Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 10th, 2010
"Okay, first of all, let me get something straight. This is a journal, not a diary. Yeah, I know what it says on the cover. But, when my mom went out to buy this thing, I specifically told her not to buy one that said 'diary' on it. This just proves that Mom doesn't understand anything about kids my age."
I guess I missed out on the phenomenon. Apparently in 2007 a guy named Jeff Kinney created a sort of crude comic book. The figures are little better than stick men, and the wit is something from the sixth grade. I guess that pretty much matches the book's purpose, which is to cover the life of a smart-aleck from middle school. Of course, when I was young they didn't call it that. They called it junior high. Unless you went to Catholic school where it didn't even exist. Anyway, the comic built what you'd call a cult following. It was inevitable from there that the short little features would find themselves the subject of a motion picture.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 10th, 2010
Do you believe that a numbers wizard can predict the most random of human actions with mathematical equations so accurately as to know where and when such a person will be? If so, then I suggest you put down that letter you are writing to Santa, finish eating that egg a bunny left for you, go to your pillow and pull together all of the loot you got from the tooth fairy, and plunk it down on season three of Numb3rs. No, that’s not a typo; apparently they believe that letters aren’t good enough to stand on their own, so they inserted a 3 where the e should be. Aren’t they so clever? Not. In the fairy-tale world of Numb3rs, all you need is an almost obsessive knowledge of math and the crooks don’t stand a chance. It’s almost unfair, isn’t it? Those poor criminals go about their carefully plotted crimes, unaware that everything they do is controlled by math. They live their lives oblivious to the fact they are at the mercy of a diabolical equation which forces their every move. In fact, I suspect some clever attorney somewhere is already preparing the “math made me do it” defense at this very moment. Soon our justice system will be forced to account for this undeniable force on our very destinies. I would go on, but I can’t… must… fight… numbers…
Don Eppes (Morrow) is a decorated FBI officer in charge of a unit of the local field office of the FBI. His brother, Charlie (Krumholtz) is a math professor at CalSci. His brilliant mathematical mind is called upon to help the Feds track killers and rapists. No matter how complicated the trail gets, when the going gets rough these guys call on Charlie. Agent David Sinclair (Ballard), the smart tough guy, and Agent Colby Granger (Bruno) the young upcoming agent. Charlie has professor Larry Fleinhardt (MacNicol) to guide him through his struggles. Both of the geeks are socially inept, and we are “treated” to their constant struggles to relate to others, particularly women. Why can’t they write an equation to fix that? Navi Rawat is Amita, a student of Charlie’s who remains to take a job at CalSci, possibly to remain near Charlie. Judd Hirsch is the father to the Eppes brothers. A new agent is added to the mix in the 5th year in Nikki Betancourt, played by Sophina Brown. The show is produced by brothers Ridley and Tony Scott, who have had far better luck on the big screen.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 9th, 2010
"There is a place, a mystical nexus, where this unholy relic can be destroyed. I only hope we can get there before Vellich."
When you think of Edward Douglas, you really do not think about him as a film director or writer. He's made a name for himself mostly in the music business. No, you aren't going to see his videos on MTV, and it's not likely that you'll find his name on the charts. He's become somewhat the poster child for specialized Halloween music. So, I guess it isn't that large a leap to find him writing and helming his first film, obviously a horror film. In case you're not familiar with his music or band, Midnight Syndicate, Douglas won't let you forget them in his first film. Their music and name can be found splattered, if you'll excuse the pun, all over The Dead Matter.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 9th, 2010
Living just a couple of hours from Gainesville, Florida, it really is easy to sit down and get yourself in the mood for some Tom Petty. Look, the boy is never going to win any beauty contests, and his voice sounds like he went to the Bob Dylan school of vocals. But there's no denying that for a few decades Tom Petty, often along with those Heartbreakers, wrote some of the most recognizable American anthem music south of Ashbury Park, New Jersey. But it wasn't always hit songs and world tours for the college town natives. Today they might have never made it in a music business that demands immediate success and gold records. It was the third album that gave this band its break-out hits and fame: Damn The Torpedoes.
While Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers were already generating some momentum in England where they broke sooner than their native United States, Damn The Torpedoes was an unmistakable milestone for the group. The musicians included: Mike Campbell on guitars, Ron Blair on bass, Stan Lynch on drums, and, of course Tom Petty on guitars and vocals. It was produced by Jimmy Iovine, who is generally credited with helping the band develop their signature sound. Released in 1979, the album contained three hit singles, with Refuge and Don't Do Me Like That scoring huge hits in the United States.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 9th, 2010
I recently reviewed Parasomnia on DVD. I was a bit disappointed that we hadn't been given a chance to see the full in high definition. The director, William Malone, arranged for us to get the film on Blu-ray, and I am thankful. I say this so that there will be full disclosure.
With all of that said, I have to tell you that I liked the film even more on my second viewing. A lot of it has to do with the high-definition image presentation which I will discuss in greater detail at the appropriate time. Some of it has to do with the number of nuances that this film contains. It is definitely the kind of movie where you make new discoveries on the second pass. Now keep in mind that I watch these films with a legal pad, taking notes as I go. I didn't do as much of that the second time around. Finally, even though there were not any plot surprises this time, I found the film just as interesting, perhaps more so, on the second pass. If that's not the mark of a pretty dang good film, I wish someone would tell me what is.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 4th, 2010
"This is James Henry Trotter. He lived with his mother and father in a cozy little house by the sea. It was a wonderful life. They had each other, and they had their dreams. Then, one day a terrible thing happened. An angry rhinoceros appeared out of nowhere and gobbled up his poor mother and father..."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 4th, 2010
Johnny Handsome is based on a rather obscure and dated novel called The Three Worlds Of Johnny Handsome. Walter Hill must have found something in the dated material that attracted him to the project. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to attract audiences. The film made a very paltry $7 million at the box and has been little heard from since. In spite of a solid cast and a script that does tend to move along at a nice clip, the film has never really found an audience and is somewhat of a surprise to be found on Blu-ray.
Johnny (Rourke) is a high-level hood who goes by the name Johnny Handsome in reference to extreme deformities in his face. He looks almost like tElephant Man. His deformity even affects his speech. He's almost indecipherable when he talks. He's involved in a big takedown of a coin shop that has some valuable pieces in its collection. He and his crew take down the store, but something goes very wrong. Rafe Garrett (Henriksen) and his girl Sunny (Barkin) betray the rest of the team. They end up running off with the loot and leave the rest of the crew dead. All except for Johnny, who managed to dodge the gunfire. All of his friends are dead, and Johnny's left behind to take the fall...and the prison sentence. Still, Johnny won't rat on the two that betrayed him and got away. But Rafe's not taking any chances. He has Johnny stabbed in prison. Once again Johnny's luck holds up, and he manages to survive Rafe's wrath. In the prison hospital ward, Johnny meets Dr. Fisher (Whitaker), who has an experimental facial reconstruction procedure he'd like to try out on Johnny. It requires having his entire skull reconstructed. In return, Johnny will get a new identity to go with that new face.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 3rd, 2010
"I always wondered why nobody did it before me. I mean, all those comic books, movies, and TV shows. You'd think that one eccentric loner would have made himself a costume. I mean, is everyday life really so exciting? Are schools and offices so thrilling that I'm the only one who ever fantasized about this? Come on. Be honest with yourself. At some point in our lives, we all wanted to be a superhero. Who am I? I'm Kick Ass."
You have to give the folks at Lionsgate some serious credit for the way they promoted Kick Ass. The film was generating a lot of buzz almost a year before it actually came out. It was a huge topic of conversation at last year's ComicCon, and I must have gotten promo alerts from the studio once a week for several months. But even with all of that hype, the film just refused to interest audiences enough to show up in any great numbers for the quirky superhero spoof. We're talking under $50 million for a film that got so much pre-release attention. And so it was with that history in mind that I rather cautiously approached the film when the Blu-ray arrived here from the studio. Most of what I had heard wasn't so good. I figured, at best, it'll be a nice diversion.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 3rd, 2010
For ten years we watched Jack O'Neil, Samantha Carter, Dr. Daniel Jackson, and the Jaff'a Tealc' enter the Stargate. Others would join the team over the years. Each week we would follow their adventures, first on Showtime and finally on the Sci-Fi (now Sy Fy) Channel. We watched with awe as they stepped through a portal that was in reality a wormhole transporting them instantly to another world, brought online by dialing the device like an old fashioned telephone. For another five years we traveled not only to another planet, but to the Pegasus Galaxy itself to the Atlantis Base, a bright floating city left behind by the ancients, the people who created the Stargate system millions of years before. On this show we met new friends, new bad guys, and had new adventures. The location might have changed. The faces might have, at first, been unfamiliar, but the missions and the entertainment value didn't let us down. For 15 seasons we enjoyed a spectacular tale to rival the myths of the Greeks and Romans themselves.
I'm told that all good things must come to an end. When Atlantis was finally cancelled, I was made almost immediately aware of the plans to continue the franchise. First reports started coming out that the show was going to be called Stargate Universe. Soon my inside contacts started giving me tidbits about the story. Details began to emerge about the Destiny, an ancient ship abandoned in another universe far away. The ship was on some kind of predetermined course and would sport an unsuspecting crew of humans that would be left stranded on the ship for an indeterminate amount of time. It was starting to sound a lot like Star Trek: Voyager to me. Of course, this is Stargate, so there has to be some gate travel, one would assume. The ship would come with a gate, and the vessel would come out of faster-than-light travel from time to time and dial up a local planet for exploration. The ship was ancient not only in its origin but in its duration in space. There were going to be a lot of system failures, as the equipment was long past its expiration date. The ship itself would know what resources it needed to continue to operate. Searching its vast planetary database, the ship would locate planets with the essential resources, allowing away teams to get such vital raw materials. Unfortunately, the ship didn't always give a good indication of what to find or where on the planet it might happen to be. Oh, and did I mention the countdown? The ship would decide how much time it would allot for each mission, instituting a countdown. When the clock reached zero, the ship goes back to FTL, and whoever's not back in time gets left behind.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 3rd, 2010
NOVA is one of the longest-running series of documentaries in television history. It has been a mainstay on public television since 1974 when the first episode took us behind the scenes of the filming of a nature biography. Since then the series has explored everything from space to mathematics. Episodes have focused on people, places, and things. Classroom curricula have been built around the series. In case you're keeping track, that's 37 years that the show has been on television. Technology has gone through incredible changes, as have the subjects of episodes, later updated in later episodes. You'd be hard- pressed to find anyone who has not seen at least one episode. The release of Mount St. Helens: Back From The Dead marks the most recent episode to air, finishing the 37th season.
Mount St. Helens, located in Washington state, is responsible for the most powerful volcanic eruption in the continental United States in the last 150 years. It was not a typical eruption. There was very little of the lava flow that most of us think about when we think of volcanoes. But it blasted a plume of ash and toxic gas miles into the air and destroyed an area of about 200 square miles in the blink of an eye. It was the first time a volcano erupted sideways. The eruption caused nearly 50 deaths and untold damage.
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