Posted by DVD Verdict on 10/20/05 08:16

Today, DVD Verdict posted reviews of ANNA CHRISTIE, THE CANDY SNATCHERS,
COWARDS BEND THE KNEE, EFFECTS, HOWARD HUGHES: THE MAN AND THE MADNESS,
IN CHINA THEY EAT DOGS, A KNIGHT'S TALE: EXTENDED CUT, THE MAN WHO
COPIED (O HOMEM QUE COPIAVA), THE MORNING AFTER, THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA
(1989), PEACEMAKER: OF SWORDS AND STRENGTH (VOLUME 2), SLAYERS MOVIE
BOX, and ULTRA MANIAC: MAGICAL STONE (VOLUME 3):


ANNA CHRISTIE (reviewed by Rob Lineberger, overall score 86/100):
"What a woman! As sad as it is to be a movie critic and be ignorant of
Garbo, now I see what the fuss is about. Is she melodramatic? Indeed.
Angst and sorrow pour from her face like the waters of life seeping down
the drain. Her thickly accented, dusky voice sounds like a rake being
dragged over gravel. Yet I yearned to hold her close, to put a finger to
her lips and tell her it would be okay."

FULL REVIEW: http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/annachristie.php

THE CANDY SNATCHERS (reviewed by Paul Corupe, overall score 91/100):
"The Candy Snatchers hits like a truckload of bricks, with shameless
greed as the underlying motive for almost every action in the movie. The
relentlessly winding plot brings the film noir nihilism of films like
Treasure of the Sierra Madre kicking and screaming into the sleazy '70s,
for an unparalleled stab at exploitation glory."

FULL REVIEW: http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/candysnatchers.php

COWARDS BEND THE KNEE (reviewed by Joe Armenio, overall score 90/100):
"The grades given for video and audio quality are almost entirely
arbitrary, since the goal is not to produce a pristine image, but to
recreate the look and feel of watching a silent film; hence the images
are occasionally smeary, the sound occasionally hissy."

FULL REVIEW: http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/cowardsbendknee.php

EFFECTS (reviewed by David Johnson, overall score 87/100):
"Effects is a smart thriller that generates suspense not from an over-
abundance of gore (there is barely any) or cheap jump scares, but
from excellent character work, solid execution, and a deeply
unsettling premise."

FULL REVIEW: http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/effects.php

HOWARD HUGHES: THE MAN AND THE MADNESS (reviewed by Mac McEntire,
overall score 77/100):
"For those seeking more detail beyond what is already fairly well-known
about Hughes, however, there's very little here. It's almost a necessity
-- the filmmakers have so much ground to cover, there's no way for them
to elaborate on any one point about Hughes, such as the Beverly Hills
plane crash, the senate hearings, or what the heck he ever planned to do
with all those jars of urine."

FULL REVIEW: http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/howardhughesmadness.php

IN CHINA THEY EAT DOGS (reviewed by Russell Engebretson, overall
score 90/100):
"Is it peculiar for Denmark to be the home of this blackly comic
gangster tale, a movie that surpasses Lock, Stock and Two Smoking
Barrels for pure madcap audacity? Perhaps not, since Danish audiences
turned In China They Eat Dogs into a popular box office hit in 1999, a
big enough hit to allow the director and cast to release a prequel three
years later."

FULL REVIEW: http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/inchinatheyeatdogs.php

A KNIGHT'S TALE: EXTENDED CUT (reviewed by David Johnson, overall
score 83/100):
"This release marks the third time Heath Ledger's medieval joust
adventure has landed in Digital Versatile Disc form. The gimmick this
time? It's the extended cut, which in fact is simply the insertion of
the deleted scenes from the previous versions into the feature.
Everything else is pretty much the same."

FULL REVIEW: http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/knightstaleextended.php

THE MAN WHO COPIED (O HOMEM QUE COPIAVA) (reviewed by Neal Solon,
overall score 90/100):
"When you immediately buy into the lives of the people on screen, being
entertained for a couple of hours is easy."

FULL REVIEW: http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/manwhocopied.php

THE MORNING AFTER (reviewed by Brett Cullum, overall score 82/100):
"The Morning After isn't a bad movie, but it's certainly not a great
film, either. You would think that with Jane Fonda, Jeff Bridges,
Raul Julia, and Sidney Lumet teaming up, it would be a knockout.
Well, it isn't."

FULL REVIEW: http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/morningafter.php

THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA (1989) (reviewed by Jeff Andreasen, overall
score 80/100):
"It's a valiant attempt to bring to life to one of the great literary
efforts of the last century, but the spurious bloat grafted on to pad
the thing to an acceptable running time seriously drags down the quality
of the narrative."

FULL REVIEW: http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/oldmanandsea1989.php

PEACEMAKER: OF SWORDS AND STRENGTH (VOLUME 2) (reviewed by Jeff
Andreasen, overall score 85/100):
"Tetsu is the most annoying brat protagonist since Edward Furlong's John
Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. I kept praying for the Choshu
assassins to strike during the festival and whack this shrieking punk."

FULL REVIEW: http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/peacemakervol2.php

SLAYERS MOVIE BOX (reviewed by Brett Cullum, overall score 85/100):
"So what's the deal with calling these 'movies,' huh? The longest is
about an hour and fifteen minutes, and the shortest clocks in at barely
thirty minutes. The bulk of them are not even an hour long."

FULL REVIEW: http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/slayersmoviebox.php

ULTRA MANIAC: MAGICAL STONE (VOLUME 3) (reviewed by Mac McEntire,
overall score 80/100):
"For a giggly girl cartoon overflowing with cuteness and adorableness,
Ultra Maniac is actually pretty entertaining."

FULL REVIEW: http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/ultramaniacvol3.php

Mike Jackson
Editor & Webmaster, DVD Verdict
www.dvdverdict.com

[Back to original message]