Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 30th, 2011
When you want to get the most bang for your buck in a low-budget 1980's slasher film, you could do a lot worse than The Dorm That Dripped Blood. It's an elusive film that has never really enjoyed much of any kind of wide release even in the video market. It was really nothing more than a student film put together as a thesis for UCLA students Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow. Like most student films, the piece utilizes locations on the UCLA campus and makes use of local talent both in front of the camera and behind. But this movie doesn't look like any student film you've ever seen before. With almost no budget, the team managed to make a film that was remarkably professional in the way it looked. The cinematography showed style that usually takes years or decades to develop. There's none of the usual amateur mistakes, and you'd be hard pressed to find it not worthy of the rest of the films coming out of that genre and that time. The film went through various name changes and has been seen in many forms over the years. You might know it as The Prank or Death Dorm. Whatever you might call it, I call it one of the best slasher films that you probably never heard of.
The story is simple. There are no complicated set-ups. There's no convoluted back story or supernatural urban legend to kick things off. Don't worry about getting to know the characters very well. It doesn't matter. They're merely killer fodder, and we'll get to know them about as well as we need.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 27th, 2011
I’ve been a fan of South Park ever since a friend introduced me to the internet Christmas card that started it all. It was Santa versus Jesus and these short potty-mouthed kids that somehow wormed their way under your skin. Pretty soon I was downloading the episodes and watching them on my computer. For some reason I can’t quite explain, I’ve very rarely watched an episode on Comedy Central. By the time things were getting tighter and riskier downloading the shorts, the single disc, 4-episode DVDs began to arrive in stores. So my South Park viewing moved from the PC to the DVD player. In a short time season sets began to arrive, and I looked forward to them with much anticipation, still watching it infrequently on television. After all, who needs the commercials and those silly network bugs that distract you on the screen? The series itself evolved in that time. The show was once achieved through a stop-motion process using construction paper cutouts. The animation was crude. After the Christmas card, the characters were significantly redesigned. They had a very evil look on that short. The first couple of episodes brought us an evolution toward the characters we know and love today. After a while the animation went to a computer process. The look remained the same, but gone were the paper cuts and stop-motion photography. As the show progressed there were less and less bleeps. It’s not that the language got any tamer. Standards got a little looser. Finally the bleeps would disappear from at least the DVD releases. And now South Park has crossed another milestone. Welcome to Blu-ray and high definition, South Park.
I often have trouble believing that South Park has been around for as long as it has. It’s not just the passing of 14 years, but the sheer brilliance in the face of an increasingly politically correct society. It’s like watching old episodes of All In The Family. Who believes that Archie Bunker would have any chance of survival in the 21st century? It’s no wonder that Norman Lear has become involved in the series. It’s the last remaining vestige of a once great freedom to be ridiculous and offend. Eric Cartman’s a lot worse than Archie ever was. We always knew that, in his heart, Archie had a soul. Cartman’s a psychopath without a conscience, and in a civilized society we would be terrified of the existence of such a demon spawn…except he’s just so dang funny. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have been walking a tightrope for over 13 years now, and it just doesn’t get old. One of the reasons the show doesn’t grow stale is their ability to make such a quick turnaround on current events. Because the show takes literally days to write and produce, they are quite often always the first to address an issue. They had an election-night episode on literally the next day in last season. That means the ideas stay as fresh as the headlines. Finally, you have to credit the expanding universe of good characters. The core group of Cartman, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny were great for a lot of years. But, watching this 14th season you have to admire how much Butters has infused himself into that core. We also have such great semi-regulars as Timmy, Jimmy, and Token. These characters allow the stories to expand in ways the core group could not. I’ve honestly come to think of Butters as one of the core now.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 25th, 2011
Every year when the Academy Awards have been given out, I look over the winners in each category, and more often than not I scratch my head at the ultimate winners. I find myself wondering if they saw the same movie I saw. I start to ponder if there might be an alternate-universe version of these movies that somehow find themselves in the hands of the Academy jury. Sure, once in a while they get it right. Films like The Godfather, Gladiator and Unforgiven manage to fight off the competition and claim their earned statues. Most times, however, I find that a trend of political correctness enters the picture more than the quality of the films or actors themselves. It's the only way I can explain Sean Penn taking a statue over Mickey Rourke a couple years back. Films and actors are rewarded to showing the proper political philosophy. So, when I heard that The King's Speech won the award this year, I began to fear the same circumstances had once again prevailed. I hadn't seen the film, but the subject matter appeared to qualify. I considered it another undeserved Oscar given to an ambitious Hollywood crowd brown nose. Then I saw the film through this Fox Blu-ray release. It might not happen often, at least no more that a dozen times a day, but boy was I wrong about The King's Speech. This really was one of the best films not only of this last year but in quite a long time.
The Duke of York (Firth) has a serious speech impediment. He stammers, which isn't the most confidence-inspiring trait for a member of the royal family to have. In the past the problem likely would not have become an issue. But the invention of radio has made it essential for the members of the royal family to speak to the nation and the world. With the help of his extremely devoted wife Elizabeth (Carter), he has seen all manner of specialists both of sound scientific principle and the whack-job varieties. Nothing works. Elizabeth hears of an unconventional therapist who has a rather impressive track record. When she visits Lionel Logue (Rush) for the first time under an assumed name, she finds him a bit arrogant and unwilling to bend his rules, even for the Duke of York. Still, they decide to give the man a try. At first it appears as though this was merely another in a long string of failed attempts to help the Duke. He leaves as frustrated as he had ever been. It didn't help that the obstinate man insisted on calling him by the too-familiar name of Bertie, reserved only for close family. He treated the Duke like a child. The Duke exited holding a record made of an attempt to speak with blaring music in his ears. He decided he didn't need to hear the recording and suffer the usual humiliation.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 25th, 2011
"In the beginning was the word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. I am He. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him, was made nothing that has been made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of man. And the light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness grasped it not. The greatest story ever told..."
Every spring around the time of Easter you could count on several annual films to make their way to televisions across the country for special family presentations. For Easter you had The Greatest Story Ever Told and King Of Kings. For Passover there was always The Ten Commandments. And so it is an appropriate time to see all three of these films make their way unto high definition and Blu-ray for the very first time. We've already reported on the excellent release of The Ten Commandments and King Of Kings. Our review of The Greatest Story Ever Told concludes this Holy Trinity of movies to review.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Bob Ross on April 23rd, 2011
By the early part of World War II, the Soviet Union’s ultra-harsh prison system was already an established key to Josef Stalin’s paranoid dictatorship. Hundreds of concentration camps, called gulags, kept criminals and innocents alike trapped behind barbed wire, without edible food or minimal medical care. The most miserable gulags were the notorious Siberian compounds, stuck in such hostile sub-arctic territory that an attempt to escape was considered just another form of suicide.
One such frozen hell is the starting point for The Way Back, a visually breathtaking but icily uninspiring adventure saga from director Peter Weir. Based on a best seller that was sold as non-fiction but later revealed to be largely the author’s invention, it’s long on scenery and short on suspense. That’s because we are told at the start that it’s about escapees who slogged some 4,000 miles through Siberia and Mongolia to freedom in India.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 23rd, 2011
There are usually two schools of thought when it comes to judging sequels. One tends to be very harsh on the proceedings expecting it to surpass the original (which it hardly ever does) in all aspects of film-making. The other still expects a good film but realizes that this sort of thing is usually financially driven and just hopes for something that can favorable stand against the original. I happen to be in the later crowd. But, I certainly found myself inching towards the former when I received the blu-ray package to review Ip Man 2, Legend of the Grandmaster. Let's go inside, shall we?
Ip Man (played Donnie Yen)has escaped from Foshan and has made way with his family to the Hong Kong of the 1950's. His wife, Cheung Wing-Sing (played by Lynn Hung) is pregnant with her second child. However, the family is barely making ends meet. Cheung can't work much and Ip Man's martial arts school isn't going as well as planned. They can hardly cover rent and school fees for their son, Ip Chun (played by Li Chak).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 21st, 2011
I've long held the belief that the folks at Pixar are really just children who have refused to grow up. That doesn't mean that they don't have to deal with the realities that adulthood thrust upon each of us. I'm sure they have families and are responsible citizens and parents. They consistently make movies, that while there is certainly appeal for children, are obviously intended for adults, adults like them, who have decided to never grow up. If you ever required proof of that concept, The Incredibles should prove the point quite nicely. Brad Bird and his team weren't writing about superheroes. They decided to do a movie about themselves. Finally out in high-definition Blu-ray the team now calls all of us like-minded souls to join the fold. This Blu-ray serves as our membership card and absolutely grants all of the privileges of membership right from your most comfortable home theatre seat. Count me in.
Bob Parr (Nelson) has a secret identity. He's in reality Mr. Incredible. He is a superhero who has dedicated his life to fighting crime. He has super strength and other abilities. He's not the only one. There is his best friend Lucius (Jackson) better known as the cool hero Frozone. There's also Helen (Hunter) who protects the city as Elastigirl. She has the same powers that The Fantastic Four's Mr. Fantastic has to stretch her body. Bob and Helen get married and join their superpowers with two super kids. Dash (Fox) has super speed and Violet (Vowell) has the abilities of The Fantastic Four's Susan Storm. She can become invisible and create powerful force fields. Unfortunately, the world has had enough of masked heroes. Lawsuits cause the heroes to turn in their capes, and they are put into a sort of witness protection program where they must swear off crime fighting. That's been hard for Bob and Lucius who do a little rescue work on the side while their wives think they're out bowling. It's a good thing, too. A new super-villain has emerged, and now it will be up to the Parr family to save the world from Syndrome (Lee), a one-time stalker fan who has decided to get revenge on the hero who once spurned his advances to join him.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 20th, 2011
"So far every person I've met in this strange place suffers from the most florid delusions, chasing green mists and looking for lost lords. I can only assume that this is the result of poor diet, or they're all just barking mad."
C.S. Lewis created an incredibly imaginative world when he wrote his Chronicles Of Narnia. The stories were an escape, of sorts, from a war-torn Europe. They integrated elements of Christianity in an effort to provide a semblance of hope in the form of a children’s fairy tale. And like all such tales, the world of Narnia was first and foremost a place of magic and bewilderment. It was a place where fantastic creatures of both good and evil thrived, living out epic lives of adventure. It was also a world where only children could enter. The stories became hugely popular, first in England, and eventually around the globe. Since that time we live in a different planet than the one Lewis was attempting to offer a respite from. Still, the images and ideals are remarkably relevant today. With such sweeping grand adventures and marvelous creatures, it’s no surprise that the franchise has found its way into films. The only real mystery is why it took so long. Perhaps it was necessary for the technology to finally catch up, providing a far more realistic and captivating experience. Some credit must also go to the enormous success of the Harry Potter and even the Lord Of The Rings films. With the investment of time and money required to bring such a world into existence on celluloid, there must be some reasonable assurance that, if done correctly, there was a large enough profit to be found. These earlier, and continuing, franchises have overwhelmingly proven that point. It was only a matter of time before the studio that practically invented movie magic would find such a place as Narnia and claim it for their own. When you combine these extraordinary histories together, can there be any question as to the results?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Bob Ross on April 14th, 2011
Urine jokes. Fart jokes. Breast and penis jokes. What could be more tasteless? How about telling them all in a place where people are trying to eat? That’s the unappetizing summary of Still Waiting …, one of those unnecessary, straight-to-video sequels designed to make a quick payoff before the first film’s fans catch on.
The 2005 original Waiting . . . was, well, fairly original. Writer-director Rob McKittrick based it very loosely on his own experiences working in typical franchise restaurants – think Bennigan’s, Chili’s or TGIFridays. That ensemble comedy, set in a place named Shenaniganz, starred Ryan Reynolds and Anna Faris, who wisely avoided this tacky follow-up. Returning cast members include Rob Benedict as a horny manager and Alana Ubach as an exceptionally testy hostess. Others, including Justin Long, Chi McBride and Luis Guzman, show up in extended cameos, as do Max Kasch and Andy Milonakis as the white boys who pose as gangsta rappers.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 12th, 2011
Adapted from the hit stage musical, Norman Jewison’s film version of Fiddler on the Roof has established itself as a classic over and over again since its release in 1971.
“He loves her. Love, it’s a new style… On the other hand, our old ways were once new, weren’t they?” I’ll hardly be the first to write it, but the reason Fiddler on the Roof, a story about Jewish people and their culture, is so popular, is that its themes have universal appeal. In fact, in a way it hardly matters that the characters are Jewish. As we learn from a famous anecdote, when the first Japanese production of the stage musical opened, the show’s creators traveled to Japan to meet the producer. He said to them, “I don’t understand, I don’t know how this piece can work so well in New York. It’s so Japanese!”
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