Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 5th, 2002
Synopsis
In eighteenth-century France, a mysterious beast is terrorizing the countryside. Sent toinvestigate is naturalist Gregoire de Fronsac, who arrives with Mani, his Native Americansidekick (who is a dab hand at martial arts, among other useful skills). The film is completelynuts and completely silly, and its racial politics are a postcolonial theorist’s wet dream, but it isalso hugely entertaining.
Audio
Absolutely flabbergasting. At the level of volum...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 5th, 2002
Synopsis
The conspiracies are in full swing in this season. There are some very ambitious episodeshere too, notably “Triangle” -- a time travel tale shot primarily with very long takes.
Audio
Very, very nice sound. As with most TV shows, the music dominates the surround, but thereare some good contributions from the sound effects as well. The result is an expansive feel to thesound unusual for television productions.
Video
Though there is a ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 2nd, 2002
Synopsis
Twenty years ago, there was a mining disaster. The only survivor wreaked bloody revengea year later. Nineteen years later, he seems to be back, and the usual bunch of kids is in trouble.Neat looking killer, cool setting, and some unintentionally hilarious acting and dialogue are theorder of the day. The killings aren’t as graphic, sadly, as some of the publicity stills. The moviewas cut prior to release, and this is still not the restored version. Who know if we’ll ever see...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 2nd, 2002
Synopsis
In an opening sequence that chills no matter how many times you see it, the little daughter ofDonald Sutherland and Julie Christie drowns. The action then shifts to Venice some time later, asthe couple move through the mourning. A blind woman claims to be a medium with visions ofthe daughter. Christie believes, but Sutherland will have none of it. But then why does he keepseeing a little figure in a red raincoat, a figure that might be his daughter...
Director Nicol...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 1st, 2002
Long before tough cop Dirty Harry made our day, Clint Eastwood defined the modern western with his Spaghetti Westerns. It is no surprise that a Western would define Clint Eastwood as an Academy Award winning producer and director. Unforgiven is unlike any movie Eastwood has ever done. It is loaded with extraordinary actors surrounding his own stellar performance. Names like Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, and Richard Harris are rarely found in such supporting roles. Unforgiven also sets itself apart from Eastwood’s previous films in the way it portrays the West that Eastwood glorified for so many years.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 30th, 2002
Written by Dan Bradley
Rifling through my father’s LP collection as a child produced many musical memories, ranging from Kiss and Pablo Cruise to the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. It wouldn’t be until years later when I would fully understand the impact those very Beatles had on the world’s culture then and continued to influence today.
For most Beatles fans, their memories are relived through new digital masters of the original recordings on compact disc. With this digital revolution, the Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night can f...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 29th, 2002
Swingers originally debuted on DVD when the format was still in its infancy. As with most titles released during that time, it suffered from a lackluster 2.0 audio track, non-anamorphic transfer, no trailers and hideous packaging. Now roughly five years later, Swingers has returned to DVD, this time in a spiffy new Collector’s Series edition from Miramax. With every issue the first release was plagued by addressed, this release is everything a fan of Swingers could ever hope for.
Swingers' story focuses on...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 28th, 2002
Films addressing domestic and international terrorism have been around for a long time. We’ve come to accept them and tell ourselves it can never happen except in the movies. On September 11, 2001, America’s security was incinerated in a series of horrific attacks on the United States. For Arnold Schwarzenegger, this put a halt to the release of his new film Collateral Damage, which dealt with issues that closely mirror the events of that day. The release was delayed for several months into early 2002 where it was sh...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 25th, 2002
It was bound to happen sooner or later; Britney Spears would make the jump to the big screen. While most guys would rather she made the jump to Playboy first, others will take what they can get from Ms. Spears. Unfortunately, Crossroads was written as a vehicle for Britney to touch the souls of other young women who can make a difference in the world. When translated to the screen, it just isn’t entertaining. In fact, it's downright boring.
Britney plays Lucy, a recent high school graduate living under the...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 25th, 2002
Pixar, with the smashing success of the Toy Story films, works its enchanting magic yet again with the wonderful Monsters, Inc. It’s fitting that Disney acquired the creative team that more than any other filmmakers embody what Disney had been for half a century. Monsters, Inc. is the new standard for computer animation. Sully’s generated hair is nothing short of amazing. What makes this movie worth buying is its incredible rewatchability. The attention to details means there’s always something new to see with each v...
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