Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 25th, 2009
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 24th, 2009
Paul Newman was born in 1925 near Cleveland, Ohio. He was an attendee of the world famous New York Actor’s Studio drama school in 1947. His first movie is included here, The Silver Chalice. The effort actually embarrassed him, and he took out an ad apologizing for the performance. It was looking like this young actor was going to disappear into obscurity in short order. Fortunately for moviegoers everywhere he decided to stick it out. He would deliver in the 1960’s and 1970’s some of the best movies ever made. His team ups with Robert Redford made for one of the best acting partnerships in film history. That’s what I’d like to see as a collection. Films like The Sting, All The President’s Men, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid would make the best collection
With the Acadamy Awards nearby, Warner Brothers decided to trot out a tribute to the recently deceased Paul Newman. Unfortunately they picked some of his worst, and certainly lesser known films to do the job. All of these films represent either an early point in Newman’s acting or directing career or as is the case with When Time Ran Out, a late career paycheck before Newman found out he could still do good films. None of these efforts represent his power films of the 1970’s.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 24th, 2009
Escape To Chimp Eden tastes a lot like Orangutan Island. Both shows deal with the rescue of captive abused primates. In both shows the animals are taken to a rehabilitation center where the goal is to teach the animals basic survival skills. The hope is that they might one day return to the wild and be able to survive and socialize with other wild primates. That’s about as far as the similarities go, however. In Orangutan Island, the show is very much about the apes themselves and their growing skills. In Chimp Eden, however, the spotlight is almost always on the incredibly melodramatic Eugene Cussons. This guy could give William Shatner lessons in overacting.
In the show’s opening credits, Cussons announces that he once intended to have a “normal” life. He considered being a software “king”, whatever that is, and settle into a 9-5 job. However he was so touched by images of abused and neglected chimps in captivity that he felt a calling to perform these self-described rescue “missions”. First of all, my wife is an IT person, and I don’t know who told Cussons it was a 9-5 job, because it most certainly is not. If it is, someone forgot to fill my wife’s employers in on that rule. You IT folks should feel just a tad insulted here. I was, and I’m not even an IT guy. Anyway, Cussons walks around treating these “missions” as if he were James Bond on some dangerous espionage case. At many points he turns to the camera and tells us how exhausted he is now. He looks mentally shot in almost every frame he’s in. The man’s a drama queen in the extreme. In one frame he has to lift the door on a transfer cage, and then let it drop. That’s all he has to do. When he’s done he sprawls out over the cage, wiping imaginary blood and sweat from his face, and tells us how he’s drained and exhausted. He refers to one place where he keeps a couple of chimps until he can get his paperwork in order as a “Chimp Safe House”, then he shows us how he has to let the owner know all about chimp care. Apparently this was the first case for that safe house. He details his paperwork efforts as if he were Indiana Jones trying to get to the Holy Grail. He has no respect for the humans he interacts with. He constantly condescends and yells at them, telling them “I’m giving the orders here”. If you have a low tolerance for this kind of showboating, “watch me suffer for my work” mentality, this show will wear thin for you before you really get to see the chimps in action at all.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on February 23rd, 2009
There are many shows out there that never make it past the original pilot episode. Most of them fail because there isn’t anything original about the plot or perhaps the cast chosen isn’t strong enough to bring out a good character. Heck, it could even be as trivial as the locale chosen to whether or not the network executives give it a nod. So the question remains, what exactly happens to these pilots that either fail or haven’t been picked up yet for next season? They get released on dvd. A little publicity never hurts.
Joseph Armstrong (played by Keith David) is the head of the SIS, the Special Investigation Section. The SIS is a secret department of the Los Angeles Police Department that seeks out the worst of the worst habitual offenders and brings them to justice. One way or another. After one of the squad dies in a violent gunfight, Assistant Chief Armstrong needs to find a replacement, one that won’t cause anymore problems and won’t make mistakes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 21st, 2009
Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies is a reliable piece of filmmaking exemplary of the great director’s ability to make a tensely watch-able film, even if said film isn’t his best work. Such is the case with this Leonardo DiCaprio-Russell Crowe-led action-thriller that focuses on the post-Iraqi invasion conflict. DiCaprio’s Roger Ferris is left with those little pieces of death that have proven so much more dangerous after the old regime was toppled by U.S. forces, and he seems fine with it.More at home is he in the Middle East because control always seems to be within his grasp. It’s when that control is threatened by the meddling of Washington, D.C., bureaucrats that he finds it difficult to function.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 20th, 2009
“Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality. But, there is, unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real but not so brightly lit, a darkside.”
I have been waiting a long time for this release. Tales From The Darkside. Not since the likes of Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits has there been a really good sci-fi/horror anthology until 1984’s Tales. Not to say that each episode was a winner. In fact, most were pretty weak and relatively lame, but when this show was good, it was very good. These tales weren’t any ordinary specter spectaculars, but were told by spectacular story writers, directors, and producers. Look at just this first season and you’ll find some of the top names in the field involved in one way or another. You’ll see the likes of: Stephen King, Tom Savini, George Romero, Robert Bloch, Frank De Palma, and Harlan Ellison. The tales often came with a twist or at least a big finale in the end. Much like a train’s headlight in a long tunnel; you might have seen it coming from a mile away, but it’s hard to avoid the impact.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 20th, 2009
There’s another Holiday on the horizon, and I’ll bet you know what that means. It means that we’ll be in for more Chipmunk adventure tied to the season. For the last year or so Paramount has been hard at work filling your Chipmunks addiction with these holiday themed releases. Easter will be no different as we get The Mystery Of The Easter Chipmunk. It’s no Great Pumpkin, but you can be sure to sink those buck teeth into more revved up Chipmunk mischief and trouble.
The Chipmunks began life oddly enough as a singing group, of sorts. They were the brainchild of struggling songwriter Ross Bagdasarian and were named after the three chief executives at Liberty records. His own alter ego David Seville’s name came from his World War II Army station in Spain. The Chipmunks first appeared in a 1958 record called The Witch Doctor, but wouldn’t officially become The Chipmunks until later that year when The Chipmunks Christmas Song was released. It is for that Christmas music that I most remember the group. They first appeared as puppets on The Ed Sullivan Show. Alvin and the boys got their own television show in 1961. When Ross died in 1972, the Chipmunks would continue on under the guidance of his son. In 1983 The Chipmunks had yet another popular cartoon show and had appeared in countless specials and films. Today they are pretty much a hallmark at the holidays, and a Christmas song collection just wouldn’t be complete without them.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 20th, 2009
In 2004 Morgan Spurlock released the controversial documentary Super Size Me. In the film he goes on a 30 day fast food only diet. His purpose was to alert the public of the danger to health the fast food industry has become. The film was more about the obesity problem in America and less about the evil McDonald’s Empire, but he makes several points which one might interpret as being pro-fast food regulation. Spurlock became somewhat of a cult figure among the health conscious crowd and was considered a hero, of sorts. It appears he suffered severe kidney and liver problems during the diet, but soldiered on.
Along comes Tom Naughton, who found some faults with that film. So, Tom decides to go on a 30 day fast food diet as well. The difference is that he will pay attention to his calorie, fat, and carb intake and attempt to eat somewhat sensibly during that month. Tom has somewhat better results that Spurlock did. He actually lost weight, reduced his fat count, and improved his cholesterol situation, making his physician a little unhappy at what he was proving. Is Tom Naughton saying that eating a full slate of fast food is good for you? No, that’s not his point. He’s really preaching personal responsibility. He makes that point by spending an entire day hanging around the outside of fast food restaurants, waiting for someone to drag him inside and force him to eat. Obviously, that doesn’t happen. He also films a segment where a McDonald’s employee asks the age old question, “Would you like fries with that”, to which Naughton replies, “No”. He shows the feigned surprise when the employee accepts his answer. The point, again, is that no one is forcing you to eat anything you don’t want to eat. He challenges Spurlock’s contention that these chains make it hard to get the nutritional information on the food. It turns out that most provide it right there. If not, every single chain provides it on their web site. No computer, you say. Naughton shows us just how easy it is to use one at the local library. Still too hard? He went to his small town’s smallest bookstore and found 5 books in short time that published the information.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 19th, 2009
“You’ve got Samuel L. Jackson. You’ve got Bernie Mac. Just turn on the camera and I guarantee you got something you can keep.”
During an August weekend in the past summer of 2008 the entertainment world lost two of it’s brightest stars in just two days. On August 9th comedian extraordinaire Bernie Mac died from complications of pneumonia. The Mac-Man, as his friends liked to call him, was little more than 50 years old. Just a few hours after Bernie Mac passed, on August 10th legendary soul man Isaac Hayes also died. Hayes was 10 days shy of his 66th birthday. This was certainly a tragic weekend for the entertainment community, but the unlikely coincidence is made somewhat bittersweet by the fact that both men appeared together in what would be one the final appearances by both performers. That movie was the comedy Soul Men. To make the coincidence carry further, that film would have as its main plot point the idea of getting to the funeral of a soul legend, recently passed away.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 19th, 2009
It all starts with antique dealer Uncle Lewis. He made a deal with the devil to help His Evilness to distribute cursed and evil objects through his store. Objects included Jack The Ripper’s scalpel. Finally Satan comes to collect Uncle Lewis and his tattered soul, leaving his niece Micki (Robey) to clean up the mess. She and cousin Ryan (Le May) have the unenviable task of tracking down these items and sealing them safely away so they can do no more harm. They were often assisted in their task by Jack (Wiggins) who knew something of the occult. The series ran from 1987 to 1990 and never made more than a ripple in the ratings. The show included Steve Monarque as Johnny Ventura in this second season.
We pretty much pick up where the previous season left off. Uncle Lewis might have been defeated and killed, but Lewis had enchanted a mirror before he died, allowing him to open a portal to Hell and escape. So it’s back to tracking down the artifacts and getting them all returned. Artifacts this season included a voodoo mask, antique radio, violin bow, make-up case, handkerchief, pocket watch, World Series ring, pendant, snow globe, and snow shoes.
