Posted in: Podcasts by Gino Sassani on March 8th, 2015
Can you mine comedy out of a financial crises and the student loan issues in this country. You can if you're Arc Entertainment. They're releasing Bank$tas on DVD Tuesday. I got the chance to talk with one of the film's stars. Michael Seater might be best known to fans from Bomb Girls and Life With Derek. He gets to play in the world of high finance with the likes of Alan Thicke and Supergirl herself Laura Vandervoort. Bang it here to check out my chat with Michael Seater.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 6th, 2015
When Stephen King wrote The Running Man back in 1982, he might very well have been looking through a crystal ball at the television landscape of the 21st century. While we haven't started executing criminals in game-show fashion ...yet … reality television has had a huge impact on our pop culture. From Big Brother to Survivor, Americans continue to get their kicks watching attention-needy "contestants" engage in silly little dramas and the occasional shoving match. Maybe we should blame it all on Jerry Springer. One of the latest reality shows to come along has been Breaking Amish. That show was soon followed by Breaking Amish: Los Angeles. Both are no longer on the air, and after spending a season with Breaking Amish Los Angeles, I can't say I'm at all surprised.
The idea appears to be a simple one. Young Amish folks are offered a chance to try the "English" (it's what they call the rest of us) lifestyle. They are taken to LA where they live together and experience all of those things that are taboo in their own cultures. They risk being shunned when they return, but they go along with the idea. Now here's where the show differs from any other reality series I've seen to date. Usually there is some competition or elimination process with some kind of a prize or goal at the end of the show. That's not the case here. When it starts we don't even know how long they are to do this, and "contestants" appear to come and go in the house. There is no cash or apprentices awaiting a winner. A couple of the participants do get to meet people in a field they wish to pursue, but it's a dropped thread that doesn't really lead anywhere for either. No one gets voted out, although a couple are asked to leave at different times, only one being permanent.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 3rd, 2015
"Remember when our biggest problem was which Mayan to kill?"
All good things come to an end, and all rides eventually reach their destination. It's all come home for the gang at Sons of Anarchy, and you can believe that if anyone is left standing when it's over, there will be scars. Kurt Sutter has taken the culture of the motorcycle club, don't call them a gang, and made it accessible to a regular audience. He did that not by attempting to overwhelm us with the iconography of the genre. He did it by giving us incredible characters with incredibly complex story arcs and inter-relationships. Honestly, it couldn't have been an easy task. I could not have cared any less for this particular genre or culture, but I'm really going to miss the characters of Sons of Anarchy.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 2nd, 2015
"The world has indeed gone topsy turvy".
It's as inevitable as death and taxes. When you review movies that come out on home video, you will see a lot of zombie films. Every wannabe filmmaker with a camcorder and 20 bucks thinks they can break into the business with a few staggering zombies, bare breasts and a screaming hero laying down profanities and head shots for 80 minutes. So you can understand that I release a little moan each time a studio ships me their latest zombie acquisition. Why do it? Because once in a while you find a gem in all of that trash. Every so often something surprises you, and it's like Christmas...or maybe it's more like Halloween. Zombieworld was one of those unexpected treasures.
Posted in: Tribute by Gino Sassani on February 28th, 2015
"We are assembled here today to pay final respects to our honored dead. And yet it should be noted that in the midst of our sorrow, this death takes place in the shadow of new life, the sunrise of a new world; a world that our beloved comrade gave his life to protect and nourish. He did not feel this sacrifice a vain or empty one, and we will not debate his profound wisdom at these proceedings. Of my friend, I can only say this: of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... human."
Many of the headlines read: "Spock is dead". Of course, that's not really true. Spock is a fictional character that will live on likely longer than any of us. But fans of science fiction in general and Star Trek fans in particularly have lost a friend today who was very human. Leonard Nimoy was 83.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 25th, 2015
"There's been some trouble with the women hereabouts...it's bad."
What exactly is a Western? That's the question that the cast and crew of The Homesman struggle with here. They appear to be divided on the subject, and the same sentiment will likely make this one a little harder to pigeonhole. That's not necessarily important except when it comes to marketing a film. An audience wants some kind of an idea what they're getting when they see it on the shelf of their local video store. Tommy Lee Jones wrote, directed and stared in this period piece, and he'd rather you not call it a Western. Others connected with the film are on board with the genre label. I guess I fall somewhere in the middle. Westerns often deal with cowboys and Indians. Well... there are some brief Indians here. They don't figure too prominently in the story, however. Other times the genre deals with gunslingers, bandits, or outlaws of one kind or another. Not so much in The Homesman. There are horses, and the cinematography certainly lends itself to the wide open spaces of the traditional Western. Usually Westerns take place in the period just after the Civil War to about the end of the 19th century. The Homesman takes place earlier, in 1854. One thing is for certain. It's a frontier movie with Western elements that, in the end, might not really matter. Let's call it a redemption story and leave it at that, shall we?
Posted in: Podcasts by Gino Sassani on February 23rd, 2015
Zombieworld is like no other zombie film you've ever seen. It's a clever adaptation of independent zombie shorts. It's out now on DVD from Image Entertainment. I got to talk briefly with director Jesse Baget and Producer Steven Barton. These guys were primed and ready for action. Bang it hear to listen to my chat with the guys behind Zombieworld.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on February 20th, 2015
What do you do with your life when your Dad is Chucky? You star in your own films. Of course, some of those are going to be of the horror variety. That's the story with Fiona Dourif who stars with Robert Englund and Thomas Dekker in Fear Clinic out from Anchor Bay. I got the chance to talk to her about her new film. Certainly, we had to touch on father Brad Dourif and her experiences in the Chucky franchise. Want to know what she had to say? Of course, you do. Bang it here to listen in on my chat with Fiona Dourif.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 17th, 2015
"Three years ago brash billionaire daredevil Sly Baron vowed to make space tourism a reality. Today his lucky passengers are boldly going where none of them have been before. No, not Delaware...space."
It's a new frontier for the Scooby gang, but not the final one to be sure. Scooby Doo has spanned generations and over 40 years. Since the 1960’s the name and conventions have become a part of the pop culture. The original cartoon series had a series of conventions. The Scooby gang would drive around in their green Mystery Machine van and solve ghostly mysteries. Fans of the show quickly grew to learn that these spirits and goblins were usually just normal people using scare tactics to get revenge or make a profit. The cartoon classic spawned music albums, live action movies, and several new shows and animated features.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 17th, 2015
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 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 viewership throughout. Hell, Norris even sings the theme song. Truthfully, what started as a one man show (it was originally called Chuck Norris Is Walker, Texas Ranger) had become a good working ensemble that probably kept the train going for so long. Walker (Norris) is a tough-guy Texas Ranger. He is partnered with Sydney Cooke (Peebles) and Jimmy Trivetti (Gilyard) who’s an ex-jock with a brain. Walker had a love interest and eventual wife in the local assistant district attorney Alex Cahill (later Walker) Together they fight the evils that come to the high plains of Texas armed with their fists, six-shooters, and Stetsons.
Fans of Norris were never disappointed in what they got here. The requisite martial arts and tough-guy talk are present pretty much in every episode. There’s a popular T-shirt design that lauds their hero in epic fashion. One of my favorites is : “McGyver can build a plane out of gum and paper clips, but Chuck Norris can kill him and take the plane.” Another brags: “Some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas”. And there’s the humorous: “Chuck Norris knows what Willis is talkin’ about”.
