Posts by Gino Sassani

It's my pleasure to introduce the latest member of the Upcomingdiscs family.

Welcome Natasha Samreny to these pages. I'm sure you'll find that she'll bring a fresh look to an old friend.

An ancient facility beneath Antarctica becomes the launching platform to the lost city of Atlantis. Atlantis is buried beneath an ocean in another galaxy and can only be reached with an additional symbol on the Stargate. Because of power limitations this trip, at least for the time being, is a one-way adventure. A crew of scientists and military officers from many countries assemble to explore the Pegasus Galaxy from the Atlantis gate.

"The die was cast. If I just said City Hall the story would end here. But I didn't, and Betsy and I took our fateful trip to Vegas."

Everyone remembers the 1993 provocative film Indecent Proposal with Robert Redford as the rich playboy who offers Woody Harrelson a million bucks to spend a night with his wife, played by Demi Moore. The movie created quite a stir, and more than a little water cooler conversation about what you might do in that situation. What most people overlook, however, is that same kind of situation appeared a year earlier with a more romantic-comedy take in Andrew Bergman's Honeymoon in Vegas.

"As people flocked together for safety, the plague marched through their locked gates and they became death traps. When Washington fell it was over for America as we knew her. As government blew away, our great leaders ran for it, and hope was abandoned."

It's a grim and dark reality that Stake Land sets for us from the beginning.

"One morning in 1940, the entire population of Friah, NH walked north up an unmarked trail into the wilderness. Some were later found frozen to death. Others were mysteriously slaughtered. Most, however, were never found."

It's legends like these that usually mean we're about to embark on another Blair Witch journey into the woods in search of some deep dark secret. It means it's time to brace yourself

"What is source code?"

That's a good question. Unfortunately, there really isn't a good answer, not without spoiling some of the finer elements of this science fiction thriller from Moon director Duncan Jones. At the heart of this code you'll a bit of the familiar. From Groundhog Day to Déjà Vu you'll leave this movie with a sense that you've seen much of this before, and that's not entirely a bad thing. These elements aren't necessarily merely retread material. Let's just say they share a large amount of DNA in this film's basic source code.

"Obviously, I miscalculated a few things. Why is it that the moment your life exceeds your wildest dreams the knife appears at your back?"

You've heard the myth that we only use about 10% of our brains so often that most people actually believe it's true. It's one of those old wives' tails that has been around long enough to become an axiom. We actually do use considerably more than 10% of our brains, or should I say, most of us do.

"Blue for us. Red for them. It's that simple."

What's not so simple is this John Frankenheimer cold war sleeper from 1990. You say you've never heard of it? That's not very surprising. The film couldn't even break $2 million at the box office and was pulled after just two weeks of release. It's hard to imagine a film from such a bright director as Frankenheimer and staring the likes of Roy Scheider would tank so badly. Tank it did, and quite frankly, any fans of the movie should be thanking MGM for releasing it now

Warner's Japan unit had decided that it wanted to turn one of its shows into an anime production for the Japanese audience. I guess it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that Supernatural would be the perfect fit. Let's face it. While the production values on the live-action series have always been high, there are certain limitations that exist. With animation you have the ability to go far beyond what you can do with characters played ultimately by human actors.

Back in 1981 we all got a little lost between the moon and New York City as Dudley Moore played the spoiled and perpetually drunk title character in the surprise hit Arthur. He was in love with Liza Minnelli, but his rich family had plans for the socialite played by Jill Eikenberry. Arthur's only real friend was the guy who was paid to be there for him, but nevertheless had a soft spot for him. That was butler Hobson, played by Sir John Gielgud. It was a quirky little romantic comedy that turned out to have legs.