Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 27th, 2003
Synopsis
I presume a synopsis of Cheers would be redundant, because if you’re not familiar with theshow, than this review would hold no interest. Anyway, this first season sets up the bar and thecharacters, in particular the feuding love-hate relationship between Sam (Ted Danson) and Diane(Shelley Long). In fact, in the pilot episode, we see how Diane gets hired in the first place.
Audio
The sound (in 2.0) breaks down pretty much into three categories. The mus...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 26th, 2003
Synopsis
Ana (America Ferrera) is 18. She has just graduated from high school, and wants to go tocollege. For the summer, though, she is going to have to work in the garment factory with hermother and sister. Her mother (Lupe Ontiveros), meanwhile, is determined to make her fit thetraditional role of a Latino daughter, and Ana rebels. Body image, tradition versus youth, theLatino experience in the US, sweatshops: all these themes are skilfully braided together.
Audio< ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 26th, 2003
Synopsis
Good Burger has been serving the community’s fast food need for years, but now, across thestreet, comes the colossal building that houses Mondo Burger, a mega-chain set on wiping outthe little guy. To Good Burger’s doubtful rescue come its employees, led by the clumsy Dexter(Kenan Thompson) and the sublimely stupid Ed (Kel Mitchell).
Audio
The stereo mix is in both 5.1 and 2.0 surround, and is very lively, especially when it comes tothe music. Thund...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 26th, 2003
Synopsis
The Millennium Building in New York has a problem: its central express elevator hasdeveloped a mind of its own, and is killing people. Even as horror movie concepts go, this ispretty preposterous, but what saves the film is its very awareness of its own preposterousness,and its willingness to go insanely over the top. So, on the debit side: the plot makes virtually nosense at all, with a great many threads left dangling; the post-synch voices are often ratherawkward, with t...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 25th, 2003
Synopsis
Timothy Bottoms plays Hart, a first-year law student at Harvard. His existence centresaround a class taught by Kingsfield (John Houseman), a brilliant but utterly ruthless professorwho consistently humiliates his students, yet somehow acquires their unswerving loyalty. Hartalso begins an affair with a Susan (Lindsay Wagner), who turns out to be Kingsfield’s daughter.Though the film is never less than compelling, it does lack a centre. The characters are almostall cyphers or...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 25th, 2003
Synopsis
Gary Cooper, unusually cast as an atomic scientist, is sent to Europe by the OSS to rescuescientists being forced to cooperate with the Nazi atom bomb project. During his mission, hehooks up with the Italian resistance, falling in love with the feisty Lilli Palmer. Though Langoriginally shot his 1946 thriller with more emphasis on the dangers of atomic power, WarnerBros. re-edited the flick, and most of that theme is now lost, reducing the nuclear angle to a mereHitchcockian McGuff...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 24th, 2003
Analyze This was funny for several reasons, not the least of them being that it came from out of nowhere. We always knew that Billy Crystal could be rolling-in-the-aisles funny, but Robert DeNiro really isn’t “the King Of Comedy”. The movie worked because of chemistry more than anything else. Analyze That is no different. If anything the interplay between DeNiro and Crystal has improved. While not nearly as original (and how could it be?) Analyze That is just as funny as the first film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 24th, 2003
If Clear And Present Danger suffers from anything it is that it is overlong. As much as I like the film and its plot, there are times when I find myself checking the running time again to see how much longer the film is. There are also an incredible number of characters on both sides of the fence to keep track of: Ryan (Ford), Greer (Jones), Clark (Defoe), Ritter (Czemy) , Escobedo (Sandoval) , NSA Director Cutter (Yulin), Felix Cortez (Almeida), Ryan’s wife (Archer), Moira (Mangnuson), FBI Director Jacobs (Tammi) and the list goes on.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 18th, 2003
I am quite conflicted about this the second Jack Ryan film. There is no doubt I enjoy Harrison Ford’s Ryan more than I did Alec Baldwin’s. Of course, they really are not the same character at all. With Ford, Ryan has become more of an action hero. Sadly, I didn’t find this script as compelling as the other Ryan films. It is by far the worst adaptation of a Clancy novel to date. The complicated plot ends up being reduced to a simple game of revenge for the villain. Plot contrivances abound just to place Ryan into the heat of fire.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 15th, 2003
In the 1980’s Tom Clancy was “the man”. One of the interviews on this disc accurately points out that if you were on an airplane in the 1980’s, for every ten people reading a book seven would be reading Tom Clancy. Hunt for Red October was by far his best work. The technical information was so accurate that Clancy was once questioned for several hours by the CIA to determine his source. The film, unlike many blockbuster efforts, does not disappoint. The script is relatively faithful to the book. There are major divergences, particularly the climax, but most serve to tighten the lengthy novel into a fast-paced film.
