Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 8th, 2004
Angels Don’t Sleep Here is the stuff of crime melodrama: long forgotten murders, revenge, twin brothers, and corrupt public officials. It’s a mild foray into the genre. The film knows the notes but not the music; but the actors, or the instruments, (if we continue the music metaphor) really save the day.
Dana Ashbrook (from Twin Peaks) plays a forensic specialist who returns to an unnamed city to start poking around about his long lost twin brother. The trail leads to a DA (Kelly Rutherford)... who later becomes Ashbrook’s lover. The trail also leads to corrupt cops and politicians (played by Robert Patrick and Roy Scheider, respectively). The strength of the film is the acting. Both Ashbrook and Rutherford play it very straight and very natural. A more “over the top” acting style would’ve made the movie, with its “over the top” subject matter, unbearable to watch. Patrick has seen better days. I kept waiting for him to turn into liquid metal. But he’s fine here. And Roy Scheider... What has happened to you? You were Popeye Doyle’s partner in the The French Connection... you were Joe Gideon in the fantastic All That Jazz… and you were the perfect everyman, Sheriff Brody in Jaws. You just look tired here, as if saying “why can’t I get any good scripts”. Note to Tarantino, if you’re looking at a comeback for an actor…writer a part for Scheider, okay?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 8th, 2004
Vampire Clan is supposedly based on a true story. The film revolves around the actions of a teenage Vampire cult in a small American town. The clan gets involved in murder and mayhem, and the movie is supposed to be all the more chilling because it’s based on real life events. Not necessarily, it still has to be scary.
Drew Fuller plays Rod, the Manson like leader of this Vampire clan. Fuller has some natural charm, but isn’t diabolic enough. Kelly Kruger is the teenage runaway Heather, and she als... has some talent. But the movie is boooooring. Hanging around with a bunch of lepidopterists (butterfly collectors) would be more fun. It’s not a Vampire clan; it’s more like a Vampire club. They’re all Vampire wannabe’s; sucking a little bit of blood and dressing up in goth make-up doesn’t make you a Vampire. Maybe that was part of the point. But there has to be something seductive, something truly fetishistic about these kinds of cults. After all, these kids do commit murder. The movie, awkwardly filmed, doesn’t get into the origin of these kids’ behavior deeply enough.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 8th, 2004
Jimmy Coy is some kind of freelance operative, specializing in explosives and enforcement,for organized crime. He is ashamed of his line of work, however, and wants out. He and his twobuddies are hired but a sneering, Snidely Whiplash villain to torch an arena full of spectators.Jimmy refuses to cause any casualities, but our villain won't take no for an answer. Meanwhile,Jimmy falls in love with Cassandra, the stepdaughter of one of the head thugs. Cassandra is hersister's skating coach, which means that w... get to see a lot more figure skating than is usual for amob film.
I wouldn't have minded the clumsy, beyond-rudimentary characterizations and cliche-riddendialogue quite so much if the pace weren't so plodding. After a decent opening shoot-out andmedley of kabooms, the story settles down to sadly amateurish gangland shenanigans.Yawn.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 8th, 2004
Synopsis
A rift has opened in the ocean floor beneath the Acrtic ice cap, melting the ice andthreatening to flood much of the world. (Never mind that this wouldn't happen: this is a moviewhere we see ice sink, just like in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.) The solution,ordered by some sort of world government cabal of the G8 at the "United Nations CommandCenter" (riiiiight) is to nuke the rift. Somehow, this will make everything all better. It turns out,however, that the rift ...as been created by giant intelligent electric eels from outer space (I kidyou not). In the undersea lab Hubris (okaaay) are tough soldier David Keith, ex-wife scientistSimmone Jade MacKinnon, and professional SOB Mark Sheppard. The SOB wants to nukeeverything, but MacKinnon works on establishing e-mail contact with the eels before everythinggets blown to hell.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 6th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 6th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 6th, 2004
Synopsis
Michael Beach plays Ty Adams, a psychiatrist whose ego and belief in his methods is hardlyshaken by the deaths, after unsuccessful treatment, of his wife and daughter. He arrives at anmental hospital (whose name you should watch for as it blinks past) headed up by a skepticalRonny Cox. Beach will be filmed 24/7 for the purposes of a documentary as he treats a groupof patients over a few weeks. A particular challenge arrives in the person of Eriq La Salle,who claims to be Satan hims...lf. Is he? He is certainly very good at making Beach’s life comeapart at the seams.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 6th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 6th, 2004
Synopsis
Michael Ironside, in his patented bastard role, is pulling the strings on a secret militaryexperiment in weather control. The test goes wrong, killing the wife of Dale Midkiff and ruiningthe career of pilot Gregor Toerzs. Four years later, an asteroid grazes Earth’s atmosphere, andtriggers a superstorm. If this hurricane isn’t shut down in a matter of hours, it will go critical andrage for centuries. Hauled back in to save the day are Midkiff and Toerzs, now flying a souped-up 747 ...nto the eye of the storm with a big flashy gadget that just might save the day.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 6th, 2004
Synopsis
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