Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 21st, 2011
"Do you believe in Sin?"
The Exorcist was one of the most chilling films ever made. William Friedkin used subliminal images as well as those quite famous scenes of Linda Blair being taken over by Satan himself. Ever since that time filmmakers have been trying to cash in on the phenomenon. Exorcism movies have become almost a sub-genre in the horror field. There have been everything from no-budget to mega-budget attempts. There have been both sequels and prequels to the original film. Some of these efforts have been truly worthy films with effective moments and compelling plots and performances. None have come close to the original film. The Rite is another attempt to create a modern version of The Exorcist. It's not a bad film at all, but it's not even close.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 10th, 2011
In the 1970's the critically acclaimed Upstairs Downstairs was a television mainstay in England. American audiences were soon introduced to the series through PBS broadcasts in the late 1970's and beyond. It was a unique kind of drama that served both as a period piece and an examination of the class lifestyles. The series began at the turn of the century and led up to the events of World War I and the period that soon followed. We were witness to the wealthy Bellamy family who occupied the estate at 165 Eaton Place. The family lived in the upstairs rooms, while the servants who kept the place in order occupied the rooms downstairs. Each episode would bring the dramatic events of the world to the doorstep of the home and we would see how they affected the two classes. We got to know members of both classes, and as the series progressed, observed the stark differences while also seeing the common humanity the two worlds shared. It was a huge hit and has lived on in syndication in all of the years since. The original series ran from 1971 until 1975 and covered the years of 1903 until the market crash of 1929 and the death of the patron of the estate. The whole thing had to be sold and the characters dispersed to their own lives from there.
Enter Heidi Thomas, who was eleven when the original series ended. The show stuck with her, and she made it a sort of life mission to bring the series back. In 2010 that's exactly what she did. The result is the three episode run that we have in this release.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 10th, 2011
"Only one creature has carved out a life for itself in every habitat on Earth. That creature is us. All over the world we still use our ingenuity to survive the wild places, far from the city lights, face to face with raw nature. This is the Human Planet."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 25th, 2011
In the 1980’s, I grew up watching a lot of sitcom family shows as I am sure a lot of kids my age did. Somewhere in my late teens and twenties, I ran away from sitcoms and straight in to cartoons and wrestling. (you thought I was going to say reality shows didn’t you?) But before that happened, I probably saw every last one of those crazy family sitcoms. Including Growing Pains. So when I received Growing Pains Season 2 to review, I knew I didn’t need season one and could dive right in. (
It is Season Two for the Seaver clan. Jason Seaver (played by Alan Thicke) is still operating his practice from the home while Maggie Seaver (played by Joanna Kerns)is exploring a career in journalism. With Jason at home, he is able to spend time with the three kids. The youngest, Ben (played by Jeremy Miller ) is going through middle school.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 14th, 2011
When the WB merged with the UPN to form the hybrid CW, a lot of good things happened. The new network stepped away from the twenty-something shows that began to all look the same after a while. The network began to take on cutting edge genre shows like Supernatural and Smallville. But deep down inside there was still that family drama mentality that drove at least one of the parent networks. Life Unexpected is, unfortunately, a totally expected result of that dark place.
The premise is actually pretty interesting. Lux (Robertson) is a 16-year-old girl who has spent her entire life in foster care. She has been bounced from home to shelter to home again 7 times in those 16 years. She's lived with drug addicts and abusive situations. She's had it, and so she decides to seek legal emancipation. Because her parents are still alive and somehow never gave up their rights, she needs their signatures on the court documentation. She finds her father first. Nate Bazile or Baze (Polaha) is a guy who's refused to grow up. He lives in a loft above a bar he runs primarily so he can drink for free. His father (Thomas) owns the building, and the bar is just one of many unresolved issues between them. He lives with two roommates who are only slightly more mature than he is, including English teacher Math (Basis). He's shocked when Lux shows up, because he didn't even know she existed. Together they contact her mom, Cate (Appleby), who is a popular radio talk show host with her partner and soon to be fiancée Ryan (Smith). Cate gave Lux up for adoption unaware that she had a heart condition that required her to remain in the hospital until she was three. That made her a tough adoption candidate. So, when Lux shows up she is just as surprised, believing she was happy and in a family. The emancipation doesn't happen, and Baze and Cate are given joint custody of Lux.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2011
"How did The Bible come to be? The Bible wasn't always a book or even a series of books. In the beginning there wasn't even a written language. The prophets and holy men who roamed these lands seeking the truth and preaching God's word as they perceived it were talking to illiterate audiences who could only be reached by the witnessed testimony and the spoken word."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2011
"And it came to pass in these days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And all went to be taxed, everyone into his own city. So it was that Joseph, a carpenter, went up from Galilee unto Bethlehem to be taxed with his wife, Mary who was with Holy Child."
Every spring around the time of Easter you could count on several annual films to make their way to televisions across the country for special family presentations. For Easter you had The Greatest Story Ever Told and King Of Kings. For Passover there was always The Ten Commandments. And so it is an appropriate time to see all three of these films make their way unto high definition and Blu-ray for the very first time. We've already reported on the excellent release of The Ten Commandments. Our review of The Greatest Story Ever Told will come to these pages very close to Easter itself. That leaves the one more in this Holy Trinity of movies to review.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2011
"May, 2009 - Seven brave astronauts are about to launch on the most challenging and risky missions ever flown in space. This is the last chance to save the Hubble Telescope."
You have to really go back to April of 1990 to get to the start of the story. That's when the shuttle Discovery launched from Cape Kennedy with the Hubble Telescope in its cargo bay waiting to bring the ends of the universe to our waiting eyes. I was there that day among the crowd of hopefuls as the shuttle ignited its thrusters and pierced the sky for space. I bought a commemorative coin from a roving vendor and drove the two hours home without even listening to any music. Watching a shuttle launch is an almost religious experience that, unfortunately, few will ever know. I've been lucky enough to witness seven.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 29th, 2011
"Jellystone Park, one of the nation's oldest and most beautiful stretches of wilderness. For years, families have headed out from the busy city eager to enjoy a little camping, fishing, and, of course, observing the park's natural wildlife..."
He's smarter than the average bear. Children and adults alike have been watching his adventures since 1959. Yogi and his young sidekick Boo Boo were one of the most popular of the Hanna-Barbera stable of talking animal characters that reached a peak of popularity on the Saturday morning cartoon shows of the 1960's and 1970's. The two brown bears lived in the fictional Jellystone Park, which is often considered to be intended as Yellowstone Park. Such real-life fixtures as Old Faithful appeared in the original cartoons. The park was kept in order by Ranger Smith, who was always frustrated by the plots and exploits of Yogi, particularly his obsession with acquiring pic-a-nic baskets. It sure beat foraging, and Yogi would go to incredible lengths just to snatch an unsuspecting camper’s lunch.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 24th, 2011
The home video release of Hereafter, like its Asian box office release, is the victim of bad timing. The movie has been pulled from theaters in Japan since the tragic events that have struck that country in recent weeks. It's unfortunate that the movie opens with one of the most realistic depictions of a tsunami that I've ever seen. The ultra-realism will be an emotional pang for anyone who shares the sadness of the current disaster. The film has suddenly been criticized for its graphic portrayal, but that kind of statement bears the mark of the worse kind of insincerity. Anyone who has seen the recent works of Clint Eastwood knows that he's never been about such things. Eastwood has learned to mine the vast treasures of the subtle in recent years, and the scene here is an integral part of the story he's trying to tell. The movie was filmed long before the Japanese incident, and you certainly couldn't have expected anyone to anticipate such a thing. Still, with all of that said, this is not a movie you should be watching if you find yourself sensitive to those images. With the real images we've seen on our television and computer screens, this will be hard for anyone with a heart. I'm sure that Eastwood himself has experienced strong emotions in the last week or so. Is it disrespectful to watch something like this now? That's a question you'll have to answer for yourself. I will say it's an emotional experience. Perhaps it's a film best saved until distance has dulled some of the pain. It was absolutely the right move to pull it in Japan.
The film tells three very separate and distinct character vignettes that don't converge until the final moments. Each of the three characters has been touched by death in some fashion or another.
![King of Kings [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/king-of-kings-blu-ray-large.jpg)
