Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 10th, 2011
"This is me now. A man haunted by the sacrifices he's had to make. A man who ran and never looked back. I left my country to begin a new life, one where I could finally blend with those I was living amongst, become just another face in the crowd."
Well... anyone who has seen even one episode of HBO's half-hour comedy Eastbound & Down knows that isn't going to happen. Former major league pitcher Kenny Powers could no more easily blend into a crowd than Charlie Manson at a law enforcement convention.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 10th, 2011
"Welcome, Little Piggies, to The Task."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 10th, 2011
"You are now under quarantine."
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on August 10th, 2011
By Natasha Samreny
The first time I watched Amanda Knox, the film caught competition with impromptu roofers who decided to finish their job directly above my screening room as soon as the movie started. But I have to say Knox won.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 8th, 2011
Isn't technology grand? We live in a communication age that is unprecedented in human history. We carry devices, or at least most of us do, that provide the world at our fingertips on machines no larger than our palms. The internet allows us to have a world of information at those same fingertips. We do business over the net. You are reading a movie review over the net. But technology does have its problems. Cell phones mean distracted drivers and more accidents. Teen chat rooms mean that we can no longer guard our homes from the invasion of evil. Trust takes an intense look at just such an invasion and reminds parents just how powerless they are to protect their children. It's a sobering story that isn't presented here to entertain. Consider it fair warning.
Annie (Liberato) has just turned 16 and in all outside appearances she's a very typical 16-year-old girl. She has loving and engaged parents. Will (Owen), her father, is a big-time executive at an advertisement firm. Lynn (Keener), her mother, is a real estate seller. She has a brother Peter (Curnutt) who is about to leave for college. For her 16th birthday her parents bought her a new tricked-out laptop. This is her portal to the outside world and her chat friend Charley (Coffey). Charlie is a high school junior who gives her some great advice on making the volleyball team and on life in general. He seems to be the only one in the world we really understands her. So she's taken a little off-guard when he finally admits to being 20. Of course, the age begins to get older until they finally meet in secret at the mall. Now he's clearly in his mid-thirties but manages to convince her that he's still the same Charlie with whom she's shared so much. While she's a bit nervous, he wins her over and eventually up to a hotel room to model some sexy lingerie he's bought for her. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's really going on here. Annie is in over her head, and Charlie takes full advantage of the situation.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 8th, 2011
"We are looking at an unexplained phenomenon. It appears to be a partially preserved severed head, maybe of a deformed person or a wild animal. Perhaps the metal base contained some sort of preservative presently unknown to us."
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 8th, 2011
I have a lot of fond memories of this show from back when it first appeared in the mid-1970's. And while the series didn't last very long at all, it seems to have left a pretty strong impression on me as a child. My mother was a huge Dallas fan, and I remember the first time I had seen the show, and there was Patrick Duffy with body hair, and I knew that The Man From Atlantis had gone on his final mission. You see, the show was left up in the air for a considerable amount of time. There was no internet to get the latest entertainment news, and word of an official cancellation had not yet reached my ears. I wasn't too concerned that the show hadn't been on for a while; after all, that's pretty much been the story of this science fiction show from its inception.
The concept began as a series of television movies. Patrick Duffy starred as Mark Harris. He was found washed up on a beach following a terrible storm. Rushed to the hospital, his condition continued to deteriorate to the complete mystification of the medical staff. Fortunately for Mark, and fans of the show, Dr. Elizabeth Merrill, played by Belinda Montgomery, happens to be attending a party with the hospital's chief doctor. She tags along and recognizes something about the man no one else appeared to get. He has webbed hands and feet and a set of gills where his lungs ought to have been. She rushes him back to the ocean and brings him back to life. Mark can survive out of water, but only for a few hours at a time before he would again be close to death. It's an envelope that seems to be pushed at least once per episode. He was weaker on land, but in the water he was super-strong. He swam like a dolphin, only faster, and could see spectrums of light and hear sounds that ordinary humans could not.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 8th, 2011
Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I wised up at the altar of my first wedding and walked away. Sure, I would have been spared a terrible marriage and some financial woe but fate has a weird way of canceling out the good things in life too. How long would I have been single? Who would I end up with? Would I even know the love of my life, Sarah? Scary when you start thinking about it. Well, today I review A Guy Thing which explores a marriage to be that shouldn’t be. What will happen?
A pair of shots are poured. Jim (played by Shawn Hatosy) says there are three rings in a man’s life: the Engagement Ring, the Wedding Ring and suffering. *rim shot*. Heyooooooo. Jim is the best man for Paul Coleman (played by Jason Lee) who is set to be married in just a week’s time. The bachelor party is at the Hula Lounge and the bar is a hopping. But Paul just does not want to be recognized as the groom of this bachelor party.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by David Annandale on August 8th, 2011
Gregory Peck is an aging Scottish outlaw, and Desi Arnaz Jr is his “breed” (as Jack Warden’s racist sheriff refers to him) partner. Warden captures Arnaz, but Peck, who could have been free and clear with all the stolen money, rescues him, much to Warden’s puzzlement. Peck is wounded in the getaway, however, and as the two friends are pursued by the law across a barren landscape (with Israel playing the role of the American West), the younger, less-experienced man must take on the responsibility of saving both their lives.
Though directed by Ted Kotcheff (The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, First Blood, Fun with Dick and Jane), the film is co-produced by fellow Canadian Norman Jewison (The Hurricane, Fiddler on the Roof, In the Heat of the Night). Given Jewison’s involvement, it comes as no real surprise that there is considerable focus in the film on social issues – race relations in this case. So it does come across as a little odd, even in 1974, for a film with these particular concerns to have one of its leads playing a race that is not his. Then again, both our heroes are required to inhabit other ethnicities, which means we have to get through Peck’s attempt at a Scottish accent. He may not be Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but he ain’t Meryl Streep either, can ya ken what I mean while ya sip yorrr wee dram? So there are some disconnects here that tend to take one out of the movie.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 7th, 2011
Hockey is one of my favorite sports. Unfortunately, figure skating is not. This actually paints an interesting parallel. How can two sports that both share skating on the ice cause love on one side and distaste in the other? It most likely stems from upbringing and society's mainstream views on the two subjects. But what would happen if a hockey player came to the world of figure skating, would I feel different about the sport? Perhaps, but I would be more interested to see a film about it. Enter: The Cutting Edge.
The alarm sounds, Doug Dorsey (played by D.B. Sweeney) wakes up in a panic along side a girl with a heavy foreign accent named Lita or Rita or perhaps Anita (it is actually Gita, played by Nahanni Johnstone). Doug is #9 on the American Olympic Hockey team and is to be the next big thing in the NHL. However, at this point he is four hours late and must get dressed and off to the finals with the West Germans.