Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 23rd, 2017
Mixing science with comedy appears to not only be funny; it also has some serious staying power. It's been 10 years since Big Bang Theory first exploded on our television screens. The show continues to be one of the highest-rated comedy shows on television and seems to be going strong. The show takes the time and money to employ actual science consultants, so you might even learn something along the way. The secret to the show's success is that it's a situation comedy that really manages to be about the characters. All of that geek and science talk is background music to the main theme, which continues to be the characters and their relationships.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 22nd, 2017
“I don't want to be just guys in a house.”
Since its debut, Silicon Valley has brilliantly lampooned the tech industry by showing us both the proverbial “guys in a garage” and the self-important, aggressively eccentric billionaires obsessed with staying ahead of the curve. The show's central tension (and cruel joke) is that the ultimate endgame for the scrappy underdogs is to become...self-important, aggressively eccentric billionaires obsessed with staying ahead of the curve. Season 4 pushes the limit of the immoral behavior our alleged heroes will justify while continuing to deliver the best mix of brainy and bawdy laughs on television.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 22nd, 2017
When I first heard that the Lethal Weapon franchise was moving to television, I had very mixed reactions. Like most fans of the films, I remained hungry for more. My hopes of future films were dashed around the time Mel Gibson began his career as a Hollywood pariah and was abandoned by many in the industry. I guessed almost immediately that the films were over, at least for a very long time. You go through the usual stages of grief, and about the time I reached the acceptance stage, Matthew Miller comes along and decides to revive the franchise for the small screen. At first I was thinking, yes, this is great.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 21st, 2017
"Don't you get it? This is all meaningless. Heaven, hell, this world if it ever meant anything, that moment is passed. Nothing down here but a bunch of hopeless, distraction addicts, so filled with emptiness, so desperate to fill up the void. They don't mind being served another stale rerun of a rerun of a rerun."
No stale reruns here. Season 12 of Supernatural picks up exactly where the previous year left off. The brothers are not together at the moment. Dean has just helped out God's sister and gets a pretty sweet gift in return, while Sam's at the bunker and is surprised by a British lass with a gun.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 20th, 2017
“You have been my greatest love. Be careful, Diana...they do not deserve you.”
Ever since Richard Donner made us believe that a man can fly with 1978's Superman — considered by many to be the first modern superhero film — we've gotten three different Men of Steel, along with five different versions of Batman (if you don't count Will Arnett's voiceover work). Heck, in the last 15 years alone we've had three Spider-Men and (incredibly) gone through three Hulks! Yet in all that time, a movie starring Wonder Woman — a superhero just as iconic as all the ones I just mentioned — could never get off the ground...until now. I'm happy to report it was worth the wait.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 19th, 2017
By John Delia, Jr.
"Death is but a doorway to new life. We live today. We shall live again. In many forms shall we return." - Egyptian Prayer Of Resurrection.
In ancient Egypt there is a princess, Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), who will inherit the entire kingdom when her father dies. She has remarkable fighting skills, amazing beauty, and has the ability to lead the people. But her father remarries, and soon after their first son is born her legacy changes. What soon follows will seal Ahmanet’s fate that’s worse than death.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 18th, 2017
“Seems like a new boatload of expatriates gets dumped here every day.”
In The Moderns, “here” happens to be 1926 Paris, a time and place that immediately conjures joie de vivre images of lavish parties and complete artistic freedom. And while both of those things are technically on display in filmmaker Alan Rudolph's 1988 drama, the movie turns down the volume on the Roaring Twenties to explore the tricky and transactional connection between art and commerce...and how it can extend to personal relationships.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 15th, 2017
“What can you tell me about African Americans and science?”
Anyone who even halfway paid attention in their high school science class knows that a polio vaccine was developed in the 1950s. And if you were especially attentive, you even know the vaccine was developed by American researcher Jonas Salk. Unfortunately, the story that is far less commonly told in classrooms is that of Henrietta Lacks, the poor black woman whose “immortalized” HeLa cell line gave birth to the biomedical industry. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks takes a curious approach: instead of merely shining a light on its worthy subject, this powerful (and overstuffed) HBO film is about *the quest* to bring Henrietta back to life.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 7th, 2017
“Rebels have friends always rushing to the rescue.”
The Star Wars universe is famously vast, and that’s before even going down the Expanded Universe rabbit hole. Though it's been precisely 40 years since the fourth first Star Wars film premiered, the army of artists who have taken on George Lucas’ iconic creations haven’t even come close to running out of material to explore. Disney XD’s Star Wars Rebels debuted three years ago as an engaging, thoroughly zippy, kid-friendly contribution that has blossomed into a thoughtful, vibrant, and vital part of Star Wars lore.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 5th, 2017
Armies have been using dogs in battle for thousands of years. The Romans would turn the dogs on their enemy as a signal of the approaching legions, hence the expression “let loose the dogs of war”. But in recent decades dogs have found a new, perhaps more noble calling during wartime. Dogs have been used to search for lost soldiers. They have been trained to assist wounded soldiers. They have also learned to sniff out explosives, helping to clear mines and saving the lives of their handlers and hundreds of soldiers and civilians. That's the kind of dog Rex is. And you'll fall in love with him just as the titular character Megan Leavey did. The movie Megan Leavey is a bit of a character study, and one of those characters is a German Shepherd.
