Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 21st, 2009
“Donnie Darko was killed when a jet engine fell from the sky and crushed him while he was sleeping. The government never located the plane from which the engine fell, nor did they even admit the incident ever occurred. But that was just the beginning of the tragedy… and the mystery”
No truer words were ever spoken. First of all, this prologue is about as close to the original Donnie Darko film that this movie ever gets. S. Darko is indeed the beginning of a tragedy. It’s more a disaster than a tragedy, really. It involves a loss of life -- your life. 103 minutes of your life to be exact, unless of course you’re stupid enough to watch the extras as well. That’s not a tragedy. I’d call that a self inflicted wound. The mystery? That’s an easy one. It’s a mystery to me that this film ever got off the ground, let alone released, albeit as a direct to video affair. Donnie Darko wasn’t a great film, but it was an intriguing one that left the audience with some thought provoking images. But there appears to be a fine line between thought provoking and mind numbing. S. Darko is mired in its own abstractness, a serious movie not to be taken seriously at all. In the end, I’m not even sure what the filmmakers were trying to do. I heard them try to explain it, justify it is likely the more accurate term. Still, I can’t help but suspect that whatever it was they were trying to do they failed miserably. And if you end up watching this film it will be you who pays for their shortcomings. Good cinema deserves to be rewarded. Bad cinema deserves simply to be ignored.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 20th, 2009
“I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”
That pretty much sums things up quite nicely for you. The filmmakers must agree, because the scene figured prominently in their marketing campaign for the film. In the end it’s not really anything that we haven’t seen before with Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, or a handful of other actors in the role. What might make the whole experience somewhat unique is that Liam Neeson isn’t usually associated with this kind of a character. You usually find him more on the cerebral side of things. He plays the part well in spite of the handicap that he never really looks quite right for the part. Give the thespian credit for making the whole idea at least somewhat believable.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 15th, 2009
“So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye. So you think you can love me and leave me to die. Oh Baby, just can’t do this to me baby. Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here… Nothing really matters. Anyone cane see. Nothing really matters, nothing really matters to me.”
I don’t think I can ever listen to Bohemian Rhapsody without conjuring up the image of the gang in the Mirth Mobile bobbing their heads up and down and singing to the Queen classic song. It’s one of those iconic moments in cinematic history that will be with us long after Wayne’s World is forgotten. Too bad the rest of the film hasn’t aged as well.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 15th, 2009
“White supremist world was cancelled.”
When you talk about Wayne’s World 2 you can’t help but talk about disappointment. I mentioned in my review for the first film that over the span of nearly 20 years the skit had lost some of its luster. I certainly wasn’t nearly as entertained now as I had been when I first saw the film in the early 1990’s. That same principle appears to have been true just a year later when Wayne’s World 2 was released. It gathered in a disappointing $48 million off a $40 million budget. While there was talk of a continuing franchise at the beginning, there wasn’t any interest in a third film by the time the second film had crashed and burned. The fact is, I know many fans out there that didn’t even know a second film existed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 15th, 2009
Have you seen the Chris Farley/David Spade film Tommy Boy? If you have, then you’ve also seen Black Sheep. The circumstances might have changed, but the general idea is still there. Farley plays the mentally challenged family member, yet again. This time he’s Mike Donnelly, and his brother Al (Matheson) is running for Governor of Washington state. Spade once again plays the faithful employee who is charged with babysitting Farley’s character and trying to keep him out of trouble. Here he’s Steve Dodds, an overlooked campaign assistant who hopes to parley the assignment into a full time job on Donnelly’s staff if he’s elected. Just like in Tommy Boy, there is the rival who is using Farley to hurt the cause. This time it’s sitting Governor Tracy (Eborsole) and her slimy campaign manager Neauschwander (McGill). They set Mike up as an arsonist, among other things. Of course, the Farley and Spade team discover some voting irregularities and take a road trip to the state capital to save the day. They’re aided in their attempt by a Vietnam vet who isn’t dealing with a full deck and is played quite hilariously by Gary Busy.
There are a ton of parallels between the Chris Farley/David Spade comedy team and that of John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd. Both teams began in the Saturday Night Live arena. It was that physical big/little guy combination that has its roots with Laurel and Hardy, and Abbott and Costello. Both teams were at the height of their careers when a drug overdose would claim the wilder member of the team. Both of the deceased comedians left behind at least one successful brother to carry on the name in show business. Tommy Boy was by far the best of the films this duo made before Farley’s tragic overdose in 1997. Black Sheep is a pale imitation.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2009
“When someone dies in the grip of a powerful rage, a curse is born. It never forgives. It never forgets. The curse gathers in that place of death. Those who encounter it will be consumed by its fury.”
Here we go again with the American remake of the Asian classic. To be fair, The Grudge was one of the first after the great success of The Ring. There are some significant differences between this effort and the countless remakes we’ve encountered over the last decade or so. This film retained its Japanese location, which does provide for a more exotic atmosphere. The location shoots are actually pretty well done. The film was also directed by the same man who directed the Asian original, Takashi Shimizu. He’s become quite prolific in the genre, having now directed both versions and the sequels to both versions. The Grudge also doesn’t figure into the technology aspect that many of these Asian ghost stories appear to populate. The most high tech haunt here is a stainless steel bathtub. I bet that gets cold in the winter. Sarah Michelle Gellar brings in the core American audience thirsting for more Buffy. But, if you’re turning on to this film to see Buffy kick some supernatural rear, you’re better off with the Scooby Doo films. And that’s bad.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 11th, 2009
“Your life is defined by its opportunities... even the ones you miss.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of those great American writers from the classic age. In school most of us were required to read various works from the writer. For many students those works included The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. The original work is a mere 20 page short story. For the last 15 years Hollywood has made one attempt or another to bring the classic story to the screen. The closest anyone got was Ron Howard who expected to bring in John Travolta as Benjamin Button. The one reason or another these attempts never made it past screenplay drafts. Along comes one of the best and most diverse directors, David Fincher. Fincher’s work needs little introduction and spans the genre spectrum from Se7en to Fight Club. The original short story would be adapted by Eric Roth. That left many, myself included, to expect a remake of Forrest Gump. When you consider that Roth wrote both screen adaptations and that he was once again working with a character spanning many years of history, the concerns were not unfounded. Would Roth take Benjamin Button on a journey through the 20th Century that would find him present at crucial moments in history as he did with Gump? Fortunately, Roth resisted such temptations and delivered a story relatively faithful to the original work, where the main character was a silent witness only to the major events of his life. Of course, I say relatively faithful because Roth also turned that 20 page story into an epic 3 hour film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 6th, 2009
“Symbols are a language that helps us to understand our past. As the saying goes, a picture says a thousand words, but which words? Understanding our past determines actively our ability to understand the present. So, how do we sift truth from belief? How do we write our own histories, personally and culturally, and thereby define ourselves? How do we penetrate years, centuries of historical distortion to find the original truth? Tonight, that will be our quest.”
Conspiracies can be fun. We all buy into them to one degree or another. I’m not talking about the paranoid nutjob who sees a conspiracy behind every closed door, and even a few open ones. Of course, there is something to the old axiom that just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not really out to get you. Of course, we’re not talking about the persecution complex style conspiracy here. We’re talking about the old fashioned cover-up. It’s what made The X-Files so famous for so many years. It’s why JFK’s death is so much more interesting than anything he did in his remarkable life. There are still some crazy people out there that believe George W. Bush orchestrated the 9/11 attacks, or at the very least was complacent in them. Everywhere from Super Bowl outcomes to manned missions to the moon, someone somewhere thinks it was all a big lie. So, you might as well cop to it now. We all love a good conspiracy theory. In his second Robert Langdon novel, The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown writes about what would be the mother of all cover-ups. As one character put it so well in both the novel and film, “What if the greatest story ever told was a lie?”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 1st, 2009
Dexter continues his jump to the world of high definition as the second season finally makes its way to Blu-ray. The show is killer, if you’ll pardon the expression. In the first season, Dexter pointed out the contradiction of a crime scene in sunny Miami. The aftermath of brutality appears somewhat surreal in such a colorful and bright surroundings. On Blu-ray you really get to understand what he was talking about. It almost feels like the show shouldn’t look so clean, so crisp, so bright. But, of course, it should, and it does in this release.
As we begin the second season, Dexter’s run-in with his brother, as well as its ultimate solution, has again taken his confidence. He’s unable to kill. He must find a way to set his life straight. Rita thinks he’s an addict and makes him go to NA meetings where he meets Lila (Murray) who is as messed up as Dexter. While she might not be a killer, she’s obsessive and is drawn to Dexter’s dark nature. Her antics to keep Dexter are straight out of the Fatal Attraction Handbook. Doakes is also getting closer to finding out what Dexter really is, and that’s going to end badly for at least one of them. Dexter’s oceanic burial ground is discovered, and now he’s on the task force to bring in The Bay Harbor Butcher. Is this finally the end of the line for Dexter? You really need to take the ride and see for yourself. I guarantee you that these dozen episodes will just fly by. Jaime Murray is the best of the newcomers, and she’s simply fascinating to watch, as she appears more self destructive than even Dexter himself. Their relationship ends in one of the most chilling scenes of the series, so far. Keith Carrradine also joins the cast this season as FBI agent Lundy who is brought in to head the Bay Harbor Butcher task force. He’s also smitten with little sis Debra, making for some very awkward moments for everybody’s favorite serial killer. The Code Of Harry takes some hits this season as Dexter uncovers some secrets of both his and Harry’s past lives. The series continues to evolve and never ceases to amaze. This is the best cable series since The Sopranos.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 1st, 2009
The Uninvited is yet another in a long string of Asian films that are translated and retooled for American audiences. It’s been a rather strong and long running trend that was kicked off with the wildly successful The Ring, from the Asian classic, Ringu. But, for every effective spooky thriller that comes out of this Asian pipeline, there appear to be a dozen or more complete failures. Some American directors think that all they need to do is throw fast moving creepy ghosts at us and often have them inhabit some modern electronic device. Presto! You have a horror movie for the purposes of generated cash. I’m happy to report that The Uninvited is a fresh approach that relies on almost none of these tired conventions to work. There is no morality tale about our modern conveniences here. No ghosts haunt cell phones, beepers, computers, video games, DVD’s, or even toaster ovens. The appearance of spectral creatures is actually quite limited and will disappoint the viewer who is there for the quick scare moments. This film uses the technique sparingly, and ultimately more effectively. The truth is that The Uninvited is really not so much a ghost story as a thriller in the vein of The Hand That Rocks The Cradle. It gives us one of those rare endings that you won’t easily see coming at all. Most importantly, this movie completely shatters the mold of these Asian remakes by making it all about the characters; the human characters, that is. Based on the Korean film that roughly translates to Tale Of Two Sisters, this is a refreshing take on a stale theme.
Anna (Browning) is just getting out of a mental hospital. She’s been there for some time, following the death of her mother in a terrible house fire. She had been haunted by nightmares of that tragic night. Her doctors now think she will be able to cope and return home. Her father, Steven (Strathairn) is hopeful about bringing her home. There she is confronted by a harsh reality. Her mother had been infirm at the time of the fire. Now Anna has discovered that her mother’s former nurse, the very young Rachel (Banks) has moved into the house as her father’s lover and future wife. She notices that in her absence, her mother’s presence has been erased from the home as Rachel has redecorated and removed any connections to her dead mother. She takes comfort only in the company of her sister, Alex (Kebbel) who also hates the woman they see as an intruder in their home. Anna begins to have visions that her dead mother is warning her about Rachel and suspects the fire was not an accident. The sisters investigate, only to find that Rachel’s name is not a real one. Anna is convinced that Rachel killed her mother and will now do the same to her and her sister. When a local boy who claims to have information about the night Anna’s mother died turns up dead himself, Anna decides to get help. But no one appears interested in her story, and now Rachel knows she’s on to her. The film ends in a sort of typical cat and mouse game that ends up not being so typical after all.
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