Category: DVD Reviews
-
The Family Stone
Cast: Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams Studio: Fox Rating: 6/10 CORPORATE LINE: Destined to be a Christmas classic, Thomas Bezucha’s dazzling dramedy, THE FAMILY STONE, manages to be both warm-hearted and sentimental while possessing a razor-sharp hilarious mean streak. The fairly conventional story centers on Sarah Jessica Parker’s uptight career woman, Meredith, and…
-
Casanova
Cast: Oliver Platt Studio: Title Rating: 2/10 CORPORATE LINE: CASANOVA is loosely based on the memoirs of the writer, adventurer, and infamous lover Giacomo Casanova–themselves notably unreliable–and fortunately has no pretensions to historical realism. Instead, it’s a witty, lighthearted romantic comedy, which uses its 18th century setting and renowned hero as a jumping-off point for…
-
In Living Color: Season Five
Cast: Jim Carrey, Tommy Davidson Studio: Fox Rating: 5/10 CORPORATE LINE: In the early nineties, the visionary Wayans brothers broke the color barrier for primetime humor and loosened Saturday Night Live’s stranglehold on sketch comedy with their hilarious series, In Living Color. Lambasting and lampooning everything from Hollywood celebrity and fire safety to poverty and…
-
The Greatest Game Ever Played
Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Justin Ashforth, George Asprey Studio: Disney Rating: 6/10 CORPORATE LINE: From the studio that brought you “The Rookie” and “Miracle” and director Bill Paxton, comes a story of courage, passion and of the greatest American sports hero you have probably never heard of… An amateur player from a working class family, Francis…
-
Brokeback Mountain
Cast: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams Studio: Focus Rating: 7/10 CORPORATE LINE: From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ang Lee comes an epic American love story, based on the short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx and adapted for the screen by the team of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. Set against…
-
American Dad: Season One
Cast: Seth MacFarlane Studio: Fox Rating: 7/10 CORPORATE LINE: From the delightfully twisted creative minds behind Family Guy comes American Dad, the animated tour de force featuring CIA operative Stan Smith, his outrageous family, and Roger, the alcoholic extra-terrestrial who lives with them! Follow the adventures of the Smiths from the California desert where Stan’s…
-
The Mel Brooks Collection
Cast: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn Studio: WB Rating: 7/10 THE DVDS: Disc 1 “Blazing Saddles” A madcap spoof of the classic Hollywood Western, BLAZING SADDLES is also one of the most gleefully anti-P.C. films ever produced by a major studio. When the sheriff of a small frontier town is killed, convict Bart (Cleavon…
-
Capote
Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Clifton Collins Studio: Sony Rating: 7/10 CORPORATE LINE: In November, 1959, Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and a favorite figure in what is soon to be known as the Jet Set, reads an article on a back page of the New York Times.…
-
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Cast: Tilda Swinton, James McAvoy, Jim Broadbent Studio: Walt Disney Rating: 9/10 CORPORATE LINE: C.S. Lewis’ timeless adventure THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE follows the exploits of the four Pevensie siblings — Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter — in World War II England who enter the world of Narnia…
-
The Zodiac
Cast: Justin Chambers, Robin Tunney, Philip Baker Hall Studio: ThinkFilm Rating: 4/10 CORPORATE LINE: Based on true events, THE ZODIAC is a psychological thriller detailing a string of gruesome murders in Northern California in the late 1960s. A small town cop, struggling to protect his family and coping with the explosive media frenzy, hunts the…