Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 18th, 2012
Blue Bloods is the first television drama to capture the best of the police procedural and also the warmth and charm of the family drama. It's like NYPD Blue invaded the set of Brothers & Sisters. The show brings incredibly good writing and production values that do look and feel like a film every week. You hear that a lot from series show runners, but this is one of those rare cases where it is true. It doesn't hurt that the show has a strong cast that includes the like of Tom Selleck and Donnie Wahlberg. It doesn't work unless everyone connected with a show buys into a common goal. That's exactly what you get here, and it shows on the screen.
Tom Selleck is Frank Reagan. He's the police commissioner of the NYPD. He's no stranger to the job. In fact, police is the Reagan family business. His father Henry (Cariou) was the commissioner before him, who was fired for his brutal honesty and straight talk. His father is a constant reminder that the job is not always just about policing the city. There are politics to deal with no matter how hard he tries to avoid them. His son Joe was killed in the line of duty. His elder son Danny (Wahlberg) is one of the force's best detectives. His youngest son Jamie (Estes) is a brand-new recruit on the force. He has a Harvard law degree, but he decided to give up the idea of a law practice to go into the family business. Daughter Erin (Moynahan) is not a cop. But, that doesn't mean she's out of the loop. She is a lawyer who works for the DA's office. When the Reagans gather for their traditional Sunday dinner, the family chatter often involves dead bodies and hard criminals.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 18th, 2012
The changes in the 6th season of The Virginian were not intentional, to be sure. They were the direct result of a real-life tragic event. Actor Charles Bickford who was playing John Granger became ill. He was temporarily replaced by John McIntire, who joined the cast as his brother Clay. Clay and his wife Holly, played by McIntire's real-life wife Jeanette Nolan, were looking after the ranch while John was out of town. Bickford continued in the credits, but was not fated to return. His illness lead to his death, and the characters of Clay and Holly remained. McIntire finally replaced Bickford in the opening credits and nothing more was ever said about John Granger. It's a bit of a surprise the death was not addressed and left hanging.
The Virginian set itself apart from the others in two ways. The first was found in the source material. The series was based on a 1902 novel by Owen Winsler, a man who actually lived in the Wyoming badlands during the time the series was set. The source material helps to add a sense of authenticity that might well have been a slight step ahead of the rest. It wasn't as violent as the others, again reflecting a more realistic sense of direction.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 18th, 2012
The darker side of suburbia's well-manicured lawns and white picket fences has been properly documented and satirized in both film (The Stepford Wives, American Beauty) and television (Desperate Housewives, Weeds) over the past few decades. Suburgatory — ABC’s smart and affable addition to the genre — is among the latest to throw its fancy, colorful hat into the ring.
After single father George Altman (Jeremy Sisto) finds a condom in his 15-year-old daughter’s room, he panics and uproots the two of them from Manhattan to the picture perfect suburb of Chatswin because it’s supposed to be one of the best places to raise children. Not surprisingly, Tessa (Jane Levy) is not very happy with her father.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on September 17th, 2012
The Letter is a brand new film starring Winona Ryder and James Franco, and I think Winona is a beautiful as she has ever been. She was a big A-list star when she was younger, but then she had some legal problems that seemed to derail her. She resumed worked though in high profile projects like The Black Swan, Mr. Deeds, and The Dilemma playing bad girls. James Franco is also a big name and has a high profile, even co-hosting the Oscars (though that did not work out very well). Franco has a tendency to do lots of oddball projects. His projects are ambitious and far-reaching. He has big project coming up from his Spider Man director that serves as a prequel to The Wizard of Oz. He seems willing to take chances.
The Letter is an odd project. Winona (Martine Jamison) is directing a play, and the film is dreamily narrated by her as free-form thoughts. An early glimpse of a play of hers seems arty and serious. It seems she writes her plays as well. As we see her and hear her thoughts we know that she seems somewhat disconnected, and we are not sure she is just searching her way through the creative process.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on September 17th, 2012
The History Channel likes to market some of its more popular shows on DVD. The series Modern Marvels had a winner in James Bond Gadgets. It certainly ties in with a James Bond movie collection. This DVD has three sections, two of them devoted to the gadgets and a third from the Biography channel on Ian Fleming which adds up to over three hours of material.
The jet pack was an early favorite. This is remembered from the film Thunderball. The jet pack has been around for 35 years, and there is actually one that remains in use to this day and has been an uproarious addition to sporting events. A similar device is an auto gyro, which is a kind of one-man mini helicopter. A type of this vehicle was used in You Only Live Twice. There is a Q-Boat from The World Is Not Enough. The Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger. The BMW Z8 in The World Is Not Enough, which is cut in half in the film. The Lotus from The Spy Who Loved Me, which was a submarine car. The BMW 750 from Tomorrow Never Dies with dozens of defense systems. The Rolls Royce Phantom 3 from Goldfinger. The Aston Martin V12 Vanquish which is priced around $250,000 dollars and is one of the latest Bond cars. Then it shows modern spy devices that are actually used today and how they were inspired by Bond. Then we visit Special Tactical Services in Virginia which is a training complex for all kinds of elite weapons and equipment expertise. It includes every type of specialized training that will prepare an operative for anything unexpected in the field. The second program elaborates on the first with Acrostar Mini Jet and the Spiral Jump stunt and all sorts of Bond arcana.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 17th, 2012
It seems the new recycled trend in horror is the exorcism/ possession genre. For me personally this is the only horror genre that tends to get to me, since I was brought up Catholic and the thought of the devil possessing me was thought to be a very real possibility. The strange thing is The Exorcist seems to be the only film that I would consider great and would even say it’s one of the greatest horror films of all time. Many films have tried to deliver, but in the end the films seem to just fall flat, the closest being The Last Exorcism though that film also has its fair share of naysayers. But I believe one day we’ll get a film that will rank up there with The Exorcist. But that film is not Devil Seed.
As the opening credits roll we are given flashes of an exorcism gone terribly wrong in Boston, Mass back in 1972. We jump to present day as Alex (Michelle Argyris) returns from visiting her sick grandmother. In the time she’s been gone Alex’s roommates Jess and Bree have moved into a bigger and nicer place, and lucky for them the rent is still the same. One look at the house and you know bad things are going to happen here (for some reason it sort of reminded me of the Amityville house but on a smaller scale). While Alex has been gone, the new place isn’t the only thing to change. Apparently over the summer her boyfriend Brian has been sleeping with her roommate Bree. Brian cheating on his girlfriend of two years is only the starting point to how much of a douche this guy turns out to be, but I’ll hold off on that for now.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 16th, 2012
As I was watching the new Ocean’s Eleven for the 185th time — it’s the last movie I saw twice on the same day in theaters — it occurred to me that the stakes were entirely too high. Three casinos…$160 million…the threat of being caught and glared at by Andy Garcia. The Babymakers, on the other hand, builds up to a heist with absurdly low stakes. It’s basically like Ocean’s Eleven, only the exact opposite.
After a few years of marriage, Tommy (Paul Schneider) and Audrey (Olivia Munn) decide they want to have a baby. We then watch Tommy try to get Audrey pregnant — strategic camera angles keep Munn mostly modest — without any success. Since it appears that Tommy is shooting blanks, the couple decides to visit a fertility clinic after receiving a bunch of advice from their respective groups of friends that I’m not sure I’m allowed to repeat on this site.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Bob Ross on September 14th, 2012
It was an excellent experience in 1997, when I reviewed Titanic as it opened in America’s theaters. A sweeping disaster epic wrapped around a passionate romantic drama, the film quickly dispelled early rumors that it would sink faster than the actual boat did 100 years ago. Yes, I liked the movie a bunch. I admired its scope, its detail, its amazing effects and its superb cast. Director James Cameron’s extensive, expensive production schedule was vindicated by critics and box-office alike. Yet, somehow I never really wanted to see it again. Too intense, too tragic, too overwrought. Maybe it was just that horrid Celine Dion song.
I was wrong. “Titanic” is well worth a second look – especially if you can see Cameron’s astonishing reprocessing of his work into a three-dimensional spectacle par excellence. For one thing, you forget a lot of details after 15 years. And there’s no better way to be reminded of such things than to see them on a meticulously remastered 3D Blu-ray.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 14th, 2012
"If there's a theme, you could call it The Return..."
Warner Brothers has entered the popular scene with yet another vampire series taken from yet another powerful franchise of popular books. Enter The Vampire Diaries. While I've avoided the Twilight series so far (I've had my fill of teenage angst as a high school teacher). The series follows loosely the series of novels written by L.J. Smith. If you're a fan of the books, you have to take a few things into consideration. Characters work differently on screen than in a book, so many of them have been changed. Perhaps the biggest change is that Elena's four-year-old sister is now a teenage younger brother. You may not like the change, but it does make for better prime-time drama, doesn't it? The crew attempted to keep as close to the source material as possible, while attempting to create their own special television universe. I'm not sure about the books. I've never read them. I do know that this show works.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 14th, 2012
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 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. In this case a two-parter called The Other Side Of Life. The idea is that you want to be sure that your existing show’s fans at least watch the pilot in the hope that they will consider it a part of their beloved series. I got to watch that episode when I was called upon to review the fifth season of Grey’s.
Dr. Addison Montgomery (Walsh) is looking for a change. She’s feeling a little burned out in Seattle at Grace Memorial Hospital, where she carries a ton of baggage. She heads down to L.A. to visit a friend who has his own clinic in the sunny city. The clinic practices something called co-op medicine. Specialists from various fields come together to treat their patients in a more holistic manner. Dr. Naomi Bennett (McDonald), specializing in fertility, and her ex-husband Dr. Sam Bennett (Diggs) started the place. Dr. Violet Turner (Brennemen) and Dr. Sheldon Wallace (Benben) are the clinic’s shrinks. Dr. Cooper Freedman (Adelstein) is the pediatrician. Dr. Peter Wilder (Daley) is the herbal medicine specialist. He’s also got a rep for sleeping with all of the other women and even running some out of the clinic. Dr. Charlotte King (Strickland) is a partner and also chief of surgery at the hospital. Derek's sister Amelia (Scorsone) has also dropped in as the staff neurologist.
