Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 9th, 2011
"This is Fairfax County in the state of Virginia. I was born here. It's peaceful, beautiful, and a long long way from Wyoming; beautiful, too, in its special way. Vast, proud and lonely; it's my country now, Wyoming. But not exactly a peaceful one."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on February 3rd, 2011
My teenage years were set firmly in the 80’s and early 90’s. As a result, I watched my fair share of cheesy television shows and loved every minute of it. Shows like Sledge Hammer, Silk Stalkings, and Alf. But alas, some shows even escaped my cheese-dar until well into my adult years. One such show is Zorro, yes that Duncan Regehr vehicle where he wore a mask and carved Z into various objects while wooing the ladies. How could I ever miss that one?
Since, I’m dealing with a box set that covers a ton of episodes, I will do my best to break this down season by season with major changes between them. To be honest, from what I’ve seen, the show’s story is the same from start to finish. Even though some of the actors do change, it’s still Duncan Regehr running around in a mask with a sword. Too frank you say? Ha, ha (in best evil guy’s laughing voice)!
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on December 14th, 2010
7th heaven reaches its 11th and final season of rampant political correctness and lessons of family togetherness through Christian love. Yes, that was a mildly passive aggressive summary of this show, but I feel sometimes one strong bias deserves another to challenge it. This show, the story of a very large family lead by a Minister (and don't deny it, he leads them) as they convey their socially and politically conservative Protestant Christian point of view of “real-life” situations.
To be a fair reviewer, I shall put aside my personal objections to critique how the show works just as a family drama for a moment. The 11th season is quite hard to get into as there are countless references and relationships that have been building up for a very long time. I'm not asking it to be like a Law and Order brand of storytelling, where a viewer can jump in at any episode to enjoy a fully encapsulated story, but this show becomes an undeniable challenge to watch if you are seeing it without any background knowledge of the characters and their previous stories.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 30th, 2010
"Steve Austin, astronaut, a man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him, we have the technology. We have the capability to make the world’s first Bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better. Stronger. Faster."
I remember as a kid we used to imitate the Bionic Man when we would be playing in the playground. We would run in slow motion and make that distinctive "chchacha" sound and pretend we were bending steel bars or lifting tons of weight. In the 1970's bionic play was everywhere. For a time it was the most popular thing on television.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 17th, 2010
"My name is Sam Tyler. I had an accident and I woke up in 1973. Am I mad, in a coma, or back in time? Whatever happened, it's like I've landed on a different planet. Now, maybe, if I can work out the reason, I can get back home."
I kind of did things a little backwards. I saw the single-season American version of Life On Mars quite some time before I managed to get my hands on the two seasons of the original British version of the show. The idea of a British television series being adapted for American screens is really nothing new. Lately a lot has been written about the phenomenon as if it’s some recent trendy invasion of English telly. We’ve been watching British hits since at least the 1970’s. In those days it was the sit-com that got the most attention from across the pond. Till Death Do Us Part and Steptoe And Son became All In The Family and Sanford And Son, respectively. Both shows became even bigger hits here in the states and are remembered by more folks on both continents than the originals today. The latest hit from England was The Office. Unfortunately, Life On Mars was never destined to join those Anglo/American success stories.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 12th, 2010
Melinda Gordon (Jennifer Love Hewitt) is basically the kid from The Sixth Sense, only with boobs, killer cheekbones, and a formerly lucrative pop career. I may not be entirely accurate about that last item, but until this 6-disc set arrived, I had not really watched the show. It always seemed a little too Touched by an Angel meets The Sixth Sense meets Jennifer Love Hewitt’s aforementioned cheekbones for my taste. Upon viewing the episodes in this set, I pretty much stand behind that assessment, and though it is still not my particular cup of tea, I can understand its appeal to its fans.
The show revolves around Melinda’s ability to communicate with ghosts, spirits of the dead who have unfinished business in this realm and are unable to cross over to the next world. Whether that’s heaven or another dimension is never expanded on in the show, so it avoids awkward questions about religion. In most episodes, she comes in contact with one of these troubled spirits, and then spends the episode working out what happened to them, what’s keeping them from crossing over, and things of that nature. She does this with the help of a stalwart group of friends, some of who have abilities of their own. Jamie Kennedy’s character, for example, can’t see but can hear dead people. A second gifted character is introduced in this season, but we’ll get to that in a minute.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on October 15th, 2010
Gunsmoke, in all of its 20 seasons, making it the longest running prime-time drama of all time, has such a strong legacy that it feels odd to review it. Thankfully the challenge is an enjoyable one as the show is at a full head of steam in its fourth season (it was ranked #1 at this time) and each episode is still as engrossing today as it was over 4 decades ago.
James Arness plays Marchall Matt Dillon, and is the law of Dodge City. Both him and the local doctor have rather stony demeanors when it comes to death, and death seems plenty common in 1800s Kansas. More often than not the criminal behind each episodes story is shot dead by the quick draw of Dillon before they could ever see a trial. I suppose that just makes the opening narration all the more suiting as many episodes start with a stock scene of Dillon wandering through a graveyard as Dillon narrates his musings on those that have made one too many mistakes and earned themselves a spot in that yard.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 13th, 2010
Written by Diane Tillis
Considered by many to be the first televised miniseries, Rich Man, Poor Man became a television ‘event’ in the late 1970s and opened the doorway for other miniseries to follow. A&E and NBC Universal restored and compiled the two-part, thirty-four episode long show on DVD format in this one-of-a-kind collection. It was difficult for me to grasp the importance of this show just by watching it because I wasn’t born until the late 80’s. I decided to surf the internet to gain insight on a true fan’s response to the show and their impression of this collection. It was not hard to discover that the fans of Rich Man, Poor Man have been waiting with bated breath for the show to be released on DVD.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on October 13th, 2010
Having been dropped by NBC, Medium finds a new home for its sixth season at CBS. The story of a psychic working for a Phoenix (I could have played off their location's name and used it as a metaphor for this show rising from the ashes onto a new network...but I'm a much classier and restrained writer than that) district attorney's office. Meanwhile, her husband struggles with a new job and when it comes to her daughters, there is evidence that there might be more than one psychic in her household.
I did not follow this show before, but had watched a few episodes previous to reviewing this season. Something I had always admired about this program was the dynamic the family has with each other. Driving the plot of each episode is a crime mystery, but instead of new evidence arriving as it might in a CSI or Law and Order, our hero would dream the truth, making for a supernatural side to things. Despite this, the writing would blend said supernatural elements into their daily bickering and family matters until it seemed utterly domestic. Now with a daughter showing powers the family is becoming significant in different ways but all the while never ignoring facts of life that occur and change over the six years that this show existed, such as the girls growing up, job changes, sickness etc. Perhaps what I admire about this is not only how the show does not hinge on the psychic aspect of things, but also creates an all the more believable family unit while doing so. Much credit for this goes to the more than capable leads Patricia Arquette and Jake Weber (who plays her husband) as well as the writing staff.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 20th, 2010
A nunsploitation box set was always an inevitability, and here the good people at Cult Epics chime in with just such a collection, one limited to 2500 copies. There are only two films here, but they are two good ones, the works of strong directors. One is a distinctively idiosyncratic work, showing the unmistakable hand of its filmmaker. The other will quite simply knock you out the back wall.
Behind Convent Walls is Walerian Borowczyk's contribution to the subgenre. A repressive abbess rules her convent with an iron fist (not to mention the blade concealed in her cane), but the sexuality of the nuns will not be repressed, and it will make its presence known, whether through rebellion or madness. The film defies any linear summary, given that it is almost impossible to tell the nuns apart, and the various incidents are not only disconnected, they take place with very little motivation or logic. Instead, we have a strikingly beautiful exercise in pure cinema. The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror, on the subject of Borowczyk's Docteur Jekyll et les Femmes, notes, “Borowczyk's imagery, here fed by his fetishistic fascination with all things antiquarian, is often stunning and the film becomes a sort of still life in which familiar yet alien objects … seem imbued with a secret significance all their own.” Exactly the same is true for Behind Convent Walls. While nowhere near as powerful a film as The Beast, it is nonetheless well worth one's full attention.
