Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 17th, 2020
"Chances are if you are watching Season 3 you like it."
Kevin Costner plays John Dutton. The name itself recalls those years as a kid watching the myriad western shows that crossed our television screens throughout the 50's and 60's. He's the owner of Yellowstone Ranch, which takes up hundreds of square miles and borders on the national park of the same name, which we never do get to see. What we do see are the other borders of the Yellowstone. It borders a large and mostly impoverished Native American reservation. The ranch has apparently existed with an uneasy peace with the residents of the reservation. But there is a new chief in town. He's Thomas Rainwater, played by Gil Birmingham. Rainwater has some kind of a grudge that we never got to completely understand in the first season. He's a political beast who has turned Dutton and his ranch into a common enemy to fuel his own popularity and ambition.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on December 12th, 2020
When you check out the poster and Blu-ray cover art for this film, you could easily think that this was yet another cheesy teen romance, but the film is something else entirely. There is a bit of teenage romance in the film, but mostly the focus is on the mental health of the film’s protagonist, Adam (Charlie Plummer) and his struggles with schizophrenia. It’s a heavy topic, and somehow the film manages to tackle the topic in an honest way without being overly depressing. This was challenging material, especially when your target audience is under the age of 18, and during the time of COVID, it’s a bold move for a studio to put out a film with this kind of heavy subject matter. I didn’t expect to like this film, if I’m being honest, and I’ll happily admit that the film surprised me. That doesn’t mean that the film doesn’t come with its share of problems, but are they enough to discourage someone from checking out this film?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 11th, 2020
"Our true enemy has yet to reveal himself."
If anything, the third part of the Godfather series of films is symbolic of when too many sequels are greenlighted, and consequently, the film is doomed to fail. More often than not, the reason why these films crash and burn is because of major studios acting like Adelphia executives and wanting more money, and in using the previous films’ successes as leverage, they lose sight of things like quality. It’s happened to other trilogies. And if you put together previous films with the reputation that the first two Godfather films have, the only question left to answer is whether or not the third film would be a minor or major letdown. Most of the essential players returned, with the exception of Robert Duvall. (Duvall said Francis Ford Coppola never really negotiated with him, while Coppola says that Duvall asked for more money, so who knows?) Mario Puzo helped out with another part of the story, so why did this film not live up to the hype?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on December 8th, 2020
In 2004 when Collateral first came out, Michael Mann gave audiences something they’ve never seen before: Tom Cruise playing the bad guy. Sure, he played the vampire Lestat in Interview with the Vampire, but he just never seemed all that menacing. In Collateral we get to see him as a cold, professional killer with his salt-and-pepper hair and nondescript gray suit. Also at this time, Jamie Foxx was still carving out a name for himself as a serious actor; this was just months before the release of Ray (the movie that pretty much catapulted him into stardom). I was stoked for this movie when it first came out because it was Michael Mann getting back to what I felt he was great at, the down and dirty crime films like Thief and Heat. I have to admit, I do have a slight bias when it comes to Michael Mann films, and I’ve seen Collateral numerous times before doing this review. Considering it’s been 16 years since its release, sure, the film still holds up, but what I feel will surprise new audiences or those who are revisiting the film is the amount of talent that is on the screen.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 27th, 2020
"On March 3, 1969 the United States Navy established an elite school for the top one percent of its pilots. Its purpose was to teach the lost art of aerial combat and to insure that the handful of men who graduated were the best fighter pilots in the world. They succeeded. Today, the Navy calls it Fighter Weapons School. The flyers call it: TOP GUN."
Back around the time I was born, when Tom Cruise had an ounce of sanity, a little movie called Top Gun swept across the globe, raking in over $350,000,000 worldwide, as well as sparking an interest in the US Navy and everything Tomcat, Skyhawk, and MiG related. Ever since its original release, Top Gun has kept a hold on its audience, being played almost weekly, and now it makes its way into the world of ultra high definition with its release on UHD Blu-ray.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 24th, 2020
Remember when Eddie Murphy was funny? You know, before the fat suits and fart jokes. I guess many of you hadn’t even been born yet. Ronald Reagan was still president of these United States. CD’s were the latest thing. VHS was just catching on. The Rams were still in L.A., and it was the Cardinals who were playing in St. Louis. No one had ever heard about DVD, Blu-ray, 4K, MP3, or Wi-fi. It was 1988, and Eddie Murphy was staring in Coming To America. This is the second of two classic 80's Eddie Murphy films that Paramount is delivering on UHD Blu-ray this week. They happen to be two of his best films in 40 years. I’ve long considered this the last funny Eddie Murphy film. It just seems like he’d turned to gimmicks and quick physical humor. He got lazy, and you know what? So did I. I decided it wasn’t worth the effort to get my seat into those theater seats to see him clown around anymore. So journey with me back to a magical time when Murphy was still hungry and he let his talent shine.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 24th, 2020
"The heat is on..."
From the bouncing opening music by Glenn Fry to the final frame of Eddie Murphy's smile, Beverly Hills Cop has established itself as a classic. Now finally out on Blu-ray, the film shows us all over again why we fell in love with it almost 20 years ago. Murphy hasn't been as funny since, but we'll always have Beverly Hills and Axel Foley.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 24th, 2020
Eddie Murphy has a ton of films under his belt. If you’re like most folks, his antics have long ago become tired and worn out. Come with me now to a time when Murphy was young and full of energy. Trading Places was really only Murphy’s second film after 48 hours. In Trading Places, we get vintage Eddie Murphy. You can tell he was still hungry. Today he simply calls too many performances in. Dan Aykroyd was also at a turning point in his own career. It hadn’t been too long since he lost his longtime partner Jim Belushi to a drug overdose. He was just learning to stand on his own. Put these two guys together today, and there’s not much chance you’d get the solid gold that was possible in 1983. Fortunately for us, there is this HD release of Trading Places, when both actors still felt they had something to prove. The cast was brilliant all the way around. Jamie Lee Curtis displayed her obvious assets for the first time in a film. Known mostly as a scream queen at that time, Curtis was a choice the studio was not at all happy with. The Wolf Man’s own Ralph Bellamy, along with fellow veteran actor Don Amechi, played the Duke brothers to perfection. Finally, Denholm Eliott added his own understated brilliance as Coleman, the butler.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 21st, 2020
"Things are about to get dangerous."
Keep your hands and feet inside the ride vehicle at all times. At some point in his life, Michael Crichton must have had a really bad experience at Disney World. Maybe he got stuck on a ride, or a ghost followed him home from the Haunted Mansion. Whatever his reasons, the man sure had it in for the amusement park industry. He's created two iconic franchises from the "way out" amusement park idea. His novel Jurassic Park incited all of our imaginations, not the least of which was Steven Spielberg's. That amusement park brought back living and breathing dinosaurs who would entertain park attendees, that is when they weren't eating said attendees. But long before that came his screenplay for the 1973 film starring Yul Brenner and James Brolin called Westworld. It was another future amusement park.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 18th, 2020
Every generation has had its Christmas classics, films that have become as much a part of the holiday family traditions as Christmas trees and candy canes. For me it has been the more modern A Christmas Story with ol’ Carl Kolchak himself, Darren McGavin. Kids today have taken more of a shine to even more recent films, but for more than one generation, Christmas wouldn’t be the same without Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life. Since 1947 the film became a seasonal fixture in neighborhood movie houses across the fruited plain. In the 1970’s the film temporarily fell into the public domain and was played relentlessly on local television stations as each holiday came and went. Unfortunately, these were usually prints in horrible condition, so that scratches and splice marks became a part of the experience, not to mention ads for department stores touting their early-bird specials. It is with that experience that I, as did most from my generation, become acquainted with Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey.
