Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 13th, 2009
Jeff Daniels plays Arlen Faber, author of the mega-bestselling Me and God, a book of self-help spirituality that comes across as an aphoristic mix of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and The Purpose-Driven Life. The book is coming up for its twentieth anniversary, and Arlen hasn't written anything since. He is now a cynical recluse, but begins crawling out of his shell when he encounters a struggling single-mother chiropractor (Lauren Graham) and an alcoholic used bookstore owner (Lou Taylor Pucci). They are looking to him for wisdom, though he doesn't really believe he has any to give. In turn, they are teaching him how to live again.
![The Answer Man [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-answer-man-blu-ray-large.jpg)
Posted in: Contests by Gino Sassani on November 13th, 2009
Radio Tag has graciously given us 10 copies of Mike Epps: Under Rated & Never Faded on DVD to give away.
To enter to win a copy of this Totally Epp – Ic Comedy, just follow these two steps...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 13th, 2009
“Out of the night when the full moon is bright comes a horseman known as Zorro. This bold renegade carves a “Z” with his blade, a “Z” that stands for Zorro. The fox so cunning and free, Zorro who makes the sign of the “Z”. “
Zorro first appeared in pulp magazines in 1919 written by Johnston McCulley. He told the story of a talented swordsman who masqueraded as a dull, inept, and spoiled young rich man. But, when he put on his trademark black cloak and mask he took to the countryside of Spanish California in 1820, fighting for the peasants and anyone treated unjustly. He was a regular Robin Hood. While he did not steal, he was considered an outlaw and had to spend much of his time fighting off the law. He was known for using his sword to cut a “Z” on anything from trees to the clothes of his enemies. He lived by a strong code of honor and morals. He never killed, unless it was absolutely necessary, which it seldom was. It didn’t take long for this inspiring character to reach the silver screen. In just a year from his publishing debut, Zorro was a movie staring Douglas Fairbanks as the heroic vigilante. But it didn’t end there. McCulley kept writing books, and the character became one of the most famous characters of the age. Republic created serials and the films kept coming. From 1920 through 1990 there wasn’t a decade that did not feature a live action version of the hero. Comics would follow.
Posted in: Podcasts by Gino Sassani on November 12th, 2009
Last Friday I had the opportunity to talk to first time director, John Hindman. His film, The Answer Man arrives on DVD and Blu-ray this month. We’ll be offering a review of the High Definition release soon. Until then check out what he has to say about the film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 11th, 2009
“The future is bright at Monsters Incorporated. We power your car. We warm your home. We light your city. Carefuly matching every child to their ideal monster to produce superior scream. Refined into clean, dependable energy. Every time you turn something on, Monsters Incorporated is there. We know the challenge. The window of innocence is shrinking. Human kids are harder to scare. Of course, Monsters Incorporated is prepared for the future. With the top scarers, the best refineries, and research into new energy technologies. We’re working for a better tomorrow, today. We’re Monster’s Incorporated. We scare because we care.”
When you do this job you get asked the same question a lot.You get it from friends, family and people who just met you. They all ask the same thing. “What is your favorite movie of all time?” That’s a hard question, and it’s one that changes from time to time. But if you’re talking animated films, my answer’s been the same for several years now. It’s Monsters, Inc. You hear me gush about Pixar films all of the time here, but with all of their advances on technology, this is still the best film they’ve put out. And that’s saying something.
![Monsters, Inc. (4-Disc Edition) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/monsters-inc-4-disc-edition-bl-large.jpg)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 11th, 2009
“The perpetrator is an expert marksman. He’s an expert in explosives and tactics. Gentlemen, play this one by the numbers. Maintain your fields of fire… We’re blind and he’s seeing in 20/20… We have not contained him. He’s contained himself.”
“He” is Samuel L Jackson in the 1998 action thriller The Negotiator. Jackson stars as Danny Roman. He’s a Chicago Metro hostage negotiator. As the film opens we get to see him in action saving a little girl from a tight hostage situation. He’s obviously good at his job and he has the respect and admiration of his fellow officers and commanders. Roman’s partner Nathan Roenick (Guilfoyle) has gotten a hot tip from an informant. Someone inside the department has been skimming money from the union’s retirement fund. He’s about to blow the case wide open when he’s killed. Roman discovers his friend and partner just as other cops arrive to see him leaning over the dead body. He becomes the prime suspect not only in his partner’s death but the missing money as well. Someone has gone to great lengths to frame him for the crimes. When evidence of his guilt is found at his house, not even Roman’s friends believe he’s innocent. With everyone turning their backs on him, Roman goes to Inspector Niebaum (Walsh), an internal affairs cop that Roenick mentioned as a part of the embezzlement scam. The confrontation quickly gets out of control, and before anyone knows what’s happened, Roman has taken the internal affairs department hostage. He demands that Lt. Chris Sabian (Spacey), another hostage negotiator that Roman trusts, be put in charge of the operation. Sabian takes over, but he’s dealing with a perp who knows all of the rules of engagement. To make matters worse, the book doesn’t cover this kind of negotiation. Roman isn’t asking for money and a plane full of fuel at the airport. He wants someone to get to the bottom of the frame job, or else.
![The Negotiator [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-negotiator-blu-ray-large.jpg)
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on November 11th, 2009
Mature Content in Games, Bad Band Hero Track Edits & Rock Band 3 will teach you to play the Guitar? - Welcome to the column that won’t teach you how to be a video game columnist and instead just act like one known as Dare to Play the Game.
Well, I finally finished the review for WWE Smackdown vs Raw on the Xbox 360. I put a good 2 ½ weeks into playing it and wrote up a very lengthy & detailed column if you want to go read it. Overall, I do love the game and think it’s the best WWE game in years. Of course, as we all know even before reading; the game isn’t perfect. But it shows that if designers lead with their creativity hat firmly on their head, they can produce a really special product.
Posted in: Contests by Gino Sassani on November 10th, 2009
“And now for something totally different…”
I was fortunate enough to get the Fawlty Towers DVDs recently, but as the fates would have it, they were damaged by some careless mail handler. That means I won’t be able to give you a review on the set.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 10th, 2009
The names of the characters are hardly consequential, as they are used to further storylines more than develop character. But Pacino plays a cop who is tracking a group of robbers, among them Val Kilmer (Wonderland) and Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan), a group headed by DeNiro. The group receives offers for work from Jon Voight (Runaway Train), and they rob anything from gold, to coins, to bearer bonds. They are all ex-cons, and know all the ropes. They are a highly professional crew, which you see in the opening moments of the movie, despite the addition of a new man to the crew. What also helps to differentiate this from a usual cops and robbers movie are the secondary plotlines of the families involved. Pacino’s is clearly distant and breaking (played by Diane Venora and Natalie Portman), while DeNiro doesn’t have one to speak of, despite an emerging romance with Edy (Amy Brenneman, Judging Amy). At 3 hours, there are some unnecessary scenes involving a banker (played by William Fichtner), but the underlying message is that almost all of the actions in the movie do not involve just the primary characters, but also friends and loved ones of those characters. Kilmer’s wife in the film, played by Ashley Judd, desperately wants to get him out of his line of work, as she wants to start a new life for her family. An ex-con (Dennis Haysbert, 24) is stumbled upon working in a greasy spoon, and offered a chance to work by DeNiro. Haysbert’s character wants to be right, but runs into so many obstacles from it that he takes the job, only to wind up perishing in what results in a massive gunfight in the heart of Los Angeles while a bank robbery is being pulled.
With other solid supporting performances by Ted Levine (Monk), Mykelti Williamson (Forrest Gump), and appearances by Bud Cort (Harold and Maude), Jeremy Piven (PCU), Hank Azaria (The Simpsons) and Henry Rollins (The Chase), the movie is certainly not without its star power. The director behind this work is Michael Mann, who also wrote a much better than expected story. The man responsible for such striking visuals in films such as Manhunter, Ali and The Insider contributes more outstanding work here, and while it’s been out for awhile now, Warner Brothers finally gives it a high definition Blu-ray release
![Heat [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/heat-blu-ray-large.jpg)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 10th, 2009
Finally, this show has really gotten to me. I don’t know what it is about this 8th season, but I was far more interested in the show than I had ever been. Maybe I’ve spent so long with these characters that they started to come alive for me. Maybe I was resistant to a slightly different way of telling stories. Maybe it was that the stories became less about who was with who that I was finally able to enjoy the great courtroom drama and investigation elements of the series. Whatever it was, I am finally a fan.
Most of each episode is dedicated to the investigation of the particular case. For action junkies, this often means flying some sweet high tech aircraft. The show’s primary character, Commander Harmon “Harm” Rabb (Elliott) does a lot of the high flying investigations. He was once an ace pilot who developed night blindness, which essentially grounded him.
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