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DVD

John Tucker Must Die

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 30th, 2006

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John Tucker Must Die has all of the elements of an average teen movie: a high school setting, an unrealistically attractive cast, cliques, and the list goes on. That’s my way of saying I can’t think of any other obvious teen movie stuff, so fill in whatever comes to your mind and I’m sure it’ll fit just fine.

If it looks and sounds like a duck, then it probably is an average teen movie, right? Right. I may have skipped a step there, but the point is you shouldn’t expect anything special from John …
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Alias – The Complete Fifth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 30th, 2006

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Five years seemed to go by in the blink of an eye, but Sydney Bristow and friends have gone on their final mission. The final season brought along the expected plot twists, new faces, and clever disguises just as the previous four had, but something was definitely missing by now. With J.J. Abrams moving on to other things like Lost and Start Trek XI, it seems that Alias was left to fend for itself. Now, granted, it had been a while since Abrams was involved in the day to day running of the show, but by year 5 it se…
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Boston Legal – Season 2

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 29th, 2006

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The first full season of Kelley’s “The Practice” spin-off was somewhat abbreviated. It was also a time to introduce us to the firm and new cast of characters. As is Kelley’s trademark style, we were sure of one thing. These characters would be quirky with enough of a touch of reality to keep them interesting. So as his flagship series faded away into production problems and slipping ratings, Boston Legal erupts like a phoenix from the ashes of certain death. Now as popular or more so than The Practice, Boston Legal…
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Mansion of the Living Dead

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 28th, 2006

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Four young women (including Lina Romay in her Candy Coster persona) arrive at beach resort. They plan to pick up plenty of men for sex, but if none are available, as they’re in a Jess Franco film, they’ll make do with each other. They see no one else around, except for the odd manager (Robert Foster) and the even more bizarre gardener. At first they think nothing of the town’s deserted nature, but gradually they realize something is wrong, and it has to do with the nearby monastery, where undead Cathars vent their frustration with their cursed state by raping and killing our heroines.
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Little Athens

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 27th, 2006

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Iï¿½m never up on the film festival scene, so itï¿½s no surprise to me that Iï¿½ve only just discovered Tom Zuberï¿½s Little Athens, even though it was an official selection of the Toronto Film Festival back in 2005.

My three favourite things about this movie are its strong cast, solid story and the unique cinematography. Actually, make it four things, because the soundtrack is also pretty excellent.

First, the cast. Little Athens is definitely an ensemble film, and every actor in this one is solid.
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Macumba Sexual

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 27th, 2006

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Alice (Lina Romay under her blonde pseudonym “Candy Coster”) is haunted by erotic nightmares involving the Princess Obongo (the Amazonian Ajita Wilson). She therefore has her misgivings when she is ordered by her boss to travel to a remote island and sell some real estate to that very person. Doubts notwithstanding, off she goes (got up in an outfit I’ve never seen a real estate agent wear before) to play Jonathan Harker to Obongo’s Dracula. On the island, she falls under the Obongo’s spell, and becomes emmeshed in a web of sex, rituals and magic.
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JAG – The Complete Second Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 25th, 2006

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Synopsis

The concept of JAG is pretty simple, I mean, it’s A Few Good Men on the small screen, using sets and footage from other recent armed forces films and hopefully enough pretty people that viewers will enjoy it. However, that wasn’t the case initially, but JAG is one of those shows that helps prove how sometimes you’ve got to give enough time for people to catch onto it before it takes hold.

From week to week in Season One, the creators kept trying to find a female offic…
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Die Another Day (Region 2)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 25th, 2006

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Synopsis

With Casino Royale now out in theaters and being shown to a mostly positive audience, let’s all take a step back and remember that James Bond just celebrated an anniversary in 2002 with the release of Die Another Day. The film was the twentieth in the Bond legacy, and Brosnan’s fifth (and last) in the role. How does it stack up?

Directed by Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors), the film puts Bond in North Korea, attempting to procure some diamonds from a young Korean Col…
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Ronin

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 25th, 2006

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(Portions of this review have been pulled from the original one-disc version of Ronin, which can also be found in the reviews portion of the site)Synopsis

I think the only thing I remember about Ronin initially was that Robert DeNiro (Heat) was involved in some scandal involving a French “house of ill-repute” or something along those lines. But when Ronin was released, people quickly forgot about that mess, as what came from it was an action film that put a little more e…
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Strangers With Candy

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 25th, 2006

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Synopsis

Back when it first aired on Comedy Central in a previous incarnation as a television series, Strangers With Candy was an interesting enough premise. Take a menopausally challenged, recently released prisoner named Jerri Blank (Amy Sedaris, Elf) who decides to return home for the first time in over three decades to try and get a new start and throw her into high school. Now, not knowing how good or bad the show did, it must have had some sort of following, because there’s a movie out …
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O. Henry’s Full House

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 24th, 2006

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Synopsis

John Steinbeck, looking and sounding remarkably like James Ellroy, and coming across as surprisingly two-fisted given the overall tone of the movie, introduces a quintet of stories by O. Henry. “The Cop and the Anthem” features Charles Laughton as a dignified bum trying unsuccessfully to get himself arrested so he can spend the winter in a nice, warm prison (Marilyn Monroe is one of the top-billed, but she has only one brief scene here). “The Clarion Call” has Dale Robertson as a detective w…
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King Kong (2005)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 24th, 2006

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No monster movie is bigger than King Kong. AFI members recently considered King Kong to be the most influential film ever. The original King Kong has inspired more filmmakers, actors, and technicians than any film in Hollywood’s history. The score is considered the first modern film score. For the first time the music is timed to accent certain aspects of the action. Willis O’Brien practically invented movie special f/x with his revolutionary stop motion technique seen earlier on The Lost World. One of those filmma…
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Miracle on 34th Street

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 23rd, 2006

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Synopsis

This is another film one feels a little silly summarising, given that it must be an exercise in redundancy. At any rate, Macy’s department store gets a new Santa, and this one (a marvellous Edmund Gwenn) insists that he is the real thing. He sets about restoring the sense of wonder in hard-nosed Maureen O’Hara and her skeptical daughter (Natalie Wood), and John Payne winds up having to prove that our boy is who he says he is in a memorable court case.

Schmaltz is hard to avoid in C…
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Peeper

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 23rd, 2006

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Synopsis

Michael Caine is a down-on-his-luck PI in LA. He’s hired to find the long-lost daughter of a man who is now wealthy, though being hunted by goons. Caine heads off to house of the presumed daughter’s adoptive parents. There are two women the right age here. Which one is he looking for? Could it be Natalie Wood?

And the questions keep coming, such as who thought Wood would be perfectly cast as a femme fatale? Questions unlikely to be answered. The script is full of would-be witty ban…
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Forbidden Planet

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 22nd, 2006

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Few science fiction films of the 1950’s left as much of an impact as Forbidden Planet. Gene Roddenberry often cited the film as the birth of Star Trek. It is in this film that he took away the interactions of an interstellar craft’s bridge crew. Even the United Planets organization in Forbidden Planet heralds Trek’s United Federation of Planets. Robby the Robot would become a science fiction icon and lead to a great number of copycats, most notably the Lost In Space robot. Robby even made a cameo on that show. MGM …
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Pen & Teller: Bullsh*t! – The Complete Third Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 22nd, 2006

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I thought Pen & Teller were magician-comedians. When did they get a T.V. show? Call me out of touch, but I hadnï¿½t heard of Pen & Teller: Bullsh*t! until this third season set was sent my way to review.

Obviously, Iï¿½m in no position to make comments like, ï¿½season three of Bullsh*t! (for short) is by far the best yet.ï¿½ I can say itï¿½s the finest season of Bullsh*t! Iï¿½ve ever seen in my entire life, but that means jack-all since Iï¿½ve already explained that itï¿½s the only season of Bullsh*t! Iï¿½ve watched.
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Humphrey Bogart – Signature Collection, Vol. 1

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 21st, 2006

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Humphrey Bogart, screen legend. Before I got my hands on this collection, Iï¿½d never seen a Bogart picture in its entirety. And yet, I knew his name as well as anyone, and was aware of his status as one of classic Hollywoodï¿½s biggest stars.

Humphrey Bogart ï¿½ The Signature Collection, Volume 1 presents four Bogart films: Casablanca ï¿½ 2-disc Special Edition, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre ï¿½ 2-disc Special Edition, High Sierra and They Drive By Night. Iï¿½d always meant to wat…h these films, but I just never got around to it, partly because I can barely keep up with all of the new ones released every year, and partly because of ï¿½ I admit it ï¿½ a slight prejudice toward ï¿½oldï¿½ movies.
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C.S.I. Crime Scene Investigation – The Complete Sixth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 17th, 2006

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The more things change, the more they stay the same. Season 5 of CSI saw really the first shake-up of any kind on this CBS anchor series. While there weren’t any serious cast changes, the team was split up. It’s apparent that idea didn’t work out very well. Modest ratings decline and vocal dissatisfaction from the internet fans and even many of the cast members were heard loud and clear. Now Season 6 brings the team back together again. It doesn’t take long for the old team chemistry to remix, and CSI returns to th…
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Sopranos, The — Season Six, Part 1

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 17th, 2006

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Synopsis

I’m not even going to try to summarize this, as that would mean pretending I had the faintest idea what was going on, and who was who. I know, I know, I’m revealing my cultural deprivation – I haven’t been following the series. What I will say, though, is that even with that ignorance, the quality of this chronicle of the ups and downs of a New Jersey mob’s lives, loves and deaths, is undeniable. But then, you knew that, or you wouldn’t be reading this. Do note, of course, that this is only …
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Thank You for Smoking

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 15th, 2006

Synopsis

Based on the book by Christopher Buckley, the cellular version of Thank You for Smoking may be misconceived by some as a movie about a guy who’s defending smoking, but I think it is a movie about a couple of different things. The first, more obvious things is that it’s a movie about spin. Either in the early ‘90s (when the book came out) or in the last year or so (when the film came out), even if the setting has changed, the method of dispelling one’s argument, even without possessing any co…
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Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman – The Complete Fourth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 15th, 2006

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Written By Jeff Mardo

The final season of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman has finally hit store shelves, and it couldn’t have come at a better time for the franchise. The Big Red S is everywhere these days, between a new feature film that is coming soon to DVD, a boxed-set re-release of all the Christopher Reeve-era films and an all new video game, the hero seems to be everywhere. It’s only fitting that the final season of the modern series should be hitting the streets as well.

Unfortunately, the series d…
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The Green Mile

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 15th, 2006

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The Shawshank Redemption is a film that didn’t do much at the box office. However, home video, word of mouth and countless airings on TNT have made it an enormously popular film in the time since. Director Frank Darabont returned to prison with The Green Mile, another film based on a story by acclaimed writer Steven King. One could almost look at these two films as companion pieces. Whereas the central theme of Shawshank was the importance of never giving up hope, The Green Mile was more about the changing power of love.
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Save the Last Dance 2

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 15th, 2006

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I never saw the original film, so I won’t be able to offer any insight on how this film might compare or continue the story set down by Save The Last Dance. What I can say for certain is that this direct to video release isn’t worth the 86 minutes it takes to watch it. The film begins with the first film’s Sarah (now Miko). In a video much like one provided for a dating service, she’s telling us how she feels about various things. These are her highlights and already I don’t care. She is apparently headed to Jullia…
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Satan’s Playground

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 14th, 2006

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Synopsis

A dysfunctional family unit (single mother and infant, her sister and loutish husband, their autistic teen) are travelling through rural New Jersey when their car gets stuck. One after another, they head off to seek help, only to knock on the door of the sinister Mrs. Leeds and her homicidally retarded crew. And if that weren’t bad enough, there’s some kind of monster flapping through the woods.

Writer/director Dante Tomaselli has assembled a mixture of The Texas Chainsaw Massac…
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Chairman, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 13th, 2006

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Synopsis

Gregory Peck is a Nobel-laureate scientist sent to China to try to recover a new enzyme that allows one to grow any crop in any climate. The operation is being conducted jointly by the Americans, the British and the Russians (!). Peck has a transmitter implanted in his head that relays his physiological conditions and his every word back to base. What he doesn’t know is that the implant is also explosive, and trigger-happy general Arthur Hill might well blow Peck’s top, as it were.

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