Author Archive

Gridiron Gang (Blu-ray)

By Jeff Mardo on February-11-2007 in Disc Reviews

The Rock takes on a kinder, gentler role as Sean Porter, a probation officer at juvenile camp outside of Los Angeles, California. The story is loosely based on real event.The story melds the lives of young teenage criminals at camp Kilpatrick. These are youths that are in for selling drugs, car-jacking, murders, and other serious crimes. Facing a huge recidivism rate and constant in fighting between the youths, Porter harkens back to his youth as a football player and decides that the discipline of athletics, namely football, is what these kids need to find better life skills than what is available on t he streets in gang banger families.

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Knight’s Tale, A (Blu-ray)

By Jeff Mardo on December-7-2006 in Disc Reviews

William Thatcher (Heath Ledger), after the death of his master, bucks the trend of ‘for Noblemen only’ in the world of jousting and whips his peasant self into shape in hopes to be the greatest jouster in the land… and, of course, to score with the women along the way. Unfortunately, for his lowly self, you have to be of nobility to joust. Lucky for him, he encounters a desperate ‘Jeff’ Chaucer (Paul Bettany) in his way to the next venue. Chaucer is able to beautifully forge his noble documentaton, so Thatcher is officially able to enter the contests.

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The Omen (2006) (Blu-ray)

By Jeff Mardo on December-6-2006 in Disc Reviews

U.S. diplomat Robert Thorn (Liev Schreiber) substitutes an orphan newborn for his stillborn baby in order to spare his unknowing wife (Julia Stiles) the pain of the truth. But after the a series of grotesque murders and suicides, the Thorns slowly come to realize their child may actually be Satan. This is a remake of the 1976 original.

The story hasn’t appreciably changed from the original. To recap, after a priest offers Robert Thorn an orphan baby to call his own while his wife is till unaware of their child’s death at birth.

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Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman – The Complete Fourth Season

By Jeff Mardo on November-15-2006 in Disc Reviews

The final season of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman has finally hit store shelves, and it couldn’t have come at a better time for the franchise. The Big Red S is everywhere these days, between a new feature film that is coming soon to DVD, a boxed-set re-release of all the Christopher Reeve-era films and an all new video game, the hero seems to be everywhere. It’s only fitting that the final season of the modern series should be hitting the streets as well.

Unfortunately, the series d…

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Kung Fu Hustle (Blu-ray)

By Jeff Mardo on November-9-2006 in Disc Reviews

Steven Chow directs this action laden martial arts comedy. I loved it and laughed all the way through. The odd, dysfunctional characters were so funny (and well acted) that I just got into the whole spoof, relaxed and enjoyed. The dubbed voices seem to really match up well to their respective characters.Sing (Steven Chow) stars as a loser hoodlum that gets in the middle of a rivalry between the Axe Gang (a group he hopes to join) and a couple of odd, married landlords who turn out to be Kung Fu masters in disguise.

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Silent Hill (Blu-ray)

By Jeff Mardo on November-9-2006 in Disc Reviews

Based on a the best selling video game, Rose (Radha Mitchell), a desperate mother, goes in search of her daughter Sharon in an abandoned and strange, desolate town called Silent Hill. It is her daughter’s near death sleep walking episodes and constant remarking of a place called Silent Hill that has here seek out this place and return her daughter to it to find out answers and a solution as to why her daughter is sleep walking. However, in this ashen town with a history of mass death from a coal fire, she finds far more than she bargained for!

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The Haunted Mansion (Blu-ray)

By Jeff Mardo on November-3-2006 in Disc Reviews

Eddie Murphy stars in this spooky story as a hard-sell real estate agent who on his way out for a weekend away with his family makes a little detour to see about representing the owner of Gracey Manor (the haunted mansion) for its sale. Little do he and his family know but the seller is more interested in his family than selling the house. Murphy first suspects something is awry by the graveyard in the back of the house, not to mention a few ghosts looming around the dilapidated place. This is where the adventure starts and all he wants to do is escape the Haunted Mansion.

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Brothers Grimm, The (Blu-ray)

By Jeff Mardo on October-27-2006 in Disc Reviews

Folklore collectors and con artists, Jake and Will Grimm, travel from village to village pretending to protect townsfolk from enchanted creatures and performing exorcisms. But actually, they conjure up their own horrific cursed creatures, terrorize the unsuspecting town and then ‘magically’ drive them from away, all for a tidy price, of course. However, after a run in with skeptical military General Delatombe (Jonathon Pryce) and threatened with a gruesome death, the charlatans opt to go to ano…

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La Femme Nikita – The Complete Fifth Season

By Jeff Mardo on October-25-2006 in Disc Reviews

I never got into La Femme Nikita, but I can certainly appreciate it. This was a breakthrough series that defined the modern spy and con genres for both television and film. The show was just a bit too 80’s for me. It sometimes took itself too seriously, like a rerun of Airwolf. When you really stop and think about what is going on in some of these episodes, the whole thing is just a bit silly.

However, there are people who love this show, and I can respect that. Season five was the show’s last, …

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Gone in 60 Seconds (Blu-ray)

By Jeff Mardo on October-24-2006 in Disc Reviews

Nicolas Cage is Randall “Memphis” Raines, a car thief who thought he’d left the fast lane behind - until he’s forced out of retirement in a do-or-die effort to save his kid brother (Giovanni Ribisi) from the wrath of an evil mobster. But with speed to burn and attitude to spare, Memphis hastily reassembles his old crew - a rogues’ gallery including Angelina Jolie and Robert Duvall. Together, Randall’s team floors it in a full-throttle race to pull off the ultimate car heist: 50 exotic beauties in 24 hours ‘ and the cops are already on to them!

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Slight Case of Murder, A

By Jeff Mardo on October-21-2006 in Disc Reviews

TNT is slowly becoming the poor man’s HBO. Their programing quality has improved dramatically over the past couple of years, and even their original films are starting to look more like features than made-for-TV time wasters. More often than not, they provide quality programming that is a step above what you usually find on cable television.

This particular TNT original was both written and directed by William H. Macy. Predictably, Macy stars in the film as well. He pays a movie reviewer who is involved in an…

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James Stewart – The Signature Collection

By Jeff Mardo on September-19-2006 in Disc Reviews

Tom Hanks is sometimes called this generation’s Jimmy Stewart. In an odd sort of way, that is sort of a compliment to both men. Both are extraordinary actors who have secured a place in film history as the best of their time at playing the everyman. While such a role would doom other actors to being typecast as the all-time greatest supporting actor, both Hanks and Stewart have been able to pull off the role with amazing versatility.

Clearly, this is not the definitive set of Stewart’s work as an actor. For t…

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Kicking and Screaming

By Jeff Mardo on August-30-2006 in Disc Reviews

This is a Parker Posey film, which in itself is enough of a reason for me to check this film out. However, I was surprised to find that Josh Hamilton is here as well. While you may not know the name of Josh Hamilton right away, the two of them worked together in a brilliantly satirical film called The House of Yes; one of my personal favorites. In fact, there are several things that tie these two films together in my mind. While both are very funny and disturbing films, the charm in them both is the tension hi…

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Duck Season

By Jeff Mardo on August-19-2006 in Disc Reviews

This disc certainly had me fooled. I though I was in for another one of those lame teenage “comedies” where the emphasis is on lame and cliché jokes and the occasional glimpse of gratuitous nudity. What I wound, however, was a wonderful movie that is the very definition of an indie film. If you liked Kevin Smith’s first foray into filmmaking, then you will probably like this piece as well. I would contend that Clerks was a better film, but this Mexican film certainly has it’s on charm as well. While Smith’s fi…

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