Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 9th, 2009
These Comedy Central Roasts are a bit of a crapshoot. I laughed my rear off during the William Shatner Roast. Unfortunately, I didn’t even crack a smile watching this one. It’s not like Saget’s a funny guy to begin with. Throw in a room full of other not-funny folks, and you get a real snore fest.
You should be warned that this is not a DVD for the kids. I’m not sure how much of this actually aired on Comedy Central, but I suspect it was edited considerably. I think they had a rule that no speaker could tell less than 3 penis or vagina jokes. Apparently jokes involving both don’t count toward that total. Look, I’m not a prude here. I don’t want to see these guys censored. But, doesn’t the material need to be funny BEFORE it’s dirty? Comedians like Richard Pryor have always used this kind of language, but Richard was a very funny guy. Somewhere along the way it must have become an axiom that bad language is funny. One of the comedians said it best. He was talking about Saget, but it was true of them all: “If bad language is a crutch, these guys are quadriplegics.” Another problem I have with this thing is the format. I always thought Roasts were about the guest of honor. These acts spent as much time sniping at each other as they did getting Saget.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 6th, 2009
David Koepp is one of Hollywood’s power screenwriters. His credits include Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, and Spider-Man. As a director he has also had some limited success with films like Stir Of Echoes. It seems almost from left field that we end up with a romantic comedy both written and directed by the award winning writer. If Koepp is out of his element here, it really doesn’t show at all. Of course the entire idea is far from an original one, but he handles it with relative competency. All of the essential elements are in place, and he has managed to surround himself with a fairly good cast and crew. This is the first American star vehicle for British funny man Ricky Gervais. His style is definitely one of British humor, but it translates well for the character he’s been given here. It’s actually a very clever bit of casting. The end result isn’t going to add any additional statues to his mantle, but it does provide some harmless entertainment for that rainy, or snowy, depending upon where you happen to be, day.
Dentist Bertram Pincus (Gervais) is a perfect role model for Ebenezer Scrooge. He has little use for other people. He avoids contact whenever possible and takes a perverse pleasure in watching others struggle, doing what he can to perpetuate their discomfort. He’s the kind of guy that will offer to hold the elevator only to close the door in your face just as you reach it. One day he is having a routine examination under general anesthesia. He dies for 7 minutes and is brought back to life. Everything appears fine, except now he has this annoying ability to see dead people all around him. As soon as they catch on that there’s someone who can see and hear them, they gravitate to him, imploring him to help with their unfinished business. Of course, Pincus wants no part of that at all. One such spirit, however, is particularly persistent in annoying Pincus. Frank (Kinnear) has recently been hit by a bus and wants to break up his widow’s budding new romance. He was a cheater in life and now can’t stand to see her with someone he believes is too much like him. After constant harassment, Pincus agrees to take on the job, but not out of kindness for Frank. It seems Pincus has become smitten with Frank’s widow, Gwen (Leoni). She works at the local natural history museum, and Pincus offers his dental expertise to help her examine a new mummy that holds her interest. Before long the two are a couple, but that wasn’t exactly what Frank had in mind, either. He attempts, rather successfully, to derail Pincus from his courtship. Pincus pretty much has his epiphany and decides to try and care a bit more about others. He helps a few of the other spirits and starts to feel good about helping others. In the end, when Pincus himself is again teetering between life and death, he does get a second chance.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 6th, 2009
The Tudors returns for a rather triumphant second season. The series attempts to modernize the story more than a little. Henry’s attire is more akin to a rock star than a 16th century ruler. The language is also more updated, often filled with modern colloquialisms and the like. The story of Henry VIII is well known, but this is not the Henry your history teachers told you about. This Henry is a slim, energetic man. There are only hints in regard to his famous lust for food. His appetites for women are not so subtly portrayed. The series follows Henry’s alliances and break-ups with France and his growing disfavor of members of his own court. If the series is to be believed, Anne Boleyn was placed in his path by her scheming father. In any case, by the third episode his growing infatuation with Boleyn takes center stage in the series. Henry grows weary of the Church after he is constantly blocked from divorcing his Queen Catherine to marry Boleyn. This is also the story of his own rise and fall along with the Church’s influence on England’s culture. There is an almost soap opera aspect to the storytelling, which is admitted by the show’s writer, who credits shows like Dallas and Dynasty as well as Rome and The Sopranos as inspiration. Side stories like a gay musician’s coming of age populate the background, but serve merely as distractions. When The Tudors works best is when we are with Henry and his court engaging in matters of global importance.
Let’s talk about the cast. At first I must say I completely hated Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry. But that was last year, and by the third episode I absolutely loved his performance. He commands the screen whenever he is on it. Natalie Dormer is a relative newcomer, and she has wonderful skills. When we first meet her as Anne, she appears the naïve, lazy daughter of privilege. As her seduction of Henry takes its course, she develops many faces and emotions along the way. Now she is the doomed Queen, and she is extremely hard to read, and then all at once an open book. While she might not possess the beauty her character is said to inhabit, she more than makes up for it in a single stare. She acts wonderfully with her eyes, as so many of the great ones do. You will be seeing more from Dormer, I suspect, over the years. Nick Dunning is quite a surprise as Sir Thomas Boleyn. It is Sir Thomas who masterminds his daughter’s seduction of the King in order to destroy the influence of Cardinal Wolsey. His quiet yet assertive manner works perfectly for the character. Wolsey had his downfall in the first season, and Boleyn will show his true character in the end as well. Jeremy Northam was also a very bright spot in the second season. His character of Sir Thomas Moore has far more to do this time. Moore must consider the path of martyrdom as he finds himself in disagreement over his friend and King’s alienation of the Roman Church. His was a character I hardly noticed in the first year, but he really pops from the television screen this time around.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 6th, 2009
“Every story has a beginning. Every life has meaning and potential…”
Kyle doesn’t really know his story, and he’s beginning to understand his potential. But that was last year. This year things are about to change for our adolescent boy without a belly button. The series Kyle XY returned first to ABC Family and now returns to DVD.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 6th, 2009
If there is a highlight of this second release, it’s the flashback episode, Freshman Daze. It’s absolutely great. We get to meet all of these characters back in high school and see how the dynamics developed. Now we know why they are the way they are to each other. I particularly enjoyed seeing how the Cappy and Evan characters were once pretty tight friends. There’s also some wonderful back story to Casey and Frannie. It’s likely the single best reason to buy the set. The only real story line that runs through this collection is the houses trying to come back from last year’s scandal. The dean has imposed some harsh restrictions. This brings us our only new major character. Lizzie (Moses), who is about as irritating for us as she is for the girls at ZBZ. She’s there from the ZBZ Nationals to bring the house back in line.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 31st, 2008
There are a ton of parallels between the Chris Farley/David Spade comedy team and that of John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd. Both teams began in the Saturday Night Live arena. It was that physical big/little guy combination that has its roots with Laurel and Hardy, and Abbott and Costello. Both teams were at the height of their careers when a drug overdose would claim the wilder member of the team. Both of the deceased comedians left behind at least one successful brother to carry on the name in show business. Tommy Boy was by far the best of the films this duo made before Farley’s tragic overdose in 1997.
Tommy Boy Callahan has been a screwup since he was a kid. It wasn’t looking much better as he matured into adulthood. After 7 years Tommy finally graduated college with a celebrated D+ grade. Now his father, Big Tom (Dennehy) wants Tommy Boy to come and take his place as the heir apparent in their auto parts manufacturing plant. Tommy’s best friend since childhood is Richard (Spade) who has been Big Tom’s right hand man all along. He feels cheated but is tasked with getting Tommy Boy ready to eventually run the company. Big Tom is also getting ready to marry a hot babe 20 years his junior, Beverly (Derek). At the wedding Big Tom suddenly dies, and now a group of con artists are trying to take control of his plant so that they can sell it to their biggest rival, Zalinksky (Aykroyd). Now it’s up to Tommy Boy and Richard to hit the road and sell a half million worth of brake pads to keep the company from defaulting to the bank, and falling into the hands of the con artists, who are working to place roadblocks in their way. Can they save the plant?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 31st, 2008
“Gaze too long into the abyss and the abyss gazes back at you…”
The original Pulse film was a remake of an Asian horror film, part of the recent trend of converting many of these titles into American retellings. That trend appears to also include strong warnings against technology and linking ghostly apparitions with some form of technology, from video tapes to cell phones. I’m pretty sure they’re right about the cell phones. In Pulse it was pretty much all technology that could act as a conduit for the restless dead to come to the world of the living. The internet and such access ports as laptops became the real killers. The second film brought us the complete breakdown of society, and now 7 years from that point we have Pulse 3. By now what remains of humanity lives in scattered rural areas. The cities have been abandoned, left to the dead. Technology is now the stuff of evil in the almost religious culture that has developed in the remaining people. If you haven’t seen either of the earlier films you might be a little lost, but not so much that you can’t get into this film. The problem is that this film, like its previous incarnations, isn’t good enough for you to want to get into. In case you need to know here are some basics: Ghosts can’t pass red barriers. Something in that wavelength traps them. They are all restless and drain the life force from anyone they encounter. They travel through electronic equipment. Mostly they appear to inhabit the internet.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 31st, 2008
Based on the true story, Coach Carter follows the tale of a high school coach who was once an All-American athlete himself. He is brought in to coach basketball at his old school where he still holds a few records. He accepts a challenge to turn around a program that has become mired in a tradition of defeat. He takes a no nonsense approach to the players from the moment he meets them He insists on being called sir and insists that they demand the same respect from him. He puts them through workout drills that seem almost impossible, exhausting the entire squad. A few leave, unwilling to meet the high standards. In addition to the physical shape he is whipping them into, he has brought about a higher level of team spirit. That spirit is evidenced when one of the walkouts asks to return. Carter requires him to complete an impossible number of tasks. When the player comes up short as the deadline approaches, the team offers to take some of the load and do it on their own time. Lesson learned. Carter requires them to sign detailed contracts that outline his expectations which include a 2.3 GPA, .3 above the state requirement. The method pays off as the school goes on an incredible winning streak. But when Carter discovers that several of the team members are failing in their academic responsibilities, he makes a controversial call to lock the gym, canceling all practices and games until the GPA is met by everyone on the team. The community becomes outraged, but Carter holds steady, willing to be fired rather than relent. To his surprise, the team stands behind him, and they help each other reach the goal in time to make a run at the championship.
Coach Carter is really two films in one. It is certainly a sports film with many of the clichés that entails. You’re going to get a good dose of sportsmanship and plenty of basketball action. There is a second film here that makes this one rise above the many chumps to champions type movie you know you’ve seen a hundred times, if you’ve seen it once. Carter, as played by Samuel L. Jackson, is a dynamic character. In a way Jackson takes something away from the accomplishments of the real Ken Carter, because he’s so powerful that for us, it’s no wonder these kids were willing to follow him into Hell and back. I’m sure the real Ken Carter had a much tougher fight, simply because he’s no Samuel F’n Jackson. The second film here deals with the neighborhood the school is in. These kids deal with drugs and violence on a daily basis. Their lives outside of the school are likely more trying than anything they’ve encountered in school or basketball. This “second” film really begins after the first hour when the lockout begins.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 22nd, 2008
Let me begin by saying that I was a child of the 1970’s, which tends to make me approach these era shows with some caution. After such shows as That 70’s Show, to name the likely most popular, I find myself not recognizing the setting as the same 70’s I remember living. Granted I was pretty young, so the subject of swingers and sexual revolution were not exactly part of my everyday culture. So, I might be a little more forgiving if Swingtown doesn’t exactly hit on all of my memory circuits. I was 15 in 1976, living near Philadelphia, where we were all pretty much obsessed with that whole Bicentennial thing. The last thing on my mind was whether the neighbors, or, God forbid, my parents, were doing the bump and tickle with rotating partners. I’m pretty sure I’ll leave that question unanswered. Even with all of that said, about the only solid piece of nostalgia I got from Swingtown was the often sweet 70’s soundtrack. To the credit of whoever picked the music, all aspects of the 70’s music scene are represented. You get a good dose of folk, rock, summer pop, and even disco, which any self respecting child of the 70’s considers the death of what was otherwise a fine decade of music. Props to the music guy for not falling into the disco all of the time trap that these shows so often do. One minor complaint, however. Fleetwood Mac didn’t release their famous Rumors LP until Feb of 1977…Ooops. Outside of the music, it really could have been any time, any place.
It’s July 4th weekend, 1976 and Bruce Miller (Davenport) and his family are movin’ on up. Money’s been good at his options trading job, so he’s packing up his wife Susan (Parker), teen daughter Laurie (Collins) and young son BJ (Howles) and moving a few blocks over to a bigger house in a better neighborhood. For Susan, it’s a bittersweet time because she’s leaving her friend of 10 years, Janet (Shor) and her husband Roger (Hopkins) and their son for a new neighborhood. Friends, it turns out, won’t be a problem. The first night they are introduced to new neighbors Trina (Parrilla) and Tom Decker (Snow). They’re invited to a party that turns out to be a swinger’s event. The two end up swapping spouses for the night. It’s an exciting, somewhat dangerous thrill for the Millers. From then on they try to balance their new lives and friends with their old. Janet is good for most of the laughs as this super conservative girl is exposed to her old friend’s new friends. As if that wasn’t enough, Laurie Miller is in love with her 24 year old high school teacher, and BJ’s hung up on a cute little girl with a drugged out lush for a single mom. Every week’s episode features a new party. You’ll get everything from a surprise birthday party for Janet, to a night out at the Playboy Club. There’s even a Tupperware party. I do remember my Mom had those. Before it’s done everybody’s spouse is falling for somebody else, and you never know who’s going to end up with who. It all ends in a cliffhanger that is not likely to ever be resolved. The jury’s still out on next summer, but ratings are marginal, so I wouldn’t hold my breath for a second Summer Of Love.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 22nd, 2008
This modern retelling of the classic fairy tale is brought to you by a division of the Jim Henson Company called Unstable Fables. I think that whoever came up with this idea is the unstable part. This is actually causing me some pain to write. I never thought the day would come when I would be totally disgusted by a Jim Henson labeled release. Anyone who remembers the charm and soul that Henson used to put into his work, or appreciates the work that son Brian has continued, might be lured into this awful trap. Daughter Lisa should be ashamed of herself for having the audacity to put her father’s name on this drivel.
The Unstable Fables are intended as a modern retelling of popular fairy tales. I can’t speak for the first two entries, but if they are anything like this I don’t want to see them. It’s far from a retelling of anything. The names are the same, but the faces and their stories have been changed to protect the ignorant. The animation is pretty shoddy. None of the animals look even remotely cute, realistic, or interesting. They are not recognizable for what they are intended to be, but they’re not humanized versions, either. They are Aunt Esther ugly.
![Ghost Town [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/ghost-town-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Tommy Boy [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/tommy-boy-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Coach Carter [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/coach-carter-blu-ray-large.jpg)
