Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 5th, 2010
For most of you who read my reviews, I can be rather harsh when reviewing movies of a Christian nature. One needs to look no further than my scathing review of Fireproof. More than often they tend to be too preachy with messages and heavy themes that suggest a way of life too strict for many people’s tastes. Naturally, I was a little skeptical when I received To Save a Life. But as the movie teaches us: one should not be judged on appearances alone.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 4th, 2010
"This is James Henry Trotter. He lived with his mother and father in a cozy little house by the sea. It was a wonderful life. They had each other, and they had their dreams. Then, one day a terrible thing happened. An angry rhinoceros appeared out of nowhere and gobbled up his poor mother and father..."
Pretty bizarre for a kiddie flick, wouldn't you say? Not when Roald Dahl is penning the story. Roald Dahl was no stranger to children's movies. Some of the most beloved classics in that genre were once just a thought in Dahl's rather eccentric and delightfully twisted head
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 4th, 2010
Johnny Handsome is based on a rather obscure and dated novel called The Three Worlds Of Johnny Handsome. Walter Hill must have found something in the dated material that attracted him to the project. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to attract audiences. The film made a very paltry $7 million at the box and has been little heard from since. In spite of a solid cast and a script that does tend to move along at a nice clip, the film has never really found an audience and is somewhat of a surprise to be found on Blu-ray.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 3rd, 2010
"I always wondered why nobody did it before me. I mean, all those comic books, movies, and TV shows. You'd think that one eccentric loner would have made himself a costume. I mean, is everyday life really so exciting? Are schools and offices so thrilling that I'm the only one who ever fantasized about this? Come on. Be honest with yourself. At some point in our lives, we all wanted to be a superhero. Who am I? I'm Kick Ass."
You have to give the folks at Lionsgate some serious credit for the way they promoted Kick Ass. The film was generating a lot of buzz almost a year before it actually came out.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 3rd, 2010
For ten years we watched Jack O'Neil, Samantha Carter, Dr. Daniel Jackson, and the Jaff'a Tealc' enter the Stargate. Others would join the team over the years. Each week we would follow their adventures, first on Showtime and finally on the Sci-Fi (now Sy Fy) Channel. We watched with awe as they stepped through a portal that was in reality a wormhole transporting them instantly to another world, brought online by dialing the device like an old fashioned telephone. For another five years we traveled not only to another planet, but to the Pegasus Galaxy itself to the Atlantis Base, a bright floating city left behind by the ancients, the people who created the Stargate system millions of years before. On this show we met new friends, new bad guys, and had new adventures.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 3rd, 2010
NOVA is one of the longest-running series of documentaries in television history. It has been a mainstay on public television since 1974 when the first episode took us behind the scenes of the filming of a nature biography. Since then the series has explored everything from space to mathematics. Episodes have focused on people, places, and things. Classroom curricula have been built around the series. In case you're keeping track, that's 37 years that the show has been on television.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 2nd, 2010
One of the most difficult types of films to pull off is the black comedy. By its very nature the film has to be somewhat morbid and exist in a world of the absurd. As much as I am often drawn to this kind of movie, I haven't found more than a handful that were able to pull it off. The black comedy usually involves someone's death, often by some bizarre means, and almost always in a world of moral ambiguity, where such things fail to affect the emotions or consciences of those involved. The death has to appear almost matter-of-fact.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 2nd, 2010
Everybody is always looking to find a new angle or a fresh way of looking at the typical horror film. That is, when they're not trying to recycle/reboot/remake/reimagine something that's already been done, often more than once. Credit writer Glenn B Hopper III and director Neil H. Weiss for at least coming up with a new spin on some old ideas. The Hanged Man doesn't venture very far from its traditional horror roots, but it does offer you a little more thoughtful motivations and insights into its characters and situations.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 2nd, 2010
The rock gods must have been smiling when Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, and Carl Palmer journeyed from their perspective corners of the music world and combined to form the band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, or merely ELP to the fans. Keith Emerson had made quite a name for himself with his manic organ riffs in working in the band The Nice. Greg Lake was busy with the band King Crimson where he worked with long-time ELP collaborator Peter Sinfield. Carl Palmer was the youngest member of the group and had played for several bands before meeting up with his eventual ELP bandmates.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 1st, 2010
Since I get to review a lot of sitcoms, I tend to see the gambit of shows designed for only purpose. That purpose is for me to laugh. But there is another word in sitcom which can restrict how funny the comedy will be to a given person. Situational. The situation I present here involves a female sports columnist and her male friends. One can only wonder if this formula created by Betsy Thomas will be what I'm looking for.
![To Save a Life [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/to-save-a-life-blu-ray-large.jpg)
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![Johnny Handsome [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/johnny-handsome-blu-ray-large.jpg)
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