Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 29th, 2008
Visits – “an anthology of bone-chilling horror”? Well, it has its moments, I will say that. The most effective scenes are the ones that don’t call attention to the scare elements. Scenes that involve one or two little things out of the ordinary that don’t smack you in the face, but actually force a double-take in considering what it was you just saw
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 22nd, 2008
Let me begin by saying that I was a child of the 1970’s, which tends to make me approach these era shows with some caution. After such shows as That 70’s Show, to name the likely most popular, I find myself not recognizing the setting as the same 70’s I remember living. Granted I was pretty young, so the subject of swingers and sexual revolution were not exactly part of my everyday culture.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 22nd, 2008
This modern retelling of the classic fairy tale is brought to you by a division of the Jim Henson Company called Unstable Fables. I think that whoever came up with this idea is the unstable part. This is actually causing me some pain to write. I never thought the day would come when I would be totally disgusted by a Jim Henson labeled release.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 22nd, 2008
When I was a lot younger, I took a particular fancy to two martial art superstars: Raphael of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Hong Kong Phooey. There was also another guy running around at that time named Jean Claude Van Damme. Two of his first movies namely Bloodsport and Kickboxer solidified him as a complete badass and eventually landed him a role in Street Fighter: The Movie as Guile. Eventually when he started making duds such as Double Team& Knock-Off, most people stopped watching his high flying kicks. Soon Van Damme was headed for the direct to dvd releases. One of those movies was the 2003 release, In Hell.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 22nd, 2008
Power Rangers come, Power Rangers go. By the time Power Rangers: Jungle Fury had come into existence, some incarnation of Power Rangers had been around for sixteen seasons. The series however was unique due to two qualities. The first was that it centered on three Power Rangers where as other series typically encountered five. The second differentiating characteristic was that it was written during the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Written by non-union writers, would the series still have the appeal that the Power Ranger shows had in prior runs?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 20th, 2008
The box art on this film promises: “This campy splatterfest is 100% pure brainless fun”. Finally, truth in advertising. If you’re looking for anything else except what’s promised here, you really need to look elsewhere for some entertainment. But there is a place for this kind of thing, and if you’re willing to ask no questions, this movie will tell you no lies. I’m impressed that the makers of this movie never pretend to be anything else.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 20th, 2008
Since the dawn of The Animal Planet we’ve seen an entire genre created around using real animal footage and providing a human story to go with it. In Meerkat Manor we are provided with a dramatic narration substituting human motivations for the actual activities captured by the film crew. In other instances voice over techniques are used to make the animals appear to talk. Movies like the Buddies series utilize this technique. With the help of a little CG, the animals appear to be speaking. In the case of Elephant Tales, however, there isn’t any effort to match the dialog to lip movement;
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 20th, 2008
To me, the Power Rangers phenomenon was always a hard one to figure. Here we have a kids’ show featuring heroes and villains that look like they’ve escaped from a Ninja S&M Bar. Much like Ninja movies I have reviewed in the past – see my review for Ninja Collection Volume One: 10 Feature Film Set – these six episodes of Power Rangers Jungle Fury: Way of the Master share identical plotlines with subtle variations thrown in here and there for good measure.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 18th, 2008
What ever happened to Shawn Mullins?
I often mull over this question whenever I hear him sing, “Ev-e-ry thing’s gonna be all right… Rockabye! Rockabye!” on the radio. The dude lands in the late nineties with this song that has maybe the most unimaginative chorus in the history of pop music, and then he bolts on us, leaving that small remnant to get stuck in our collective heads for the rest of our humdrum lives.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 18th, 2008
The Longshots is one of those sports films that in many ways you see coming from miles away. It certainly feeds upon that against all odds sports cliché that you’ve likely seen a hundred times if you’ve seen it once. But in so many other ways, this is a story with more than a champion’s heart and courage. In many ways it’s about family and redemption. While the film is based loosely on the story of Jasmine Plummer,
