Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 17th, 2008
I think it’s safe to say that HBO changed the face of television with the arrival of The Sopranos back in 1999. The show raised the bar for television across the board. Before we knew it, many of the cable networks were scrambling to offer up the next show that would generate the same praise from critics and audiences alike. To this day that show has generated more subscribers to a pay network than any other. So, we really can’t blame the network’s rival Showtime for trying to have their own Sopranos. And that’s exactly what The Brotherhood is.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 14th, 2008
Kill Switch is a direct to video release marking Steven Seagal’s departure from Sony, where most of his low budget, and larger budget, films were made. This one is released by the much smaller First Look Studios. Unfortunately everything about this film is a considerable downgrade from even the silliest of Seagal’s recent film fare. Seagal writes this one, which likely accounts for the convoluted mess the script is. There are far too many plot points and characters to keep track of, and ultimately little development is made of any of them.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 14th, 2008
First of all, if you expect to find an actual cyborg soldier in this film, you will be looking for a long time. The title character played by UFC fighter Rich Franklin is actually a human who has been genetically engineered with amphibian DNA. There are some nanobites working inside the guy, but you won’t be finding a Borg clone in this low budget affair. Unfortunately, you won’t find much in the acting department either. Many of the show’s supporting cast are actors who are usually stunt performers and not often charged with doing the hard stuff… like delivering lines.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 9th, 2008
To start with I give Spielberg credit for going against the wishes of Lucas to film this thing in digital. Not only did he attempt to reproduce the same film stock look, but he edited the film, not on a computer, but an old movieola. The attempt to make this look like the other films is obvious and appreciated. Some of the sets are simply incredible. The Akator set is massive and dressed with all kinds of detail. It conjures up images of many of Indy’s tomb-raiding past. Again you have to credit Spielberg for wanting his actors in a real place as often as he did.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 9th, 2008
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,
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 7th, 2008
Jim Phelps (
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 7th, 2008
I can remember when Beauty And The Beast first arrived on television. It was fall of 1987. I watched a couple episodes of this rather odd drama. Instantly I was drawn to the show’s world but was almost as quickly pushed away by the material. If I can be forgiven for saying so, I always considered this a “chick” show. That’s not intended as an insult at all. The truth is there likely isn’t nearly enough programming out there that is targeted for the female audience. This was without a doubt a series that was very much aimed at the young women viewers.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 7th, 2008
“Come and listen to my story about a man named Jed. Poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed. Then one day he was shootin’ at some food and up from the ground comes a bubblin’ crude. Oil that is… Black Gold…
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 6th, 2008
Brothers and Sisters, we are gathered here today to extol the virtues of our moral champion, Eric Cartman. I’ve come here to praise Eric, not to bury him. It wasn’t much more than 12 years ago to this very day that we first met Eric. Certainly the presentation was a bit crude, and often the teachings were less focused and incoherent. Still, it didn’t take long before we could see an underlying message in the construction paper animation. Before too long the faithful grew, and the wisdom of Eric Cartman could no longer be stopped.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 3rd, 2008
The CSI phenomenon has been going strong for many years now, and CBS has ridden that wave to become the top network these past couple of years. It all started with the original CSI: Crime Scene Investigator. This
