The Movie

Hitchcock lite.

That's the short review of this mid-'80s trifle—a silly little comedy of uncertain tone and too simple plotting. It really has the mindset and production values of an over aged after-school special.

UCLA student Jonathan Moore (Anthony Edwards with an astonishing amount of blond hair) is a whiz at a campus assassination paintball game. But he strikes out with girls. Then on vacation in Paris, he meets Sasha (Linda Fiorentino) who quickly hustles him into the sack, despite the least persuasive East European accent you'll ever hear. It sounds like she's trying out for Natasha (of Boris and…). Some examples:

"You are weergin, yes?"

"I told you, dis is vorking vacation."

"Dat is second lie, Jonathan. Do not let dere be a turd."

She persuades him to join her in a little side trip to East Berlin where they become involved in ill-defined spy stuff. ...Read the entire review

The Movies

The title "Gargoyle Girls" is the most interesting part of this DVD. The movies themselves are standard-issue ultra-low-budget horror.

"Demon Lover" is a 1992 production, originally titled "The Summoned." It appears never to have been released on home video and that's easy to understand since the film is your basic silicone-enhanced early '90s softcore. Jenny Harris (Ashlie Rhey) is unhappy in her marriage (to a louse) and her job. Her new neighbor conjures up the titular critter (a guy in a bad rubber mask that's wisely kept in poor light) who takes care of anybody who crosses Jenny. Genre stalwarts Michelle Bauer, Joe Estevez and Robert Z'Dar are also on hand.

"Gargoyle Girls" carries a 1997-98 copyright and boasts possibly the least expensive computer generated effects ever committed to disc. The entire production has an equally cheap made-on-weekends look and so it act...Read the entire review

The Movie

Garry Marshall is one of the most successful filmmakers in the business today. "Nothing in Common," "Pretty Woman," "Runaway Bride," "The Princess Diaries." An impressive string of commercial and critical hits.

Why, then, is his wonderful 1984 coming-of-age comedy being released as the plainest of plain vanilla DVDs?

Go figure.

In Brooklyn, 1963, Jeffrey Willis (Matt Dillon) has just graduated from high school and has only the vaguest plans of college in his future. For the moment, summer has just started and he's open to new ideas. Some friends suggest that they go out to the El Flamingo Beach Club and pick up some pocket change playing gin. Jeffrey is immediately enchanted by this rough-edged paradise. It's a haven for families that have prospered and moved away from his neighborhood, a place for folks who have "made it" and Jeffrey wants his share.

Not the least of the...Read the entire review

The Movie
This hapless attempt to recreate the success of "The Guns of Navarone" and "The Great Escape" suffers from two fatal flaws.

First, though the subject is a top secret raid by British Mosquito bombers, the producers were limited to four functional airplanes in the starring roles. (Both "functional" and "starring" are relative terms in this context.) A few special effects shots valiantly attempt to "fill" the sky with as many as 12 aircraft, but it's futile.

Second, the plot is every bit as impoverished as the props.

It's 1944. The Germans are about to hit England with a massive rocket attack. (How do the Brits know this? They just do, setting up the many convenient developments to follow.) The obvious way to stop the attacks is to destroy the rocket fuel plant in Norway. And, clearly, the way to accomplish that goal is to blow up the cliffs that protect the place from convention...Read the entire review

The Movie:
This New Zealand-English-Canadian production is among the first of what will surely be many riffs on "The Ring." To call "Nemesis Game" an imitation would be unfair, but it is working with the same urban legend vibe and the same blue-gray color palette.

The story opens in a police interrogation room where Emily Gray (Rena Owen) is being held. After some cryptic background on an earlier crime, she says, "What if I told you I know the meaning of life?"

Cut to a downtown comic shop where college student Sara Novak (Carly Pope) is becoming more involved with a mysterious game where the answers to riddles are clues that lead the player on to more serious matters.

As long as the details are being laid out, writer-director Jesse Warn keeps the action fresh and interesting. But, as is so often the case, the resolution of those ideas is much weaker.

The DVD

Video:Read the entire review

The Movie
The most famous dirty book in English literature gets appropriately faithful treatment in this four-part 1992 BBC adaptation.

By now, everyone must be familiar with the outlines of the plot. After only one month of marriage, Sir Clifford Chatterly (James Wilby) is terribly wounded in World War I. He's paralyzed from the waist down. Back home at gloomy Ragby Hall, he urges his wife Constance (Joely Richardson) not to deny her sexual desires and to take a lover. She says no, but before the end of the first episode, she's swapping smoldering glances with gamekeeper Mellors (Sean Bean).

The remainder is made up of long stretches of static, dialog-driven scenes that are punctuated by brief moments of passion.

The DVD
Video:
The full-frame image is no better than broadcast quality. Colors tend to be harsh. Complex fabric patterns and designs flash. Black clothes ...Read the entire review

The Movie
This Tarantinian crime flick was made in 1998 and appears to have been waiting on a shelf since then. It's easy to see why. The film is slightly less than the sum of its uniformly excellent performances.

Hitpersons Claire (Kyra Sedgwick) and Nick (Stanley Tucci) work for The Boss (Robbie Coltrane), but Duncan (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a slick accountant, is casting suspicion on all of the gang members, including the Boss's moll, Kitty (Robin Tunney). Also involved (though I could never figure out exactly how) is Dr. Wexler (John Ritter), an unctuous self-help author. Toss in a suitcase full of cash, that time-honored cliché of the genre, and stir gently.

The plot is a series of betrayals and killings, and while director Jennifer Leitzes handles some of those efficiently, the big action scenes and shoot-outs are pedestrian and silly. Good guys' bullets can go through walls; bad ...Read the entire review

This festival favorite is being promoted as both a chick flick and artsy erotica. It's really neither. Instead, it's a frustratingly incomplete portrait of several amoral individuals who routinely cheat, swindle, betray and lie to each other.

The opening shot introduces us to Camille Men (director Yan Cui) and Jessica Lin (Diana Peng) sharing a sauna. Presumably they're a couple. Flash back to their first accidental encounter years before in the Toronto airport. They've just arrived from China—Camille coming back to her husband after an extended visit; Jessie a new immigrant.

Immediately, everything goes wrong for both women, and before long, they're looking for love in all the wrong places. In fact, their story is a series of interlocking romantic and professional relationships involving a circle of shared acquaintances.

Camille, a doctor, cold-bloodedly uses everyone, never losing sight of he...Read the entire review

This 1982 s-f thriller bears curious similarities to Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report."

Both are set in Washington, D.C. Both feature a hero dealing with the death of child and the disintegration of his marriage. Both villains are corrupt bureaucrats.

But where Spielberg's tale becomes increasingly complex and troubling, this one follows more conventional lines to a "McGuyver"-esque ending.

The subject here is exploding Senators—a concept not without merit in some cases. Elected officials, for no apparent reason, suddenly go boom, destroying themselves and anyone nearby. The cops are baffled; lobbyists are horrified.

FBI bomb disposal expert Danny O'Neill (Pierce Brosnan) is brought in. Danny has a problem. His wife (Lisa Eilbacher) is rumored to be having an affair with the noxious Sen. Traveras (Ron Silver, sporting a floppy haircut no Senator would allow near his head). Multi-cultural t...Read the entire review

The Movie
Chow Yun-Fat made this noir-ish shoot-'em-up a few years after he had starred in John Woo's The Killer and Hard-Boiled. Director Ringo Lam works with similar themes in Full Contact. He stages some exciting gonzo action sequences and he has a bizarre sense of humor, but he lacks the deeper sense of purpose that makes Woo's best films so memorable.

O.K., that said, a young energetic Chow Yun-Fat delivers a kick-ass performance and that's about all you need to know.

Chow is Godfrey (or Geoff in the English language audio; more about that later), nightclub bouncer and all around stand-up guy. When his buddy Sam (Anthony Wong, terrific as usual) gets into trouble with a loan shark, Godfrey helps out. He then finds himself forced into a partnership with Judge (Simon Yat), a madly flamboyant gay villain who already has a couple of colorful henchpersons—the ...Read the entire review