Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on September 14th, 2011
At the turn of the millennium a decade ago, lists were pretty popular. It didn’t matter if you were into the world of sports or movies, everybody was looking for the all-time best of everything. The American Film Institute got into the trend by releasing top-100 lists. Heroes, villains and memorable quotes all got the […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 6th, 2011
Monster mash-ups have been with us for almost as long as there have been monster movies. Universal gave us Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. The Japanese delivered Godzilla vs. King Kong. Dracula’s taken on Jesse James, and Universal brought the whole band together for two House Of movies and an Abbott And Costello romp. In […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 20th, 2011
“There was a time in baseball when there were only eight teams in each major league. They played an orderly balanced schedule visiting each city four times. A trip out West meant St. Louis or Chicago. There was a comfortable rhythm to the season… That time is gone now.” I might be from the last […]
Posted in Hardware Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2011
“Sherlock Holmes, the immortal character of fiction. Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he’s ageless, invincible and unchanging. In solving significant problems of the present day, he remains — as ever — the supreme master of deductive reasoning.” In 1887, readers of the popular periodical Beeton’s Christmas Annual were to receive quite a special treat. […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 4th, 2010
Eddie Murphy was at his best when he did Saturday Night Live and his own stand up comedy. I would even say that some of his earlier films were okay. He is far better when given the opportunity to be himself, and improvise a little. I miss the days of Delirious and Saturday Night Live. […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 15th, 2009
Have you seen the Chris Farley/David Spade film Tommy Boy? If you have, then you’ve also seen Black Sheep. The circumstances might have changed, but the general idea is still there. Farley plays the mentally challenged family member, yet again. This time he’s Mike Donnelly, and his brother Al (Matheson) is running for Governor of […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 24th, 2009
Escape To Chimp Eden tastes a lot like Orangutan Island. Both shows deal with the rescue of captive abused primates. In both shows the animals are taken to a rehabilitation center where the goal is to teach the animals basic survival skills. The hope is that they might one day return to the wild and […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 31st, 2008
There are a ton of parallels between the Chris Farley/David Spade comedy team and that of John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd. Both teams began in the Saturday Night Live arena. It was that physical big/little guy combination that has its roots with Laurel and Hardy, and Abbott and Costello. Both teams were at the height of their […]
Posted in Brain Blasters by David Annandale on February 15th, 2008
Having just watched 30 Days of Night again in order to review the DVD, I find myself thinking about vampires. They are, of course, among the most frequent of horror movie monsters (perhaps only zombies, in their various forms, offer stiff competition in this regard). They also take up far more than their fair share […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 3rd, 2007
One hundred years after Abraham Van Helsing and allies fail to annihilate Dracula, the vampire arrives in a small American town looking for an amulet that, if destroyed at the prescribed moment, will usher in a reign of darkness. Recruited to aid in this project are versions of the Wolfman, the Frankenstein Monster, the Mummy […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 22nd, 2007
Marisa Tomei caused quite a stir in 1993 when she walked away with the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in My Cousin Vinny. Even after watching the film again, I guess I’m still a bit amazed. Now that’s not to say she doesn’t do a wonderful job here. The fact is the […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 31st, 2006
“Who you gonna call?” By now everyone knows the answer. Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson are the Ghostbusters. As their ad proclaims, they’re ready to believe you. Ghostbusters was originally conceived by Aykroyd as a vehicle for John Belushi and himself. When Belushi died, reportedly from a drug overdose, the project […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 27th, 2005
It’s another case of mistaken identity that gets our boys (Abbott and Costello) in trouble, this time with a couple of gangsters. I’ve always been an Abbott and Costello fan but somehow missed this 1948 film over the years. It’s possible that because it was one of only a few pictures the duo did outside […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 29th, 2005
Synopsis Costello is a big-hearted soul who takes in every stray (human or animal) that comes along.He runs afoul of the authorities, who deem him an unsuitable father for the two orphans he hasadopted. Meanwhile, Abbott, the black sheep Costello has taken on, is an inveterate gambler whoowes the mob a huge sum. Cue […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 5th, 2002
Just when it seemed that the Glover and Gibson chemistry was as good as it could be, Richard Donner finds a way to improve it. Joe Pesci was the best thing that could have happened to the franchise. This second installment keeps everything that was good about the original and makes it bigger and better. […]
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on September 15th, 2020
“This is the way the world ends…” The Stephen King cycle has turned hot once again. With the enormous success of the two-part It feature at the box office, Stephen King is hitting the kind of popularity he had back in the 1980’s and 1990’s when it seemed anything he put his name to had […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 2nd, 2019
“I don’t wanna be buried in a pet sematary.” It’s an inescapable fact of life that some things get lost in translation. Italian poetry loses its imagery. War And Peace is apparently much more compelling in Tolstoy’s original Russian. And I’ve been told that Abbott & Costello is painful when told secondhand. You can add […]
Posted in The Reel World by Gino Sassani on April 6th, 2019
It’s an inescapable fact of life that some things get lost in translation. Italian poetry loses its imagery. War And Peace is apparently much more compelling in Tolstoy’s original Russian. And I’ve been told that Abbott & Costello is painful when told secondhand. You can add to that axiom that Stephen King really doesn’t translate […]
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on October 4th, 2017
“And now, folks, it’s sock-it-to-you time.” Few television shows have had as much influence on the pop culture as did Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. The brainchild of George Schlatter the series has left behind a rich legacy. Even if you’ve never seen an episode of Laugh-In, you’ve heard the catch-phrases, or you’ve watched another show […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 21st, 2016
“The universe, a vast expanse of space and matter. It includes all that we see and all that we know. Since the beginning of time, we have wondered how it all came to be. A gloriously orchestrated plan? A chance series of events? Or something much, much dumber?” Space really is the final frontier. It’s […]
Posted in The Reel World by Gino Sassani on September 28th, 2012
“Ever since you were born I wanted to protect my little ghoul. So I created a place where all monsters could be safe from them.” I love monsters. Both old and new, I’ve been in love with monsters for as long as I can remember. There were the Friday night Creature Features with Dr. Shock. […]
Posted in No Huddle by David Annandale on December 12th, 2011
In the late-19th Century, we find Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) as much in love with the idea of being a showgirl as she was in the original Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988). But given that Las Vegas doesn’t exist yet, she is on her way to Paris to be a can-can dancer. Elvira and her […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 20th, 2011
It is that time for more cartoon goodness from the people at Nickelodeon. As we have seen, I seem to attract odd cartoons to review. Let’s see, there is a dude with a football as a head, a beaver with a surfer voice or perhaps a monster who has to carry his own eyeballs. This […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 24th, 2010
Mel Brooks has often been called the Master of Comedy. The moniker might be a bit too grandiose, but he was certainly the master of the parody. In recent years that has become more evident than ever. Too often I’ve been forced to sit through something called a comedy. Not only can I do so […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 6th, 2010
Most people don’t know or remember that Andy Griffith had a career before his television classic reached the airwaves. He had a pretty distinctive stand-up routine going for many years that included recordings like most stand-ups of the day. He had quite a famous bit about a country farm boy seeing his very first football […]
