Posts by Gino Sassani

Our very good friends over at Warner Brothers have given us a wonderfully funny  prize for all of you Yogi Bear fans out there.  We have a copy of the new Yogi Bear on high definition Blu-ray/DVD. The film stars Dan Aykoyd and Justin Timberlake. To win a copy of this prize, follow these instructions.

Contest is now closed Winner was Cam Miller

The American Girl series appears to have started as a collection of dolls. The collection featured various girls from a wide range of historical periods. The dolls came with rather unique histories that provided both a chance to bring the doll to life in the imagination of the child and also teach a little of what life might have been like for girls that lived in these different eras. Of course, the collection had to have accessories, and before long an entire industry was born. The dolls led to a series of books that fleshed out the adventures these characters might have had in their time periods.

"I guess if this is the first you're hearing about it, I know how this must all sound."

Unless you've been in a coma like the lead character of The Walking Dead, you've been hearing a lot about this AMC television series of late. It's no wonder. I'm amazed that it's taken so long to see a zombie television series. The show has incredible visuals. There's a courtyard scene at the beginning of the pilot that is as impressive as anything you've seen in a movie.

There have been very few films of this stature that I have not had the chance to see over the years. Even if I don't think I might enjoy a particular movie, there are those titles that have become so well known or a part of the culture that one feels a sense of obligation to take in. For years The Last Tango In Paris was one of those films for me. Thanks to a new Blu-ray release by MGM, I was finally afforded the opportunity.

"This is Fairfax County in the state of Virginia. I was born here. It's peaceful, beautiful, and a long long way from Wyoming; beautiful, too, in its special way. Vast, proud and lonely; it's my country now, Wyoming. But not exactly a peaceful one."

Of course, if it were all that peaceful it wouldn't have made for very compelling television. But The Virginian did make for compelling western drama in a television landscape that was as populated as prairies in those plains with western dramas.

"A child born into a world with helicopters lives in a world where the miraculous is commonplace, a world where doctors swoop down from the sky..."

That's the world of the helicopter. Straight Up: Helicopters In Action was an IMAX feature created by the Smithsonian for the Air And Space Museum IMAX theater. A quick check of the museum's website reveals that the film is no longer part of the schedule. And, while this wasn't one of the bigger name IMAX films to make the circuit, it provides plenty of the exhilarating imagery that has made the format famous.

"Good morning, young Prince."

The forest is alive with the news. It travels from tree to tree, from animal to animal. A new prince has been born, and the creatures of the woods gather to welcome the young fawn. His name is Bambi, and he soon wins the hearts of the entire population of the forest.

"Detroit ain't so bad, in fact it's kind of charming."

Director Benny Boom decided to move the S.W.A.T. franchise away from L.A. and bring it to Detroit. But he's not going to be winning any accolades from the Detroit Chamber of Commerce anytime soon. He openly admits that he picked the city because he was attempting to create an environment with a lot of decay.

It's my great pleasure to welcome the latest addition to the Upcomingdiscs family.

Bob Ross was the Tampa Tribune's film critic from 1985 to 2007. Before that, he worked as a proofreader, reporter and pop music critic. He also helped manage the first video store in Tampa in the early 1980s. A Florida resident since 1956, he graduated from Ocala High School and Eckerd College, where he majored in political science. A lifelong movie buff, he has published more than 4,000 reviews for the Tribune in addition to writing two weekly video columns and hundreds of entertainment-related feature stories. Now semi-retired, Bob is still a member of the Florida Film Critics Circle. He's also a Facebook addict, easily reached at www.facebook.com/bob.ross1.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has made a career out of redefining himself. Of course, we all know that he started as a rather flamboyant wrestling personality. He had a pretty good run, but it was never going to be enough to really satisfy Johnson's own drive to perform. He made the natural transition into movies, faring far better than most of his fellow wrestlers have been able to do. He naturally gravitated toward the action films where his bulk and toughness more than made up for his inexperience.