Posts by Gino Sassani

"The mental facility to detect conspiracies and betrayal are the same qualities most likely to corrode natural judgment. Everything that seems clear is bent. And everything that seems bent is clear. Trapped in reflections, you must learn to recognize when a lie masquerades as the truth, and then deal with it efficiently, dispassionately."

Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) believes in all that America stands for and will do whatever he must to protect what his country stands for. As one of the founder members of the CIA in 1939, Wilson is also one of the most trusted members of this group of secrecy. When the idea that a mole may be working within the CIA is found, Wilson is told to find out which member is the mole. The path Wilson must take to discover this mole will lead him to question not only the CIA as a group, but also his personal life.

Of all of the cop or detective shows I’ve seen over the years, I can relate to this one better than any of them. You see, years ago, I was a detective. I wasn’t a cop and mostly did internal investigations for a large Florida retail chain. While I was a fair detective in most areas, I did eventually develop a specialty of sorts. When other detectives ran into a brick wall interviewing their subjects, they’d often call on me to get whatever information they were trying to extract. No, I didn’t beat it out of them. I was never a physically intimidating guy. I was just good at getting them to talk. I guess I was a little bit of a con artist who was working for the good guys instead of preying on hapless marks. I never lied to a subject and never threatened violence. It was a battle of wits, and I always won. That’s exactly how you would describe Brenda Johnson (Sedgwick) in The Closer. While the series was, in many ways, your standard procedural police drama, each episode would end with Brenda getting some reluctant perp to spill their guts. She relied on southern charm. She looked and sounded harmless enough that she could get the person to lower their guard and fall for one rather simple trick or another. Case closed.

Brenda Johnson was brought to L.A. from Atlanta, where she had a reputation of getting things done. She was brought in to help the department deal with a bad reputation when it came to murders. Chief Will Pope (Simmons) hired her to get the department back on track. She was given the title of Deputy Chief and a team of elite investigators. The Priority Homicide Unit investigated high profile or particularly difficult murder cases. The team included veteran detective Lt. Provenza (Bailey) who wasn’t above bending a few rules to get the bad guy. Lt. Michael Tao (Chan) was the tech-savvy guy in the group. Commander Taylor (Gossett) is often her biggest critic in the team. He believed that he should have gotten her job. Sergeant Gabriel (Reynolds) and Detective Irene Daniels (Ravera) are an on-again off-again item in the office, providing for some extra tension. Brenda’s engaged to FBI Agent Fritz Howard (Tenney), whom she marries by the fourth season of the show.

“By 2017, the world economy has collapsed. Food, natural resources, and oil are in short supply. A police state, divided into Paramilitary Zones, rules with an iron hand. Television is controlled by the state, and a sadistic game show called "The Running Man" has become the most popular program in history. All art, music, and communications are censored. No dissent is tolerated, and yet a small resistance movement has managed to survive underground. When high-tech gladiators are not enough to suppress the people's yearning for freedom ... more direct methods become necessary.”

This is quite a unique experience for me. Having recently reviewed the 2025 remake, I now have the opportunity to review the 1987 version. So, I essentially get to this in reverse. Naturally, I’ve seen the 1987 version years ago, but it being years ago, there a details that were no longer fresh in my mind, which essentially gave me the unique position of it being a new experience again. I relished that. I enjoyed the 2025 version, and I was curious about how I would view the original film post watching the remake. Answer: I like them both, and while I give the remake credit for its modernization, there is still something intriguing about the Arnold Schwarzenegger cult classic. Part of it’s the backstory from the original film, which deviates away from the book source material. Schwarzenegger is a former cop framed for a crime he didn’t commit, and his path to freedom is through a dangerous life-or-death game.

"I need the waves, man. I need the movement. The open ocean. I used to ... as a kid I used to wander down to the Sonoran Desert, outside of Gilbert. It was terrifying, man. Just nothin'. But nothin' everywhere I looked. And I just felt it out there, all of it. You know, whatever it is. Just felt it. And I get the same exact shit whenever I'm out on the water. I just know it when I feel it. It's there. It feels like I'm at peace, you know? It feels like home."

I know exactly what the guy is talking about here. I inherited a love of the sea from my father, who lived and breathed salt air. So I approached the film feeling a certain connection. The film is also based on events that happened here in the Tampa area. While this was filmed in Malta, the events happened in February of 2009 off the coast of Clearwater, Florida. It's the spring training home of the Phillies and also home to Upcomingdiscs. It's nice to go into a film with some connections, and that's exactly what I felt preparing to watch Not Without Hope now out on DVD. The film is based on firsthand accounts of the event from the lone survivor, Nick Schuyler, in a book he co-wrote with Jere Longman a year later in 2010.

"When my father smells oil, nature repents! And there'll be oil; when it flows - and flow it will - my father will be right here with a bonus for everybody! It'll be Saturday night in a few hours, and I've only one more duty - to see our Mexican workers and wish them a safe journey 'home'. You all have a happy weekend and wish me one; we've labored hard, and we deserve the happiness that all Americans know to be their birthright!"

It was Sam Spiegel who first saw the potential of the Horton Foote novel and play The Chase back in the 1950's. It was suggested as a vehicle for Montgomery Clift, but the rights languished for almost 10 years. Spiegel finally got the film off the ground and lured a pretty solid cast into the fold. Marlon Brando was a huge star, but the futures of actors like Robert Redford and even Robert Duvall hadn't quite risen yet. He brought on director Arthur Penn, who was a year away from his breakout film Bonnie And Clyde. He also gave John Barry his very first film score. John Barry would go on to compose one of the most familiar themes in movie history. He went on to compose the scores for 11 James Bond films, more than any other composer, and his twangy electric guitar theme has taken center stage on every official Bond film no matter who writes the score.  And just to eventually top off his career, he composed scores for Out Of Africa and Dances With Wolves. It wasn't exactly clear at the time, but The Chase was packed with both stars of that time and stars of the future in all areas. It never did well at the box office, and it's one of those gems most of you have never seen. Now's your chance with the release of the film on Blu-ray in high definition. It's a keeper.