Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 27th, 2003
Synopsis
In 1959, US sailors stash a load of money on an island not far from Cuba. Flash forward tothe present, and one of those sailors (Daniel J. Travanti!) and his wife (poor Faye Dunaway)convince John Laughlin (the son of one of the other sailors) and his wife Kim Cattrall to sail outto get this cash. Naturally, all is not what it seems. Travanti is badly miscast as the villain, andthe plot takes so long to get in gear that you have plenty of time to realize this makes nosense.< ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 27th, 2003
Synopsis
Earl Crest (Joshua Jackson) and his (extremely feisty) girlfriend Baby (Jamie King) aregetting ready to up sticks from Texas for LA. Unfortunately, Earl’s deeply moronic cousin hasstolen a lot of money from the wrong (and dangerous people). All sorts of comical troubleensues.
Audio
A full 5.1 mix, and pretty good stuff. The music has some particularly nice echo effects,sounding as big as the state of the title. The sound effects are good too, with s...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 27th, 2003
Synopsis
An all-around sleaze is found murdered (and the discovery of his body is, I have to admit,pretty damn funny). All sorts of evidence points to hot-tempered cop Burt Reynolds, and he ischarged with murder. Defending him is a very wooden Theresa Russell. She and Reynolds areconvinced he was framed, and they begin to dig. There are loose ends all over the place by thetime the film wraps up, but it is decently entertaining along the way.
Audio
The sound ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 27th, 2003
Synopsis
Someone, variously known as the Black Angel and the Co-Ed Killer is, well, killing co-eds.All of whom knew each other. Who is responsible? And who the hell cares? This is about as badas a slasher film can get. Never mind the amateurish acting, the sub-literate script, and the awfulphotography. There’s no blood!
Audio
The sound is technically 2.0, and I suppose it is, but just barely. There is virtually no soundat all from the rear speakers, music or...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 27th, 2003
Jerry Bruckheimer becomes yet another A-List film producer to take a shot at the television drama. I have to admit that I never gave this show a prayer of success when I first saw it three years ago. It’s not that I thought it wasn’t good. I loved it. I thought it would be too cerebral for the normal Joe six-pack audience. Boy was I wrong. CSI has become the hottest drama in prime time, and like Law and Order before it has begun to spin off into another incarnation with CSI: Miami. The characters are engaging and it seems we’re all obsessed with some morbid fascination of murder.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 25th, 2003
How do you spoof something that is already a spoof itself? That’s easy. You mix a reality show concept with a contrived Hollywood script. You hire the worst actors you can find and you call it The Real World Movie: The Lost Season. Even if you’re a fan of the MTV reality series, you won’t find anything remotely entertaining here. If you don’t even like the TV show, then my advice is to run. Now we have bad actors pretending to be people who are pretending to be spontaneous.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 22nd, 2003
Synopsis
Harry Feversham (Heath Ledger) appears quite comfortable with his life as a soldier, andhe is about to be engaged to Kate Hudson, so life is good. But then his garrison is assigned toquell an uprising in the Sudan, and Harry is frightened. He resigns his commission. His friends,feeling betrayed, send him the white feathers of cowardice. Shamed, Harry follows themincognito to the Sudan, and his presence turns out to be crucial to their fates. In many ways athrowback to such ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 16th, 2003
To be fair, The Ring is not the most original horror film to come along recently. It is not only based on the cult classic Japanese film Ringu, but at times mimics the script word for word. There are also enough similarities to the recent Fear Dot Com to make one take pause. It is one of the scariest and most atmospheric films to appear in quite a few years. Since the 1980’s the state of the American horror film has been in a steady decline. Yes, special effects have advanced light years since the days of Karloff and Lugosi, but the end result has more often been to gross out rather than engross.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 16th, 2003
Synopsis
There is no plot, as such, here. Each of the dreams has some sort of narrative, but moreimportant are the visuals and the themes (humanity and nature, nuclear power, and so forth).Dreams is not on the same level as Kurosawa’s great masterpieces (Ran, The Seven Samurai,Throne of Blood, and so on), and is not always compelling. But it is very frequently jaw-droppingly beautiful.
Audio
The music, a curious blend of eastern and western influences, sound...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 13th, 2003
Synopsis
Lucy (Monica Potter) is dumped by the man she though would love her forever. In fact, sheis so off-putting in her confidence, that it’s hard to feel sorry for her when the dumping occurs inthe most humiliating way possible. The rest of the film follows her through a series of five dates.We cut back and forth between the dates, and which man she marries is held off for the end. Ifyou still care by then.
Audio
The 5.0 audio mix is a completely profess...
