Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 3rd, 2008
As I get older, I still find myself watching a lot of cartoons. New ones, blue ones, ones that I have no idea how they got made in the first place. So, with this practice I often run into cartoons that I have never seen but feel the need to give them a chance and see if they have any draw whether to kids, parents or me the cartoon nerd who enjoys such things. In my review pile, I stumbled upon one such cartoon and that was Pucca. From a critical eye, one might dismiss the odd characters and strange style rather quickly. However, to the careful eye one might find something a little more entertaining.
Pucca lives in Sooga Village. She is consumed by one thing and one thing only, the pursuit of love. Or more importantly the love of a silent ninja named Garu. Garu might run from her kisses but he can not deny the constant trappings of the kung fu queen. They each have a best friend. Pucca has Ching, a very cute and very happy girl who looks like a reject off the Powder Puff squad. The best friend of Garu is a Bruce Lee look-a-like named Abyo who manages to rip off his shirt every episode at the earliest convenience. Together they fight in a series of eleven episodes against various forces including Tobe, the deadly ninja who is trying to beat Garu at his own art.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 1st, 2008
You simply know you’re in trouble when one of these video titles begins with that age old “inspired by disturbing true events” line. As I watched the film, I couldn’t find anything even remotely based on a true case. I dug deeper and found an obscure remark from writer and director Bryan Bertino that explains he was inspired by the events of the Charlie Manson murders of the 1960’s. You’ve got to be kidding me. There isn’t anything about this film that reminds me of those famous killings. If you say so, Bryan. The film is closer to the recent film Vacancy than anything else I could find. Like that film, we have a troubled couple suddenly pursued by a seemingly random act of violence.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 1st, 2008
The very first thing you need to know is that this film has absolutely nothing in common with the 1980 cult classic except for the name. Everyone involved has admitted the fact, so, if you’re looking for an update on an old memory, you really are in for a disappointment. The truth is, even if you aren’t expecting the old story you’re in for a huge letdown. Everything about this film screams mundane, from the killer to the story to the acting. The problem is that the film has no niche. It’s definitely not a slasher or splatter film. You won’t find enough blood to give a fruit fly a transfusion. It’s not a horror film per se. The killer isn’t a supernatural being of any kind. He’s just your run of the mill escaped stalker. The film isn’t very suspenseful, and there isn’t any real mystery here. So, what in the heck is this movie? A mess, that’s what it is.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 1st, 2008
After a violent bank robbery, a trio of criminals descend upon the beach house retreat of a nun and her students. The bad guys take the women hostage, and make themselves at home, tormenting, raping and abusing to their hearts’ content, pushing their victims ever further over the edge.
At the level of plot, not a lot goes on here. The villains are ensconced at the beach house within the first ten minutes, and then story does little more than go through variations of torment until the inevitable retaliation. Nonetheless, there is a fair bit of interest here. The assaults, though very unpleasant and extremely nasty in their content, are, however, filmed with a certain restraint, with the camera concentrating on the faces of attackers and victims rather than on their bodies. Ray Lovelock’s gang leader is a deceptively pleasant pretty boy, and his character arc consistently plays out against expectations. And then there’s the climax, which turns up again almost beat for beat at the end of Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 30th, 2008
With the ember finally burning out too soon, the 4400 has come to rest as a complete series release from
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 28th, 2008
When Miami Vice finally left the air in 1989, Don Johnson was a very hot commodity indeed. He decided to try and parlay that success into a film career that never really brought him the breakout roles and fortunes he envisioned. Not too proud to return to his roots, he signed a deal with CBS that gave him pretty much a blank check to star in whatever kind of television series he wanted. It was a rare deal that forced CBS to air, or at least pay for, whatever Johnson came up with. Many of us were expecting pretty much a
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 28th, 2008
You would think that an apparent 2 hour documentary on Bob Dylan would feature, I don’t know, maybe Bob Dylan. If you figured that’s what you’re getting here, think again. There are maybe 3-4 minutes total Dylan footage, and it’s almost always silent and looks like it came from a camcorder in the nosebleed sections of an arena. Even the constant music being played throughout these interview clips is not from Dylan, but rather the tribute band that happens to be run by the film’s producer and interviewer, Joel Gilbert. Gilbert struts around in the beginning striking a Dylan pose, and he looks somewhat like the folk star. After watching this film, I’m sure that he wants very much to be Bob Dylan.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 25th, 2008
You would think that after 8 years, CSI would begin to show a little wear and tear around the edges. When you factor in the dilution of the two other versions of the franchise with a combined 11 years of episodes, you end up with nearly 300 total episodes of CSI. Certainly even the best of shows with the most imaginative writers can’t stay fresh for that long. Still, somehow, the gang at CSI continues to crank out compelling drama, rarely repeating itself. Every year I go into a new season of CSI expecting to find it starting to show its age a bit, and every year I continue to be amazed. The fact is that season 7 just might be the best year of CSI to date. Each episode begins with The Who asking the question: Who are you? I have to say that after seven years the answer is, still a fan.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 25th, 2008
Two inept thieves and their prostitute girlfriend decide to hit the big time, crime-wise, by kidnapping the little girl (clearly and disturbingly dubbed by an adult) of an automobile tycoon. When their contact manages to get himself run over by a car while crossing the street, they have to hightail it out of town until the heat cools (or something like that – don't press me too hard for clear logic in this film). So off they head to what I suppose is the South American jungle, by my goodness there seem to be a lot of pine trees in the jungle. There they hole up at the home of a friend-of-a-friend, a middle-aged man who has the role Jess Franco would be playing if this were a Jess Franco film. He has a beautiful wife, and one of the thieves takes it in his head to rape her. So their host now has vengeance on his mind, and there are cannibals (you were wondering when I was going to get to them, weren't you?) lurking in the woods.
This is the sort of movie that makes life worth living. Sure, you could throw away your 90 minutes on something that is actually good, but in that case you would miss the following: cannibalism sequences where, once the victim has been killed, the carcass being gutted is very, very obviously that of a pig; the most pasty-skinned, European looking cannibals on record, complete with gruesome 70s hairstyles (I swear Sonny Bono is among their number); characters trudging through the brush, ignoring the road visible not three yards from them; and of course, the truck that cruises by in the background of the cannibal village, supposedly deep in the heart of darkness, but clearly a stone's throw from a highway and a beach (look for this wonderful moment at the 92 minute mark). And I haven't even said a word about the hilariously chipper, gratingly hummable Euro soundtrack.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 23rd, 2008
Hagar Shipley (Ellen Burstyn) is in her twilight years, and her son (Dylan Baker) is trying to get her into a home. Fiercely independent, possessed of a will that has been both a strength and a weakness (making life miserable for herself and all around her), Hagar fights back. She also looks back on her life, and in the flashbacks (where the young Hagar is played by Christine Horne) we see the tragic relationships that have brought us to the fractious family we see now.
I’m not sure if one can split the world into Stone Angel people and Diviners people, but when it comes to Margaret Laurence novels, I’ve always been of the latter, finding Hagar too hard a character to warm up to. Nor did I find it much easier in the film, though Burstyn does turn in a compelling performance. She is working, unfortunately, with a script heavy on the voice-over (which does Laurence’s prose no favours – much of it simply sounds awkward transposed off the page in this way). There’s a bit too much of the portentous, and a bit too much of a cast enunciating in an overly precise way for my liking.
