Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 6th, 2009
“Nobody has everything they want. It’s a survival pattern. You get what you want, you want something else, something more extreme, something more specific, something perfect….”
A Joss Whedon universe is always a strange and fantastical place to visit. It doesn’t matter if it’s populated by vampires and demons or space cowboys. If Whedon’s name appears anywhere on the credits, you know you’re going to be in for one hell of a ride. It’s been a little while since Whedon’s been back in the saddle. His most recent series, Firefly, was fraught with problems with the network. It was very badly handled, and the show died an undeserved swift death after just a few episodes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 5th, 2009
I, of all people, should know that one person's cultural detritus is another's fond nostalgia, and what better example of that can there be than this release. A strange mix of athletic contest, pro-wrestling posturing and silly gimmick game show, this series (which has recently been reborn) pitted hard-bodied contestants against the even-more-hard-bodied (at least in appearance) Gladiators of the title. Some contests involve knocking each off a beam, or dodging tennis balls fired from a gun while trying to get in a shot of one's own. Or then there's swinging in on a rope in the attempt to knock the Gladiator off a pedestal. It's all pretty silly, made even more so by the straight-faced colour commentary. If the intent was to satirize sports broadcast generally, then this is quite brilliantly funny, at least at first, but the joke can't sustain itself over multiple seasons.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Michael Durr on August 5th, 2009
This week we get a little more mayhem from those great people at Smithsonian Networks: Pandas Gone Wild. Witness the spectacle of Pandas flashing tourists for just a few shoots of bamboo. Okay, that isn’t what this is about. It’s much more tranquil and peaceful than that and takes place in the mountains of China in a secluded sanctuary. The next forty five minutes will produce a lot of oooo and even more awwww moments than I can write about in the next several paragraphs.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 5th, 2009
Foreseeing his own assassination, Harvey Milk (Sean Penn), America's first openly gay elected politician, records his memoirs. The film flashes back to follow his narration, tracking his transformation from don't-make-waves semi-closeted New Yorker to activist San Franciscan. In his new home, he decides to run for City Supervisor, and after numerous failed attempts, which take a toll on his personal relationships, he finally wins. The battles are only just beginning, however, as he must now wage war against the intolerant laws being pushed by California Governor Briggs and anti-gay crusader Anita Bryant. Meanwhile, a prickly professional relationship with fellow Supervisor Dan White (Josh Brolin) is sowing the seeds of tragedy.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 5th, 2009
“There’s one thing I always wanted to ask Jack back in the old days. I wanted to know about that Doctor of his, the man who appears out of nowhere and saves the world, except sometimes he doesn’t. All those times in history where there was no sign of him, I wanted to know why not. But I don’t need to ask anymore. I know the answer now. Sometimes The Doctor must look at this planet and turn away in shame.”
It all started some decades ago with the BBC’s immensely popular television series, Dr. Who.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 5th, 2009
Imagine waking up one morning to find a newspaper on your front porch. Here in Tampa, the fact that the paper is actually on your front porch is miracle enough. Imagine further that this ordinary looking paper isn’t today’s paper at all, but rather tomorrow’s edition. If you could trust that what you held was the genuine article, so to speak, just think of the possibilities. For most of us our thoughts turn to the myriad ways in which we could enrich ourselves: sports scores, lottery numbers, even stock tips. If, however, you’re less selfish,
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 5th, 2009
As a kid, I was a huge Lost In Space fan. We loved Dr. Smith in particular and would go around our neighborhoods moaning, “The pain, oh the pain” in some mock imitation of the deliciously bad character. I think I finally know what he was talking about. I’m a man, and so I won’t even begin to pretend that I can understand what labor pains feel like. I believe it when I’m told there’s no worse suffering in the human experience, except for one. Yes, my gentle female readers, no matter how much torture childbirth might be for you
Posted in: Comedy, Disc Reviews, Fox, No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 5th, 2009
Name: Miss March Measurements: 89 minutes/90 minutes (unrated version)
Birthdate: March 13, 2009 Weight: $ 4 Million at the box office
Ambitions: To be the nastiest road/party movie it can be, without really showing all that much skin.
Turn-ons: It didn’t last very long.
Turn-offs: Let me count the ways. The cast. The script. The direction. The editing. Basically having to watch Miss March again.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 3rd, 2009
“What is Echelon? It’s NSA’s central computer. It filters all global communications. Echelon’s a juggernaut. It can access any security system on the planet… Echelon’s been compromised.”
In 1948 British author George Orwell delivered a sobering science fiction novel about a future society where the State has become a parent figure to its people. It watches over everything that you say or do like a …big brother. That term originated with the novel 1984. The work has added such words as “big brother” and “Orwellian” to our lexicon. It was intended as warning against intrusions that weren’t yet possible.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 3rd, 2009
It just wouldn’t be summer without The Discovery Channel’s Shark Week extravaganza. What started back in 1988 as a themed week of specials has turned into the longest running annual series of programming on cable. Every year The Discovery Channel gives up its normal collection of educational shows to concentrate on that feared predator of the deep. Man’s always had a rather natural, and healthy, fear of sharks, but it was perhaps the 1975 film Jaws that brought all of those primordial fears bubbling to the surface of our pop culture. Since then sharks have taken an almost mythic position in our culture. They invade our fears, but more importantly they fascinate the heck out of us.
![Dollhouse: Season One [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/dollhouse-season-one-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Labor Pains [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/labor-pains-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Echelon Conspiracy [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/echelon-conspiracy-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Shark Week: The Great Bites Collection [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/shark-week-the-great-bites-collect-large.jpg)
