Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 3rd, 2013
It’s only the first of October, and already the Christmas spirit is being thrust upon us. It’s not that I’m trying to be a Grinch about it, but for me my true Christmas is in October when we get to celebrate the ghouls and goblins that lurk in the shadows. But I did what I could not to let the season we’re in get in the way of a movie; after all, Die Hard was a Christmas movie in the summer; same goes for Iron Man 3. Sure, those are action titles, but they are still great no matter what time of year you watch them. So perhaps So This Is Christmas may turn out to be this under-theradar gem that will surprise me.
Things open up with a brief flurry of excitement as a young man and woman are rushed into the hospital suffering from multiple gunshots. Ashley (Lexi Ainsworth) is pulled aside by an officer to get her statement about what she saw; instead of just a statement about the shooting instead her story starts further back, explaining her early party days, and so the story really begins.
Posted in: Contests, Expired Contests by Gino Sassani on October 3rd, 2013
31 Nights Of Terror is in full swing. That means ghostly giveaways. Thanks to the ghoulishly great folks at Timeless Media Group we have a simply horror-able 4 movie collection to give away on DVD. You get The Face Of Marble with John Carradine, I Bury The Living with Richard Boone, The Four Skulls Of Jonathan Drake with Grant Richards and The Snake Woman with Susan Traver. That's over 5 hours of horror. Chilling isn't it. Are there more contests to come? You're bloody well right there will be.
You can check out other Timeless Media Group collections.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 3rd, 2013
All good things must come to an end, and so it was at Walt Disney Studios. The Golden Age of feature film animation had started with Snow White And The Seven Dwarves in 1937. By the end of the 1970's it was all but gone. As the studio entered the 1980's the things had gone from bad to worse. Walt was gone, and so it seemed was the magic. Most of The 9 Old Men had either retired or passed away. The studio leadership was considering closing the animated studio and moving on to live-action films only. It was a dark time for the artists and creative folks at the Mouse House. A shadow had fallen. Sounds pretty much like the beginning of a Tolkien tale, doesn't it?
Enter a new regime. Michael Eisner became the new head of the company, and Jeffrey Katzenberg teamed up with Walt's brother Roy Disney to head the new studio. The first thing they did was banish the animation studios from the Disney lot and set them up in warehouse-like trailers in the middle of industry nowhere. It looked like the axe had finally fallen. But the exile turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to this new generation of Disney talent. Under the new leadership the creative forces banded together and began to do something they hadn't in a long time. They began to dream once again.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on October 3rd, 2013
“What makes a song beautiful is not always the quality of the voice but the distance that voice has had to travel.”
Well said, Mrs. Redgrave, well said. I should broach this subject early; I am not a fan of musicals or musically-themed films. That said, Unfinished Song is much more than a musical; it is a tale of an emotionally crippled man who has only formed one meaningful connection and about what you do when you lose that connection: do you lie down and die, or do you find a median to that will allow you to form new connections? As stated above, it is about distance rather than quality; however, in my opinion Unfinished Song accomplishes both.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 3rd, 2013
For a variety of reasons, fewer people seem to be retiring when they turn 65. That’s long been the case for legendary musicians like Bryan Ferry, who was at that milestone age when he filmed this concert in Lyon, France during the summer of 2011. Ferry has always combined his own "old soul" sensibility with a forward-thinking approach to creating music. So this show, with Ferry now an actual senior citizen, turned out to be an ideal time to check in on the former Roxy Music frontman.
Live in Lyon was part of a tour supporting Ferry’s 2010 “Olympia” album, and features music from the singer’s staggering 40-year career. As a result, the show highlights Roxy Music hits from the ‘70s and early ‘80s, as well as a generous helping of cuts from Ferry’s accomplished solo career, which also includes his haunting covers of other artists. (The album that preceded “Olympia” was a 2007 collection of Bob Dylan covers called “Dylanesque.”)
Posted in: Podcasts by Gino Sassani on October 2nd, 2013
Time-Life and Star Vista have rescued Mama's Family from home video oblivion. Finally, the entire series is available on DVD. We're going to have more on that later. On Tuesday I had a chance to chat with the show's star. That's right. I talked with Mama herself: Vicki Lawrence. You might remember her from the Carol Burnett Show where Mama first started. You could even recall her talk show a few years back. Most of you will always remember her as Mama. Bang it here to listen to my chat with Vicki Lawrence
Posted in: News and Opinions by Gino Sassani on October 2nd, 2013
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 2nd, 2013
Family Guy has reached a level of impact upon the American pop culture where I believe the characters need little to no introduction. Is there anyone, really, that doesn’t recognize Stewie; after all he’s reached the status of icon and has even become a fixture of the Thanksgiving parade as one of the many floats. Where The Flintstones, then later The Simpsons were at one time the dominating animated family on the television tackling day to day struggles of the modern American (each in their own and unique way), Family Guy (love it or hate it) now seems to be the go-to animated family.
In this collection of 23 episodes, the creative force, Seth Macfarlane, and his team continue to deliver the laughs along with their twisted moral messages. Instead of jumping right into it and discussing the season’s lows and highs, I want to mention the oddball of the group Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q. In what starts out as an amusing tale about Quagmire barely escaping death while experimenting with some kinky sex, quickly the story shifts instead to the abusive relationship his sister is in. For television, with the added bleeps it may not have seemed so harsh, but with the uncensored set the viewer stands by and watches the verbal, physical and emotional abuse Brenda goes through, and it is intense. The gang feels there is little to do knowing Brenda will never leave the boyfriend, so they decide to schedule a camping trip where they plan to kill him and have it look like an accident. Before any feminist groups get upset feeling the show is making a joke out of abuse towards women, surprisingly it’s the opposite; the episode is dark and at times uncomfortable and shocking as the story unfolds. For a twenty-two minute episode they cram a lot in to deliver a message as subtle as it may be, but I applaud the creative team behind it for using their creative forum to get their message out.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 2nd, 2013
We all remember Ed O'Neill as Al Bundy from Married With Children. It's an iconic role that he'll never be able to shake no matter what he does for the rest of his life. After that series ended its 11-year run, he even attempted to get out of comedy and take more dramatic roles. I'm sure there was a deliberate intent to try to distance himself from Al. It's not that he likely didn't love playing the role. He just wanted to avoid getting forever typecast in the mold. Those efforts weren't all that successful. But now he's back where he belongs again in a pretty solid sit-com. He's not playing Al Bundy any more, although you won't have to look very hard to find some of Bundy in Jay from Modern Family.
I have become somewhat frustrated over the television comedy genre for a lot of years. It seems that they all take the same path no matter what the show's actual concept might be. It's usually the same jokes, just in a different environment. I don't have children, but I expect that it must be near impossible to sit down and watch a comedy with your family any more. If I were a stranger visiting this planet for the first time, I would quickly come to the conclusion that sex is about the only thing that's funny here. Thank God that once in a while something fresh comes along and swims against the current tide of innuendo and toilet humor. Modern Family is the kind of show you can enjoy with the entire family. And guess what? It's pretty darn funny on top of it all.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 1st, 2013
"I met him fifteen years ago; I was told there was nothing left; no reason, no conscience, no understanding; and even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six-year-old child, with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes... the devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... evil."
In 1968 Marvin Gaye / Tammi Terrell hit the American pop charts with the song Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing. They didn't know it at the time, of course, but they were talking about John Carpenter's original 1978 Halloween. The sad fact is that this original classic sometimes gets lost, or worse, considered along with the various sequels and remakes. It's a crime, to be sure. The first film is nothing like anything that followed and should be considered more as a standalone film than it is now. That was always Carpenter's intention, and that's how I'd like you to consider the 35th Anniversary Blu-ray of Halloween.
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