Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on January 10th, 2011
My dislike of romantic comedies has been well documented on this site time and time again. At times, I even try to enlist the help of my loving wife who doesn’t really care for them either but is willing to lend a hand. Unfortunately, my next three reviews will all involve the curse of the romantic comedy. So let’s take a look inside and see if we can last through this trilogy of terror.
Lane Daniels (played by Hilary Duff) is a fashion journalist in New York City in search of a guy. Scared yet? I mean it is Hilary Duff. I heard she once bit the head of an eyeliner pencil off and swallowed it whole. Lane’s best friend, Joanna (played by Amanda Walsh) tries to help but the main problem is that Lane has this insane checklist.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 10th, 2011
Countless documentaries and dramas chronicle the life of John Lennon. They make each film unique from all the others by taking different approaches, use different archival materials, or new first-hand interviews. LENNON NYC explores a time in Lennon’s life that is rarely exposed. It focuses on Lennon’s life in New York City from 1971 to his death in 1980.
In 1971, after the breakup of The Beatles, John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono moved to New York City. The nine years Lennon spent in the city was a time for him to focus on family. While he did create some of the most acclaimed songs and albums of his career, Lennon wanted to be a proper father to his young son, Sean. A strong icon in the count-culture movement, Lennon was very active in anti-war protests and other political causes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 6th, 2011
"If you're going to face the fires of Hell, you need to be prepared."
And that's exactly what someone should have told the folks behind the horror thriller Case 39. This has been one of those cursed films from the very beginning. The film appears to have begun production way back in 2006. It appears the film was done, at least in one form, by 2007, but there were reshoots and pick-ups for so long that it's going to be hard to imagine what the film might have originally been intended to look like. A fire on the set destroyed quite a bit of the set; fortunately no one was badly injured. The movie took so long to make that the life changes are quite noticeable in the characters. When the film did finally reach the box office on October 1st in 2010, the numbers were very disappointing. The film only took in $13 million with a budget that is listed at $26 million but was likely considerably more than that when you put it all together.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 6th, 2011
In one of Stephen King's most popular stories, at least of those translated into films, a prison inmate sits in his cell and dreams of escape. His fantasy is to escape into the welcoming arms of Rita Hayworth. While that particular element wasn't to be found in the film, it was important enough in the original story to warrant mention in the original title, which was Rita Hayworth And The Shawshank Redemption. It was a nod to the pin-up status that the actress had in early younger days. In my generation it was Farrah, but for most adolescent boys and World War II soldiers it was the red-headed come-hither smile of Rita Hayworth.
Hayworth first trained as a dancer. The instruction would certainly pay off in her film career where she would trade steps with some of the great dancers in cinema history including Fred Astaire. She was just a young teenager when she managed to be cast in Dante's Inferno and five other films that year. She left films at the peak of her popularity in a Grace Kelly-like marriage to foreign royalty. She wedded the Prince Aly Kahn, who would also die in a car accident, much as Kelly did. Fortunately for the movie-going public, Hayworth had divorced the prince 7 years earlier in 1953 and returned to the silver screen.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 6th, 2011
Written by Dave Younger
Set in 1945 Germany, WWII is winding down, and The Japanese have just surrendered. A bunch of American officers have commandeered a castle outside of Frankfurt, Germany, and the discovery of a wine stash leads Colonel Jack Durant (Billy Zane) to thinking: What else could Princess Sophie have hidden before she fled? Jack is first seen flirting with Lt. Kathleen Nash (Lyne Renee), but she’s not buying. Then they discover a mother lode of jewels, enough to make them rich for the rest of their lives, and suddenly she’s hooked. Is it love, or money? There’s no time to wonder as many other, more vexing problems crop up: Princess Sophie discovers the theft of her jewels, a military investigation ensues, and how do they get the jewels to New York and fence them?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 5th, 2011
Written by Dave Younger
Twelve (2010, Rated R, 93 min.) stars Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl) as White Mike, drug dealer to the stars of the Upper East Side’s prep schools. They’re young, rich, white, beautiful, and vapid: texting and whining are their main activities. That and scoring drugs. And then there’s Molly (Emma Roberts, Julia’s daughter (niece. Thanks Robert) who’s quite effective as the one good person here. Although they’ve been friends forever, she doesn’t know White Mike is a drug dealer. He can’t tell her for fear of losing her friendship and, because she reminds him of his mother (who passed away recently), it would be like telling your mom you’re a dealer.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 4th, 2011
Dateline: September 13, 1999
Mankind has been storing all of our nuclear waste on the far side of the moon. On the other side of the lunar surface was Alpha Base. Here mankind had a research station which also served as a launching point for deep-space missions. An unfortunate chain of events led to the unthinkable. The nuclear waste pile was ignited, and the whole dump exploded with a force so powerful that it tore the moon out of Earth's orbit and sent it hurtling through space. The 311 inhabitants of Alpha were swept along for this uncontrolled flight into uncharted space.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 4th, 2011
I’ve seen some dysfunctional families on television over the years. Haven’t we all? It’s fun to laugh at someone else’s flaws. Along comes Showtime, and it’s rather hard to classify the series The United States Of Tara. This one takes dysfunction to a whole new level. Tara (Collette) suffers from multiple-personality disorder. Laughing yet? She has managed to control the problem by using medications and attending frequent therapy sessions. But the medication is sapping her creative ability. You see, Tara was once a gifted artist. She painted murals and was somewhat critically acclaimed. The meds put an end to all of that. With the blessings of her family, Tara goes off the meds, and the family grows by 7. Yes, there are 7 “alters” as she calls them inside of Tara’s body. Now they are all coming out to play.
The first thing you have to understand about this show is who the alters happen to be. We learn over time that they were constructed by Tara’s mind to protect her from a traumatic moment in her life. Tara can’t remember the event, but from time to time, the alters offer up little clues to what might have taken place. She is totally aware of the alters and their personalities. The family has developed some protection techniques of their own. Husband Max (Corbett) is not allowed to have sex with the alters. They’ve decided that would be cheating. How about just f***ed up? The kids are to treat the alters as they are, not as Mom. I’ll introduce you to the “real” people later. Here are Tara’s alters:
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 3rd, 2011
"I love it when a plan comes together."
I love it when a movie comes together that offers you some value for your entertainment dollar and manages to touch a bit on the old nostalgia strings along the way. I'm not going to try to convince you that the new A-Team film is a great movie. It's not even close. But neither was the series a great series. What I am going to try to convince you to do is go out and at least rent a copy of the A-Team movie and allow it to do exactly what it was intended to do ... take you for a little ride while jogging those old memories just enough to bring the occasional smile to your face. Think about it. Could you really ask a movie to do anything more?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 3rd, 2011
"Luke Skywalker has returned to his home planet of Tatooine in order... But, you know this story..."
Know this story, you do. It's the opening of the third, or actually the 6th in sequence, but it is the 3rd one made, unless you count... Never mind. This is the prologue to Return Of The Jedi. Not so long ago in this Galaxy, Family Guy took a shot across the bow of those Imperial Cruisers with its extremely funny and on the spot spoof of the first Star Wars film, or actually the 4th chapter.... Star Wars: A New Hope. It was only a matter of time before Seth MacFarlane would steer his own ship back into George Lucas's universe a third time. With equal parts faithful adaptation and off-the-wall detours, he's done it again, delivering another very funny tour into the dark side.
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