Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 19th, 2008
The Chipmunks began life oddly enough as a singing group, of sorts. They were the brainchild of struggling songwriter Ross Bagdasarian and were named after the three chief executives at
Posted in: Brain Blasters by David Annandale on September 19th, 2008
I can’t quite decide how I feel about Paul W. S. Anderson. On the one hand, he clearly has a great deal of affection for his inspirations, and since most of his filmography, as either a director or producer, consists of adaptations, this is to the good. He is, for instance, one of the few filmmakers who actually seems to respect video games, even if his Resident Evil films consciously depart from the games’ story arc in a fairly massive way. Unlike Stephen Sommers, he does not feel the need to trivialize his material by giving up on the suspense and going for the cheap laugh.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on September 17th, 2008
Ike sucks, Rockband & Guitar Hero tracklist comparison and did I mention I hate hurricanes? - Welcome to the column that is free and there is no need to stand in line for half an hour known as Dare to Play the Game.
There wasn’t a column last week. I know, I’m sorry. I was too busy deciding what to do about Hurricane Ike. I had parts of it written last week time and time again. But I never could complete it because my heart wasn’t into it. My heart still isn’t 100% into it. You can blame it on Ike, or just hurricanes in general.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 17th, 2008
There are some significant changes in season 4. The interns now have interns of their own. It’s actually a little fresh to see them struggle with circumstances we only recently watched them deal with from the other perspective. All except George, who is forced to repeat after blowing off his final exam to help Izzie. There are also many cast changes. Gone are
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 17th, 2008
Medium was based on a real person with alleged psychic powers who apparently has helped out various law enforcement agencies in some actual cases. If you’ve seen the series, you might find that hard to believe, and the episodes are obviously fictional adventures and not based on the real Allison Dubois’s experiences. At first glance it might be easy to lump Medium in with Ghost Whisperer or The Dead Zone. Actually there are almost no similarities to any of those shows.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 17th, 2008
I love CSI and have been an avid fan from day one. I think it brought a fresh look to the procedural crime dramas that have long ago become just a little stale and predictable. The problem is that the series has gone the Dick Wolf route of branching out so that the final product might be a little diluted. Unlike the Law & Order franchise, each version of CSI has attempted to take on a unique look and style to reflect the location without giving up those elements which are the tradition of the series. CSI:
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 17th, 2008
Wings was one of those unusual sitcoms that depended more on the characters than the situations they were in. While the setting was a small
Posted in: Brain Blasters by David Annandale on September 13th, 2008
This is going to be half a review, and half nostalgia.
In 1980, Dario Argento’s Inferno was released, and, bizarrely, it was one of the films profiled on a kid’s SF TV show I watched back then. The scenes on display sent my terrified little self fleeing from the room. But the images I saw stayed with me, as did the spookily elegant poster I saw on Paris theatre marquees in the weeks that followed: a purple-and-blue skull with a single drop of blood forming at the still-fleshy lips.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 12th, 2008
I’m going to admit from the beginning that I had a lot of trepidation going into watching Desperate Housewives. I’ve never seen the show on broadcast television, and frankly don’t know anybody who’s a big fan. The closest I ever got to any of this was the famous T.O. Monday Night Football towel incident that featured the woman from the show lusting after Owens while he was with the Philadelphia Eagles. And like Owens’ tenure with the team, Desperate Housewives was just one of those things I figured we just didn’t talk about. Certainly I’ve seen the hype, and believe, me I’m well aware of the show’s popularity.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 12th, 2008
Eli Stone is a typical corporate lawyer. He admits to being totally self-involved and greedy, that is until he begins to see and hear things that aren’t really there… or are they. These visions appear to be connected with events unfolding in Stone’s life and seem to be leading him toward a mission of sorts. It could be helping a mother whose child was stricken by a harmful vaccine or helping a convict fight prison abuse. In the pilot, Stone discovers that he has a brain aneurism, which might account for the vivid visions he is experiencing.








