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Goof Troop (Volume 1)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 19th, 2006

Synopsis

Sometimes Disney will release a film that provides feelings of nostalgia to a lot of people. And other times they release shows onto DVD that make me realize just how old I am. When Disney’s Goof Troop was released onto DVD, my wife said the most horrible thing I’ve heard her say so far: “I used to watch that show growing up.” Keeping in mind that Goof Troop aired from 1992-1993, that statement probably says more about her than it does me, it still didn’t make me feel good. For God’s…
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Tenacious D: The Complete Masterworks

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 19th, 2006

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Synopsis

The world greatest rock band’s story about the rise to power, born from Satan, and ready to rock the world, may not be as accurate as one would perceive. As Jack Black and Kyle Gass (Jables and KG to those in the know), Tenacious D received a small run of episodes during the HBO series Mr. Show in 1999 that resulted in good word of mouth for the pair. It was only until last year, when the long-awaited first album finally dropped, that the world discovered just how good they were. And the alb…
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Eros

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 17th, 2006

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Anthology films are a good training ground for young filmmakers to flex their muscles and really get creative. However, with Eros, the three filmmakers have already been around the block a time or two, and on the surface, that could be considered a good thing. But when you consider what Michaelangelo Antonioni, Steven Soderbergh, and Kar-Wai Wong, are already capable of, these shorts seem a bit of a letdown. The best segment is Soderbergh’s “Equilibrium,” with its symbolic stylistic effects and wry sense of hu…
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Capote

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 16th, 2006

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Biographies are nothing brand new. Hollywood has been making these types of films for quite sometime. Some of the more famous biographies are about people like George S. Patton and political leader Ghandi. Most recently, audiences were invited into the world of Truman Capote. The two aforementioned biographies tended to cast actors that seemed not to necessarily play the person, but more so become the character almost channeling him. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, like George C. Scott and Ben Kingsley, channels Capote in a…
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White Horse Is Dead, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 16th, 2006

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Director Pete Red Sky conducts a small, but capable cast in the psychodrama The White Horse Is Dead. Some bits of dialogue hit sour notes, but the cast, which consists of Resmine Atis, Andrew Welsh, and Irina Stemer, hold their own through the rough parts and truly elevate this flawed rendering of an otherwise intriguing – and sordid – tale. Atis plays Naya, daughter to Giselle (a domineering and beautiful hypochondriac), and at the film’s opening, we see she’s the kind of girl, who would do most anything to p…
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Glory Road

Posted in News and Opinions by Archive Authors on March 14th, 2006

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Buena Vista Home Entertainment will release the basketball drama Glory Road (starring Josh Lucas) on June 6th. This disc will be presented in separate 2.35:1 anamorphic and fullscreen versions, both with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks. Extras will include two audio commentaries (the first with director James Gartner & producer Jerry Bruckheimer; the second with screenwriters Christopher Cleveland & Bettina Gilois), deleted scenes, extended interviews (with the actual UTEP players), two featurettes (“The …
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Confessor, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 14th, 2006

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Take every Catholic movie cliché you can find, wrap them up in a weak and predictable murder-mystery, throw in Christian Slater and Stephen Rea as they struggle for some semblance of the glory their careers once held, release direct-to-DVD, and you have The Confessor. Slater plays a priest struggling with his own faith, to the point he hasn’t prayed in years. His primary purpose to the Catholic Church is as a fundraiser for whatever causes they deem necessary to support. Of course, all of his higher-ups are st…
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Living Single: The Complete First Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 14th, 2006

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In the first few years of the nineties, hip-hop singer/movie actress Queen Latifah headlined her own comedy show called Living Single. The show went on to last for five seasons. Although it never won much acclaim or any big awards, the show still had viewers. The basic premise for the show saw the day to day life of four twenty-something year old girlfriends and their two male neighbors.

In each episode, the cast sorted out its various issues with life. They also found time to find problems with eve…
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Naked World

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 13th, 2006

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Most of the time, I’m a pretty big fan of HBO’s documentaries, so you can imagine my disappointment when I had to sit through the overly long 76 minutes of Naked World, which follows attention-hungry tit-bag Spencer Tunick, as he embarks on a world tour to find idiots wanting to pose for him. They all have their reasons why they’re baring all for the handful of people, who watch this documentary, but the underlying reason is – much like that of Tunick himself – attention. These lunatics may have even convinced…
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Death Tunnel

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 12th, 2006

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Sigh..Death Tunnel is another low-budget horror flick that is just so dull and mundane that it hurts to sit through the whole film. The film is over-directed, which some may think could be a good trait, but not in this case. Death Tunnel is about five college girls who all agree to spend a night in a horrific old asylum as part of a co-ed type event. Enter a few snickering boys trying to scare them and you have a horror film. Excuse me while I try to regain my thoughts as the film was a big yawn fest. < ...
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South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 11th, 2006

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Synopsis

First off, I never would have thought that a Comedy Central TV show featuring animated eight-year olds who curse like I used to (I still do, who am I kidding?), is transformed into a 94 minute movie with abundant musical numbers and (gasp!) an Oscar-nominated song performed by Robin Williams at said awards ceremony. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone created a dazzling, hilarious, and unpredictable movie, filled with musical numbers, and vocal cameos from George Clooney, Dave Foley and Eric Idle, …
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Death in Gaza

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 11th, 2006

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Synopsis

The first time I became acquainted with the work of documentarian James Miller and reporter Saira Shah was when I first saw the documentary Beneath the Veil some years back, shortly after the September 11th attacks. It was an unnerving and powerful look at life in the Taliban-led area of Afghanistan, where women were brutalized and humiliated beyond comprehension.

Miller had done some work in other countries with similar dangerous environments, and in 2003 with Shah’s help, he unde…
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Newsradio: The Complete Third Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 10th, 2006

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Newsradio ran for five seasons. Four seasons gave us some of the best work of excellent comedic legend Phil Hartman, but the beginning of the fifth season marked a sadness period from which the show was never able to recover, as Hartman was shot to death by his wife, who committed suicide immediately following. It was the kind of tragedy you still can’t believe – even today – if you knew Hartman or his work. Luckily, season three offers some of his best moments, as well as the comic genius of the undera…
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Making Love

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 9th, 2006

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Michael Ontkean and Kate Jackson play a married couple dealing with the ramifications of the husband’s newly discovered homosexual behavior. Right off, I’ll say these two seem too happy from the beginning to make the sudden turn believable. Also, the ending [SPOILER ALERT, kind of] is too predictable and cliche to be the least little bit effective. The “I’m okay/You’re okay” resolution, where everyone moves on and everyone’s okay with who they are, and the world is once more a wonderful place, is pure Grade-A drivel …
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Moonlighting – Season Three

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 7th, 2006

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Ahh, Moonlighting. For people of my generation, this may be the golden age of television. That’s not to take anything away from I Love Lucy or The Andy Griffith Show, but when you grew up in the 80’s, there was this, L. A. Law and Miami Vice. For my money, Moonlighting was the best of the three. Even by today’s standards, it is extremely rare to find a show such as this. A genuine drama/mystery program that succeeds in being very, very funny. The fact is, the entire show was …
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King Kong (2005)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 6th, 2006

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Ever since making the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Director Peter Jackson has almost become a household name that seems to always guarantee success. Don’t get me wrong though, Jackson has not always been successful. Before making the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jackson had the film The Frighteners and a few smaller films where he only produced. The idea of giving this not so successful movie director hundreds of millions of dollars to remake the Lord of the Rings trilogy, made many turn their…
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Magnum P.I. – The Complete Third Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 5th, 2006

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Synopsis

Let me tell you a story. Back in 1904, I used to be in the Army. For 3 glorious years, I went to the office every day from 9 to 4:30 (with an hour and a half for lunch), typing up and processing awards and various evaluation reports and generally doing the best job I could. When I had to, I went out for field training and would (for lack of a better phrase) “play Army”, where I would sit in a communications center for 8 hours at a time, checking to see if the radios worked occasionally.

W…
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Time Bandits

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 5th, 2006

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Synopsis

Well, a Terry Gilliam children’s film might seem like a bit of an oxymoron, however writing a film with fellow Monty Python alum Michael Palin actually resulted in a funny, and even philosophical film, reflecting on themes of good and evil.

In a futuristic, technological world of the early 1980s, young Kevin (Craig Warnock) sees a medieval knight and horse burst from his wardrobe closet and run into the woods. The next night he prepares for something similar, but instead meets a gr…
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Soldiers in the Army of God

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 4th, 2006

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Not only is HBO not afraid of controversial programming, they actually embrace it. It is widely believed that the two topics that cause the most tension among people is politics and religion. Maybe that’s why abortion is such a hot-button issue. No other topic simultaneously evokes such strong political and theological views. Solders in the Army of God is an HBO original documentary that takes a close look look at the “Army of God” organization, the most violent anti-abortion group in the United States.

Now, my interest is not to share my personal beliefs on the subject of abortion, or to try to persuade others to share my viewpoints.
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Mirrormask

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 3rd, 2006

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Neil Gaiman’s Mirrormask is just the sort of mixed bag I expected. While parts are mesmerizing and the performance of Stephanie Leonidas is a joy in itself, the plot fails to make room for credibility when it’s desperately needed. The holes left behind from this weak story cause the film to masquerade as art while carefully avoiding admission to what it really is – a product of sloppy writing. Gaiman is a talented scribe, but with Mirrormask, he’s dangerously close to believing his own hype. Judging fro…
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Empire

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 3rd, 2006

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Every so often, an idea for a movie, mini-series or TV show becomes so hot that multiple projects are given the green-light, even though the subject matter is very similar. Remember Dante’s Peak and Volcano in 1997? Murder at 1600 and Absolute Power the same year? Deep Impact and Armageddon in 1998?

Now comes ABC’s mini-series, Empire and HBO’s on-going series, Rome. Both were high budgeted, epic projects about ancient Rome, and both networks strived …
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Week-End in Havana

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 3rd, 2006

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Week-End in Havana manages to entertain, but not by way of its musical numbers. For one, the songwriting is relatively lame and dated. Also, singing isn’t a forte for any of the performers. While Carmen Miranda certainly has a screen presence and a dynamic personality, her voice remains scratchy and flat – and she’s the best vocalist the film has to offer. But that doesn’t condemn it by any means. With films such as these that manage to function well as straight romance, the inclusion of musical numbers is mor…
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Next Step, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 2nd, 2006

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Originally released in 1997, The Next Step is one of those coming of age dance films that became so popular in the late 90’s. Usually, that alone would be enough to put me off the film, but as I am a reviewer, I was forced to dig deeper. Unfortunately for me, there really isn’t anywhere deeper to go. The genre pretty much dictates the plot.

For those who dare to actually be concerned with said plot, I really can’t say it any better than it is already stated on the back of the box. Specifically, this …
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UpcomingDiscs Redesign

Posted in News and Opinions by Archive Authors on March 1st, 2006

Just so you all know – UPCD is undergoing a big redesign right now. In addition to a new aesthetic treatment, there will be a tonne of great new features added and functionality improvements – long needed things like spam filters on comments, for instance. Also, DVD Battle will return to review pages, along with renewed and reinvigorated hardware and game reviews sections.

So, stay tuned! And if you have any comments or suggestions, please email me at rod@upcomingdiscs.com….
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May 23 – Blu-Ray Launch Date Announced for Titles and Hardware

Posted in News and Opinions by Archive Authors on February 28th, 2006

Well, eat my hat – looks like Blu-ray has an official launch date for hardware and titles – May 23, as reported by Engadget. Here’s the official release from Sony, which in addition to the date, drops the list of release titles:

The first Blu-ray Disc titles from SPHE and MGM Home Enterta…
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