Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 20th, 2011
“The machines rose from the ashes of a nuclear fire. Their war to exterminate mankind had raged for decades, but the final battle would not be fought in the future. It would be fought here in our present… Tonight.”
Where were you on Judgment Day?
If you don’t know what the original Terminator film is about by know, I’ll still tell you.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 20th, 2011
The Usual Suspects is a most unusual movie, and in this case, that is a good thing. The Usual Suspects keeps you interested throughout its entirety by making you think and trying to figure out what will happen next. If only today’s movies did the same thing!! As this has been one of my favorite movies of all time, the excitement I felt when I received this in the mail today could only be compared to a young child on Christmas morning.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 19th, 2011
“The heat is on…”
From the bouncing opening music by Glenn Fry to the final frame of Eddie Murphy’s smile, Beverly Hills Cop has established itself as a classic. Now finally out on Blu-ray, the film shows us all over again why we fell in love with it almost 20 years ago. Murphy hasn’t been as funny since, but we’ll always have Beverly Hills and Axel Foley.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Bob Ross on May 19th, 2011
Precocious teenage girls are movie mainstays for a few reasons. They tend to be cute, for starters. They give young audiences someone to identify with and perhaps envy, because the movie girls get to say and do things that would get their real-life admirers grounded at best, imprisoned at worst. We have our favorites, of course, going all the back to The Bad Seed, The Children’s Hour and the original Lolita. More recently, we’ve been perversely charmed by sexually manipulative antiheroines
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 19th, 2011
During the Korean War, a platoon led by Laurence Harvey and Frank Sinatra is captured and sent off to Manchuria. Here the men are brainwashed into believing that Harvey saved them all in an incredible feat of heroism (which he did not) and that he’s a loveable guy (which he isn’t).The unfortunate Harvey is programmed to become a remote-control assassin. Back in the States, Sinatra is plagued by nightmare memories of the experience, and gradually comes to believe that something … really did happen.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 17th, 2011
“You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension— a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You’ve just crossed over into the Twilight Zone.”
This was a special year for the series. While the experiment only lasted a season, this collection features 1-hour episodes. These haven’t shown up in syndication very often, so you might be less familiar with these episodes than any other year.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 17th, 2011
In 1972 he made us an offer we couldn’t refuse. A couple of years later he followed it up with one of the finest sequels in Hollywood’s history. Of course, I’m talking about Francis Ford Coppola. His movies are often considered epics. When Coppola paints, he tends to paint big. But it wasn’t always like that for the once young director. He learned his trade, oddly enough, from the master of the B movie, Roger Corman. It was there that he learned to do more with less. It was there under the tutelage of Corman that Coppola
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 16th, 2011
Recently, I saw the brand new live-action film of Thor in 3d on a giant IMAX screen with some close friends (watch for the Hawkeye cameo!). All of us thought the movie was pretty good (though we really didn’t see the point of 3d, big shock). As to be expected, I knew (and hoped) an animated feature of Thor with his big hammer was right around the corner. However, when I received said feature, Thor was right on it, but he was holding a sword? This requires some further analysis.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 11th, 2011
The real world will try to teach us many things. It teaches us that only two things are certain, death and taxes. Unfortunately, one of the things that is not always certain is the wonderful mystery of love. Sometimes, it lasts for a lifetime but more often than not it can be a cruel device and become fleeting. The movie, Blue Valentine deals with this difficult subject and explores one such relationship that is clearly on the ropes.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 11th, 2011
Of all the straight-to-video titles I didn’t expect to see, Street Kings 2 would be high on the list. The original film was a predictable film with bad pacing. The box office was no better. That film pulled in about $26 million and quickly faded into obscurity. But here we are two years later and the title has been attached to a direct-to-video release from Fox. None of the original characters or actors are found here. The title merely suggests a similar story, this time in the Motor City, Detroit.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 5th, 2011
There are a lot of films that I never expected to see on Blu-ray, at least not for many years. With so many blockbusters still not available in high definition, it’s not reasonable to expect that some of the gems you’ve loved for years, but with limited marketability, would soon find their way to your home theater in HD. If you had asked me a short time ago to list some of those treasures, I think that The Terror would have easily made the list. This is one of those times that it feels good to be wrong, and The Terror might end up being the best surprise release of the year.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 3rd, 2011
“In the beginning there was darkness. And then bang, giving birth to an endless expanding existence of time, space, and matter. Now, see further than we’ve ever imagined. Beyond the limits of our existence. In a place we call The Universe.”
The History series lasted for five seasons. The show used modern space photography, computer-generated images, and demonstrations along with respected scientists to explore the various aspects of our universe.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 30th, 2011
When you want to get the most bang for your buck in a low-budget 1980’s slasher film, you could do a lot worse than The Dorm That Dripped Blood. It’s an elusive film that has never really enjoyed much of any kind of wide release even in the video market. It was really nothing more than a student film put together as a thesis for UCLA students Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow. Like most student films, the piece utilizes locations on the UCLA campus and makes use of local talent both in front of the camera and behind.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 27th, 2011
I’ve been a fan of South Park ever since a friend introduced me to the internet Christmas card that started it all. It was Santa versus Jesus and these short potty-mouthed kids that somehow wormed their way under your skin. Pretty soon I was downloading the episodes and watching them on my computer. For some reason I can’t quite explain, I’ve very rarely watched an episode on Comedy Central. By the time things were getting tighter and riskier downloading the shorts, the single disc, 4-episode DVDs began to arrive in stores. So my South Park viewing moved from the PC to the DVD player.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 25th, 2011
Every year when the Academy Awards have been given out, I look over the winners in each category, and more often than not I scratch my head at the ultimate winners. I find myself wondering if they saw the same movie I saw. I start to ponder if there might be an alternate-universe version of these movies that somehow find themselves in the hands of the Academy jury. Sure, once in a while they get it right.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 25th, 2011
“In the beginning was the word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. I am He. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him, was made nothing that has been made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of man. And the light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness grasped it not. The greatest story ever told…”
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.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Bob Ross on April 23rd, 2011
By the early part of World War II, the Soviet Union’s ultra-harsh prison system was already an established key to Josef Stalin’s paranoid dictatorship. Hundreds of concentration camps, called gulags, kept criminals and innocents alike trapped behind barbed wire, without edible food or minimal medical care. The most miserable gulags were the notorious Siberian compounds, stuck in such hostile sub-arctic territory that an attempt to escape was considered just another form of suicide.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 23rd, 2011
There are usually two schools of thought when it comes to judging sequels. One tends to be very harsh on the proceedings expecting it to surpass the original (which it hardly ever does) in all aspects of film-making. The other still expects a good film but realizes that this sort of thing is usually financially driven and just hopes for something that can favorable stand against the original. I happen to be in the later crowd. But, I certainly found myself inching towards the former when I received the blu-ray package to review Ip Man 2, Legend of the Grandmaster. Let’s go inside, shall we?
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 21st, 2011
I’ve long held the belief that the folks at Pixar are really just children who have refused to grow up. That doesn’t mean that they don’t have to deal with the realities that adulthood thrust upon each of us. I’m sure they have families and are responsible citizens and parents. They consistently make movies, that while there is certainly appeal for children, are obviously intended for adults, adults like them, who have decided to never grow up. If you ever required proof of that concept, The Incredibles should prove the point quite nicely.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 20th, 2011
“So far every person I’ve met in this strange place suffers from the most florid delusions, chasing green mists and looking for lost lords. I can only assume that this is the result of poor diet, or they’re all just barking mad.”
C.S. Lewis created an incredibly imaginative world when he wrote his Chronicles Of Narnia. The stories were an escape, of sorts, from a war-torn Europe. They integrated elements of Christianity in an effort to provide a semblance of hope in the form of a children’s fairy tale.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Bob Ross on April 14th, 2011
Urine jokes. Fart jokes. Breast and penis jokes. What could be more tasteless? How about telling them all in a place where people are trying to eat? That’s the unappetizing summary of Still Waiting …, one of those unnecessary, straight-to-video sequels designed to make a quick payoff before the first film’s fans catch on.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 12th, 2011
Adapted from the hit stage musical, Norman Jewison’s film version of Fiddler on the Roof has established itself as a classic over and over again since its release in 1971.
“He loves her. Love, it’s a new style… On the other hand, our old ways were once new, weren’t they?” I’ll hardly be the first to write it, but the reason Fiddler on the Roof, a story about Jewish people and their culture, is so popular, is that its themes have universal appeal.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 12th, 2011
“Jonathan Brisby was killed today. It is four years since our departure from NIMH, and our world is changing. We can not stay here much longer. Jonathan was a dear friend. I am lost in knowing how to deal with his widow. She knows nothing of us or the plan.”
When Don Bluth left Walt Disney, he led an exodus of some of the studio’s top talent.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 12th, 2011
Rory Gallagher was somewhat of an enigma in the British music scene. While he never did have the breakout hit or career that he worked so hard to achieve, he has managed to develop quite a cult following over his troubled career. His roots went deep into the British blues scene where he first received some notice in the band Taste. But Rory was a force of nature and couldn’t be contained in the local scene. He grew up in the small town of Cork in Ireland and managed to fight his way onto a world stage
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Bob Ross on April 9th, 2011
Everybody loves dolphins. We marvel at their graceful rolls among the waves. We enjoy watching trained ones do tricks for Sea World audiences, and some of us even pay big bucks to swim with them at specially built facilities. But behind these glimpses of intelligent marine life, there’s a deadly, disgraceful hypocrisy. There are mega-millions being made at the expense of innocent creatures, and the people behind the conspiracy will stop at nothing – including murder – to preserve their lucrative, dirty business.
Read More
