Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 20th, 2004
The Whole Nine Yards was a pretty funny film. It wasn’t outstanding. It wasn’t classic cinema. It certainly didn’t cry out for a sequel. The Whole Ten Yards goes one yard too far. Most of the original cast is back, but the film has no life. Even the laughs are forced. By now the novelty of the characters has long since worn thin. Bruce Willis seems to be acting for acting’s sake. The mood swings and unnecessary facial exaggerations seem to provide Willis with some distraction from how empty the rest of the film is. I...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 28th, 2004
ALF stands for Alien Life Form, but anyone who has seen this hit 1980’s comedy knows ALF stands for “Laughing your ass off funny”. OK, so the letters are out of order, but you know I’m right. It’s no surprise our favorite Melmac dude has made the DVD scene. The real shocker is that it took so long. Who remembers comedy from the 1980’s? There just wasn’t an awful lot to laugh at. ALF was the “muppet-like” creation of Paul Fusco, who also provides the wise-cracking voice of ALF. ALF’s making a comeback these days with ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 28th, 2004
V: The Series was a great idea that couldn’t seem to hit its stride. It was plagued by budget restrictions and astronomical expectations. The result was the inevitable failure of the show. It just wasn’t possible to reproduce the f/x and epic tales of the two mini-series events with about a fifth of the budget. Judged on its own, the series wasn’t all that bad. A solid cast anchored by Marc Singer, Faye Grant, and Robert Englund picked up the slack left by the poor budget. The absence of Kenneth Johnson was also keen...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 31st, 2004
Comic book characters have provided a large slate of movie productions in recent years. This really isn’t anything new; both Superman and Batman have each fueled successful film franchises (It should be noted that both are soon to return). Spider-Man’s record take opened a new floodgate. Some have been quite disappointing (The Hulk and The Punisher) while a few (X-Men and Spider-Man) have provided outstanding products. Hellboy fits somewhere in the middle. The character is somewhat lesser known and considerably more ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 27th, 2004
The Second Season of Starsky and Hutch is often considered its best by long time fans of the show. Even Paul Michael Glaser expressed his feelings that the show peaked in the second year. By now the characters were well honed and the stories less 70’s cliché and tighter. The show often used the 2 parter now to tell more elaborate tales. The bad guys were meaner. The guys spend time undercover a bit this year, which added a tremendous amount of variety to what was really a formula show in the first year. That all impo...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 22nd, 2004
It’s perhaps a sad commentary on the level of political correctness that Archie Bunker could never have graced network primetime in 2004. Archie was ignorant and an incredibly vocal bigot. Archie was an equal opportunity bigot. He didn’t just hate certain minorities … he hated everybody who wasn’t white blue collar protestant. Carroll O’Connor, who brilliantly portrayed Archie, was without a doubt one of the best actors to grace a network sitcom. Just watch his eyes and you’ll understand. All in the Family holds a re...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 11th, 2004
Season three of Voyager was the most exciting so far. This is the year Q, one of Star Trek’s most beloved characters, adds Janeway to his list of captains to pester. The powerful Borg would also enter Voyager’s universe in Season three. The year would end with a cliffhanger that also introduces 7 of 9 to the cast. This was Kes’s final year. There’s no question that the show’s dynamics went from stun to kill. Episodes became a bit more standalone. The long overdone Kazon arc would be abandoned for more compelling dram...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 9th, 2004
In the greatest tradition of 1950’s producers like William Castle comes The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. Castle fans will appreciate the “Filmed in Skeletovision” gag on the cover art. This is a wonderful send-up of the 1950’s science fiction genre. Most of the acting is deliberately over the top and the gags are often too obvious… but this is funny stuff. The music cues are dead on. Fans of Mystery Science Fiction Theatre 3000 will also find this film entertaining to the extreme. Andrew Parks steals the show wit...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 6th, 2004
South Park had peaked with Season 3. The film was a huge hit and some of the best stuff came out that year. Season 4 would become a more up and down year. It’s obvious that the Stone and Parker team decided to push the envelope a bit further. This is also the year we got wheelchair bound Timmy. I liked Timmy at first, but he just gets old fast. One of the highlights of this season is the last episode. Another Mr. Hanky Christmas episode has the boys creating a special computer Christmas card called “The Spirit of Chr...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 3rd, 2004
What we have here is a messy British independent film that takes most of its cues from the Agatha Christy 10 Little Indians formula. The film fails to provide enough setup or character development to ensure we give a crap about any of these people or what happens to them. As the dull actors and their equally dull counterparts disappear, I found myself looking forward to losing another one. Most of these chaps are complete unknowns. Only Paris Hilton’s name rang any bells. The producers were quite aware of this dilemm...
