Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 24th, 2007
“Here’s the thing about the future. If you look at it it changes, and every time you look at it it changes again…”
If Nicolas Cage had Chris Johnson’s ability to see into the future, he might have avoided his latest film, Next. At the very least he might have been tempted to monkey with it in order to get a better box office take than it ultimately received. The film was in and out of theatres faster than I could blink, let alone catch it. If Cage had foreseen the film’s demise, it would have been unfortunate for us who got to see this film on DVD for the first time. The fate of the film is a bit of a mystery. The sci-fi trade and fan magazines were all over this one in pre-release hype. One explanation can be found in the way the film depicts the flash forward moments. While I am aware it is intentional and I understand the purpose, it was often too difficult to get your bearings. An audience doesn’t like to feel stupid. We don’t mind being surprised, but we want to be able to figure it all out so that we can feel smarter. Films rarely succeed when they leave the viewer feeling like an idiot. A subtle hint as to “when we were” might have gone a long way in making this easier on the audience. I think I have more patience than most in this regard, but even I felt cheated sometimes by the presentation of the various timelines.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 24th, 2007
Stop me if you’ve heard any of this before. Four teens set out on a road trip …
STOP.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 20th, 2007
What would happen if a studio was so confident in a show that it offered the DVD’s at a reduced price and slapped on a money back guarantee? Universal has done just that with Friday Night Lights. There is a rebate program where you can turn your discs back in for a full refund if you’re not completely satisfied with the show. Couple that with the fact I picked up this entire season for only 20 bucks, and I’d say somebody is either really stupid, or they’ve got a hell of a television series. Friday Night Lights is the latter.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 19th, 2007
Detective “Iron” Mike Stone (Karl Malden) is a seasoned veteran of the San Francisco Police Department. He’s an old fashioned no nonsense detective whose life has taken some bitter turns of late. Much to his aggravation he gets partnered with Keller (Michael Douglas), a green detective who hasn’t lost his belief that he can make a difference. Together they just might be able to teach each other something. Before long the two develop a teacher/mentor relationship that works well enough to solve the cases and get the bad guys.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 19th, 2007
My mother was a big fan of The Untouchables. I think she really just had a crush on Robert Stack. Years later when Stack was hosting Unsolved Mysteries, I could swear that I heard her murmur a few
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 18th, 2007
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 15th, 2007
There have certainly been more interesting family business shows on television over the years, so the premise for Brothers & Sisters is anything but original. Both
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 6th, 2007
This was my first ever exposure to Grey’s Anatomy. Certainly I’ve followed the buzz the show has generated with its multiple awards and the feuding between two of the show’s actors. My first impression was not altogether a very good one. You see, season three begins with the aftermath of an obviously big ending from the previous year. From what I can gather, a character died and it left a void for a couple of the characters. I immediately began to feel like an outsider, a feeling I wasn’t very comfortable with. Fortunately, before I could give up feeling frustrated and hounded by an impending review deadline, something quite remarkable happened. Simply stated, I didn’t stop watching. In that moment of hesitation, I began to catch a glimpse of what everybody’s been going on about. The acting is surprisingly rock solid and not at all the flirty surface performances I had expected. So, for a short time, I was able to put aside my outsider feelings and begin to appreciate what I was watching. Before too long I was beginning to recognize the strong production values and clever writing which have been responsible for all that buzz I was hearing. While I avoided the needle scenes like the plague that spread through the hospital’s opening episodes, there is still a lot of high resolution f/x when it comes to wounds and surgery bits. This is by far the most realistic look I’ve seen in any medical show so far. The offbeat banter of the interns works well to offset the rather dramatic storylines hidden beneath this somewhat light series.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 27th, 2007
Every office has one. Peggy Spade (
If you come to the film expecting a cozy little dog film you can cuddle up with, you will be disappointed. Having a stubborn Siberian Husky myself, I am almost always suckered into pretty much any film that has dogs in it. I even converted my wife. A long standing cat person, she fell in love with the puppy dog eyes of a pointer mix. That should tell you that I am predisposed to like most dog films. I wish I could tell you I liked Year Of The Dog.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 14th, 2007
In the advertisements we are promised a thrilling heist film. I’m happy to report that those promises were quite wrong. The heist is pretty lame and never keeps up with the many superior attempts. Honestly, we’ve had too many of these multiple twist heist films, culminating in the Ocean franchise which went two films too long. Instead, what we get here is something far better. The Lookout is a compelling character study brought off entirely by a sweet performance by the lead. Who would have believed that Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the dweeb kid from 3rd Rock From The Sun, had pretty nice acting chops? Never a fan of the quirky series, I thought the acting considerably bad, so I certainly would not have been among the Gordon-Levitt faithful. The Lookout is a wonderful breakout performance that should, rightly enough, bring folks like myself into the fold. He carries the entire film on his shoulders. The entire success of this movie hinges on the emotional ride that Gordon-Levitt takes us on. This has to be one of the best portrayals of mental deficiency I’ve seen. Forget Forrest Gump or Rainman; this role isn’t cute or over the top. Here we’re confronted with a convincing enough performance that it might even be hard to watch if your own family has been touched in this way.
Writer/director Scott Frank doesn’t waste any time pulling us into his film. We start out with an adolescent midnight joyride that you just know will end badly for the passengers. Your prediction quickly proves correct, and Frank Scott is ready to move on. He doesn’t bother lingering on the tragic events, instead allowing us to see the tragedy not in the bloody remnants of the crash, but in the emotional aftermath for the driver. Chris (Gordon-Levitt) finds himself four years later scarred both physically and mentally. He has suffered brain damage, and this causes him difficulty in concentration and sequencing events. He has gone from a high school hockey hero from an influential family to a bank night janitor barely in control of his own life. Jeff Daniels spices up the film a bit as Chris’s roommate, Lew. Lew is blind and relatively cynical about most things in life. He offers a symbiotic relationship with Chris and both have obviously fallen into a routine. One of the best lighter moments in the film is Lew’s desire to open a café called “Lew’s Your Lunch”. Things change for Chris when a man who identifies himself as an ex boyfriend of his sister enters his life. Gary (Goode) invites Chris into his tight circle, which includes the attractive Luvlee Lemon (Fisher) who appears interested in Chris. Finding himself a part of a family, of sorts, creates a strong bond for Chris, until he discovers he was being recruited to rob the bank he works at. We are nearly an hour into the film before the mechanics of the heist begin and the action really starts. The true climax of the film, however, isn’t the bank heist; it’s Chris’s discovery that he has been manipulated into taking the fall for the crime. Now Chris must bring out whatever abilities his mind might still possess to get himself out of danger.
