Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 2nd, 2006
Synopsis
Music journalist Tre (Andre Royo) arrives at the Hamptons home of his cousin Sky (Chenoa Maxwell) and her cad of a husband (Blair Underwood). Tre is here to interview Summer G (Richard T. Jones), megastar rapper, who has just bought a home in the area. Sky and G have past, and old embers flare to life when they see each other.
If any of this sounds familiar, it should. As O was to Othello, G is to The Great Gatsby. The transposition comes off as rather a...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 2nd, 2006
There may have never been a more aptly-named television show in history than Jackass. For those who don't know, this show is comprised of a collection of short clips of “stunts” that push the limits of common sense and decency. While the majority of these stunts amount to little more than idiots with a camcorder, and some are just downright disgusting (do I really need to see some guy throw up a goldfish?), some of the segments honestly are quite funny. Giving your buddy a Billy Ray Cyrus haircut will always b...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 31st, 2006
Arnold Clasen reenters society after time away in a Nazi prison camp, and returns to Hamburg and a life of quiet solitary resistance, in the 1981 war-time drama Your Unknown Brother. Clasen immediately reconnects with his old love Renate, and embarks on a turbulent, dangerous friendship with resistance leader Walter, a man of ulterior motives, who is also in bed with the Nazi regime. Clasen starts to suspect Walter when many of his old comrades are seized by authorities. It seems everyone in the resistance, wh...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 31st, 2006
“Who you gonna call?” By now everyone knows the answer. Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson are the Ghostbusters. As their ad proclaims, they’re ready to believe you. Ghostbusters was originally conceived by Aykroyd as a vehicle for John Belushi and himself. When Belushi died, reportedly from a drug overdose, the project sat on the shelf a few years. Harold Ramis would eventually team up with Aykroyd and finish the script. It’s been said that “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” Leave it to these ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 31st, 2006
Synopsis
An item of secret desire for geeks like me was to get Spike Jonze’s videos on DVD. In the mid ‘90s, Jonze arguably was THE director to go to if you wanted your MTV submission to be memorable, talked about, and perhaps most importantly, spur record sales. If you remember the wacky video you saw on MTV that one time, chances are Spike directed it. Even after the critical success in Hollywood with an Oscar nomination for directing Being John Malkovich and before working on Adaptation, he...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 31st, 2006
Synopsis
Lie With Me is proclaimed in its trailer to be a film in the tradition of Y Tu Mama Tambien and Sex, Lies and Videotape. But at its core, it’s more along the lines of another one of director Clement Virgo’s film influences, Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris. The characters in Lie With Me experience each other rather provocatively at the start of their relationship, and work their way outwards.
Based on a book by Tamara Berger, the film tells a story of Le...
Posted in: News and Opinions by Archive Authors on March 30th, 2006
UMD looks like its on its way out, with Wal-Mart purportedly taking UMD off the shelves, studios stopping UMD production, and backlash building against proprietary formats.
Posted in: News and Opinions by Archive Authors on March 29th, 2006
Warner Home Video will release the Harrison Ford & Paul Bettany thriller Firewall on June 6th. This disc will be presented in a 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. Extras will include a conversation with Harrison Ford & director Richard Loncraine, a "Firewall: Writing a Thriller" featurette, & the theatrical trailer.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 29th, 2006
Synopsis
One year after causing a destructive panic because he believed the sky was falling, Chicken Little is still living down the embarrassment, and is desperate for his father to be proud of him. Miraculous success at baseball seems mark the turnaround in his life, but then he is bonked on the head by another piece of the sky, and discovers that this fragment is in fact a tile from a flying saucer. Now he and his group of misfits must save the town from possible alien invasion, despite the fact t...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 29th, 2006
With the original Controversial Classics Collection from Warner Brothers, the studio pulled seven films from their classic film archive that were controversial in their day. Topics included government corruption, racism, troubled youth and the wrongfully accused. Instead of following that set with more classic films based on the same themes, Warner Brothers has done something interesting and varied the focus of their theme. The films this time around, as the title suggests, deal with the role of the news media...
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