Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 13th, 2010
When I was a kid in the 80’s, Predator was one of those films that you weren’t supposed to watch, but everybody did anyway. Over-the-top action, invincible heroes, cheesy one-liners and big, big explosions made this a film that was a favorite of pre-pubescent boys everywhere. Going into this disc, I found myself wondering if the film would stand up to the harsh tests of time and maturity.
The answer to that question is both “yes”, and “no”. In the “no” column, it is very apparent early on in the film…that there is very little here in the way of plot. Some soldiers are hired to go behind enemy lines to rescue an American politician who has been kidnapped by generic terrorists. Once the team arrives at their location, they discover that they have actually been sent on the mission for different reasons altogether, though those reasons are never really made clear. On their way back to the rendezvous point, they have multiple encounters with an evil and mysterious creature who tries to kill them (and occasionally succeeds). That’s about it. Beyond these basic plot outlines, dialog is basically reserved to screaming profanities and the aforementioned goofy one-liners.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 13th, 2010
"Earth: a unique planet. Restless and dynamic. Continents shift and clash. Volcanoes erupt. Glaciers grow and recede. Titanic forces that are constantly at work, leaving a trail of geological mysteries behind."
I saw a bumper sticker recently that read; "Geologists dig classic rock". I should have taken it as an omen that I would be spending some quality time with a few geologists over these last couple of weeks. It started with the excellent BBC mini-series How The Earth Changed History and culminated with the 13 episodes of the second season of How The Earth Was Made. It might be easy to confuse these titles in your video store. But, make no mistake about it. They are very different shows down to their core, pun intended.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 8th, 2010
"Barugon: The Freezing Monster - This carnivorous reptile, a nightmare cross between a monitor lizard and a chameleon, is found only in New Guinea's Valley Of The Rainbow. It is born every 1000 years, according to legend, from an egg resembling a large opal. It has a long, darting tongue used as a battering ram, while the tip sprays a freezing mist that immobilizes its prey..."
Ask anyone about Japanese monster movies and Gamera usually won't be the first name that comes into their minds. Godzilla would likely dominate the conversation, and for most of the last 60 years the folks at Toho have been synonymous with large monsters. But they didn't exactly hold a monopoly on the big beasts. Kadokawa Pictures had their own little monster franchise going on. From 1965 through the 1970's the studio would produce 8 Gamera films in all.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 8th, 2010
"The rocket belt was first developed by Bell Aeronautics in the 1950's with financial backing from the U.S. military. The Bell Rocket Belt flew successfully for the first time in 1961. Upon seeing the test, the U.S. military found the device so impractical that they promptly withdrew financing and dropped all support for further development."
Unless you’re a regular at the film festival circuit, chances are you haven't even heard of the movie Pretty Bird. Even after picking up the distribution rights to this quirky comedy, Paramount left it sitting somewhere in a cold canister for about two years. Finally the movie arrives in a bare-bones direct-to-DVD format. Is it possible that the studio found the film so impractical that they didn't see any upside to further financial support that releasing the film at the box office would entail? After watching the movie for the first, and likely last time, I suspect there is more truth to that theory than not.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 8th, 2010
“LAPD Lt. Carter Shaw and his special undercover task force understand that to collar criminals, one must first get on their level. They also know that going undercover may require cutting ties with those who mean the most. Adrift, isolated, and frequently faced with situations that strain the line between right or wrong, these officers know that all that matters is loyalty to each other and to the task at hand: bringing down the bad guys.”
That pretty much sums up the best part of what makes Dark Blue such a compelling series. Fresh from the minds of Jerry Bruckheimer and Danny Cannon who brought us the CSI shows, it’s a much darker series that gives us the most intense look at undercover work I've seen on television. In fact, I almost wish this were an HBO show, because it's clear that the series already pushes even TNT's boundaries, and I'd like to see the handcuffs come off the show's creative team, not the bad guys.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 7th, 2010
Mention the name of George A. Romero to anyone even remotely familiar with horror movies, and the first thing they're going to think of is zombies. Why shouldn't they? It was Romero who made what might be the first little film that could. Long before Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, Romero set out with his trusty 16 mm camera and a crew of pretty much local Pittsburgh friends, to make Night Of The Living Dead. With this film and the ongoing "Dead" franchise, Romero has pretty much written the rule book on zombies. He is no doubt the zombie king. That's the kind of thing you think of when someone mentions George A. Romero. But, there is this small, at least until recently, group of die-hard Romero fans that might have thought of another film. They might, just might, mind you, be thinking of an obscure 1973 film called The Crazies.
It's a typical small American town. Kids are blissfully riding their bikes. It's the opening day of Little League baseball. Everyone is just enjoying their idyllic Norman Rockwell existence. Don't worry. No one is really trying to pull anything over on you here. We know this pleasantry isn't going to last when the first few seconds of the film depict this very town burning to the ground. Our first hint that something isn't quite as American Pie as all that is when town drunk Rory shows up on the kids' baseball diamond packing a 16-gauge. The gory results cause the town to ask some very easy questions, like why did Rory show up totin' that double-barrel? Sherriff Dave (Olyphant) investigates that very question along with his wife who happens to be the town doctor (Mitchell). The answer, it seems, can be found in the town's water supply and a recently-crashed plane. The U.S. Government has accidentally infected the water supply of a small town with the engineered bio-weapon called Trixie. It eventually infects people and becomes airborne instead. The first stage is a little harmless catatonia. The second stage turns its victims into raging maniacs on steroids before killing them 48 hours later. The feds close down the town and try to round up the residents, corralling them into two groups: The ones who have the virus and the ones who don't. But Dave and his pregnant wife don't intend to stick around while martial law reveals sheer brutality in this once picture-postcard town. It's a tough time to be on the run. Doesn't matter who you run into, crazies or soldiers, both are gonna kill ya dead.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 7th, 2010
“In the 1940’s, a new genre – film noir – emerged from the world of hard-boiled pulp magazines, paperback thrillers, and sensational crime movies. These films, tough and unsentimental, depicted a black-and-white universe at once brutal, erotic, and morally ambiguous.”
And so Sony collects five more of these films as part of what looks like is going to be an ongoing series. But what exactly is film noir? You hear the term used from time to time, but what does it mean?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 1st, 2010
"Responding to the pleas of people who are victimized by distressing and inexplicable activities in their homes and workplaces, these cops bring their no-nonsense approach to hunting ghosts and their real-life police skills to separating fact from fiction - and often happen upon results much scarier than the paranormal."
I've had a lot of opportunities to watch and review many of the new wave of reality shows, from Ice Road Truckers to riding along with Steven Seagal in his real-life police job. This is my first exposure to "unreality" television. Okay, that's my term and not theirs. But, after just 10 minutes of watching Paranormal Cops, unreal is the only word I can think of to describe the experience.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 1st, 2010
Fans of classic science fiction know very well who Philip Jose Farmer is. Chances are you have read one of his many Riverworld novels going back to the early 1970's. It's absolutely required reading for any fan of the genre. When you think of those classic book series, this one stands right up there with Asimov's Foundation books or Frank Herbert's Dune series. I've only read the first novel, but remember it still. It's an enchanting world that I always meant to return to one day. That day hadn't yet come by the time I received this DVD release of SYFY's latest take on the work. I'm sad to say that even after watching this 3 hour mini-series, that day still hasn't come.
It's not that this is necessarily a bad film. It's actually not bad at all. It's just not very good. More importantly, it's really not much like the Riverworld I recall. The basic idea is actually all that remains from Farmer's works. Riverworld is a planet that contains 20 million miles of river, hence the name. When people die, they are resurrected along the banks of this river system. Here you might find anyone from any time. Time travels in its own fashion here. Two people who die at exactly the same moment might find themselves on Riverworld years apart from each other. It appears to be random. All of this is in the original books. Nothing else from this film is to be found, at least in any recognizable form, in the novels.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 30th, 2010
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. She’s engaged to FBI Agent Fritz Howard (Tenney) whom she marries at the end of this season. There are some new characters for the 5th season. Mary McDonnell arrives for only three episodes, but it's a big part. She plays the captain of the internal affairs unit. It's a very irritating part. In fact, the last few times I've seen McDonnell she's been annoying. She played a similarly grouchy character on Grey's Anatomy last year. Sosie Bacon is pretty good as Charlie. She's Brenda's troubled teenage niece who has been passed from her parents to her grandparents and now Brenda. She's actually the real-life daughter of Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon.
![Predator (Ultimate Hunter Edition) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/predator-ultimate-hunter-edition-large.jpg)
![The Crazies [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-crazies-blu-ray-large.jpg)
