Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 10th, 2010
"From the dawn of time, we came, moving silently down through the centuries, living many secret lives, struggling to reach the time of The Gathering, where the few who remain will battle to the last. No one has ever known we were among you ...Until now."
We all want to believe that we're special. We fantasize that one day we'll discover that we aren't the mere mortal people we thought that we were. That we are actually some hidden royalty, or better yet, that we have extraordinary powers. Connor (Lambert) makes just such a discovery in the 16th century as he goes off to war with his brothers to defend his highlander homeland against invaders. He receives what should have been fatal wounds on the field of battle. But he quickly recovers from them. His family and village turn against him, believing such powers can only come from evil. He discovers that he is an Immortal and can only be killed by having his head removed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 8th, 2010
I'm not exactly sure what it is that audiences expected when Splice hit the box offices in June. I will have to admit that the trailers were not all that impressive. But I guess that most people didn't see what I saw when I looked at the early promotion for the film. I was fascinated by the appearance of the "creature", and the overall Frankenstein overtones were too much for me to resist. The movie compelled me from the first images and descriptions. Apparently, that wasn't the case in general. Splice tanked at the box office. It barely made $17 million. That's bad news, because the film cost $30 million to make. That figure is actually quite impressive. This was a small movie for one so ambitious. It looks like something that cost twice that to make. It didn't matter, in the end. You stayed away in droves. Back in June, you just might not have known any better. Lucky for you, my gentle reader, you have me to help to guide your home video purchases to get the most bang for your hard-earned buck. In this case, to also correct a serious miscarriage of justice. Splice is the best film you never saw.
Clive (Brody) and Elsa (Polley) are a husband-and-wife super-science team in the field of genetics. They work for a small pharmaceutical company where they develop designer life-forms in the hope of generating new drugs and compounds for the company to market. They are driven by William Barlow (Hewlett) to produce. When they do finally create a creature with drug potential, the company scraps any future gene-splicing. They want the couple to now focus on synthesizing the important compounds they can generate with the life they've already created. But the couple, particularly Elsa, wants to take their process to the next level. They want to incorporate human DNA in their experiments. Even though the company has closed them down, they continue in secret. The result of their undercover work is Dren. The specimen grows at an incredible rate, allowing the couple to study an entire life cycle in compressed time. But, the experiment gets complicated as Dren matures and evolves, making it harder to keep the creature a secret. They move her to a farm that was once part of Elsa's family home. There the couple begins to deal with the consequences of their actions.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 8th, 2010
When Wes Craven delivered his first Nightmare On Elm Street film back in 1984, there wasn't much expectation for the film to do anything but deliver a little profit for the new independent studio New Line Cinema. The film did quite a bit better than that. It made the small studio into a player in the industry with the budget to make mainstream films that would have never been possible if not for Craven's little Nightmare. You could say that The Lord Of The Rings owes its very existence, at least in the form of the Peter Jackson films, to Freddy Krueger. Of course, the studio just couldn't help itself, and they continued to cash in on the franchise time after time. After the 7th film, it appeared that even the fans were about done with Freddy Krueger. A misguided attempt to pit Freddy against Friday The 13th's Jason might have pulled in good money at first. But the film ultimately disappointed, and a follow-up became very unlikely, indeed. But, like all good cinema monsters, you can't keep a good fiend down. A Nightmare On Elm Street joined the increasingly long line of horror films that received the remake/reboot/reimagining/regurgitation treatment.
A lot of the 70's and 80's slasher films have been remade by now. All of the big franchise names have been reborn. Michael Myers, Jason, Leatherface, and now Freddy Krueger have all been given the reanimation treatment. With most of these bad guys, there was little problem with replacing the man behind the mask. No one actor had played any of these characters exclusively throughout the franchise run. While Kane Hodder came closest with both Freddy and Leatherface, he was not the only performer under the hood for either monster. Freddy Krueger was different, however. In all of the Nightmare films of the original run, Robert Englund had been the only actor to play Freddy. There was an attempt to replace him in the early goings of the second film, but the filmmakers discovered rather quickly that you can't just put a stuntman in the makeup and turn him loose. Freddy had a personality that had become quite intermingled with that of Englund. So the very first question that had to be answered when the subject of a do-over came up was who was it going to be in the red and green sweater wielding that knife glove. Could anyone but Robert Englund make the part work?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 16th, 2010
Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) is going through more than the usual puberty traumas. She pees on the carpet, curses a blue streak, causes objects to fly around the room, and speaks in the voice of Mercedes McCambridge. Her mother Chris (Ellen Burstyn) takes her to every medical professional under the sun, to no avail. With her daughter's life in the balance, she turns to Father Karras (Jason Miller), asking him to perform an exorcism. But not only is he skeptical, he has his own problems, not least of which is losing his faith. Meanwhile, Regan's symptoms of possession grow steadily worse...
The most successful horror film of all time (and, adjusting for inflation, still the ninth most successful film ever made) works as well as it does for a number of reasons. The performances, especially from Burstyn and Miller, are grounded and very convincing. The visual effects still hold up, but the sound design is as powerful as it ever was. It's also a smart, adult horror film, such that even if one disagrees with its philosophical and ideological stance, it remains no less compelling, no less interesting.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 13th, 2010
"In 1539 The Knight Templars of Malta paid tribute to Charles V of Spain by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels --- but pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token, and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to this day."
What is not a mystery today is the significant role that The Maltese Falcon has played in cinema history. The film itself was a remake. In fact, it was actually Warner's third attempt to film the Dashiell Hammett novel in a single decade. The first version came in 1931 and stared Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade. That film also featured Dwight Frye as Wilmer Cook. The film was a moderate success but never really delivered on the potential of the source material. Five years later Warner would attempt a comedy version of the story in Satan Met A Lady. It was a total flop. It would only take another five years before the studio took its third crack at the material. In this case, the third time certainly was a charm.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 13th, 2010
By 1948 John Huston had proven his ability as a director with just his first film, The Maltese Falcon. Since then he had returned to Humphrey Bogart in Across The Pacific and again in The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre. Each of these films presented the star in very different surroundings and situations. His Dobbs character here couldn't have been any farther from his Sam Spade character. But in each case Huston relied on his leading man to dominate the screen with his trademark mannerisms and his ability to liven up even the most cliché of dialog. Now Warner is bringing these classic Huston and Bogart collaborations to Blu-ray, and it's about time.
Dobbs (Bogart) and Curtin (Holt) are down-on-their-luck men trying to make a living in Tampico, Mexico during some rough times. Dobbs has taken to street hustling for enough to buy a meal or a shave. The two try working on a work crew but get ripped off by the foreman. It seems as though there is no way for the two men to get ahead. They hear a story from old-timer Howard (Huston) who regales the two with stories of striking it rich prospecting the mountains for gold. He claims to have a nose for finding the stuff in remote areas that no one else would think of looking. All he needs is a stake. When Hobbs hits a small lottery, he combines his money with Curtin’s and the three buy the supplies they need to set off after the mother lode. In what turns out to be the worst luck in the world, the three find a strong deposit and pull out over a hundred thousand bucks worth of gold dust. The success leads to suspicion, particularly for Dobbs who no longer trusts his two partners. They have to defend themselves against bandits and eventually each other in order to get off the mountain with their "goods" as they call the gold, or even their lives.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 11th, 2010
There hasn't been a show quite like Human Target on television. There are certainly action shows, and there have been many shows that have taken on the "private" bodyguard or dedicated do-gooder. But I haven't seen a series yet that managed to capture the kind of action that you only find in big-budget feature films on the smaller scale and more limited budget of television. That is, until I saw the 12 episodes of the first season of Human Target. I remember seeing a huge advertisement blitz around the time of the Super Bowl, but I've seen a ton of these dramatic previews that only seemed to lose the sizzle over the course of a season, or even a single episode.
Christopher Chance (Valley) has a mysterious past. We get the idea he was a paid assassin for some sinister organization. He, at some point, has had a change of heart. It's an incident that is only hinted at until the final episode of the season. He now works with former San Francisco detective Winston (McBride). They provide protection services for people who find themselves in danger or in need of being rescued. They function outside of the normal boundaries of the law. Winston has some pretty impressive connections that allow them to have access to sensitive information. These connections also come in handy during a pinch. Many of these people are folks that they had already protected at some point in the past. The team is often assisted by Guerrero (Haley). He is another former bad guy from Chance's old organization. Their old boss is trying to track down Chance. We don't completely understand the relationship Chance had with his boss, but we know that they were close and the Boss considered it a personal betrayal when he left the company. We know that the falling out involved a woman named Katherine, and she's a source of great guilt for Chance. Of course, much of this will be revealed in the last episode of the season.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 22nd, 2010
"If you people spent less time thinking about sex and more time concentrating on comic books, we'd have far fewer embarrassing moments."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 13th, 2010
"On April 21st,1967 the 100-millionth GM vehicle rolled off the plant in Janesville. A blue two-door Caprice. There was a big ceremony, speeches, the Lt. Governor even showed up. Three days later, another car rolled off that same line. No one gave two craps about her, but they should have. Because, that 1967 Chevrolet Impala would turn out to be the most important car in pretty much the whole universe...I guess that's where the story began. And here's where it ends."
Except it doesn't; not really. Still, everything about the 5th season of Supernatural plays out like it were the show's last. Perhaps at one point it was expected to turn out that way. Fortunately, for us, it didn't end up that way. But you can't deny the finale feeling this season has. It's the Apocalypse, for cryin' out loud. It comes with all of the trimmings: horsemen, dead walking, anti-Christ, and Satan himself. How the writers could ever top such an event with these players I just can't wait to find out. Like finale seasons, these episodes bring back a lot of familiar faces from the first four years. Friends die. And the final episode would be a fitting conclusion to the series.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 13th, 2010
Look up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s…. well, Clark Kent. When Smallville was first developed for television, the show runners made a few conscious decisions that have, for the most part, been kept for the show’s first 8 seasons. There was a strict “no flights, no tights” rule that was in effect for anyone hoping to pen an adventure for the show. Everyone knows we’re talking about Superman here, but the term is avoided like a deadly disease. All of the familiar places and names are firmly in place, but make no mistake. This is the world before Superman began to make his presence known to the world.
For those of you who have been living under a rock since the 1930’s, Smallville was the Kansas farm town where young Kal-El’s space ship from the dying planet Krypton crash- landed. He was discovered by Jonathan (Schneider) and Martha (O’Toole) Kent and raised as their adopted son. The series began with Clark’s high school years. Clark always had a crush on neighbor Lana Lang (Kreuk). In a nod to the 1978 film, Martha is played by Annette O’Toole, who played Lana in that second film. Clark’s high school friends include Chloe Sullivan (Mack) who is somewhat of a computer whiz and ace school paper reporter. Clark also befriends local billionaire son Lex Luthor (Rosenbaum) after saving his life. In these early seasons the characters would slowly build towards the eventual hero/villain relationship that Luthor and Superman would share. Lex Luthor’s father Lionel Luthor (Glover) would go from being a bad guy to a good guy and back again as the show progressed. Much of these early episodes dealt with Clark discovering his powers as he matured. Eventually all but the flight ability would surface. The show also took on a freak-of-the-week aspect at times. It seems that while Kryptonite robs Clark of his power, it has created mutant powers in many humans who have encountered it over the years. Clark and Chloe would spend many a season tracking down and stopping these “meteor freaks”. Justin Hartley joined the cast as a full on regular playing Oliver Queen, better known to comic fans as The Green Arrow. Thenthere is Cassidy Freeman as Tess Mercer. Tess is taking over Luthorcorp in Lex’s absence. She gets a pretty rich back story here and is not a character from the comics. It’s likely the name was an homage to Lex’s secretary in the first films and some of the comics, Miss Teschmacher. She’s just as strong-illed as Lex and just as eager to discover Clark’s secret. Clark is finally working at The Daily Planet with Lois (Durance). Clark has finally embraced his destiny and begins to patrol the streets of Metropolis. He’s known as the Red-Blue Blur based on an out-of-focus picture that Jimmy takes of him saving Lois.
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