Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 18th, 2015
"A man of your age has no excuse for looking or behaving like a fugitive from a home for alcoholic music hall artistes."
Sound like anyone you know? Johnny Depp is one hell of a talented actor. There are few in the industry than can so completely inhabit a character. He has an uncanny ability to make you forget Johnny Depp the actor and lose yourself in his performance. He is a chameleon physically and expressively. Unfortunately, Johnny has had trouble finding box office gold lately. You see, he's having a lot of fun at our expense. But it's not just we who are footing the bill for his tomfoolery. The studios are handing out hundreds of millions of dollars for box office misses like The Lone Ranger, Transcendence, Dark Shadows, The Rum Diaries and the animated Rango. Depp appears interested only in making films where he can have a blast on screen and doesn't appear all that concerned if the film makes any money or if the audience feels like they've been invited into the party. You can now add Mortdecai to that list. There's absolutely no question that Depp is having a blast, but if you paid anything at all to see it, it was at your expense.
Posted in: Podcasts by Gino Sassani on May 13th, 2015
The Drownsman is now out from Anchor Bay. This time I talked with Caroline Palmer. Caroline made her feature film debut with The Drownsman. I had a great time talking with her. Now you can find out what we talked about. Bang it here to listen in on my talk with Caroline Palmer.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 13th, 2015
If you were around in 1972, television was a very different place. By midnight most stations were shutting down to the tune of the national anthem. After that there was a test pattern and a high-pitched ring that would fill your screen until dawn when programming would resume. Of course, there were also only three networks, and, if you were lucky enough to live in a large market, a handful of local stations. All good people were expected to be safely tucked into their beds long before 1:00 AM. It was a very different world from today when we get 24-hour programming on over 200 stations or more. Oh, and there was no home video, in case you thought you could just pop in a movie for your late-night viewing pleasure. Video games? Forget it. In just a couple of years, you were going to get Pong.
The music business was also very different in 1972. It was the age of the singer-songwriter and rock bands who actually played instruments. Music was sold on vinyl record albums, and there was no MTV or VH1. If you wanted to see your favorite band perform, you went to a concert. There were dance shows that went all the way back to the 50's with Dick Clark's American Bandstand or Soul Train. But these shows featured performances that were lip-synched to the familiar recordings. These were almost never live performances. If you were lucky, your favorite band might show up on Johnny Carson or Ed Sullivan before that. Downloading music meant you worked at a record store, and you were unloading boxes of albums from the back of a delivery truck. Even the Walkman was a decade in the future. Bands just didn't have access to the fans the way they do today. All of that started to change on August 19, 1972. That was the day The Midnight Special arrived, and things would never be the same again.
Posted in: Site News by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2015
Join me in welcoming Dustin P. Anderson to the Upcomingdiscs family. We've been doing some growing at Upcomingdiscs. I think Dustin is going to be a big part of that growth. He's been doing reviews for a while and we're lucky to have him here with us. His first review is up for your enjoyment.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2015
"If you can dream it, we can build it."
That's the motto of Wayde King and Brett Raymer of Acrylic Tank Manufacturing (ATM). They are two guys from Brooklyn who moved to Vegas where they started ATM. Why they couldn't do it in Brooklyn isn't ever mentioned. Must be the high taxes. The duo claim that they are the number one tank aquarium manufacturers in the United States. That likely doesn't include the mass-produce guys like All-Glass. Still, from what I've seen here, there's no question these guys are good.
Posted in: Podcasts by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2015
Leatherface. Michael Myers. Jason. Freddy Kruger. Look out, boys. There's a new face in the game. The Drownsman is like a horror day at your favorite water park. This is a water world even Kevin Costner can't sink. His name is Sebastian Donner and he's coming at you in Anchor Bay's new horror release: The Drownsman. I had a chance to talk to writer/director Chad Archibald about his wet new creation. It's absolutely worth a listen. Bang it here to listen in on my chat with Chad Archibald.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2015
"It's the guy next door, guy who sits too close in the theater, maybe even at church. Plain, ordinary, the everyday man. That's the guy they should be afraid of. 'Cause they never see him coming."
Or maybe the friendly neighborhood barber. Max Enscoe's screenplay for The Barber appears to touch on those fears. We've all seen those interviews with neighbors and friends after a particularly heinous killer is finally caught. He was quiet. Always went to church.
Posted in: Site News by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2015
Join me in welcoming Deborah Bostock-Kelley to the Upcomingdiscs family. You might have seen her work in the Tampa Trib. She's an accomplished writer and event producer. You can check her work for The Write One Creative Services. Look for her review work right here at Upcomingdiscs. Her first review is up right now.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 7th, 2015
"An early computer command that sent the machine into a race condition, forcing all instructions to compete for superiority at once. Control of the computer could not be regained."
That command? It's Halt And Catch Fire. Television is very much like that. So many shows out there are competing for your attention. Even on the same network there's often competition for the resources of the studios and the sponsors who provide the paydays. Now AMC has added another original series to compete for your attention...and precious time. You guessed it. Halt And Catch Fire. Does it work? Let's find out.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 4th, 2015
"When history looks back, I want people to know the Nazis weren’t able to kill millions of people and get away with it."
Those words were spoken by Simon Wiesenthal. Wiesenthal was an architect living in Poland in the 1930's. He was witness to the systematic persecution, isolation and eventual slaughter of the Jewish population of which he was a member when Germany's Nazi troops invaded Poland. He and his family ended up in a concentration camp and into forced labor. When Hitler instituted his "Final Solution" most of his family members were killed. He barely survived after an unsuccessful escape attempt; he would have surely been killed if not for a sudden turn in the Nazi forces. He and his wife managed to survive the Holocaust.
