Archive of Movie and TV reviews by Year > 2004

The Incredibles: Mark's Take
06/12/2004. Pixar does it again with a comedy/action film about a family of superheroes. Just when they thought they were out of the superhero business they get pulled back in. Of course, as a film from Pixar it is computer-animated, but that is just the gimmick. The writing is the real attraction.

The Limb Salesman
06/12/2004. This is an ironic love story set in a future world that has been badly damaged in some strange way making uncontaminated water rare. Society is now built around the efforts to find safe water. The story drags more than a little.

Who is Dr. Strangelove?
06/12/2004. Stanley Kubrick's film, Dr.Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love the Bomb, begins with a rolling fog of rumors. A foreign country is plotting weapons of mass destruction, a Doomsday machine, against the United States. Then it segues to beautiful, romantic music and two B-52s having sex...er, refueling midair. Is this a good dream or a bad dream?

Dead Birds: Mark's Take
06/12/2004. About the only thing that is original and unfamiliar about this house of horrors horror film is that it is set during the Civil War.

Phil the Alien: Mark's Take
06/12/2004. Amateurish and low-budget skit on film has its moments, but mostly in its first half. The film outstays its welcome.

Rahtree: Flower of the Night: Mark's Take
06/12/2004. This ghost story goes in eight different directions at once, from tragic social message to slapstick comedy. Some scenes are chilling, but the film is unfocused.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse (Frank's Take)
02/11/2004. Director Alexander Witt takes over this elaborate gory gaming gimmick by ushering out the second installment Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The labored formula remains the same regarding a curvy and calisthenics cretin-kicking cutie leading the charge in eliminating some serious zombie butt.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Frank's Take)
02/11/2004. In the stylistically ambitious sci-fi fantasy Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Conran concocts a colorful creation dripping with cheerful arty set designs armed with a refreshing old-fashion storytelling sentiment that drives this opulent noir to its creative core.

Shaun of the Dead (Frank's Take)
02/11/2004. The devilishly dandy flesh-eating farce Shaun of the Dead certainly fits the bill as a monstrously subversive parody that delivers the ghoulish goods. With its British-oriented sense of stinging wry wit coupled with some truly genuine gloomy gumption, Shaun of the Dead is a delightfully sick-minded yet spry frightfest that captures the twisted imagination.

Hero (Mark's Take)
02/11/2004. China tries to make its own Crouching Tiger with a story of an enigmatic stranger who has killed a triad of assassins for the benefit of China's first Emperor. The stranger tells the emperor multiple versions of how he killed the emperor's enemies. Visually Hero is stunning. The telling is operatic in style but becomes muddled.

Les Revenants (Mark's Take)
02/11/2004. A creative and intelligent recycling of the horror concept of the dead returning, but this time it is used for non-horror purposes. Les Revenants runs into pacing problems toward the middle.

Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence (Mark's Take)
02/11/2004. Mark checks out this popular Japanese anime flick and discovers the animation is never flat, but demonstrates varying degrees of dimensionality, frequently within the same frame.

Primer (Mark's Take)
02/11/2004. This SF film gets the research environment and the baffling scientific techno-jargon just about right. The story is hard to follow, but that might not be so unrealistic either. Definitely this is a demanding and puzzling film that does a lot with its minuscule budget.

Shark Tale (Mark's Take)
02/11/2004. Dreamscape's latest animated film is set in a sort of undersea urban environment and should entertain the whole family. The story is familiar but the jokes come in a rapid fire.

Shaun of the Dead (Mark's Take)
02/11/2004. This film is like a crossbreeding of George Romero and Mike Leigh. Oblivious lower-middle-class Londoners slowly become aware that the dead are returning at trying to eat the living. This satire laughs at the tropes of the zombie movie, but even more at the foibles of English life today. The first half is very funny and the second half is at least witty.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Mark's Take)
02/11/2004. The Art Deco future as it was seen from the late 1930s is the background for this super-paced sci-fi adventure. The plot is just a chain of action sequences, one leading to the next, and the characters are one-dimensional. Even the artwork is a little too dark, but the images are genuinely exciting and they are what make the film worth seeing.

Farscape Season 1 Limited Edition
01/11/2004. DVD: Hallmark KLT8910E. Price: £99.99 (UK) although it is possible to get it from half to two-thirds cheaper, so shop around for the best deal. stars: Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Anthony Simcoe, Virginia Hey and Gigi Edgley.

The Tomorrow People Series 6, 7 and 8 Collectors Set
01/10/2004. pub: DVD: Fremantle/Revelation PAR 61233. 380 minutes. Price: £39.99 (UK). Stars: Elizabeth Adare, Nicholas Young, Misako Toba, Nigel Rhodes and Philip Gilbert with Burt Kwouk, Michael Sheard, Nicholas Lyndhurst. Hilary Minster & Christian Rodska amongst many others.

Timeslip: The Complete Collection
01/10/2004. pub: DVD. pub: Carlton Entertainment 37115 06453. Price: £29.99 although can be bought cheaper, so shop around). Stars: Spencer Banks, Cheryl Burfield and Denis Quilley.

The Tomorrow People Series 2 Boxset aka Tomorrow People The Series 2 - The Blue And The Green/A Rift In Time/The Doomsday Men
01/10/2004. pub: DVD: Fremantle/Revelation PAR 61167. 345 minutes. Price: £34.99 (UK). stars: Elizabeth Adare, Nicholas Young, Peter Vaughn-Clarke and Philip Gilbert with Chris Chittel, Richard Speight, Brian Stanion, Stanley Lebor, William Relton and Lee Wan.

My Name Is Modesty
01/10/2004. pub: DVD: TFI Video. EDV 1035. IDV 526. Price: £16.32 (Euro conversion). stars: Alexandra Staden, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Raymond Cruz, Fred Pearson and Eugenia Yuan.

Alien vs. Predator: Frank's Take
01/10/2004. Director Paul W.S. Anderson serves up a meager monster mash spectacle that borders on the silly-minded and slimy by sizing up the terrorizing tag-team of creature feature cads Alien and the Predator in the obviously titled scarefest Alien vs. Predator.

Catwoman: Frank's Take
01/10/2004. In watching the curvy Oscar-winning Halle Berry don the skin tight suit in the sassy anti-superhero saga Catwoman, one must admit that this special eye candy is something that cannot be denied. And director Pitof does in fact lend this picture its glossy and mysterious allure in a unique manner that's inescapable to ignore. Beyond these couple of minor observations, this cosmetic kitty with the conflicting personality doesn't quite cut it as the escapist comic caper it could have been.

Exorcist: The Beginning
01/10/2004. The scattershot incompleteness to Renny Harlin's ill-advised follow-up to William Friedkin's classic creep show is evident in the flimsy frightfulness of the overwrought and putrid prequel Exorcist: The Beginning. For those that had to endure inferior sequels to Friedkin's twisted and treasured pea soup-regurgitating nightmarish narrative (read: Exorcist: The Heretic), they may yearn more for this sluggish supernatural tale to end as opposed to embracing its so-called Beginning.

The Village
01/10/2004. One expected a terrific output from immensely talented writer-director M. Night Shyamalan concerning his latest supernatural saga The Village. Unfortunately for the normally resilient filmmaker, The Village is a meandering and morbid chiller that is a labored muddy vision of Shyamalan's usual insightful and involving hedonism.

Westercon 2004
17/09/2004. Mark reports on the movies at Westercon. The trailers seemed to be better accepted by the audience than they have been at recent Worldcons, while the presentation was a little more polished - and the films seemed of a higher quality.

The Tomorrow People Series 1 Boxset aka Tomorrow People The Series 1 - The Slaves Of Jedikiah / Medusa Strain / The Vanishing Earth
17/09/2004. pub: DVD: Fremantle/Revelation PAR 61160. 325 minutes. Price: £34.99 (UK)). Stars: Sammie Winmill, Nicholas Young, Peter Vaughn-Clarke, Stephen Salmon and Philip Gilbert with Michael Standing and Richard Speight.

Code 46 Movie Review
01/09/2004. Mark discovers that Code 46 is a very odd piece of science fiction. It is a film with some very nice material that tries some interesting ideas, but it fails to capture the viewer. Its flaws outweigh its virtues.

The Bourne Supremacy
01/09/2004. Robert Ludlum's mysterious United States government assassin again returns to the big screen from what some assumed and hoped was death. Again we have a complex plot with twists and doublecrosses. Again the infallible and deadly assassin is pitted against the agency that made him what he is.

The Terrahawks: The Complete Series
01/09/2004. pub: Revelation. PAR 61213. 10 volume DVD set. Price: £69.99 (UK).

The Prisoner
01/09/2004. Price: varies depending where you look, I got my set for about £30 (UK). stars Patrick McGoohan, various Number 2s, a couple supervisors, a butler and Rover. Tick! Tick! Tick!

Thunderbirds 2 by Barry Gray
01/09/2004. CD: Carlton/Silva Screen Records FILMCD 609. Price: £10.99 (UK) - it can vary so shop around.

Firefly - The Complete Series
01/09/2004. DVD: Twentieth Century Fox. 25498DVD. Price: £34.99 (UK) - shop around for the best deal.

I, Robot - Mark's Take
01/08/2004. In 2035 there is a murder at U.S. Robotics and a robophobic policeman, played by Will Smith, believes robots are responsible. Mixing animation and live action nearly seamlessly, I, Robot turns Isaac Asimov's robot world into the backdrop for a prosaic summer action film. It is not a film Asimov would have enjoyed much.

Spider-Man 2 - Frank's Take
01/08/2004. In director Sam Raimi’s explosively action-packed superhero saga Spider-Man 2, he picks up the pleasurable pace of the web-slinging wizard. Tobey Maguire is back in full form as the angst-ridden crime-fighting cobwebbed crawler. Lost in a perpetual haze of conflict and courageousness, Maguire’s Peter Parker/Spider-Man is a harried hero with a tainted blue-collar badge that he proudly dons.

The Chronicles of Riddick - Frank's Take
01/08/2004. Four years after Pitch Black, filmmaker David Twohy decides to follow up his celebrated pet project with the disjointed and bloated sequel The Chronicles of Riddick. Utterly ponderous and as clunky as a crater rock, Riddick fails to capture the spontaneous spirit of its predecessor.

The Stepford Wives - Frank's Take
01/08/2004. The writing is on the wall when a casual comedy that boasts a high-powered cast doesn’t have a single clue as to what it wants to accomplish. And that’s certainly not a vote of confidence for a dark SF movie looking to make mincemeat commentary about the awakening of feminism and the imprisoned role of domicile divas looking to grow beyond their restricted boundaries.

Around the World in 80 Days - Frank's Take
01/08/2004. Poor Jules Verne must be spinning in his grave. Out of all the remakes that had been done regarding Verne’s whimsical classical story, director Frank 'The Wedding Singer' Coraci delivers a botched and banal affair of lackluster lunacy in his updated version of Around the World in 80 Days.

The Day After Tomorrow: Mark's Take
01/07/2004. In this new movie Mark finds global warming launches a quick-freeze ice age, killing billions of people. Roland Emmerich brings us a special-effects-laden look at the human race reeling under the havoc caused by the worst natural disaster in 10,000 years, a super-cold cyclonic storm that covers the face of the planet. The story is compelling and plausible enough for non-experts.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Mark's Take
01/07/2004. Harry Potter is back at Hogwarts and this year he has a crack at the man who betrayed and murdered his parents. But Mark discovers this is a family film, not a children's film. The adults may like it as much as any of the children in the audience, but the series is reaching a point of diminishing returns.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Frank's Take
01/07/2004. Author J.K. Rowling’s bespectacled boy wizard wonder is back and better than ever. In fact, he’s matured and the subsequent growth of this sorcery student is evident in the burden of angst good old Harry carries around as his magic-in-training mode continues to dominate his colorful yet chaotic existence.

The Day After Tomorrow: Frank's Take
01/07/2004. Frank reckons 'The Day After Tomorrow' will most likely be viewed as a long-winded and loopy meteorology mishap for weather forecast freaks. Justifiably so, Emmerich’s furious yet flimsy convention of cartoonish catastrophe gives a whole new meaning to the classic movie title Gone with the Wind. It’s too bad that this global gloom session couldn’t sweep away any sooner than its two-hour running time.

The Tomorrow People 4:1: One Law
01/07/2004. pub: DVD: Fremantle/Revelation PAR 61145. 70 minutes. Price: £15.99 (UK)) stars: Nicholas Young, Peter Vaughn Clarke, Elizabeth Adare, Dean Lawrence, Michael Holloway and Philip Gilbert with Tim Barrett, Patrick McAlinney, Harold Kasket, John Hollis and Norman Mitchell.

The Champions: The Complete Series
01/07/2004. pub: DVD. pub: Carlton 37115 05843. 30 * 50minute episodes plus assorted extras. Price: varies from £50 to £30 so shop around for the best deal) stars: William Gaunt, Stuart Damon, Alexandra Bastedo and Anthony Nicholls.

Babylon 5: The Complete Third Season: The Point Of No Return
01/07/2004. pub: DVD: Warner Brothers Z1 27461. 22*42 minute episodes plus extras. Price: Varies from around £60 to £35, so look around for the best deal) stars: Bruce Boxleitner, Jerry Doyle, Claudia Christian, Mira Furlan, Peter Jurasik and Andrea Katsulas and many others.

The Tomorrow People 5:1: The Dirtiest Business. 5:2: A Much Needed Holiday. 5:3: The Heart Of Sogguth
01/07/2004. pub: DVD: Fremantle/Revelation PAR 61147. 140 minutes. Price: £15.99 (UK)) stars: Nicholas Young, Elizabeth Adare, Michael Holloway and Philip Gilbert with Vivien Helibron, Anulka Dubinska, Roddu Maude-Roxby and er...Flintlock.

Godsend
01/06/2004. In Godsend, Frank finds a run-of-the-mill child-cloning thriller turned into a flaccid frightfest that is all clumsy thumbs, and no controllable finger to decisively point this devilish dud of a movie in the right creative direction.

Shrek 2: Frank's Take
01/06/2004. In Shrek 2, we are gleefully reunited with the amiable pot-bellied giant and his colorful crew of supporters that include his new wife Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) and his old sidekick Donkey (Eddie Murphy).

Shrek 2: Mark's Take
01/06/2004. There is distinctly less magic and fun in Shrek 2 as the title ogre has problems becoming accepted by his in-laws. All the same cast is back with the same voices, but the tone of the film is darker and we don't learn a lot more about the characters that we liked in the first film.

Hellboy: Frank's Take
01/05/2004. Franks discovers that in director Guillermo Del Toro's fantasy actioner Hellboy, there's nothing generic or artificial about the movie's flame-throwing crusader determined to stamp out evil at any cost.

Kill Bill Volume Two
01/05/2004. The follow up installment of Tarantino's ridiculously sensationalistic sword slashing cinema is welcomed by Frank with eager open arms.

Dawn of the Dead
01/05/2004. Frank sits down to watch Zack Snyder's surprisingly winning remake of the flesh-eating fable Dawn of the Dead.

Hellboy: Mark's Take
01/05/2004. Mike Mignola's comic book character Hellboy comes to the screen in high visual style but none too coherently. Our Mark considers that Guillermo del Toro does a better job directing than adapting this story from graphic novel to screen.

Cody Banks 2: Destination London
01/05/2004. The misguided adventures of the awkward junior secret agent continue in the mind numbing and anemic sequel Cody Banks 2: Destination London. Quite frankly, Frank reckons that Cody & company need to consider quitting the spy business altogether.

Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
01/05/2004. America's favorite cowardly canine and his crime-fighting cohorts are back for round two in the meager follow-up film, Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. They would have got away with it too, if it wasn't for you damn meddling cinema goers!

Millennium
01/05/2004. pub: DVD pub: Carlton Visual Entertainment 37115 05873. Price: varies but I got mine for £8.99 (UK). Stars: Kris Kristofferson, Cherryh Ladd and Daniel J. Travanti).

Babylon 5: The Complete First Season: Signs and Portents
01/05/2004. pub: (DVD: Warner Brothers Z1 22855. 22 x 42 minute episodes plus extras. Price: Varies, so look around for the best deal.) stars: Michael O'Hare, Jerry Doyle, Claudia Christian, Mira Furlan, Peter Jurasik and Andrea Katsulas and many others.

Robot Stories
01/04/2004. Mark finds a film of five Twilight Zone-ish stories involving robots in some way. They are simple stories - most with a strong insightful element. All but one really says more about humanity than about droids.

A Problem with Fear
01/03/2004. Mark sits down for this latest SF movie and discovers a quirky science fiction film with some odd approaches, including a man-made 'fear storm'.

Code 46
01/03/2004. In this movie Mark finds a very odd piece of science fiction; it is a film with some very nice material that tries some interesting ideas, but ultimately Code 46 fails to capture the viewer.

Six Lost Worlds: The Dramatic Adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Novel
01/03/2004. Mark imagines a place so isolated from the world that it was beyond the reach even of the forces of evolution ... where on one plateau deep in the Amazon rain forest there is a land that has withstood the ravages of time. Bring on those dinosaurs and prehistoric proto-humans.

Alien Quadrilogy
01/03/2004. Pub: 20th Century Fox F1 25231 BGB. Price: varies from £70 to £54.99 (UK) - shop around for the best price.)

Paycheck
01/02/2004. Sadly, our Frank discovers this film is one Paycheck not worth necessarily cashing or depositing as Woo waters down his boisterously banal and generic thriller all too convincingly.

Peter Pan (Frank's Take)
01/02/2004. Visually vibrant and mystical in its charming presentation, Franks happily discovers Hogan's live action take on Peter Pan is an exquisite and sparkling celluloid fable that just pops into life.

The Return of the King (Frank's Take)
01/02/2004. Inherently grand, vibrant, inviting and whimsically overwhelming, Jackson packs an urgent sense of vitality into this third installment that will certainly amaze those who were attentive to the previous colorful two TLoTR epics.

Peter Pan (Mark's Take)
01/02/2004. In this new movie, Mark discovers a feast for the eyes that he can recommend with more conviction for parents than he can for the children who might see it.

The Two Towers Inferno
01/01/2004. The latest big screen installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy could be your last movie of 2002, or your first of 2003; but you're going to see it. Right?

Solaris (Mark's Take)
01/01/2004. An alien planet gives George Clooney a perfect facsimile of the wife he lost on earth in SOLARIS. The philosophical film has some engaging ideas, but viewers expecting romantic sci-fi will probably be disappointed and perhaps even bored. This is dense, introspective, and intelligent science fiction as distinguished from entertainment.

Star Trek: Nemesis (Mark's Take)
01/01/2004. As the "Star Trek" series seems slowly to lose steam, Mark finds the movie contains one late - uncharacteristic - burst of life and energy, a science-fictional examination of the nature-nurture question. Picard and Data each meet physically identical copies of their former selves and each must deal with the similarities and differences. The question faced is, what makes a person who he is?

Gothika (Frank's Take)
01/01/2004. Who says that an overwrought and absurd horror/suspense thriller blessed with a stellar cast cannot be appealing in its occasional lapses? Frank gets scary with his latest movie review.

Timeline (Frank's Take)
01/01/2004. Frank finds that Timeline is a flashy SF actioner that boasts some mighty fine credentials that many other time-traveling movie vehicles might wish they could hang their hats on.

The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (Mark's Take)
01/01/2004. Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings completes its cycle with The Return of the King, a spectacular film of complex battles and breathtaking scenery. Mark ponders whether the final part of the trilogy delivers all that it promises.

Hulk (Geoff's Take)
01/01/2004. pub: Video: Universal 8206736. 132 minutes. Price: £10.99 (UK) - this varies so shop around for the best deal) stars: Eric Banna, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott, Josh Lucas and Nick Nolte.

Terminator 3: The Rise Of The Machines
01/01/2004. pub: Columbia Tristar CVR 34144. Price: £12.99 (UK) - this varies so shop around for the best deal) stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes and Kristanna Loken.

The Tomorrow People 3:3 and 3.4: A Man For Emily and The Revenge Of Jedikah
01/01/2004. pub: DVD: Fremantle/Revelation PAR 61143. 150 minutes. Price: £15.99) stars: Nicholas Young, Peter Vaughn Clarke, Elizabeth Adare, Dean Lawrence and Philip Gilbert with Peter Davison, Brian Stanion and Ann Curthoys.