Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 15th, 2010
"They rob, kill, and terrorize, and they've left their mark on our nation's history."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 15th, 2010
"The rule of law, it must be held high! And, if it falls, you pick it up and hold it even higher. For all society, all civilized people will have nothing to shelter them if it is destroyed."
Agatha Christie created the rotund Belgian detective in 1920 with the book The Mysterious Affair At Styles. The detective would go on to feature in about 30 more books over the years. He was a distinctive character. He was picky about the order that things were placed. Yes, there's more than a little Adrian Monk in the man. He insists that his eggs be exactly the same size. He refers to himself in the third person and does not own the virtue of modesty. He often calls himself great and talented. He doesn't suffer fools and is somewhat closed-minded for a detective.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 10th, 2010
Having made it through WWII, fellow soldiers Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye are now a song-and-dance team. Kaye is worried about the lack of romance in Crosby's life, but that problem seems likely to be resolved when sister act Rosemary Clooney and Ver-Ellen show up. These two pairs of entertainers must pool their talents in order to save the inn run by former general Dean Jagger from financial ruin.
The plot is, of course, very thin, a mere excuse on which to hang the sentiment and the songs. This is, of course, not the film which originated the title track – that was the earlier Holiday Inn (1942), which Crosby was teamed up with Fred Astaire. The holiday this time is strictly the Christmas one, and White Christmas goes its predecessor one or two better in terms of spectacle, thanks to Technicolor and VistaVision. The end result is not really the classic it self-evidently wants to be, but it and its cast are extremely likable.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 10th, 2010
"From the dawn of time, we came, moving silently down through the centuries, living many secret lives, struggling to reach the time of The Gathering, where the few who remain will battle to the last. No one has ever known we were among you ...Until now."
We all want to believe that we're special. We fantasize that one day we'll discover that we aren't the mere mortal people we thought that we were. That we are actually some hidden royalty, or better yet, that we have extraordinary powers. Connor (Lambert) makes just such a discovery in the 16th century as he goes off to war with his brothers to defend his highlander homeland against invaders. He receives what should have been fatal wounds on the field of battle. But he quickly recovers from them. His family and village turn against him, believing such powers can only come from evil. He discovers that he is an Immortal and can only be killed by having his head removed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 9th, 2010
"The hills are alive with the sound of music..."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 9th, 2010
His name was Fleming, Ian Fleming, and he would go on to create the most famous spy in literary history. James Bond would actually be based on Fleming's own experience in Her Majesty's Secret Service. But Fleming had another side. It's hard to believe that the man who gave us such ubervillians as Dr. No and Goldfinger brought us one of the most enchanting children's stories of our time. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's bond association doesn't end with its celebrated author. Albert "Cubby" Broccoli might have been just as instrumental for the success of Bond as Fleming himself. It was Broccoli who saw the potential and snapped up the rights to the spy series. He turned it into the famous Bond film series that still carries on the same traditions today, only at the hands of his daughter Barbara Broccoli. So it is only fitting somehow that Cubby would be the one to bring Fleming's children's story to life in movies, as well. The Bond associations don't end there. Director Ken Hughes brought us Casino Royale. The comic villain of the movie would be almost unrecognizably played by Gert Frobe, none other than Auric Goldfinger himself.
MGM has long been known for its epic musicals. The studio had a reputation for sparing no expense while delivering some of the most sweeping musical films known to mankind. Complete with complicated dance numbers and casts of thousands, the MGM grand-style musical was once something to behold. But Chitty Chitty Bang Bang wasn't really the model for these impressive spectacles at all. In fact, this movie follows more closely the Walt Disney model that it is one of the most misidentified films in the popular conscience. In a survey taken in the 1980's, only 1 out of 4 respondents correctly identified the film as an MGM production. The rest were confident that Uncle Walt and his Mouse House had given us the popular children's musical.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 8th, 2010
I'm not exactly sure what it is that audiences expected when Splice hit the box offices in June. I will have to admit that the trailers were not all that impressive. But I guess that most people didn't see what I saw when I looked at the early promotion for the film. I was fascinated by the appearance of the "creature", and the overall Frankenstein overtones were too much for me to resist. The movie compelled me from the first images and descriptions. Apparently, that wasn't the case in general. Splice tanked at the box office. It barely made $17 million. That's bad news, because the film cost $30 million to make. That figure is actually quite impressive. This was a small movie for one so ambitious. It looks like something that cost twice that to make. It didn't matter, in the end. You stayed away in droves. Back in June, you just might not have known any better. Lucky for you, my gentle reader, you have me to help to guide your home video purchases to get the most bang for your hard-earned buck. In this case, to also correct a serious miscarriage of justice. Splice is the best film you never saw.
Clive (Brody) and Elsa (Polley) are a husband-and-wife super-science team in the field of genetics. They work for a small pharmaceutical company where they develop designer life-forms in the hope of generating new drugs and compounds for the company to market. They are driven by William Barlow (Hewlett) to produce. When they do finally create a creature with drug potential, the company scraps any future gene-splicing. They want the couple to now focus on synthesizing the important compounds they can generate with the life they've already created. But the couple, particularly Elsa, wants to take their process to the next level. They want to incorporate human DNA in their experiments. Even though the company has closed them down, they continue in secret. The result of their undercover work is Dren. The specimen grows at an incredible rate, allowing the couple to study an entire life cycle in compressed time. But, the experiment gets complicated as Dren matures and evolves, making it harder to keep the creature a secret. They move her to a farm that was once part of Elsa's family home. There the couple begins to deal with the consequences of their actions.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 8th, 2010
When Wes Craven delivered his first Nightmare On Elm Street film back in 1984, there wasn't much expectation for the film to do anything but deliver a little profit for the new independent studio New Line Cinema. The film did quite a bit better than that. It made the small studio into a player in the industry with the budget to make mainstream films that would have never been possible if not for Craven's little Nightmare. You could say that The Lord Of The Rings owes its very existence, at least in the form of the Peter Jackson films, to Freddy Krueger. Of course, the studio just couldn't help itself, and they continued to cash in on the franchise time after time. After the 7th film, it appeared that even the fans were about done with Freddy Krueger. A misguided attempt to pit Freddy against Friday The 13th's Jason might have pulled in good money at first. But the film ultimately disappointed, and a follow-up became very unlikely, indeed. But, like all good cinema monsters, you can't keep a good fiend down. A Nightmare On Elm Street joined the increasingly long line of horror films that received the remake/reboot/reimagining/regurgitation treatment.
A lot of the 70's and 80's slasher films have been remade by now. All of the big franchise names have been reborn. Michael Myers, Jason, Leatherface, and now Freddy Krueger have all been given the reanimation treatment. With most of these bad guys, there was little problem with replacing the man behind the mask. No one actor had played any of these characters exclusively throughout the franchise run. While Kane Hodder came closest with both Freddy and Leatherface, he was not the only performer under the hood for either monster. Freddy Krueger was different, however. In all of the Nightmare films of the original run, Robert Englund had been the only actor to play Freddy. There was an attempt to replace him in the early goings of the second film, but the filmmakers discovered rather quickly that you can't just put a stuntman in the makeup and turn him loose. Freddy had a personality that had become quite intermingled with that of Englund. So the very first question that had to be answered when the subject of a do-over came up was who was it going to be in the red and green sweater wielding that knife glove. Could anyone but Robert Englund make the part work?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 4th, 2010
"The Toys Are Back In Town"
That's right. All of your favorite toys are back in Pixar's latest great film Toy Story 3. This time the toys are dealing with the inevitable. Andy (Morris) is about to go off to college. It's been a long time since he's played with his friends, and they are getting desperate and worried they will get tossed away. Although Andy bags them to be stored in the attic, a misunderstanding sends them to the curb and a date with the garbage truck. After that close call they decide to get themselves donated to Sunnyside Daycare, where they hope to live out their lives with tons of children to play with them. But things aren't all that sunny at Sunnyside. The place is ruled by the iron paw of Lotso Bear (Beatty) and his cronies. The bad guys include Big Baby. He and Big Baby once were accidentally abandoned by their owner and Lotso was replaced, making him bitter. Now the toys have to escape the armed camp of Sunnyside.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 4th, 2010
In 2024, the Earth’s ozone layer has been depleted (or so most assume), and life is protected by an electromagnetic shield designed by Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert). Eco-crusader Virginia Madsen, however, believes that the ozone layer has restored itself, and the corporation that runs the shield is maintaining it for its own purposes. Meanwhile, back in the past, villain Michael Ironside sends assassins to the future to kill Lambert, who is an aging man as the film begins… The assassins fail, Lambert becomes young once more, and he summons Sean Connery back from the dead. Ironside arrives to take care of his nemesis personally.
I could go on, but I feel a brain embolism coming on. The Highlander concept was never the most intelligent SF/Fantasy idea (and I’m not just talking about casting Frenchman Lambert as a Scot and Sean Connery as a Spaniard), but here the vacuity becomes painfully evident, and the time travel aspect is beyond stupid. The dialog is equally mind-numbing, and for a storyline of comparable inanity, the closest thing would be Battlefield Earth. From Lambert’s embarrassing old-man voice to the ridiculous assassins, new idiocies assault the viewer with every passing second. Granted, the production was shut down before the movie was completed, but it is hard to imagine the film was really salvageable. This edition represents the closest version yet to what the filmmakers had in mind. The special effects have been heavily overhauled, but this isn’t a case of George Lucas-style endless tinkering. The previous version of Highlander 2 had effects that were slapped on by technicians who were not part of the original team, and the look of the film has been notably improved (the shield, for instance, is now blue instead of a garish red). So the film looks much better, but no amount of effort can make a silk purse out of this sow’s ear.
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