Posted in: Blu-ray/3D Blu-ray, Holiday Gift Guides, Oppo by Gino Sassani on December 17th, 2012
There are still plenty of folks out there who have not yet joined the Blu-ray family. I'll bet there's at least one on your Christmas list. It's up to you to open their eyes to high-definition home video. Now, I'm sure you're tempted by those cheap machines hitting the market at the department and big box stores. And sure, you can get someone on board for a hundred bucks or less. I'm here to tell you not to do it. Sure you can give them a basic machine, but you're also going to give them a future of headache and frustration as they discover more and more things that they cannot do. What if I told you that you can get a high-end player with everything on board for under $500? Get ready to scratch a name or two off that Christmas list, because Oppo's BDP-103 has tons that even the best players in the big box stores don't.
We'll be writing a full review as we put the unit through our rigorous paces, but you can't wait that long to pick one up. I can already tell you with no hesitation this is the best Blu-ray player I've seen. Oppo IS NOT paying us to say this. We will not get a penny from the company. This baby does full-on 3D like nobody's business. When I compare it to my excellent PS3 3D, this one offers a brighter and sharper image. That's because the guys at Oppo have put nothing but the best chips inside of this unit. This unit will also convert 2D to a simulated 3D, and there are parameters you can adjust to get the best results. Honestly, this stuff doesn't compare to the real deal, but it's a nice effect at times. If you have a 4k monitor capability, this unit will even upconvert to 4k. No other unit for anywhere near this price can do that.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on December 17th, 2012
"Everywhere you’ll go you’ll hear that slavery is a thing of the past. Don’t believe it."
When I got handed this disc to review I didn’t pay it much attention till I noticed it had Michael Caine in it. Then after a search on IMDB well I started to get more and more excited. Filling out the rest of cast there’s Peter Ustinov (Spartacus), Omar Sharif (Lawrence of Arabia), and William Holden (The Wild Bunch) all together in an African adventure film directed by Richard Fleischer (Tora! Tora! Tora! and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) I couldn’t believe I had never seen, much less even heard of this film. When we first meet Dr. David Linderby (Caine) and his wife Dr. Anansa Underby (Beverly Johnson) they have just arrived in a tiny African village where they have travelled to inoculate the villagers. With their work done, David takes in a celebration that the tribe is performing; instead of staying to enjoy the ceremony Anansa (who happens to be a former native to an Ashanti tribe) decides to go for a swim. It’s this fateful decision that leads to Anansa’s capture by a group of slave traders lead by Suleiman (Ustinov). The film wastes no time putting Caine in pursuit of the slave traders.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 17th, 2012
"In New York City's war on crime, the worst criminal offenders are pursued by the detectives of the Major Case Squad. These are their stories."
Dick Wolf used to pretty much own NBC and prime-time drama. His flagship series Law & Order lasted 20 years, tying the record held by Gunsmoke for the longest-running scripted drama. It was his wish to break the record, but by season 20 the franchise had lost some steam and was axed by NBC. It wasn't a total loss for Wolf, who had two other Law & Order shows still running at the time. Law & Order: SVU has been the more successful, but Law & Order: Criminal Intent had a pretty good run as well.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on December 17th, 2012
“Through the good times and the bad, you were the best I never had.”
Who became successful? Who completely changed? Who stayed the same? For all the questions that are asked at every 10 year high school reunion, 10 Years is dedicated to you. Equipped with a stellar cast of Hollywood’s next generation elite: Channing Tatum, Justin Long, Rosario Dawson, Kate Mara, Brian Geraghty, Ari Graynor, Kate Mara, Oscar Isaac, and the list goes on.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on December 16th, 2012
Another year for the franchise NBA video game of the console, portable and pc world has come. NBA 2k13 is automatically the best NBA game you will play this season before you even flip on the game menu because no other outfit can get their act together long enough to produce a viable game. With that aside, I suppose NBA 2k13 could have rested on their laurels but instead we get a game that is introducing a lot of new concepts. Let us go forth and play this hardwood smash of putting the ball into the ole peach basket.
Ultra realism is the mark of the hour for NBA 2k13 graphics and they are arguably the best the game has ever been in that department. Player's faces look reconditioned, custom animations have improved dramatically and uniforms are tailored to the slightest detail (with updates). It looks and feels like a television broadcast worthy basketball game. There are so many players to get right (including members of classic teams) but I think we can safely say that all of them are covered correctly here.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on December 13th, 2012
"My dear Frodo, you asked me once if I had told you everything there was to know about my adventures. Well, I can honestly say I've told you the truth, but I may not have told you all of it..."
It's hard to believe that it's been a decade since Peter Jackson last brought us to the fantastic lands of Middle Earth. It was one of Hollywood's most ambitious projects ever. Jackson took on the perilous journey of adapting J.R.R. Tolkien's famous Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Perilous because of the beloved place the works hold in the hearts of those who have read them over the years. There is such a wonderfully detailed world delivered by Tolkien that we already had very vivid ideas of these places and characters. To his credit, Jackson proved to be up to the task and delivered a trilogy that one can only describe as brilliant. The lands and people were just as I had envisioned them since I first encountered them in my own youth. Expanded versions hit the home video market, and about 12 hours of story has made it to our screens. And there it has sat for the better part of that decade.
Posted in: Holiday Gift Guides by Gino Sassani on December 13th, 2012
"Space... The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before."
Nearly 20 years after the original Star Trek left the network airwaves, Gene Roddenberry set out to discover if he could catch lightning in a bottle once again. Some say he did an even better job with Star Trek: The Next Generation. There are times I tend to agree. Great shows get better with time. The Next Generation was a great show. As you watch the episodes of the first seasons you begin to realize just how much better the series had become by the time the 7th season had ended.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on December 13th, 2012
Who doesn’t get a little creeped out any time they see an old van cruising slowly through their neighborhood? Now, I’m not talking about the soccer mom mini-van you see plenty of, but I’m talking about those vans from the 80s and beyond that seemed to be the vehicle of choice in films where kidnapping is involved. Creep Van takes the idea of the sleazy van and uses it to its fullest, transforming this white metal beast into the ultimate death trap on wheels. Unfortunately the van and the gore are pretty much all the film has going for it.
Cambell (Brian Kolodziej) is a little down on his luck; with a new job working at a car wash and having to take the bus, things are far from easy. To make matters worse, his living situation isn’t much better with a roommate with a few fetishes and the roommate’s girlfriend who has an unexplained hatred for Cambell and enjoys kicking him down when she gets the chance. Just about the only good thing going for Cambell is his cute co-worker Amy (Amy Wehrell). Things begin to look all the more promising after Cambell comes across a white van that’s for sale and in his price range.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on December 13th, 2012
At the turn of the millennium, we seemed to collectively decide that we wanted our heroes to be dark and gritty. The X-Men traded in their yellow spandex for black leather in their first big-screen adventure. Batman went from exchanging quips and painful puns with Mr. Freeze to brooding magnificently for director Christopher Nolan. And Hollywood almost completely stopped making candy-colored spectacles like Dick Tracy.
It’s not difficult to understand why this happened. Though I have a soft spot for pulpy ‘90s period pieces like The Rocketeer, The Shadow and even The Phantom, they didn’t exactly set the box office on fire. The star-studded Dick Tracy was actually the most successful film from this group, grossing over $100 million, earning seven(!) Oscar nominations and winning three of those trophies. However, the fact that Dick Tracy’s closest doppelganger is probably the ultra-violent Sin City — another tale with tough-talking cops and crooks that looks like it was ripped directly from the pages of its source material for the big screen — tells you where moviemaking has gone from then to now.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on December 13th, 2012
A small mining community in Western Australia get visited by a vagabond dog. This Red Dog (named after the fact that the red dust of that desert region stained his fur that colour) has a deeply significant effect on every worker's life yet not one of them can truly claim to own him until an American bus driver begins working there. Red Dog was a big fan of hitchhiking across the country and seems to be attracted to riding great distances on a bus with his new best (human) friend.
I should have known what I was getting into when I saw that this was a dog story. All the best dog films are incredibly sad. This film was based on true events and its saddest portions include heavy references to the saddest (true) dog story of all time (nope, not Old Yeller), Hachi-ko, the story of a dog that waits for his master after they have died (was adapted twice onto film, as well as laid out the groundwork for the most depressing episode of Futurama “Jurassic Bark”). The story begins with miners resolving that they cannot shoot Red Dog after he ate poison, but this is not the saddest part. Over half way through the audience gets an emotional kick to the throat that I, for one, was not prepared for. By no means is this a criticism of their storytelling, more a warning to those that may think they're in for a family-ready delight (ok...they ARE but certainly not without a box of tissues as a prerequisite).
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