Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 2nd, 2009
William “D-Fens” Foster (Douglas) is caught in a typical L.A. traffic jam. The annoyances about him are beginning to mount up: a buzzing insect, tremendous heat, a child screaming. All of these things are becoming a perfect storm that is about to ignite a powder keg that’s been gathering here for some time. He abandons his car in the middle of the street and begins an apparently aimless walk across L.A. He first encounters a Korean convience store clerk, who he critizes for his accent and exorbitant prices. He thinks 85 cents is highway robbery. I guess he’s never been to a ball game. He picks up the clerk’s baseball bat and begins to “roll back prices”, smashing items he considers too high as he plays a twisted game of The Price Is Right with the clerk. After smashing up the store he gladly pays 50 cents for the Coke and walks out as if he’s just conducted a routine transaction. Next he meets up with a Latino gang, whose territory he unwittingly stumbled into. After an escalated fight with them he leaves a few dead, and now he has a gym bag filled with automatic weapons. Next stop is a burger joint that doesn’t subscribe to the “Have it your way” philosophy. Out come the guns, and his destructive trek across the city continues. Through phone calls we learn that Foster has a family. Or, more accurately, had a family. His wife has a restraining order against him to protect her and their young daughter who happens to be celebrating her birthday today. Now Foster has a destination in mind.
Enter Detective Prendergast (Duvall). It’s is last day on the job. He’s about to retire because his wife is a bit loony tunes. His colleagues think he’s a coward because he’s avoided dangerous jobs, and now he’s taking an early retirement. At one point he’s leaving his retirement party just when the stripper arrives eliciting a comment: “Are you afraid of girls, too?” He’d rather they all think that than learn the truth about his wife. His partner, Detective Sandra Torres (Ticotin) knows the truth and is the only one willing to work with him. He’s been following the seemingly unrelated reports of Foster’s antics. He’s pieced together the real story but no one takes him seriously, so he spends his last day tracking down Foster and attempting to stop him.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 2nd, 2009
“A short time ago in a galaxy not so far, far away…
The year is 1998 and it is a period of galactic civil war. Scratch that. There is no civil war. That would be crazy! However, the past 15 years have been a dark time for Star Wars fans. But there is hope. A new Star Wars film is on the horizon. In 199 days, 34 hours, 33 minutes and 28 seconds the most anticipated movie of all time will be released. In the remote state of Ohio, two best friends and lifelong Star Wars fans have drifted apart. Little do they know that on Halloween Night, their paths will cross again.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on June 1st, 2009
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 29th, 2009
This 4th season release of The Closer would become my first exposure to the rather good series from TNT. I don’t have time for network television these days, so the cable shows often fall by the wayside in my schedule. Of course, I’ve made time for some of the better ones over the years, but The Closer never seemed to find its way onto my radar. It should have. Of all of the cop or detective shows I’ve seen over the years, I can relate to this one better than any of them.
You see, years ago, I was a detective. I wasn’t a cop and mostly did internal investigations for a large Florida retail chain. While I was a fair detective in most areas, I did eventually develop a specialty of sorts. When other detectives ran into a brick wall interviewing their subjects, they’d often call on me to get whatever information they were trying to extract. No, I didn’t beat it out of them. I was never a physically intimidating guy. I was just good at getting them to talk. I guess I was a little bit of a con artist who was working for the good guys instead of preying on hapless marks. I never lied to a subject and never threatened violence. It was a battle of wits, and I always won. That’s exactly how you would describe Brenda Johnson (Sedgwick) in The Closer. While the series was, in many ways, your standard procedural police drama, each episode would end with Brenda getting some reluctant perp to spill their guts. She relied on Southern charm. She looked and sounded harmless enough that she could get the person to lower their guard and fall for some rather simple trick or another. Case closed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 28th, 2009
"Space...The Final Frontier. These are the continuing voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before!"
There sure has been a lot for Star Trek fans to cheer about of late. The new film has proven to be a commercial and critical success. The dawn of high definition has caught up with the original series, and there is the promise of much more before this year is out. Next up from Paramount we get the first 6 Trek theatrical films. This collection covers the original cast era. All of the films have been remastered in high definition, and The Wrath Of Khan has undergone a 4k restoration. Together the six films appear in two separate releases. You can buy all six as this review covers, or you can buy them in two sets of three. Whatever you decide, you are in for a treat. Almost all of the old bonus materials have been included along with new high definition material. It’s a lot of stuff, and that’s why the review has taken so long to get written.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 28th, 2009
It’s a disc loaded with pilots. No, you won’t find any daring men and their flying machines here. These pilots owe more to Philo T. Farnsworth than The Wright Brothers. Farnsworth transmitted the first televised image in 1927. In case you’re wondering, that image was a dollar bill. These pilots follow in those footsteps; that’s because these pilots are television shows. They’re the first episodes of some of the best action series to appear on CBS over the last few decades. Going back as far as the 1960’s, these shows represent a nice cross section of television action entertainment.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 28th, 2009
This single DVD contains the premiere episodes of 7 of CBS’s most endearing comedies. All were influential to those that came after. These weekly shows offered that much needed relief from the pressures of whatever decade they appeared in. The stars are names that everybody knows, even those that appeared 50 years or more ago. If you ever wondered how some of these shows began their historic runs, here’s your opportunity to go back in time with Forever Funny.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 27th, 2009
“I swear by God this sacred oath: That I shall render unconditional obedience to Adolph Hitler, Fuhrer of the German Reich and people, Supreme Commander of the armed forces. And that I shall at all times be ready, as a brave soldier, to give my life for this oath.”
Taking a page from Roman history, Adolph Hitler required all of his armed troops to swear this oath, not to their country as most armed forces require, but to him personally. It was a necessary step in his brutal campaign to remake Europe, and eventually the world, in his own image. Loyalty to Hitler did not come in degrees; it was absolute, or it was nothing. Only then could the man commit the acts he eventually did with any support at all. But that support was not absolute.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 27th, 2009
“It’s time to wake up and get a life. We live in a three-dimensional world. Until now, the world of computing has been a flat world consisting of two-dimensional imagery. Now through the use of exclusive breakthrough technology, ARC has made it possible for you to get a life. A-Life, where we can work and play in a lifelike world of three-dimensional reality. A-Life… the living monitor. Impressed?”
You should be. From the mind, or more accurately the pen or typewriter, of science fiction legend Philip K. Dick comes another big budget Hollywood film, Paycheck. The works of Dick have become impressive films in the past. From Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep we get Ridley Scott’s masterpiece, Blade Runner. Dick also penned the Steven Spielberg budget buster, Minority Report. But Paycheck is actually much more like the Arnold Schwarzenegger blockbuster Total Recall. Once again, Dick deals with his popular subject of downloading, or in this case removing memories. Combine that element with the seeing into the future concept of Minority Report and you have what should be a Philip K. Dick greatest hits film, with the added adrenaline rush of John Woo in the director’s chair.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 27th, 2009
Another release, and it’s another half season of that iconic western, Gunsmoke. Among the 20 episodes found on 3 discs you’ll find Claustraphobia. Dillon has to arrest his old friend Ollie who kills a man because he killed Ollie’s hogs. In Ma Tennis, you’ll meet the ultimate Mama’s boy. When a man ends up in Dillon’s jail, his mother breaks him out. In Sunday Supplement, a couple of newspaper writers come to Dillon looking for a juicy story, even if they have to instigate one themselves. In Texas Cowboys, Dillon closes up all of the shops in town until they are willing to tell him who committed a murder. A woman comes to Dodge wanting Matt to kill her in Amy’s Good Deed. In Hanging Man, there’s a vigilante out there killing folks and making it look like suicide. Dillon’s got a serial killer on his hands now. Chester is nearly killed in a break out attempt in Chester’s Hanging. Finally, in The Gentlemen, Dillon gets caught up trying to keep the peace with a torrid love triangle brewing in Dodge.
The setting for Gunsmoke was the by now famous Dodge City, circa 1870’s. Phrases like “get out of Dodge” would enter the popular lexicon as a result of this resilient series. Marshall Dillon (Arness) was charged with keeping the peace in Dodge City. The only other character to see the entire 20 year run was kindly Doc Adams (Stone). Star Trek’s own Doc, Leonard McCoy, took many of his traits from Doc Adams. He was the humanitarian of the city, always looking to help someone. Like McCoy, he had a taste for bourbon and a soft heart underneath a rather gruff exterior and was always ready with free advice. Dillon’s love interest throughout most of the series was Miss Kitty Russell (Blake). While there were certainly a few romantic undercurrents, the romance never came to fruition. Miss Kitty was a prostitute on the radio and was likely one here as well, but CBS chose to underplay that aspect of her character as a “saloon girl”. Finally Dillon’s faithful sidekick deputy was Chester (Weaver). Chester often found himself in trouble and was the naïve son figure to Dillon.
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