Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 20th, 2006
From the rather twisted mind of Stephen King, Pet Sematary is actually one of my favorite of his horror novels. It’s scary to think the story was never meant to be published and only offered up to finish a contract with his earlier publisher. As has been the Stephen King plague at nearly every turn, something ends up lost in the translation. In the novel, the deeper subtexts that King is so adept at take several hundred pages to set up and ultimately pay off. Unfortunately a mere couple of hours of celluloid never ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 19th, 2006
Jack Black says when he’s embarrassed, he knows it’s funny. He must have been pretty confident about the success of Nacho Libre, because as Ignacio (Nacho) – the friar by day, wannabe wrestler by night – he embraced one embarrassing moment after another.
Black stars as a friar at a Mexican orphanage run by the sort of God-fearing folk who think wrestling, or Lucha Libre, is a sin. All his life, Black has longed to be a luchador (wrestler), which is a bit of a conflict. His only jobs at the orphanage are cooking duty, and dead-guy duty.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 11th, 2006
Synopsis
For those who enjoy the films of Warren Beatty, perhaps his quintessential film, the epic Reds has finally arrived on DVD. The film, which earned 12 Oscar nominations in 1981, including a remarkable four for Beatty (as Director, which he won), Actor, Writer and Producer), the film was a clear labor of love for the left-leaning political activist. Beatty plays John Reed, an American political writer who becomes more and more enamored with the ideas and concepts behind a blossoming ideological...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 7th, 2006
If Jackass was on the Travel Channel, the result would be Wildboyz. I think this show can best be described as “perversely fascinating”. On the one hand, any sane person would never sit in a hot tub full of alligators, or step into the ring with a champion Thai boxer. On the other hand, it really is fascinating to see these morons visit the wilds of Africa, see rat-infested temples in India or face off against the Russian hockey team. While most travel programs would discuss the history of the locations...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 7th, 2006
If Jackass was on the Travel Channel, the result would be Wildboyz. I think this show can best be described as “perversely fascinating”. On the one hand, any sane person would never sit in a hot tub full of alligators, or step into the ring with a champion Thai boxer. On the other hand, it really is fascinating to see these morons visit the wilds of Africa, see rat-infested temples in India or face off against the Russian hockey team. While most travel programs would discuss the history of the locations...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 4th, 2006
Synopsis
Everything I needed to know about why there was a double-dip of Save the Last Dance was answered within the first five minutes, when I saw a trailer for what appears to be the straight-to-video sequel for the film. So from there, the strategy appears to be to throw two or three semi-current extras onto the existing disc and call it a special edition. My favorite. Like green vegetables first thing in the morning. Now don’t get me wrong, the movie itself I like, but I would guess that there ar...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 3rd, 2006
The second season of USA Network’s The 4400 picks up one year after the events of the four-part season one. This time around, we know the 4400 once-missing people were not returned from alien abduction, but rather from the future.
That revelation aside, this series is still chock full of mystery. What is the nature of the fate the 4400 are meant to save us from? How were they selected? What impact will their return continue to have on the collective future of humankind? Will the government’s role be one of interference, or protection?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 1st, 2006
Synopsis
As one who has a brother that is (or was) a bit of a Stephen King fanatic and loves goofy King adaptations like Pet Cemetery, I’d never seen The Dead Zone, and I’m a Christopher Walken (True Romance) fan. I’m also a David Cronenberg (Dead Ringers) fan. And now that I’ve finally seen The Dead Zone, I can consider myself having a fairly complete existence now.
Based on King’s novel and adapted for the screen by Jeffrey Boam (The Lost Boys), Johnny S...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 25th, 2006
Synopsis
So what we have here is Season 4, Volume 1 – i.e. the first 20 episodes of the season. I’m not sure I’m wild about this new trend to trap us into shelling out our hard-earned dollars into buying TWO box sets per season, but there you have it. None of which is to take away from the actual qualities of the show. Either I’m growing softer in the head with age (an entirely likely event) or the series just keeps growing funnier. Everything here is funny, but some are epically so, forcing you to r...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 19th, 2006
With the possible exception of the Vulcans no race has been given a richer history in Star Trek than the Klingons. We need to forget the drastic change in how these bad guys to allies look. In Enterprise this change is finally explained as a genetic experiment gone bad in an episode conspicuously missing from the set. I’m not sure I can criticize the episode selection, as they were voted on at Startrek.com. Still. I don’t like the over usage of repeats these collection sets are plagued with. It’s not like there are...
