Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 24th, 2009
“They’re longtime friends on separate life paths, but they share a horrific destination, where a seemingly innocent incident from their school days comes back to terrify them. Something, someone wants payback.”
If there was an award for cramming the most horror movie conventions into one film, Amusement should win it hands down. You’ve seen it all before:
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 21st, 2009
“When one starts to perceive one’s own reflection as a completely separate being, one is suddenly confronted with two entirely separate egos, two entirely separate worlds that can surface at any given moment. A feeling of self hatred usually triggered by a psychological shock can split the personality in two, hence creating two or more personalities with distinct memories and distinct behavior patterns within the same individual. The patient has the false perception of the existence of two distinct worlds, the real world and the world inside the mirror.”
Or maybe not so false, at least according to the 20th Century Fox thriller, Mirrors.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 21st, 2009
I have to admit that I’m usually very wary of direct to video sequels to films that weren’t exactly box office smash material to begin with. The original film was a typical and predictable mess of a film that didn’t even make use of a better than average cast for this kind of film. It took me by surprise when Boogeyman 2 came out, but I’m a glutton for punishment, so I rented the title mostly because it had Saw franchise star Tobin Bell in it. I ended up halfway liking the feature, and considerably more than the original film. When I saw the chance to review the third entry, I wanted to see if the DVD franchise was heading forward or backwards. Boy, was I pleased to find out that the answer is both.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 21st, 2009
Paramount has decided to standardize their DVD releases. This goes from everything to the DVD disc art, which is now just a two tone silver on all releases, to the cases. The new cases are a mixed deal. You get 6 discs inside of a single DVD space. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the disc holders are quite brittle and end up chipping and breaking. You save space but ultimately endanger the discs themselves. I hope someone at Paramount takes a look at the packaging and comes up with something a little better.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 21st, 2009
Just to look at it you would think that My 3 Sons was a Disney production. Its star Fred MacMurray had appeared in many Disney films of the 50’s and 60’s and is most likely recognizable from those appearances. Two of the three boys were also known for work with Disney. The eldest boy, Mike, was played by Tim Considine, who starred with MacMurray in Disney’s The Shaggy Dog.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 20th, 2009
There’s something I hate about election season. No, it’s not all of those negative ads. No, it’s not the wall to wall coverage on the news networks, It isn’t even the campaigning that closes streets and makes you late for work. It’s the fact that every studio decides to dust off any title they think is even remotely political in nature and put it out, hoping to cash in on the perceived political craze.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 16th, 2009
“It’s not about monsters, or zombies, or vampires. It’s about kids.”
One of the horror trends going around involves the isolation of a young couple who find themselves suddenly terrified. The pursuer can be a creature or undead vengeful spirit, but more often than not the attacker is very much human. The location can be a desert or even a hotel room as it was in one of the better examples of the subgenre, Vacancy with Kate Beckinsale and Luke Fox.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 16th, 2009
“As the end of World War II drew near, Hitler’s Germany was not only waging a war on separate fronts but from within the Third Reich. This story is based on actual events.”
If any of that sounds familiar, it should. It’s the plot and historical source for Tom Cruise’s latest big budget film, Valkyrie. One can’t help but wonder if this 1990 made for television film would ever see the light of a DVD release if not for the hype surrounding the Cruise film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 16th, 2009
Supercop is really just the American title for the third entry in Jackie Chan’s very popular Police Story series in Hong Kong. For the first time in the franchise, Chan decided to go with an outside director, and he made a wise choice with newcomer Stanley Tong. Tong might have been a green director, but he had a natural feel for the abilities and strengths of his mega-star. The two would go on to collaborate on several more films after this rather remarkable first time pairing.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 16th, 2009
The second season of Matlock brought some change to the series. Matlock’s daughter was written out of the series when Purl left the series after the first season. In the 2 hour opening episode of the second season Matlock meets Nancy Stafford (Thomas) in London when he goes there for a case. The episode was filmed on location and marked a spectacular return for the sophomore series.
![Mirrors [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/mirrors-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Election [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/election-blu-ray-large.jpg)
