Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 27th, 2002
This film has been met with mixed but mostly rave reviews (Maltin only gives it 2.5 stars) since it was released. I loved it. It wasn’t just the spaceships and groundbreaking effects but the well-rounded cast that makes this film a future classic for me. Goldblume’s quirky nerd works perfectly here (more than it did in Jurassic Park), Quaid is a simple joy, Will Smith showed that he has grown out of the “Fresh Prince” stereotype, and anyone who thought Judd Hirsh wasn’t anything more than Taxi’s Alex must have been awed by his performance. This is a visually appealing film with a touch of cheese to wrap it all up.
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 1st, 2002
The most basic rule in Hollywood seems to be that a sequel can never be as good as the original. If you’ve seen enough Police Academy films you know the rule by heart. This rule has been broken with Terminator 2. Not only is it better then the original, it is so much better that it has become “the” Terminator film. It’s no surprise that the DVD would have to be something special right down to a metal cover for the box. This is an ultimate edition that truly lives up to the name, and will make you forget about all previous issues of the film.
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 7th, 2002
What is the Matrix? That’s the question everyone’s looking to answer in this sci-fi spectacular from Wachowski brothers. One thing it was -- groundbreaking both in the spectacular special effects that we’ve since taken for granted even in tv commercials and in actual ground (the tons of concrete) broken in the film itself.
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 15th, 2002
Intro
I got quite a kick out of this film. It is great to see the creative minds of 20 years ago try to put a spin of the world of computers. I had forgotten the basis for this film, and watching it 20 years after it was released was really fun.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 23rd, 2001
Intro
This is a deeply, deeply silly film. But it takes being silly deeply, deeply seriously.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 15th, 2001
Intro
Ouch… this movie carried such high expectations that its failure on so many levels came as a major disappointment. After such remarkably entertaining schlock-horror epics (and legitimate cinematic masterpieces) as “Hallowe’en,” “ In the Mouth of Madness,” and “Escape from New York,” “Ghosts of Mars (GoM)” came of as a...hurried and uncreative effort. Perhaps some of the blame falls on the co-authorship of the screenplay by the inexperienced Larry Sulkis (in contrast to “Mouth of Madness” use of Michael De Luca).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 15th, 2001
I have heard a lot of mixed reviews about this film. I will sum it up like this… If you are expecting amazing acting and storyline, you will be disappointed. But, on the other hand, if you are expecting to see a bunch of Apes jumping around and some very fun visual effects, you are in for a treat….
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 1st, 2001
Hoooo boy! I bet you had forgotten what movies were like in 1979, right? Let me sum it up for you then: slow moving, and brown. The contrast in cinematic styles alone is shocking – this movie is full of long, long, long 20 second shots accompanied by ear-straining orchestrals; contrast this to the frenetic pace of today’s movies where camera angles change every three seconds and you’ll see how film styles have evolved in the 20 years since this movie was made to match waning attention spans. The highlight of this fil... for me was Spock uttering “Resistance would be futile, Captain…” Now we know where today’s producers get their ideas.
Enough about the style though, let’s get digital: this is a great DVD release. Trek fans should buy it, without question. The movie features new scenes in the “Director’s Cut,” new visual effects, and a mountain of extras. One of the best things about this release is that the production crew worked with the mandate that they wouldn’t do anything that couldn’t have been done in 1979; as such the new scenes blend seamlessly with the rest of the movie. Contrast this with the Star Wars re-releases of a few years back where painfully new looking CGI animations attempted and failed to co-mingle with original footage; seamlessness makes this re-release a masterpiece (see the “Redirecting the Future” documentary included on the second DVD for more on this).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 16th, 2001
I must say that upon learning about the SuperBit Series from Columbia-Tristar, I was very intrigued. I did not know what to really expect… no special features? I must say, that at least for Fifth Element: SuperBit, I am very impressed. Fifth Element was originally released on DVD a few years ago with no special features and very good video and audio quality… similar to the SuperBit ideology. Before I get into this disc, here is a bit about the plot…
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 15th, 2001
Intro
Forget the “blue-lightning = naked guy” time transport system; you can do real time travel in your living room with MGM’s “The Terminator SE.” Step back to a time before Linda Hamilton started taking steroids, and before Arnold Schwarzenegger stopped. A time when guys (Michael Biehn = “Kyle Reese”) wanted to look like Sting, and CGI animation didn’t even exist. Yes, step back into the terrifying stop-motion world of James Cameron’s “The Terminator” in this superb re-release.
