Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 13th, 2012
Most of us first heard about camel spiders in the early 1990's during the first Gulf War. Apparently, these 6-inch bugs were causing quite a stir with the troops and were responsible for as many horror stories as the war itself. We were told they were instantly deadly and could grow to enormous sizes in a matter of days. Rumors had it that the creatures were killing machines that roamed the Middle Eastern deserts feeding off camels of all things. Or humans if they got in the way.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on April 12th, 2012
- "I have a question for you. You're some random guy from the city, no one in the zoo community has ever heard of you. You know nothing about animals and you moved into a dump...why did you buy this place?"
- "Why not?"
Following the death of his beloved wife, Benjamin Mee does what any reasonable man would do under the same circumstances: he quits his job and moves his family into a zoo. I suspect you'll enjoy this movie a lot more if you simply shrug your shoulders and say, "Why not?"
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 12th, 2012
"They're gonna rock the boat"
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.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 11th, 2012
War Horse began life as a novel by Michael Morpurgo and went on to become a relatively successful Broadway play. I haven't read the book, and it's hard for me to imagine the material on the stage. But in the hands of Steven Spielberg there is little left to the imagination. This is definitely one of his most inspired films and contains some of the more beautiful and compelling images. That's saying a lot when you think about the many iconic images Spielberg has brought us
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on April 10th, 2012
Ben Affleck's dating life wreaked plenty of havoc on the moviegoing public during the early part of the 2000s. We all know about the infamous Gigli and Jersey Girl debacles with Jennifer Lopez. (It didn't even matter that J. Lo was barely in Jersey Girl — which actually has a few cute moments — or that the indefensible Gigli was just a deeply weird flick which happened to star two of the world's most famous, romantically-involved movie stars.) The film usually left off this dubious category is Bounce, a soggy romantic drama starring Affleck and former squeeze Gwyneth Paltrow.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on April 10th, 2012
“Don't you ever touch the sacrificial fluids... okey dokey?”
“Okey dokey” indeed; in 1985, director Josh Becker gathered his friends, including Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, and they shot Thou Shalt Not Kill… Except in Detroit around Campbell’s childhood home. Working with a microscopic budget, they created a tribute to the savage exploitation films of the sixties and seventies, full of bad lighting, crappy sets, leaden acting, cheap makeup gags, horrible dialog, and a certain goofy infectious fun.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 6th, 2012
"In the pantheon of predators, it's one of the greatest discoveries since the T-Rex: a snake 48 feet long, weighing in at 2,500 pounds. Uncovered from a treasure trove of fossils in a Colombian coal mine, this serpent is revealing a lost world of giant creatures. Travel back to the period following the extinction of dinosaurs and encounter this monster predator."
With a title like Titanoboa: Monster Snake you might be expecting the latest huge monster mash-up from Roger Corman
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 6th, 2012
The Killing began life as a Danish television series. We are used to seeing British shows reinvented for American audiences, but it's rare to find something from Danish television that someone found so compelling they decided to work it for the competitive American television landscape. It's no surprise that such an effort would find its way on cable rather than network television, where boundaries can really be pushed and explored.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 6th, 2012
Roman Polanski's seminal neo-noir finally makes it to Blu-ray. Gino has already handled the previous DVD release, so I'm going to turn the reins over to him for a while, then jump back in.
"Jake Gittes is a Chandler style detective with all of the trappings. From the office to the secretary and the cop friend, Gittes is a cliché. He appears to specialize in tracking down extramarital affairs. When he’s hired to keep an eye on a rich millionaire, the subject turns up dead, and maybe it wasn’t his wife at all who hired him. Gittes now must investigate to save his own hide. His investigation leads him to a corrupt water department taking advantage of a manufactured drought. His client has a dark secret that only complicates Gittes’ efforts.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 3rd, 2012
Wallace and Gromit is the brainchild of animator Nick Park. The British filmmaker tried for years to bring his clay creations alive, but on his own finished a mere 10 minutes in a little over two years. When he met up with Aardman Animations, he was teamed up with the creative talents he needed to make his dream come alive, and come alive these two characters did indeed. They’ve become an overnight sensation in the UK and now all over the world. I was introduced to the characters with the full length feature Wallace And Gromit In The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit.
