Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 20th, 2005
Evil sells. From the time of Adam and Eve it appears that Satan makes for great storytelling. The mini-series from NBC gets its name, obviously, from Revelations, the final book in the Bible. Combine the idea of pure evil and the end of times and you get... well, The Omen. Revelations deals more with the impending Armageddon than it actually does with the Anti-Christ. The clash of science and religion is far more important in this film than past films like The Omen. Bill Pullman is a good choice here. His portrayal of a Harvard scientist caught in the middle of this epic tale contains just the right reserved element to make him completely believable.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 12th, 2005
Season Two of Star Trek Enterprise was without a doubt the weakest of the series. It’s no mystery that the show’s demise was already being talked about by the time Year Two was finished. The stories were unoriginal and it appears budgetary concerns often meant unimaginative bottle shows. The words Star Trek were finally added to the title. Rick Berman has always tried to distance himself from Gene Roddenberry. When Enterprise was first released he felt it was time to finally cut the umbilical cord and drop the franchise tag.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 11th, 2005
Synopsis
Tim Allen was fortunate enough to ride a couple of trends and nurture them into a steady paycheck without really having to do anything. He was a stand-up comic in the mid ‘80s and early ‘90s and was pretty good at it. And like many other stand-ups during the time, he was given a sitcom with which to basically recycle his act onto a smaller stage. And to his benefit, the public enjoyed it, and Allen’s pet project Home Improvement was a smash hit, and would later go on to enjoy eight seasons o...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 11th, 2005
Synopsis
Akira Kurosawa’s impact on filmmaking and storytelling will be part of Western cinema for decades to come. Despite being slightly underappreciated in his later years in his native Japan, some of the work he put to film is some of the greatest and most influential ever seen. His work, such as Rashomon, The Hidden Fortress and The Seven Samurai, to name a few, have been remade or cited as major influences in the films and/or careers of George Lucas, Clint Eastwood and James Cobur...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 9th, 2005
The term Reivers, it is explained, is a turn of the century word for thieves. From that explanation one might expect an action adventure heist film. What you get instead is a Faulkner coming of age story. While the film has quite a few memorable moments of pure Americana, there seems little point in anything that happens on screen. Even the wonderful acting of Steve McQueen leaves most of the film muddied in a period piece about nothing at all. Burgess Meredith does a fine job of narrating the film from the point of view of an old man recalling a moment in his 11th year.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 7th, 2005
Synopsis
Peter Bogdanovich may be the victim of having too much too soon, as he was well known for his work in the early 1970s, starting with The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon, but experienced a string of poorly received work as well. Following the 1980 murder of his girlfriend Dorothy Stratten (at the hands of her estranged husband), he stayed out of the business (and was bankrupt) for awhile, but returned in 1985 with the excellent film Mask. In Illegally Yours, he manages t...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 7th, 2005
Synopsis
Lately various studios have been releasing films with Gene Hackman onto DVD, films like Scarecrow and Twice in a Lifetime. And after a run in 1983’s Uncommon Valor, he teamed with Matt Dillon (The Flamingo Kid) in 1985’s Target, the proverbial Cold War spy thriller.
Directed by Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde) Walter (Hackman) and Chris Lloyd (Dillon) are a father and son who don’t get along very well, as Walter wants Chris to do something with his ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 2nd, 2005
By the last half of season three Lost In Space was certainly showing its wear. The stories would sink to simply camp with little or no redeeming value remaining. It’s no surprise that this once smart bit of space humor was on the way out after season 3. By now it appears the writers were fresh out of anything new and opted to recycle already tired formulas. Just how many times can Smith sell the family out for a long-shot return to Earth? Will and the Robot remain the best reason for watching the show.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 30th, 2005
Synopsis
The frustrating thing in watching Gas is just how familiar it is to The Cookout, Barbershop, Beautyshop, and other films that involve groups of African-American men getting together in the neighborhood and having fun, and getting the most successful family member in touch with their roots. What’s next, Sunday Church? Or Night at Silver Diner?
There are even a couple of parallels to The Cookout in this film. While Damien in this film is played by “Flex” ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 30th, 2005
Synopsis
Poor Tom Selleck. The guy has had to deal with the Magnum P.I. stigma for so long, whenever he tries to play darker characters in a film noir-style TV movie, people just don’t buy it, as what seems to be the case in Stone Cold.
But Selleck actually does a pretty decent job in the film, playing Jesse Stone, a chief of police in a small New England town who has to deal with a serial killing husband and wife combo. Jesse has moved from Los Angeles, where he lost his job and his...
