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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 17th, 2010
“There’s two kinds of people in this world when you boil it all down. You’ve got your talkers and you’ve got your doers. Most people are just talkers. All they got is talk. But, when all is said and done, it’s the doers who change the world. And, when they do that, they change us. And, that’s why we never forget them.”
And while The Boondock Saints never did bring in box office gold (heck, it didn’t even bring in Box Office aluminum) like the characters in the film, they were not forgotten.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 17th, 2010
While Scarecrow And Mrs. King first aired in 1983, this show is really one of the last of the 1970’s crime dramas. It was an early attempt to bring in more of the female audiences that seemed reluctant to join the popular detective shows of the era. While not really a “detective” show (they were spies), it employed a lot of the 1970’s conventions. Even the film footage has that distinct style from those days and type of shows. The idea worked, and the series did bring in a sizeable female audience, but it never really caught on with the guy crowd who found it a bit too relationship-heavy
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 16th, 2010
If any studio out there knows princesses, it has to be Disney. Uncle Walt has brought us so many memorably magical moments in the realms of fairy godmothers and the rags to riches tradition. A list of such Disney characters would serve as a rather complete roll call of such familiar animated ladies: Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, and now you can add yet another name to the growing list. The studio that invented the animated fairy tale returns to its hand-drawn animation roots with The Princess And The Frog.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 16th, 2010
I’m sure that somewhere inside of Jared Hess’s mind all of this makes perfect sense. I get the feeling that after he completed Gentlemen Broncos the writer/director/producer sat down to a screening with a group of his friends and the congregation rolled in the aisles with laughter. I’m equally sure that when his friends went home they were left scratching their heads. Somewhere in Hollywood a corner drugstore made a killing in aspirin or something stronger. In his own private world, where they all get the joke, Gentlemen Broncos might not be so bad.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 15th, 2010
I have to admit that I approached Old Dogs as cautiously as I’d approach a rabid junkyard dog. With a story that sounds like another retelling of Three Men And A Baby and the setup, and director, of Disney’s Wild Hogs, it seemed pretty apparent that this film was not going to offer anything terribly new or exciting. When I started watching the film I discovered that I was pretty much right. This is very much Three Men And A Baby meets Wild Hogs. More importantly, I was also correct in believing the film wouldn’t offer up anything all that original or new. What I didn’t expect, and what will make this a film worth watching for you anyway, is that the delivery here is actually pretty special.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 15th, 2010
I’ve been a fan of South Park ever since a friend introduced me to the internet Christmas card that started it all. It was Santa versus Jesus and these short potty-mouthed kids that somehow wormed their way under your skin. Pretty soon I was downloading the episodes and watching them on my computer. For some reason I can’t quite explain, I’ve very rarely watched an episode on Comedy Central. By the time things were getting tighter and riskier downloading the shorts, the single disc, 4 episode DVDs began to arrive in stores. So my South Park viewing moved from the PC to the DVD player. In a short time season sets began to arrive,
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 12th, 2010
“Perseus and Andromeda will be happy together. Have fine sons… rule wisely… And to perpetuate the story of his courage, I command that from henceforth, he will be set among the stars and constellations. He, Perseus, the lovely Andromeda, the noble Pegasus, and even the vain Cassiopeia. Let the stars be named after then forever. As long as man shall walk the Earth and search the night sky in wonder, they will remember the courage of Perseus forever. Even if we, the gods, are abandoned or forgotten, the stars will never fade. Never. They will burn till the end of the time.”
Talk about your perfect storm.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 11th, 2010
There was a new Cowboy in Dallas, and he wasn’t throwing touchdown passes. But Walker was almost gone before he could really get started. After just four episodes the show’s production company suffered financial collapse, and the show was rescued at the last minute by CBS Productions, who would continue to run the show for its nearly decade-long run. For nine years Chuck Norris brought us the ultimate Texas Ranger in a formula cops and robbers show. The show often became a parody of itself, but maintained a solid viewer ship throughout
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 11th, 2010
The fourth season of Matlock brought more of the same. If you’re a fan, that’s very good news indeed. What is that, you ask? Imagine Sheriff Andy Taylor older and now an attorney, and you pretty much have the setup for Matlock. Forget for a second that both characters were played by Andy Griffith. That’s not all they have in common. Matlock is every bit the “southern gentleman” that Taylor was. He might be a little smarter, but he walks and talks like Andy Taylor.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 11th, 2010
The concept would appear to be slightly misplaced on ABC’s Family Network. The prerequisite underage drinking and promiscuous sexual lives don’t appear to be the best “family” entertainment. We don’t get even halfway through the pilot episode before we’re already charting those waters. To be sure, Greek is no Animal House, and the atmosphere is toned down considerably, but the issues remain, and this is not a show for the kiddies. The story is very much like a soap opera. Casey (Grammer) is a sorority sister for Zeta Beta Zeta, and after two years is a woman on the rise.
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Contests by Gino Sassani on March 9th, 2010
We have one of the biggest giveaways we have ever had thanks to our friends at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. We’re teaming up to bring you a Girl’s Night Out. We have 10 different date flick classics from Sony to giveaway on DVD. Why do we call it Girl’s Night Out? Each DVD also comes with a ticket to see Dear John in the theaters.Since the ticket expires on April 30th, we’re only going to run this contest for two weeks.
Here are the films we’re giving away:
Jerry Maguire with Tom Cruise
Closer with Jude Law
Catch & Release with Jennifer Garner
Memoirs Of A Geisha with Ken Watanabe
Sleepless In Seattle with Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan
Click with Kate Beckinsale
The House Bunny with Anna Faris
The Other Boleyn Girl with Eric Bana
Made Of Honor with Patrick Dempsey
Marie Antoinette with Kirsten Dunst
To win one of these DVD’s just follow these instructions:
- Fill out your name and email address in the comment form below – your email address will remain private and visible only to us.
- Do not post your address as an actual comment! List your top Three (3) choices of the above films. If your entry is selected you will win one of those films. Only those comments that tell us their choices of these giveaway titles will be considered.
Contest is open to residents of the U.S. & Canada only, and will conclude on Tuesday, March 23rd.
Please – only one contest entry per person!
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 2nd, 2010
“Hoorah! Semper Fi! Do or die! Hold ‘em high! Gunnery Sergeant R. Lee Ermey here. Listen up! Ever wonder how warriors on the battlefield went from throwing rocks to this? Then this is your lucky day.”
You’ve seen R. Lee Ermey in several movies and television shows over the years. He pretty much plays the same character, most notably Gunnery Sergeant Hartman on Full Metal Jacket. He always does a fine job with these roles, but there’s a good reason for that. Ermey was, in fact, a Gunnery Sergeant in the Vietnam War. Not much acting required out of the man.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 26th, 2010
For all intents and purposes, it appears just like any routine Fall day throughout the world. People are busying themselves about their normal concerns. Suddenly everyone on the planet blacks out for exactly 2 minutes and 17 seconds. Just think about that part for a moment. Every human being collapses at the same moment. Think about all of the things that people are doing at any given moment. Driving cars. Flying planes. Performing delicate surgical procedures, or just walking across the street. Pretty much any activity is going to become dangerous as the blackouts occur. 20 million people worldwide die in the event.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 23rd, 2010
William Conrad was no stranger to audiences when Cannon joined the Quinn Martin stable of television dramas. In fact, most folks knew his voice before they got to know his trademark girth. Conrad was the original Matt Dillon when Gunsmoke was a radio drama. When the drama entered the visual medium of television, even Conrad admitted later that the audience, who thought of him as tall and handsome, would have been disappointed. His voice lent authority to any role he played, and on radio his size was never an issue. He was famous as the voice of the stern narrator in the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons who often crossed the laws of the trade and interacted with the title characters.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 23rd, 2010
Just to look at it you would think that My 3 Sons was a Disney production. Its star Fred MacMurray had appeared in many Disney films of the 50’s and 60’s and is most likely recognizable from those appearances. Two of the three boys were also known for work with Disney. The eldest boy, Mike, was played by Tim Considine, who starred with MacMurray in Disney’s The Shaggy Dog. Middle son Robbie was played by a former Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeer, Don Grady. The youngest son, Chip, was played by Stanley Livingston, the only non Disney alum in that group.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 23rd, 2010
Night Court appeared on the docket at NBC in 1984 and was to last 8 seasons. If you thought it looked and sounded a lot like Barney Miller, you won’t be surprised to learn that a number of key people, including creator Reinhold Weege, came from that classic cop comedy. Several key elements of Miller can be found in Night Court. The themes are almost identical, with both beginning with an easily identifiable bass run. The most important imported element from Miller was the constant parade of the kookiest and craziest criminals this side of the Cuckoo’s Nest.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 23rd, 2010
So what’s the Scooby Gang up to this time, you might ask. We meet Velma’s younger sister for the first time here. Young Madelyn has been off studying magic at the Whirlin Merlin Magic Academy. It seems a giant mythological griffin has been stalking the halls of the old school. So who ya gonna call? Scooby and the gang conduct the usual investigation, uncovering the usual suspects.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 22nd, 2010
Remember the blaxploitation films of the 1970’s? These films generally played on the ghetto stereotypes that would likely not be as well tolerated today. The films were populated with fur-adorned pimps driving in purple Caddys. The street language was almost indiscernible. The black population sat around drinking from large malt liquor bottles in brown paper bags. In a day where almost every potential racist remark is pounced upon, it’s hard to imagine that this kind of thing could have existed at all. But the point was that these films weren’t feeding into the stereotypes for the most part
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 22nd, 2010
When the original 1987 film The Stepfather came our way, the world was a very different place. Of course, that’s true with any titles that are separated by nearly 25 years of time. When reboots or remakes are attempted, as they all too frequently are today, it is often true that some allowances must be made for those inevitable changes in our world. Filmmakers attempt to make whatever adjustments they deem fit and bring the old favorite, or not so favorite, into our current collective consciousness. Like all things, sometimes it works. More often it does not work.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 22nd, 2010
For ten years we watched Jack O’Neil, Samantha Carter, Dr. Daniel Jackson, and the Jaff’a Tealc’ enter the Stargate. Others would join the team over the years. Each week we would follow their adventures, first on Showtime and finally on the Sci-Fi (now Sy Fy) Channel. We watched with awe as they stepped through a portal that was in reality a wormhole transporting them instantly to another world, brought online by dialing the device like an old fashioned telephone. For another five years we traveled not only to another planet, but to the Pegasus Galaxy itself to the Atlantis Base, a bright floating city left behind by the ancients, the people who created the Stargate system millions of years before
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 16th, 2010
“In the 1940’s and 1950’s the juiciest roles for actresses in Hollywood were often in B pictures that explored the dark side of life, staring roles as cool, calculating girls who could stick a knife in a man’s back and make him like it.”
And so Sony collects 8 of these films as part of what looks like is going to be an ongoing series. But what exactly is Film Noir? You hear the term used from time to time, but what does it mean?
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 16th, 2010
“During the 1980’s over 70% of American adults believed in the existence of abusive Satanic cults. Another 30% rationalized the lack of evidence due to government cover-ups. The following is based on true unexplained events.”
Here we go again; at least that’s what I was thinking as House Of The Devil started to unfold with the above introduction. I remember well the “Satanic Panic” that goes back to the early 1970’s. It was a somewhat natural extension of the Manson Family murders. While that might not have been Satanic related, it sparked the imaginations of a fearful country, and before long there were urban legends of human sacrifice and ritualistic slayings all over the country.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 16th, 2010
Anyone who has come here long enough to get to know my likes and dislikes probably knows what a Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse fan I am. The man and the character opened the road for so much of what we have today, from Pixar to Tom and Jerry. But, if you’re looking for the kind of cartoons you and I have grown to expect, this one is bound to disappoint you. It’s an episode of the current television series Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It’s an animated Sesame Street, however, and not really a cartoon adventure.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 15th, 2010
So, this guy goes to see three rabbis….
No, that’s not the start of some insensitive anti-Semitic joke. It’s the rather offbeat idea behind the latest film by the Coen brothers. Of course, off the wall is business as usual for Ethan and Joel Coen. Fans of the brothers’ work already know to expect the unexpected. You’re likely not looking for the same kind of logical coherence that you might otherwise demand in your movies. The films often share a modern allegory to some classic fable or tale.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 15th, 2010
I have absolutely no doubt that Hilary Swank meant well, but we all know what wise men say about good intentions. It is likely that Amelia Earhart has been a hero and inspiration to the young actress as I know she’s been to women of all professions throughout the years. There’s no question that she is an influential historical figure and deserving of attention. Of course, she’s had plenty over the years. There have actually been quite a few films and television shows dedicated to the heroine since her disappearance so many years ago.
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