Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 22nd, 2009
Neither of the Predator vs. Alien films were as successful at the box office as was hoped. And this film has had its share of detractors since its release in 1990. I, for one, find it to be as good as, if not better than, the original film. Watching the two governors Arnold and Jesse take on the Predator in the Columbian jungles was certainly a hoot. Let’s be honest, however. Who didn’t cheer, if only inside, when the big bad ugly started to take on LA’s drug lords in Predator 2? This sequel is more than just a romp with a monster. The story is far more compelling. The cast of Danny Glover, Bill Paxton, Kent McCord, and Gary Busey team up well. The film’s production partner Joel Silver’s influence hangs heavy over the film. Glover’s Harrigan is really just Lethal Weapon’s Murdock without Riggs. The LA street firefights and car explosions are ready-made for the Silver cop buddy series. Don’t get me wrong. This is not great filmmaking here. It is a lot more fun than it has been given credit for, however. Now with the release of the movie in high definition on Blue-ray, I advise you take another look at this one.
An alien warrior is back on Earth for another safari. This time the jungle is the mean streets of LA. The prey happens to be ruthless drug lords. Federal Agent Keyes (Busey) heads a secret government team to track and capture the creature. Det. Harrigan (Glover) wants to avenge his partner’s murder even if it means clashing with the feds.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 22nd, 2009
We were all told that the fourth film in the Friday The 13th series was going to be the last. From the cast and crew to the studio execs it was official: Jason was dead and gone. Time to move on. But it took less than a year for a new chapter to be tacked on to that final one. The fifth entry into the franchise would contain one of the more limited budgets. But it wasn’t the budget cuts that has made this one of the most highly criticized films of the series. It’s the total disregard for the tradition of the films and the poor choices that were made in making this film. The movie was filmed with little fanfare. This was in the days before the internet made such things all but impossible. It was made under the name Repetition to hide the true nature of the shoot from anyone who caught wind of the production. Perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to try and diminish the film’s buzz. It brought in a very disappointing $21 million at the box office. That might have had a better chance of truly killing Jason than anything else.
Director Danny Steinmann’s only real credit was a porno film. You can’t mistake the tendencies in this outing. It certainly contains a greater amount of nudity than any of the other films. The sexual scenes are by far more graphic. It was also the last we'd hear of the troubled director. Meanwhile Jason was relegated to an almost non-existent part in the film. The kills all are very quick and happen mostly outside of camera range. The obvious excuse is that the MPAA had reined down hard on these films, and to an extent that was true. The real problem here was a lack of both imagination and money. Tom Savini was again gone from the scene, and his replacement couldn’t carry Savini’s latex jockstrap. The series went from using barrels of stage blood to a couple of toothpaste tubes’ worth. Finally the killer isn’t even necessarily Jason at all. It’s almost impossible to criticize this kind of a film for being ridiculous, but the series reached a low point with this outing.
Posted in: Podcasts by Gino Sassani on June 19th, 2009
I had a chance to chat with Hercules himself, Kevin Sorbo this afternoon. He took time out of his busy schedule to talk to us about his television career and his new direct to DVD film, Tommy And The Cool Mule. Look for our review next week. Learn what Captain Dylan Hunt has been up to since his days recreating The Commonwealth.
Bang it here to listen to our exclusive interview with Kevin Sorbo
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 19th, 2009
When the cast and crew went about their work on Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter it appears that it really was intended as a sendoff for the popular franchise. There had been a turnover at Paramount, and the powers that be thought the slasher cycle was pretty much over. Now whether any of that is true is anyone’s guess. Everyone associated with the project claims that that was their firm understanding from the beginning. Writer Barney Cohen insists that the Paramount brass made it very clear that he was supposed to kill off Jason with such Hollywood “grammar” that there was little doubt he was dead and gone forever. We, of course, know that Jason might very well be dead, but he’s far from gone.
It’s minutes from the events of the previous film. Police and paramedics are on hand to clean up the mess left by Jason in full 3D glory. Jason’s body is taken to the hospital morgue. Fortunately for Jason, the place is has a couple of teen attendants with those raging hormones that bring out the best in our hockey-masked avenger. After a little play time with the attendant and nurse, Jason is once again on the loose. Meanwhile a group of teens are moving into a remote house out in he woods. The only neighbors are the Jarvis family. There’s single mom (Freeman), daughter Trish (Beck) and young Tommy (Feldman). Tommy is a monster fan who has a Tom Savini-like ability to create killer monster masks and prosethics. He’s a bit introverted and nerdy. Little do they know that Jason is going to crash the new neighbors’ party. It’s left to Tommy and sister to take Jason out, supposedly for good.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 19th, 2009
“I’m Special Agent Kessel, in charge of the FBI and Department Of Justice’s joint task force on deranged and violent criminals. In the most extreme and violent cases traditional forensic investigations can be inadequate. In these instances, to hunt down the most vicious and elusive killers and psychopaths, we solicit the assistance of civilians with extraordinary gifts. Catherine Deane was one of them… now there’s another.”
That other is Maya (Santiago). It has been quite a few years since I saw The Cell. I was going to go back and watch the original again to get myself prepared for reviewing this direct to video sequel. Time didn’t allow for such conveniences, but in the end it wouldn’t have helped anyway. There are two reasons. The first is that the first film is only available on DVD and not yet out in a high definition release. It would have created quite a disparity, particularly when dealing with such visual exotic worlds as The Cell dealt with, and I assumed the sequel would as well. Unfortunately, there are no such visual stunning abstractions in this film beyond an irrelevant prologue scene. The second reason it would not have helped is that this film obviously has no connection to the original at all. The above introduction is about as close as the two films ever get. Maya does not enter dreams. She’s merely a psychic, with no more power or flair than Johnny Smith from The Dead Zone or Alison from Medium. Yes, she can enter our killers head, but it merely allows her to see what he sees. To feel what he’s feeling. Gone are the imaginative journeys deep inside the subconscious of the disturbed mind. This one is strictly in the mold of tracking down a rather brutal serial killer.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 19th, 2009
This is one of the best of the series to benefit from the high definition Blu-ray release. You might recall that I had some serious reservations about the 3D work on the last DVD release. That kind of 3D depends entirely on a completely true color reproduction. With unstable reds and blues or greens, the effect becomes somewhat difficult to appreciate and more than a little bit of a strain on the eyes. This release offers you for the first time what was only promised on the DVD. You finally get a print clean and detailed enough to make the effect worth checking out in your own home theater. It still doesn’t fix the fact that most of the effects were obvious and quite gimmicky. Still, it’s the best chance you’re ever going to get in this technology to experience HD at home. There is progress being made on potential 3D capable monitors and a newer process, but let’s be honest. Ralph Kramden was waiting for 3D television for 60 years. There’s still some time to wait, but this release is an inch closer to that reality. So put those campy paper glasses on (2 are included with the disc) and have a little fun with Jason and his Camp Crystal Lake playmates.
It didn’t take the Friday The 13th film series long to reach down into the gimmick bag. The sad thing is that the franchise didn’t really need a gimmick. Steve Miner returned to the director’s chair, and he delivered an important, if not great, entry into the franchise’s history. Jason would, for the first time, don the hockey mask that would make his image the iconic horror visage it remains today. This was also an important film because a young makeup artist from this staff would break out to become one of the best in the business. Stan Winston was an uncredited artist on this film. Of course, I have no way of knowing what was his, but can there be any doubt that he left his mark throughout the film? Winston didn’t often talk about the film at all. It’s almost as if he never considered it a part of his resume, but he’s likely the biggest thing to come out of the movie.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 19th, 2009
“Back to the days of the Gold Rush, as Sergeant Preston with his wonder dog, Yukon King, meets the challenges of the Yukon … A land inflamed with gold. Men who came quickly learned the heroism of sacrifice and the treachery of greed.”
These words first reached across the radio airwaves in 1947. Children and adults alike would gather around the warm glow of their large radios to hear the exploits of Canadian Mounties Sergeant Preston and his trusty companions Rex, his horse, and Yukon King, his Alaskan Malamute. When the early days of television arrived, it was no surprise that the more successful radio dramas would become some of the first television shows. Sergeant Preston was part of that transition wave of the new medium of television. Although filmed in color, the series ran in black and white, which was the only format available to the homeowner in those days. Now through the release of the series on DVD, we get to see the series for the first time in color.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 19th, 2009
A group of amateur ghost hunters armed with cameras and other equipment pose as documentary producers for the Discovery Channel. They head for the isolated town of Goldfield, where an abandoned haunted hotel is rumored to be one of the 7 portals to “the other side”. Their car breaks down just outside of town near an old cemetery in the middle of the night. A local bartender appears to be the caretaker for the old hotel and the town’s historian. He gets the exposition that sets up the story for the kids. He hands out the keys to the hotel, but warns them not to go into room 109. Of course, I don’t have to tell you where they go.
The film shows the past events in sepia tone flashback sequences. A woman was brutally tortured and killed in the hotel many years ago. One of the kids has a connection. Her grandmother was involved in the tragic events. Mostly, the kids stumble around drinking, having sex, and pinching a few of the hotel’s antiques. Until the ghost decides to join the party.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 17th, 2009
“You may only see it once but that will be enough.”
That was the marketing slogan for the first Friday The 13th film in 1980. Apparently they couldn’t have been more wrong, because most of us have seen the film countless times, and no, it was never enough. The franchise would thrive with over 10 sequels or affiliated films, taking us right up to the present remake/reboot of that very first outing at Camp Crystal Lake. No, my friends, once was never going to be enough.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 17th, 2009
Back in 1998 there was a very promising television series on the Fox Network. Unfortunately, the network never gave it a fighting chance, and it was soon gone as quickly as it had appeared. It was called Brimstone. The idea was that a dead cop (Horton) went to Hell for killing his wife’s rapists. He gets a second chance when the Devil (Glover) offers him his life back if he would become Hell’s bounty hunter. He would capture souls who had escaped from Hell. I loved the show and even participated in its attempts to be reprieved. I never did get to see the return of Brimstone, but the concept would return in the lighter Reaper. Reaper is like Buffy The Vampire Slayer meets Kids In The Hall.
Sam Oliver (Harrison) is a young guy who works at The Work Bench with many of his high school friends. The Bench is basically a Home Depot clone. One day the Devil (Wise) shows up in his car. It appears that his parents sold Sam’s soul to him, and now that he’s turned 21 it’s time to collect. Sam’s job is now to collect and returned escaped souls back to Hell. For each job he’s given a vessel that is, in some way, appropriate to the soul he’s tracking. The vessel can be a vacuum cleaner or an 8-track tape. Failure is not an option, as the Devil doesn’t take rejection lightly. To help him in his tasks he recruits his two best friends and co-workers. Sock (Labine) looks and acts a lot like Jack Black. He has crazy pointed hair and is basically a slacker. He’s always looking for the easy way out or the scam that will pay off for him, regardless of who gets hurt. He really does have a good heart and comes through just when Sam needs him to come through. Ben (Gonzales) is always coming up with crazy ideas like a self sucking straw. He’s hungry for attention and lacks in self confidence. He’s somewhat of the team tech guy. Sam is in love with Andi (Paregrym) who’s not sure if she can take the whole evil thing. She’ll help out in a pinch, and they have an on again, off again relationship.
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