Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 27th, 2009
“Come and listen to my story about a man named Jed. Poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed. Then one day he was shootin’ at some food and up from the ground comes a bubblin’ crude. Oil that is… Black Gold…Texas Tea…”
Who doesn’t remember the Clampetts, those lovable Beverly Hillbillies? The show has been revived in a film, rap songs, and a Weird Al parody of Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 27th, 2009
I used to think that any movie that Robert De Niro attached his name to had to be good. And that used to be true. I was willing to take a chance on low budget or blockbuster films, knowing that De Niro wouldn’t lead me wrong. Then along came Stardust, and honestly, the man hasn’t been in a good film in some years now. Still, my loyalty remains, and What Just Happened looked to be interesting enough that my buddy, Bobby D couldn’t disappoint me again. So, what did just happen? He let me down.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on February 26th, 2009
Most of you know that video games are very near and dear to my heart. When it comes to video games on my TV, I’m usually restricted to G4’s X-Play or perhaps somebody got a hold of a license and turned it into a bad movie. Sure, there are times when they try to turn video game comedy into a sitcom of some sort. Game Over even though it was awesome, only lasted six episodes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 26th, 2009
Popular gaming franchise Resident Evil is no stranger to the world of film. With a trilogy already in the bag from writer-producer Paul W.S. Anderson (Death Race), and starring Milla Jovovich, our favourite perfect being from The Fifth Element, audiences are pretty familiar with the RE brand. Well, the ones who go for schlocky zombie-fests, at least.
You can count me in that company. Every once in a while, a junk-food movie like Resident Evil just hits the spot. The question is, does Resident Evil: Degeneration deliver the goods?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 25th, 2009
In 1913 Marie Belloc Lowendes wrote the novel that this film was based upon. She claimed to have once met a woman at a dinner party who claimed to have had Jack The Ripper as a lodger at her boarding house. Lowendes never tried to verify the claim, or learned anything else about the incident, but it did cause her to do some research on the infamous killer. The result combined with that simple encounter’s claim became a best selling novel. It would be adapted to film not once but several times, including a film by Alfred Hitchcock.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 25th, 2009
“They’re not leaving till they get dessert.”
Director John Gulager might be the son of famed cult B movie star Clu Gulager, but that’s not how he broke into the business. He was a Project Greenlight winner. Project Greenlight is a competition for up and coming directors. They compete in a reality show style setting for the opportunity to direct a major release film. Now, I didn’t say it was a big budget film, but it does get backed and released by a major studio.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 25th, 2009
“Sex addicts. These people are the reason that emergency rooms have special tools to remove the champagne bottle, the fluorescent bulb, and the hamster. For the freaks in here, sex is a compulsion like gambling, drugs, or shoplifting…”
That describes Victor Mancini (Rockwell), the focus of the rather absurd little black comedy based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk and adapted for the screen by Clark Gregg, who also directs and acts in the movie.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 25th, 2009
There is an old saying that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Don’t tell that to Julianne Moore’s character. In this quasi science fiction morality tale, her character learns that it’s not what you can’t see that will hurt you, rather what you can see. This is a very dark film that takes an incredibly cynical look at humanity. She’s the only seeing person in an isolated group of mysteriously blind people. The film is obviously told from her perspective, as anyone else’s would be impossible to present, at least on film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 24th, 2009
“A movie filled with so much terrible horribleness, you’ll crap someone else’s pants”
Bruce Campbell has carved out himself quite a little niche in the acting game. No one would consider him a superstar, and the films he’s most notable for are the kind of cult favorite films that critics tend to hate, all except this particular critic. What’s kind of funny about the whole thing is that Campbell has appeared in some seriously successful films, including all three Spider-Man movies. His parts in these affairs might have been small, but Sam Raimi fans know that it wouldn’t be a Raimi film if it didn’t have Bruce Campbell somewhere.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 24th, 2009
Paul Newman was born in 1925 near Cleveland, Ohio. He was an attendee of the world famous New York Actor’s Studio drama school in 1947. His first movie is included here, The Silver Chalice. The effort actually embarrassed him, and he took out an ad apologizing for the performance. It was looking like this young actor was going to disappear into obscurity in short order. Fortunately for moviegoers everywhere he decided to stick it out. He would deliver in the 1960’s and 1970’s some of the best movies ever made.