Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 5th, 2021
If you were a child in the 1960's or 1970's, you were around at the golden age of the Christmas television special. We just celebrated the 50th anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas, and there were a ton of holiday charms that came and went each year. But there were a handful that became classics and found their way to the airwaves every year in December. Of course, A Charlie Brown Christmas became one of these, and it is indeed among the best. It was not the only special to become beloved by generations of viewers. Now Dreamworks has brought together seven of the most memorable of these classics. This was a wonderful trip down memory lane for me, as it will be for millions of children of all ages who looked forward to these event broadcasts each and every year. Now you can watch them whenever you want. And they might not be just for Christmas anymore.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on October 30th, 2021
"Can anyone give me an example of a myth or a story They're afraid of?"
Look at every element of Searchlight's new horror film Antlers and you see nothing but the promise of an extraordinary horror film. Guillermo del Toro is one of the producers and he's got a reputation for building some of the best horror atmosphere you'll ever see. He's one of those visual geniuses that has been inspired by the black & white classics of the genre and his imagination is truly amazing. The film is based on Nick Antosca's short story The Quiet Boy which itself has some pretty incredible imagery. The film also sports a pretty sweet cast starting with Keri Russell known for the Cold War series The Americans. There's Jesse Plemons who blew me away on Friday Night Lights and hasn't disappointed yet. Young Jeremy T. Thomas has a pretty good career if his performance here is any indication of what he can do. The kid does one of the best deadpans I've seen since Christina Ricci's wonderful Wednesday Addams. The British Columbia locations are truly stunning. This looks like a truly great film. And it's certainly not a bad film. But it's far from great. It's an okay film and often that would be fine with me. I enjoy an average horror film as much as the next guy. The trouble is this should have been great and that's a huge disappointment.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 28th, 2021
"Look. See a world that holds more wonders than any since the Earth was born. And of all who reigned o'er, none had more renown like the boy who pulled the sword from the stone. But this is not that king, nor is this his song. Let me tell you instead a new tale. I'll lay it down as I've heard it told. Its letters set, its history pressed, of an adventure brave and bold. Forever set in heart, in stone like all great myths of old ..."
Mythology is filled with stories of knights. The Black Knights of villainy can be found in thousands of stories, perhaps far more. What young girl doesn't dream of her White Knight coming to rescue her from a mundane life? And there are countless stories of King Arthur and his entourage of famous names like Guinevere, Galahad, and Merlin the wizard. But you won't find too many stories of a Green Knight. Nor has there been much set to paper on Sir Gawain, one of Arthur's lesser known family members. Turns out the young lad was his nephew of Gwen's side of the family.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 28th, 2021
"My most vivid memories are of the days when my life changed. I remember coming to this Earth, feeling the sun on my face for the first time. Hearing the voices of my parents. My mother called me their greatest surprise. And boy, there sure were lots of them. I remember loving Smallville; the people, the community, how the small things were the big things. And I thought I'd live there forever. But my father's death set me on a different path. Eventually, I moved to Metropolis to become who I was meant to be. But my most vivid memory of all was the day I met her."
The her, of course is Lois Lane. Together they are Superman & Lois, and they've joined the ever-expanding Arrowverse for their first season now out on Blu-ray from Warner Home Entertainment.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 20th, 2021
"Scared yet? You should be."
There have been a ton of changes in the Arrowverse that started in 2012 with the CW premier of Arrow. It told the story of Oliver Queen, The Green Arrow. Other shows and heroes were added along the way that included time-traveling heroes of The Legends Of Tomorrow, Supergirl, Black Lightning, Stargirl, and most recently Batwoman and Superman and Lois. But the best of these Arrowverse shows has always been and continues to be The Flash. But a lot has changed since then. The mothership, Arrow, has been gone for two years. Supergirl ended last season along with Black Lightning, and Legends Of Tomorrow appears to be fading fast in just plain silliness. Too bad DC doesn't own the rights to Howard The Duck. He'd fit right in. Of the new shows, Stargirl shows a lot of promise with a pretty solid ensemble. Batwoman, for so many reasons, is a complete mess, and Superman & Lois looks to be the most promising future of the Arrowverse.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on October 16th, 2021
“Michael Myers has haunted this town for 40 years … Tonight we hunt him down.”
In 2018 when Halloween came out, I have to admit I was disappointed. Maybe I just had such high hopes, or the film just simply didn’t offer up anything fresh to the series as I had hoped. Sure, it had its moments, like the long tracking shot of Michael doing what he does best and leaving a trail of bodies behind, but aside from that, I felt it was a relatively forgettable entry. I love the original film. What John Carpenter did scared me as a child and still excites me after numerous viewings. Halloween II is a fun watch that I continue to enjoy. And for a more controversial take, I’m even a fan of Rob Zombie’s Halloween. I liked the time spent with a young Michael Myers, and I look at the film as basically a southern re-telling of the Boogeyman. The franchise is hit or miss, and the numerous timelines do complicate the lore, so I was more than a little skeptical about Halloween Kills and it being the middle of David Gordon Green’s trilogy.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 14th, 2021
"It's alive!"
After nearly 90 years the Universal horror cycle stands as one of the most enduring collection of horror movies today. Their influence on modern horror is unmistakable. There have been literally thousands of incarnations of Dracula, The Wolf Man and Frankenstein's Monster, but the first image that comes to your mind will always be the nightmare creations of those Universal films. Studio head Carl Laemmle, Jr. was trying to break away from his father's control and create a studio culture of his own. The results would start in 1931 when an unknown Hungarian actor named Bela Lugosi jumped from the stage to the screen in Dracula, directed by Tod Browning. Laemmle's niece, Carla Laemmle, is the girl in the coach headed for Borgo Pass as the film opens to the musical strains from Swan Lake. She is reading a travel brochure about vampires and thus speaks the very first lines ever spoken in a horror film in the era of sound. Lugosi was mesmerizing, and the film was a hit. There was a depression on, but that didn't stop crowds from lining up around theater blocks to be hypnotized by Lugosi's Dracula.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 13th, 2021
"He's dangerous, amoral, he pathologically flaunts authority. He's reckless to the point of suicidal. But all of this ... everything we've done. None of it would have been possible if it weren't for him."
Him, of course is James Spader as the enigmatic Raymond "Red" Reddington. The show is NBC's breakout hit The Blacklist, created by first-time show-runner Jon Bokenkamp. Bokenkamp is truly a newcomer to the business. He has literally only a couple of very minor writing credits to his name. Perhaps that's why The Blacklist is able to contain quite a few of the cliché elements running through television today and still feel like one of the freshest shows in a long while. Or maybe it's really Spader
Posted in: Podcasts by Gino Sassani on October 10th, 2021
After nearly 100 years the Universal Horror cycle stands as one of the most enduring collection of horror movies today. Their influence on modern horror is unmistakable. There have been literally thousands of incarnations of Dracula, The Wolf Man and Frankenstein's Monster, but the first image that comes to your mind will always be the nightmare creations of those Universal films. Now the first collection of Universal Horror classics finally comes to UHD Blu-ray and glorious 4K. It doesn't get any better than this. A while back I got to talk with Sarah Karloff, daughter to the legendary monster himself, Boris Karloff. Here what she had to say about those monsters of the past. Bang it here to listen to my interview with Sara Karloff
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 6th, 2021
We first came to know Paul Hogan as the "Shrimp On The Barbie" guy. He was doing television and radio ads for Australian tourism. A smart fellow, he saw that the ad character was popular and rode an enormous wave of an Australian fad that hit America in the 1980's. Suddenly there were Australian bands like Men At Work teaching us about vegemite sandwiches on the top of the music charts. We got steak, not shrimp, on our barbie with a chain of Australian-themed steakhouses appropriately called Outback "no rules, just right" started up by a Florida group. Pop culture became inundated with catch phrases like "no worries" and "G'Day". Australia was cool, and we even had an "Australian" neighbor we all later found out was faking it for years. No doubt anything Aussie was considered cool. It was in that light that Hogan parlayed his tourism ads into an over-the-top Aussie character named Michael J. "Crocodile” Dundee.
