Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 14th, 2011
The story of Jesse James has been told many times over the years. There isn't a medium in the world that hasn't seen its share of tales concerning the infamous outlaw. You could find radio dramas, plays, television shows, films and even songs that recount his exploits. Some of these have been honest and brutal depictions of a lawless man and his gang of thugs who terrorized the West by robbing trains and banks, leaving corpses in their wake. Then there's the romantic telling that picks up on the folk heroes that Jesse and his boys have become over the years. Even in his day he became somewhat of a hero to a generation of those who read about his daring deeds in the papers and pulps. Of course, they likely didn't include those unlucky enough to have stared down the barrel of Jesse's six-shooter. The Long Riders fits into that later category of romantic folk stories.
The film depicts the final days of the gang. It begins with a bank holdup gone wrong and the excommunication of Ed Miller from the gang for starting a shootout and killing a cooperative teller. The Pinkertons get hot on the James/Younger Gang trail, and a lot of innocent folks get killed in the crossfire. The film finally concludes with the shooting of Jesse by Robert Ford.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 13th, 2011
Courtesy of the website of the same name (check it out at http://trailersfromhell.com/index.php) comes this collection of trailers of horror, SF and exploitation films. The collection is eclectic, following no particular theme (though there are several Hammer films present), and the era covered ranges from 1941 (The Invisible Ghost with Bela Lugosi) to 1998 (Trauma’s Terror Firmer). Present are the likes of The Devil-Ship Pirates, Gorgo, Donovan’s Brain, Deep Red, Flesh Gordon, and so on. Twenty altogether.
Normally, commentaries would be dealt with below, but this case is an exception. Not only does the disc default to playing the introductions and commentaries, but these are the primary attraction of the release. The commentators are a high-powered lot: Roger Corman, Guillermo del Toro (who discusses Deep Red in both English and Spanish), John Landis, Joe Dante, Lloyd Kaufman, Jack Hill, and more. There are a couple of weaker moments here – Mary Lambert’s musings on Mothra vs Godzilla are disappointingly inarticulate, and she talks about Godzilla as a nuclear metaphor as if this were news; John Landis has a rather supercilious approach to the excellent Gorgo – but these are more than offset by the strengths. Brian Trenchard-Smith, Del Toro and Dante essentially give entire film courses in two minutes – no mean feat. This is a great, informative collection.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 12th, 2011
My childhood was full of cartoons from all walks of life. There are classics such as the Jetsons and Daffy Duck (notice I did not say Bugs Bunny) and then more recent products of my time period like Transformers and X-Men. But I always had an eye out for those cartoons that were anything but conventional. I recently got the chance to review Thundercats and I hoped that my childhood memories would hold up. Thundercats, HOOOO!
We are aboard a spaceship flying away from a planet. Jaga, an elder tells a younger Thundercat, Lion-O to watch as their home planet, Thundera explodes and is no more. The spaceship represents the last of the creatures as they try to find a planet that is like theirs in air quality. Jaga also introduces the young cat to the Sword of Omens which contains the legendary Eye of Thundera.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 11th, 2011
It sounds like nothing new. Hard-boiled detective uses computers and other forms of technology to solve cases. It isn’t anything new, except the detective in question is Joe Mannix, and the series started in 1967. The computer that Mannix used took up an entire room and was queried using cardboard punch cards. This wasn’t science fiction. We’re not talking some newly discovered Irwin Allen series. Mannix didn’t go after aliens or robots. This was a down-to-earth gritty detective show. Mike Connors played the tough-as-nails detective. He was perfect for the part and blended into the role seamlessly for 8 years.
The show was created by the team of Link and Levinson, who later gave us the detective in the rumpled raincoat, Columbo. It was groundbreaking in so many areas. While it might not be remembered today as one of the top detective shows, there can be no argument about the impact Mannix had on the genre. A decade later one of my favorite television detectives, Jim Rockford, would borrow rather heavily from Mannix. Like Rockford, Mannix was getting beat up a lot. They both had the same sense of style, wearing rather ugly sport jackets. Neither was afraid to bend the rules, or the law, when necessary. Again like Rockford, Mannix often falls for the wrong girl at the wrong time. Mannix was good with a gun and equally adept with his fists. The show received a ton of controversy from the start for the amount of violence it employed. Tame by today’s standards, Mannix was quite aggressive for its time. The joke was that the show’s producers mandated a fight or car chase every 15 minutes whether it was needed or not. I’m sure that wasn’t true, but nonetheless the show opened the floodgates for the detective shows that followed. In this first season, Mannix worked for the enigmatic detective agency, Intertect. They supplied him with the latest in modern technology and with his cases. His main company contact was Lou Wickersham, played by Joseph Campanella. Now Mannix is on his own and begins to resemble more and more these detectives that would eventually follow in his tire tracks.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 11th, 2011
Oh, how the rich can get into mischief. This DVD set is smack dab in the middle of Dynasty’s successful nine season run. The mudslinging, both literal and figurative, was at its height in this fifth season, and no $200 haircut or $1000 outfit was left unruffled by the various scandals and plots set into the web of these wealthy Denver residents. In fact, this season was the one and only time this series won a Golden Globe for best TV drama.
Both my age and lack of interest from the time I was between the ages of 1 to 5, when this show originally aired, betray any memories I may have of this program. Approaching it these days, I can clearly see how it was derivative of Dallas, its CBS rival (Dynasty having aired on ABC). If these wealthy folk are not in each other’s faces, they’re in each other’s beds.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 11th, 2011
The setting is a comfortably large house in the English countryside. Kin and friends have gathered for the funeral of the family patriarch bringing with them their foibles, eccentricities, and disasters waiting to happen. At the centre are the two brothers, Daniel and Troy (Matthew MacFayden and Rupert Graves). The former struggles under the shadow of his famous brother’s success as a writer, his plight encapsulated by the fact that everyone in attendance is disappointed that Troy will not be giving the eulogy. But his problems are about to become much, much greater, as the funeral descends into a chaos of unwelcome revelations, blackmail, drug freak-outs.
Director Frank Oz here rebounds from the disaster of his Stepford Wives remake with a pure slamming-door farce, and, for the most part, he succeeds. While Dean Craig’s script isn’t exactly bursting with surprises, it does have plenty of fun antics, and there are many “oh boy here comes trouble” anticipatory moments to revel. The cast is strong, with Alan Tudyk (currently essaying yet another accent to fine comic effect in Transformers: Dark of the Moon) and Peter Dinklage turning in particularly funny performances. If the shenanigans are ultimately a little familiar, think of this as the comedy equivalent of comfort food. Shepherd’s Pie may not be enticingly new, but it goes down fine all the same, and so does this.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 8th, 2011
"As the American Civil War ended, another war was just beginning. The Mexican people were struggling to rid themselves of their foreign emperor - Maximilian. Into this fight rode a handful of Americans, ex-soldiers, adventurers, criminals, all bent on gain. They drifted south in small groups. And some came alone."
Ben Trane (Cooper) was one of those who came alone. He was a southern officer fresh from the defeat of the Confederacy. He's come to Mexico to hire out for the Emperor in fighting the rebellion. Along the way he meets Joe Erin (Lancaster). After a series of unfortunate incidents, he meets up with Joe's gang. Joe figures there's more money to be made by bringing some numbers. The two soon prove themselves to the Mexican government and are hired to escort Countess Marie Duvarre (Darcel) and a wagon filled with gold to the port town of Vera Cruz. There the Countess is expected to go back to Europe and use the money to bring back more soldiers and weapons. Along the way the two men plot with the Countess to steal the money. But the Marquis Henri (Romero) is on to the plan and has laid a trap. The journey is filled with double-crosses and betrayals that will lead to conflict between the two men as their loyalties begin to widen.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 7th, 2011
A good friend of mine and I have had long-standing difference of opinion about Black Sabbath. He has no interest in anything post-Ozzy. I continued to buy Sabbath albums though all the band’s different incarnations, and while some releases did, I confess, require a greater degree of loyalty than others, the Ronnie James Dio studio albums (Heaven & Hell, Mob Rules, Dehumanizer) have always been favorites of mine. So the events of the last few years were something of a roller coaster ride for fans of my ilk, the joy of a new album (The Devil You Know, with this configuration of the band rechristened Heaven & Hell), followed by the shock and sadness following Dio’s untimely death. This release, a record of a 2007 concert, is a fitting valediction to a great band.
The fifteen songs are a fine selection. Doubtless, each of us will miss one favorite or another. I’m sorry that “Turn Up the Night” and “Buried Alive” were left off the playlist. But I can’t complain about any of the songs that are included. All three albums are well represented, and the absolutely necessary pieces – “Mob Rules,” “Children of the Sea,” “Die Young,” “Heaven and Hell,” “Neon Knights” – are all present and correct. Also performed are two songs – “The Devil Cried,” “Shadow of the Wind” – that were (along with “Ear in the Wall”) included on the Dio Years collection and heralded the band’s return to active songwriting.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on July 7th, 2011
A high school football team has a longstanding tradition of bringing their team good luck by sleeping with virgins and then crossing their names off of a secret list. Three girls on said list figure out the football player's plan and decide to strike back with pranks and some feminist rebellion that is supposed to be inspired by Lysistrata.
First and foremost, let me immediately address any connections to Lysistrata this film claims to have. While Lysistrata is about women withholding sex from men because of they have gone to war (to put it in simple terms), Wild Cherry is more about the girls seeking revenge over a sense of humiliation that their boyfriends may not like them as much as they'd hoped. Lysistrata empowered its female characters while the three protagonists of this film are ultimately still just trying to be liked by the popular boys. The rebellion they stage builds to nothing more than a couple juvenile pranks and a lame speech made at a the most sparsely attended football match in cinematic history.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 6th, 2011
World War II has just ended, and the recently discharged Robert De Niro hits New York on the prowl for sex. He runs up against WAC Liza Minnelli, and the more she resists his advances, the more determined he becomes. There is more: he is a saxophonist, and she (of course) is a singer). So begins a tempestuous relationship between two artists whose enormous talents and equally enormous personalities mean they can neither live with nor without each other.
The idea of Martin Scorsese taking on the form of the classic musical is so bizarre that it had to happen, and here it is. Scorsese’s conceit is ingenious: all the conventions are there (the meet cute, the songs, the artificial sets and colors), but they collide with the naturalism of the performances and the emotions. A perfect case in point: wandering the streets at night, De Niro sees a sailor and his girl perform a dance together. It is a classic musical moment, but the only sound is that of a train passing. It is a scene of extraordinary beauty, grit, and cinematic truth. And it belongs in an extraordinary film.
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