Posted in: Contests by Gino Sassani on March 16th, 2017
How long has it been since you’ve spent some time with Mama? It’s hard to believe that it’s been over 25 years. Our good friends at Time Life have decided that it’s just been too dang long. Of course, we’re talking about the television classic Mama’s Family staring Vicki Lawrence. We’re teaming up to give you a good deal of time to spend with Mama. It’s called Mama’s Favorites and it’s a collection of 6 DVD's. There's one from each season featuring Vicki Lawrence’s hand-picked favorite episodes. You get 37 episodes in all. Guest stars include Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman and Alex Trebek.
To win a copy of this prize, follow these instructions.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 10th, 2017
Star Trek Voyager was the third spinoff from the original Star Trek, following the superior Next Generation and the inferior Deep Space Nine. While the idea was quite an original premise, the cast never seemed to gel. The obvious attempt at political correctness gives us the most diverse cast yet on Star Trek, including the first female captain. Kate Mulgrew is the weakest captain to date on Star Trek. (I know I’ll catch heat for this.) The reason is not her gender, but such a lack of strength. She never walks, but seems to glide across the bridge when she moves. The strongest characters come in Tom Paris, the Federation inmate, and Torres, the half-Klingon, half-human hybrid. There is real passion in those characters that keeps the cast interesting enough. The combination of Federation and Maquis (a rebel Federation group) members was a great setup that too quickly gets tossed aside in later years. There’s plenty of Star Trek eye candy and a whole new quadrant of aliens to meet here. It had been quite some time for me since I had seen Voyager.
Star Trek Voyager came into its own during the second season. This was the first full season of the Star Trek spin-off. Voyager once again brought the concept of exploration to the Star Trek universe. The season was very uneven. There is the absolutely terrible and contrived episode The 37’s, which starts off with an old pickup truck floating in space. For the first time a starship lands, and I think that was an unwise development. This is the episode where the crew finds Amelia Earhart. The season does contain one of the best episodes of the series with Tuvix. Remember Tuvok and Neelix getting genetically entwined with an orchid? The combined character was far more interesting than either was individually. I recall wishing they stayed combined. It wasn’t always great stuff, but it was Star Trek at a time when The Next Generation was ending. This was a solid season for Voyager. The show had not yet settled into its too-comfortable environment. The season ended on the usual Trek cliffhanger. It must be noted that since the series began the previous January instead of the customary fall, production of episodes for the first three years does not follow the seasons. If you check out any of the Voyager companions available, you will find discrepancies as to which episodes came from which season. More episodes were produced in years 1 and 2 than were aired. These unaired episodes would begin the following season.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on March 2nd, 2017
"I always know who you are. It's just that sometimes I don't recognize you."
Logan is perhaps one of the most interesting, endearing and popular characters in the Marvel universe. Wolverine has the distinction of having been created by someone other than Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. While they invented the X-Men team from which the adamantium-clawed warrior was born, he was actually created by the team of Len Wein and John Romita, Sr. in the mid 1970's. Since that time the character has taken on a life of his own, a life that is as much owed to actor Hugh Jackman as anyone else. The funny thing is that Jackman is really nothing at all like the comic book character, who was actually quite short. But it's Jackman who has come to personify the wirily Cannuck. He's appeared, if only briefly, in each of the X-Men films except for one and two less-than-stellar Wolverine films. It all comes to a rather fitting close with one of the best Marvel-character films to date. Logan is pure comic book film noir and an emotional ride from start to finish.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 2nd, 2017
Brad Pitt appears to be making this World War II thing a bit of a niche. In recent years he went from Inglourious Basterds to the superior Fury and now to Allied. I wish I could say that he's getting better, but Allied marks a step backwards for the actor in more ways than just the performance. It's an unfortunate aspect of Hollywood that sexy rumors and scandals sell more theater tickets than a good movie. Hollywood power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have called it quits, and the scuttlebutt is that it was Pitt's fling with Allied co-star Marion Cotillard that caused the split. I don't know if any of that is true and honestly wouldn't care a hill of beans if it were. I only bring it up because if Pitt was having some kind of on-set torrid romance, it's a shame that none of that passion ever made it to the screen. These two have about as much romantic chemistry as Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. (Too soon?) If only that were all there was to sink this period drama.
Max Vatan (Pitt) is a member of military intelligence during World War II. He's dropped into French Morocco to take down a high-priority target. The inside contact for the mission is the famous French liberation legend Marianne Beausejour (Cotillard), who poses as his wife. Together they complete their mission and return to England where their fake romance has blossomed into a real one. They are soon married with a child. Both are enjoying a break from the spy world as the war continues to rage about them. It's wedded bliss until Vatan is told that his wife might not be who she says she is. She might be a plant and a German spy. Needless to say his world tumbles down around him as he tries to stay one step ahead of his superiors to discover the truth.
Posted in: Podcasts by Gino Sassani on February 22nd, 2017
He's back. I'm talking about author Robert Matzen. I spoke to Robert at Christmas about his amazing book Mission: Jimmy Stewart And The Fight For Europe. You can catch up on that interview Here. Now he has released a new edition of his book Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3 which tells the story of the fiery plane crash that took the life of Carole Lombard, her mother, and Otto Winkler, who was Clark Gable's assistant and best friend, on January 16, 1942. The plane was also carrying American servicemen who were an important part of the World War II effort. This new edition contains brand new material and has been released for the 75th anniversary of the tragic crash. I can tell you that it's a page-turner that you'll find hard to put down. (Of course, that could have to do with the sticky stuff they put all over the cover. Just kidding.) All the while as I was reading the book I was looking forward to another conversation with the author. We finally got to talk again. Now you can hear every word. Bang it here to listen in on my chat with Robert Matzen.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 15th, 2017
"There are days that define your story beyond your life. Like the day they arrived..."
The problem is that this starts out with the kind of story we've seen a thousand times before. The alien invasion theme is nothing new. H.G. Wells was describing it back in the 19th Century with War of the Worlds. Unrelated Orson Welles scared the crap out of a depression-era radio audience with the same story. Independence Day gave us a brilliantly visual story that also begins the same way: alien ships begin to take strategic positions around the world. Here we go again, right? Wrong. We should have guessed from the beginning that when director Denis Villeneuve tackles a genre, he's going to turn it on his head. We’d seen him do it before. Last year's Sicario gave us a "war on drugs" film that wasn't like anything that came before it. Prisoners could have looked like a Taken sequel. I mean, how many ways can a tough guy deal with a kidnapped daughter? Of course, Villeneuve showed us there was at least one more way. He does it again with an alien first-contact film that is a blend of The Day The Earth Stood Still, 2001 A Space Odyssey, and maybe a little bit of the Twilight Zone classic To Serve Man, without the special sauce recipe. But mostly it's a cerebral journey that mines much of the same ground that Christopher Nolan did with Interstellar. Except that Villeneuve did a better job. Oh, and he spent $120 million less to do it. You still might be scratching your head when you leave, but you will also have some wonderful themes to ponder on the drive home. Arrival might well be one of the best films I'll see in 2016.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 15th, 2017
"It is the unknown that defines our existence. We are constantly searching, not just for answers to our questions, but for new questions. We are explorers. We explore our lives day by day, and we explore the galaxy trying to expand the boundaries of our knowledge. And that is why I am here: not to conquer you with weapons or ideas, but to coexist and learn."
No Star Trek series has divided Trek fans as much as the 1993 release of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It had been six years since the franchise had been resurrected on television with The Next Generation. Next Generation won over the Trek community and had enjoyed a pretty solid run. But it was coming to an end soon, and the folks at Paramount didn't want to see the ratings train leave the station quite so soon. Creator Gene Roddenberry died two years earlier, and this would be the first entry into the franchise that was not guided by his own hand. Rick Berman and Michael Piller, who had both worked on Next Generation, were tapped to create the next true generation of Star Trek television shows. The result was Deep Space Nine. While it would be introduced with Patrick Stewart's beloved Captain Jean-Luc Picard, it would lead to unrest in the fan-base and accusations that Roddenberry's dream had been jettisoned from the franchise. I must admit that I never really warmed up to the show at the time. It was only later through DVD releases that I was able to watch the show with both distance and some context and I truly started to appreciate the show. It still doesn't rank as one of my favorites, but having an opportunity to see it all as a 7-year project, I grew to enjoy many of the characters and even some of the stories. Deep Space Nine introduced the long-form story arc to the franchise, and that certainly can be better appreciated by having it all unfold before you as episode immediately follows episode. It's an opportunity you now have with the release of the entire series in one collection.
Posted in: Contests, Expired Contests by Gino Sassani on February 14th, 2017
HBO is known for their quality original programs. The latest to join the elite list is Quarry. This is a 1970's period-piece that reminds one of The Deer Hunter. It's a high-octane drama and HBO is giving us a copy of the Complete First Season on DVD to pass on to one of our lucky readers. John will be telling you more in his upcoming review. You'll want to get in on this series from the ground floor.
To win a copy of this prize, follow these instructions.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on February 13th, 2017
"You wanted me back. I'm back."
Keanu Reeves has enjoyed somewhat of a career renaissance thanks in no small part to the success of John Wick in 2014. There he teamed up with some stunt friends of his going back to The Matrix, and together they brought a new action hero to the screen that was as much graphic novel as it was action film. It would become the directing debut of the stunt team of Stahelsky and David Leitch. Along with their action star, everyone stuck to what they knew and refused to overcomplicate the whole thing. That led to a box office haul of $86 million worldwide and a respectful enough budget to make a sequel seem like a good possibility. It took three years, but that possibility has turned into John Wick: Chapter 2.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 10th, 2017
Danny McBride managed to inhabit the role of Kenny Powers to such an extent that I do appear to have trouble keeping them separate. I thought that the arrival of a new series would finally put that issue to rest. I’m discovering there was a reason I had trouble telling them apart. They are indeed the same person. Add to the situation that Vice Principals uses the same writing and production team headed by McBride and Jody Hill, and there are moments when you will think that you’re still watching Eastbound And Out. The wild card that changes things up enough happens to be Walter Goggins. Goggins came to notice as the cold Shane in The Shield and the quirky Boyd Crowder in Justified. Put those two characters together and you get an inkling of his character here. It’s a wonderfully nuanced character big enough to shine over McBride’s shtick.
Bill Murray cameos in the pilot episode as Principal Welles of North Jackson High School with an ailing wife. His two vice-principals Neal Gamby (McBride) and Lee Russell (Goggins) have been competing for his job for years. Just when one of them is about to grab the silver ring, the school board brings in outside Dr. Belinda Brown (Gregory) who has left Philadelphia with her two sons, fleeing a broken relationship. She’s qualified, so now the two enemies have to join forces to get rid of her.
