Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 30th, 2008
TNA Wrestling has evolved from being nothing more than a small third party wrestling organization to something much more. While they aren't the WWE in ratings, they have arguably better storylines and on average more enthusiastic wrestlers. There are established stars such as Kurt Angle, Booker T, & Team 3d(used to be known as the Dudleys) that have built up their reputation thru WWE, ECW and WCW. There are also equally exciting homebred stars including AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Jay Lethal (now known as "Black Machismo") that play a prominent role in the league as well. Furthermore (without including the Japanese market), TNA also has the best wrestling females you will find anywhere from Gail Kim to the unstoppable monster Amazing Kong. So it is little wonder that from time to time, I pick up their ppv dvds including this one named Destination X 2008 highlighted by the main event: Kurt Angle,Tomko & AJ Styles vs the tandem of Samoa Joe, Kevin Nash, and Christian Cage.
March 9, 2008 - Destination X. Several angles were taking place around this ppv. The Angle Alliance was in full swing despite the growing tension/love triangle between AJ Styles, Karen Angle and Kurt Angle. AJ Styles and Tomko had distanced themselves from one Christian Cage which made him angry and led to the concurrent feud. Samoa Joe had found himself into the main event since he had been feuding with Kurt Angle in a desperate attempt to finally secure the TNA World Title. Kevin Nash? "Big Sexy" was probably in it for the thrill...of money. Being a seven foot monster, he served as the powergame for the trio. In the last Impact before the PPV, Christian Cage and Kurt Angle were involved in a cage match which found Cage winning in a controversial finish where his feet supposedly touched the ground first and his hand was raised by referee Earl Hebner. Film later showed that perhaps Angle's feet touched the ground first (though looking at it several times, it's really hard to tell either way). This situation has led to a one man advantage (3 on 2) at the PPV for the first five minutes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 29th, 2008
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not really out to get you. That old axiom has never been more true than for David Vincent in the Martin Quinn series The Invaders. Quinn was best known for his police procedural shows like The FBI. At the time of the The Invaders Quinn was going into the final season of one of his most popular shows, The Fugitive. While most people over the years have compared The Invaders to that Quinn production, they were really not as similar as all that. In The Fugitive, the hero, Richard Kimball, played by David Janssen had a very specific mission. He was wrongly convicted of killing his wife and was on the trail of the real killer, whom he had witnessed. The “one armed man” became an iconic figure in television history and provided Dr. Kimball with his “Holy Grail”. David Vincent’s mission was far more complicated and seldom so cut and dried. He was honestly more akin to Dr. Bennell, played by sci-fi favorite Kevin McCarthy from Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. In both cases you had one man who knew that aliens were invading and even replacing humans. As I watched this collection of Invaders episodes, I couldn’t help but be reminded of McCarthy’s famous scene running down the street trying to convince the world of the impending invasion.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 22nd, 2008
This is the first half of the third season of Rawhide. Long before Clint Eastwood was making our day as Dirty Harry or even roaming the badlands without a name for Sergio Leone, he was working the cattle drive on Rawhide. Rawhide was created to take advantage of the huge Western film and television wave that
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 22nd, 2008
The set comprises the second half of the second season of Gunsmoke. The show was still in black and white and in the half hour format. Some of the best episodes of the set included Bloody Hands. For once a western dealt with conscience. When Dillon begins to have haunting dreams and pangs of guilt over killing three bad guys, he tries to back down from a fight. Has Dillon gone yellow? Arness does a better than average job on this rather thought provoking episode. When a man comes from
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 15th, 2008
For a third straight year, Jim Henson’s lovable Muppets attracted some of the biggest names in show business. Who would have thought that such big stars would so eagerly agree to co-star opposite a clump of felt and fur? The show was also coming off a monster second year with acts like Elton John, Bob Hope and John Cleese. How do you follow up a year like that? Easy. You get more big names like: Roy Clark, Jean Stapleton, Liberace, Alice Cooper, Cheryl Ladd, Raquel Welch, Danny Kaye, Harry Belafonte, Sylvester Stallone, and even Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Add to the tremendous star power more adventures of Pigs In Space, Veterinarian’s Hospital, and The Swedish Chef, and you have a decade of entertainment in one season set of The Muppets.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 15th, 2008
We’re in the US Marines, boys and who could have guessed that it would be so much fun? I often wondered how the real life members of The Corp think about Gomer Pyle. It would have made a great extra. I remember one of the F Troop sets offered a look at members of the real unit. With only another season to go I hope
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 15th, 2008
I’m going to admit right from the start, I hate cell phones. They’re evil, and I didn’t need a horror film to tell me about it. The world would be a safer and certainly a more courteous place without them. Just last week I was run of the highway by a Werner semi because the idiot driver was on his cell phone. So it didn’t come as any surprise that someone was bound to include them as part of a horror film. One Missed Call is simply the latest Asian Invasion film to be retooled for American audiences. What started with The Ring, which was a truly original and suspenseful film, has also given us losers like The Grudge. Unfortunately this film falls into the latter category. Believe me, I wanted so much to love this film. I was the annoying guy cheering the trailer at the local cineplex.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 14th, 2008
Many attempts have been made over a decade or so to imitate
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2008
Jim Phelps (
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 7th, 2008
The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series ran from 1987-1996 and had over one hundred and ninety episodes. Millions watched as Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo, & Raphael grew up from little turtle babies into mean, green, fighting machines. They could take on Shredder, Krang and any other bad guy that wanted to turn them into turtle soup. The sixth season takes on episodes 128-143 and spins them into a tiny two disc package from Lionsgate. Over a hundred episodes in, do the turtles still pack the punch they did back in 1987? As Splinter would say, "Be patient young ones, the answer will come."
Let's see, where were we in the TMNT saga? The last episodes of the fifth season saw the Turtles land up on a planet where turtles ruled and introduced us to a couple of new mutants named Groundchug and Dirtbag. True to form however, the turtles were successful in their exploits and sent Krang & Shredder back to the Technodrome. Season six opens with Krang & Shredder in the Technodrome, trapped in the Arctic. The Turtles are busy eating pizza, fighting crime and striking back at whatever plan the bad guys hatch at them each episode.
