Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 30th, 2006
With impressive urban dramas under his belt, John Singleton sets out to create another classic. Boyz n The Hood is always associated with this genre, in terms of quality it remains a classic drama. Four Brothers doesn’t attempt a serious get out of the hood type movie, but rather an action film with serious themes and tones. Well that’s not to say that there isn’t a laugh or two in here, because there sure is.
It’s a cold November night in Detroit; Evelyn Mercer enters a convenience store to ...ail an underage thief out of trouble. We learn that she is a compassionate elderly lady that sees the best in everyone. As she proceeds to pick out a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner two masked men enter the store, demanding money and making threats. They shoot and kill the cashier proceeding to the back of the store where they hear Evelyn rustling around. Without hesitation they take her life and flee from the store into the snowy night.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 30th, 2006
Stanley Kubrick’s ultra famous epic Spartacus tells of the story of a man named Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) who decided to defy and lead an uprising against the Roman empire. Spartacus, naturally a slave, is beaten in early scenes for biting a guard’s leg after falling down. He is sentenced to death for this. Before his death, a man named Batiatus decided to train Spartacus as a fighting gladiator. As many now know, gladiators were trained for two reasons, the first being to fight to the death, and the second as ... sense of amusement for the upper classes. After Spartacus witnesses one of his friends die, he decides to unite all the slaves in the hopes of rebelling against the Roman Empire. As Spartacus and his men gain more notice, more slaves from around the country join him and his men for the fight against the Empire. As this happens, Spartacus, unexpectedly, falls in love with a girl named Varinia who is a slave girl.
Spartacus has numerous positives and few negatives. First up, the acting is top notch. Kirk Douglas is fabulous as the slave man rallying up men across the country for one goal. He delivers speeches with such ferociousness and intensity that, sometimes, I could have seen myself wanting to join the rebellion. Speaking of rebellion, this is one of the most important aspects of the film. The idea of rebellion, especially in the Roman times, most certainly ended in death for a majority of those who decided to rebel against their rulers. One can easily see how excellent of an actor Kirk Douglas was (we see this in the actor his son Michael Douglas has become). He has a sense of power and intelligence in every one of his scenes easily stealing the show. The supporting actors, particularly Laurence Olivier’s performance as Marcus Licinius Crassus is just as good. Olivier, probably famous for his various retellings of Shakespearean stories, is simply magnificent here.
![Spartacus [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/spartacus-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 30th, 2006
12 Monkeys tells the story of a man named James Cole (16 Blocks Bruce Willis) who is sent back in time from the year 2035 to the year 1996 in hopes of saving the human race from a deadly virus which has forced mankind into total seclusion from the above world. Down below the ground, they live in communities hoping one day to come out and start a new world. Once he arrives, Cole encounters a patient named Jeffrey Goines (Troy’s Brad Pitt) and a psychiatrist named Kathryn Railly (We Were Soldier... Madeleine Stowe). Cole soon learns, after a few conversations with Jeffrey, that he may hold the whole key to solving this virus. As the film progresses, what we and Cole learn is that the scientists who simply sent Cole back to obtain a sample of this virus for further study, may have had more sinister motives at hand.
The film is directed by Terry Gilliam, a man who certainly has quite the fan base not because his films gross a lot of money, but rather because his films require the mind to think about what they’ve just seen on the screen. Having only seen this film once before this viewing, my love for the film was brought back quickly. Even though I’ve only seen a handful of his films, I’ve always loved how Gilliam is able to sway away from the main plot to introduce side plots in a manner that is always keeping the viewer in loop with what the main purpose of the film at hand. His films are so creative, insane (in a good sense), fun, and simply a mind trip to watch (especially his recently released on HD DVD Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). He creates these characters that are so unique and interesting that one can help getting sucked into the story at hand.
![12 Monkeys [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/12-monkeys-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 29th, 2006
Synopsis
Of all the Bond films and the various images and gadgets that have come from it through 20 films, the one that probably crystallized most of these images is Goldfinger. You have the awesome Aston Martin car with the ejector seat, machine guns, and the like. You had the female who could kick ass and had a really cool name in Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman, Bridget Jones’s Diary). And you had Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton, Ten Little Indians) experiencing the most creative death to...that point.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 29th, 2006
Phat Girlz is one rotten piece of crap. I hate to say it that way, but some movies don’t deserve the flowery lambasting some more deserving bad films get from their critics. They should simply be called what they are. That’s why I equate this film with the “c” word. Mo’Nique stars as a plus-sized hypocrite, who seems to have the same prejudgments about “skinny bitches” as they seem to have about her – in the confines of the film, that is. Overweight people are given a saintly presence, while most everyone...– male or female – capable of squeezing into one airplane seat is portrayed with utter contempt.
And the jokes are the epitome of weak. One embarrassing moment in the film comes when Mo’Nique has one of the lamest word battles ever heard with a fry cook. The jokes written for her hapless adversary were in circulation around the first Thanksgiving, and I’m sure made it over on the Mayflower. Mo’Nique’s comebacks are designed to be uproariously better, a technique which might have worked were it not for the head-scratching lack of sense made on execution. We’re left to think, “Was that supposed to be funny?” Topping off this exercise in ridicule – as in ridiculous – is a story that sends eyeballs rolling immediately into their sockets. Mo’Nique and her shy plus-sized friend win a trip to a Caribbean resort, where they JUST SO HAPPEN to meet two buff Nigerian men, who JUST SO HAPPEN to like large women, and JUST SO HAPPEN to be successful doctors in their native land. The film’s efforts at fairy tale unwind quickly to the realms of absurdity, and never recover.
Posted in: 2.35:1 Widescreen, Buena Vista, Disc Reviews, Dolby Digital 2.0 (French), Dolby Digital 2.0 (Spanish), Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), Drama, DVD by Archive Authors on October 28th, 2006
Synopsis
Don Haskins may not be as well-known as Jackie Robinson, Jim Brown, or other historical figures that have helped integrate sports with black players, but the impact that Haskins had on college basketball is arguably more significant than any coaching strategy could have possibly introduced, and it’s those events for which Haskins was at the helm that unfold in Glory Road, which some have unfairly labeled as producer Jerry’s Bruckheimer’s basketball equivalent to Remember the Titans.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 28th, 2006
OK, let's just get this out of the way at the start. Hellbent is a film from a cable network called Here!, which is America's foremost gay and lesbian television network. Consequently, this made-for-TV film is based solely around homosexual couples, as is all of the programming on the network. They make all manner of programming, including feature films, that deal primarily with homosexuality.
Now, here is my complaint. If you want to make programming that has homosexuals in it, I'm fine with that. But when the main focus of your programming business is promoting a certain belief or lifestyle, the stories will inevitably suffer. Every part of the film should serve the story. For those who think I am homophobic, I would say the same thing about movies that are made primarily to promote religion, victims rights, heterosexuality or any other number of beliefs. It has nothing to do with the beliefs or lifestyles themselves, it is the fact that promoting an outside belief moves the film from “interesting story” to “propaganda film”.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 28th, 2006
With all that’s been going on with Tom Cruise as of late, I found myself doubting the integrity of this picture. I was fearful that the happenings of Cruise’s personal life would somehow bring down this movie; the previous two films did set the bar pretty high. So how did the third installment add up, did it fall short of expectations, or did it deliver beyond what I expected?
MI:III doesn’t hesitate a minute to bring us suspense, the picture begins with Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) having Et...an Hunt and a woman (whom appears to mean a lot to him) captive. He means business; she is going to die unless Ethan can come up with something called the rabbit’s foot. The scene closes, and we roll back to the previous week when nothing is amiss.
![Mission Impossible III (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/mission-impossible-iii-two-disc-co-large.jpg)
Posted in: 1.78:1 Widescreen, Box Set, Disc Reviews, Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), DVD, Paramount, Television by Archive Authors on October 28th, 2006
”My name is Melinda Gordon. I just got married, just moved to a small town, just opened up an antique shop. I might be just like you…except from the time that I was a little girl I knew that I could talk to the dead. ‘Earthbound spirits’, my Grandmother called them. The ones who’ve not crossed over because they have unfinished business with the living, and they come to me for help. To tell you my story, I have to tell you theirs.”
So goes the opening for each episode of this first season of Ghost Whisperer, a series that blends drama, horror and comedy to carry its audience to an emotional place. I can imagine a lot of viewers crying at some point or another during almost every episode, which is a credit to the show’s makers, but they’re aided by the fact that their show deals so much with death, life, love and grief.
Posted in: Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on October 27th, 2006
It is time for a long-overdue tribute to Michael Ripper (1913-2000). Those in the know (You Know Who You Are) need no introduction to the British character actor, and we worship him for his innumerable roles in British horror films in the 60s, particularly those produced by Hammer Studios. Imagine, if you will, a dignified Marty Feldman with (usually) a beard, and you have a bit of an idea. Never the lead, but always a reassuring supporting character, ESPECIALLY if he played a barkeep. If Michael's in the tavern, all...will be well.
Where can Michael be found? All over the place, uncredited or not. Though a quick trip to the IMDB will give you the complete list of appearances, much of the joy of Ripper-spotting is running into his familiar face without warning. The earliest bar I've seen him tend is in Quatermass 2 (1957), the British equivalent of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The British Government has been taken over by aliens, and their Horrible Industrial Plant is located near the town where Michael serves the ale. A fine exercise in paranoia, and a standout SF/horror film, as are, incidentally, the other two films in the series: The Quatermass Experiment (the first of the three), and Quatermass and the Pit.Michael sheds his beard to play a concerned seaman in the mind-torquing The Lost Continent (1968). On a ship loaded with chemicals that explode on contact with water, Michael is sensible enough to get the hell out of Dodge long before the ship drifts into the Sargasso Sea and encounters carnivorous seaweed, giant hermit crabs, other less immediately identifiable monstrosities, and a colony of Spanish Inquisitors.He is, unfortunately, not able to get out of Cairo in time to escape the wrath of The Mummy’s Shroud (1966), but he has the consolation of stealing the show as the incredibly nervous aid to a unscrupulous (and justifiably doomed) tycoon. Not the best mummy film, but not the worst either.The Plague of the Zombies (1966) finds Michael as the local constable, getting caught up (but fortunately not fatally) in a mystery involving a callous lord killing the locals and then reanimating them as cheap labour in his tin mine. No matter how bad the situation gets, if Michael's around, things will be under control.Made the same year as Plague, on the same sets, and also taking place in Cornwall, is the ultimate Michael Ripper movie: The Reptile. Oh sure, Jaqueline Pierce cursed to turn into a snake woman is pretty cool, but not only does Michael have a pretty substantial supporting role, he is back where he belongs: in the tavern. And there is a scene here, wait for it, of Michael making things right for the beleaguered leads by stirring them a couple of cups of cocoa. Those of you who do not feel warm and safe upon watching this scene are unworthy of my continued acquaintance.
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