Video/DVD
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MUSIC pocuMl N mnv TEENAGE KICKS - THE STORY OF
THE UNDERTONES
(E) 128min (Sanctuary Visual Entertainment.
Londonderry's Undertones. like many
IOVE SlORY
HAPPY TOGETHER
(15) 94min
()l'()‘.'llt(2|£tl lateconters. stan‘ped their own brand of playful pop nous on l)llllK before eyentually in‘ploding half a decade after their debut singie 'l‘eenage chks' first grabbed John Peel by his y'reary ‘.‘.’lllf3l<(}l'f§. Peel as narrator proves an adn‘ii'abie guide here. eschesxrng the usual 'de rigeur' cultural analyss Ill fayou" of ai'clli‘.'e footage and anecdotal interyie=.'.'s. l lis '-.'.'(ll"l‘. no~nonsense style fits the band like a shabby. y'xeli» lowed green parka. Initia! concerns of br'exity are ; ssuaged by ai‘ additiona it) ll‘lfltll(?f3 ()f
rArflflclal (Eye. DVD retaili .0...
lllltll'\.'l(?‘.'.’53 and promos. (1(Ell‘(?lll|ll(_l the feeling that by current band biog standards. lee/rage chks is indeed bard to beat. ‘Jools Stone
(IUMl HY Pill ()Ull DUMB AND DUMBERER
(12) 85 min Iljntertanlinent in Video DVD Vl lS rental retail, 0
OK. so you're not expectrng a sensrtrye treatise on the hun‘an condition. but eyen 0') its own tern‘s
lass f'art tit cock gags. tth is lame stuff. A preguel to the hugely succ >ssfi.l Dorm!) and Dumber. this suitably ll‘()!()lll(; lilfl‘ tellineg contains none of the
Have you ever felt like you are in the wrong relationship? Trapped by guilt and history, loyalty and confusion, yet something — an undefinable lust, a streak of masochism, a moment of self doubt - makes you always return to that person? What if all these feelings of dislocation were exemplified by the fact that you and your lover were stranded on the other side of the world, where latitude and loneliness are your only friends.
Wong Kar-wai is undoubtedly one of the finest filmmakers working in the world today and this, the film he took the 1997 Best Director Award from the Cannes Film Festival for, is his most challenging and brilliant work.
Lai (Tony Leung) and Ho (Leslie Cheung) arrive in Argentina as passionate lovers from Hong Kong and take the road south for a holiday. Within weeks they have fallen out and split up. Hurt and confused Lai decamps to Buenos Aires and starts working at a tango bar to save up for his trip home. When a beaten and bruised Ho reappears, Lai is empathetic but cautious of his promiscuous and manipulative lover. Meanwhile Lai befriends the youthful Chang, a kitchen boy from Taiwan.
Into this tale of love perverted, Kar-wai and his brilliant cinematographer Christopher Doyle pour starved dreams and petrol emotion. Everything is washed out and through with urban damp and drunken alienation. The spirit of Frank Zappa dominates everything as the rhythms of his soundtracked tunes inform every frame and nook in Doyle’s unique vision. Moments park in the cortex and lie there to fester. ‘Jazz is not dead,’ said Zappa. ‘It just smells funny.‘ Like the San Francisco based writer Amistaud Maupin, Kar-wai clearly believes in detailing the stench of bad love and broken hearts. Leung and Cheung turn in truly remarkable performances (Cheung sadly committed suicide by stepping off a skyscraper on lst April last year) in this raw wound of film. This DVD edition contains the superb making of documentary, Buenos Aires Zero Degree. A must for serious film
fans. (Paul Dale)
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san‘e cast as the original f:iin. and suffers badly as a result. [)eallng ‘.'.’llll '.'.'ller‘ llarry inet l loy'd. this is a rislble high school ron‘p '.'.’|lll none of the slickrless or post— ll‘()(lt‘:ll‘ irony such things need these days. lliere is a rear identical replica of Spud's sheet messing accident froin ’rar/rspoftlng lll rt though.
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HORROR
FREDDY VS JASON
(18) 97 min ll“fll(}ll£il'lll‘.t}lll |-'l Video I) l) Vl lS rental retail-
lhls is ‘.'.'?'lat l‘error fans hate been '.'.'£lll|ll(l for: .I‘y‘Cg/rf'rrrl/e or; I in; Street's l i‘eddy Kiuegei illobert l lltlitilttli takes on fr/dai the lia‘fh's Jason Voornees iKen Kit/inger i. After a conyoltited bit of storytelling to get them together in the first place. :t's all good old fashioned ll£i(ll\ and slash action. a for.
l reddy ‘.‘.'lf§t?(ifll(ile§ and the usual team of resourceful young teens iincludingl. ‘.‘.’(}|l(lly enough. Destiny's Child singer Kelly Rowland n‘aking her acting debufi. Video ‘.'.'as inyented for this kinda no brain horror trash. so get the beers in. disengage your higher inenta' facult1es and '.'.'allo‘.'. ir‘. the sheer litillx‘, enjoyii‘eiit of this ludicrous flitlt.
'lltrlll“. Northil‘oie.
COMEDY
ANIMAL HOUSE (15) 109 min (Universal VHS DVD retail) .9.”
Like Alr‘p/ane. that other classic of the late r'tls. Joiln l-aedrs' Animal House set the benchri‘ark for con‘edy niovies that nas rarely been nettered. 'lne lllll‘ not only provided inspiration for countless (I()l“tE(ll(3S good and bad
/'lnreric.‘in Pie. Ferris Bae/l’er's Day Off and f’orkffs but also Iaaaclted tl‘e careers of Tom Halce. Keyin Bacon and Karen Allen.
lite spoof docun‘entary centres on the fictional l“ sadyentures of Faber College arid. in particular. its ltlf'élllti fraternity Delta llc..se. led by Me tremendous John Belushi as Bluto.
\."‘.’orthy-.hile extras Include an excellent. if orie‘. where are they noun"? inockurnentaiy and a Y‘.‘()."(E expansiye look at the origins of the filn‘ and its ii‘akers. A real classic. Mark Robertson)
l Ill RARY ADAPlAllON A HANDFUL OF DUST
(PG) 118 min l()(l\,"fSS(}\,’. DVD retail) 0.
Charles Sturrir‘lge's 1987 adaptation of Evelyn \JI’augh's lfliit s satire about rich and useless landed gentry suffers from the san‘e ailrnent as n‘any other atten‘pts to transfer \‘y/aagh's ‘.'.rork to the screen. namely a lack of sharpened. bloodied fa-"gs.
ln fa’fing over himself to capture the most repressiye shots of cruri‘bling Gothic pile lletton lll‘.‘.’lll()ll
Video/DVD
protagonists Tony and Brenda Last while away their dreary. aristocratic days before bored Brenda en‘barks on an affair with gigolo John Beaver lRupert GraveS) — Sturridge srmply ignores Waugh 's savage antipathy towards his characters. The rOSUll is admittedly pretty to behold. with a couple of appropriately camp turns from Graves and Judi Dench as his Mumsy. but otherwise barely worth a re-issue. (Allan Radcliffe)
MERCHANT IVORY RE- RELEASES
JANE AUSTEN IN MANHATTAN
(PG) 106min o QUARTET
(18) 96min 0000 (Odyssey Video DVD retail)
jane austen
Fron‘ 1980 Jane Austen in Manhattan is IVOry. Merchant and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's fictional account of two rival theatre companies battling it out for the rights to stage a recently discovered Austen play. Dreary and pretentious doesn't even begin to cover it. and it's already taken up more space in this revrew than it deserves. Give that one a miss and head straight fOr Quartet. a Journey into the sordid underbelly of 208 Paris. Debauchery. infidelity. manipulation and suicide are given a lavrsh spin. creating a darkly passionate and ViSLially stunning adaptation of the passronate novelist Jean Rhys" autobiography. Both DVDs have a selection of extras including biographies. trailers and short films. (Kirsty Knaggsl
3.) Jan 1') l eb 900-1 THE LIST 95