Posts by Gino Sassani

Intro

Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin finally gets a DVD re-release with an anamorphic widescreen transfer. It is too bad that the quality of this DVD is so low.

Intro

Columbia-Tristar has re-released To Kill with Intrigue, along with New Fists of Fury and Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin with a new anamorphic widescreen transfer. To Kill with Intrigue looks better than the other two releases, but still is nothing stellar on DVD.

Intro

It is nice to see one of Jackie Chan’s first films, New Fist of Fury, get re-released with an anamorphic widescreen transfer. Unfortunately, that is the only bonus to this disc.

Intro

It is about damn time that The Empire Strikes Back made it to DVD… oh wait; this is Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, not The Empire Strikes Back (Damn it). Oh well, at least we now have one “Strikes Back” on DVD, and it is a dandy DVD release.

“You will believe a man can fly” was the promise on a movie poster that tempted this teenager into the brand new multiplex to see Superman - The Movie. Did the film deliver? Let’s just say there were no lawsuits for breech of contract. What teenage kid could help but be swept into the air with Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel. Brando had also been a hero of mine and who better to play Superman’s dad than the Godfather himself. No film had to that point ever accomplished the feat of putting a human in flight that rivals the abilities of today’s digital effects. Hell yes, I believe a man can fly.

Ok do I really need to tell this story? Here’s a brief layout for anyone who flunked comic books 101 in school…

“Can you summon your talent at will?” This is a question from Satan himself in the The Devil’s Advocate. For Al Pacino I would say the answer is a resounding yes. Pacino has been making us offers we just couldn’t refuse for 30 years. Just a list of his exceptional films would require more space than I have here. You’ll find this film to be one of his more underrated gems.

Synopsis

Intro

I have been hearing about this film for quite some time now… and now that I have had the pleasure of viewing it, I can honestly say it is a great film. If you like British style films (Lock Stock, Snatch, Gangster No. 1)… you will thoroughly enjoy Sexy Beast.

What is the Matrix? That’s the question everyone’s looking to answer in this sci-fi spectacular from Wachowski brothers. One thing it was -- groundbreaking both in the spectacular special effects that we’ve since taken for granted even in tv commercials and in actual ground (the tons of concrete) broken in the film itself.

Synopsis

"Imagine where you will be and it will be so". That was how Maximus comforted his troops before battle. If you imagine yourself in Rome during the days of the Gladiator then Ridley Scott makes it very easy to do. Russell Crowe plays the role of a lifetime as Maximus. I have often heard film lovers state that they don?t make classics anymore. Whether Gladiator is the exception that proves the rule or proof against the rule is uncertain. What is sure is that Gladiator will become a true classic. What did I do on my summer vacation? Ridley Scott took me to Rome.

Synopsis

Intro

This is the new film from writer/director Scott Reynolds, who brought us The Ugly, a stylishly weird psycho-thriller from a few years back.