Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 5th, 2009
Forever Strong is a classic example of sports melodrama. The only wrinkle to this film is the sport. The sport in question, is not typical at all (i.e. Football, Basketball or Hockey) it is Rugby. The film revolves around a rambunctious youth, Rick Penning (Sean Faris) who runs into trouble with the law and is shipped out to a juvenile detention centre. He is introduced to Marcus (Sean Astin) who is an administrator and acts as Rick’s sponsor. After the initial introduction, Marcus uncovers Rick’s passion for Rugby and encourages him to play for his old team. Rick decides to play and the emotional journey begins from there.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 3rd, 2009
It seems that every studio with a Nazi war film is scrambling to get it released about now. The Tom Cruise film Valkyrie has caused about as much Nazi fever as I’ve seen in recent years. Unfortunately, that means we’re going to see a lot of films that wouldn’t otherwise see the light of day, most for good reason. Fortunately, it also means that some truly classic titles that got hidden away for decades because there is a perceived lack of interest suddenly surface like a German U-Boat about to pounce on an unsuspecting battleship. Man Hunt is absolutely one of the latter. If you haven’t ever seen this Fritz Lang masterpiece or have only experienced it through a bad late night television print, this is one of those rare opportunities that simply must not be missed. Valkyrie might be the reason that Fox has released this movie now on DVD, but it is a far superior movie that deserved a good print back in the early days of the DVD format. Whatever the reason, there is cause to celebrate that Man Hunt is finally here.
The story was originally published as a serial novel called Rogue Male written by Geoffrey Household. Alan Thorndike (Pidgeon) is a world renowned hunter. It’s the peak of Nazi Germany, and Thorndike is on what he describes as a sporting stalk. He wants to see if he could get close enough to Adolph Hitler to bring him down with a shot. He gets into position and dry fires his rifle. A second thought has him loading the weapon, but he is caught before he can bring down his prey. Caught, he is mistreated and asked to sign a full confession that he was sent by England to assassinate Hitler. The statement isn’t true, so Thorndike refuses to sign it. He withstands all manner of torture and persuasion. Finally the Gestapo gives up and tosses him from a cliff, intending to “discover” his body the next day while on a convenient hunt. But Thorndike survives the fall and makes his way back to England, protected by a young boy (McDowall) on a Danish freighter. All is not safe for him back in England. The Gestapo has followed him home, and now the great hunter is the hunted. He befriends a naïve young girl, Jerry (Bennett) but eventually finds himself in a confrontation with his old Gestapo nemesis.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 2nd, 2009
William “D-Fens” Foster (Douglas) is caught in a typical L.A. traffic jam. The annoyances about him are beginning to mount up: a buzzing insect, tremendous heat, a child screaming. All of these things are becoming a perfect storm that is about to ignite a powder keg that’s been gathering here for some time. He abandons his car in the middle of the street and begins an apparently aimless walk across L.A. He first encounters a Korean convience store clerk, who he critizes for his accent and exorbitant prices. He thinks 85 cents is highway robbery. I guess he’s never been to a ball game. He picks up the clerk’s baseball bat and begins to “roll back prices”, smashing items he considers too high as he plays a twisted game of The Price Is Right with the clerk. After smashing up the store he gladly pays 50 cents for the Coke and walks out as if he’s just conducted a routine transaction. Next he meets up with a Latino gang, whose territory he unwittingly stumbled into. After an escalated fight with them he leaves a few dead, and now he has a gym bag filled with automatic weapons. Next stop is a burger joint that doesn’t subscribe to the “Have it your way” philosophy. Out come the guns, and his destructive trek across the city continues. Through phone calls we learn that Foster has a family. Or, more accurately, had a family. His wife has a restraining order against him to protect her and their young daughter who happens to be celebrating her birthday today. Now Foster has a destination in mind.
Enter Detective Prendergast (Duvall). It’s is last day on the job. He’s about to retire because his wife is a bit loony tunes. His colleagues think he’s a coward because he’s avoided dangerous jobs, and now he’s taking an early retirement. At one point he’s leaving his retirement party just when the stripper arrives eliciting a comment: “Are you afraid of girls, too?” He’d rather they all think that than learn the truth about his wife. His partner, Detective Sandra Torres (Ticotin) knows the truth and is the only one willing to work with him. He’s been following the seemingly unrelated reports of Foster’s antics. He’s pieced together the real story but no one takes him seriously, so he spends his last day tracking down Foster and attempting to stop him.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on June 1st, 2009
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 28th, 2009
It’s a disc loaded with pilots. No, you won’t find any daring men and their flying machines here. These pilots owe more to Philo T. Farnsworth than The Wright Brothers. Farnsworth transmitted the first televised image in 1927. In case you’re wondering, that image was a dollar bill. These pilots follow in those footsteps; that’s because these pilots are television shows. They’re the first episodes of some of the best action series to appear on CBS over the last few decades. Going back as far as the 1960’s, these shows represent a nice cross section of television action entertainment.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 28th, 2009
This single DVD contains the premiere episodes of 7 of CBS’s most endearing comedies. All were influential to those that came after. These weekly shows offered that much needed relief from the pressures of whatever decade they appeared in. The stars are names that everybody knows, even those that appeared 50 years or more ago. If you ever wondered how some of these shows began their historic runs, here’s your opportunity to go back in time with Forever Funny.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on May 25th, 2009
Two guys enter a 3-on-3 Basketball tournament, but they stink. They work at a morgue and their crazed former coworker reanimates a gigantic man...they put him on their team...he's good because he's big (almost automatically)...they try to get money, girls and yadda yadda yadda, you can guess how it turns out for them.
This film is a mundane, predictable tale that is low on the laughs and big on the stereotypes. Our two heroes even lure in the zombie giant to be friend's with them with fried chicken and weed! I'm not black but I was feeling rather offended by the amount of lowbrow and unfunny stereotypes being deployed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 21st, 2009
Uncle Walt knew he had an artistic talent early in his life. He was originally determined to become a commercial artist. But one fateful day he saw a newspaper ad in a Kansas City paper for a company then called The Kansas City Slide Company. Walt got the job. The marketing firm was making theater ads that consisted mostly of stop motion films. It was there, at just 18 years old, that Walt Disney heard his true calling. He soon formed his own company which was called Laugh-O-Grams. It was there that he developed his first fairy tale short on Cinderella. By 1923 Walt had developed a method of combining live action shots with his animation. This first effort, Alice’s Fishy Story would be a breakthrough release. Later a character called Oswald The Lucky Rabbit would lead to the creation of an American icon… Mickey Mouse. The mouse would appear in the very first film ever to feature fully synchronized sound, Steamboat Willie. From that point on, Walt and his stable of elite animators and technicians would revolutionize animation and the motion picture industry time and time again for decades, until his death. The studio that bears his name continues the tradition today. Now let’s go back to some of those roots.
The legacy of Walt Disney and the studio he created requires little explanation. The studio invented the idea of a feature length cartoon and has been on the cutting edge of animation since the 1930’s. No other studio can claim ownership of as many animated classics as Disney. From Mickey Mouse to Pixar, the studio has churned out one masterpiece after another for over 60 years. What tends to get lost in this great body of feature length classics is that the studio was also producing some very high quality shorts over these years. Whether it’s Disney favorites like Mickey, Donald, Minnie, or Goofy or it’s strictly one-off characters gathered to tell a wonderfully animated story, Disney has a record that simply hasn’t and likely will never be matched.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 20th, 2009
“They're the world's most fearsome fighting team. They're heroes in a half-shell and they're green. When the evil Shredder attacks these Turtle boys don't cut him no slack! … Splinter taught them to be ninja teens. Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines, Raphael is cool but crude, Michelangelo is a party dude… Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, heroes in a half shell. Turtle power!”
What started as a low budget comic has grown into quite a sensation. The Turtles are everywhere. There are cartoons, books, comics, movies, and thousands of toys. They’ve been translated into just about every language in the world. The 1980’s and 1990’s were alive with Turtle power. With yet another film now in the works, the Turtles are about to make a comeback. While the characters might not have started with the 80’s cartoon series, that’s where it made its greatest leap in popularity. The show ran for over a decade, a rare record for cartoon shows of the era. Here Lionsgate has accumulated all 27 half hour episodes from the 7th season in this 25th anniversary set of 4 discs. Each disc represents a different Ninja Turtle. And like so many of those Playmate television commercials used to warn, they’re each sold separetly.The discs come in a larger box which contains a small action figure of that featured Turtle. Collect all 4 to get the complete season and all 4 turtle characters.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 14th, 2009
British comedy for me has always been big hit or big miss for me. There really is no between. Monty Python & The Holy Grail – big hit. This movie makes me laugh from the first second until the closing credits. But some of the Monty Python sketches or all of Meaning of Life – big miss. Same thing with television, the Black Adder is simply awesome. Absolutely Fabulous? I never got it and found it completely droll. So I was eager to see Gavin & Stacey and find another wonderful British hit. I was totally pleased.
Gavin (played by Mathew Horne) and Stacey (played by Joanna Page) quite like each other. There is one problem though, they haven’t really met each other in person. They have a budding phone romance and have decided that they finally need to meet. Each of them takes a bud along. Gavin takes Smithy (played by James Corden), a large friendly guy who loves beer and food. Stacey takes along Nessa (played by Ruth Jones), a large not so friendly girl who loves beer, food and apparently tattoos.
