Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 28th, 2004
Synopsis
Ed Harris is the coach of a small-town high school football team in 1976. He takes an interestin Cuba Gooding, Jr. after the mentally challenged young man is tormented by some of thethoughtless players. Harris takes Gooding under his wing as a kind of team mascot (orsomething). A friendship grows between the two men, and Gooding gradually blooms. Thoughnot quite as gruesomely “inspirational” as the trailers implied, this still comes very close, like anafter-school TV specia...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 28th, 2004
Synopsis
Jack is supposed to accompany his chimpanzee family and human minder to Mexico, but amix-up at the airport puts him on the wrong plane, and he winds up in Colorado. There hebefriends the new kid in town, and they become snowboarding champions together. Lessons offriendship are learned by all, amid rigidly carboard performances and lackluster comedy. Theanthropomorphisation of Jack and the other chimps reaches such an extreme level that it wouldbe disturbing if the film were...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 27th, 2004
Synopsis
This documentary follows eight children as they compete in that peculiarly Americaninstitution, the National Spelling Bee. The first half of the film profiles each of the eight, andwe see them at home with their families, getting ready for the big competition. The second half isthe Bee itself, brilliantly edited to generate maximum tension in the viewer. One of the film’sremarkable achievements is that, unlike so many other documentaries which centre around acompetition, we...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 27th, 2004
Synopsis
Wrong side of the tracks gal Julia Roberts (now there’s casting for you) is hired by leukemia-ridden Campbell Scott to be his nurse. He’s educated and rich, she ain’t. He’s dying, she ain’t.Cue every cliché in the book as the romance wends its inevitable way. Suspension of disbeliefis not helped by the fact that Scott is supposedly doing his PhD on German Impressionist art, andwhen shows Roberts a slide show of his subjects, Pre-Raphaelite Victorian Dante GabrielRossetti is...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 25th, 2004
In 1976 a New York media group conducted a survey of the NYPD detectives. The question was: “Of all the TV cop shows, which most accurately portrays life as a detective?” The overwhelming response was the comedy Barney Miller.
It seems that real cops related to the daily grind and weekly wackos of Barney Miller. Let’s not put aside that this was also one of the most consistently funny shows on television. I remember it took me a while to accept Abe Vigoda in such a light role as Fish. My first exposure to Vigoda was the ruthless mobster in The Godfather.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 25th, 2004
James Gurney created a wonderful mythical land to rival Tolkien’s Middle Earth that was populated by stranded travelers and talking dinosaurs. Hallmark finally brought these settings to life on film with their popular mini-series. The ABC series that followed was unfortunately complete with several fatal flaws. The dino f/x were not really as good as we have become used to. The blurs and surreal appearance often takes one out of the experience. The actors used in the mini-series were replaced with virtual unknowns and a noticeable lack of skills. It was obviously a mistake to attempt such an ambitious project for weekly television.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 25th, 2004
Scorched follows in the tradition of Guy Ritchie films such as “Loch Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch” from the perspective of having a group of characters that don’t have too much in common except for fate brining them all together at the right (or wrong) place at the right (or wrong) time.
Scorched follows three main characters who all work at a bank and have the same idea, although thought of independently, to rob the bank – all on the same weekend. Sheila (Alicia Silverstone) has been dating ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 25th, 2004
The best sci-fi show on television keeps getting better. MGM has also shown an attempt to improve the DVD releases with each subsequent season. This was Showtime’s final year of hosting Stargate SG-1. I will be interested to see if the cinematic quality holds up with the release of season 6 which was taken over by the Sci-Fi Channel. The stories are bigger in season 5 and the f/x continue to amaze. With seasons 4 and 5 SG-1 had reached its peak.
Synopsis
Col. Jack O’ Neal (Anderson) heads the group.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 24th, 2004
Synopsis
An arrogant, misanthropic Charlton Heston leads a trio of astronauts who left Earth in 1972for a trip they expected to last some 900 years. 2000 years later, they crash-land on what theysuppose to be another planet. They encounter mute, primitive humans, but then are set upon bycivilized apes. Heston is the only survivor, and is befriended by ape scientists Roddy McDowalland Kim Hunter, who challenge the religious and scientific orthodoxy of their society bybelieving that a...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 23rd, 2004
Synopsis
René (Gorden Kaye) is the owner of a cafe in occupied France. All he wants to do is getthrough the war, and avoid making any waves, and so is very obsequious towards the Germans.Unfortunately, the French resistance wants him to hide two British airman. And every woman insight throws herself at him. And his wife is jealous. And, and. and... One complication afteranother descends upon his head.
I'll confess that I've never been a fan of Are You Being Served?, s...
