Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 15th, 2003
Forget Lethal Weapon and Beverly Hills Cop; Midnight Run has got to be one of the funniest cop-buddy films of the genre. True, Midnight Run did not break any records at the box office and was actually panned by a few well-known critics of the time, but the comic action just never lets up. Robert DeNiro and Charles Grodin share a rare chemistry. The overkill plot developments just wouldn’t work with any other combination. In all fairness, I wasn’t too thrilled about this one when it first hit the theatres. My wife suggested it and I agreed more out of guilt for all the genre films I’ve inflicted on her. I walked out still laughing.
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 15th, 2003
This disc is a compilation of the 5 highest rated episodes of the Steve Harvey Show. This TV series ran from 1996-2002 on the WB network and features Steve Harvey (The Original King’s of Comedy) as Steve Hightower ex-1970’s R&B star turned music teacher and assistant principal and Cedric “The Entertainer” (Barbershop) as coach Cedric Wilson and Steve’s best friend and roommate. It also featured your usual high school sitcom cast of characters. The five episodes presented here are:
Video
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on June 15th, 2003
Take me out to the ballgame! Buy me peanuts, and popcorn, and…ah, maybe not. But, you should probably check out Inside Pitch 2003 out now for the Xbox console.
Players can do a bevy of gameplay options with Inside Pitch 2003 such as Season, Single Game, Network Play, and Championship Challenges. On top of all that, players with the LIVE service hooked up to their consoles can enjoy some downloadable content from the MS servers and invite a friend for some action out on the diamo...d.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 14th, 2003
One of Ray Harryhausen’s earliest stop motion projects was a military training film on how to build a bridge. In It Came from Beneath the Sea he got to destroy a famous one and create yet another vivid memory for his legion of fans. It Came from Beneath the Sea was the second film I had the pleasure to discuss with Ray Harryhausen (stop motion pioneer) at the 2003 Wonderfest in Louisville. Again I was joined by Einsiders writer Rusty White. You can find the actual interview at: http://einsiders.com/features/interviews/harryhausen.php.
Certainly this could not be considered one of Harryhausen’s most imaginative films. Still, the stop motion effects were incredible for their day. If the film suffers at all it is from enormous budget constraints, particularly when it came to the creature itself. Ray told me me, “It was a sextapus. If we had cut the budget any more it would have been a tripod!”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 13th, 2003
Essentially, this is standard Hulk stuff: Bruce Banner wants to stop his horrible transformation, General Ross wants to kill the Hulk, Betty Ross wants to save the man she loves,and all sorts of villains get into the mix. There is a bit more continuity than in some other TV cartoon fare (though not on the level of, say, Gargoyles). The animation is standard TV stuff.Keeping the commercial breaks in so obviously wasn’t necessary, I have to say.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 13th, 2003
AIDS is at the forefront of the gay community’s consciousness, and Jeffrey (Steven Weber)is frustrated by how complicated sex has become. His solution is to swear it off, and naturally he immediately meets and falls for Steve (Michael T. Weiss). What to do, especially when you are neurotic like Jeffrey. Fortunately (or unfortunately), Jeffrey has plenty of friends and family who want to help out, including Patrick Stewart, whose line about looking like “a gay superhero”suddenly has more bite than it did in 1995.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 13th, 2003
After a disastrous voyage in which he loses his ship and all his crew, Richard Widmark journeys back from the Mediterranean to Norway (apparently swimming all the way). He say she has discovered the location of a giant bell made of solid gold (don’t ask how well something like that would ring), and along with his brother (Russ Tamblyn) steals the king’s funeral boat(along with his daughter). Off they go for many wild adventures. As you can probably guess, this is an exceedingly silly film, from its eccentric casting on down. But it is very entertaining, and doesn’t take itself seriously.
Audio
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on June 12th, 2003
When I first saw Primal at the last E3 expo, I wasn’t particularly impressed with what I saw. A clunky battle system, jerky movements from the main characters, and visuals which could arguably be called mediocre.
Then Sony sent me a demo version of this game last month and I actually had some fun playing it. Imagine my disappointment when the full version arrived here and the game left me somewhere between boredom and frustration. Indeed, Primal will undoubtedly leave many gamers in the same ...osition once they start playing this title.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on June 12th, 2003
Sometimes when a game is delayed and put out a little later than planned, the anticipation surrounding the title can help it with the fan base that had been waiting for it. However, that anticipation can cut both ways with folks who had been waiting for a game to release and end up just losing interest altogether.
In the case of Brute Force, the game was featured prominently at the Xbox Press Event during the 2002 Electronic Entertainment Expo. Indeed, it seemed the title was only a few short months ...way during the press activities at the show. Now, nearly a year after it was showcased during the Press Event, Microsoft has unleashed Brute Force onto the Xbox console--a game some have wondered may be the next HALO, and will have many thinking it most definitely is not.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 12th, 2003
20 Million Miles To Earth has always been one of my favorite films. It was from this classic monster fest that I developed my long standing respect for stop motion pioneer Ray Harryhausen. In 1998, I got to meet Ray for the first time as his assistant for a horror convention (unfortunately run by a megalomaniac). It was there that I developed enough of a relationship with him and his lovely wife Diane that I was able to interview him at the 2003 Wonderfest in Louisville. Ray’s time was extremely limited, so I ...as joined in my interview by Einsiders’ Rusty White. You can find the actual interview at: http://einsiders.com/features/interviews/harryhausen.php.
20 Million Miles to Earth was originally written by Harryhausen to take place in Chicago, but as Ray tells me: “I originated the story. Then, I wanted a trip to Italy, so I changed the location when I submitted it to Columbia. I had always wanted to go to Europe and I didn’t have the money. So, I changed the location to Sicily because I wanted to go to Rome.” The more exotic location gave Ray more than his chance to visit Italy. It supplied the film with one of those memorable climaxes as the creature climbs the walls of the Coliseum. The creature itself also went through several changes. Ray explains, “First he was a Cyclops, then he was a two-horned, with two eyes. Oh, he was very stout originally. Then I decided that he would be better off thin. So I made him more humanoid.”
