Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 31st, 2003
If ever there was a film that was badly misunderstood it is Star Trek: Nemesis. The most common complaint I’ve heard is it was too much like an episode. Excuse me, but isn’t it supposed to be? Nemesis has everything a good Star Trek film should have. The character chemistry, space battles, a morality tale, and terrific f/x. If the film suffers at all it is from poor editing, as the collection of deleted scenes clearly shows (more on that in the special features section). As many politicians are fond of saying, “mistakes were made,” but this is a far better film than the critics or fans have given it credit for being. It deserves a second look and this 2 disc release is the perfect opportunity to revisit Star Trek: Nemesis.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 27th, 2003
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 26th, 2003
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 24th, 2003
If Clear And Present Danger suffers from anything it is that it is overlong. As much as I like the film and its plot, there are times when I find myself checking the running time again to see how much longer the film is. There are also an incredible number of characters on both sides of the fence to keep track of: Ryan (Ford), Greer (Jones), Clark (Defoe), Ritter (Czemy) , Escobedo (Sandoval) , NSA Director Cutter (Yulin), Felix Cortez (Almeida), Ryan’s wife (Archer), Moira (Mangnuson), FBI Director Jacobs (Tammi) and the list goes on.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 18th, 2003
I am quite conflicted about this the second Jack Ryan film. There is no doubt I enjoy Harrison Ford’s Ryan more than I did Alec Baldwin’s. Of course, they really are not the same character at all. With Ford, Ryan has become more of an action hero. Sadly, I didn’t find this script as compelling as the other Ryan films. It is by far the worst adaptation of a Clancy novel to date. The complicated plot ends up being reduced to a simple game of revenge for the villain. Plot contrivances abound just to place Ryan into the heat of fire. Still, even this lesser adaptation contains exceptional contributions by a fine cast. It is worth watching at least once to see the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Richard Harris, and James Earl Jones.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 15th, 2003
In the 1980’s Tom Clancy was “the man”. One of the interviews on this disc accurately points out that if you were on an airplane in the 1980’s, for every ten people reading a book seven would be reading Tom Clancy. Hunt for Red October was by far his best work. The technical information was so accurate that Clancy was once questioned for several hours by the CIA to determine his source. The film, unlike many blockbuster efforts, does not disappoint. The script is relatively faithful to the book. There are major divergences, particularly the climax, but most serve to tighten the lengthy novel into a fast-paced film. Alec Baldwin, a newcomer at the time, handles the part of Jack Ryan well even in the hindsight of two Harrison Ford portrayals. Sean Connery delivers a masterful performance that goes so far as to allow us to accept a Russian with a Welsh accent.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 12th, 2003
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A group of extreme athletes and a professional skier set out on a remote Austrian mountaintop to shoot a stunt for a commercial. Unbeknownst to them a group of terrorists is in hiding at the mountain top resort. The film makers have a habit of filming everything that goes on and they accidentally capture one of the terrorists on film, now they must fight for their lives to survive the mountain and the terrorists.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 6th, 2003
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 27th, 2003
Jerry Bruckheimer becomes yet another A-List film producer to take a shot at the television drama. I have to admit that I never gave this show a prayer of success when I first saw it three years ago. It’s not that I thought it wasn’t good. I loved it. I thought it would be too cerebral for the normal Joe six-pack audience. Boy was I wrong. CSI has become the hottest drama in prime time, and like Law and Order before it has begun to spin off into another incarnation with CSI: Miami. The characters are engaging and it seems we’re all obsessed with some morbid fascination of murder. You’ll get a hefty fix with this box.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 25th, 2003
How do you spoof something that is already a spoof itself? That’s easy. You mix a reality show concept with a contrived Hollywood script. You hire the worst actors you can find and you call it The Real World Movie: The Lost Season. Even if you’re a fan of the MTV reality series, you won’t find anything remotely entertaining here. If you don’t even like the TV show, then my advice is to run. Now we have bad actors pretending to be people who are pretending to be spontaneous.
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