Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 13th, 2001
Intro
I’m guessing here, but I bet that it’s the DVD format’s ability to store vast quantities of information that is behind the sudden home video releases of twenty-year-old TV mini-series. This one is suitably epic.
Synopsis
John Geyser (John Hammond) is the artistic son of a Southern farming family. He is also the most racially enlightened member. He becomes a sketch artist for a newspaper, and therefore also becomes our eyewitness of the US Civil War.
This is one of those Big...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 12th, 2001
Intro
‘Tis the season of bangs and booms it seems, as the release of big war movies of the past continues. This isn’t one of the best, but, produced as it is by Dino De Laurentis, it is big.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 12th, 2001
Intro
Lo how the mighty have fallen. There was a time when Patrick Swayze and Melanie Griffith were A-level stars with a certain guaranteed box office. No more, it seems. Now they’re starring together in made-for-cable efforts like this one, originally titled Forever Lulu.
Synopsis
Melanie Griffith is a schizophrenic. Once, she and Patrick Swayze were an item, but that ended. Unbeknownst to him, she became pregnant, and put the child up for adoption. Now, fifteen years later, she leave...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 10th, 2001
Intro
Here’s a unique opportunity: the chance to see director Paul Verhoeven’s very first theatrical release. We’re a long, long way from Total Recall and Starship Troopers here, but perhaps not so far from Showgirls, at least as far as subject matter is concerned.
Synopsis
This film has a plot only in the loosest sense of the term. This is really a series of short comic vignettes set in Amsterdam’s red light district, centering around a no-nonsense prostitute named Blonde Greet. Event...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 1st, 2001
Intro
In terms of Box Sets, HBO has impressed with the Sopranos DVD Collection. Season One was a pure treat on DVD. From the packaging, the layout, the quality, and the content, the First Season was a beautiful DVD release. HBO has pleased again with the release of Season Two. The quality standards have remained impeccable, and the content is as good as ever…
Synopsis
“In its second season, The Sopranos sustains the edgy intelligence and unpredictable, genre-warping narrative moment...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 29th, 2001
Just in case you thought war propaganda was incompatible with good filmmaking, here’s this release in Fox’s War Classics series.
Synopsis
The film literally is a diary, narrated by Reed Hadley, a war correspondent covering the US assault on Guadalcanal. Every step of the way the men are up against not only the Japanese enemy, but the natural enemies of terrain, weather and disease as well. The film was made smack in the middle of the war in 1943, and was rushed into production after the book of the...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 28th, 2001
Fans of Saving Private Ryan are hereby advised to look in to this 1950 effort, one of the original platoon films.
Synopsis
Richard Widmark is former school teacher (sound familiar?), now Lieutenant. He and his men (including such notables as Jack Palance, Robert Wagner, Karl Malden and Jack Webb) are part of a massive assault on a Japanese-held island. Stymied by Japanese rockets, the attack stalls. Widmark must lead a small group to capture Japanese prisoners in the hope of finding the location of...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 22nd, 2001
Intro
We’re all pretty familiar with Demi Moore shorn of hair in GI Jane. But do you remember her with a blonde wig? No? Time to refresh your memory.
Synopsis
Moore is Marina, a fay North Carolina clairvoyant who has been waiting by the sea for her True Love. When, according to the signs, he shows up (or so she thinks) he does so in the round person of Leo Lemke (George Dzundza). Marina is a little thrown, but decides that fate is fate, and promptly marries him and moves to Greenwich V...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 19th, 2001
Intro
Even though I expected a little more from this film, I must say that the DVD release is wonderful. Paramount has put together a jam-packed Special Edition, which should be enjoyed by all. For those who are not familiar with the Tomb Raider premise, here is a little synopsis for you…
Synopsis
"Lara Croft was born into wealth and groomed at the most elite schools. She travels to dangerous and mysterious locales around the globe in search of rare, lost crypts and lon...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 13th, 2001
Intro
Here we have perhaps the most ambitious of all the biblical epics. John Huston’s film isn’t content with dealing with just one story from the Bible. Oh no. This is the first 22 chapters of Genesis. Needless to say, the scope is BIG.
Synopsis
Do you know your Book of Genesis? Then you know the plot. God creates the world, Adam and Eve screw up, Noah collects the animals, the tower of Babel is overthrown, and so on right up to Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac. Huston gathered a big cas...
