Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 21st, 2003
Synopsis
BBC’s documentary moves through four main phases, beginning with a groupAstralopithicus afarensis, and then stopping at other important milestones in our evolution,taking time to examine the dead ends (such as the Neanderthals) as well. The first half is plaguedby an excessively digressive narrative and massive overuse of time lapse photography. Theapemen are wonderfully rendered by real actors in make-up, but their interaction with CGI beastsproduces effects that aren’t qu...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 20th, 2003
Long before computers began to provide movie-goers with vivid representations of dinosaurs and alien invasions, Willis O’Brien and a young protégé, Ray Harryhausen, were thrilling audiences with stop motion. O’Brien’s masterpiece, of course, was King Kong. Ray Harryhausen developed that painstaking process for films like Earth vs. The Flying Saucers. Jaded audiences of today might find it hard to imagine that the f/x on this film held the fans spellbound in their theatre seats. Now, with digitally remastered prints and the new alchemy of DVD, you can treat yourself to an early craft that has influenced the great pioneers of today’s filmmaking.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 19th, 2003
Synopsis
The protagonists are the members of the Gonzales family, who live in East LA. The serieschronicles their many ups and downs, some comical -- struggles between the father and hisfirebrand activist daughter, the drama queen aunt confronted by her daughter’s desire to be asingle mother -- and other are less so, as in the recently paroled son who finds the difficulties ofparenting compounded by legal entanglements. The makers of the series are proud that this is thefirst of its...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 19th, 2003
Based one the wildly successful Harry Potter series of novels, this film is based on book two of the series. As sophomore jinx’s go this one could have been far worse, the problem here is we no longer have the wonder of a new world to explore but, we still have characters that are not fully fleshed out yet either. The plot is somewhat predictable in that we have the same villain as the previous novel, albeit in a different form. Harry Potter and the usual cast of characters return for another year of adventure at Hog...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 17th, 2003
Synopsis
Gina Gershon is a prison psychiatrist. She is in the middle of a custody battle with her ex-husband, and she loses the case. The night her kids are taken from her, however, someone killsthe ex and his new wife. Gershon’s recently released patients are investigated by her newboyfriend, cop Michael Biehn. Looks like Sean Patrick Flanery is the one obsessively in lovewith Gershon, and will stop at nothing to bring them together. Competently staged, but no more.Nothing new here...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 17th, 2003
Synopsis
The film unfolds in a series of interlocking scenes, all occurring at different times. The talebeing told concerns the arrival in a small Oklahoma town of an ex-con (Kevin Anderson), whodeveloped a prison-correspondence romance with shy Martha Plimpton. In the present, SheriffHal Holbrook is investigating a murder, and the flashbacks to Anderson and Plimpton, as wellas another series of flashbacks involving a quiet, somewhat disturbed teenager (Nick Stahl),show us what led ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 17th, 2003
Synopsis
A woman, wrongly accused of killing children, is hanged and curses the town of DarknessFalls. Now she is the Tooth Fairy, vulnerable to light, but otherwise deadly. If you peak whenshe comes for your tooth, you’re toast. In what is the scariest scene of the film, young Kyle seesher and escapes with his life (though his mother doesn’t). Twelve years later, the young brotherof Kyle’s old crush Caitlin is similarly haunted. Kyle is drawn back to Darkness Falls, there toconfron...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 15th, 2003
Synopsis
Cary Grant plays Sir William Rutland, British industrialist. He has arrived in Tokyo two daysearlier than his hotel reservation, and what with the Olympics going on, there isn't a room to behad. He fast-talks his way into sharing the apartment of Samantha Eggar, a young woman withobsessive clock-watching habits. She isn't thrilled to be sharing her apartment with a man, and iseven less thrilled when Grant brings home prickly architect/Olympic athlete Jim Hutton. Eggar iseng...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 14th, 2003
The X-files was one of the best written and directed shows on television, this unfortunately is the last year that the show held onto it‘s audience and originality. We start the season off with the two part season opener “The Sixth Extinction” and “The Sixth Extinction II” with Scully in Africa looking for a cure for Mulder’s mental state. In the middle we have the strangely sublime “X-cops” that finds Mulder and Scully on patrol with the Cops TV crew. We also find the typical mix of X-files weird and wonderfulness i...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 14th, 2003
Synopsis
Burt Lancaster, a member of the New England aristocracy, wanders out of the forest andleaps into some friends’ swimming pool. After much overly hearty banter, he realizes that thereis an unbroken link of swimming pools between here and his home. He sets off, and at each pool,there is a revelatory encounter of some sort. We gradually find out more and more about him, andit soon becomes clear that all is not sweetness and light in his world. The film is extremelystylized, and...
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