Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 23rd, 2002
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 21st, 2002
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 25th, 2002
Pixar, with the smashing success of the Toy Story films, works its enchanting magic yet again with the wonderful Monsters, Inc. It’s fitting that Disney acquired the creative team that more than any other filmmakers embody what Disney had been for half a century. Monsters, Inc. is the new standard for computer animation. Sully’s generated hair is nothing short of amazing. What makes this movie worth buying is its incredible rewatchability. The attention to details means there’s always something new to see with each v...ewing.
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 31st, 2002
Pam Grier, in a superb performance that sadly did not revitalize her career to the same degree as happened with co-star Robert Forster (and with John Travolta in Pulp Fiction), plays a flight attendant who is being used as a pawn by both bad guy Samuel L. Jackson and FBI guy Michael Keaton. Grier, with the help of bail bondsman Forster, sets up an elaborate counterattack. While Jackie Brown lacks the propulsive intensity of Reservoir Dogs, and Tarantino's reliance on 70s-dominated soundtracks is getting annoying, the...writing is still very strong, Tarantino gets ace performances out of his cast, and the climax is a rather striking piece of bravura filmmaking.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 28th, 2002
Film
Bruce Willis, Samual L. Jackson, Ving Rhames, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth... and the list goes on. Never has one singular film launched the careers of so many actors as Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. This film brought John Travolta back from actor's purgatory, and gave almost every other actor a jump-start to their careers. This film is genius - from the plot, the style, and the acting. Tarantino is very unique, and he out-did himself with this film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 27th, 2002
Synopsis
The second season still shows a strong connection to the Robert Altman film, with the movie's closing credits narration, for instance, still being used, and the first episode still finding it necessary to let us know who the characters are. At the same time, while still following traditional sitcom patterns, the series is also clearly pushing against that envelope.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 3rd, 2002
Welcome to Oliver Stone’s history 101, where Vietnam looked a lot like Florida, and JFK was killed by a conspiracy so large it included the mafia, FBI, CIA, the Teamsters, and two bag ladies on Pennsylvania Avenue. Hollywood has always tinkered with history, but Oliver Stone performs reconstructive surgery. Nixon is no exception to this rule. It is much easier to view the film more as a character study than an historical piece. The film has you believe that Nixon used the F word more times than Richard Pryor on a roll, hated most of his advisors, and also had a hand in the JFK ordeal. The film also sports more artsy camera angles than a season of Batman. The true life-blood of the film is without any doubt Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins nailed Nixon like no actor before. From his stooped stance to his shuffled walk, he becomes ol’ Tricky Dick.
This Edition of Nixon includes the Director’s Cut of the film… with 28 minutes of additional footage not seen in the theatrical or original DVD release. If you can handle sitting through this 212 minute version, you will enjoy the extra footage.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 2nd, 2002
Fresh off of its multiple nominations at the 2001 Academy Awards, and Academy’s winner of the Best Original Screenplay, comes Gosford Park to DVD. Most who have seen this film have fallen in love with it, I on the other hand, felt the story moved far to slow, and my interest waned as the film progressed. Though I was not captivated by the film itself, the acting was superb, and the premise was solid.
“It is November, 1932. Gosford Park is the magnificent country estate to which Sir William McCo...dle and his wife, Lady Sylvia, gather relations and friends for a shooting party. They have invited an eclectic group including a countess, a World War I hero, the British matinee idol Ivor Novello and an American film producer who makes Charlie Chan movies. As the guests assemble in the gilded drawing rooms above, their personal maids and valets swell the ranks of the house servants in the teeming kitchens and corridors below-stairs.But all is not as it seems: neither amongst the bejewelled guests lunching and dining at their considerable leisure, nor in the attic bedrooms and stark work stations where the servants labor for the comfort of their employers. Part comedy of manners and part mystery, the film is finally a moving portrait of events that bridge generations, class, sex, tragic personal history and culminate in a murder. (Or is it two murders?)Ultimately revealing the intricate relations of the above and below-stairs worlds with great clarity, Gosford Park illuminates a society and way of life quickly coming to an end.” – Universal
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 20th, 2002
“Welcome to Jurassic Park”. With those words begin an adventure that started with the legacy of Willis O’Brien’s “The Lost World”… which would lead to Steven Spielberg to acknowledge this connection with the title of Jurassic Park 2. Dinosaur films are nothing new; they have held our child-like fascination since the industry was born. Jurassic Park was, however, something very new when it thundered into our cineplexes and forever in our imaginations. The marriage of brand new CGI technology with Stan Winston’s superbly detailed animatronics models transport you back 65 million years in time. CGI technology has improved since then and has become somewhat commonplace but there is nothing common about Jurassic Park.
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