Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 4th, 2006
Synopsis Henry Fonda plays Colin Spence, a diffident, self-effacing Canadian (but of course!) corporal in the British infantry based in Tunisia. Led by the crusty but supremely competent Sergeant Kelly (Irish of course), Spence’s squad is sent out on a recon mission that goes badly awry, and the men are forced to engage in a […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 31st, 2006
You won’t ever know the excitement I felt when I heard a sequel was being made to the film Underworld. While I didn’t see the big to due about the first film, I was actually hoping that the film would take the route some sequels have taken by making the film far superior to its […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 30th, 2006
Sometimes, I get a bit of an impulse buying urge. And a while back, I went and got a spiffy Philips 727 DVD player (which I’ve since replaced with a Toshiba upconverting unit). Sure, it’s not a higher end player or anything, but for $80 and a hack using the remote control, it’s now become […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 28th, 2006
As is the case with many of Criterion’s releases, Viridiana is a film that was quite controversial upon its original release, and to some extent, still is today. The film’s namesake is a young woman who is just a week away from taking part in the investiture ceremony, her convent receives a letter from her […]
Posted in News and Opinions by Archive Authors on May 3rd, 2006
Lorin Thwaits dissects an HD-DVD Player Some crazy dude bought a Toshiba HD-DVD player and pulled it apart to find that its essentially an off the shelf desktop PC using a Pentium 4, a gig of PC2700 ram, and RedHat Linux stored on a 256MB NAND flash module. There’s also apparently a USB bus, and […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 19th, 2006
The appearance of Mr. T as B.A. Baracus unfortunately overshadows the rest of this show. Why is that unfortunate? Because Mr. T’s appeal mostly comes from his performance as the show-stealing Clubber Lang from Rocky III, and not from any major importance he had on this series. While people certainly tuned in to see Baracus, […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 13th, 2006
Hawaii 5-0 was one of CBS’s most successful shows of the 1970’s. A great deal of money had been spent creating facilities to take advantage of the Island’s unique setting. When the show had finally run its course, executives with the network were not keen to give up the production resources, so they simply created […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 12th, 2006
The Greatest Game Ever Played?When I saw that title on the DVD case my immediate thought was: “How did Disney find out about my 1981 Marathon game of RISK where I took out Mark “Trip Sixes” Shreader in 9 hours of battle? Of course, I soon decided they meant professional sports. This film would be […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 6th, 2006
Synopsis Roy Scheider is the police helicopter pilot and Vietnam war vet (cue flashbacks) who is tapped to test Blue Thunder, a new helicopter equipped with every conceivable weapon and means of surveillance. He discovers that the machine is at the heart of a conspiracy to undermine all that is good and free, and chief […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 4th, 2006
Synopsis I have to write an open letter to those who are (deep breath) fans of teen idol used-to-bes Scott Baio and Willie Aames. What the hell is wrong with you people? Did the online petition have THAT many signatures that it had to be recognized and acted upon? Did you really need to have […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 29th, 2006
Synopsis Growing up as the oldest son in an upper-middle class neighborhood outside of Washington, DC, I am familiar with rap as much as, or even more than, KRS One, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Public Enemy or NWA. I come from dem hard streets, where I can kill a muhvuggah! Well, maybe not […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 22nd, 2006
As I see more and more film’s from 2005, I realize that a majority of the best films are those that aren’t huge financial successes. Films like Capote, Munich and now David Cronenberg’s latest film A History of Violence weren’t huge successes but have earned praise due to the themes and stories they present. Containing […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 7th, 2006
Ahh, Moonlighting. For people of my generation, this may be the golden age of television. That’s not to take anything away from I Love Lucy or The Andy Griffith Show, but when you grew up in the 80’s, there was this, L. A. Law and Miami Vice. For my money, Moonlighting was the best of […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 4th, 2006
Not only is HBO not afraid of controversial programming, they actually embrace it. It is widely believed that the two topics that cause the most tension among people is politics and religion. Maybe that’s why abortion is such a hot-button issue. No other topic simultaneously evokes such strong political and theological views. Solders in the […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 28th, 2006
Wildfire has all the subtlety and charm of an ABC After School Special. Truth be told, the pilot episode reminded me a lot of Showgirls, but instead of becoming a pole dancer, this girl is becoming a horse trainer. The basic elements are still the same, though. A girl with a rough past gets an […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 22nd, 2006
The longest running show in prime time doesn’t feature cops, doctors, or lawyers. It’s hard to believe that The Simpsons have existed as long as the Fox network. While the series didn’t really begin until Fox’s second year, the characters were part of The Tracey Ullman Show, which did start the first year of Fox. […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 13th, 2006
Synopsis Jane Fonda plays Lilliam Hellman. She is living in a beach house with Dashiel Hammett (Jason Robards), struggling with a play (The Children’s Hour, though the film is ridiculously coy about mentioning its title). She is also worried about her childhood friend Julia (Vanessa Redgrave), who is caught up in the struggle with the […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 7th, 2006
Pity the younger generations that will forever associate the character of Inspector Clouseau with Steve Martin. Peter Sellers might not have been a “wild and crazy guy,” but he was nothing short of brilliant as a comedic actor. Sellers never relied on over the top grandstanding to make a point. You never needed to be […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 7th, 2006
A sequel to Ingmar Bergman’s 1973 classic Scenes from a Marriage, Saraband reintroduces us to Marianne (Liv Ullman) and Johan (Erland Josephson) after 32 years apart, when Marianne decides it’s time to pay her ex-husband a visit. Upon arrival, she becomes involved in strained family relations between Johan, his son Henrik (Borje Ahlstedt), and Henrik’s […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 21st, 2006
When I sat down with this title, I was all ready to breeze right through it, making comments about how this is a disc that will only appeal to kids, and that the quality was just enough to keep kids happy. Imagine my surprise when I really got into this little 70-minute film. This is […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 14th, 2006
Synopsis I was amazed that a film starring three Academy Award winners (Robert De Niro (Raging Bull), Kathy Bates (Misery), F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus) would be so ignored and passed over by the movie going public. Based on a novel by Thornton Wilder and adapted for the screen and directed by relative unknown Mary McGuckian, […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 1st, 2006
Synopsis After an unsuccessful exorcism ends with the death of its subject (Jennifer Carpenter in the title role), priest Tom Wilkinson is charged with negligent homicide. The prosecutor is a devout Christian (Campbell Scott). Wilkinson’s lawyer is the agnostic Laura Linney. As the court battle progresses, we witness Carpenter’s story in flashback, with her possession […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 27th, 2005
Synopsis This is a short (69 minutes), quite elliptical film that traces the arc of a relationship between a young man (Kieran O’Brien) and woman (the pseudonymous Margo Stilley). We see individual moments, usually framed around episodes of lovemaking, and in between we see our couple at rock concerts (and so we get, in their […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 11th, 2005
Synopsis In Antarctica, Godzilla battles the Gohten-go (an earth-drilling/submarine/flying ship familiar from Ataragon), and winds up buried after an earthquake. Flash-forward to the near future after a superb credit sequence by Kyle (Se7en) Cooper, and monsters are suddenly attacking cities all over the world. Humanity is apparently saved by the extraterrestrial Xilians, who zap the […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 8th, 2005
Sometime during the 1990’s, big-budget blockbusters stopped getting by on special effects alone. Even though Independence Day, Godzilla, and Armageddon showed us that ground-breaking special effects don’t translate into quality films, Hollywood kept making them — and people kept spending their hard-earned money to see them. Stealth is the newest movie in that mold. Heavy […]
