Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 28th, 2006
This is another one of those films that is best suited for the international film festival crowd. I’m not sure, however, if even that group will get this one. Jennifer Van Dyck gives one of the silliest and most wooden performances I’ve ever seen as a woman suddenly constrained by normal life. Under the influence of a messed up play director, she is encouraged to experience life through other eyes. Her use of profanity, sleep deprivation, and depravity are just not interesting to observe. I’ve had bouts of sleep de...rivation, and trust me, it’s not the sense-stimulating experience she writes about. It plays out like a poor art film student’s work. Not to be taken seriously at all. It won’t likely even show up at the local video chains . “You ain’t missing nothing.”
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 28th, 2006
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother has everything that Young Frankenstein had except Mel Brooks (although he does make a very brief vocal cameo). With the combined comedic genius of Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, and Marty Feldman, how could this film go wrong? Like Young Frankenstein, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes offers a rich classical mythology to mine for material. A wonderful supporting cast featuring the likes of Dom Deluise can’t miss, right? No so elementary, my dear Watson. Focus. ...hat’s the rub. I’m not referring to the work of the cameramen here. Gene Wilder appeared so sure of his own brilliance that he forgot to bring the story.
The game’s afoot, and it smells like it, too. Never before has so much talent been squandered on so little substance. I understand this is a farce, and I’m fully prepared for the absurd. I’m just not prepared to go nowhere. I was extremely disappointed at every turn. Toilet humor replaces wit. There are also no straight men. What’s Costello without Abbott? Everyone is so into trying to be funny no one offers to be the foil. Simply uninspired. The entire film makes one feel they are witness to one large in joke and we’re on the outside of the punch line. The musical numbers make the film all that much more intolerable.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 26th, 2006
Manny Coto almost saved Star Trek. After 2 years of Rick Berman’s floundering on Enterprise, Coto came in and gave the show its legs. It was too little too late, of course. The show would be canned when most critics, myself included, thought the show was finally clicking. This near resurrection should come as no surprise to anyone who has seen Odyssey 5. Coto created this Showtime series. Superior f/x and a compelling story arc drove this cable cousin to Stargate SG-1.
The astronauts of the Space Shu...tle “Odyssey” encounter one situation the nerds at NASA hadn’t prepared them for: the total destruction of Earth. The five surviving crewmen don’t have time to consider their situation before an alien approaches them with a sad story. It seems that every time he reaches a sentient species, he arrives after they have destroyed themselves. Fortunately for everyone, he has the power to send the crew’s consciousness back to their bodies 5 years in the past. They will relive the last five years, but with the knowledge they already possess in an attempt to uncover the conspiratorial elements that will eventually destroy the world.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 26th, 2006
I must first admit that I never saw The Sentinel when it originally aired in the 90’s. I guess this one never made my radar. It’s basically a cop show with a somewhat sci-fi or maybe paranormal twist. It seems that Jim Ellison’s (Burgi)plane went down in the jungles of South America. While the crash killed his crew, he not only survived, but somehow obtained strange super powers. The idea is that this ancient jungle tribe develops a “sentinel” to be their guardian. For years Ellison protected the village before his...eventual rescue. Now he’s a cop with a certain advantage. Ellison has heightened hearing and vision. The rub is he can’t really control when or where it kicks in. As I watch the series, predictably the powers always kick in at just the right time. His other senses are also super-active, but sight and sound make for the most used power. Of course there has to be a team. Blair Sandburg (Maggart) is an anthropologist who studies Ellison. Captain Banks (Young) also contributes to the team This was an early UPN show. It should be noted that this series has nothing at all to do with the upcoming film with the same title.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 25th, 2006
Battle For The Planet Of The Apes was the last of the original Apes films. It has been far too frequently maligned. While I will admit that some of the high concepts are a little too undisguised, there was still some life left in the franchise. Of course, the novelty had worn off by now. It didn’t help that the films’ budgets kept falling as Fox was looking for cheaper ways to sell the same ideas. “Battle” was a violent film, but it was really a film about peace and the violent rite of passage often necessary to ac...ieve any long-term tranquility.
Roddy McDowell was, in fact, Planet Of The Apes. He appeared in four of the original films as well as the short-lived television series. The series was a victim not of its viewership, but rather a strong anti-violence movement aimed at the television industry at the time. While it was no more violent than most shows, it seemed to draw the most fire. Whether playing Cornelius in the first film, Caesar in the final two, or Galen in the series, McDowell had an uncanny ability to bring emotion and strength of character to the Apes make-up. He brought a realistic animation to a risky business. The Apes films might have easily become farces with laughable characters that no one took seriously enough to listen to the social commentary being offered. With the help of brilliant makeup artist Chambers, these characters were real. Paul Williams was a surprising cast choice. Better known for writing syrupy love songs, the singer did a fine job as the cynical brain trust, Virgil. Claude Akins brings the gruffness of gorilla Aldo exactly what it needs. The cast is pretty solid.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 19th, 2006
The only thing worse than films about filmmaking are artsy films about filmmaking. These are hazardous affairs at best. Don’t get me wrong; I thrive on a steady diet of behind the scenes features and film trade magazines. But a film in that vein can’t help but become pretentious. Enter I Love Your Work. It’s very hard to tell when Adam Goldberg is trying to be serious and when he’s aiming for satire. I hope it was mostly the latter.
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not really out to g...t you. Gray Evans (Ribisi) is one of those quick-rising stars. He’s obviously more in love with himself than his legions of adoring fans. His self-loving world, however, is turned upside down when it appears he is being stalked by a crazy fan. The film allows for the chance this is all in his head, and there’s the fatal flaw. Much of this film appears to occur in Gray’s head, and it’s not a terribly exciting place to hang out. In a predictable spin, the couple he thinks might be stalking him reminds him of an earlier relationship before he was a big star. Now it seems Gray is the real stalker. The film is all style and absolutely no substance. At one point in the film Gray is watching snow on his television. I knew I was in trouble when I started to know exactly how he felt just then. This is also the kind of indy film where many of the actors are the filmmaker’s friends. Goldberg takes some pride in this point. The end result is watching sub par actors pretending to be actors who are pretending to be actors. Make it stop. Cameos by Vince Vaughn and Elvis Costello can’t even save this mess.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 17th, 2006
Can good acting make a film? Quite often it can. Dirty is a prime example of a film ending up better than it deserves to be by the powerful performance of a few good actors. Amando Sancho (Collins, Jr.) is an ex-gang kid from the mean streets of L.A. He thinks his street smarts and credibility can be an asset on the police force. Unfortunately we will never know, because he is partnered with corrupt cop Salim Adel (Gooding, Jr.). Both appear to require abject lessons in morality and loyalty, lessons that come too...late to be of any true value.
To say this is a disturbing film is putting it quite mildly. If you are at all sensitive to racial epithets being thrown about in casual fashion, this is not a film you want to view. If the depiction of cops as basically all corrupt with a few good eggs is offensive, this film will offend. It is a tragedy that the entire force is portrayed in these negative terms. We get no indication that there’s a clean cop in the film. This film is not so much about doing what’s right or not. The real question here is what is right or wrong. This is a gritty, stark world that reminds us in many ways of Vic Mackey and the Shield’s hopeless universe. The stark difference is that Adel has no respect for anyone. There is no distinction between the good guys and the bad guys. Mackey, at least, appears to believe he’s doing good. Adel simply doesn’t care. On the other hand, Sancho is more swept up with events. He aware of the ghosts that this kind of a life creates. This “day in the life” tale is all about the lack of redemption. I found it to be a pessimistic, dim view of society. While some might claim that perhaps this is reality at its core, what value is a film that has no hope at all? What good is a morality tale if there is no moral? The film is entirely too self-indulgent and a waste of some fine actors.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 13th, 2006
Hawaii 5-0 was one of CBS’s most successful shows of the 1970’s. A great deal of money had been spent creating facilities to take advantage of the Island’s unique setting. When the show had finally run its course, executives with the network were not keen to give up the production resources, so they simply created a new show to fill the same time slot and utilize the Hawaiian settings. Instead of a cop, this new show would center around Thomas Magnum (Selleck). Magnum was a former Naval Intelligence operative from ...he Vietnam War. He worked for an unseen wealthy boss ala Charlie’s Angels. His intermediary was Higgins (Hillerman). The show might even be considered a spinoff of Hawaii 5-0, as there are times Magnum mentions McGarrett from the previous show. A great deal of the show’s charm was created in the relationship between the proper English gentleman of Higgins and the devil-may-care free spirit of Magnum. Detective shows of the era also featured cool cars. Rockford had his Firebird, Starsky had his stripped Tomato Torino, Crockett had his Ferrari. Magnum drove a flashy red Ferrari actually owned by his boss. Helping in the adventures was Island chopper pilot TC (Mosley) and Casablanca knockoff nightclub owner Rick (Mannetti).
The Fourth Season of Magnum begins with one of the series’ more unique episodes. In “Home From The Sea” you won’t find the normal antics and car chases that made the show famous. Instead, Magnum is adrift at sea treading water. The episode provides a wonderful opportunity for some insight into Magnum’s childhood through flashbacks. The rest of the season is pretty much more of the same from the first three years. Bad guys and friends in trouble dominate the collection of episodes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 13th, 2006
This was David Spade’s first HBO special from 1998. Following in the footsteps of giants like George Carlin and Rodney Dangerfield, he somewhat misses the mark here. For some reason Spade displays a serious lack of energy. The real hook for this show was his return to the Tempe Improv where he got his start in his home town. This is still your basic stand-up comedy concert. On Spade’s hit list are such topics as: Dating, Hotels, Parents, and Fast Food Workers. It’s not until about the last 12 minutes that some real...y funny material starts to come through. Even Spade admits that it takes him 40 minutes to warm up. That would be OK, but it’s only a 56 minute show..
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 12th, 2006
Time travel has always been a favorite staple in the Star Trek franchise. Since the days of Kirk and Spock, through the Temporal Cold War of Enterprise Federation, officers and their ships have traversed both past and future. It’s no surprise that the two most popular Trek films: The Voyage Home and First Contact happen to be time travel tales. In this collection, Trek fans have voted for their favorite temporal excursions from the first four versions of the show. Unfortunately some fine Enterprise entries are not ...ncluded. While all of these episodes are to be found in their individual season sets, this is nonetheless an impressive collection.
From the Original Series comes perhaps its greatest episode. Harlen Ellison’s “The City On The Edge Of Forever” features a compelling guest stint by a then very young Joan Collins as the ill-fated Edith Keeler. When McCoy escapes into the past enraged by an accidental drug overdose, he changes the past and strands the landing party on a dead planet. Kirk and Spock travel to Depression era San Francisco, where to Kirk’s horror he finds he must allow Keeler to die. To complicate matters, he appears to have fallen in love with her along the way. This classic is accompanied by that show’s Tomorrow Is Yesterday.
