Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 16th, 2009
Grey’s Anatomy follows the life and tribulations of a group of interns at Seattle Grace Hospital. There’s certainly nothing original about the premise, except that the story is told by one of the more unlikely characters, Dr. Meredith Grey (Pompeo). As a lead she’s really not all that remarkable, but the show doesn’t put everything on her narrow shoulders. The series is populated by a solid supporting cast, giving it all a far more ensemble feel despite the title. James Pickens, Jr. is perhaps the most extraordinary actor in the show. He’s underused, but steals every scene he’s in. His Dr. Webber is a powerfully serious voice in an otherwise often frivolous world. Chandra Wilson as the intern teacher Dr. Baily is another standout performance, offering tremendous range. Her character, often referred to as a Nazi by her interns, is capable of outstanding empathy just when it’s required. Too many of the characters serve as eye candy, but I can’t say that any of them don’t have some good acting chops.
With all of that said, season 5 is not the way to have your first Grey’s Anatomy experience. I strongly recommend you begin at the start if you are not sure about this show. While I was able to gain some appreciation for the show, I had to work harder for it by starting so late. If you already like the show, nothing I could say would keep you from continuing your collection here. For those of you up on what’s going on, here’s the kind of stories you can expect in season 5: The biggest impact story thread has to be Izzie’s brain tumor. It also leads to a return by Supernatural’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Denny character. Yeah, I know he died, but he learned a thing or two from his stint on Supernatural. Actually it’s Izzie’s tumor that allows us this return visit. Not really a spoiler here, as the show did a huge amount of promo spots talking about Denny’s return and Izzie’s illness. Another huge milestone is the addition of Rome’s phenomenal actor Kevin McKidd as new Dr. Owen Hunt. It’s a great character, possibly one of the best in the series. He’s a military doctor, so adds quite a bit of a new dynamic to the series. He’s going to be challenging the methods and techniques of the hospital. Controversy reaches Grace when a death row inmate wishes to donate his organs. The problem is that the execution will render his organs unusable. He’ll have to be killed at the hospital by someone on the staff. Mark tries to perform a face transplant. Unfortunately, it is still the romantic entanglements that drive this series.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 16th, 2009
“One part sex. One part rebellion.”
That’s how Sony describes their Martini Movies. The films come from that time in the 1960’s and 1970’s when there was a lot of unrest in the country. It was a time of protests and questioning of authority. It was the time of free love and a socialism experiment in communes all across America. Now, what exactly all of this has to do with martinis, I’m not exactly sure. In fact, there’s not a lot of drinking in most of these films. It’s more likely just a blanket way to release some obscure films in their catalog.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 15th, 2009
Claire (Judd) and Tom (Caviezel) appear to have it made. Claire is a successful attorney and Tom is ex-Army. They are happy and very much in love, trying to have their first child. Suddenly while out on the town an FBI SWAT team surrounds them on the street at Union Square. Tom is taken into custody. Claire soon discovers that Tom wasn’t the man she thought he was. In fact, his name isn’t even Tom. He is Sergeant Ron Chapman, and he’s been a fugitive for 12 years, wanted by the Army for murder. Now the military court is seeking the death penalty. He is accused of killing civilians in a raid gone wrong. He insists that he is innocent and that the guilty party is actually a prominent and influential general. All but two of the event’s witnesses are dead, many by mysterious accidents. Claire takes his case and turns to attorney Charles Grimes (Freeman) who has had experience with these kinds of cases. Unfortunately, he’s an alcoholic and a bit of a wild cannon. Still, he knows his stuff when he’s sober, and he’s the best chance she has of uncovering the truth. To win they will have to prove a government cover-up and risk their lives in the process. It appears a lot of folks don’t want this case to be solved. It’s an uphill battle, and everyone has something to hide. It’s a “trust no one situation” as Claire and Grimes get to the bottom of the case.
The film is based on a moderately successful novel by Joseph Finder. While the film has an impressive cast and a pretty good story, it suffers from a lack of imagination by director Carl Franklin. You may know the name. He was a busy television actor in the 80’s and 90’s and appeared relative failures like Fantastic Journey and well known shows like The A-Team. While he was a fair actor, I’m afraid his directorial skills haven’t translated. The film never really shows any imagination. It reminds me of those tubes on Star Trek that were marked GNDN (Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing). He fails to utilize the full extent of his widescreen picture, and all of the action falls too often inside that cramped relative center square that used to represent the difference with television. In spite of some tremendous chemistry with Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd, the film appears to meander too long in one place. Pacing is awkward and uneven, to be kind. In the end the film boils down to a very clichéd procedural that never comes close to breaking new ground. Audiences seemed to agree in 2002 when the film opened. It had a rather sweet opening weekend but soon was dropping like an anchor in deep water as word of mouth appeared to include a resounding thumbs down. It finished its run pulling in $41 million on a $42 million budget with 34% of its gross the first week.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 15th, 2009
“Attention: Tonight’s movie has been M*A*S*H. Follow the zany antics of our combat surgeons as they stitch their way along the front lines operating as bombs and bullets burst around them, snatching laughs and love between amputations and penicillin, as they put our boys back together again.”
M*A*S*H began life as a novel written by an actual Korean War Army surgeon under the pen name Richard Hooker. He based the character of Hawkeye on himself and most of the other characters on actual personnel that were stationed with him at a real M*A*S*H unit. The book was written for the screen by longtime blacklisted screenwriter Ring Lardner, Jr. Lardner was intrigued by the anti-authority message the book had, likely due to his own experiences with the government. He was one of a group of Hollywood talent that refused to testify before the Senate Committee on Un-American Activities. They were thrown in prison and blacklisted in the industry. This particular group became known as The Hollywood Ten. Whatever Lardner’s ideas might have been for the movie, they were enough to get a select group of producers excited about the property and got the ball rolling. We won’t ever really know what those concepts might have been exactly. In the hands of, at that time, new director Robert Altman, the script was practically discarded almost in its entirety. Altman had his own views which were inspired more by the still raging Vietnam War than what he considered an obscure historical event he believed most Americans didn’t even remember. All mention of Korea was deliberately left out of the film. When the studio caught on they forced him into providing a scroll at the film’s beginning that set the location. To Altman and pretty much everyone working on the film they were making a movie about Vietnam, not Korea. He incorporated his own anti-establishment, some might call subversive, ideas and made a film that Lardner would exclaim was nothing like his script. He encouraged rampant improvisation from the cast and little of Lardner’s dialog actually remained.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 15th, 2009
“England. August in the year 1940. Again – A time for valor. A time of whispered events, now faded with the passing years.”
In 1971 what had not faded in the 7 years since its release was the enormous success of Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins. With its charming story and characters and the breakthrough special effects that the studio had developed, the film was a milestone for the entire film industry. I suppose it isn’t too surprising that the folks at Disney would want to try to recapture that success all over again.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 15th, 2009
“Harper’s Island is 37 miles off the coast of Seattle. 7 years ago, 6 people were murdered here, presumably by a man named John Wakefield. They were the first ever recorded murders in the history of the island. They will not be the last.”
Whap, Gurgle, Snap. No, that’s not the sound of the latest craze in breakfast cereals. It’s three episode titles to the limited run series, Harper’s Island. This is one of those one season high concept shows that crop up from time to time. With television spots that at first made it look like another in the reality TV wave, it didn’t get quite the buzz I’m sure was hoped for. We were promised a murder every week, and we got it. The episode titles represent sounds we might imagine each murder producing. Where the show just couldn’t make a killing was in the ratings. It was never intended for anything but one season, which was good, because it didn’t stand a chance of getting renewed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 14th, 2009
My senior year in high school was just the same as my junior year: stranger in a strange land. When looking back at the time that was spent, I spent more time with my nose in books and running from jocks. The reason why the jocks were upset at me more often than not? I was looking at their girls. In an attempt to find myself, I would pretend to be solving a Calculus problem (which eventually explained why I had to retake it in college) and instead fantasize about what it would be like to be with Miss Popular. I would eventually stop caring, the bruises would heal but I often thought what would have happened? Perhaps in a fantasy land, something like the film The Girl Next Door would have happened. Nah, probably not.
Matthew Kidman (played by Emile Hirsch) is everything a successful high school senior should be. He’s the class president, he’s been accepted to Georgetown, and he is eligible for a prestigious scholarship. But he wants to be like the popular guys and be able to hang out at the beach, skipping school and have a hot girl to be by his side. One day, he meets the girl of his dreams. Her name is Danielle (played by Elisha Cuthbert) and she is house sitting next door.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on September 13th, 2009
This Canadian made-for-TV movie from 2003 is about to be released on DVD. It stars a young Ellen Page (Juno, Hard Candy) which, I suspect, is the reason it is being released on DVD after all this time. The changes to the cover art support this theory. The original displayed much of the cast, with the titular cat featured in the foreground. The new and improved cover features a large picture of Ellen Page above the cat, with her name featured prominently above the title. I’m not sure if Miss Page has the kind of wide appeal to warrant basing a marketing campaign around, but sometimes you have to toss out every pitch you know and hope one of them gets over the plate.
The screenplay is based on a kids’ novel, and has popped up on various cable networks since its initial airing, most recently being shown as an Animal Planet original production. Over the years it has also changed titles, having originally been called Mrs. Ashboro’s Cat. The title Ghost Cat is certainly more evocative and will likely sell more copies, but is a tad misleading. I was really expecting a kind of whacky supernatural comedy, like one of those fluffy Disney Channel pictures featuring whatever set of clones happens to have been most recently harvested from their labs. Instead, what I got was a grounded, sincere family drama with some supernatural elements and many cute animals.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on September 13th, 2009
Originally titled, The Marconi Brothers,it has been retitled in what looks to be an attempt to leech off of the success of Wedding Crashers years after the fact (the DVD case even sports the tagline “The Original Crashers.” Whatever the title truly is, this film is about a pair of brothers who stumble from the mediocrity of being heirs to an independent, family-run carpet installing business to the mediocrity of video-taping weddings for a living. Such low ambitions in our protagonists breed boring results in this clunky comedy.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 11th, 2009
“For those of you just joining us: What you are looking at is the work of ZFT, a terrorist organization responsible for at least a half a dozen biological attacks over the last several months. Everything we know thus far can be found in your packets (or Blu-rays), including a copy of their manifesto which elucidates their ideology and their methods. Which boils down to the following: Attempting to provoke or prepare for a war. With who? That’s the question, isn’t it? What we do know is that these bizarre acts seem to be increasing in frequency and that their targets are unpredictable and therefore unprotectable. Those of you assembled in this room now have a clear-cut goal…”
That goal is to rush out and pick up the high definition, Blu-ray release of the first season of JJ Abrams latest television enigma, Fringe.
![High Crimes [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/high-crimes-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![M*A*S*H [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/mash-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![The Girl Next Door (Unrated Edition) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-girl-next-door-unrated-editio-large.jpg)
![Fringe: The Complete First Season (+ BD-Live) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/fringe-the-complete-first-season--large.jpg)
