Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 10th, 2003
Red Dragon is not only the prequel to The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, but it is also a remake of a film called Manhunter. The story fits nicely into the Hannibal Lector trilogy, and the story holds true to Manhunter.
Synopsis
After a brush with death and Hannibal Lecter, FBI agent Will Graham (Edward Norton) is called back into service to capture an elusive new killer “The Tooth Fairy”. Forced to face his fears and Doctor Lecter once again Will starts to get pulled into the ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 8th, 2003
Synopsis
Five Power Rangers adventures, three of which are two-parters, add up to almost three hours-worth of material. The cheerful super-powered teens go up against the regular batch of rubber-suited bad guys. If you want your kids to develop an early appreciation of camp, this is just theticket. If you’re not already familiar with the basic premise of the series, the plot lines could be alittle confusing.
Audio
Ouch. The 2.0 surround is a very harsh mix. ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 8th, 2003
Synopsis
Nothing really to summarize here: 13 clips of musical numbers from everything from TheLion King to Pinocchio to Aladdin. Captions encourage viewers to sing along. There are severalnew songs from recent direct-to-video movies too.
Audio
This isn’t a sound effects disc, so what is of interest is the music, and the 5.1 mix is verysolid: distortion free but not too deafening.
Video
Strong and sharp, with the colours generally vi...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 8th, 2003
Synopsis
A synopsis is beside the point here. The main feature is song clips from various Winnie ThePooh cartoons with animated captions encouraging the kids to sing along. I do wonder about theaudience for such bits as the Tigger song: this piece moves so fast that you need to be a speedreader to keep up, and so probably too old for the DVD.
Audio
No sound effects to speak of, naturally, since music is the whole point of the DVD. Themusic sounds fine. It is...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 7th, 2003
Synopsis
Eddie Murphy is Pluto Nash, ex-smuggler, now owner of the Moon’s most successful nightclub. He refuses to sell his business to mysterious casino operator Rick Crater, with the resultthat his club is blown up, and various and sundry goons are after him. What follows is all sortsof barely motivated running around sets that appear to have waltzed off outtakes from TotalRecall. The film makes little sense, isn’t very funny, isn’t very exciting, and doesn’t have verygood special...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 7th, 2003
Synopsis
In 1986, a group of anarchists cobble together a home-made bomb and plant it in a hatedbuilding. Something goes wrong with the mechanism, and the bomb doesn’t go off until 2000, bywhich point most of the group have moved on with their lives. The fact that they filmedthemselves making the bomb presents a problem, however, and the reunited group must find away to break into police headquarters to recover the incriminating evidence. This film is not ablanket condemnation of se...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 6th, 2003
Synopsis
In a beautiful opening shot, a plane flies across the screen at sunrise, parachuting a box tothe ground. The in the case is a ballot box, and a solider stationed on a deserted beach is to watchover the election agent who comes for the box. Together they criss-cross the island in search ofvotes, which is not the straightforward task you might think. This is very low-key satire, whereevery nuance counts for something. The extremely long, often motionless takes furtherconcentr...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2003
Synopsis
Elected with the greatest majority of any US president, Lyndon Johnson (Michael Gambon,who will be replacing Richard Harris as Professor Dumbledore) begins his administration withgreat hopes for the positive transformation of American society. But he listens to the wrongpeople about Vietnam (Alec Baldwin instead of Donald Sutherland), and little by little everythinggets swallowed up by the war. Though long, this is one compelling drama, and much of thedialogue is spooky in ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2003
Synopsis
Sanaa Lathan is a music journalist, and Taye Diggs is a hip-hop star. They’ve been friendssince childhood, but not a romantic couple. Diggs is about to get married to someone else, whichcauses Lathan to reconsider her feelings. The naturalism of the performances and the importanceof the setting make this a refreshing break from too many cookie-cutter romances.
Audio
The environmental effects aren’t bad, with decent use of sound effects. The music, how...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 4th, 2003
Synopsis
Owen Wilson is an agent for the fictional Bureau of National Security. He doesn’t have avery good track record, and so is constantly stuck with substandard equipment. He is sent toHungary to recover the Switchblade, a super-stealth plane stolen by Malcolm McDowell. He ispartnered up with egotistical boxer Eddie Murphy, and the usual buddy hijinks ensue. There issome fun to be had in the frantic action sequences, and in a Cyrano de Bergerac moment whenMurphy is trying to coa...
