New Fist of Fury (Remastered)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 27th, 2002
Intro
It is nice to see one of Jackie Chan’s first films, New Fist of Fury, get re-released with an anamorphic widescreen transfer. Unfortunately, that is the only bonus to this disc.
Synopsis
“Jackie Chan (Rush Hour), the master of kung-fu and Chinese acrobatics, stars in this action- packed sequel to Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury. In one of his first leading roles, he displays the style that would make him an international superstar. During WWII in Japanese-occupied Taiwan, Jacki…
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To Kill With Intrigue (Remastered)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 27th, 2002
Intro
Columbia-Tristar has re-released To Kill with Intrigue, along with New Fists of Fury and Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin with a new anamorphic widescreen transfer. To Kill with Intrigue looks better than the other two releases, but still is nothing stellar on DVD.
Synopsis
“In To Kill With Intrigue, Kung Fu fans get a rare chance to see international martial arts legend Jackie Chan (Rush Hour) as a serious dramatic hero with a fighting style to match. Jackie plays a young …
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Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin (Remastered)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 27th, 2002
Intro
Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin finally gets a DVD re-release with an anamorphic widescreen transfer. It is too bad that the quality of this DVD is so low.
Synopsis
“International superstar Jackie Chan (Rush Hour) stars in the film that real Kung Fu fans call the best traditional martial arts movie Jackie’s ever made, Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin. Jackie is a young warrior suspected of poisoning all the Shaolin Masters, the creators of a new unbeatable fighting style cal…
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Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 26th, 2002
Intro
It is about damn time that The Empire Strikes Back made it to DVD… oh wait; this is Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, not The Empire Strikes Back (Damn it). Oh well, at least we now have one “Strikes Back” on DVD, and it is a dandy DVD release.
Synopsis
“First seen in Kevin Smith’s breakthrough film “Clerks,” Jay and Silent Bob have continued their adventures in both live-action movies and animated television shows. In JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK, when they learn that t…
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Va Savoir
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 26th, 2002
The sort of film it seems comes out of Hollywood only as a fluke, but emerges regularly out of Europe: the intellectual romantic comedy.
Synopsis
Camille, leading lady of an Italian-language theatre troupe, has returned to Paris for the first time in three years. Though her lover is the director Ugo, she seeks out her ex, Pierre, and her feelings are not exactly simple. Ugo, meanwhile, is searching for a rare play, and is attracted to the daughter of the woman who owns the manuscript. The set-up is…
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Drive By
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 24th, 2002
Written By Kelly Stifora
Intro
This is an independent about a young Latino kid’s struggle to become a man in Chicago’s Little Village, where his older brother is the head of the Brotherhood, a local gang. A cast full of non-actors and a meandering, often-pointless script drag down this effort from first time director Jaun J. Fasto. And the trip to disc doesn’t save it.
Synopsis
The film opens with an intriguing murder scene, but it’s straight downhill from there. Ceaser O’Campo (Felipe Camacho), the young pro…
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Beastie Boys Video Anthology
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 24th, 2002
Written By Kelly Stifora
Intro
The bad boys from Brooklyn dish up an audio/video career retrospective from seemingly endless angles, and raise the bar on the entire DVD format just as they’ve always done in the worlds of rap and music videos.
Synopsis
Three geeky white kids from the Brooklyn underground punk scene form a band, calling themselves the Beastie Boys. A couple of years later they release their first album, Licensed to Ill, helping to spawn both the rap and the rap/rock genres. In the ensuing two de…
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Superman – The Movie
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 18th, 2002
“You will believe a man can fly” was the promise on a movie poster that tempted this teenager into the brand new multiplex to see Superman – The Movie. Did the film deliver? Let’s just say there were no lawsuits for breech of contract. What teenage kid could help but be swept into the air with Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel. Brando had also been a hero of mine and who better to play Superman’s dad than the Godfather himself. No film had to that point ever accomplished the feat of putting a human in flight that rivals the abilities of today’s digital effects. Hell yes, I believe a man can fly.
Devil’s Advocate
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 13th, 2002
“Can you summon your talent at will?” This is a question from Satan himself in the The Devil’s Advocate. For Al Pacino I would say the answer is a resounding yes. Pacino has been making us offers we just couldn’t refuse for 30 years. Just a list of his exceptional films would require more space than I have here. You’ll find this film to be one of his more underrated gems.
Synopsis
Kevin Lomax (Reeves) is a hot young lawyer with an uncanny ability to pick a winning jury; in fact he’s never lost.
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Bad News Bears go to Japan
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 13th, 2002
Intro
It’s official. The franchise has been run into the ground. They’ve made a baseball movie with virtually no baseball and the little bit that you do see has no tension or comedy.
Synopsis
The Bears head to Japan at the urging of a scam artist (Tony Curtis) hoping to make big bucks in endorsement deals. Along the way they discover that love of the game is more important than competition. And in his last gasp at stardom, Jackie Earle Haley falls in love with a Japanese girl, walk…
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Bad News Bears in Breaking Training
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 13th, 2002
Intro
From its tissue-paper thin plot to the loss of the two main performers from the original Bad News Bears, what you see as you watch The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training, is the death of a franchise. Sure, there’s another haphazard follow-up, but the writing is on the wall.
Synopsis
This installment has The Bears traveling to Houston to play a single game against the Texas little league champs for the right to go to Japan. Why the Bears are chosen for this trip is never made c…
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Sexy Beast
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 9th, 2002
Intro
I have been hearing about this film for quite some time now… and now that I have had the pleasure of viewing it, I can honestly say it is a great film. If you like British style films (Lock Stock, Snatch, Gangster No. 1)… you will thoroughly enjoy Sexy Beast.
Synopsis
“Jonathan Glazer, the award-winning director of advertisements and music videos, presents his feature film debut with this lushly photographed, expertly written, and brilliantly performed convention-defying …
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Bad News Bears
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 9th, 2002
Intro
In this world of political correctness it’s a breath of fresh air to revisit this classic film from 1976. Sadly, it’s been given a completely lackluster DVD release.
Synopsis
A washed up former minor league baseball player (Walter Matthau) is given the task of taking a hapless group of kids and turning them into a team. With the help of his secret pitching weapon (Tatum O’Neal) they take a run at the pennant.
Audio
Presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and Mono. Gi…
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Matrix
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 7th, 2002
What is the Matrix? That’s the question everyone’s looking to answer in this sci-fi spectacular from Wachowski brothers. One thing it was — groundbreaking both in the spectacular special effects that we’ve since taken for granted even in tv commercials and in actual ground (the tons of concrete) broken in the film itself.
Synopsis
Computer hacker extraordinaire Neo (Reeves) has this gut feeling that life isn’t all that it seems to be. Turns out he’s right in a big way. A group of revolutionaries l…
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American Rhapsody
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 3rd, 2002
Intro
Based on a true story, unfortunately, the story is just average and the DVD release is on the same par.
Synopsis
American Rhapsody tells the story of a Hungarian families (Nastassja Kinski, Tony Goldwyn) escape from their country during Communist rule. Because of the danger they must leave their baby behind and circumstances prevent her from coming to America for another six years. Once she becomes a teenager (Scarlett Johansson), the young girl knows something is missing from h…
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Grateful Dawg
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 2nd, 2002
Intro
A labour of love…the director (Gillian Grisman) has taken home movie and live performance footage to create a compelling documentary about the friendship between her father (David Grisman) and the late Jerry Garcia.
Jerry Garcia best known as the lead guitarist of the Grateful Dead and the lesser known, at least in my musical knowledge, mandolin maestro David Grisman could easily have been separated at birth. The “twin” musicians have a sound all there own and even if the music isn’t to your…
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Gladiator
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 2nd, 2002
“Imagine where you will be and it will be so”. That was how Maximus comforted his troops before battle. If you imagine yourself in Rome during the days of the Gladiator then Ridley Scott makes it very easy to do. Russell Crowe plays the role of a lifetime as Maximus. I have often heard film lovers state that they don?t make classics anymore. Whether Gladiator is the exception that proves the rule or proof against the rule is uncertain. What is sure is that Gladiator will become a true classic.
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Thumbelina
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 2nd, 2002
Intro
From the washed out video to the sappy Barry Manilow songs the best that can be said about this disc is it might be a good babysitter for a 3 year old.
Synopsis
The story is derived from the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairytale Thumbelina. After Thumbelina falls in love with a fairy prince she is kidnapped by a family of show toads, and upon her escape goes from one adventure to the next in trying to find her true love.
Audio
The audio is presented in Dol…
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Sandlot
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 30th, 2002
Written By Kelly Stifora
Intro
Arliss Howard narrates this piece of child-oriented Americana (in the vein of Stand By Me and The Wonder Years) about a group of 1962 youngsters, their obsession with baseball, and the gigantic dog that lives over the left field fence.
Synopsis
Scotty Smalls (Tom Guiry) is the new kid in town. Regarded as a geek by the boys who hang out at the local sand lot playing scratch baseball for his inability to throw or catch, Scotty wants nothing more than for his inattentive step dad (…
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Blind Date
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 30th, 2002
Written By Kelly Stifora
Intro
Kim Basinger and Dan Larroquette upstage Bruce Willis in his tepid debut as a leading man. Don’t let the fact that Blake Edwards directed blind you: this is a dud.
Synopsis
Walter (Willis) gets set up on a blind date with Nadia (Basinger) for an incredibly important business dinner at which his boss is expecting him to make a good impression on a prospective client. After being explicitly told not to let Nadia imbibe, Walter heads straight out to get a bottle of champagne and sta…
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When Strangers Appear
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 29th, 2002
Intro
This is the new film from writer/director Scott Reynolds, who brought us The Ugly, a stylishly weird psycho-thriller from a few years back.
Synopsis
Radha Mitchell runs a diner and a motel by herself in a middle-of-nowhere little town. One morning, she opens her diner and strange young man comes in. He’s been stabbed in the gut, and he needs her help. He’s terrified of a group of surfers who arrive shortly after him. He says they’re after him. Should Mitchell believe him?
Venomous
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 29th, 2002
Fred Olen Ray, director of B-movies beyond counting, strikes again, with a DVD release some steps up from what many movies of this type receive.
Synopsis
In 1991, Iraqi agents blow up a secret US government lab, releasing genetically modified rattlesnakes (don’t ask). Over the years, these snakes breed, and in the present, minor earthquakes drive them to the surface, and they infect whoever they bite with a virulently fatal virus. Treat Williams is the small town doctor who must save the day, while…
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Ghost World
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 27th, 2002
Written By Kelly Stifora
Intro
Director Terry Zwigoff follows up his acclaimed documentary on R. Crumb with an adaptation of the cult underground comic by Crumb-inspired artist/writer Daniel Clowes, who collaborated closely with Zwigoff on the film.
Synopsis
Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) are two caustic high school graduates too intent on annoying the hapless souls in their neighborhood to realize their dream of having their own place. As Rebecca drifts toward a responsible life and Enid …
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How to Get Ahead in Advertising
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 27th, 2002
posted by Marc Atonna
Everything must either be high in something or low in something else. You have to love a film where a priest defends, “the tit was spread with peanut butter!”
Synopsis
Dennis Bagley is a hard, calculating advertising executive who was happy in every way he could conceive. Upon worrying about an overdue campaign for a boil ointment, he sprouts a boil himself. Not a problem, you’d think; that is, until the boil starts speaking. Dennis seems batty to all who hear the random boil comments or feel h…
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Die Hard
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 26th, 2002
Say the name Bruce Willis and what is the first thing that comes to mind? Lately Willis has excelled in roles that have redefined him as an actor. Of course, I’m talking about films like “The Sixth Sense”. But when I hear Bruce Willis I think of John McClane. Die Hard was the film where Willis “made his bones” in Hollywood and revolutionized the action film forever.
Synopsis
John McClane just can’t catch a break. It seems his wife has moved from their home in New York City, where John’s a cop, to L.A.
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