Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 27th, 2010
I get this terrible knot in the pit of my stomach whenever I discover that I have to review a Kevin Smith film. I know there are a core of solid fans out there who appear to get the inside joke. It's long been my belief that he must have the best blackmail file in the industry to keep getting studio deals to release films. It's not like any of his films have broken any box office records. Still, he keeps getting work. So, it was with that admitted prejudice and knot with which I approached my viewing of Cop Out. My shoulder had developed this nasty twitch as the disc menu took forever to load.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 21st, 2010
Raquel (Catalina Saavedra) has been the maid for the family run by matriarch Pilar (Claudia Celedón) for 23 years. Those years have taken their toll, and Raquel looks worn far beyond her 41 years. She is clearly unable to look after the household on her own, and Pilar tries to hire another maid to help out. Raquel takes this the wrong way, imagines she's being eased out, and treats each new maid as an invader who must be repulsed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on June 11th, 2010
My relationship with romantic comedies has not been one of wedded bliss. More often than not, it is something I get forced into. Once you are forced into something, then you automatically have a pre-disposed attitude against the movie. Hence, I haven’t liked too many of these things. Thankfully in the last few years, if I see a romantic comedy it’s been mostly because it ends up in my review queue. This in turn has given me a softer approach to these movies but don’t think I’m going all sentimental just yet.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 25th, 2010
"On Robben Island, in Pollsmoor Prison, all of my jailers were Afrikaners. For 27 years I studied them. I learned their language. Read their books, their poetry. I had to know my enemy before I could prevail against them. And we did prevail, did we not?"
Leave it to Clint Eastwood to make even rugby look interesting. Of course, Eastwood himself would correct me and observe that Invictus isn't really about rugby. As the words of Nelson Mandela above suggest, this movie wasn't really about rugby at all.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 24th, 2010
Mel Brooks has often been called the Master of Comedy. The moniker might be a bit too grandiose, but he was certainly the master of the parody. In recent years that has become more evident than ever. Too often I've been forced to sit through something called a comedy. Not only can I do so without ever actually laughing, but there are far too many titles of late that don't even give me the chance to crack a smile. It's not that I've seen so much that it's hard to find anything original. I can still laugh like crazy when I watch a Sanford and Son episode I've seen at least 50 times or an Abbott & Costello routine
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 19th, 2010
"Even in the most primitive man, the need to create was part of his nature. This need, this talent, clearly separated early man from animals who would never know this gift. And here, in a cave somewhere in the North American Continent, about two million years ago, the first artist was born. And, of course, with the birth of the artist came the inevitable afterbirth ... the critic."
That's me. Afterbirth here. Brooks always did love to poke fun at the critics. And why not? Unfortunately, this was not one of his better films and likely received a lot of poking from the brethren.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 18th, 2010
"You, sir, are guilty of disseminating disbelief. Killing dreams. Committing first-degree murder of fantasy, which by Fairy Law, in order to pay your debt to humanity, you are hereby ordered to serve time as a Tooth Fairy. The normal sentence is one week, but because you have the nerve, the unmitigated gall, to actually call yourself a Tooth Fairy, thus making a mockery of everything we stand for, I'm sentencing you to two weeks Tooth Fairy duty."
Dwayne (once The Rock) Johnson has made a bit of a new career move over the last few years.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 17th, 2010
For most of this last decade Mel Gibson might as well have vanished from the face of the planet. The once extremely popular actor had charmed the world. Women found his childish grin to be irresistibly sexy, and men bought into the “kick ass and crack a joke” style that made the Lethal Weapon films such a romp of fun. But lately, you expect him to be the subject of a “Where Are They Now” segment from a late show on television. It's no secret why Gibson climbed so quickly out of the public eye. I'm sure everyone still remembers the drunk-driving arrest where Gibson compounded his already serious case of bad judgment with even worse judgment.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 4th, 2010
In many ways the epic story and film Doctor Zhivago echoes the real-life story of Boris Pasternak, who penned the original novel. Pasternak was a firsthand witness to the events that led to and became the Russian Revolution. He collected 50 years of memories that began with the early days before the revolution and ended with his own confrontations with the USSR government. Like Zhivago in the story, Pasternak's work was banned in his own country. The manuscript had to be smuggled out of Russia and found its way first to Italy, where it was finally published for the first time. But it didn't stop there.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 26th, 2010
"You're not in Kansas any more. You're on Pandora, ladies and gentlemen. Respect that fact every second of every day. If there is a Hell, you might want to go there for some R&R after a tour on Pandora. Out there beyond that fence, every living thing that crawls, flies, or squats in the mud wants to kill you and eat your eyes for Jujubes..."
I don't really have to tell you what Avatar is. If you haven't heard of it by now, I have only one question to ask of you: How was that coma?
![When in Rome [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/when-in-rome-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Invictus [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/invictus-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![High Anxiety [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/high-anxiety-blu-ray-large.jpg)
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![Edge of Darkness [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/edge-of-darkness-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Avatar (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/avatar-two-disc-blu-raydvd-combo-large.jpg){kind=avatar}
