Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 26th, 2004
Hayden Christensen is the very incarnation of smarm as Stephen Glass, hot-shot writer for The New Republic. His stories are all fabulous, seemingly too good to be true. Which is, in fact, the problem. His tissue of lies begins to unravel when Steve Zahn, reporter for Forbes Digital, tries to follow up one of Christensen’s articles, and can’t find a single legitimate fact. Peter Sarsgaard is Chuck Lane, Christensen’s editor, and he begins to smell a very big rat.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 26th, 2004
It’s funny how little film subgenres evolve over time. For instance, slasher flicks have become a specific part of the realm of horror films. Likewise, teen gross-out movies have evolved within the comedy genre. In the case of Lady Jayne - Killer, the subgenre is the fraternity favorite, girls with guns.
There have been quite a few films that fit into this subgenre (the wonderful La Femme Nikita and the horrid To The Limit, just to name a few), and this film follows in that same shamele...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 24th, 2004
No surprise that in Master and Commander and Pirates of the Caribbeanwould trigger the re-release of older pirate movies. And oh look: those two hits are the firstthings mentioned on the blurb!
Synopsis
The title is self-explanatory. What you have here is a series of 15 short film from France. Thelonger vignettes is the expected bag of tricks: straight, lesbian, bondage, threesome, etc.Interspersed amidst the hardcore are short burlesque dances. The case boasts...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 24th, 2004
Synopsis
Mac (John Turturro), a homebuilder, takes enormous pride in his work. Fed up with thecorner-cutting of his boss, he quits and, along with his two brothers, starts up his own buildingcompany. There are many problems on the way to success, and not least among them is Mac’sown tyrannical perfection, which takes its toll on everyone around him.
If the actual plot of Mac is something that we’ve all seen plenty of times before, itstexture and its tone are what make...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 23rd, 2004
Synopsis
In 1934, Helena Bonham Carter comes to live with sister Olivia Williams and her husband,Paul Bettany. Bonham Carter is the bad girl, always rebellious, while Wiliams is very proper andsomething of a cold fish. Williams wants to fix her sister up with a man, but she clearly didn'tcount on that man being her husband. Bettany and Bonham Carter begin a furtive affair, whichtakes a sudden turn when she becomes pregnant. Flash forward to 1946. Bettany appears to havebeen killed i...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 23rd, 2004
Synopsis
Andrew Howard is Jon, brutally effective hit man for The Tattooed Man (David Calder). Hehates himself, but loves father-figure Calder, and so he goes about his murderous business,seeking refuge in drug-induced oblivion after work. Then he runs into a old friend from school,is welcomed into his family, is tempted by the sheer normality that he sees there, and begins tofall in love with his old pal’s wife (Geraldine O’Rawe). Hit man and Tattooed Man are soon ona deadly collis...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 23rd, 2004
Synopsis
Bloodthirsty pirate Henry Morgan (Robert Stevens) is starving Jamaica by seizing almostany ship that tries to make it there. He seems impregnable in his fortress on the island of Tortuga.Privateer Captain Bart (Ken Scott) arrives to find some way to defeat Morgan. His journey to theCaribbean is complicated somewhat by the presence of stowaway Meg (Leticia Roman), aspririted...er... wench... who has dreams of being a lady.
You always thought My Fair Lady would...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 22nd, 2004
Synopsis
Though not Blake Edwards’ best films, these are the movies with which he is most stronglyidentified, and the role of Inspector Clouseau was a career-defining move for Peter Sellers. Attheir best, the movies are fine exemplars of inspired slapstick.
The Pink Panther started it all off, and no one knew what a phenomenon Clouseauwas going to turn out to be. Edwards and Sellers (the trivia track informs us) rewrote the partlate in the game to turn the character i...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 22nd, 2004
The 1970’s and 80’s brought a ton of teenage angst films where coming of age simply meant having sex. Just One Of The Guys attempts to be a bit more original, but while the premise was, the film is certainly not. I know there was a bit of a cult following for the film, but it was mostly lost in the barrage of superior films of the year. It’s no wonder that Columbia saw fit to release this disc with so little care. Fellow herpers will take delight in one character who brings in a different reptile to school each day. ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 22nd, 2004
What do a string of prostitute murders, lesbian vigilantes, a sexually confused cop, a senate race, a prominent prosecutor turned law professor, and a law school dropout have in common? After watching Pendulum you will be asking the same questions. Seldom have I seen a more disjointed collection of clichés and bad acting in one film outside of an Ed Wood film festival. Rachel Hunter might have been a gorgeous supermodel but like so many before her she’s just not believable here. Many of the aforementioned sins might ...
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