Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 26th, 2024
"Good to be back. We knew all along that everyone back home from the President on down was behind us 100%. It was God and faith in our families that kept us going. Speaking for myself, I'd like to say that the whole experience has made a better man, a better officer, and a better American out of me. Thank you very much."
It started in the 1970's just as the long and costly war in Vietnam was finally coming to a close. The conscience of the American people shifted from trying to stop the war to the soldiers who were now coming home and mourning the ones who didn't. There was also this group that fell somewhere in between. It took a long time to get the North Vietnamese to even acknowledge the number of POW's still held in captivity and the push was to bring them home. Suddenly Hollywood was on the bandwagon, and there appeared the war sub-genre that focused on these returnees, particularly those held prisoner. Films Like Missing In Action brought the subject to the front of moviegoers' attention, and other films like The Deer Hunter gave us a look at the psychological damage many returned to be haunted by. One writer who had already reached into that dark place of the mind was Paul Schrader, who penned Taxi Driver. His followup, which was actually intended to link to Taxi Driver, was Rolling Thunder, and while not the same level of classic cinema, it's an important film that Shout Factory has allowed us a detailed look at with the release of Rolling Thunder on UHD Blu-ray in 4K.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 25th, 2024
by Joshua Nuances
"I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me. Years ago we had the church. That was only a way of saying - we had each other. The Knights of Columbus were real head-breakers; true guineas. They took over their piece of the city. Twenty years after an Irishman couldn't get a f$#@&% job, we had the presidency. May he rest in peace. If I got one thing against the black chappies, it's this - no one gives it to you. You have to take it."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 14th, 2024
"You know your weapons. It's a lever-action breech-loader. Usual barrel length's thirty inches. This one has an extra four. It's converted to use a special forty-five caliber, hundred-and-ten-grain metal cartridge, with a five-hundred-forty-grain paper patch bullet. It's fitted with double-set triggers, and a Vernier sight, marked up to twelve-hundred yards. This one shoots a mite further."
It almost happened again. Lightning almost hit Tom Selleck for a second time, and I don't mean in a good way. Tom Selleck was having fun and a tremendous amount of success playing Magnum P.I. on television. It was a character he got on the strength of a recurring character on The Rockford Files, and it was a huge hit. But in 1981 it didn't seem so much like a blessing. Casting calls went out, and he was approached to play an archaeologist trying to beat the Nazis to some kind of a McGuffin or another. The Magnum commitment kept him from taking the role, and it went to Harrison Ford, who turned it iconic. But Selleck still had Magnum. Then a few years later he was approached to play an American sharpshooter in the Aussie Outback but once again had to turn the role down. That was 1984, and Warner Brothers was working on a John Hill script called Quigley Down Under. There were some delays, and the film ended up leaving Warner Brothers for MGM and losing director Lewis Gilbert for Simon Wincer. With that kind of turnaround issues, the film took until nearly 1990 to go into production. By then Magnum was off the air, and he checked in on that film again to find it had a new staff and new life, and yes, it was still available. Selleck finally got his swashbuckling part, but it's really more Pale Rider (Eastwood) than Indiana Jones, and the new director would later know more than a little bit about Indiana Jones when he went on to direct several episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. He would also return to the outback with the last Crocodile Dundee film, so this ended up being one heck of a circle. And in 1990 we got to check out Quigley Down Under.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on March 13th, 2024
"They say everybody's good at something. Me? I talk to fish. That's how I met my friend, Storm. He's always there when I need a lift. Some people think that makes me a joke, But I don't care. You know why? 'Cause I'm also good at something else: breaking heads ... I'm Aquaman."
This film release marks the end of the DCEU as we know it (also known as the Snyder-verse). The DCEU has been an interesting ride to say the least, full of ups and downs. And while it never truly challenged Marvel with their multi-phased game plan, it did provide unique opportunities that gave some deserving talents a platform to showcase their abilities. Momoa was one of them. For me, his casting was among the most unique and triumphant. When he was first announced, I had to take a hard look at that decision, as it went against the grain as far as traditional casting for Arthur Curry went. However, it is difficult for me to imagine anyone else who could have brought the same kind of life to the character. Momoa gave the character an exotic and wild-man energy that made for a very entertaining interpretation. Granted this at times made the character seem dimwitted, making his path to the throne seem all the more unlikely. On the other hand, the character was intended to struggle and chafe under the pressure of the crown, thus making Momoa’s performance believable.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by John Delia on March 1st, 2024
When Contagion was released in 2011, it was considered a horror film, more a flight of fancy than anything else. It wasn't a great box office winner. But in 2019 all of that changed as we lived through the pandemic that was mere science fiction before then. Looking back at the film, it becomes a game of what they eerily got right and what was far off the mark. Much of the world disaster element, thankfully, never came through, but in hindsight it is quite surreal the things the film did get right. The idea of a therapy drug possibly being downplayed by the government and an internet guy trying to drive those discords. The fear of a quickly-created vax also looks very much like what is still playing out in the world today. The film depicted a nasal vax that I wish had been true. The film avoided much of the political fallout, but you really must see this film in a post-COVID world.
Slick, compelling, and gripping, Contagion uses the fright brought on by past outbreaks of deadly virus attacks around the world to punch home a ‘what if’ plot that succeeds in scaring the pants off accepting moviegoers. The recognizable actors save the plot from being hard to follow as it jumps from country to country in this thriller that ‘could actually happen’.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 19th, 2024
"You are now the property of Erewhon Prison. A citizen of nowhere. The Geneva Convention is void here; Amnesty International doesn't know we exist. When I say your ass belongs to me, I mean exactly that."
I am a huge John Woo fan, especially his earlier classics like Hard Boiled. I’ll admit it’s been several years since I last seen Face/Off, but I don’t have a reason why, as I remember really liking this movie then. At either rate now I have a copy of the movie to call my own, and a special two disc release at that. Let’s just hope that it is what I remember, but as a big fan of Nick Cage I don’t think I’ll be let down. In order to catch him, he must become him. I couldn’t put it any better myself, Face/Off tells quite the eccentric story of revenge, devotion, and of course crime. Sean Archer (John Travolta, Wild Hogs) is an extremely devoted FBI agent, obsessed with catching terrorist Castor Troy (Nicholas Cage, Ghost Rider). Several years earlier Troy killed Archer’s son, since then it’s been his goal in life to put Troy to justice. He gets the opportunity one day when Troy ends up in a coma after boasting about a massive terrorist attack he has planned on Los Angeles.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 17th, 2024
"I know what you're thinking. "Pain is coming. Will I take it like a man?" Well, let me put you at ease. You won't -- but none of them do. Men, women, children, they all weep, they all beg, they pass out, they piss themselves, they attempt negotiation. You wouldn't believe how many men I've seen lying right where you're lying right now, grown men with wives and children at home, offering all kinds of sexual gratification for a five-minute reprieve. It's pathetic."
Suspect Zero follows the contradictory teacher/student relationship between serial killer Benjamin O’Ryan (Ben Kingsley) and FBI Agent-in-Pursuit Tom Mackelway (Aaron Eckhart, sporting as much chin as Bruce Campbell). O’Ryan is a tormented refugee of a government program to tap psychic powers for military intelligence, and Mackelway is a borderline-rogue agent, tormented by visions and headaches. Without letting slip any spoilers, the movie sees O’Ryan draw their paths together in pursuit of justice for himself, his victims, and Mackelway.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on December 14th, 2023
“Let’s go get the s**t kicked out of us by love.”
It’s hard for me to accept that Love Actually is really 20 years old already. I remember being a projectionist when this came out and splicing the film together back when movies were actually shown on film. When I first saw the film, it was after hours in the movie theater, and we had to screen the movies the day before release to make sure it was put together properly, and I was with my girlfriend at the time, so it was just us in the auditorium, and from that moment on I was in love with this film. I’ve seen the film well over a dozen times through different phases of my life, and each experience it hits a little differently, but I still come away from this film feeling a bit schmaltzy and in the Christmas spirit. For those of you who have missed out on this classic and are wondering just what is so great about this sentimental British love fest, the movie is written and directed by Richard Curtis; this would be his first time directing, but he had previously made a name for himself after writing Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Bridget Jones Diary. These were a trio of films that American audiences were ravenous about and basically set up Love Actually to become an instant success, but I don’t think anyone was ready for just how charming and heartwarming this film would actually turn out to be.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 11th, 2023
As I have mentioned numerous times, I am not a fan of horror movies. In particular, my number one pet peeve is jump scares. Now, for certain scary movies, I'll allow one good jump scare; it almost goes with the territory. But if the director has to use one every fifteen minutes, my heart does not need that much of a workout, and I am going to avoid it very quickly. This is mostly reserved for American movies, quite often on their fifth sequel. However, Korean horror flicks know how not to use the jump scare and instead focus on making things as gruesome and disturbing as humanly possible. Or inhumanly, perhaps. Today, we take on a modern horror classic in the 2016 film, The Wailing as it makes its way on 4K UHD disc. Let's take a look and see if the ol' ticker can handle this one.
We get a Bible passage to start out this movie, it's from Luke 24:37-39 and basically describes the resurrection of Jesus. The important part of this passage is two fold, in that the people had doubts that he was resurrected and that he resurrected physically as opposed to as a spirit. Let's continue.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 9th, 2023
"Space...the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its 5-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before!"
Since the relaunch of Star Trek on television via the Paramount+ streaming service, I must admit to being a little underwhelmed. It's truly bad when Alex Kurtzman makes me pine for the days of Rick Berman. There have been some pretty good moments in the various new Trek shows. Picard has shown promise and has improved with a third season that looks very exciting. Lower Decks is just too campy for my taste, and Discovery has so many ups and downs I feel like I'm on a rollercoaster. So along comes Strange New Worlds, and this is the Star Trek I've been waiting for these last decades.
