Highly Defined – The World of High Definition
Posted in Highly Defined, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on September 25th, 2006
Wow, something special makes the top 100 in Amazon sales…
Well if you read comic books and own a next-generation DVD player, this was definitely your week to primp and preen. Batman Begins is coming out on 10/10 to HD-DVD, along with Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Both films will include the Warner In-Movie Experience (and Batman’s will apparently include participation by star Christian Bale if you look at your Warner inserts right). Begins will get a TrueHD track that …
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Brain Blasters
Posted in Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on September 24th, 2006
Recently, Anchor Bay released, at long last, Cemetery Man< to DVD. In so doing, they made available one of the last gasps (for now) of truly first-rate Italian horror, and it might be worth while to spend a few minutes considering the director, Michele Soavi, a man who has been nowhere near as prolific a filmmaker as might be devoutly wished.
In my piece on Joe D’Amato a few weeks ago, I mentioned that the best film he was involved with was Soavi’s debut, StageFright (1987). One of the fascina…
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American Gun
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 22nd, 2006
Fortunately, American Gun does not appear to be about the debate on owning guns. It’s a trap, and I doubt there will be much movement on either side of the issue. The film instead mostly deals with members of a community where three years earlier a Columbine-like school shooting occurred. The story slowly plods through the lives of several families, most notably the mother and brother of one of the deceased gunmen. This is where the title and its advertised premise confuse me.
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Tom and Jerry – Shiver Me Whiskers
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 22nd, 2006
The team of Hanna and Barbara are as much a part of my childhood as Uncle Walt Disney. The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Johnny Quest, and yes…Tom and Jerry, were like faithful companions that were never farther away than our 15 inch black and white television set. Nostalgia is very in these days. Baby boomers are all facing the midlife years, and not surprisingly there is a warm longing for those buddies of our youth. It’s simple economics that studios would attempt to cash in on our bygone days. Now in our direct to …
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Radioland Murders
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 21st, 2006
Synopsis
While George Lucas was in the midst of his then-recent Young Indiana Jones series, he decided to try and put together a film based on the radio theater broadcasts of the 1930s and 40s. Basically, the film is based on a radio station in Chicago that is scheduled to launch its first broadcast, hoping to become the next big radio network. But when people start to get murdered during the broadcast, things become a little bit tense.
What’s surprising about this film is just how many peo…
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Oz – The Complete Sixth Season
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 21st, 2006
Synopsis
This is it. The finale. The many twists and turns and intricate plotlines of the series finally get wrapped up. If you haven’t been watching the series from the start, much resonance will be lost, but the last season is still comprehensible. For those in the know, this is where many of the stories come to some form of end. The battle between Schillinger and Beecher, for instance, has its final act during a performance of Macbeth, and that is precisely the kind of literate, neat, contrived, …
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Old School Demo
Posted in News and Opinions by Archive Authors on September 21st, 2006
Discussing the old school DVD’s that still sound and look great in the era of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD technology.
On paper, 2001’s Pearl Harbor must have had the studio big wigs licking their chops. Randall Wallace (Braveheart) was penning script. Action director Michael Bay (Armageddon) was going to finally direct something serious. Hot stars Ben Affleck, Josh Harnett and Kate Beckinsale were cast as a love triangle set against the back drop of the historic Japanese sneak atta…
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Woods, The
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 20th, 2006
After Heather (Agnes Bruckner) sets her parent’s tree on fire out of boredom, she is shipped off to a strange boarding school run by Ms. Traverse (Patricia Clarkson), where the woods surrounding the school seem to be slowly devouring the building itself. There’s also the standard issue legend surrounding the history of the school that involves a coven of witches who murdered the school’s head-mistress years before.
Does any of this result in an interesting film? Let’s take a step back before we delve into …
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ATL
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 20th, 2006
Rap movies have com a long way. They have begun to evolve, from glorified music videos, to black cinema (which has come a long way in its own right), on up to a new level of art. Hustle and Flow brought the new style of black film into the limelight, and ATL follows right behind. I was really surprised how much I liked this film. In my line of work, you see a lot of bad films, and you can usually spot them from a mile away. I admit that I was fooled by this one. I was expecting to find another tired tale of a young hustla’ making it big in the hood, but instead I found a genuinely touching film about what happens to four friends when High School is over and the next stage of life has not yet begun.
Connors’ War
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 20th, 2006
Synopsis
Anthony “Treach” Criss of Naughty By Nature plays the title character, a one-man army as part of a vaguely defined intelligence agency. He is the midst of rescuing the President’s wife from a hostage situation when bungling by the Secret Service results in an explosion that blinds him. Three years later, his old boss lures him back to the field with the promise of regained sight. This he gets, but now he can see in the dark. The plan is apparently to steal a satellite component in order to p…
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Zodiac, The
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 20th, 2006
Synopsis
1968. In a Northern California town, teenagers parking at night are being killed. The police do their best to sell the first attack as a botched robbery, but then another murder happens, and the killer, dubbing himself the Zodiac, turns out to be very media-savvy. Charged with tracking him down is Justin Chambers, and his frustration with the case spills into his home life, straining his relationship with his wife (Robin Tunney) and worshipful son (Rory Culkin).
The murders are for…
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Dare to Play the Game
Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on September 20th, 2006
Losing a Head, Having a Heavy Barrel and WIIIIIIIIII! – Welcome to the old wooden roller coaster with a missing set of tracks known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. May you never experience what it is like to have your house half full and your heart empty. Anyhow, just fixing up the old house; painted my back door and it actually looks decent; just needs another coat. Replacing all my light bulbs with those CFL’s but slowly a…
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Battlestar Galactica – Season 2.0
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 19th, 2006
The Sci-Fi Channel has certainly gotten its considerable amount of money’s worth from Ronald D. Moore’s reincarnation of Battlestar Galactica. The trouble, at least for me, is that it is still very hard for me to consider this Galactica at all. It might have been better if, as Jack Webb used to say, the names had been changed to protect the innocent. There isn’t much doubt that this version of Galactica is innovative science fiction in its own right. The cinematography is often mind-boggling, if a bit too dark. T…
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Star Trek: Klingon Fan Collective
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 19th, 2006
With the possible exception of the Vulcans no race has been given a richer history in Star Trek than the Klingons. We need to forget the drastic change in how these bad guys to allies look. In Enterprise this change is finally explained as a genetic experiment gone bad in an episode conspicuously missing from the set. I’m not sure I can criticize the episode selection, as they were voted on at Startrek.com. Still. I don’t like the over usage of repeats these collection sets are plagued with. It’s not like there are…
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James Stewart – The Signature Collection
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 19th, 2006
Tom Hanks is sometimes called this generation’s Jimmy Stewart. In an odd sort of way, that is sort of a compliment to both men. Both are extraordinary actors who have secured a place in film history as the best of their time at playing the everyman. While such a role would doom other actors to being typecast as the all-time greatest supporting actor, both Hanks and Stewart have been able to pull off the role with amazing versatility.
Clearly, this is not the definitive set of Stewart’s work as an actor. For t…
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Highly Defined – The World of High Definition
Posted in Highly Defined, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on September 18th, 2006
If you take $17,000 from your company and you leave without any form of punishment or prosecution, can your resignation really cite “personal differences?”
You know where your Cedia is? It’s one of the other big electronics shows that helps announce and introduce new technologies. One of the more remembered announcements was Toshiba’s announcement of a 2nd generation HD-DVD player. These newer versions include shorter load times, HDMI 1.3, and in one case, full 1080p resolution. There are two models, look f…
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Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 16th, 2006
Synopsis
Marilyn Burns, Paul Partain, Allen Danziger, Teri McMinn, William Vail and Gunnar Hansen individually may not be that well known. Collectively, many people might confuse them with some group of lawyers or something. But film history has afforded them a higher place in memory past their initial endeavors. You see, back during the middle of a particularly oppressive heat wave in 1973 Texas, this group, directed by a then-fledging auteur in Tobe Hooper, combined to make what is widely regarded as one…
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Brain Blasters
Posted in Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on September 15th, 2006
With The Curse of Frankenstein in 1957, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee became the new kings of British horror, and their frequent co-starring roles made them a tandem the likes of which the industry hadn’t seen since the heyday of the Karloff-Lugosi double-threats of the late-30’s. Their films for Hammer and Amicus have long been fan faves, but the film I’m going to sing the praises of here doesn’t have quite the same profile as the likes of Horror of Dracula. Most horror fans of a certain vintage no…
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Amazon Unbox: Keep that package sealed
Posted in News and Opinions by Archive Authors on September 15th, 2006
Amazon has a well deserved reputation as a (generally) excellent retailer and purveyor of leading edge business models. Their new movie download server – Amazon Unbox – however, is according to Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing, rife with awfulness.
From a software client that borders on malware, to TOC’s that sign away your right to your purchased content, the service is plaugued by the typically heavy handed legal stylings of the MPAA.
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10th & Wolf
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 14th, 2006
Synopsis
James Marsden plays Tommy, who broke away from his mob-connected family to join the marines. Something goes wrong during the Gulf War, and he lands in the brig. He’s given a second chance by the authorities if he heads back to his old neighbourhood undercover. As he heads back to hook up with his slow brother and violent cousin (Giovanni Ribisi), we also get flashbacks to their youth in these families.
It’s hard to make a mob movie unentertaining, and this is certainly not dull. Bu…
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Some Kind of Wonderful
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 14th, 2006
Synopsis
While Some Kind of Wonderful may not feature the same kind of young spirit that Pretty in Pink may have had or the kind of older type of intelligence that Say Anything might have had, it’s still a cute, charming little romantic comedy with some recognizable faces penned by ‘80s icon John Hughes, responsible for such teen films as The Breakfast Club and Weird Science, to name a paltry few.
Keith (Eric Stoltz, Mask) is a bit of an underachiever, who…
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Wizard, The
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 14th, 2006
Synopsis
I was never that much of a Nintendo kid growing up. I went from the Sega Genesis to the Playstation, then the PS2, before recently landing on the Xbox. I was never that accustomed to the world of Double Dragon, however I’d like to think that I was the bomb at Contra. And the only video game movie I can recall seeing when I was growing up was a film called Joysticks, which was a crude version of Animal House and Hardbodies, with Pac Man, Galaga and the like.
The Wiz…
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Love for Rent
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 14th, 2006
Synopsis
The best I can gather from watching Love For Rent is that there’s only one recognizable face to speak of. The problem is that the face in question is Saturday Night Live cast member Nora Dunn, who was only moderately funny on the show, but sank her career when she boycotted the appearance of Andrew Dice Clay in the early 1990s. Now that the times have changed, have the sensibilities moved closer to Dunn’s?
Well to quote Whitney Houston, “hell to the no”. Dunn plays Helen, wi…
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Old School Demo
Posted in News and Opinions by Archive Authors on September 14th, 2006
Discussing the old school DVD’s that still sound and look great in the era of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD technology.
With the recent news of MGM green-lighting Terminator 4 as a future tent-pole release in the near future, I thought it would be appropriate to go back and revisit Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines on DVD.
The Terminator and T2: Judgment Day were sci-fi/action marvels anchored by James Cameron’s expansive imagination and eye for detail. While …
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Wii Details Revealed
Posted in News and Opinions by Michael Durr on September 14th, 2006
Nintendo’s Japanese conferences have announced some Wii details; more than likely they will not change with today’s US conference, but here’s what we know so far:
* Wii will retail for $250 and release on Nov. 19th. Will include a pack-in game (been a while since we’ve seen that) – Wii Sports.
* The system will include a web browser, digital photo viewing and a connection to news and weather ‘channels’. Hopefully what the ‘channels’ are will be clarified soon.
* Virtual Console…
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