Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 23rd, 2009
It all starts with antique dealer Uncle Lewis. He made a deal with the devil to help His Evilness to distribute cursed and evil objects through his store. Objects included Jack The Ripper’s scalpel. Finally Satan comes to collect Uncle Lewis and his tattered soul, leaving his niece Micki (Robey) to clean up the mess. She and cousin Ryan (Le May) have the unenviable task of tracking down these items and sealing them safely away so they can do no more harm. They were often assisted in their task by Jack (Wiggins) who knew something of the occult. The series ran from 1987 to 1990 and never made more than a ripple in the ratings. The show included Steve Monarque as Johnny Ventura starting in the second season.
The final season of this bizarre series begins with a two part European jaunt episode as Jack ends up in France searching for none other than Satan’s copy of the Bible. Other artifacts in the final year include: a cursed wheelchair, a hearing aid that allows the user to hear other people’s thoughts, a coin that can bring back the dead, a car radio that does double duty as a time machine (must have come from a Delorean), a cross that burns vampires alive, a film reel that can bring the movie’s femme fatale to life, a pen that turns a writer into one of his serial killer characters, an embalmer’s tool that trades one life for another, a necklace that allows one to switch bodies with someone else, and a dog leash that lets its owner merge his dog and wife into a single creature. The series ends with Micki going through a time portal and face to face with the Marquis de Sade. And that’s all folks. Series over.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 23rd, 2009
When the later cartoon series ran starting in 1983, the show from time to time spoofed many of the popular films of the time. Over the years everything from Star Trek to Star Wars received the Chipmunk treatment. Collectively these episodes have often been released under the title Chipmunks Go To The Movies and have even appeared with Roger Ebert. One of the best of these spoofs is the hilarious Star Wreck. Actually, the disc comes with three episodes, each spoofing a different film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 23rd, 2009
“This is the Alvin Show, you’re positively gonna love the Alvin Show.
There's Dave Seville, and what is more here's the boy who giggles known as Theodore.
Now you see, on camera three, the brother known as Simon on the family tree.
And here's the star of the show… Alvin”
The hilarity continues with a second release: The Very First Alvin Show. This disc also contains three episodes. The spotlight piece here is the very first Chipmunk adventure ever from the 1961 series The Alvin Show. You’ll be amazed at just how little these guys have changed over the years. The three shows are:
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 23rd, 2009
Written by Adrienne Ambush
See it with someone you ****
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 22nd, 2009
This was the final of Miramax 4 martial arts classics released as a collection or separately on Blu-ray. The collection featured some extraordinary action and top line star power for the most part. Zatoichi, for the most part, is the weakest of the four films. It is almost a solo effort by renowned Japanese actor Takeshi Kitano. He participated in writing the script. He is also the director, editor, and star of this rather off the wall martial arts film. The character of Zatoichi has appeared in many films and is as much a part of martial arts culture as Jackie Chan. Kitano does quite a superb job in portraying the blind swordsman, but it is in the other areas that he falls considerably short of the intended mark. Instead of reaching for the classic staples of the genre, he decides to take this tale in a far more fantastical direction. Swords blaze with such speed it’s impossible to really appreciate the skills, because you never actually see the sword. It’s out, slice and dice, and resheathed all in a blink of an eye. Rather impressive the first 20 times it occurs in the film, but before long it’s merely an old punch line that’s been repeated one too many times by a desperate comedian who doesn’t really have anything else. It’s sad, really. Because, Kitano does have something else to offer, and we certainly get glimpses of that. In the end, however, Kitano pushes the boundaries too often for me to take this film seriously at all.
The film is really a Western guised in the form of a martial arts film. The plot rings of Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter. When a blind masseur wonders into a village, he finds that it has been terrorized by a gang that extorts shop owners for protection and runs the local gambling and geisha houses. The blind drifter has startling skill with a sword he hides sheathed in his seeing eye cane. He has an uncanny ability to hear enough from his environment to counter any blow raised toward him and cut up his opponent quickly and quite efficiently. He meets up with Genosuke (Asano) who supplies the comic relief here. Genosuke is a degenerate gambler who can’t seem to catch a break in the local dice parlor. But he is impressed with the uncanny ability the masseur has of hearing the correct lay of the dice. The two of them clean up at the game. Deciding to spend some of their winnings at the geisha house, the pair meet two geisha girls who are actually more than meets the eye. They are the sole surviving children of a family slaughtered by the mob kingpin running the local gang. Together they plot to discover the identity of the boss and rid the village of the gang forever. The gang has employed the services of a very skilled samurai to enforce their will on the people. It doesn’t take much time to figure out that all of this is leading to a wild west style showdown between the samurai and the masseur.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 22nd, 2009
In the first season, Melinda was joined by her friend and business partner Andrea (Tyler). At the end of that freshman season, Andrea was killed and became a pawn in a good vs. evil struggle between Melinda and a mysterious “wide-brimmed hat man”. I was sorry to see the character literally depart the show, but I thought that cliffhanger was one of the more effective moments I’ve seen. The sacrifice of the character provided an ending I’ll admit I never saw coming. To replace Andrea, Camryn Manheim from The Practice joined the cast as Melinda’s new partner Delia in the second season. The better addition to the second season cast was Jay Mohr as Professor Payne, who develops a very interesting chemistry with Melinda. He was only intended as a short arc character, but the relationship was quite a dynamic one from the start. But now Mohr has left the show. Jamie Kennedy has replaced him as Melinda’s professor answer man. Kennedy’s Eli James actually shares Melinda’s gift, somewhat. While he can’t see ghosts, he can hear them. His dynamic is not near as good as Mohr’s was, and I missed Mohr greatly in this season. That isn’t so much true for series star Jennifer Love-Hewitt, who ended up hooking up with Kennedy in real life.
The show’s most basic premise remains intact. Melinda Gordon is a newlywed and owns the antique shop in a quaint New England town. From childhood she has had the “gift” of being able to see the ghosts of those restless departed souls unable to cross over into the great beyond. If this sounds familiar, it should. Remember little Haley Joel Osment from The Sixth Sense? Like his character, Cole, Melinda takes the responsibility of helping these spirits accomplish some unfinished earthly business so that they can move into the light. The series almost always ends with some tearjerker moments as a loved one is connected, through Melinda, with the departed friend or family member.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 22nd, 2009
“About this startling new show as a whole, we say this. When ordinary people of our real world encounter the chilling world of the unknown, when normal men and women take that one step beyond, that we think is incomprable drama, all the more memorable and amazing because these strange adventures are true, absolutely true.”
The stories from One Step Beyond were reportedly true, but to paraphrase a rather disingenuous former president, it all depends on what your definition of true is. In interviews many of the writers later admitted that much of the material came from a couple of reference books. The idea was a truly reported one, but the story was pretty much created. The series was directed and hosted by John Newland and ran from 1959 to 1961. The shows were half hour and sponsored by Alcoa. In syndication the series was often called Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond. In 1978 the original creative team of creator Merwin Gerard and host/director Newland attempted to revise the series calling it The Next Step Beyond. But the show was not picked up.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 22nd, 2009
Written By Matthew Wiley
Good Dick follows a poor guy (Jason Ritter) living out of his car and working at a video store who takes a liking to one of the store’s customers, a lonely coffee shop girl who is not interested (Marianna Palka). One night after renting/recommending the girl some erotica, he decides to follow her home; he even parks his car across the street and sleeps outside of her apartment. He finally buzzes her apartment saying that he is with UPS to get into her building, later saying that his great aunt lives in her building. She is not a fan of his advances, but after a while and many attempts by him, the two develop a quirky relationship. She always acts mean towards him despite his generosity towards her. Even though she pushes him away all the time, he continues to be persistent. Eventually, the two begin watching porn together and he starts to sleep on her couch, one night winning a bizarre bet to sleep with her in her bed. After he tries to get her to meet his friends/coworkers, she begins to act crazy, much crazier than normal. It seems no matter what he tries to get her to like him, she always gets psychotic. Just when it seems that the two will make it together, she freaks out worse than the time before.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 22nd, 2009
It’s nice to see some of these staple films starting to reach the Blu-ray high definition releases. Unfortunately there really isn’t anything new here at all. The picture is an upgrade but not as outstanding as you might expect. The audio doesn’t really get much better at all. Finally, all of the extras are merely ported over standard definition pieces from the most recent DVD release. It’s the best way to go if you don’t already own the film, but not remarkable enough to warrant an upgrade from any but the most die hard fans. And they didn’t need this review to talk them into it. For the rest of you, here’s what you can expect.
The 70’s and 80’s were fertile ground for horror films. It was a new era of iconic monsters. Starting with Michael Myers and Jason, the trend that gave us Freddy seemed to be at the end of its run by the late 1980’s. Certainly sequels were still being churned out, but it seemed like we’d seen the last of these maniacal monsters, at least for a while. But before it petered out, the cycle would supply our nightmares with one more notable denizen…Chucky. Today Chucky paces the sidelines here in Tampa as the head coach of the local NFL franchise, but for the last 20 years it was the darkest alleyways of our dreams that Chucky prowled. Inhabited by the soul of a killer, Chucky was truly one of the “Good Guys”.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 21st, 2009
Some of you might remember my review of the first two volumes of X-Men, the Animated Series. After the first thirty plus episodes, I secretly hoped that I would be able to bring you reviews of the rest of the series. Luckily, I was blessed enough to make this a reality when I received volume 3 & 4 at my door just before my fall vacation. How sweet it is.
When we last left the X-Men at the close of the original Phoenix Saga, Jean Grey in the form of the Phoenix had defeated D’Ken and saved the universe from the power of the M’Kraan crystal. In such, the crystal (with D’Ken trapped inside) had to be taken far away and flown directly into the sun. Phoenix accepts this mission and the mind of Jean Grey says goodbye to her fellow X-Men.
![The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-blind-swordsman-zatoichi-blu--large.jpg)
![Child's Play [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/childs-play-blu-ray-large.jpg)
