Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 22nd, 2009
It’s nice to see some of these staple films starting to reach the Blu-ray high definition releases. Unfortunately there really isn’t anything new here at all. The picture is an upgrade but not as outstanding as you might expect. The audio doesn’t really get much better at all. Finally, all of the extras are merely ported over standard definition pieces from the most recent DVD release. It’s the best way to go if you don’t already own the film, but not remarkable enough to warrant an upgrade from any but the most die hard fans. And they didn’t need this review to talk them into it. For the rest of you, here’s what you can expect.
The 70’s and 80’s were fertile ground for horror films. It was a new era of iconic monsters. Starting with Michael Myers and Jason, the trend that gave us Freddy seemed to be at the end of its run by the late 1980’s. Certainly sequels were still being churned out, but it seemed like we’d seen the last of these maniacal monsters, at least for a while. But before it petered out, the cycle would supply our nightmares with one more notable denizen…Chucky. Today Chucky paces the sidelines here in Tampa as the head coach of the local NFL franchise, but for the last 20 years it was the darkest alleyways of our dreams that Chucky prowled. Inhabited by the soul of a killer, Chucky was truly one of the “Good Guys”.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 21st, 2009
Only two social classes existed in the tiny town of Chekian, China, circa 1858: the peasant citizenry, and those who lived in the Governor’s palace. Lawlessness was the order of the day; the streets of Chekian crawled with scum and villainy of every degree, from pickpockets to kidnappers to roving gangs of thugs and extortionists. The worst of all was none other than Governor Cheng himself, the greedy and corrupt ruler of the town (James Wong). The governor’s latest profitable but nefarious practice: to hoard the town food supply and gouge the poor and starving for every sliver of their meager livings. Fortunately for these peasants, they have one advocate with the smarts and the guts to stand up for them: the mysterious Iron Monkey (Ronggaung Yu). To the Governor, he’s a masked rogue fit to be tortured when caught, but to the people he’s a saint clad in black, the Chinese Robin Hood or Zorro, a swashbuckling super ninja who employs his skills mainly in pilfering gold from the governor’s house, oftentimes from right under his nose.
The governor doesn’t just hate Iron Monkey, he’s absolutely terrified of him (as demonstrated in typical over-the-top, grindhouse kung-fu style histrionics). He’s gone to all sorts of measures in an effort to capture this righteous and elusive bandit, from doubling his private security staff, to setting elaborate traps, to hiring powerful but corrupt Shaolin monks. Try as he might, nothing works, and the Iron Monkey always escapes with his prize. Come hell or high water, Cheng is going to stop Iron Monkey once and for all. His underhanded technique uses the son of a Shaolin monk to get the father to promise to bring down the Monkey.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 21st, 2009
He’s one of the most compelling villains of modern fiction. Disturbing, disgusting and absolutely captivating at the same time, Hannibal Lecter can really get inside your head.You may not have read the novels by Thomas Harris, or even seen all of the films, but I’m willing to bet you’re familiar with The Silence of the Lambs. One of the greatest thrillers in film history, the film in which Sir Anthony Hopkins became Dr. Lecter is the cornerstone of this three-movie set.
The Hannibal Lecter Collection brings together – in chronological order – Michael Mann’s Manhunter, Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs and Ridley Scott’s Hannibal. Film buffs will note the absence of Brett Ratner’s Red Dragon, essentially a remake of Manhunter. Unfortunately for any completists, MGM, the studio behind this set, doesn’t have the rights to Red Dragon, which is a Universal picture. In any case, these three films make a fantastic trilogy.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 17th, 2009
“People give up their lives for many reasons. For friendship. For love. For an ideal. And people kill for the same reasons. Before China was one great country, it was divided into 7 warring states. In the Kingdom of Qin was a ruthless ruler. He had a vision to unite the land, to put and end once and for all to war. It was an idea soaked in the blood of his enemies.”
I have to say that Hero has to be one of the most beautifully shot films I might have ever seen. This is the first time I’ve watched a martial arts film and embraced it as a total high definition experience. The film contains many incredible fighting scenes that are brilliantly choreographed and brutal in nature. But it all takes a back seat to the incredibly breathtaking cinematography coupled with seamless and fantastical CG enhancements. The film is stylish in the extreme, and it might be easy for the story or characters to get lost in this marvelous imagery. They don’t. Fighting scenes might move from black and white to blazing color. Back and forth with incredible rapidity. Yet everything is intensely clear and is never jarring. There is a distinctive Sergio Leone influence from the music to the angles. Too often films use a frenetic pace to hide a multitude of visual sins and hope it’s accepted as brilliant artistic flair. Here you’re invited to savor each moment. The filmmakers dare you to pick apart the imagery or the fighting stunts. You’re encouraged to linger and take it all in. All of the fighting from huge battles to intimate hand to hand takes place in the most exotic and unreal of settings. The film is a study in contrasts at almost every turn. Bloody battle takes place amid stunning beauty. It’s all a rather provocative yet effective blend of traditional Asian cinematography and modern filmmaking. It’s not the kind of film you see. It’s the kind of work of art you experience.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 17th, 2009
"Space...The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its 5-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before !"
Paramount was bold indeed when they undertook the remaster project of the original series. Not only did they clean up the prints, but they took the decidedly risky option of redoing most of the f/x shots from the original prints. We all know just how cheesy the old work looked when compared to today’s computer abilities. You could see a box around spacecraft that allowed the obvious cutout to maneuver through a cardboard star field. There were often mixups where phaser shots would be used for photon torpedo commands and the opposite. The planets often utilized matte paintings that look somewhat ridiculous now. We forgave these flaws with a complete understanding of the limitations the crew had at the time. While Star Trek showed us computers that were remarkably similar to the PC’s we use today, down to the floppy drives of our own yesteryear, the use of computers to create f/x was still many years away. So Paramount decided to “fix” these “flaws” and make much of the show look like it might have had it been produced today. It was a serious risk because of the extreme possessiveness fans have for these kinds of shows. Just ask George Lucas how much fans like their sci-fi tinkered with. The project encompassed a few years, and the results are quite attractive. But how do they stand up for the fans?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 16th, 2009
“A hero lives but a few seconds. Ma master holds on to his life. It is more important to forgive than to fight.”
But they don’t know Jackie Chan. When Popeye gets into a jam, he rolls out a can of spinach and down the hatch it goes. Next thing you know that old sailor pipsqueak is kicking butt and taking names. When Jackie’s Wong Fei-hung gets into a jam, he looks for a bottle of sake or maybe a 5th of Jack Daniels. When Jackie drinks, his enemies get the hangover. That’s the art of drunken boxing. The idea is that the alcohol loosens up your body and allows you to fight because you are limber and flexible.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 15th, 2009
Claire (Judd) and Tom (Caviezel) appear to have it made. Claire is a successful attorney and Tom is ex-Army. They are happy and very much in love, trying to have their first child. Suddenly while out on the town an FBI SWAT team surrounds them on the street at Union Square. Tom is taken into custody. Claire soon discovers that Tom wasn’t the man she thought he was. In fact, his name isn’t even Tom. He is Sergeant Ron Chapman, and he’s been a fugitive for 12 years, wanted by the Army for murder. Now the military court is seeking the death penalty. He is accused of killing civilians in a raid gone wrong. He insists that he is innocent and that the guilty party is actually a prominent and influential general. All but two of the event’s witnesses are dead, many by mysterious accidents. Claire takes his case and turns to attorney Charles Grimes (Freeman) who has had experience with these kinds of cases. Unfortunately, he’s an alcoholic and a bit of a wild cannon. Still, he knows his stuff when he’s sober, and he’s the best chance she has of uncovering the truth. To win they will have to prove a government cover-up and risk their lives in the process. It appears a lot of folks don’t want this case to be solved. It’s an uphill battle, and everyone has something to hide. It’s a “trust no one situation” as Claire and Grimes get to the bottom of the case.
The film is based on a moderately successful novel by Joseph Finder. While the film has an impressive cast and a pretty good story, it suffers from a lack of imagination by director Carl Franklin. You may know the name. He was a busy television actor in the 80’s and 90’s and appeared relative failures like Fantastic Journey and well known shows like The A-Team. While he was a fair actor, I’m afraid his directorial skills haven’t translated. The film never really shows any imagination. It reminds me of those tubes on Star Trek that were marked GNDN (Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing). He fails to utilize the full extent of his widescreen picture, and all of the action falls too often inside that cramped relative center square that used to represent the difference with television. In spite of some tremendous chemistry with Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd, the film appears to meander too long in one place. Pacing is awkward and uneven, to be kind. In the end the film boils down to a very clichéd procedural that never comes close to breaking new ground. Audiences seemed to agree in 2002 when the film opened. It had a rather sweet opening weekend but soon was dropping like an anchor in deep water as word of mouth appeared to include a resounding thumbs down. It finished its run pulling in $41 million on a $42 million budget with 34% of its gross the first week.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 15th, 2009
“Attention: Tonight’s movie has been M*A*S*H. Follow the zany antics of our combat surgeons as they stitch their way along the front lines operating as bombs and bullets burst around them, snatching laughs and love between amputations and penicillin, as they put our boys back together again.”
M*A*S*H began life as a novel written by an actual Korean War Army surgeon under the pen name Richard Hooker. He based the character of Hawkeye on himself and most of the other characters on actual personnel that were stationed with him at a real M*A*S*H unit. The book was written for the screen by longtime blacklisted screenwriter Ring Lardner, Jr. Lardner was intrigued by the anti-authority message the book had, likely due to his own experiences with the government. He was one of a group of Hollywood talent that refused to testify before the Senate Committee on Un-American Activities. They were thrown in prison and blacklisted in the industry. This particular group became known as The Hollywood Ten. Whatever Lardner’s ideas might have been for the movie, they were enough to get a select group of producers excited about the property and got the ball rolling. We won’t ever really know what those concepts might have been exactly. In the hands of, at that time, new director Robert Altman, the script was practically discarded almost in its entirety. Altman had his own views which were inspired more by the still raging Vietnam War than what he considered an obscure historical event he believed most Americans didn’t even remember. All mention of Korea was deliberately left out of the film. When the studio caught on they forced him into providing a scroll at the film’s beginning that set the location. To Altman and pretty much everyone working on the film they were making a movie about Vietnam, not Korea. He incorporated his own anti-establishment, some might call subversive, ideas and made a film that Lardner would exclaim was nothing like his script. He encouraged rampant improvisation from the cast and little of Lardner’s dialog actually remained.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 14th, 2009
My senior year in high school was just the same as my junior year: stranger in a strange land. When looking back at the time that was spent, I spent more time with my nose in books and running from jocks. The reason why the jocks were upset at me more often than not? I was looking at their girls. In an attempt to find myself, I would pretend to be solving a Calculus problem (which eventually explained why I had to retake it in college) and instead fantasize about what it would be like to be with Miss Popular. I would eventually stop caring, the bruises would heal but I often thought what would have happened? Perhaps in a fantasy land, something like the film The Girl Next Door would have happened. Nah, probably not.
Matthew Kidman (played by Emile Hirsch) is everything a successful high school senior should be. He’s the class president, he’s been accepted to Georgetown, and he is eligible for a prestigious scholarship. But he wants to be like the popular guys and be able to hang out at the beach, skipping school and have a hot girl to be by his side. One day, he meets the girl of his dreams. Her name is Danielle (played by Elisha Cuthbert) and she is house sitting next door.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 11th, 2009
“For those of you just joining us: What you are looking at is the work of ZFT, a terrorist organization responsible for at least a half a dozen biological attacks over the last several months. Everything we know thus far can be found in your packets (or Blu-rays), including a copy of their manifesto which elucidates their ideology and their methods. Which boils down to the following: Attempting to provoke or prepare for a war. With who? That’s the question, isn’t it? What we do know is that these bizarre acts seem to be increasing in frequency and that their targets are unpredictable and therefore unprotectable. Those of you assembled in this room now have a clear-cut goal…”
That goal is to rush out and pick up the high definition, Blu-ray release of the first season of JJ Abrams latest television enigma, Fringe.
![Child's Play [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/childs-play-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Iron Monkey [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/iron-monkey-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![The Hannibal Lecter Anthology [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-hannibal-lecter-anthology-blu--large.jpg)
![Hero [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/hero-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Star Trek The Original Series: Season Two [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/star-trek-the-original-series-sea-large.jpg)
![The Legend of Drunken Master [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-legend-of-drunken-master-blu-r-large.jpg)
![High Crimes [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/high-crimes-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![M*A*S*H [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/mash-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![The Girl Next Door (Unrated Edition) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-girl-next-door-unrated-editio-large.jpg)
![Fringe: The Complete First Season (+ BD-Live) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/fringe-the-complete-first-season--large.jpg)
