Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 12th, 2009
Finally, this show has really gotten to me. I don’t know what it is about this 8th season, but I was far more interested in the show than I had ever been. Maybe I’ve spent so long with these characters that they started to come alive for me. Maybe I was resistant to a slightly different way of telling stories. Maybe it was that the stories became less about who was with who that I was finally able to enjoy the great courtroom drama and investigation elements of the series. Whatever it was, I am finally a fan.
Most of each episode is dedicated to the investigation of the particular case. For action junkies, this often means flying some sweet high tech aircraft. The show’s primary character, Commander Harmon “Harm” Rabb (Elliott) does a lot of the high flying investigations. He was once an ace pilot who developed night blindness, which essentially grounded him.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 12th, 2009
Richard Gere is Martin Vail. Vail is an egotistical hot shot lawyer who is looking more for news cameras than an innocent client. The truth is, he doesn’t give a crap if they did it or not. His only concern is what the case can do for him. He thrives on front page magazine articles and sound bites on the 6:00 news. It’s no surprise that when Vail sees a headline making case unfold live on the television, he chases the case. The entire city of Chicago witnessed police chase 19 year old altar boy Aaron through the railroad yards. He was running, soaked in blood, from the brutal murder of the local Archbishop Rushman. Vail moves in on the case like a shark attracted to blood. Unfortunately for all involved, the case will test his own patience and motives. There’s evidence of corruption leading into a who’s who of city fathers. There’s the expected church sex scandal. There might even be ties to Vail’s most recent case where he got a client a $1.5 million settlement from the city. All of this just feeds Vail’s drive and ego. He sees it as a chance to stick it to his nemesis, Schaughnessy, the district attorney who was once his boss. Schaughnessy is played quite convincingly by John Mahoney, best known as father to the Frasier boys. What a difference a role makes. The opposing attorney is his former girlfriend and coworker, Janet Venable (Linney). Vail is so focused on these huge possibilities that he’s blind to what might be right in front of his face. He navigates these dangerous waters with relish. But he never saw the truth coming.
Actor Edward Norton first came to my attention in the heist film, The Score. I hadn’t heard a lot about the bright young actor, but I remember that he impressed me quite a bit. When you consider he was playing along with the likes of Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, that’s no small achievement. Somewhere along the way I missed the 1996 release of Primal Fear. Based on the William Diehl novel, the film would be the first major feature to star Norton. It was a breakout character and a breakout performance. He deservedly was nominated for an Academy Award for the role, one he likely should have received. Norton wears the skin of this troubled teen so closely and so effectively that it can be quite chilling at times to watch. Richard Gere might have been the bankable star for this movie, but Edward Norton walked away with the whole thing in his back pocket, and has never looked back. This was also the first feature for television director/writer Gregory Hoblit. Hoblit was best known then as the Steven Bochco protégé who worked on Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue. His gritty attention to detail made him a perfect fit for these ultra realistic cop dramas, but perhaps it was his work on Bochco’s legal drama L.A. Law that better prepared him for the legal thriller Primal Fear. The combination would be a formidable one, and it makes me rather sorry I missed out on this one at the box office back in 1996.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 11th, 2009
Say Uncle. That’s U.N.C.L.E., otherwise known as The United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. Starting in 1964 The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was one of a flurry of shows to take advantage of the new James Bond craze. It featured much of the same elements as the super spy films. You had sophisticated spies in tuxedos. There were plenty of gadgets. And there were constant threats of world domination, mostly from the evil counter organization, THRUSH. The two top spies for the good guys were Napoleon Solo (Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (McCallum). The Bond references were never subtle and always intentional. Ian Fleming himself consulted on the show and named Napoleon Solo after a Bond character. Together Solo and Kuryakin would travel around the globe saving the world from almost certain doom. The series ran for four years. In 1983 there was talk of bringing the show back. Apparently the two stars were still up to the task and both could have used the work. Thus was born the television film and potential pilot: The Return Of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Year Affair.
It’s been 15 years since Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin have left U.N.C.L.E. and the spy game behind. Solo is now the owner of a computer company, and Kuryakin is designing women’s clothes. It has also been 15 years since anyone’s heard peep out of THRUSH. But now an American nuclear bomb has been intercepted, and Justin Sepheran (Zerbe), the last leader of THRUSH, has been broken out of jail. Someone’s putting the old band back together. Now the newly reformed THRUSH is blackmailing the United States. They will destroy a major part of that country if a $350 million ransom isn’t paid. And there’s a kicker. The money must be delivered by Napoleon Solo. The newest chief of U.N.C.L.E. is Sir John Raleigh (Macnee). He has to track down the former spies before time runs out. Once back in the fold, the duo are hot on the trail. They realize that only one man alive can activate the complicated device, so they set out to protect him. Before long the old cat and mouse spy game is in full throttle, and Kuryakin has a personal reason for joining back up. He wants revenge on the double agent who betrayed him on his final mission, causing the death of a young girl. There’s scores to settle and a world to save. Sounds like a fine ride. The film ends in an almost comical clichéd scene. Was it the red or the blue wire?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 7th, 2009
The last time I reviewed a set of the popular family TV series Seventh Heaven, I made the statement that “one of the hardest parts of reviewing DVD’s for this site is getting dropped in to the middle of a show I neither followed nor cared to follow….” Not much has changed since that time, certainly not regarding an improvement in the show’s quality, or in my enthusiasm regarding it. With Seventh Heaven – The Eighth Season, the Camden family and friends become increasingly obnoxious in their journey to the heart of sappy endings and Full House-esque melodrama. A dear friend of mine – a girl, no less, so it’s obvious this is not a matter of gender, but experience – recently pointed out that Seventh Heaven is little more than the one-hour drama version of the old TGIF lineup’s crap-tastic Bob Saget-starring sitcom. I agree.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 27th, 2009
Season two marks the actual first complete season of Nash Bridges. It’s time for the show to deliver on the high octane, high attitude it was to be famous for. This was also the year that both of the main actors reunited with their former partners. Tommy Chong and Philip Michael Thomas both guested on the episode Wild Card. The show paid homage to both of the former partners. Chong plays a pot dealer, and Thomas plays a hotshot gambler friend of Nash's who likes to dress up like the Vice characters did . It was a pretty sweet episode on top of everything else. It might be the best Nash Bridges episode ever, definitely for this season. Don Johnson also got to stretch his acting chops a bit in an episode where he believes Cassidy, his daughter, has been killed in an accident. Nash also goes up against the infamous Zodiac killer in an episode crosses real life surreal episode. In Till Death Do Us Part, Joe thinks he’s only got a couple of days to live after he’s exposed to a deadly toxin. Cheech Marin really works this for all it’s worth. Marin also has an incredibly good episode in Inside Out, where he goes undercover as a prison inmate to take down a Mexican gang leader. In Knock Out, we learn that Nash’s sister is gay. Given an entire run of episodes, Nash has finally arrived for real in the second season.
When Miami Vice finally left the air in 1989, Don Johnson was a very hot commodity indeed. He decided to try and parlay that success into a film career that never really brought him the breakout roles and fortunes he envisioned. Not too proud to return to his roots, he signed a deal with CBS that gave him pretty much a blank check to star in whatever kind of television series he wanted. It was a rare deal that forced CBS to air, or at least pay for, whatever Johnson came up with. Many of us were expecting pretty much a Miami Vice clone when it was announced he would once again be playing a cop. It was all sounding pretty familiar. Bridges was a super cool cop, this time from San Francisco with a rather tattered personal life. He was going to be teamed up with a partner, who wasn’t going to be a cop, but an investigator whose cases would cross paths with Bridges’. It was rumored that the partner might not survive the pilot, thereby killing the buddy cop routine that was beginning to sound very much like Johnson’s previous show. It appeared doomed to failure, and even CBS was at first looking to back out of the deal. They tried to buy Johnson off, but he was by now very excited about the new show and insisted he get his episodes. But how could this new show not be compared to the old? How could anyone have the kind of chemistry with Johnson that John Diehl had? On March 29, 1996 everyone held their collective breaths as Nash Bridges appeared on the scene. Cheech Marin ended up with tons more chemistry with Johnson, helped by the fact the two had been friends for over 25 years. In short order Nash Bridges had arrived, and television audiences everywhere found themselves saying: “Miami Who?”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 27th, 2009
While nowhere does anyone actually say it, Caroline In The City is obviously inspired by/ripped off from the popular newspaper comic strip Cathy. Each episode, for a time anyway, would begin with an animated scene from one of the “Caroline” strips. The topic mostly deals with the pitfalls of being a single New York City girl. From these roots there was an often awkward attempt to create a warm and fuzzy romantic comedy that never seemed to find its own focus, let alone footing. It didn’t help matters that the title character was played by Lea Thompson, best known for her role as Michael J. Fox’s mom in the Back To The Future films. Here as she was there, Thompson is relatively unemoting, a tragic flaw in a romantic character. She’s a good enough actress, but she does appear to be missing charisma in the role. Caroline was joined by her comic strip colorist, Richard, played by Malcolm Gets. Here again we have a pretty reserved actor. Now we’ve got a couple of very low key actors playing a couple where sparks should be flying, and it never works. Most of the laughs, in fact, don’t even come from our leads. Instead Amy Pietz has most of the funny lines as intrusive next door neighbor Annie. Annie’s a cast member in the then huge Broadway production of Cats. She would often barge into the apartment where Caroline and Richard are working/sniping at each other and offer the comic relief in this situation comedy.
What’s most disappointing about the show is that it comes from minds like James Burrows, who brought us so many great moments on Cheers. On the surface there really isn’t anything wrong with Caroline In The City. There are many funny moments, but most of the time it simply hangs there leaving you waiting for the punch line, until you realize you’ve already heard it. I found the characters somewhat charming, but there’s no dynamic or chemistry there to suck you into these characters’ foibles. In the end it neither pleases nor displeases; it was merely just there. Gone soon and as quickly forgotten.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 27th, 2009
Family Ties is likely remembered most as the series that launched the career of Michael J. Fox. There’s no question that he owes a great debt to Alex Keaton. It’s almost a bit awkward now to watch him as this young, extremely conservative teenager after Fox has spent so much of his life as a liberal poster boy in the last couple of elections. Politics aside, it’s hard not to credit his performances in Family Ties and the Back to the Future films for launching him into a well deserved lucrative career. The Michael J. Fox issue, however, might hide some of the other assets the show had going for it in its time. For one of the first times parents were portrayed as humanly flawed, and families were not the perfectly functional institutions most of these shows described. Up until Family Ties, these households were either perfect little examples of American ideal or they were so dysfunctional that they could hardly be considered families at all. This show obviously went for a bit of realism.
In addition to Alex there was Dad Steven (Gross) and Mom Elyse (Birney). They were former hippies who now had the responsibilities of adulthood and family. Sister Mallory (Bateman) was portrayed as a girl with more fashion sense than common sense. She was always worried about how she looked and not so much about school. Sister Jennifer (Yothers) was underused most of the time. She was a balance between the other siblings and often got left behind in the stories. Newest kid Andrew was starting to grow up now, and Alex often tried to take him under his wing, hoping for a miniature version of himself. The kid would now be played by Brian Bonsall, who would later play Worf’s son on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Skippy (Price) was a neighbor kid with a crush on Mallory.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 27th, 2009
“Come and listen to my story about a man named Jed. Poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed. Then one day he was shootin’ at some food and up from the ground comes a bubblin’ crude. Oil that is… Black Gold…Texas Tea…”
Who doesn’t remember the Clampetts, those lovable Beverly Hillbillies? The show has been revived in a film, rap songs, and a Weird Al parody of Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing. Terms like cement pond have lingered in our pop culture. The song was a genuine Billboard hit at the time and is still instantly recognizable some 40 plus years after the show aired.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 20th, 2009
“Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality. But, there is, unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real but not so brightly lit, a darkside.”
I have been waiting a long time for this release. Tales From The Darkside. Not since the likes of Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits has there been a really good sci-fi/horror anthology until 1984’s Tales. Not to say that each episode was a winner. In fact, most were pretty weak and relatively lame, but when this show was good, it was very good. These tales weren’t any ordinary specter spectaculars, but were told by spectacular story writers, directors, and producers. Look at just this first season and you’ll find some of the top names in the field involved in one way or another. You’ll see the likes of: Stephen King, Tom Savini, George Romero, Robert Bloch, Frank De Palma, and Harlan Ellison. The tales often came with a twist or at least a big finale in the end. Much like a train’s headlight in a long tunnel; you might have seen it coming from a mile away, but it’s hard to avoid the impact.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 20th, 2009
There’s another Holiday on the horizon, and I’ll bet you know what that means. It means that we’ll be in for more Chipmunk adventure tied to the season. For the last year or so Paramount has been hard at work filling your Chipmunks addiction with these holiday themed releases. Easter will be no different as we get The Mystery Of The Easter Chipmunk. It’s no Great Pumpkin, but you can be sure to sink those buck teeth into more revved up Chipmunk mischief and trouble.
The Chipmunks began life oddly enough as a singing group, of sorts. They were the brainchild of struggling songwriter Ross Bagdasarian and were named after the three chief executives at Liberty records. His own alter ego David Seville’s name came from his World War II Army station in Spain. The Chipmunks first appeared in a 1958 record called The Witch Doctor, but wouldn’t officially become The Chipmunks until later that year when The Chipmunks Christmas Song was released. It is for that Christmas music that I most remember the group. They first appeared as puppets on The Ed Sullivan Show. Alvin and the boys got their own television show in 1961. When Ross died in 1972, the Chipmunks would continue on under the guidance of his son. In 1983 The Chipmunks had yet another popular cartoon show and had appeared in countless specials and films. Today they are pretty much a hallmark at the holidays, and a Christmas song collection just wouldn’t be complete without them.
