Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 18th, 2014
"If anybody gets up, they're dead. Anybody moves, they're dead. Anybody makes a sound before I leave this movie, ..."
You get the idea. These are the words of one John Wojtowicz, better known as The Dog. On August 22, 1972 he attempted to rob a Chase Manhattan bank in order to finance his male lover's sex change operation so that he could become a woman. The heist was about as amateur as the come and went horribly wrong from the start. In a matter of minutes the bank was surrounded by a swarm of police units and a growing mob of bystanders.
Posted in: Holiday Gift Guides by Gino Sassani on November 18th, 2014
“I don’t know why death still surprises me.”
As we get closer to holiday shopping time, Upcomingdiscs will be here to help you find something for that home theater fanatic on your shopping list. Keep checking back to see more recommendations for your holiday shopping. These gift guides ARE NOT paid advertisements. We take no money to publish them.
Posted in: Contests, Expired Contests by Gino Sassani on November 13th, 2014
Our friends at Image Entertainment are picking a fight with the ladies this time. Actually, it's the ladies doing the fighting. We're talking about Queens Of The Ring out now on DVD from Image Entertainment. A supermarket cashier talks her co-workers into joining her in a WWE Diva training program. It's a comedy featuring cameos from WWE favorites like The Miz, CM Punk and Eve Torres. You won't have to fight with anyone to get a copy for yourself. We've got 2 copies to give away.
To win just follow these instructions.
Posted in: Contests, Expired Contests by Gino Sassani on November 12th, 2014
Our friends at Arc Entertainment want to get a jump start on your Winter Holiday fun. They're releasing Frozen In Time on DVD and it's loaded with family fun in the snow. The film stars the voices of Ed Asner and Mira Sorvino. It's an animated Groundhog Day for Christmas. When two siblings break their grandfather's special clock Christmas Day is repeated over and over again. Sound like fun? Arc Entertainment has given us 3 copies to giveaway.
To win just follow these instructions.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 6th, 2014
"There are dark spirits, old and full of hate...The world is in great danger."
A trilogy is a hard animal to pull off. Even when you have a popular franchise, it is extremely difficult. All of the pieces have to work just right, or you could have a disaster on your hands. It is even harder when you've already beaten the odds once and delivered a trilogy that is both loved and a huge box office success. You run into an almost insurmountable mountain of expectations.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 6th, 2014
Erle Stanley Gardner wrote crime fiction, and while many of his 100 or so works are unknown to most of us, he created a character who has become as identified with criminal lawyers as any other in fiction. It was in these crime novels that Perry Mason first faced a courtroom. He developed a style where he would investigate these terrible crimes his clients were on trial for. He would find the real killer, and in what has become a Hollywood cliché, reveal his findings in a crucial moment during the trial. While we may not remember the novels, we all remember the man in the persona of Raymond Burr.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 4th, 2014
"1968, I was twelve years old. A lot happened that year. Dennis McLain won 31 games, The Mod Squad hit the air, and I graduated from Hillcrest Elementary and entered junior high school...but we'll get to that. There's no pretty way to put this: I grew up in the suburbs. I guess most people think of the suburb as a place with all the disadvantages of the city, and none of the advantages of the country, and vice versa. But, in a way, those really were the wonder years for us there in the suburbs. It was kind of a golden age for kids."
With all of the television I've watched over the decades, it's more than a little surprising to me that I missed out on The Wonder Years.
Posted in: Super Round-Up by Gino Sassani on October 31st, 2014
"I met him fifteen years ago; I was told there was nothing left; no reason, no conscience, no understanding; and even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six-year-old child, with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes... the devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... evil."
AnchorBay and Scream Factory have tapped into that pure evil. It's the collection we've waited years to see.
Posted in: Podcasts by Gino Sassani on October 30th, 2014
Free Fall just out on Blu-ray/DVD from Anchor Bay might be Malek Akkad's first feature film as a director. That doesn't mean he's exactly new to the business. You could say he was born to it. He's been officially part of the Halloween franchise since The Curse Of Michael Myers (Halloween VI). His father was along for the ride from the beginning. I got to talk to Malek about both Free Fall and Halloween. I was a bit envious to hear him talk about "running around the set of Halloween as a child". There's even some news on the next chapter to be found here. If you want to hear all of that, just bang it here to sit in on my chat with Malek Akkad.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 29th, 2014
"It was the gang that ran amok. You have people who were being extorted, who talked of having a shotgun barrel stuck in their mouths or machine guns pointed at their groin. Body bags were shown by Bulger as he shakes them down. It was absolute terror."
It amazes me that I really had very little idea who James J. Bulger was before I watched this film by director Joe Berlinger. How could I have missed this guy? On the run for over 16 years, Bulger was once #2 on the FBI's most wanted list. Who was #1? That was Osama Bin Laden. So who was this man that came in second only to the world's most infamous terrorist?
