Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 23rd, 2023
The 1978 Superman film set the standard for what a quality comic hero film should be. The tagline promise: “You will believe a man can fly” was kept. All future comic films would be judged by this standard. Superman II had its faults. Certainly it was not the modern classic like the first film. The plot was bogged down with a rather silly love story that broke down the barriers of the Kent/Superman identity for Lois Lane. Luthor, while played again with style by Gene Hackman, is reduced to a comedic backseat to the real villains. Plot contrivances abound, along with plenty of corny lines. Yet, even with these limitations, this has always been a rather enjoyable film, particularly when compared to the dreadful sequels that followed.
"You will believe that a man can fly."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 9th, 2023
I remember when The Golden Compass came to theaters. I know I saw it because I was a projectionist and had to screen the print, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember anything about the film. Perhaps that’s why that when I first heard about HBO doing a TV series adaption of the beloved book series His Dark Materials I wasn’t all that thrilled. I’d never read the -adult series, and considering the amount of awful YA film and TV adaptations that have bombarded us for nearly two decades, it played a role in squashing any excitement I may have had in different circumstances. I was definitely pessimistic about watching the show, but when I finished Season 1, I was excited about where the next season would take us. I loved the characters, the daemons and the worlds that the show took us to. Not since Stranger Things had I been more excited about a new series. Season 2 was a step up from the first season, and I absolutely loved what the show was delivering. There has been a bit of a wait for this third season; after all COVID did get in the way of the show’s production, and the delay can dampen the excitement for others. But with sSeason 3 now here, would the final eight episodes be enough to wrap up this pretty great storyline about the multi-verse and the war set to be waged between man and the Authority?
Season 3 opens up with a bit of a time jump with Lyra (Dafine Keen) being held captive by her mother, Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson). We want to believe that Lyra is being held for her own protection and that her mother has finally seen the evil of her ways in the past, but we’ve seen in the past she simply can’t be trusted. The Magisterium continues to establish themselves as the big bad of the show as they are wanting to hunt down Lyra because they believe she is the girl in the prophecies who will bring ruin to all the worlds. Then there is Will (Amir Wilson), who is trying to find Lyra, though to help him in his search he teams up with an angel and Iorek (Joe Tandberg), our favorite polar bear. Then we also have Mary Malone (Simone Kirby), who continues her journey to better understand dust, though to be fair, considering all the peril we see just about every other character experience, her journey seems more like a simple vision quest that leads her to strange elephant-like creatures with wheels on their feet … yeah, this show can get weird. Then of course there is Lord Asriel (James McAvoy), who seems to be hell-bent on waging war against the Authority, and he doesn’t seem to care who he loses or may die because of his actions.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 1st, 2023
Most people who know me know that I adore Scooby Doo. Some of my favorite episodes of Scooby Doo are those where they have famous guest stars solving mysteries. Addams Family, Harlem Globetrotters, Batman, etc. Classic Scooby goodness with characters that I enjoy and always wondered how they would work in another universe. Today, I have the benefit of seeing how Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and other Justice League members will look and react in the RWBY world of Remnant. Let's take a look.
Superman (voiced by Chandler Riggs) is breathing heavy and struggles to open his eyes. When he does, he sees a strange world, and he's suddenly become a teenager. In front of him are two young teenage girls named Ruby (voiced by Lindsay Jones) and Yang (voiced by Barbara Dunkleman), who are taking on demons simply known as the Grimm. However, these Grimm are strange to Ruby and Yang as well, since they can shoot lasers. Superman gets up to help the two ladies when he realizes that his powers are completely different from what they were.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 1st, 2023
Most people who know me know that I adore Scooby Doo. Some of my favorite episodes of Scooby Doo are those where they have famous guest stars solving mysteries. Addams Family, Harlem Globetrotters, Batman, etc. Classic Scooby goodness with characters that I enjoy and always wondered how they would work in another universe. Today, I have the benefit of seeing how Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and other Justice League members will look and react in the RWBY world of Remnant. Let's take a look.
Superman (voiced by Chandler Riggs) is breathing heavy and struggles to open his eyes. When he does, he sees a strange world, and he's suddenly become a teenager. In front of him are two young teenage girls named Ruby (voiced by Lindsay Jones) and Yang (voiced by Barbara Dunkleman), who are taking on demons simply known as the Grimm. However, these Grimm are strange to Ruby and Yang as well, since they can shoot lasers. Superman gets up to help the two ladies when he realizes that his powers are completely different from what they were.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 27th, 2023
"Superman's journal, final entry. My cells are breaking down at an alarming rate. I'm running out of time. I have few regrets. My life has been a wonder. I've traveled across space and time, seen and done things beyond imagination. I had parents who loved me. Good friends like Pete, Lana, and Jimmy. I got to help people while living an incredible adventure. I loved a good woman, and she loved me back. I'm tired, but I still have one more job to do ..."
We all know the story and its many incarnations. All-Star Superman is one of the more unique stories to be told through Warner Brothers Animation's DC feature films. It's not the latest. It was released in 2011 before Warner Brothers started to release their films on UHD. Of course, there was no UHD Blu-ray in 2011. In addition to the recent and upcoming animated features, Warner Brothers is going back to those earlier films, and All-Star Superman is as good a place as any to start.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 25th, 2023
"If I had one day when I didn't have to be all confused and I didn't have to feel that I was ashamed of everything. If I felt that I belonged someplace. You know?"
There are a handful of films in Hollywood history that have stories as compelling if not more so than the story the film itself tells. I don't know if there has ever been a film about the making of Rebel Without A Cause. There have certainly been several books, but this is one of those classic films which is surrounded by so many legends, some of them urban myths, but so many of them were true that I find it rather difficult to watch the film on its own terms. With Warner's 100th anniversary celebration of 100 classic films, I had a nice chance to revisit the classic motion picture, and this time I tried my best to watch it without all of the noise that goes along with it. That wasn't easy, but I think I've now seen the film for itself more now than I ever did before. It was a groundbreaking film with an incredible cast that broke so many taboos of the time that you get the idea someone wasn't really paying attention to what was going on on the screen. It's as compelling today as it was then, and maybe more so with all of the baggage. The truth is I've never been able to watch Rebel Without A Cause the same way twice. Now I can try as often as I like with a nearly flawless print finally in UHD Blu-ray and in 4K. Warner Brothers is having a birthday, and I've been unwrapping all of the presents.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 21st, 2023
"Them clothes got laundry numbers on them. You remember your number and always wear the ones that has your number. Any man forgets his number spends a night in the box. These here spoons you keep with you. Any man loses his spoon spends a night in the box. There's no playing grab-ass or fighting in the building. You got a grudge against another man, you fight him Saturday afternoon. Any man playing grab-ass or fighting in the building spends a night in the box. First bell's at five minutes of eight when you will get in your bunk. Last bell is at eight. Any man not in his bunk at eight spends the night in the box. There is no smoking in the prone position in bed. To smoke you must have both legs over the side of your bunk. Any man caught smoking in the prone position in bed ... spends a night in the box. You get two sheets. Every Saturday, you put the clean sheet on the top ... the top sheet on the bottom ... and the bottom sheet you turn in to the laundry boy. Any man turns in the wrong sheet spends a night in the box. No one'll sit in the bunks with dirty pants on. Any man with dirty pants on sitting on the bunks spends a night in the box. Any man don't bring back his empty pop bottle spends a night in the box. Any man loud talking spends a night in the box. You got questions, you come to me. I'm Carr, the floor walker. I'm responsible for order in here. Any man don't keep order spends a night in..."
You guessed it ... the box. Enter our anti-hero, Luke. The anti-hero has become somewhat cliche today. What was once an artistic expression of the gray line between good and bad guys has morphed to the glorification of the just plain bad guy. We end up loving and rooting for such vicious characters like Vic Mackey, Tony Soprano, and Dexter Morgan. These are killers with nary a pang of conscience. Their deeds are always self-serving no matter what they pretend they might be. But if you go back far enough -- most credit Marlon Brando's coda performance in The Wild One -- you'll find there was once a far more nuanced kind of anti-hero. One of the industries best examples of this was Paul Newman's troubled teenager, Luke. Luke wins us over with a charm and an honest belief that he's a good guy. The archetype would later be pruned to perfection by Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's nest several years later. McNulty and Luke have a lot in common, and their environments and motivations aren't all that different. In the end they're both "broken" by the establishment, conforming to a code that did not allow guys like this to live happily ever after. Times and sensibilities have certainly changed, but performances like Paul Newman's Luke remain to remind of us of a time when audiences just wouldn't have been ready for the likes of Hill Street's Detective Buntz. Ironically, it would be Marlon Brando again who would be the first to make us root for a cold-hearted killer named Vito Corleone.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 11th, 2023
"In 1539 The Knight Templars of Malta paid tribute to Charles V of Spain by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels --- but pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token, and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to this day."
What is not a mystery today is the significant role that The Maltese Falcon has played in cinema history. The film itself was a remake. In fact, it was actually Warner's third attempt to film the Dashiell Hammett novel in a single decade. The first version came in 1931 and starred Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade. That film also featured Dwight Frye as Wilmer Cook. The film was a moderate success but never really delivered on the potential of the source material. Five years later Warner would attempt a comedy version of the story in Satan Met A Lady. It was a total flop. It would only take another five years before the studio took its third crack at the material. In this case, the third time certainly was a charm.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 31st, 2023
"Him is he who bays and slavers forever outside time and space, who shambled down out of the stars when Earth was new and spawned abominations in the seas and blights upon the land. Woe to man when He comes again. To gaze upon his form is to invite madness. That is why in order to serve Him I chose to make some adjustments. Him, The Lurker is on the threshold, and behold, He is coming..."
The latest release from the Warner Brothers animation team in the world of DC Comics is Batman: Doom That Came To Gotham. This series of animated films is no longer part of any shared universe as the many that came before might have been. At least for now these animated adventures are standalone stories, often with their own atmosphere and universe. That's certainly true of Batman: Doom That Came To Gotham. This is likely the most uniquely-styled entry in the series of animated feature films.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 18th, 2023
“You got everything money can buy, except what it can’t. It’s pride. Pride is what got you here. Losing is what brung you back. But people like you, they need to be tested. They need a challenge.”
There have been a ton of boxing films. They’ve been popular going back to the silent era. Most of them have many of the same themes. But there was always something about Rocky that stood out above all of the rest. That “something” can’t really be described or defined. As the Supreme Court once said about the definition of obscenity: “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.” That’s all you can say about Rocky. Some might call it heart. That’s about as good a word for it as anything else. Rocky himself would call it “stuff in the basement”. It almost demeans it to put a word on it at all. Whatever you call it, you don’t necessarily see it in Rocky … you feel it. Now the first 4 films are out together on UHD Blu-ray in 4K.
