Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 19th, 2004
Taxi was a very funny sitcom that is most notable for the number of future stars it produced. Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Tony Danza, and Judd Hirsch all went on to bigger and better things when the Taxi ride ended. Andy Kaufman’s life and early death provided one of the more bizarre stories in Hollywood history. The truth is that season 1 was not quite that funny. Sure, Lloyd makes an appearance here, but the lovable Rev. Jim would not get behind the wheel of a taxi until the second season. We can only be glad ...hat Taxi came at a time in history when shows were given time to develop. Today Taxi would not have gone 6 weeks.
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 28th, 2004
CSI hasn’t changed much in its first four years. Expect more of the same here. The unique photography and f/x material is pretty much as solid as it was in the first episode. I’m not sure I like the “scruffy” Grissom look, but the show is as good as it’s ever been. As in each of the previous season, Gil Grissom leads a team of Crime Scene Investigators (CSI) on the night shift in Las Vegas.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 26th, 2004
Synopsis
These are the first eight installments of the slasher franchise, a franchise that is now bathedin the warm glow of nostalgia. The basic premise for all the movies is the same: a vengefulmaniac hacks up teenagers in retaliation for the drowning of little Jason Voorhees back in 1958.The films resemble each other so closely, and their plotting is so minimal, that viewers may beforgiven for having trouble keeping them straight. Herewith, a brief reminder of the salientdifferences.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 23rd, 2004
The time: Prohibition. The smell of bootleg gin and the sound of bullets lingers in the urban air. It’s Chicago. It’s Good vs. Evil. Elliott Ness vs. Al Capone. Kevin Costner vs. Robert DeNiro. Brian De Palma directs this wonderful period piece. The film drips with as much stylish atmosphere as outlawed booze. I’m not sure if the credit belongs to David Mamet’s imaginative script or De Palma’s direction. Both were at the top of their game with this film. Sean Connery must certainly bear mention as the no nonsense me...tor Malone. In less than 20 years this film has easily earned its classic status. It’s hard to believe that Andy Garcia was an unknown at the time.
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 16th, 2004
Season 4 of Voyager is most notable for the addition of Jeri Ryan’s Seven Of Nine character. The stories grew a bit more complex. The season appears to have regarded style above substance in year 4. There is a modest attempt to develop a mother/daughter kind of relationship between Seven Of Nine and Janeway. The problem is that, like the potential for conflict inherent with the addition of the Maquis members of the crew, this conflict is all to often resolved in a Brady Bunch “What have you learned from this, Seven ...f Nine” formula. No question the Borg and Species 8472 offer a better group of adversaries than the Kazon were ever capable of. I judge this season to be one of bright moments and missed opportunities.
Season Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 20th, 2004
With the success of Star Trek as both a television and film franchise, it made perfect sense to eventually pass the baton from the Kirk era to the Next Generation. Generations had promise, but could and should have been a far better film. The f/x were for the most part inferior to previous Trek films. The destruction of the Enterprise D is the notable exception. Perhaps it was unwise to attempt to blend the established film environment with the too recently completed television series.
The film might have ...een better served by taking more time to create a better film version of the Enterprise D. It’s obvious that the ship’s destruction was written into this film to allow for the necessary redesign of the Enterprise for future films. A greater participation by the rest of the original cast, while costly, would have gone further to portray the changing of the Star Trek guard. I have heard Nimoy speak several times on the issue. He declined the role not because of money as many speculate, but because Spock’s role was too insignificant and out of character. How I would have loved to see Picard, Data, Spock, and Kirk work together toward the film’s climax. Still, Generations did bridge the two generations of Star Trek in an emotional if unsatisfying fashion.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 16th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 13th, 2004
In the shadow of the Olympics’ return to Athens, PBS has decided to take a look back at the original games. This mildly-interesting program that feels more like a documentary that might be screened in a High School classroom than one you might watch on television in your free time. Such is the difference between PBS and the History Channel, I suppose. It is a good documentary, but certainly not great.
That’s not to say that the disc is all dry, though. There is some interesting background into some aspects ...f the modern games, especially in relation to the 1934 Munich Olympics. I don’t want to give it all away, but I will say that many of Hitler’s ideas for the games still live on today. For World War II and Nazi buffs, this is an interesting aside that I have heard little about in the past.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 8th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 3rd, 2004
Sometimes, when I am writing my review and I come to the “genre” section, I wish I could find an entry marked “crap”. If there was ever a serious film effort that deserved such an entry, this is it. Let’s be honest… made for TV movies have a bad reputation for a reason. For that matter, so do films that have child actors as their star. This film suffers from the unenviable fate of being both. Mary Tyler Moore and Burt Reynolds may be on the cover, but the kid is in nearly every frame of the film.
This is on... of those sickly-sweet TNT movies that have been produced time and time again (though they usually seem to show up on CBS). The plot is a familiar one. An older divorced woman (Moore) takes in her free-spirited granddaughter, and the little girl’s presence melts her hardened heart. The point is a simple one, but it takes this meandering film a long, long time to get there. I have heard of films that go nowhere fast, but this one goes nowhere slow. The pace is even more broken up with the added necessity of commercial breaks, which sometimes show up at awkward times.
