Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 28th, 2007
The relationship between Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor appeared to blossom when they were both on the set of Cleopatra. The epic film was famous, not for the success of the film but more for the near bankruptcy of the studio and for the romance that blossomed between the two. Warner Brothers has recently been releasing groups of films surrounding various film icons, and this set of four titles focuses on the two acting giants.
The V.I.P.s was the first film after Cleopatra for both performers, and ironically enough they play a married couple on the downside of a marriage. Taylor plays Frances and Burton plays Paul, a wealthy businessman who treats Frances as more of a business chore than anything else, until one day Frances decides to leave Paul and for the waiting arms of Marc (Louis Jourdan, Octopussy). Marc is a gigolo but seems to have reformed for Frances. Frances and Marc are about to fly to New York until fog keeps them in, along with a few other notable individuals. Les (Rod Taylor, The Birds) is a rather convincing Australian businessman who is desperate to get to America to change a business deal that will save him financially, and his secretary Miss Mead (Maggie Smith, Clash of the Titans) will help him try to accomplish that. Max (Orson Welles, Touch of Evil) is trying to get out of England for tax purposes, and will even resort to marriage to try and do it. Margaret Rutherford (Blithe Spirit) won an Oscar in her role as the elderly Duchess.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on January 28th, 2007
Opening
The Rainbow Six series of console and pc games has always been about realistic tactical warfare. These games are not for the faint of the heart as with any Tom Clancy shooter. In their latest offering: Rainbow Six Vegas; they take that realism and then put it in the anything but real land of glitz, glamor, and high rolling. Las Vegas, Nevada. A town where nobody sleeps and that's unfortunate because you are going to need all the skills and firepower you can muster at all hours ...f the night. The Ubisoft Montreal team have done a great job of providing new and old features for first person shooter fans to enjoy.
Posted in: Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on January 26th, 2007
Bela Lugosi has certainly had his share of collections and box sets hitting the stands, but now, belatedly, Boris Karloff has some sets of his own, and we’re not talking cheap public domain films from late in his career.
Universal, where Karloff became a star with Frankenstein, has released, as part of their Franchise Collection, The Boris Karloff Collection. There are five films here: Night Key (1937), Tower of London (1939), The Climax (1944), The Strange Door (1951) and...The Black Castle (1952). Welcome as these films are to DVD, they are, generally speaking, far from being among Karloff’s most memorable films. But that is largely because his biggest Universal pictures have already appeared either in the Frankenstein or Lugosi collections. These aren’t really horror movies, either. Most are period pieces, with Karloff playing secondary roles. He’s the primary antagonist in The Climax, though, which is a Phantom of the Opera variation sans make-up. The standout is Tower of London, where Karloff is the clubfooted, murderous servant of Basil Rathbone’s even more murderous Richard III.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 25th, 2007
The Rock � sorry, Dwayne Johnson � sure has come a long way from his melodramatic days as a WWE superstar. His first major film role, as the Scorpion King in 2001�s The Mummy Returns was more about his physical presence than any acting ability. Two years later, he proved he could handle action comedy with The Rundown. Now, with Gridiron Giants, Johnson has added the drama notch to his genre belt.
The film, based on a true story and following a 1993 TV documentary of the same name, tells...the story of a group of juvenile criminals who learn how to turn their lives around through participation in a football team, coached by their detention center supervisor (Johnson).
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on January 24th, 2007
Halo 3 Beta, Wii at a Loss, and a Link to the Past - Welcome to the mortgage that’s been refinanced too much and drowning fast known as Dare to Play the Game.
Posted in: News and Opinions by Archive Authors on January 24th, 2007
This CNET article wishfully prophecies that HD-DVD will surrender mid-year. This prognosis is based on the the fact that there's a 5:1 ratio of Blu-Ray to HD-DVD players in households - driven mainly by the PS3. Of course, the verdict is still out on whether the PS3 will ever get traction in the marketplace, so take that with a grain of salt.
Personally, I'm going to skip the next-gen physical media ratrace entirely and skip right to HD downloads via A...ple TV 2.0 or some homebrew setup.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 23rd, 2007
It�s hard to believe, but after six years and three movies, this fourth film proves the Scary Movie franchise is still good for a cheap laugh.
For those of you that have lived under a rock and aren�t familiar with the Scary Movie series, I will enlighten you. Some of the horror movies coming out these days are just begging to be parodied, and the comic brains of the Wayans brothers did so in 2000 with first instalment simply titled Scary Movie. This movie poked fun of then-recent movie... like I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream, and as the movies went on they continued to make jokes of both new and old horrors alike. Scary Movie 4 doesn�t seem to add anything new to the mix in comparison to the previous three titles, but that�s just part of its charm � senseless humour poking fun at other movies. Finally, I must add that apart from re-rolling previous characters, none of the Wayans brothers had anything to do with the screenplay for Scary Movie 4, which ultimately left me unsure going into this movie.
![Scary Movie 4 [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/scary-movie-4-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 23rd, 2007
Wow. It�s already been over a year since hearing the endless �I can�t quit you� pander that many labeled Brokeback Mountain with. Sitting down to see this one for the 3rd time, I feared that the initial power the film had over me would be diminished. Such isn�t the case here as Brokeback Mountain is still the same excellent film it was over a year ago.
Brokeback Mountain tells the story of star-crossed lovers Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Kake Gyllenhaal). Both are young men, not even twenty, working in the year of 1963. They meet and fall in love on a sheep-herding job in Signal, Wyoming. The film chronicles the next 20 years of their lives from Ennis marrying Alma Beers (Michelle Williams) to Jack marrying Laureen Newsome (Anne Hathaway). The 20 years that the film takes place over show Ennis and Jack trying to lead a normal life without seeing each other, but shortly before realizing that they both have a deep connection to one another.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 21st, 2007
Back in late 2006 there was a minor to-do about a film depicting the last days of Jesus, except that Jesus was played by a black man. Written and directed by Jean-Claude La Marre, Color of the Cross tries to do what it can to tell the tale of this black Jesus, or be-jeezus if you will.
The film, like others covering the last two days of his life, follows Jesus as he performs the Last Supper, gets betrayed by Judas and the other stuff. While in town, many Jews are trying to celebrate Passover without being abused or persecuted by the Romans, so they celebrate in secret. In the meantime, what happens during a lot of other character thoughts is that they wonder about this so-called prophet, and because he's black AND jewish, whether that should diminish the message that he is trying to convey.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 21st, 2007
For all the talk about a film being "just as relevant now as when it was released", Oh! What a Lovely War seems to fit that bill more than a lot of movies I've seen recently. From a screenplay by Len Deighton and directed by a first-time director (but longtime actor) in Richard Attenborough (Jurassic Park), the film may be a daunting endeavor for some to see, probably because it's a film that's two and a half hours long and contains a lot of songs.
It also contains a lot of dialogue, and both the songs and dialogue were from the period. The world leaders that are involved during this time of crisis include President Poincaire (Ian Holm, Lord of the Rings), Count Leopold von Berchtold (Sir John Gielgud, Arthur), Emperor Franz Josef (Jack Hawkins, Bridge on the River Kwai), to name a few.
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