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
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 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 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 ...
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
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 11th, 2004
Synopsis
Based on stories by Damon Runyon, Bloodhounds of Broadway traces the would-bezany antics of a large group of characters in New York, on New Year’s Eve, 1928. Some of thethreads we follow are: Randy Quaid as the terminal loser who sells his body to a maddoctor, payment due by dawn, only to have his luck change radically and flapper Madonna fallfor him; Rutger Hauer as The Brain, a soft-spoken ganglord who is stabbed, and spends the restof the night being hauled fruitl...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 11th, 2004
Synopsis
Paul (Paul Gegauff) and Esther (Danielle Gegauff) have, on the surface, a fine marriage. Thesurface cracks open for us almost immediately, however, as we see that the reason why thismarriage is “fine” is that Esther submits completely to Paul, and becomes whatever he desires.When he suggests that they sleep with other people, she complies, and begins to forge an identityof her own, one that Paul disapproves of. He reacts first with sarcasm, then with every-increasingmental ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 11th, 2004
Synopsis
Vincent D’Onofrio plays Valentino, AIDS-stricken former porn star who is the centre ofa subcultural social whirl in NYC. He splits his affections between male prostitute Thomas Janeand in-your-face-and-then-some waitress Salma Hayek. As the disease takes its toll, Jane andHayek must overcome their differences to support D’Onofrio. Then there’s the fact that Hayekis pregnant...
The film is very affectionate toward its collection of flamboyantly non-mainstreamcharac...
Posted in: Hardware Reviews by Archive Authors on April 11th, 2004
Introduction
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Harman/Kardon name they are one of the preeminent audio manufacturers. The company is owned by Harman International who also owns well known brand such as JBL and Infinity as well as ultra high-end brands Mark Levinson, Lexicon and Revel (never mind the professional audio companies that they own as well). As a matter of fact any time you watch a movie or listen to a CD at one point in time a Harman company product was used in the production of i...
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