butbefore you know it, he becomes curious about heroin, and down the drain he goes. It’s a tragedy,folks.
And it’s stupid. Produced for MTV, it looks exactly like what you’d expect from that source.So you have perpetual flash and dazzle: slow-mo, blurring, smears, hand-held, the whole nine...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 12th, 2004
Synopsis
Sofia Milos has been widowed for years, but still refuses to start dating again. Her daughter(Emmy Rossum) tries to set her up, but with disastrous results. Jason Isaacs is a slightly seedybut charming-in-his-own way gambler who falls for Milos when he sees her sing. His clumsypursuit appears doomed to failure, until Rossum makes him a deal: if he teaches her how to countcards, she’ll help him win Milos.
Nothing in this film can really be said to be surprising. Once...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 12th, 2004
Synopsis
Carlo (Stefano Accorsi) and his live-in girlfriend (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) aren’t married,and he has no inclination yet to change this. She is pregnant, however, and the spectre of totalcommitment sends him into a blind panic. Also freaking out over adulthood and responsibilitiesare his buddies. Meanwhile, Mezzogiorno’s mother (Stefania Sandrelli) is dismayed by the ideaof becoming a grandmother, and, feeling rejected by her distant husband, seeks to revive an oldromance of ...
