Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 7th, 2026
"Take a deep breath in ... and exhale. Inhale. And exhale. Notice the beat of your heart. The rhythm of life. You hold the power to create all that you desire out of nothing. What do you see? What do you feel? Remember that there is great power within you. And that power will guide you in your journey. Today is a beautiful day of opportunity. I am exactly where I need to be. I open myself to the universe and trust in the unfolding of my life. This day will bring you peace and an opportunity for success. Feel this moment. Have a beautiful rest of your day."
Isn't that pretty? Isn't that just inspiring? Now do me a favor. Forget all of that, and let's talk about the Amazon/MGM home video release of Crime 101. It's really about three characters trying to navigate the craziness that is each of their lives, but none of that Tony Robbins crap is going to make it any better. Now, that's very fortunate for us, because this would have been a very short and very boring film if any of this had worked on any of our characters. You see, we're just a few months from the next Avengers film, and I'm sure many of you just can't wait until November. Wait no longer, because I happen to know the perfect film to feed your addiction for at least a couple of hours, give or take 20 minutes. How about if I give you Thor going up against The Hulk, and I give you a little throwback to the X-Men and include Storm in there for good measure? Sound like a hoot?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 7th, 2026
"10 years ago I made the biggest mistake of my life. I should have protected my sister, but I panicked and ran. It was the last time I saw her. That F**'er survived. Maria got put back in his custody . I got caught, eventually. Now it's time to make things right."
Writer/director Krill Sokolov got his start in his native Russia with a film called Why Don't YouJjust Die. I haven't seen any of his Russian films, but from what I can tell, They Will Kill You doesn't appear to far astray from his work there. They Will Kill You is his first American feature film, and it honestly shows some originality and has the power to hold your attention for the perfectly timed 94 minute horror film. Warner Brothers Home Entertainment has now released the bloody film on UHD Blu-ray giving us the advantage of seeing the film in 4K.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on June 10th, 2026
“Hello, Sidney. Did you miss me? Nice little town you found, you and your pretty daughter. Reminds me of where we grew up.”
Honestly, after the last film, in which the creators broke the tradition that the three O.G. characters (Sidney, Gale, and Dewey) always made it to the final credits, I thought was going to be the end for the franchise after all. Because if there was one thing I knew, which had held true for five films, was that those three were not to be touched. So when the powers that be made the decision to kill off David Arquette’s character (I know I shouldn't be revealing spoilers; however, if you haven’t seen the previous film, you shouldn't be reading a review for its sequel, so sorry not sorry), I was of the opinion that there was nowhere else for the story to go. Let’s revisit the previous killers from the previous films: Sidney’s boyfriend Billy and his sidekick Stu, Billy’s mom teamed up with a movie obsessed psychopath, Sidney’s secret half-brother, and Sidney’s cousin. For the sake of keeping this centered on the Neve Campbell’s contribution to the franchise, we won’t list the killers from the Carpenter-sisters-led films. Long story short, the killers tended to share some connection to Sidney. So where do we go from here? What’s left to do? I would have guessed nowhere. And apparently, I was wrong. However, I’m not too sure I liked where we ended up.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 13th, 2026
“We just did what we're programmed to do. Human or AI. We all make mistakes ... and we learn.”
This film feels like what would happen if Minority Report and Source Code had a baby. Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson give it their all, and while the film can be exhilarating at times, it wasn’t a mind-blowing experience. The premise is as follows: in the not so distant future (2029 to be exact), Los Angeles establishes Mercy Capital Court in response to a surge in crime using artificial intelligence (AI) judges to try defendants for violent offenses. To assemble evidence, all devices are registered to the municipal cloud to allow the AI judge to pass judgement. The AI judge also gives the defendants all available resources to find and provide all the evidence needed to prove their innocence in 90 minutes or be executed via a sonic blast. Pratt’s character finds himself in that very predicament, facing execution for the alleged murder of his wife. Rounding out the cast is Rebecca Ferguson as the A.I. judge passing judgement, Annabelle Wallis as Pratt’s character’s deceased wife, Kenneth Choi, and Chris Sullivan.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 4th, 2026
“Stop filming me!”
Interestingly enough, this 2025 remake/adaptation is a more faithful reproduction of its source material than the 1987 version. The 1987 adaptation, while popular, took liberties when it came to the main character’s backstory and motivations, such as him being a wrongfully accused and convicted policeman who gets his shot at freedom by participating in a TV game show where convicts called Runners must battle killers for their freedom. In the 2025 remake, Ben Richards, now played by Glen Powell, is a blacklisted blue-collar worker living in dystopian anarchistic police state with his wife and infant Cathy. Unable to afford medicine for Cathy's influenza, Ben attends tryouts for the network's game shows, where his anger, misanthropy, and physical fitness see him selected for "The Running Man", their most popular and dangerous show. That backstory is much more in line with the 1982 Stephen King novel. Rounding out the cast are Josh Brolin, William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Michael Cera, and Colman Domingo. Arnold Schwarzenegger even makes a surprise appearance. It’s quick, though. Blink and you could miss it.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 25th, 2026
“On TV it looks so real.”
When I first walked out from the theater after watching Nightcrawler, the thing that stuck with me the most is how great Jake Gyllenhaal was in this film. This isn’t the first performance he’s caught my attention in; he’s an actor who pretty much any time I see him in a film, he’s one of the most memorable aspects of the film. Whether it’s his moody performance in Donnie Darko, his offbeat portrayal as a cop in Prisoners, or even him taking a risk as a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain, every role he does something more with the character where we can believe he is this person we see on the screen. Nightcrawler is no exception, and in this role Gyllenhaal is simply terrifying as Lou Bloom.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 18th, 2026
"You know the results of the latest Gallup Poll? Half the country never even heard of the word Watergate. Nobody gives a shit. You guys are probably pretty tired, right? Well, you should be. Go on home, get a nice hot bath. Rest up ... 15 minutes. Then get your asses back in gear. We're under a lot of pressure, you know, and you put us there. Nothing's riding on this except the, Oh, first amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country. Not that any of that matters, but if you guys f' up again, I'm going to get mad. Goodnight."
The more things change, the more they remain the same. Most of you were not born when Richard Nixon became the first American president to resign from his office in disgrace. But the truth is that it changed our political culture forever. It's hard to believe that there was a time when most Americans put aside their own ideologies and had a respect for the office of the President of the United States. Even if you did not vote for or particularly like the man, there was a reverence and an almost sacred aura that surrounded the position. All of that has changed, and while it's easy to blame the groups we have fighting each other now, it started a long time ago when a couple of Washington Post journalists stumbled into the biggest story in our nation's political history. Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward are the reporters who became iconic in their field as they took what appeared to be a routine break-in to an office and rode it to the resignation of a very popularly elected president. They put it in a book and then the movie of the same name. Now Warner Brothers has put All The President's Men on UHD Blu-ray in 4K, and if you haven't seen it, you need to. It's one of the most important films ever made.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 28th, 2026
“You may only see it once, but that will be enough.”
That was the marketing slogan for the first Friday The 13th film in 1980. Apparently they couldn’t have been more wrong, because most of us have seen the film countless times, and no, it was never enough. The franchise would thrive with over 10 sequels or affiliated films, taking us right up to the present remake/reboot of that very first outing at Camp Crystal Lake. No, my friends, once was never going to be enough. Add to that that this is actually the first Friday The 13th film to include Jason as the killing machine that would keep going and going and going. He became the Energizer Bunny of horror monsters. In the original film it wasn't Jason. He was pretty much considered dead since he was a boy. It was his mother, Mrs. Vorhees, played by Betsy Palmer, who did the slicin' and dicin' the first time around. She got so into killing teens that she rather lost her head. Jason was a small boy creature who gives that original film its big jump-scare finale. We're never quite sure if it was a dream. It must have been, because Jason wasn't a disfigured little boy now. He also doesn't have his iconic hockey mask yet, either. They settle for a burlap bag this first go around. Many fans believe that it was with this film that the mythology was truly created. Now Paramount has given it the upgrade to UHD Blu-ray in the glory of 4K and HDR. Blood and guts are getting real now.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 22nd, 2026
"I'm not a bad guy. I just made bad choices. I have a plan."
Derek Cianfrance doesn't have a lot of movies in the director's chair, but his 2012 The Place Beyond The Pines was a pretty solid film. Since then he's been pretty quiet, and he's finally surfaced once again with the rather off-kilter "based on a true story" crime comic drama Roofman. He's brought Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, and Peter Dinklage along for the ride. It's been something of a sleeper, coming with little advanced buzz and flying under the radar. It was a pretty good hit at the box office, and now Paramount has released the film on UHD-Blu-ray in 4K.
Posted in: Hardware Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 15th, 2026
"Imagine, a world without, murder. 6 years ago, the homicidal rates had reached epidemic proportions. It seemed that only a miracle could stop the bloodshed, but instead of 1 miracle, we were given 3, the precognitive. Within 3 months of the precrime program, the homicidal rates in the District of Columbia had reduced 90 percent. 6 Years in the precrime program, and there hasn't been a single murder. Now, the system can work for you. We want to make sure that this great system is what will keep us safe will also keep us free. On April 24, vote yes on the national Precrime initiative."
From the mind of Philip K. Dick there was a rush of box office gold that lasted several years. His Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep came Bladerunner. From We Can Remember It For You Wholesale came Total Recall... twice. After the first Total Recall there was plans of using Dick's The Minority Report as a sequel. The stories are unrelated but there was a script prepared and somewhere along the way the film got tabled and sat unproduced for decades. It wasn't until both Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise took an interest in the project that the script was dusted off and taken for a spin. But there had been too much time since Total Recall and so screenwriters Scott Frank and Jon Cohen decided to return to the source material and create the stand-alone movie that would become Minority Report. It was the first time one of Dick's stories would make it to the screen with at least a version of the story's actual title. These guys just added the requisite The and the story was now ready for prime time.
