Whole Ten Yards
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 20th, 2004
The Whole Nine Yards was a pretty funny film. It wasn’t outstanding. It wasn’t classic cinema. It certainly didn’t cry out for a sequel. The Whole Ten Yards goes one yard too far. Most of the original cast is back, but the film has no life. Even the laughs are forced. By now the novelty of the characters has long since worn thin. Bruce Willis seems to be acting for acting’s sake. The mood swings and unnecessary facial exaggerations seem to provide Willis with some distraction from how empty the rest of the film is. I…
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Angel – The Complete Fourth Season
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 20th, 2004
Many fans of the series would agree that during Angel’s five-year run, season four was it’s strongest. It was the first, and only, time that the series made a drastic change in format. Nearly all episodes, 22 in total, ran along a single continuous plot. Not that different compared to Fox’s other hit series “24.” Beginning at around the episode “The House Always Wins”, each episode essentially hangs with a major cliffhanger and immediately continues at the beginning of the next. This was much more engaging than the s…
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Star Trek: Generations
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 20th, 2004
With the success of Star Trek as both a television and film franchise, it made perfect sense to eventually pass the baton from the Kirk era to the Next Generation. Generations had promise, but could and should have been a far better film. The f/x were for the most part inferior to previous Trek films. The destruction of the Enterprise D is the notable exception. Perhaps it was unwise to attempt to blend the established film environment with the too recently completed television series.
The film might have …
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Dawson’s Creek – The Complete Fourth Season
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 19th, 2004
Synopsis
Here we go: it’s the senior year for Dawson, Joen, Pacey, Jen and Jack. Joey and Pacey haveto deal with how their new romance (which concluded the last season) is going to affect theirrelationship with Dawson. As before, we follow dreams crash or flower, and the same withrelationships. The writing is stronger than on many dramas, but sometimes is a little too pleasedwith itself — Pacey’s crack in the opening episode about “the land of poorly written melodrama”which also fo…
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Asylum of the Damned
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 19th, 2004
Synopsis
James Bishop arrives at S. Andrew’s Asylum for the Criminally Insane to be a new intern.He suspects things are not as they should be. His clues include obviously mistreated patients,and an asylum director who is exaggeratedly uncaring and speaks with a sinister Britishaccent.
Meanwhile, in the audience, we’re waiting for old James to catch up, as the movie showed usa satanic cult at work in the hospital in the opening five minutes, complete with an extremelycheesy…
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Christine
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 18th, 2004
Synopsis
Put-upon high-school student Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) buys a decrepit 1957Plymouth Fury named Christine, and sets about restoring her. He does a remarkable job, and asChristine becomes shiny and new again, so Arnie loses his geek image. He goes beyond beingself-confident, however, becoming more and more unpleasant as Christine exerts her hold onhim. She is a jealous lover, and will kill anyone who interferes with her and Arnie.
When you think about, it’s surp…
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Hi-5 Collection
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 18th, 2004
Synopsis
There are three volumes under review here: “Color Craze,” “Music Magic,” and “GameTime.” Imagine a kids’ show taken over by a co-ed version of the Backstreet Boys, and you’llhave some sense of what these shows are like. A group of 5 young people sing and danceenergetically, and then, in individual segments, each host focuses on a different specialty (onedoes shapes, another movement, and so on). Other segments consists of more song, storytelling,activities, and so on. I won…
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Good Times
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 17th, 2004
Synopsis
When sinister businessman George Sanders offers to produce a film starring Sonny and Cher,Sonny can’t wait to get started, though Cher has severe doubts. It turns out the shooting scriptis impossibly bad, and Sonny has ten days to come up with an alternative. We see his fantasiesof various film possibilities (western, mystery, jungle adventure), each one clearly a catastrophein its own right.
This was the directorial debut of William Friedkin. Of course it was! Obvi…
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Chastity
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 17th, 2004
Synopsis
Chastity (Cher) is a runaway, careening from one encounter to the other in a desperate searchfor herself and an attempt to escape the nightmare of her past. Mostly this means wanderingaround in an extremely sullen mood and treating everyone around her like dirt. How verysympathetic. This 1969 effort pretty much encapsulates everything that could make a sixties filmintolerable. Precious and portentous, it achieves a certain degree of unintentional comedy. SEE!The endless ope…
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Baadasssss!
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 17th, 2004
Synopsis
Mario Van Peebles plays his father Melvin, and the film charts the making of Melvin VanPeebles’ landmark 1971 film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Obsessed withmaking a film by and about his community, and expressing all the built-up anger of his peopleand his time, Melvin will stop at nothing in the fulfilment of his dream. The economic, personaland health costs are very high.
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song is arguably where Black cinema begins,…
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White Dawn, The
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 16th, 2004
Synopsis
Based on true events (or at least on tales told by the Inuit), The White Dawn is setin 1896, when three whalers are stranded on Baffin Island, and are rescued by an Inuitcommunity. The three men are Timothy Bottoms (who is instantly converted to this way of life),Lou Gossett (who is skeptical) and Warren Oates (who’s just plain trouble). The meeting ofcultures is not an easy one.
The film is leisurely, but never dull, and much of the running time is spent sho…
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Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 15th, 2004
Synopsis
Very much an allegory, the film moves through the seasons of the title, each one representinga season in a man’s life. In Spring, then, he is a little boy. In Summer, an adolescent. And so on(young man, middle-aged man, older man). The scene remains the same: a Buddhist templefloating on a lake, surrounded by mountains. The other characters are the elderly monk who israising the boy, and the young girl who enters his life in adolescence. The story is told with aminimum of d…
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Naked in New York
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 15th, 2004
Synopsis
Naked in New York follows the ups and downs of the relationship between EricStoltz and Mary-Louise Parker. Stoltz is our narrator. He is raised by deeply neurotic singlemother Jill Clayburgh, and he works out his conflicted feelings about his family in some(apparently) promising plays during his college years. It is hear that he meets Parker, who hashuge talent as a photographer, but is very insecure and self-deprecating about her own talent.Their relationship is put…
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Fearless Vampire Killers, The
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 15th, 2004
Synopsis
Into Transylvania come a doddering and incompetent Van Helsing figure (Jack MacGowran)and his timorous, clumsy assistant (Roman Polanski). When Sharon Tate, the daughter of thelocal innkeeper, is abducted by vampire Count Von Krolock (Ferdy Mayne), MacGowran andPolanski travel to the vampire’s castle, where plenty of misadventures ensue.
Polanski’s affection for the films he is parodying is evident, and this is a much better filmthan, say, Dracula: Dead and Lovin…
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Unspeakable
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 15th, 2004
Synopsis
Psychologist Dina Meyer has a device that, all jargon put aside, permits one to literally seeinto the mind of a subject. Since it has no legal standing, this machine is of no help to aninnocent death-row inmate. Nor, for that matter, is the warden (Dennis Hopper), a fundamentalisttyrant, nor the governor (Jeff Fahey), a greasy political operator who, behind his Family Valuesimage, once got an underage Meyer pregnant. Into the prison comes serial killer Pavan Grover,who is n…
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Frivolous Lola
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 14th, 2004
Synopsis
Lola (Anna Ammirati) delights in turning heads in her village, engaging in such antics as riding her bike with her skirt billowing up behind her. The men all think she’s great, while the women aren’t so fond of her (though the woman working on her wedding dress would clearly like to get to know her better, if you catch my drift). Her main problem is her fiance, who, much to her frustration, refuses to have sex before their marriage. Then there’s her stepfather, who seems more than appro…
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Sealab 2021: Season One
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 14th, 2004
Paul McCartney once implored John Lennon’s son Julian to “take a sad song and make it better”. The same basic concept is at work here, but the words “sad song” should be replaced with “bad cartoon”. Sealab 2021 is a clever show from Cartoon Network that takes a bad old show, Sealab 2020, and replaces the dialog track with something much more enjoyable. Think of it as the Mystery Science Theater 3000 approach to creating a cartoon.
Admittedly, the results are sometimes mixed. When a gag …
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Slacker
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 13th, 2004
Synopsis
Welcome to Austin, Texas. Here, in a series of short, interconnected vignettes, we will meeta huge diversity of characters, who are variously eccentric, insane, disaffected, apathetic,coasting, and so on. Director/writer/producer Richard Linklater’s approach is not unlike RobertAltman taken to the next level. Plot, as such, finally disappears completely. Instead, the camerafollows one character (or set of characters) for a minute or two, then leaves them to trail someonewho…
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Scooby-Doo 2 – Monsters Unleashed
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 13th, 2004
Scooby-Doo 2 is pretty-much the same as the original film. Oh, sure, the plot differs slightly, but for the most part, this is the same film. If you liked the first one, you will like this one. However, if you hated the first one, like I did, then this is regrettably more of the same mindless fluff.
Recently, movie studios have caught on to the idea that if they make children’s movies with subtle in-jokes for adults, their profits will rise. This was the case with Finding Nemo, Shrek an…
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Real Olympics, The
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 13th, 2004
In the shadow of the Olympics’ return to Athens, PBS has decided to take a look back at the original games. This mildly-interesting program that feels more like a documentary that might be screened in a High School classroom than one you might watch on television in your free time. Such is the difference between PBS and the History Channel, I suppose. It is a good documentary, but certainly not great.
That’s not to say that the disc is all dry, though. There is some interesting background into some aspects …
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A-Team on the Big Screen
Posted in News and Opinions by Archive Authors on September 12th, 2004
Yup, the A-Team is being made into a movie, and thus will eventually be a DVD. In the meantime, I’m sure you can expect all sorts of SE/CE/??? DVD releases of the original series, and plenty of hype. Looks like for the movie the surviving original cast (Mr. T, etc. – Hanninbal died a few years back) will be resticted to cameos. The setting will be modern day with the A-Team perhaps hailing from the Persian Gulf instead of Vietnam.
THX 1138 – The George Lucas Director’s Cut
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 11th, 2004
Synopsis
In a totally enclosed dystopia, THX 1138 (Robert Duvall) gradually begins to rebel againstthe completely controlled and drug-managed existence. He dares to think, and to have an affair,and, after a nightmarish imprisonment in a featureless white limbo, he attempts an escape.
It’s hard to believe that this dark, almost abstract film with its elliptical narrative approachcould have been made by the same man who has assaulted us with such pap as The PhantomMenace and
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Punisher, The
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 10th, 2004
Synopsis
When an undercover operation results in the death of his son, crime lord Howard Saint (JohnTravolta, recycling his Swordfish shtick) orders the wipe-out of the entire family of FBIagent Frank Castle. This duly occurs, and Castle (Thomas Jane, sounding just like HughJackman) is left for dead. He survives, however, and returns to Tampa as the Punisher, andengages in an elaborate vendetta against Saint.
Unlike the disastrous Dolph Lundgren Punisher, this …
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Home on the Range
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 9th, 2004
Synopsis
The “Patch of Heaven” farm is about to be seized by the bank, unless $750.00 can be raised,and raised quickly. By lucky coincidence, that is precisely the reward being offered for thecapture of cattle rustler Alameda Slim. Three plucky cows (voiced by Roseanne Barr, Judi Denchand Jennifer Tilly) decide to capture Slim and win the reward, thus saving their home.
The opening moments, with a series of Tex Avery-style catastrophes befalling an unfortunaterabbit, are ver…
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Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King (Extended Edition)
Posted in News and Opinions by Archive Authors on September 9th, 2004
New Line will finally release the much anticipated Extended Edition of the final chapter of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy on December 14th. This 4-disc set will include approx. fifty-minutes of additional footage, along with cast and crew audio commentaries and multiple behind the scenes documentaries and featurettes. A collector’s giftset will also be made available on the 14th that will include a Sideshow/Weta statue of Minas Tirith and a Howard Shore Creating the Lord of the Rings Symphony DVD.