Archive for the ‘No Huddle Reviews’ Category
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Disc Reviews, No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 19th, 2010
Robert Altman has always had a reputation for being just slightly off the wall. He has an odd sense of humor that doesn’t always strike with a general audience. His films have often satisfied a niche in Hollywood, and he appeared to have been comfortable with that reputation. His films are also usually noted for their social commentary of the times. Both of these traits are certainly present in his most famous film, M*A*S*H. The movie was not an immediate success. It took a little time to grow on audiences, but grow it did.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 8th, 2010
“LAPD Lt. Carter Shaw and his special undercover task force understand that to collar criminals, one must first get on their level. They also know that going undercover may require cutting ties with those who mean the most. Adrift, isolated, and frequently faced with situations that strain the line between right or wrong, these officers know that all that matters is loyalty to each other and to the task at hand: bringing down the bad guys.”
That pretty much sums up the best part of what makes Dark Blue such a compelling series.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 21st, 2010
“Centuries ago in England, it was the era of chivalry and magic. The evil Prince John unleashed an iron fist of tyranny on the people. They called out for a champion. One man answered that call. His name was Robin Hood…”
Speak the name Robin Hood and one immediately conjures images of the swashbuckling hero of medieval England. The character’s origins go back as far as 15th century ballads that herald the daring deeds of an outlaw who fought against tyranny and injustice.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 1st, 2010
“This is the PAX Space Laboratory. We were working on an experiment in suspended animation…”
The release of Strange New World on the Warner Archive label is another example of just what a great idea this system from Warner Brothers really is. We’re talking about an obscure title here that had zero chance of ever reaching a standard release on any of the available formats. This is where the Archive Collection makes these kinds of cult-favorite shows and films accessible to the fans out there who have long felt forgotten.
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No Huddle Reviews by David Annandale on April 29th, 2010
The wonderful thing about the Warner Archive Collection and its burn-on-demand approach to DVDs is that it permits the release of titles that would otherwise be aimed at so narrow a niche as to be nonviable as a commercial release. And this two-disc set is a case in point. Hosted by Robert L. Ripley himself (yes, believe it or not, he was a real person), here are 24 ten-minute shorts from the early 1930s. They’re an entertaining hodgepodge of interesting facts, oddball trivia, quirks and freaks of nature, and travel footage. Among other things, what we have here is the ancestor of the shockumentary, and there are plenty of items that are still pretty eye-opening (such as the horned man).
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Disc Reviews by Sarah Durr on March 15th, 2010
Possession is a remake of a Japanese thriller called Jungdok (or Addicted). It was also scheduled to be released a year ago, but was pushed because the original distributor went bankrupt. Eventually, after a dozen set backs and push backs of the release date, it was given a straight to DVD release here in the states. Was it worth the wait and hassles?
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No Huddle Reviews, Uncategorized by William O'Donnell on March 13th, 2010
I am about to tell everyone out there to “not bother” with this film, so why do I “bother” you might ask? Because it is my duty to watch garbage like this so that you never have to. It is a bullet that I absorb with equal parts pain and pride for the world may be better off because of I do it.
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Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 19th, 2009
Lo these many Christmases ago, I received a wonderful book by Peter Dickinson called The Flight of Dragons. Gorgeously illustrated by Wayne Anderson, the book’s simple yet rigorously pursued conceit is the idea that dragons really existed. Dickinson sets out to show just how this could be, how they flew, how the fire breathing worked, and why there is no fossil record of their existence. In other words, Dickinson takes a hard SF approach to high fantasy, and the result is magical. Now, as part of its Archive Collection, Warner has resurrected a 1982 Rankin-Bass animated adaptation of the book.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 3rd, 2009
Hey Hey Hey, it’s Yogi Bear. It’s Christmas time at old Jellystone Park. Of course, Yogi, being a bear, is usually fast asleep. So, he’s never celebrated Christmas before. Now group of the Hanna/Barbera gang have gathered at the Jellystone Lodge for the annual Christmas Carnival. Last year there were some mysterious happenings that scared away a lot of the regulars. Now Mrs. Throckmorton, the owner of the lodge, is thinking about selling it so that a road can be paved there.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 30th, 2009
The day that most of us in the home video review business has been dreading has finally arrived. Anchor Bay has sent me my first Blu-ray screener. For those who might not know, a screener is a disc given to guys like me to write a review of the given film or television series. Unlike what we call Final Product, the disc often comes in a sleeve with no case or box art. The disc itself is usually does not include graphics, containing merely the name of the film and possibly the studio. The contents might or might not reflect what you, the consumer will get should you decide to purchase the disc. DVD screeners have often been single layer DVD-R copies, which look far worse than what the Final Product might look and sound like.
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Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 14th, 2009
Seriously, how many times will I watch this movie? It’s not quite The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but darn it, it’s sure on it’s way to being just that.So, a group of young people are traveling to (do you care?) and run into trouble, which forces them to a spooky location that is filled with equally spooky things like old buildings, farm equipment that can double as a weapon, a large collection of knives (even though the killers only ever seem to use one), and a child’s music box that is creating a plinky soundtrack for the youngster’s demise as a masked killer, who is masked for the sake of being masked, minces them up.
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Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 8th, 2009
As explained by many authors in this site, remakes are becoming far too common. In fact, they are so many of these that we aren’t sure of the source material. An obscure movie comes out and apparently in 1953, there was a similar movie made. This movie also probably made the equivalent of $100 American Dollars at the box office. Well, perhaps not that bad. I received one of these movies to review recently and it was titled Angel and the Badman. Let’s see how this one fares.
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Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 4th, 2009
Some would say that what I do is a “wannabe” writer. I write reviews of dvds & games and also write a weekly column. However, I’m sure there are many novelists and newspaper writers who consider me nothing more than an Internet geek with a keyboard. But the truth is we are something more. Many of us are just as good as the novelists out there and better than the liberal media. Criminal Ways was originally called the “Wannabes” because it was about a group of men who wanted to be a children’s entertainment group. But like myself, there is so much more to the story than meets the eye.
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Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 2nd, 2009
There are lots of people out there who watch cheesy horror films. Some blame it on boredom, some actually admit to liking a few of them. My personal feelings are about the same as any cheesefest, if there is something redeeming in the film; I can usually find a few nice things to say about it. However when it comes to films like the Beast Within, my momma always told me to just keep my mouth shut. Good for you, I never listened much.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 29th, 2009
“Dr. Hood is a high priority asset. He’s a brilliant biophysicist, but he spends most of his time in his head. About a year ago some radical group had his car bombed. You want to see him blush? Ask him where the shrapnel is. You see, he’s got this annoying habit of telling the truth, and the truth hurts a lot of people’s pocketbooks. And no, I’m not free for dinner.”
The Eleventh Hour is based on a British series of the same title that stared Star Trek’s Patrick Stewart as Dr. Hood and lasted only 4 episodes. So, someone in America decided that if we took a far less charismatic actor and redid the same show in the States, it might be a hit. Someone was wrong.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 22nd, 2009
“My name is Dylan Hunt. My story begins the day on which I died. My last look at my world was to be from inside a pressure chamber at NASA’s underground laboratory at Carlsbad Caverns. Our goal was the development of a form of suspended animation which would allow our astronauts to make longer voyages through our solar system. It had been my decision that our method was ready to test on a human so, it seemed that any risks should be mine…”
Gene Roddenberry was riding high as Star Trek began to grow more in popularity during syndication than it had as a prime time network series. Suddenly television executives wanted more ideas from The Great Bird Of The Galaxy
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 12th, 2009
Warner Brothers has come out with what I believe to be a wonderful new program to enhance their home video release catalog. Let’s face it. We all have a favorite film or television show that was never really a popular release with the general population. But that doesn’t matter to us, because we love it anyway. We wait forever in the hopes that the title will one day be available. Unfortunately, like anything else, video releases have to make money. If the studio does not believe that it will have broad enough appeal, the release will never see the light of day, nor your local favorite video store.
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Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 12th, 2009
The people at Warner Bros recently decided to adopt a new strategy when dealing with some of their back catalog. They would propose a printing on demand option or what they would dub the “Archive Collection”. This would allow collectors to own classics of long forgotten films and keep costs at a minimal to Warner Bros. One such movie was named Lightning Strikes Twice which came out in 1951 with Ruth Roman. Hopefully this one was a gem and not something that should be long forgotten back in the vault.
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Disc Reviews by Jay Macdonald on September 21st, 2009
Henry Lee Lucas tortured and murdered hundreds of people. He spent most of his formative years being brutally assaulted by his mother and half brother. Henry spent most of his life in prison and whenever he was released the temptation for murder was too much. Drifter: Henry Lee Lucas picks up during his last release from prison in 1975 and his subsequent arrest in 1983. Henry Lee Lucas (Antonio Sabato Jr.) joins forces with Ottis Toole (Kostas Sommer) and Becky (Kelly Curran) and they embark on one of the most prolific killing sprees in American history.
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Disc Reviews by Dale Krawchuk on September 13th, 2009
This Canadian made-for-TV movie from 2003 is about to be released on DVD. It stars a young Ellen Page (Juno, Hard Candy) which, I suspect, is the reason it is being released on DVD after all this time. The changes to the cover art support this theory. The original displayed much of the cast, with the titular cat featured in the foreground. The new and improved cover features a large picture of Ellen Page above the cat, with her name featured prominently above the title. I’m not sure if Miss Page has the kind of wide appeal to warrant basing a marketing campaign around, but sometimes you have to toss out every pitch you know and hope one of them gets over the plate.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 2nd, 2009
“The following is based on a true story: There are currently over 200 boot camps similar to the tough love facilities in the world, housing tens of thousands of children. They operate with virtually no government regulation or oversight. Since the beginning of the tough love rehabilitation movement in the 1970’s hundreds of thousands of kids have gone through these or similar programs. There have been over 40 deaths in the camps. There are no statistics on how many lives have been irreparably damaged.”
The following review is based on a true viewing. Well… not exactly
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Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 20th, 2009
Marketing is very important for a movie. Many think that star power or an impressive audio track will do the trick. Even if you crank up the special effects to eleven, it might do nothing for the film. That is unless some solid marketing executives do their best to get it out there and into the minds of the ticket buyers. Take a film called Delgo. It boasted one of the worst grossing wide releases in recent history. However, the animated movie had a solid speaking cast and the animation was very respectable. So what exactly happened? Marketing.
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Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 9th, 2009
There are a handful of actors and actresses on this planet who you could say gained more by their death rather than their entire life. One of these actors was James Dean. James Dean was born on February 8th, 1931 in Marion, Indiana. In the next 24 years, he would bridge himself to stardom. But arguably, he wouldn’t receive that iconic status until he died on September 30th, 1955 in a horrible car accident in his Porsche 550 Spyder in Cholame, California. The people at Hollywood Select Video decided to release a 2-disc collection of various television pieces he did before his most recognized three films: Rebel Without a Cause, Giant & East of Eden. These pieces give an interesting look at the rise of a legend.
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Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 5th, 2009
This week we get a little more mayhem from those great people at Smithsonian Networks: Pandas Gone Wild. Witness the spectacle of Pandas flashing tourists for just a few shoots of bamboo. Okay, that isn’t what this is about. It’s much more tranquil and peaceful than that and takes place in the mountains of China in a secluded sanctuary. The next forty five minutes will produce a lot of oooo and even more awwww moments than I can write about in the next several paragraphs.
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Comedy, Disc Reviews, Fox, No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 5th, 2009
Name: Miss March Measurements: 89 minutes/90 minutes (unrated version)
Birthdate: March 13, 2009 Weight: $ 4 Million at the box office
Ambitions: To be the nastiest road/party movie it can be, without really showing all that much skin.
Turn-ons: It didn’t last very long.
Turn-offs: Let me count the ways. The cast. The script. The direction. The editing. Basically having to watch Miss March again.
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