Posts by Gino Sassani

"On the day America remembers its dead, a special salute today for the war dead in Vietnam. An American serviceman who died there took his place today in a place of honor, The Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier. Almost 10 years after the last American left Saigon, the men who fought in Vietnam got their parade. Muffled drums and dirges. A coffin and a flag wrapped in plastic to protect it from the rain. Families of the men still missing in Vietnam waited for the coffin and remembered. They wonder if their sons are still alive and why the world sits back and allows the Vietnamese government to flagrantly violate the Geneva Convention. Rumors of physical and mental torture have made the wait more agonizing."

If the story sounds somewhat familiar, there are two reasons for that. The first Missing In Action film was released in 1984, so you've had about 40 years of imitations and knock-offs along the way. The other is that the film shares more than a little history with the Sylvester Stallone film Rambo: First Blood Part II. When Sly was shopping around his original ideas, Cannon Film Group was one of the places that listened to the pitch. So it's not a complete coincidence that the films went into production at the same time, with Missing In Action beating the Stallone vehicle to the box office by a few months. Both films did well, and they started a genre of war films that involved rescuing Americans still missing in Vietnam. It was in the early 1990's that the plight of missing servicemen in Vietnam was brought to the public's attention. Ronald Reagan gave it a bigger voice than had been given earlier, and he made it a point to address the issue. It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Hollywood was on it as fast as they were. The franchise would become one of Chuck Norris's more iconic franchises, and the rest is, shall we say, history. Now Kino Studio Classics have brought the original three films together in a much deserved Blu-ray collection.

The 1980's saw a resurgence of the themes and styles of the earlier film noir genre but with more modern themes and situations. Films like Alan Parker's DeNiro/ Rourke Angel Heart and Paul Schrader's Richard Gere/Laura Hutton American Gigolo are two of the finest examples of what has become known as neo noir. The genre has existed since the 1960's, but there was a certain style to these 1980's films that brought us the peak of this style of filmmaking. It crossed other genres as well. Ridley Scott's Bladerunner is absolutely the best science fiction representative of the style, and that film's impact on sci-fi going forward still has a huge impact today. It's all about style: lighting, cinematography, and themes that often blur the line between good and bad. No Mercy returned Richard Gere to the genre, and while No Mercy was a box office flop, it has endured more than some from the era, and now Kino Lorber gives us a chance to revisit one of the better examples of neo noir on Blu-ray. It's worth a look, and I'm going to tell you why.

Richard Gere plays Chicago detective Eddie Jillette. He and his partner Joey Collins (Basaraba) have been undercover at a car wash for several days. They are getting inpatient for a good bust and end up rushing into an arrest that nets them a simple pot dealer. They cause a lot of damage making the pop, and the result is more than a little disappointing to the brass. Things appear to turn around when the perp claims to have been contacted about doing a hit. He has a meeting that night, and so Eddie decides to leave the brass out of the picture and stand in for the hitman, who hasn't met the contact yet. He shows up at the meet where he's confronted by Allan Deveneux, played by William Atherton, and his "girl" Michel Duval, played by Kim Basinger. Eddie decides to act like a tough guy, and it all ends up with more mayhem and his partner getting killed. Now he wants to go to New Orleans where the hit was supposed to take place and track down the people who killed his partner.

"From the green hills of Vermont to the verdant canyons of Arizona, people all over the country are beginning to realize it's nearly over. We have almost beaten COVID, and the best news of all? Things are finally getting back to normal. Infection rates are at an all-time low. New stronger vaccinations have ebbed the tide. And we humans are cleaning up the mess and finally getting on with our lives But as we start to get back to our jobs and schools, one question remains: What lingering effect will the pandemic have on our children?"

This has been a tough year for everyone. Productions all around the world have been uprooted because of the pandemic. I guess I thought there might have been one place on this planet that was safe. OK, I made that last part up. We always knew that South Park was going to have a field day with COVID. Let's be honest; the amount of material for the irreverent show is simply off the scales. There's nothing like a global catastrophe to bring out the sharp wit of Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The pandemic meant we saw the long-running animated series limited just like everyone else. So instead of a 10-episode run, the 24th season of South Park was made up of two double-length "Pandemic Specials", but just for whats and giggles, let's call it South Park The Complete 24th Season, and then there were two Post COVID specials, and that's what we have next, a look at it in Blu-ray.