Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 17th, 2009
“People give up their lives for many reasons. For friendship. For love. For an ideal. And people kill for the same reasons. Before China was one great country, it was divided into 7 warring states. In the Kingdom of Qin was a ruthless ruler. He had a vision to unite the land, to put and end once and for all to war. It was an idea soaked in the blood of his enemies.”
I have to say that Hero has to be one of the most beautifully shot films I might have ever seen. This is the first time I’ve watched a martial arts film and embraced it as a total high definition experience. The film contains many incredible fighting scenes that are brilliantly choreographed and brutal in nature.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 17th, 2009
"Space...The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its 5-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before !"
Paramount was bold indeed when they undertook the remaster project of the original series. Not only did they clean up the prints, but they took the decidedly risky option of redoing most of the f/x shots from the original prints. We all know just how cheesy the old work looked when compared to today’s computer abilities. You could see a box around spacecraft that allowed the obvious cutout to maneuver through a cardboard star field.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 17th, 2009
I love CSI and have been an avid fan from day one. I think it brought a fresh look to the procedural crime dramas that have long ago become just a little stale and predictable. The problem is that the series has gone the Dick Wolf route of branching out so that the final product might be a little diluted. Unlike the Law & Order franchise, each version of CSI has attempted to take on a unique look and style to reflect the location without giving up those elements which are the tradition of the series. CSI: Miami is by far the inferior of these three shows.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 17th, 2009
Shonda Rhimes had a big hit on her hands with Grey’s Anatomy, so after five years she did what comes naturally in her situation. You spin the success off in the hope that the fans just can’t get enough in just one night. At first it appeared to me she had chosen the wrong character to put out on her own. I mean, I never considered Kate Walsh as Addison to be one of the show’s more compelling characters. The show was presented as what the business calls an imbedded episode on Grey’s. What that means is that the situation is set up during one of the original show’s episodes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 17th, 2009
Girlfriends has turned out to be a very successful show. It lasted eight seasons and one hundred seventy two episodes. Despite the lack of a proper final episode, it should have a lasting place in television history. In 2006, they ran a special episode which ended up being a backdoor pilot for the series called The Game. With the 4th season of this show currently in negotiations with the BET network, it was only fitting to start releasing Season sets. But would it be as good as the show that it spun off from?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 16th, 2009
“A hero lives but a few seconds. Ma master holds on to his life. It is more important to forgive than to fight.”
But they don’t know Jackie Chan. When Popeye gets into a jam, he rolls out a can of spinach and down the hatch it goes. Next thing you know that old sailor pipsqueak is kicking butt and taking names. When Jackie’s Wong Fei-hung gets into a jam, he looks for a bottle of sake or maybe a 5th of Jack Daniels. When Jackie drinks, his enemies get the hangover.
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.
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.
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.
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