Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 28th, 2004
Duel was the first “ made for television” movie directed by Steven Spielberg. This thriller could best be described as a cross between the Rutger Hauer classic, “ The Hitcher,” and the Steven King inspired “Maximum Overdrive.” Dennis Weaver plays David Mann, a salesman on his way home from a cross state trip. During his return, he passes a rusted out old gasoline truck on the highway without giving it much thought. As the film unfolds, the truck begins to pursue him and initially just appears to annoy him on the r...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 28th, 2004
V: The Series was a great idea that couldn’t seem to hit its stride. It was plagued by budget restrictions and astronomical expectations. The result was the inevitable failure of the show. It just wasn’t possible to reproduce the f/x and epic tales of the two mini-series events with about a fifth of the budget. Judged on its own, the series wasn’t all that bad. A solid cast anchored by Marc Singer, Faye Grant, and Robert Englund picked up the slack left by the poor budget. The absence of Kenneth Johnson was also keen...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 28th, 2004
Synopsis
An earthquake opens up a crevasse in outside a desert town in California. Emerging fromthe earth is a species of large cockroach that cause fires. Entomologist Bradford Dilman is at firstfascinated by the bugs, but when his wife is burned to death, he becomes obsessed with...well, something (exactly what his motivations are at this turning point in the plot are hard tofathom, and are the film’s major weakness). The firebugs are dying, and Dilman breeds themwith the common c...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 28th, 2004
Synopsis
Beverly Garland (who was, with Allison Hayes, one of the queens of 50s SF) is on ahoneymoon train ride with her new husband Richard Crane. A telegram makes Crane blanch,and he hops off the train at the next stop, disappearing form Garland’s life. She searches for him,finally tracing his last address to The Cypresses, a plantation deep in the Louisiana swamp. Itturns out that Crane is slowly turning into an alligator due to the well-intentioned experimentsof scientist George...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 28th, 2004
Chris Rock is quite possibly the most important comic of all time. There are quite a few entertainers that have shown up in the public spotlight over the past few years that have blurred the lines between comic, social satirist and political lecturer. Bill Maher and Dennis Miller come to mind. However, Chris Rock is a special comedian, due to his masterful knowledge of how to manipulate an audience. Anybody can make wise cracks about racial differences, but it takes a special person to be able to change the minds of ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 28th, 2004
ALF stands for Alien Life Form, but anyone who has seen this hit 1980’s comedy knows ALF stands for “Laughing your ass off funny”. OK, so the letters are out of order, but you know I’m right. It’s no surprise our favorite Melmac dude has made the DVD scene. The real shocker is that it took so long. Who remembers comedy from the 1980’s? There just wasn’t an awful lot to laugh at. ALF was the “muppet-like” creation of Paul Fusco, who also provides the wise-cracking voice of ALF. ALF’s making a comeback these days with ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 27th, 2004
Synopsis
Patrick Stewart is King Henry II of England. He is on the verge of announcing the heir tohis throne. Trouble is, none of his sons are fit to rule, and two of them previously were part ofa rebellion against him, led by his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine (Glenn Close). He summons hisfamily to his seat of power, and the stage is set for all sorts of palace intrigue.
The screenplay is the same one used in the original film -- James Goldman’s adaptation ofhis play. As present...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 27th, 2004
Synopsis
The focus of this documentary is a small mountain village in Morocco, in an area known asthe Rif. Long a centre of hashish cultivation, the region has recently seen that industry take overeverything. We follow the lives of the villagers, and see the cultivation, preparation and selling ofthe drug. There is no narration, and the camera makes no overt judgment about what we areseeing, but the to-the-camera monologues by the villagers leave one with plenty to thinkabout.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 27th, 2004
Synopsis
This is a four-part series that aired on PBS’s Frontline. Four hours long, it is ahistorical/archaeological look at Jesus’ life and that of his early followers. The series has time todelve into detail, and so the whole context of the era, political and otherwise, is presented. Ratherthan use cheesy recreations, the documentary shows us actual settings and interweaves these withinterviews with experts in the field.
Audio
Obviously, this isn’t a relea...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 27th, 2004
Synopsis
Michael Gambon narrates four tales from Greek mythology: Daedalus and Icarus, Orpheusand Eurydice, Perseus and the Gorgon, and Theseus and the Minotaur. Gambon is the Storytellerof the title. Clad in toga and moving about his workshop, he tells the stories to a talking dog. Thestories themselves cut back and forth between the tales and Gambon, and are a mixture of humanactors and Jim Henson Creature Shop creations. The result is rather ambitious, and the tone israther oddly...
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