Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 20th, 2012
"As you know, in less than two hours liquor will be declared illegal by decree of the distinguished gentlemen of our nation's Congress. To those beautiful, ignorant bastards. Rest assured that, dry though the country may be, I am in the midst of concluding arrangements that will keep Atlantic City wet..."
Lately, you might have heard a lot of folks talking about getting home for a little Nucky. Well... it's not what you think. They're talking about Nucky Thompson, played by Steve Buscemi on HBO's latest gangland series, Boardwalk Empire.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 20th, 2012
"Goooood morning, Vietnam! Hey, this is not a test! This is rock and roll! Time to rock it from the Delta to the D.M.Z.!"
Since his early days on Mork and Mindy, Robin Williams has been in a lot of movies. Some of them are pretty good films. Others are even downright awful. He does have a habit of going over the top. Ask anyone you might meet for their favorite Robin Williams movie and the answers will most certainly differ. Still, two things are pretty certain.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on January 18th, 2012
Written by Joe Gause
Where to begin? I guess I’ll tell you the plot (if you want to call it a plot). The Ghost. (Daniel Baldwin) is a crazy kidnapping murder, who loves young girls. But not hot girls; average, boring girls. (This isn’t my opinion, they state this in the film.) Trying to catch him are two detectives (enter the beyond bad acting). The female detective played by Jessie Metcalfe is something out of a made for TV movie, dressing like a hooker and acting like a middle school drama student. (My apologies if you read this, Jessie, but come on.) Other than Daniel Baldwin, don’t expect to recognize anyone in the cast.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 18th, 2012
Written by Joe Gause
What can be said about Dead Poets Society that has not been said before? This is what I consider a landmark in filmmaking. Director Peter Weir demonstrated true vision in the film process to deliver what some call an epic cinematic achievement. Combine that with an all-star cast (though many of them were just starting their careers), and it’s a true work of genius.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 18th, 2012
Written by Joe Gause
After watching this movie, it really makes me wonder how Hollywood is still allowed to make movies. Although funny in some points, all in all, it’s a very run-of-the-mill college movie. Basically, the story centers around Paul Tarson (Christopher Gorham), a college student who is unable to make decisions, especially when it comes to where he wants his life to go. He is given a chance to follow in his father’s (Ralph Williams) footsteps and be a college professor. As he ponders if this is the road he wants to follow, he ends up falling in love with a student (Arille Kebbel) and thus sparks a typical college love story with all the ups and downs (gee, I think I’ve seen this movie before a hundred times). Just when you thought it couldn’t have any more story lines, Paul decides the meaning of his life is to win a pub trivia contest with his two drinking buddies. So he blows his college professor interview, sleeps with his student girlfriend in the library, and enters the trivia contest.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on January 18th, 2012
Frozen World is a four-part History Channel mini-series about the Ice Age. The History Channel tends to have a sensationalistic bent to a lot of its programming. That’s one way of saying that they like history to come alive. This series begins with the battle between Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal human cavemen 40,000 years ago in Clash of the Cavemen. It outlines the differences between these totally different kinds of humans. The Neanderthal is stronger. The Cro-Magnon is smarter. The scientists are just beginning to differentiate between the DNA’s of the Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. We know little about them except they were more brutish and animal like. The Neanderthals had to travel at the time when the ice pushed them south into Germany. Leading scientists are interviewed on the many differences between the two types of humans that led to the eventual extinction of the Neanderthals.
The second installment is called Volcanic Winter. It deals with a massive volcanic explosion 75,000 years ago that shrouded the world in ash and smoke. It details the earth-changing climatic shift caused by the event. The volcano was called Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia. This explosion was 3,000 times bigger than Mount Saint Helens. There has not been a volcano since that has ever been even a small fraction as massive. The closest was another Indonesian explosion in 1815 at Mount Tambora. It was called the year without a summer. Strangely, after the effects of the massive volcanic explosion 75,000 years ago subsided, then a 1,000-year ice age took hold. Once the climate change was established, it fed on itself. Some scientists suggest that the climatic shift was already happening naturally and this event just added a catalyst. Also worth noting is that there are many potential super volcanoes that potentially exists even today. The biggest potential threat is in Yellowstone National Park.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on January 16th, 2012
Here we go with more romantic comedies boys and girls. Captain Post Office did not listen last time when we told him no more hokey and predictable romantic comedies featuring pretty boys and girls doing really stupid things for some horrible laughs. Alright, let us see what we got. I Don’t Know How She Does It? featuring Sarah Jessica Parker?!!. Oh geez, what did I do to deserve this one. I am so sorry oh great one, but why did you forsake me? WHY???!!!!
Allison Henderson (played by Christina Hendricks) has known Kate Reddy for about six years now. Allison thinks she is a great at being a mother and well, everything else. However, she has had her slip ups here and there, including one three months last winter. The slip up centered on the Kindergarten bake sale for her daughter Emily. We now take you to the action (couldn’t we have stayed with Christina just a little bit longer?).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 13th, 2012
It would still be two years before Kate Beckinsale would don her fangs, blue contacts, and black cat suit and become a blip on the radar for the guys among us. Yes, she had done Pearl Harbor, but how many guys thought that was just a romance story that happened to revolve around a particular historic event. Can anyone say Titanic? Serendipity came out the same year as Pearl Harbor, so 2001 was likely the year that Beckinsale really came out, at least to the women in the audience. Of course, Serendipity didn't bring in near the kind of cash that Pearl Harbor did, and honestly, it's kind of fallen by the wayside in the last decade. Mirimax is doing something about that with the new Blu-ray release of John Cusak and Kate Beckinsale in Serendipity.
Jonathan Trager (Cusak) and Sara Thomas (Beckinsale) are both doing a little Christmas shopping for their significant others. In a department store they both attempt to lay claim to the last pair of black gloves on the counter, each tugging on a separate glove. They share a little laugh and conversation and Jonathan offers to allow Sara to have the gloves in exchange for a coffee together. While they both are in relationships, they begin to have feelings for each other. They appear to keep bumping into each other, and Sara is a believer in fate, or serendipity, if you will. She decides to leave their future in the hands of chance. She will write her name and number on a book and sell it to a random bookstore the next day. He puts his information on the back of a five dollar bill, and she spends it at a newsstand without peeking. The idea is that if they were meant to be together, the information will find itself back to them.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 13th, 2012
Where do I begin? There was this rather formulaic movement that started in the 1990's and continued to just a few years ago. It was certainly that generation's version of Animal House. Every generation has them. They typically star teen idols or up and coming young stars and where my generation often placed them in college, these films were all about high school. They tend to take advantage of the cool trends of the time from the present pop culture to the style of music. The problem with these kinds of films is that they seldom have staying power and almost never translate to the next generation in either direction. A good example of this rule has to be She's All That.
At the time of its release in 1999, the film became quite hot. It yanked in over $60 million at the box office and became the fodder for teenage giggles and dates. Now we find the film making another generation jump into Blu-ray and high definition. But this might be one jump that just misses its mark. I freely admit I was never in the film's target audience either then or now. If you were a teen then, you might still have fond memories of this one. I just don't think those memories are going to be quite so magical this time around.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on January 12th, 2012
Dirty Girl has a nice little cast because it has a nice little script. It has also been produced by the famous Weinstein Brothers, who try to have one of their picture win the Best Picture Oscar every year. Dirty Girl won’t be winning the Oscar, but it’s not bad. Dirty girl Danielle is in high school in Norman Oklahoma in 1987. She goes to the principal’s office after being to frank in sex education class. He sends her to a class for special kids called challengers. He hopes she’ll get back on track quickly. This is basically a class for losers, and she walks in an immediately gets partnered with fat, gay Clark. Clark is actually about 65% gay according to his therapist. Their partnership revolves around a bag of flour who they name Joan Danielle like Joan Jett and Clark likes Joan Crawford. If you don’t know, Joan Jett was big in a group called the Runaways in the Seventies before becoming a solo artist, and Joan Crawford is a gay icon.
Danielle and Clark become a kind of couple since Danielle’s bad reputation is shot by going to losers’ class. I mentioned that there is a nice little cast, and that is evident in the parents. Danielle’s mom is played by Milla Jovovich, who is dating William H. Macy in the movie. Macy’s character tries to impose his strict Mormon values on Danielle’s loose but firmly set ways, and we know that’s not going to work. Clark’s parents are played by Dwight Yoakam and Mary Steenburgen. All four of these well-known actors clearly enjoyed being in this movie. There is also an uncredited performance by country singer Tim McGraw, who is doing more and more acting after being in The Blind Side. Dwight’s character is a homophobe and has a real problem with his son being 65% gay. Mary’s character is a repressed and quiet mom who is worried that Dwight will beat Clark to death someday.
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