Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 7th, 2010
A young migrant farmworker raises money for his mother’s medicine by prize fighting illegally in an old auto shop. As tensions mount on the farm where he works, he finds himself as a major chess piece in the battle between some Texas fat cats and the Mexican workers on both sides of the border.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 6th, 2010
Maybe the problem is that I just don’t get British. I’d like to think I’m just as hip as the rest of you out there, but I’m just not so sure. I mean, I love Monty Python to death, but just could never get Benny Hill. I’m a huge Doctor Who fan from a long time ago, but some of the British science fiction movies and mini-series I’ve seen of late mostly just leave me scratching my head. It’s like everyone in the world is in on this great funny joke and I’m the only one who doesn’t get it. I hate feeling that way, but that’s exactly what The Reeds left me feeling before it was all over.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 6th, 2010
“It’s New Year’s Eve on the Poseidon. Partying voyagers toast the future. The future comes in a rush; a 150 foot rogue wave flips the cruise ship over. And a struggle to survive begins.”
Poseidon doesn’t waste any time getting to the action, so I won’t waste any time with an introduction to this review. Yes, it’s a remake of the 1972 film, The Poseidon Adventure. Yes, it is chock full of convenient cardboard characters (a former Navy man, a fireman, a nurse, etc…). But we don’t watch movies like Poseidon for character exposition, do we?
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 31st, 2010
“The year is 208 AD. After 30 years of civil war, a deathly calm has fallen over northern China. One by one the rebel warlords have met their end under the sword of Prime Minister Cao Cao. Now even the Emperor bows before his power. Yet, from the south a challenge is heard. Two leaders rise against Cao Cao’s tyranny. The aging Liu Bei and the inexperienced Sun Quam. So Cao Cao petitions the Emperor to brand these men as traitors and declare a new war against the peaceful southlands.”
And so the stage is set for John Woo’s enormous epic Red Cliff. The scale of this film is simply one that must been experienced to quite understand. It has the grandeur of any of the largest films in Hollywood’s history
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 31st, 2010
“More of this is true than you would believe.”
What was intended as a somewhat thought-provoking quirky comedy looks a lot like something you would expect to see on a late night rerun of The X-Files. All of the subject matter has been covered there, just not quite in this way. It all started with a non-fiction book written by Jon Ronson. He claimed to have researched various government studies in human behavior that entered into the world of the paranormal. It was part of an ideology of waging non-lethal war. It was a strange combination of 1980’s new age mysticism and actual studies that showed that soldiers in World War II were, in fact, quite reluctant to kill
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 31st, 2010
“Maybe I’m not being clear enough. Maybe I need to be honest with you and tell you what I want. I want your soul to open up for me.”
Clive Barker’s name has been synonymous with horror for quite a long time. Along with Steven King, there is likely not another name out there that has been responsible for so much written terror. His stories have sold hundreds of millions of copies and inspired many films and television projects. He’s been called the modern Edgar Allan Poe, and when you witness something so frightening at its very base as Dread happens to be, it isn’t hard to understand how he came by that kind of a reputation.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 25th, 2010
If you are a regular reader here, you know I’m not much for the romantic comedy department. I tried to pass this one off on the rest of the staff but couldn’t find a taker. We finally got a woman to review this stuff, but not even she was enthused enough about this title to take it on. This experience is pretty typical when it comes to Did You Hear About The Morgans. With a $58 million budget and a $30 million gross at the box office, it would seem that a lot of folks took a pass on the movie. In less than 4 weeks it dropped from nearly 3000 screens across the fruited plain to just about 500.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 17th, 2010
“There’s two kinds of people in this world when you boil it all down. You’ve got your talkers and you’ve got your doers. Most people are just talkers. All they got is talk. But, when all is said and done, it’s the doers who change the world. And, when they do that, they change us. And, that’s why we never forget them.”
And while The Boondock Saints never did bring in box office gold (heck, it didn’t even bring in Box Office aluminum) like the characters in the film, they were not forgotten.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 17th, 2010
In 1952 pioneering animator Osamu Tezuka’s manga series ignited a cultural phenomenon in Japan that has now reached worldwide acclaim: anime. Astro is a beloved pop culture figure that is finally getting wider recognition with younger audiences thanks to 2009’s feature film Astro Boy. Set in a future where Earth has endured years of abuse and pollution, one city decided to improve their quality of life. Metro City hovers far above Earth’s surface, but shares little similarities. Robots have been designed to take over the menial, mundane jobs they can’t be bothered to do themselves.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on March 14th, 2010
The flesh-eating plague from the first film is still spreading and turning teens into gurgling vomitarioms of puss and blood. This film takes place a few short seconds after the first one as we see the original hero explode onto the front of a school bus right before the title sprawls across the screen, which then leads to a cute animation explaining how the tainted water has been bottled and shipped to a high school in a neighbouring town. From there we have a slight love-triangle story that is peripheral to the fountains of gore that fill the screen.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 15th, 2010
I have absolutely no doubt that Hilary Swank meant well, but we all know what wise men say about good intentions. It is likely that Amelia Earhart has been a hero and inspiration to the young actress as I know she’s been to women of all professions throughout the years. There’s no question that she is an influential historical figure and deserving of attention. Of course, she’s had plenty over the years. There have actually been quite a few films and television shows dedicated to the heroine since her disappearance so many years ago.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on February 15th, 2010
This film chronicles the career of Maurice “The Rocket” Richard, an NHL player for the Montreal Canadians, from his childhood days in a Junior hockey league, to the season in 1955 where his suspension from playing for the remainder of that season led to violent riots in Montreal. This film is more than just an examination of Richard as a French-Canadian citizen and legendary hockey player (many still argue as the greatest ever to play) but also a look at his impact as an icon and living legend to the people of Quebec.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on February 15th, 2010
“The Man Who Cannot Die”, better known as the Phantom was created by Lee Falk in 1936. The comic strip runs until this day, despite the creator dieing more than ten years ago. The Phantom was a costumed crimefighter that lived in the country of Bengalla. Bengalla was fictional but located in Africa. In 1996, they finally decided to create a movie based on the comic strip to find out what the “Ghost Who Walks” would do on the big screen.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on February 8th, 2010
Recently, my parents moved to Tennessee in their attempt to enjoy retirement. We actually lived there about six months when I was in the 8th grade. So, apparently there was something in the water that made them want to go back. After the movie Glitter, I never wanted to see anything with Mariah Carey that involved anything where she actually had to speak. For some reason, I also came back to Tennessee.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 31st, 2010
There’s a quote by author Kent Nerburn that says: “It is much easier to become a father than to be one.” The Boys Are Back, based on a memoir by Simon Carr, is the best example of that sentiment on film that I’ve personally seen in a few years. Clive Owen plays sportswriter Joe Warr. He’s good at becoming a father, but not at being one. His one-the-go job keeps him from spending any real quality time with his family, leaving his wife Katy (Laura Fraser) to raise their son Artie (Nicholas McAnulty). When Katy becomes fatally ill, Joe must step up to the plate to take care of his 6-year-old son.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 29th, 2010
Metaphors are often effective tools in filmmaking. They can be used in a variety of unique and clever ways to either highlight a particular aspect of story and/or character. They can be used to add an artistic flourish to a movie. They can even be used to drive a plot, if you’re careful enough to avoid becoming too abstract. Then there are films like The Burning Plain which attempt to create a film that is metaphor itself. What you often end up with, and certainly here, is something difficult to follow and more acceptable at the festival circuit than at the box office
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 21st, 2010
“In the early 1930’s Adolph Hitler and his inner circle became obsessed with the occult, believing that the black arts were the key to their plan for world domination. Nazi agents traveled the globe in search of ancient Nordic relics known as rune stones. They believed if they harnessed the power of these stones, nothing could stop the march of the master race. The symbols inscribed in these stones were said to describe the path to immortality. Almost a century later, the nightmare has awakened.”
We’ve heard of these fantasies of Hitler’s before.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 20th, 2010
Sylvester Stallone returned to his roots with 1993’s Cliffhanger. No, I’m not talking about his iconic Rocky role here. I’m talking about his ancestral roots. The movie was filmed high in the Italian Alps to achieve many of these incredible vistas and the snow capped mountains. Believe it or not, this was June at the location, and several of the crew were stranded for a time because of a sudden and powerful blizzard.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 19th, 2010
“The price of love is to expect the pain of loss. Maybe it’s some kind of divine punishment to have the ones we love pay the cost of our own sins. The real punishment is being alone the rest of our days hoping to forget and praying for change to come again.”
We’ve all seen our share of film heroes whose journeys are hard-fought paths to redemption. There’s nothing particularly original in the concept. Writers from Homer to Shakespeare have explored the material.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 13th, 2010
“Have you ever felt like you were a little bit different. Like you had something unique to offer to the world, if only you could just get people to see it? Then you know exactly how it felt to be me.”
The title is taken from a very short children’s book written by Judi and Ron Barrett. I say the title and not the story because this movie takes only the most basic concept from the book to create the movie. Most of the characters are brand new creations, and the plot of the entire film deals with events not covered in the book.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on January 4th, 2010
On February 11th, 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from the Victor Verster Prison is often seen as the symbolic end of apartheid in the country of South Africa. However, the apartheid was not fully removed until the elections of 1994. Furthermore, the story was way more complex than the African National Congress leader’s freedom. The story that was more focused on Willie Esterhuyse, Thabo Mbeki and Michael Young. These names might seem foreign to most of us, but they are perhaps three of the most important names to the recent history of South Africa.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 23rd, 2009
Kate Frazier (Kelly Macdonald) has fled her abusive husband and begun a new, solitary life for herself in Chicago, where she fends off the romantic interest of a number of men, and the curiosity of a great many people who all want to know how she received her black eye. One night, leaving the office, she sees a man about to jump from a building roof, and her scream startles him, breaking his suicidal trance. The man is Frank Logan (Michael Keaton), a contract killer. No longer interested in killing himself, he tracks down Kate, initially intending to kill her, since (though she doesn’t realize this), she saw him moments after a hit. He collapses with pneumonia before he can carry out his plan, and she helps him to the hospital, whereupon a most unlikely relationship begins to bloom between two wounded people.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 20th, 2009
Host Tom Cavanaugh takes us for a tour of the some of the lesser known or rarely seen corners and byways of the Smithsonian Institution. The tone is breezy and mildly irreverent, and the exhibits encountered are unfailingly interesting. The episodes this season are “Let’s Eat!”, “Top Secret,” “Nature’s Vault,” “Crystal Ball,” “Going, Going, Gone,” “Sex 101” and “Villains and Rogues.” The episodes are actually even less specific than the titles might suggest (and they already grant a fair bit of freedom to jump from topic to topic). Thus, “Villains and Rogues” looks at a couple of, well, rogues, and then having Cavanaugh refer to them as snakes is enough of a segue for the episode to suddenly shift its attention to – you guessed it – actual snakes.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 8th, 2009
“When the lights go off the battle is on.”
Sequels are a dangerous business. They’ve gotten the best of some of the biggest heroes. Just ask Indiana Jones, Luke Skywalker, or Neo. Expectations are always going to be high. You’ve already shown us what you can do. We assume you did your best on the original film, now go and do better. Often filmmakers interpret this mandate to just make it bigger. More explosions and hard hitting action and special effects. They tend to remember everything but the story. I’m happy to say that Night At The Museum refused to fall into that trap.
Read More
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 30th, 2009
My One And Only is based on a George Hamilton autobiographical story. It’s probably a tale that his fans know well. It wasn’t one I was at all aware of. The screenplay was written by Charlie Peters. Hamilton himself is a producer on the film, so we can assume that the story unfolds in much the same way he intended. Like most autobiographical pieces, it has a limited audience. Fans of the subject are certainly going to be quite interested. Others who consider the subject of some note might also have an interest in the material. Unfortunately, it’s like watching vacation or baby slides.
Read More
