Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 18th, 2022
“Space … the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before.”
Nearly 20 years after the original Star Trek left the network airwaves, Gene Roddenberry set out to discover whether he could catch lightning in a bottle once again. Some say he did an even better job with Star Trek: The Next Generation. There are times I tend to agree. The Star Trek sequel series had a lot more advantages from the moment it was conceived. Star Trek, a series that barely registered on the ratings during its three-year primetime voyage, became a huge sensation in syndication. By the time The Next Generation came on the scene, the original show had been syndicated in over 20 different languages all over the world.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 13th, 2022
"There are certain rules that one must abide by in order to successfully survive a horror movie."
No one knew those rules better than Wes Craven. He helped to create them, after all. Starting in 1972 with the cult favorite The Last House On The Left, he followed that just two years later with The Hills Have Eyes, which led to a sequel. But it wasn't until a decade later that he would deliver his masterpiece and most successful franchise, Nightmare On Elm Street. Wes Craven introduced the world to Freddy Krueger, and our dreams have never been quite the same since. While others attempted to reproduce the same results with many sequels, it was Craven himself who put Freddy to bed with New Nightmare exactly 10 years after his birth. A remake never got much traction, and Wes Craven's place in horror history was assured. In 1996 he decided to take one more stab at the slasher genre and delivered one of the best films to look directly back at the audience and celebrate the genre. Scream was another hit and another franchise staple.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 12th, 2022
"There's a bizarre version of Superman on the loose."
They are the most famous couple in comic book history. Together they are Superman & Lois, and they've joined the ever-expanding Arrowverse for their second season now out on Blu-ray from Warner Home Entertainment. While this is still a young series, the characters and these actors portraying them are not new to the Arrowverse. Tyler Hoechlin as Superman and Elizabeth Tulloch as Lois Lane have been here for a few years. Both have shown up on Supergirl, and both appeared in a couple of the crossover events that have pulled together the various Arrowverse shows in the past. Now the focus is on them. They have their own show, and it's quite a different approach to the characters and their story. There has also been a departure that puts the show no longer in the official Arrowverse. I suspect that move comes on the heels of The Flash now entering its final season and I suspect closing the Arrowverse going forward
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 12th, 2022
"I think this is just the beginning."
Walker is out on DVD. No, this is not the next spin-off of the zombie Walking Dead franchise. There's a new ranger in town, and his name is Cordell Walker. I know what you're thinking: "Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss." That's where you'd be wrong. They might share the same name and job, but this Walker is nothing like the Chuck Norris version that lasted for over a decade when you include made-for-television movies. This Walker is much younger. He was a Marine who had joined after 9/11. He has a family. His wife was killed a year ago, and now he's trying to raise his son and daughter with the help of his parents, who were no longer living in the Norris series.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 12th, 2022
"If you've got the money you can do what you like. Buy another man's life? Why not?"
There are few writers in the 20th century who have had the kind of career Graham Greene had. He was recruited by England's secret service MI6 where his sister was also an agent and spent time around the world. These experiences likely helped him write the kinds of international thrillers that made him one o the most successful writers in the 20th century. His final novel went a little against the grain of his reputation. The Tenth Man doesn't take us too far afield, and it's far more of an intimate tale than he was known for. It would also be his final novel before his death in 1991. But he lived to see it filmed, albeit as a Hallmark Television made for TV film in 1988.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 12th, 2022
"There is an old saying that blood is thicker than water."
We've had Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Gene Simmons with his Family Jewels, and even Snoop Dog's Father Hood. It's become a bit of a trend to follow these celebrity families around and watch the drama of their privileged lives unfold on our television screens. You might think it's a relatively recent phenomenon, but would you believe they were doing it back in the infant days of television when we followed around a musician named Ozzie and his wife way back in 1952? No, we're not talking about Ozzie Osbourne and his family. I'm talking about Ozzie and Harriet Nelson. They were television's darling family before we ever heard about Lucy and Desi.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 7th, 2022
"No one would have believed in the middle of the 20th century that human affairs were being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's. Yet, across the gulf of space on the planet Mars, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded our Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely joined their plans against us. Mars is more than 140 million miles from the sun, and for centuries has been in the last status of exhaustion. At night, temperatures drop far below zero even at its equator. Inhabitants of this dying planet looked across space with instruments and intelligences that which we have scarcely dreamed, searching for another world to which they could migrate."
War Of The Worlds is perhaps one of the most iconic and often infamous science fiction works in literature history.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 28th, 2022
"For those of you who are wondering who this fella here is, I am the legendary Colonel Tom Parker. I am the man who gave the world Elvis Presley. Without me, there would be no Elvis Presley. And yet, there are some who'd make me out to be the villain of this here story. No, no, I didn't kill him. I made Elvis Presley. Nothing all those muckrakers said in their books was true. Me and Elvis, we was partners. It was Elvis the Showman and the Colonel the Snowman. I always knew I was destined for greatness. As an orphan, I ran away to the carnival, where I learned the art of the "snow job," of emptying a rube's wallet while leaving them with nothing but a smile on their face. But a carnival act that would get you the most money, the most snow, had great costumes and a unique trick, that gave the audience feelings they weren't sure they should enjoy. But they do. And I knew if I could find such an act, I could create the greatest ... show ... on ... Earth."
Rock bio-pictures have been pretty hot as of late. It really started with the exceptionally done Bohemian Rapsody that chronicled the rise of the band Queen, and more its flamboyant front man, Freddie Mercury.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 21st, 2022
"So much for easing back into things."
This season sports a huge change as the fifth season of SEAL Team hits DVD from CBS Home Entertainment. For the first four seasons the show has enjoyed a pretty well-rated run on CBS's prime time schedule. Season 5 starts out exactly the same way until after the first four episodes. The series was switched suddenly from the television network to the Paramount + streaming service, and with the switch there are several huge changes. The first is in the number of episodes shot for each season. On CBS most shows run from 20-24 episodes a season. This year because of it being a hybrid year, you get 14 episodes. Starting next season you will get only 10 going forward. Another change is that the production values are going up, with a wider span of locations for the team's missions. Finally, you will notice they can now do and say things they could not on network television.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 15th, 2022
Revamping old shows and movies is the latest trend in television. CBS has made several attempts at this with varying success. Such was their attempt when they tried to convert Rush Hour into a TV series. It failed badly. But then there was Hawaii Five-O, which got 10 seasons and was pretty solid. The MacGyver reboot gaining a fourth season puts this attempt somewhere in the middle. The show has been on the bubble for the last two seasons and this year it was finally cancelled. But that wasn't quite the end of the story. Part of the reason was an inability to renew the rights from Universal at the kind of money CBS thought the show was worth. Now NBC, which is owned by Universal, has given the show a second chance with a 2-year renewal. The cast and crew appear to be intact, but with some contract negotiations it's possible that someone may drop out, leaving room for something new. So Magnum is back
