Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 17th, 2019
Criminal Minds is about to enter its 15th and final season, and unlike some of the other long-running shows on CBS, this one has had a fair share of bad luck. Cast members have gone, and even returned after a couple of years. Two years ago the show's top star gets fired for physically threatening people on the set. The series has had two attempts to spin off, but unlike CSI or NCIS, neither show could get out of its second year alive. Not even Gary Sinise could save the franchise. The mothership is finally about to land, and the 14th season would become the most stable season in a few years. No new cast members, and no one left the show from the previous year. The 14th season was a shortened one that only came in at 15 episodes, but they made the most out of each of them. The show started the season with their 300th episode, and while it's all coming to an end after the upcoming 15th season, there's still a little life left in the show to be worth another look here.
A lot of the cast get to direct episodes this year. Gubler and Mantegna have each directed several episodes, and both return to do more in Season 14. Adam Rodriguez directs an episode, as do A.J. Cook and Aisha Tyler. All in all the cast directed nearly half of the season's episodes. Gubler has become such a fixture both in front of and behind the camera for the show that I suspect we will see less of him acting with the conclusion of Criminal Minds. I suspect he'll end up spending most of his career going forward behind the camera. He's one of the show's better directors, and he appears to enjoy it.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 12th, 2019
"After the bridges blew and the government declared Gotham off-limits the city was up for grabs. Given over to criminals and murderers. Now territory is controlled by whoever has enough power to hold it. I mean we have Penguin in City Hall for God's sakes..."
Gotham City. You know the name, just as you know the names of Metropolis and Smallville. These are important places in the DC comics universe that have existed as part of modern American mythology since the 1930's. Warner Brothers has decided to tackle Gotham in much the way it spent 10 years bringing us to Smallville. But there is a decided difference to be found here. Smallville was indeed the origin story of Superman, and while the obvious answer might be that Gotham serves the same role for Batman, I found that to be a bit of an oversimplification. This is not the origin story for Batman, and while many of the future major villains from that universe take their first baby steps here, this is not their origin story either. This is an origin story for the city of Gotham itself. Unlike many heroes, Batman was a product of his environment. This is the story of how one city devolved so badly that a hero like Batman was necessary. What we see taking shape here is a place where a certain Dark Knight can thrive and spread his wings. That's finally going to happen in the final moments of this the fifth and final season of Gotham. It's out now from Warner Brothers, and it's the last 12 episodes of the Batman origin story. But Gotham was more than that.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 12th, 2019
"Once upon a time in a faraway land, there was a tiny kingdom: peaceful, prosperous, and rich in romance and tradition. Here, in a stately chateau, there lived a widowed gentleman, and his little daughter, Cinderella. Although he was a kind and devoted father, and gave his beloved child every luxury and comfort, still, he felt she needed a mother's care. And so he married again, choosing for his second wife, a woman of good family, with two daughters just Cinderella's age, by name, Anastasia and Drizella. It was upon the untimely death of this good man, however, that the stepmother's true nature was revealed: cold, cruel, and bitterly jealous of Cinderella's charm and beauty, she was grimly determined to forward the interests of her own two awkward daughters. Thus, as time went by, the chateau fell into disrepair, for the family fortunes were squandered upon the vain and selfish stepsisters while Cinderella was abused, humiliated, and finally forced to become a servant in her own house. And yet, through it all, Cinderella remained ever gentle and kind, for with each dawn she found new hope that someday her dreams of happiness would come true."
Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs put the Walt Disney Studios on the map. It's a literal truth. Walk had mortgaged his entire worth to make the film and used the incredible box office return to create what we today call Walt Disney Studios. But it wasn't quite the happily-ever-after fairy tale ending that Walt and his new studio might have hoped for. The studio churned out a couple of films that are classics today but didn't pull in the kind of money they needed to stay afloat. Both Pinocchio and Fantasia were masterpieces greatly appreciated today, but the years of WWII found little extra money for extravagances like going to the movies. The studio was in danger of closing, and they had pretty much one more shot to turn it around. Could lightning hit the same place twice? Cinderella proved that it could, and put the studio firmly back on solid ground.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 12th, 2019
Dolph Lundgren is one of those guys that I enjoy watching and can make a bad action movie worth watching. Even when he starred in Masters of the Universe, it wasn’t the He-Man I was used to, and it was a B-movie mess, but he pulled off playing the character. Many love the guy from his performance in Rocky IV, and for me I’m a fan of Universal Soldier, but he never quite reached the superstardom I feel he deserved. Thankfully, decades after his heyday on the big screen, he is still starring in films, though unfortunately a good portion of them are B-caliber action flicks that are simply not taking full advantage of the man’s awesomeness. Dead Trigger is the latest and the newest forgettable film to add to the actor’s catalog. From its opening moments where it seems to be riffing on Starship Troopers but with zombies, I was certainly hopeful that this could be a fun cinematic romp. While Lundgren does his best to deliver the goods, it’s everything that surrounds him in front of and behind the camera that seems to be working against him.
We’re quickly introduced to these new recruits who are joining a special government team that has developed a special video game to help find recruits. The game simulates a zombie infestation that decimates the world, and it just so happens a zombie outbreak is now occurring in the real world. Well, these recruits are taken into a boot camp. It’s here we get an explanation on what a “Dead Trigger” is; basically it’s a soldier with a low life expectancy. Lundrgren is Capt. Walker, who is tasked with making them battle-ready. Their training is cut short when a lab attempting to make a cure for the zombie virus is attacked and the general orders them to rescue his daughter (one of the doctors) and anything they can that has to do with the cure.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on July 12th, 2019
He is heralded as the gold standard of traditional country music. He has released 16 albums, including three greatest hits albums, two Christmas albums, and two gospel albums. He has sold over 80 million records. His accolades include two Grammy awards, 16 CMA (Country Music Association) awards, 17 ACM (Academy of Country Music) awards, and he was inducted in both the Country Music Hall of Fame and Nashville Songwriter Hall of Fame. However, before this disc I had never even heard his name. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not a big country music fan, but I have some familiarity, so I figured I should recognize him. Then I realized that all the country musicians I know pay homage to this man. That alone establishes the mark this man has had on the music genre.
“Alan is the greatest country singer since Merle Haggard.”
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 11th, 2019
"This drama is based on the true story of a police investigation in Southwest London between 2004-2006. Some names have been changed, and some characters and scenes have been created for dramatic purposes."
Serial killers have mostly been the stuff of American dramas and unfortunately the American reality. This particular brand of sociopath doesn't appear to thrive in the confining environments of most countries. Of course, for some it's that they shy away from the designation, and for others it's pure denial. But in the period between 2004 and 2006, Great Britain was terrorized by this very kind of human animal. The criminal's name was Levi Bellfield, and for two years an English task force hunted this killer. The lead investigator was Deputy Chief Inspector Colin Sutton. DCI Sutton ended up writing a bestseller book on the case, and now it has become an ITV series out on Blu-ray from Acorn. It's called, appropriately enough, Manhunt. It's a short little series containing only three episodes. A second season, or series as the Brits like to call them, will be airing sometime in 2020. For now this is a chance for the American audiences to discover the case and the series firsthand.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 10th, 2019
Dateline: September 13, 1999
Mankind has been storing all of our nuclear waste on the far side of the moon. On the other side of the lunar surface was Alpha Base. Here mankind had a research station which also served as a launching point for deep-space missions. An unfortunate chain of events led to the unthinkable. The nuclear waste pile was ignited, and the whole dump exploded with a force so powerful that it tore the moon out of Earth's orbit and sent it hurtling through space. The 311 inhabitants of Alpha were swept along for this uncontrolled flight into uncharted space. Of course, the year 1999 is no longer science fiction to us now. It's going on ancient history. There has never been a base on the moon. In fact, we haven't been back since the end of the Apollo program in the 1970's. If you check tonight, you'll find that our only natural satellite is still firmly planted in its familiar orbit around our planet. Space 1999 never happened.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on July 10th, 2019
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: single gal(s) looking for love — among other things — in the big city. On television, the trope dates back to the days of Laverne & Shirley and continues with more contemporary entries like Sex and the City and Girls. It’s an effective, well-worn story hook that has now gotten a funny, tremendously weird spin thanks to Comedy Central’s Broad City. Broad City began life as a web series. Now CBS has brought together all five seasons of the series and put it in one big release. You get 11 discs. Each season has 10 episodes spread out on two discs. You also get an extra disc with all new bonus features that give you an added reason to pick this collection up.
Abbi and Ilana do interact with a recurring cast of characters that includes Lincoln (Hannibal Buress), Ilana’s nurturing, supportive sex buddy; Bevers (John Gemberling), Abbi’s roommate’s slovenly boyfriend, who spends way too much time at her place (the joke is we never actually see Abbi’s roommate); Jaime (Arturo Castro), Ilana’s sensitive, drug-dealing gay roommate; and Jeremy (Stephen Schneider), the nice guy neighbor Abbi has a massive crush on. These characters mostly float in and out of Abbi’s and Ilana’s life, with the exception of Ep.7/“Hurricane Wanda”, which has all of them — plus a temperamental sibling — holed up in Abbi’s apartment during a storm. It’s an extended showcase for the supporting cast, while also featuring the hallmarks of any Broad City episode: sharply-observed humor involving sex and drugs, Ilana going to insane lengths to help Abbi, and clever sight gags. Oh yeah: there’s also an extended sequence involving a turd. (Would you believe me if I told you it’s not even the most disgusting gag involving a toilet? That dishonor goes to the Season 1 finale, “The Last Supper.”)
Posted in: The Reel World by Jeremy Butler on July 2nd, 2019
“It’s easy to fool people when they are already fooling themselves.”
There was a lot of pressure on this film to be great; it being the first MCU film following the epic known as Endgame. This film needed to be the statement that the MCU was finished after the events of Endgame, which completely and irrevocably changed the landscape of the franchise going forward. By the way if you have not seen Endgame yet, two things. First, what is wrong with you! You are the reason that the film hasn’t taken the all-time box office record away from Avatar yet. The film has just been re-released with additional footage, so there is even more to enjoy. So, get to a theater ASAP! We need to beat Avatar! Secondly, you should probably stop reading this review immediately, as I will be discussing events that will likely leave you lost. Let the previous declaration serve as your warning disclaimer. Iron Man is gone, Captain America has laid down his shield in favor for a lifetime with the love of his life. A little selfish, but I’d say he’s earned after his many sacrifices. The Avengers are essentially disbanded, but the world still needs heroes. Enter your friendly neighborhood Spiderman.
Posted in: Podcasts by Gino Sassani on July 2nd, 2019
Deadsight had it's world premier last year at The Snow Canadian Film Festival and now it's finally found it's way on DVD thanks to RLJE Films. The film stars Liv Collins as a police officer thrust into the middle of a world taken over by zombies. She also co-wrote the script for the film. It's a tough job but somebody has to do it. I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes talking with the writer/actress. She gave some insight into the film's production. Now you can listen in on our conversation. Just bang it here to hear me talking with Liv Collins
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