Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 21st, 2025
"This is a true story. It happened right here in my home town two years ago. A lot of people die in a lot of weird ways in this story. But you're not going to find it in the news or anywhere like that, because the police and the top people in this town were, like so embarrassed that they weren't able to solve it that they covered everything up. But if you come here and ask anyone, they'll tell you the same thing I'm gonna tell you now. It started in my school ... At 2:17 in the morning, every kid woke up, got out of bed, walked downstairs, and into the dark ... and they never came back."
Some people may think I’m crazy, but as a lifelong horror fan, I feel right now we are in the Golden Age of horror cinema. When you look at the box office this year and last, horror has simply been a dominant force, and I’m loving it. What’s even better is that it is new material that is raking in the money rather than seeing tired retreads of IPs that have been exhausted over and over again. Sinners, though it wasn’t my cup of tea, dominated the box office, and even though I’m not the film’s biggest fan, I still like seeing horror rake in the money. I’m loving that we’re getting all kinds of horror lately, where an indie slasher like Terrifier is going to be featured at Halloween Horror Nights, and we’re getting all sorts of experimental horror. For instance, later this year we’ll get Goodboy, a paranormal story told through the perspective of a dog. (Sure, it sounds silly, but I’m all for it.) This brings me to Barbarian. For me this has been my favorite horror film in the past five years, and that’s saying a lot, because there has been A LOT of good horror lately. From the moment I heard about Zach Cregger’s next film, Weapons, it immediately shot to the top of my list of most anticipated films. Now that the film has finally come out, is it worth the wait and the hype that surrounds it?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 17th, 2025
You often hear it said that Tom Cruise is the hardest working actor in Hollywood. I don't want to take anything away from Cruise, but I'd like to nominate Bob Odenkirk for the title. Yes, that Bob Odenkirk from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul fame. He's been wanting to do an action film through most of his career, and it would appear to have been a rather farfetched idea at best. But he buddied up to the guys at 87North and 87Eleven Productions. Those are the stunt folks who brought us films like the John Wick series. They didn't laugh at the idea. So Odenkirk trained for four years starting in 2017 to build up his body and learn to do all of those action stunts. The reward came in 2021 with the release of Nobody. It was an action/comedy that gave us the kind of stuff you might expect from a John Wick group. The film didn't make money because it was released while most folks were staying away from places like the local movie theater because of the COVID pandemic. Later the film caught fire on streaming and home video release, and so a sequel was a no-brainer. Except that Bob Odenkirk, while filming the final season of Better Call Saul, suffered a major heart attack that stalled that production and would appear to negate any chance of the actor going through that much physical punishment ... except it didn't. The actor went full speed ahead, and the result is Nobody 2, now out on UHD Blu-ray in 4K from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, and you should check both films out if you're new to this franchise.
In the first film we're introduced to Odenkirk's Hutch Mansell. He's stuck in a dreary cookie-cutter daily existence. He works for his father-in-law as an accountant, and his family pretty much ignores him. To make it worse, he is embarrassed when his house is invaded one night and his son is tougher than he is. Now the world looks at him as if he were a wimp. But that's exactly what he wants the world to think ... or does he? In the military he was an auditor, hence the current bookkeeping job. But when he goes to face the crooks who terrorized his family he ends up walking into a busload of Russian mobsters terrorizing a city bus. We soon discover that he has mad fighting skills and that auditor job in the military didn't have anything to do with bookkeeping or numbers. He was an assassin for the government and now they've forced him to show his hand. He ended up burning the mob's $30 million stash and that ends up being another problem.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 16th, 2025
"Good evening, Ethan. This is your president. Since you won't reply to anyone else, I thought I'd reach out directly. First, I want to thank you for a lifetime of devoted and unrelenting service; were it not for the tireless dedication of you and your team, the Earth would be a very different place. It might not even be here at all. Every risk you've taken, every comrade you've lost in the field, every personal sacrifice you made, has brought this world another sunrise. It's been 35 years since circumstances brought you to us and you were given the choice -- since the IMF saved you from a life in prison. And though you never followed orders, you never let us down. You were always the best of men in the worst of times. I need you to be that man now."
I imagine this is how it happened. It's January of 2019, and Tom Cruise has just popped into the bathroom to shave. He opens up that can of Barbasol just to make sure there isn't any dinosaur DNA left in the can, but as he takes off the cap, an authoritative voice begins to speak: “Good morning, Mr. Cruise. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to make a two-part film of the Mission Impossible franchise. It won't be easy. That's why only the IMF team can be counted on to complete this task. There are agents out to stop you before you even get started. In China there is a virus code-name COVID, and this virus will spread to pandemic levels just as you're starting to get your production crew together. Elements within our own government will take measures to shut you down. Delays will cost an extra $100 million and necessitate crucial cast changes. They'll be serious injuries, and your release date will be July of 2021 ... I mean November of 2021 ... Would you believe May of 2022? ... Let's shoot for July 14, 2023. You will have to deal with nefarious crew members who will attempt to sabotage the project by standing closer than two meters apart. You may use over-the-top rants to attempt to intimidate these factions into compliance. Beware that said rants don't end up released by the press to the world. Somehow through all of these challenges you must create a pair of Mission Impossible films that will be bigger and better than anything that came before. And remember, Tom, if your film fails to bring in a billion or more, the studio will disavow your team, and your movie will go straight to streaming ... or worse, get shelved as a tax write-off. Good luck, Tom. This message will self-destruct in five seconds.” There's a swoosh of fog, and Tom Cruise is sitting in his bathroom with no shaving cream to complete his original task. I figure that's how it must have gone. And that was just for the first movie.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 26th, 2025
"Yes, this is Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California. It's about five o'clock in the morning. That's the Homicide Squad - complete with detectives and newspapermen. A murder has been reported from one of those great big houses in the ten thousand block. You'll read about it in the late editions, I'm sure. You'll get it over your radio and see it on television, because an old-time star is involved - one of the biggest. But before you hear it all distorted and blown out of proportion, before those Hollywood columnists get their hands on it, maybe you'd like to hear the facts, the whole truth. If so, you've come to the right party. You see, the body of a young man was found floating in the pool of her mansion - with two shots in his back and one in his stomach. Nobody important, really. Just a movie writer with a couple of 'B' pictures to his credit. The poor dope! He always wanted a pool. Well, in the end, he got himself a pool - only the price turned out to be a little high. Let's go back about six months and find the day when it all started."
The term "classic" is misused these days. I know many fellow critics who fall in love with too many films and rate them high with the idea they are going to be "classics". More times than not, in five years, let alone 50 or 75 years, no one has even heard of or remembered the movie. The truth is that kind of high-end designation can't be made for at least 20 years. I don't give out very many 5-disc ratings. Far less than anyone else on the site, and with literally thousands of more reviews to count. Sunset Blvd. is one of those films. If you're still quoting a film 75 years later? That's the very definition of a true classic, and Billy Wilder's film passes anyone's grade for that distinction. I know that IMDB presents the film as Sunset Boulevard, as do some of the film's posters. On screen and in the copyright filings for the movie it is Sunset Blvd., and that's how I will refer to it here.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 23rd, 2025
"Everybody deserves a second chance."
In some parts of the country there's a saying. If you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes. It'll change. That's exactly how I felt by the time my two hours watching M3GAN 2.0 was through. It was entertaining, to be sure, but I felt like I had been through about five movies before it was finally over. It's hard to imagine that is has been three years since we first met the robot/children's toy gone berserk, but it really has. It was my hope that everyone was just waiting until they had a great new idea before they trotted the killer doll out again. Most of the characters and actors who survived their first encounter with M3GAN returned for the sequel, with at least one of them being somewhat of a surprise appearance, and just like that first movie, you really have to be careful who you trust here, because killer dolls aren't the only things that are dangerous here. The humans can actually be a lot worse, and that just might be the point as M3GAN 2.0 gets a head start in the upcoming heated competition for the coming summer blockbuster season. We're just weeks away from a DC and Marvel one-two combination, but will M3GAN 2.0 survive the punches? Not likely, I'm afraid.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 11th, 2025
"I can guarantee your safety ... more or less."
Some things cannot be beat, and they sure as heck can't be repeated. An old vintage cola commercial used to tell us, "Ain't nothing like the real thing, baby." And Jurassic World Rebirth is going to do anything it can for 134 minutes to try and tell you that isn't true, but we know better, don't we? Anyone who has seen the original Jurassic Park has their favorite moments, but one scene has always stood out for me and so many other film fans I've spoken to. When the camera pans to that peaceful swamp pasture and you see tons of dinosaurs walking about without a care in the world. If you didn't know how to react there, Sam Neill as Dr. Grant showed you how. His expression matched ours, and it was a wonderful cinematic moment of magic and wonder. You can never repeat that ever again. No matter how many Jurassic franchise movies or any other dinosaur movies might attempt to bring you that single moment, they never will. And that's OK. There are moments in Jurassic World Rebirth were it is quite obvious that director Gareth Edwards attempts to repeat that moment. He telegraphs it particularly in a scene where we get a wide shot of dinosaurs and we hear that old John Williams theme, and Edwards is pulling hard on our heartstrings. Sorry, Gareth. It didn't happen for anyone there. It's not your fault. You did everything right. But, you see, Steven Spielberg already took us there, and we will never have it again, but truly, man, thanks so much for trying. You did deliver the best of the Jurassic World films and the best franchise film since the original. You're just going to have to settle for that.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 22nd, 2025
It would seem that ever since Hereditary came out in 2018, it kind of paved the way for the new sub-genre of horror, “grief-horror”, basically horror films that delve into the emotional horror of losing loved ones and the reckless attempts people may make to reach out to them in the afterlife. This isn’t subject matter most horror fans enjoy; for me I find an odd sense of comfort with these films. When Talk to Me came out, that film especially struck a nerve with me, and I absolutely loved that film from the first-time Australian filmmakers and brothers Danny and Michael Philippou. Talk To Me managed to bring something new to the supernatural genre, and the grief the main character was going through was very relatable for me, so of course I was going to be a little excited about what this duo would do next (at least before they tackled their sequel to Talk To Me). As it would turn out, I wouldn’t have to wait long for their next film, and Bring Her Back tackles the horror of grief in a manner that has stuck with me.
Bring Her Back wastes little time with setting the tone of the film as we see Andy (Billy Barratt) and his sister Piper (Sora Wong) return home to find their father dead in the shower. To further the trauma for the kids, a social worker intends to separate the siblings. Andy wants to have guardianship of his sister, but because he’s not quite 18, it isn’t allowed. After some desperate pleas by Andy, they allow him to stay at the foster parents’ home on the condition that he behaves himself. The relationship between Andy and Piper is very much the heart of this film. They are step-siblings, and because Piper is blind, Andy has played the role as her guardian for some time even before the passing of their father. The film really does a good job of establishing this bond early on, and it’s necessary, because once they get to the foster parents’ home, things definitely take a turn.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on May 20th, 2025
“Good evening, everybody! My name is Robbie Williams. This is my band, and for the next two hours, YOUR ASS IS MINE!”
I was really intrigued with the film’s concept. After all, every year musical biopics are released, and they can sometimes seem like they are all following the same blueprint, which, needless to say, makes it rather difficult for them to stand out. Better Man bucks that trend by instead of opting for an actor with a passing resemblance to the subject, rather depicting the subject as a chimpanzee, which was inspired by Robbie Williams’ own perception of himself as a "performing monkey". If that doesn’t make this film stand out, I don’t know what will. This also has the added benefit of allowing Williams to voice the character himself, which in my opinion adds a layer of authenticity to this biopic. After all, who better to tell their life story than the person themself?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 30th, 2025
"I'm not feeling motivated to be valuable to anyone but myself."
When Alex Kurtzman took over the television side of Star Trek, he started with Star Trek: Discovery. Michelle Yeoh played one of the better characters on the series. She started as a ship's captain and was soon killed off. But then the ship heads into the Mirror Universe, where Yeoh's character of Philippa Georgiou wasn't a Starfleet officer. She was the emperor of the Terran Empire. She ended up on our side of the looking glass and had some rather interesting stories. It turns out that almost from the beginning Yeoh had some ideas of a spin-off she hoped to do. That series was Section 31, which involved a black-ops agency within the Federation, and she thought our kind of evil emperor might be a perfect fit. Section 31 was first explored on Deep Space Nine during the Dominion Wars and was left alone for decades. Now it's back in the form of a Star Trek feature film instead of the series. Why the drastic change, you may ask? A lot of things happened since the idea was first proposed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 8th, 2025
"The thing I love about Valentine's Day is the expectation of the unexpected. That something magical could happen, and maybe that special someone will come back into your life and change its course for the better."
Valentine's Day is one of those Hallmark holidays that leave us with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. Unless, of course, you happen to be alone, or a member of the Bugs Moran gang in Chicago in 1929. So it really means a lot of things to a lot of people, but I really do question the use of that particular day for the setting for first-time director Jonathan Eusebio's action film Love Hurts. The Valentine's Day angle is pretty weak, and a think gimmick for what is basically a comic martial arts film that gives Vietnamese actor Ke Huy Quan his first starring role. The gimmick pretty much failed, and the film tanked after just a short time at the box office, bringing in a measly $15 million with a budget of over $18 million. Universal decided to give the movie a short turnaround, and it's now making its debut on UHD Blu-ray. If the film is going to pick up some extra cash, this is where it's going to happen, and arguably direct-to-video and streaming is likely where the film belonged all along.
