Archive for the ‘VC-1’ Category
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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 February 4th, 2010
“There are many among us who in the past closed their eyes to the events of war, because they believed that what was taking place in Europe was none of our business. That we could maintain our physical safety by retiring within our continental boundaries. Obviously, a defense policy based on that is merely to invite future attacks. For those who would not admit the possibility of the approaching storm, the past weeks have meant a shattering of past illusions.”
No, that quote wasn’t George W. Bush. It was Franklin D. Roosevelt on May 26th, 1941.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 4th, 2010
“There are stories a river can tell. And truths it cannot hide. There are ways it brings us together that we may never see, connecting us with places never suspected. Places like fear, like betrayal, like murder.”
One thing you have to say for Clint Eastwood. In his later years as a director and producer of films, maybe from Unforgiven onward, he has selected some of the most compelling stories for his film projects. You get the sense that he hasn’t been in this for the money in a long time. You easily believe that he doesn’t make a film unless it reaches him completely and deeply.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 19th, 2010
“Nature did not intend for you to survive out here. But here you are, and here I am to teach you how not to die…”
Whiteout has taken about as long and hard a road getting made as the characters in the film find themselves on stuck in the Antarctic. It began life as a crude graphic novel written by Greg Rucka and drawn by Steve Lieber. It developed a rather loyal cult following and was conceived as a film at around 2002. At one point it was intended as the launching point for a franchise featuring the federal marshal played by Kate Beckinsale
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 14th, 2010
“Fighting soldiers from the sky. Fearless men who jump and die. Men who mean just what they say, the brave men of the Green Beret. Silver wings upon their chest. These are men, America’s best. One hundred men will test today. But only three win the Green Beret.”
The Ballad Of The Green Beret has become one of America’s most famous marching songs. It has been heavily parodied. The words were written by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler while he was in the hospital recuperating from a leg wound he received in Vietnam. The music was composed by Robin Moore, who went on to pen the book The Green Berets, on which this film was based.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 15th, 2009
“Space…The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its 5-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before!”
Paramount was bold indeed when they undertook the remaster project of the original series. Not only did they clean up the prints, but they took the decidedly risky option of redoing most of the f/x shots from the original prints. We all know just how cheesy the old work looked when compared to today’s computer abilities. You could see a box around spacecraft that allowed the obvious cutout to maneuver through a cardboard star field.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 1st, 2009
I went to my player, the one that’s on top. I turned on the TV I bought at the shop. Then I opened my Blu-ray, took it right from its case, and then there on the tray I put it in place. I pushed one or two buttons to bring it up fast. Soon an FBI warning, then my feature at last. I sat the whole time crouched alone in my chair, watching fanciful images that came to me there. I was certain at once that I’d seen this before, but something was different; it was brighter, I’m sure. The Grinch was the same, he hadn’t changed, not a bit. But the image was clearer now, I had to admit.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 1st, 2009
I grew up on the Peanuts creations of Charles M. Schulz. Most of us have, in some way or another. His newspaper comic strip is one of the longest running and most successful strips of all time. The work has been translated into every language currently spoken on the planet. The images of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, and the rest of the Peanuts gang have appeared on just about any kind of product imaginable. Our pop culture contains too many references to the strip to mention briefly. For me, it was the television specials starting in the mid 1960’s that brought the gang into my life.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 30th, 2009
“On the 15th of May, in the jungle of Nool, in the heat of the day, in the cool of the pool. He was splashing enjoying the jungle’s great joys, when Horton, the Elephant, heard a small noise. Then he heard it again, just a very faint yelp, as if some tiny person were calling for help…”
If you’re like me, you remember the Dr. Seuss specials from the 1960’s. At this time of the year, The Grinch comes first to mind. In that wonderful span of cartoon specials was the story of the elephant Horton, who hears voices coming from a speck he carries around on a flower.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 24th, 2009
“You got everything money can buy, except what it can’t. It’s pride. Pride is what got you here. Losing is what brung you back. But, people like you, they need to be tested. They need a challenge.”
There have been a ton of boxing films. They’ve been popular going back to the Silent Era. Most of them have many of the same themes. But there was always something about Rocky that stood out above all of the rest. That “something” can’t really be described or defined. As the Supreme Court once said about the definition of obscenity: “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.” That’s all you can say about Rocky. Some might call it heart. That’s about as good a word for it as anything else.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 24th, 2009
Do you know what’s worse than watching a bad movie? It has to be watching three bad movies. Worse than that is watching three bad movies where it’s obvious to everyone involved in the films that they know they’re bad movies. It doesn’t take long until you begin to think that you’re the one everyone is really laughing about. You can picture a couple members of the cast sitting with the director all laughing their rear ends off at the poor rube who actually spends good money, and more importantly, their time, watching the piece of crap you just dropped into their DVD or Blu-ray player. It’ll take forever to get that stink out of my home theater.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 18th, 2009
“Sometime in the 23rd Century the survivors of war, overpopulation, and pollution are living in a great domed city, sealed away from the forgotten world outside. Here in an ecologically balanced world, mankind lives only for pleasure, freed by the servo-mechanisms which provide everything. There’s just one catch. Life must end at thirty unless reborn in the fiery ritual of Carousel.”
Logan’s Run started life as a pretty successful novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. The source material was really quite dark and more like Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner than the 1976 film based on the work.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 11th, 2009
“The perpetrator is an expert marksman. He’s an expert in explosives and tactics. Gentlemen, play this one by the numbers. Maintain your fields of fire… We’re blind and he’s seeing in 20/20… We have not contained him. He’s contained himself.”
“He” is Samuel L Jackson in the 1998 action thriller The Negotiator. Jackson stars as Danny Roman. He’s a Chicago Metro hostage negotiator. As the film opens we get to see him in action saving a little girl from a tight hostage situation. He’s obviously good at his job and he has the respect and admiration of his fellow officers and commanders.
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Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 10th, 2009
The names of the characters are hardly consequential, as they are used to further storylines more than develop character. But Pacino plays a cop who is tracking a group of robbers, among them Val Kilmer (Wonderland) and Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan), a group headed by DeNiro. The group receives offers for work from Jon Voight (Runaway Train), and they rob anything from gold, to coins, to bearer bonds. They are all ex-cons, and know all the ropes. They are a highly professional crew, which you see in the opening moments of the movie, despite the addition of a new man to the crew.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 5th, 2009
“For the Egyptians, life was eternal. They searched the globe for ingredients to preserve their bodies and their immortality. With knowledge gained from centuries of practice, their priests have created the finnest mummies the world has ever known.”
Ever since Howard Carter first entered the tomb of the legendary King Tut, most of the world has had an incredible fascination with the mummies of ancient Egypt. Hollywood has done its best over the ages to create fear by making monsters of these preserved corpses. Universal and Boris Karloff started the ball rolling,
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 14th, 2009
“Its cold outside, There’s no kind of atmosphere, I’m all alone, More or less.
Let me fly, Far away from here, Fun, fun, fun, In the sun, sun, sun.
I want to lie, Shipwrecked and comatose, Drinking fresh, Mango juice, Goldfish shoals, Nibbling at my toes, Fun, fun, fun, In the sun, sun, sun…”
If you recognize that silly ditty, then you know it can only mean one thing. After 10 long years of silence, witness the return of the BBC science fiction comedy, Red Dwarf. With the huge success of the rebirth of Doctor Who, it really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 7th, 2009
“For more than 150 million years dinosaurs roamed every corner of the planet. Only a very few left evidence of their existence, their fossilized bones. And, those bones have never ceased to fascinate us.”
The box art to the new IMAX Blu-ray release of Dinosaurs Alive is more than a little bit misleading. The package elicits an image of thundering prehistoric beasts engaged in all sorts of primeval activities. And why not? It’s the stuff of our youth’s imaginations. Has there ever been a more fascinating true story than dinosaurs? But, if you’re expecting, or worse hoping, to get a high definition experience somewhat akin to the Walking With Dinosaurs specials, you’re apt to be more than a little bit disappointed.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 2nd, 2009
“In the future, a computer program called Skynet will declare war on the human race. Machines have traveled back in time taking human form to terminate John Connor, the future leader of the resistance; Sarah Connor, John’s mother, teacher, and protector; Cameron, a terminator reprogrammed to defend them at all costs; Derek Reese, John’s uncle and a commanding officer with the resistance. Together they fight to stop Skynet from ever being created. The battle for our tomorrow starts today.”
Well actually, to be perfectly honest, it started back in October of 1984 with the release of James Cameron’s blockbuster Terminator. It was the story of a future Armageddon
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 17th, 2009
“Space…The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its 5-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before !”
Paramount was bold indeed when they undertook the remaster project of the original series. Not only did they clean up the prints, but they took the decidedly risky option of redoing most of the f/x shots from the original prints. We all know just how cheesy the old work looked when compared to today’s computer abilities. You could see a box around spacecraft that allowed the obvious cutout to maneuver through a cardboard star field.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 11th, 2009
“For those of you just joining us: What you are looking at is the work of ZFT, a terrorist organization responsible for at least a half a dozen biological attacks over the last several months. Everything we know thus far can be found in your packets (or Blu-rays), including a copy of their manifesto which elucidates their ideology and their methods. Which boils down to the following: Attempting to provoke or prepare for a war. With who? That’s the question, isn’t it? What we do know is that these bizarre acts seem to be increasing in frequency and that their targets are unpredictable and therefore unprotectable. Those of you assembled in this room now have a clear-cut goal…”
That goal is to rush out and pick up the high definition, Blu-ray release of the first season of JJ Abrams latest television enigma
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 25th, 2009
Look up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s…. well, Clark Kent. When Smallville was first developed for television, the showrunners made a few conscious decisions that have, for the most part, been kept for the show’s first 8 seasons. There was a strict “no flights, no tights” rule that was in effect for anyone hoping to pen an adventure for the show. Everyone knows we’re talking about Superman here, but the term is avoided like a deadly disease. All of the familiar places and names are firmly in place, but make no mistake. This is the world before Superman began to make his presence known to the world.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 12th, 2009
“Four turtles. Four brothers genetically reborn in the sewers of New York. Named after the great Renaissance masters and trained as ninjas. They battled many creatures and foes before defeating their arch enemy, The Shredder. But, now a greater evil is poised to destroy their brotherhood. An evil born 3000 years ago.”
What started as a low budget comic has grown into quite a sensation. The Turtles are everywhere. There are cartoons, books, comics, movies, and thousands of toys. They’ve been translated into just about every language in the world. The 1980’s and 1990’s were alive with Turtle power. With yet another film now in the works, the Turtles are about to make a comeback.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 10th, 2009
“It’s like one of those fatal attraction things, like they show on the Donahue Show, you know?”
It might not have exactly been “fatal”, but the attraction that Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau had for each other, and we still have for them, is on perfect display in Grumpy Old Men. Then again… it might just as well have been fatal, if not fate. The two men died just months from each other. Matthau left us in July of 2000, and just under a year later in June of 2001 we lost Jack Lemmon. Chris Lemmon, Jack’s son, doesn’t think it’s entirely a coincidence. He told me in a recent interview that the men loved each other. He joked that “if Walter had played golf, he’d have married him.” Whether it was the chemistry these guys had off screen or just their natural abilities, might be hard to pin down.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 6th, 2009
“If you look closely, you’ll find that everything has a weak spot, where it can break….”
The same can be said for Fracture. There are plenty of flaws, and if you look hard enough you can find a lot of problems with everything from the story to the performances. Thankfully these flaws are quite minor and require the kind of scrutiny that would likely ruin almost any movie experience. I taught law for about 7 years and make it a bit of a (bad?) habit to look for the errors in court and legal procedures.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 19th, 2009
“I’m Special Agent Kessel, in charge of the FBI and Department Of Justice’s joint task force on deranged and violent criminals. In the most extreme and violent cases traditional forensic investigations can be inadequate. In these instances, to hunt down the most vicious and elusive killers and psychopaths, we solicit the assistance of civilians with extraordinary gifts. Catherine Deane was one of them… now there’s another.”
That other is Maya (Santiago). It has been quite a few years since I saw The Cell. I was going to go back and watch the original again to get myself prepared for reviewing this direct to video sequel.
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