Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 7th, 2009
“In a time before many can remember, our planet faced its greatest challenge. A warlord named Piccolo came from beyond the stars, bringing darkness and chaos to our once peaceful world. Aided by his disciple Oozaru, the evil pair brought the human race to the brink of annihilation. Cities and countries crumbled beneath them. Countless lives were lost, but finally a group of brave warriors created the Ma Fu Ba, a powerful enchantment that imprisoned Piccolo deep with in the Earth. With his master captured, Oozaru disappeared and balance was slowly restored to our world. And so it has remained for thousands of years…until now.”
Let me begin by stating that I have not had more than a passing exposure to the hugely popular Dragonball anime works.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 3rd, 2009
“What is Echelon? It’s NSA’s central computer. It filters all global communications. Echelon’s a juggernaut. It can access any security system on the planet… Echelon’s been compromised.”
In 1948 British author George Orwell delivered a sobering science fiction novel about a future society where the State has become a parent figure to its people. It watches over everything that you say or do like a …big brother. That term originated with the novel 1984. The work has added such words as “big brother” and “Orwellian” to our lexicon. It was intended as warning against intrusions that weren’t yet possible.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 7th, 2009
I tend to wince a bit when I see these films that star wrestling names and are produced in conjunction with one of the WW A-Z’s. I’ve come to believe that WW means “Won’t Wow”. Along comes John Cena and this latest cooperative film, 12 Rounds. I have to say I was somewhat surprised to find that it was a pretty good action thriller, if a bit implausible. I’m willing to overlook certain aspects of inplauability, if you take me on a thrilling enough ride and try not to totally insult my intelligence. For the most part I found that to be the case here.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 1st, 2009
Released just in time for the global financial meltdown, this hymn to designer products features Isla Fisher, who demonstrated her comedic talent by stealing Wedding Crashers from both Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson – no small achievement. Here she plays Rebecca Bloomwood, a compulsive shopper who, while hoping to land a job working at a fashion magazine, accidentally finds herself hired on a columnist at the sister publication, a rather less glamorous financial mag. Her columns, couching financial advice in shopping metaphors, become a surprising hit, and sparks begin to fly with her editor (Hugh Dancy). Meanwhile, a relentless debt collector is dogging her heels.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 21st, 2009
“Donnie Darko was killed when a jet engine fell from the sky and crushed him while he was sleeping. The government never located the plane from which the engine fell, nor did they even admit the incident ever occurred. But that was just the beginning of the tragedy… and the mystery”
No truer words were ever spoken. First of all, this prologue is about as close to the original Donnie Darko film that this movie ever gets. S. Darko is indeed the beginning of a tragedy.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 11th, 2009
“Your life is defined by its opportunities... even the ones you miss.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of those great American writers from the classic age. In school most of us were required to read various works from the writer. For many students those works included The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. The original work is a mere 20 page short story. For the last 15 years Hollywood has made one attempt or another to bring the classic story to the screen. The closest anyone got was Ron Howard who expected to bring in John Travolta
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 6th, 2009
“Symbols are a language that helps us to understand our past. As the saying goes, a picture says a thousand words, but which words? Understanding our past determines actively our ability to understand the present. So, how do we sift truth from belief? How do we write our own histories, personally and culturally, and thereby define ourselves? How do we penetrate years, centuries of historical distortion to find the original truth? Tonight, that will be our quest.”
Conspiracies can be fun. We all buy into them to one degree or another.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 4th, 2009
As the times change, so do the plots of movies to stick with the time period. But in the same sense of keeping with the time period, the film usually sticks to an old theme. Take for example, the movie of Incendiary. There is the notion of terrorists, especially after 9/11 and this can show up in quite a few films like this one. However, throw in an old theme, let us say adultery. Then we string them together a plot line of what happens to a mother who has an adulterous affair and something that involves terrorists. Well then you hopefully have a hit movie on your hands. Or a giant waste of time.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 26th, 2009
His name is Craig, Daniel Craig. Love him or hate him, we have to accept the fact that this blue-eyed rather rugged sculpture of a man is the face of James Bond, now and for the foreseeable future. I’ll admit to being more of a nostalgic Bond fan, and have the image of Sean Connery forever etched into my brain as the quintessential 007. But, it’s not only the drastic change in appearance and demeanor that makes this a hard film for me to embrace. For the first time in the franchise’s 22 film and 35 year history we have a Bond movie that is a direct sequel of the previous one.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 4th, 2009
Is it me, or have we been getting a lot of talking animal movies of late? I suspect the use of the CG technology that exists today lends itself to this kind of film. You might even make the argument that it hasn’t really been any different than the talking animal cartoons that have been with us forever. It’s just that now we can make live action dogs, or any other creature, for that matter, appear to be talking in a fairly realistic way. And as far as the use of that technology, Beverly Hills Chihuahua certainly blends the CG and live action footage seamlessly enough. And while I can’t really find much fault with this movie, it just seems like I’ve seen and heard it all before, a little too often as of late.
![Dragonball: Evolution [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/dragonball-evolution-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Echelon Conspiracy [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/echelon-conspiracy-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![12 Rounds (+ Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/12-rounds-digital-copy-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Confessions of a Shopaholic (Two-Disc Special Edition + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/confessions-of-a-shopaholic-two-di-large.jpg)
![S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/s-darko-a-donnie-darko-tale-blu--large.jpg)
![The Curious Case of Benjamin Button [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-curious-case-of-benjamin-button-large.jpg)
![The Da Vinci Code (Two-Disc Extended Cut + BD Live) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-da-vinci-code-two-disc-extende-large.jpg)
![Quantum of Solace [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/quantum-of-solace-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Beverly Hills Chihuahua [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/beverly-hills-chihuahua-blu-ray-large.jpg)
