Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 24th, 2006
The sad thing about building a strong acting career is one usually has to take on roles better forgotten to get to the pinnacle of success. I'm sure Johnny Depp still has the occasional nightmare of being associated with Private Resort (on an artistic level anyway); and he is about to be reminded of this forgotten-with-good-reason teen sex comedy as Sony debuts it in the digital format just in time for summer. The release Sony offers bills Depp as the main star, and while his role is substantial, the film is m...re of a vehicle for Rob Morrow, and a paycheck for Hector Elizondo. You even get to see a pre-"Diceman" Andrew Clay playing his typical Brooklyn street tough self. I will say this: next time you feel the need to attack abysmal teen sex comedies of today, take this as Exhibit A that these foul, odorous wastes of celluloid are actually getting better... even at their worst.
Private Resort takes place in Florida during Spring Break. There are enough misunderstandings and ambiguous hijinx to fuel an entire season of Three's Company, but none are as well executed in the environment of this film. Depp and Morrow are "two sex-starved teens" spending their spring break at a posh Florida resort, where there is but one order of business... getting laid. Unfortunately (for them and us), they must contend with a ruthless jewel thief (Elizondo), an eccentric barber, a villainous security guard, and a stereotypically obnoxious jock before that can happen. Will they or won't they? It doesn't matter. I guarantee you it will not be a concern as this 82-minute crap fest drones on. Follow Depp's career post-superstardom. This work from his early days has nothing to offer in comparison.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 24th, 2006
The irreverant, politically incorrect Married With Children returns to DVD, this time in its fifth season, and I first want to say, "It's about time." How long has it been? I've lost count. All I know is, I better not have to wait this long again. Al, Peg, Kelly, and Bud, return to torment the newly divorced Marcy Rhoades and any other poor sap, who gets in their way. In contrast, life dishes out enough misery to the Bundys to keep us all happy for a very long time. It's a funny dynamic, which the show plays t... the extreme... Bundys hate life, and life hates Bundys. I could watch the two struggle all day (with the Bundys always... well, nearly always... coming out on bottom), and never get tired of it. In this particular collection, we get more of the tragedy and the triumph with some of the greatest episodes heaped atop each other, one after another.
Follow a disgraced Al Bundy as he steps into the role of softball hero and gives one of the most stirring speeches of the series in "Unnatural" (Highlight: "In closing, I just want to say, 'I hate you all... and I thank only me for this accomplishment.") Join Kelly as she moves in to her first apartment and kindles Al and Peg's love in "One Down, Two to Go." Tia Carrere also finds out how painful it can be to cross a Bundy in "Kelly Bounces Back." And Al must face the demons of his football past in the classic "All Night Security Dude." We also get the first appearance of Weenie Tots and Jefferson D'Arcy. With 25 episodes of Bundy classics, being miserable has never been this fun.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 23rd, 2006
Synopsis
Masahiro Motoki plays a well-to-do doctor, very much concerned with class difference, eager to distance himself from slum-dwellers, whom he regards as barely human. He is deeply in love with his fiancée, a woman suffering from amnesia. His life collapses in chaos when his parents are murdered by a prowler, who then throws him down a dry well. This prowler turns out to be his twin, who proceeds to take over his identity.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 23rd, 2006
Synopsis
The Waodani tribe of the Amazon is, we are told, so violent that they have almost hunted each other to extinction. Oops. Anyway, in 1956 a group of missionaries and their families arrive to live with the Waodani and do the missionary thing. A misunderstanding leads to the missionaries being slaughtered, but their wives decide to stay. The film follows the journey of the son of one of the five men, and the whole thing is all about forgiveness.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 22nd, 2006
Synopsis
Daniel Auteuil, host of a literary TV talk show, and his wife Juliette Binoche begin receiving strange videotapes. These are hours-long recordings of the front of their house. Nothing else. No explanations. Then child-like but disturbing drawings start to accompany the tapes, and the recordings begin to be of other locations, suggesting that all of this has something to do with Auteuil’s distant past.
Posted in: News and Opinions by Archive Authors on June 21st, 2006
On August 22nd, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release Silent Hill in separate Widescreen, Fullscreen, and Blu-Ray releases; all of which will be presented with a Dolby Digital 5.1 (English) audio track. Extras will include an audio commentary (by Director Christophe Gans), deleted/extended scenes, and a six-part production diary documentary.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 21st, 2006
The world of politically charged films has certainly grown in the past few years. Films like Farhenheit 911 have seen big success, while other films like Rupert Murdoch’s OutFoxed have seen more of a critical success. Both of these films had extreme media attention, one obviously more than the other, prior and after their releases. Both asked questions and demanded answers to topics and issues we, as people, wondered about but never really asked about as a simple person can’t really enact a high success...rate in terms of results. However, if you have a name like Michael Moore or Rupert Murdoch attached to the bill, people will probably pay attention. A similar note is given to the recent political thriller Syriana starring George Clooney. Even though Syriana had actors like Matt Damon and George Clooney attached to the bill, would this be enough to make the film’s questions seem important enough to make an impact?
Syriana, to sum up the film in three words, is about oil and money. The film begins with one of the Gulf States agreeing to supply the up and coming China with some of its oil. Texas based company Connex, views this deal as a huge defeat. At the exact same time as this deal is happening with Connex, another company, Killen, has signed a deal to drill for oil in Kazakhstan. Connex, obviously, announces an immediate merger with Killen, thus giving them the oil. Wait one second. This sounds pretty familiar doesn’t it? Naturally the Justice Department intervenes and the movie starts to accelerate.
![Syriana [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/syriana-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 20th, 2006
I've seen people quote this film from time to time, and I never understood the attraction because I saw it once and forgot about it. After a bit of intrigue, I finally got my hands on a copy of the US version of this 2 disc set (though the UK version, with the orange cover and silhoulette image of Ewan McGregor on the cover looks much cooler) and gave it a spin, lo and behold, I discovered a pretty good movie.
It's been talked about a lot for awhile I guess, but to sum up, McGregor plays Benton, a heroin addict in Scotland, who spends his days getting high and hanging around with his mates. Spud (Ewen Bremner, Black Hawk Down) wears Nancy Reagan-like glasses from time to time, and seems to be the closest one Renton relates to; Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller, Hackers) is the one that tries to make himself superior to the group, when he's not off spouting weird theories about movies that Sean Connery has starred in; Tommy (Kevin McKidd, Topsy Turvy) is against his buddies using but is curious about it, and then there's Bigbie (Robert Carlyle, The Full Monty), a beer-drinking Scot with an offensive mustache and a penchant for getting into brawls.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 20th, 2006
The Phil Silvers Show was groundbreaking for several reasons, but to look at the list of those who appeared on the show during its four season run is to look at a "Who's Who" of television ancestry and history. Allen Melvin played Sam the Butcher on The Brady Bunch, Harvey Lembeck previously appeared in Stalag 17 and his son Michael became an accomplished television director. Joe Ross played one half of the cop team in Car 54, Where Are You? next to a guest star of the show, a guy named Fred Gwynne, who also appeared in a show called The Munsters. Billy Sands went on to appear in McHale's Navy with a friend (and other Silvers show guest star named George Kennedy). Dick Van Dyke even showed up once in a blue moon.
Sometimes with projects like that, the stars in space seem to last longer than the television planet they orbit. But with The Phil Silvers Show and its star of the same name, there was an irreverent comic talent that not only was hilarious in his own right but helped to complement other members of the cast and giving them their chances to shine. Based around the fictional Ernie Bilko and the soldiers stationed on Fort Baxter, Bilko was sharp and a bit of a schemer, and his schemes involving other soldiers were the perfect vehicle to help Silvers offload some prime comedic moments to other actors. With Silvers and his co-creator Nat Hiken, the two managed to put together a show based on their sensibilities and wrote it the way they wanted to.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 20th, 2006
The 60's have become something of a caricature of themselves. Take a girl with straight hair and flowers, throw in a “groovy” and a “man”, add some grainy photography, and you're all ready to go. It is sometimes hard to remember that there was a time when this was not a kitchy formula, it was just the way that it was. This film is so authentically steeped in 60's hippie culture that it almost doesn't seem real when the footage starts rolling. Once the film begins to sink in, though, the viewer is completely drawn in ...o this world than many of the modern era may only know from oldies radio, of all things.
The Monterey Pop Festival was a large music festival held in Monterey California in 1967. The bill included not only some of the top acts of the day, such as the Mammas and the Papas, Simon and Garfunkel, Jefferson Airplane and The Who, but it also launched the careers of such legends as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Otis Redding. The weekend festival was a defining moment in the history of rock and roll, as well as of the hippie movement.
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