Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 29th, 2006
Synopsis
Growing up as the oldest son in an upper-middle class neighborhood outside of Washington, DC, I am familiar with rap as much as, or even more than, KRS One, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Public Enemy or NWA. I come from dem hard streets, where I can kill a muhvuggah! Well, maybe not exactly, and in the age where lame musicians become lame actors (or vice versa in the case of Jennifer Lopez), anyone who tries to be the entertainment “double threat” deserves to be subjected to any and all s...orn and ridicule. Surprisingly though, some of the musicians who have started appearing in movies have employed the easy strategy of appearing as themselves (or dramatically licensed clones of themselves), and some of them have surprisingly interesting stories to tell, such as Eminem in 8 Mile.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 29th, 2006
John Carpenter can be hit or miss on some of the things he’s done in his career. Vampires may be a good case in point. In his version of The Thing, remade from Howard Hawks’ 1950’s classic, he doesn’t focus on the creature as much as the relationship between the men in the camp, and how the paranoia starts to creep in the group, as they try to figure out who may or may not be infected by the creature. I might have jumped ahead of some people who haven’t seen it, but just to briefly recap for those few w...o have missed this:
An American crew working in the Arctic circle encounter a Norwegian crew who are frantically shooting at a dog that is running to the camp. The Americans defends themselves as soon as one of the men is hit, and the Norwegians are killed. The Americans take the dog in, but they also go out to the Norwegian camp to find out just what exactly spooked them so much. They find a camp littered with bodies, along with something that was thawed out by the group before they were brutally killed. From that point, various members of the group get infected and plucked off one at a time. But what made this one maybe a bit scarier than most was Carpenter’s ability to create enough of a dynamic between the men, and that most of them were fleshed out enough to the point where you understand how they work together. And the cast is very able, from older members Blair and Copper (Wilford Brimley and Richard Dysart, respectively), to younger members Childs (Keith David, Armageddon) and Palmer (David Clennon, From the Earth to the Moon), all held together by the film’s star (and frequent Carpenter leading man) Kurt Russell (Dark Blue), who plays MacReady.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 28th, 2006
Sliver is a sexy thriller that is neither sexy or at all thrilling. Filmed in the wake of the hugely successful Basic Instinct, Sliver has all of the elements but none of the passion. Call it Basic Instinct lite. Less filling without the great taste. Sharon Stone sleepwalks through her role of Carly. Carly works at a publishing house and has recently moved into one of New York’s plush apartment buildings. She was trying to ride her Basic Instinct wave here, but the truth is she has never really lived up to the pote...tial. William Baldwin tries at least a little harder as Zeke, who happens to own the building where tenants seem to end up dead, particularly young attractive women. Zeke loves to watch the private moments in his tenants’ lives. He is likely intended to represent the audience. Filling out the cast is Tom Berrenger as Alex, a self-absorbed writer who is obsessed with Carly. Martin Landau is underused as the fatherly owner of Carly’s company. Red herrings abound. Twists are nothing more than cheap thrills.
This “unrated” version promises scenes too hot for theatres. All you really get is a little more moaning from Sharon Stone and not anything remotely steamy. The final product is a film that will leave you unsatisfied whatever your intention going in. The new scenes serve simply to slow down an already hopelessly bogged down premise.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 28th, 2006
Where is Chuck Norris when you need him? The Rangers alluded to in this Babylon 5 film aren’t anything like Walker’s bad boys. These Rangers talk tough but are pretty much dull when it comes to action. The problem with Babylon 5 has always been the convoluted and complicated mythology of the show. I’m a huge science fiction fan who has always wanted to get into this show but just couldn’t wrap my mind around the premise. The Rangers are no exception to this flaw. These guys are charged with basically protecting the...helpless in the Galaxy. Instead they mostly spill out Yoda-like nuggets of wisdom. Die hard fans will probably get most of this, but apparently there weren’t enough of them. This was intended to serve as a pilot for a Babylon 5 spin-off that never got off the ground. Check out this film and you’ll understand why.
It appears the most important element in the Ranger code is to never retreat. Echoes of Galaxy Quest’s “Never give up. Never surrender” abound. It’s almost as comical. Captain Martel (Neal) has broken this sacred oath when he retreated with a crippled ship from an imposing enemy. He’s now out of favor with the council. When Ambassador S’Ka speaks up for him his career is spared. Still… Hell hath no fury like a council scorned. Martel is given command of a cursed ship that isn’t even ready to launch. His duty is to escort the Ambassador to a mysterious meeting about a new threat in the Galaxy. Of course, things go wrong, but the hopelessly outgunned Martel manages to save the day. What an original plot that was. And they all lived happily ever after in cancellation land.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 28th, 2006
Brokeback Mountain tells the story of star-crossed lovers Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake 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 see...ng each other, but shortly before realizing that they both have a deep connection to one another.
There’s a scene in Brokeback Mountain where Ennis tells Jack about something he saw as a boy. Ennis tells Jack that there were two old guys who were shacked up together. The whole town knew of this. Then one day, they were found beaten to death. Ennis’s father made sure Ennis and his brother saw this possibly as an idea that this is what may occur if you chose this type of life. This scene is quite important because it really shapes and defines the kind of character that Ennis is. Ennis is the kind of character that wants to let his emotions for Jack out but we learn that he was taught to hate his own feelings. Years after first meeting Jack, Ennis tells Jack “Why don’t you let me be? It’s because of you, Jack, that I’m like this—nothing, and nobody.” Ennis blames Jack for his problems, but the center of his problem is that Ennis loves Jack but can’t find a way to deal with that fact.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 28th, 2006
Synopsis
Clive Owen is a man approaching the end of his tether. His marriage is becoming stagnant, his job at an advertising firm is no better, and he is worried about his daughter, who has type 1 diabetes. He and his wife have set aside a lot of money to pay for an experimental drug for her. One day, on a train, he meets Jennifer Aniston. A friendship is sparked, and then an affair begins, only to be violently disrupted by Vincent Cassel. He brutalizes both, and begins to blackmail Owen for ever-inc...easing sums of money.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 27th, 2006
Synopsis
We begin with an ending: the final collapse of the marriage between Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney. He is a formerly renowned author who now can’t get himself arrested, let alone published. She is suddenly coming in to her own as a writer. He is pathologically self-obsessed. She is deeply insecure. Together, they spell bad news for their two sons, 16-year-old Jesse Eisenberg and 12-year-old Owen Kline. Both parents are a bit of a mess, but daddy is easily the worst offender, and is an absolut...ly poisonous influence on Eisenberg, who worships his father and viciously blames his mother for the split-up. What follows is primarily Eisenberg’s coming of age, where he must learn to see both of his parents (and, for that matter, himself) with real honesty.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 24th, 2006
After the transformation of the Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings books into hugely successful films, it was only a matter of time before someone decided to tackle C.S. Lewis’s famous novels The Chronicles of Narnia. Both of the aforementioned books into movies were excellent because, even though they didn’t include every little detail presented in the novels, fans still embraced the films for what they were. They brought a majority of the presented themes and ideas in the books and showed u... them in a live action manner via the film. Similar to the seven part Harry Potter series, would it be possible for the classic seven part Narnia series to have a successful transformation into film?
Both C.S. Lewis, author of the famed Narnia books, and J.R.R. Tolkien, famed author of the Rings books, were said to have been friends who taught at Oxford at exactly the same time. They both enjoyed smoking pipe, drinking in the same pub, taking Christianity seriously, and writing. Lewis loved Tolkein’s style of writing and the universe he created for the Rings books, but Tolkein never seemed to return the same affection to Lewis’s Narnia books. Many say this is because Tolkein actually created a vast universe for his novels, while Lewis just used his native country as the setting.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 24th, 2006
Season 7 of South Park has all the earmarks of a successful show trying to return to its roots. With Kenny back, we are once again treated to multiple deaths, although not on a weekly basis. The very first episode of the season recalls the show’s Comedy Central pilot episode. Cartman is once again struggling with his Anal Probe incident. There are tons of homage elements to South Park’s origins. Could it be that Stone and Parker have decided to satire themselves? Season 7 revitalizes a show that quite honestly had ...escended to too many cheap shots and over the top disgust to stay fresh. South Park is back and as good as it ever was in Season 7. Some of the highlights include: Cartman sings gospel music for Jesus, Jimmy and Timmy mix it up with the “Bloods” and the “Crips”, Cartman returns to law enforcement, and Gay Pride reaches South Park.
Video
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 24th, 2006
Synopsis
A fractious rock band known as the Choke, on the verge of breaking up (did all its members but know it) is supposed to play a gig at a local nightclub. But a killer has other plans, and (after a very long preamble) the members of the band find themselves trapped in the locked warehouse/nightclub, being picked off one by one. Suspicion falls first on one character, then another.
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