Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 14th, 2007
Synopsis
Baseball films always hold a place near and dear to me. I would go see them with my dad when I was a kid and enjoy the plight of a team or an individual with a desire to win and overcome the odds. Sometimes it would be funny (Bull Durham), sometimes it would be sad (Eight Men Out), sometimes it would be uplifting (Field of Dreams). However, all of the above movies would have never been as successful without one movie in particular. That movie is The Natural . The Natura...
Posted in: Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on April 13th, 2007
Before anything else, some housecleaning. In my piece on BluRay and HD-DVD some time ago, I quoted Video Watchdog as saying the BluRay machines would not be backwards compatible. This has turned out, of course, to be inaccurate. Video Watchdog printed its correction, and I now follow suit.
Right, then. So, after a disappointing opening at the box office, the first reports about how Grindhouse will appear on DVD have surfaced, and that’s all the excuse I need to talk about the film again...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 13th, 2007
Synopsis
Isild Le Besco is a teenager completely bored with the scene at the slightly ratty campsite where she and her family are spending the summer. Enter Denis Lavant, a much older man weathered by life and prison. Though he knows better than to be the moth to her flame, he can’t help but circling closer and closer. A conflagration is inevitable.
The leads are very strong. Lavant very convincingly radiates disillusion and a certain confused weariness, while Le Besco is the very portrait ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 13th, 2007
Synopsis
This is a collection of eight SpongeBob cartoons, generally (but not exclusively) focussed in and around the Krabby Patty. The title story, which is a two-parter, explores the Krabs and Plankton’s shared tragic history, and what led to their endless rivalry. The level of hilarity remains as high as ever (including some extremely squirm-inducing moments in “Fungus Among Us”), but I can’t help but feel that this is a bit too naked a money grab, given that everything here will wind up in one se...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 13th, 2007
Synopsis
Ian Fleming’s The Man With the Golden Gun was the only posthumous release for the established actor, and the book was such a success that producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman decided to try and recruit Roger Moore for the role immediately after You Only Live Twice to capitalize on the success of Fleming’s book. However, it wasn’t meant to be, and the film’s production was delayed several years while the George Lazenby era came and went, not to mention the Sean Connery era leav...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 12th, 2007
After watching a bloated Tom Sizemore run around tunnels being chased by a man in a rubber suit while making bad jokes, it’s hard to believe that he used to be in good movies like Heat, Saving Private Ryan, and Black Hawk Down. And that’s probably the biggest impression I got from Bottom Feeder, just another example of the latest “anyone can make a direct-to-video horror movie” trend. My, how far Sizemore has fallen.
The plot is minimal, which is par for the course in most horror films...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 12th, 2007
Synopsis
Lloyd Nolan stars in this quartet of films about Michael Shayne. Less hard-boiled than he was in other media, here he’s an inveterate wisecracker and the films are sometimes more comedies than thrillers. Our boy takes his first bow in <>i>Michael Shayne, Private Detective (1941), where he’s hired to keep an heiress (Marjorie Weaver) out of trouble. But when one of the dubious people she’s been hanging out with turns up killed, apparently by Shayne’s gun, the detective must stay one step ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 12th, 2007
The Queen is all about Helen Mirren’s performance. All of the buzz I heard leading up to the Oscars was about Mirren’s remarkable turn as the queen bee herself, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, and rightfully so.
The film presents an intimate perspective on the royal family during the week of Diana’s death. Despite her majesty’s very public persona, she is actually a very private person, bound to tradition. She’s at odds with new prime minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen, Blood Diamond), who...
Posted in: Hardware Reviews by Archive Authors on April 12th, 2007
Aperion 4-Series: Part One
Aperion Audio 4 Series: 422 Harmony HD, inlcuding:
- 6x 422-LR satellites
- 1x S10 10 inch powered subwoofer, 100 Watts
- 1x 422-C Center Channel
First off, let me preface this review with the declaration that I am woefully new to speaker reviews, and know little of the art or science of speaker design. On one hand, that makes me under-qualified to do an in-depth speaker review, as I won't be commenting on impedence levels, p...
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on April 11th, 2007
Confessions (of a WoW addict) part 2, Xbox Spring Dashboard update and Jam! - Welcome to the column that lays bricks like nobody’s business known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. I didn’t do much this weekend, you hardly knew a holiday was passing through. I was going to see Grindhouse but the super awesome girl that I wanted to go out with was called out to work at the last moment. I try, I try. But...
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