Posts by Gino Sassani

I’ve seen some dysfunctional families on television over the years. Haven’t we all? It’s fun to laugh at someone else’s flaws. Along comes Showtime, and it’s rather hard to classify the series The United States Of Tara. This one takes dysfunction to a whole new level. Tara (Collette) suffers from multiple-personality disorder. Laughing yet? She has managed to control the problem by using medications and attending frequent therapy sessions. But the medication is sapping her creative ability. You see, Tara was once a gifted artist. She painted murals and was somewhat critically acclaimed. The meds put an end to all of that. With the blessings of her family, Tara goes off the meds, and the family grows by 7. Yes, there are 7 “alters” as she calls them inside of Tara’s body. Now they are all coming out to play.

The first thing you have to understand about this show is who the alters happen to be. We learn over time that they were constructed by Tara’s mind to protect her from a traumatic moment in her life. Tara can’t remember the event, but from time to time, the alters offer up little clues to what might have taken place. She is totally aware of the alters and their personalities. The family has developed some protection techniques of their own. Husband Max (Corbett) is not allowed to have sex with the alters. They’ve decided that would be cheating. How about just f***ed up? The kids are to treat the alters as they are, not as Mom. I’ll introduce you to the “real” people later. Here are Tara’s alters:

Just in time for the winter holidays we get a Yogi adventure that takes place in the spring. This is another Warner Archive Collection release that allows us to get our hands on something that would otherwise be impossible to find.  The 1987 full-length cartoon adventure features your favorite "smarter than the average Bear" Yogi and Boo Boo as well as a few guests from the Hanna-Barbera line of characters. You'll also find Snagglepuss, Wally Gator and Quick-Draw McGraw in this adventure.

As the winter begins to melt away at Jellystone Park, Yogi and Boo Boo are about to wake for the spring, and boy, are they hungry. There's nothing left in the pantry, so it's off to explore for picnic baskets. When they finally find a basket, they're in for a big surprise. There's no food. Instead, there are three little bear cubs and a note asking their "uncle" Yogi to care for them during the spring.

On the 11th Day Of Christmas we looked under the tree here at Upcomingdiscs and what did we find? The Santa's Helpers over at CBS left two more DVD sets. This time they left a copy of the Final Season part 1 of The Fugitive AND Perry Mason Season 5 vol. 2 under the Upcomingdiscs Christmas tree. To win a copy of this series classics just follow these two steps…

Contest is now closed Winners are Robert Wise & Adam Lipkin

"I love it when a plan comes together."

I love it when a movie comes together that offers you some value for your entertainment dollar and manages to touch a bit on the old nostalgia strings along the way. I'm not going to try to convince you that the new A-Team film is a great movie. It's not even close. But neither was the series a great series. What I am going to try to convince you to do is go out and at least rent a copy of the A-Team movie and allow it to do exactly what it was intended to do ... take you for a little ride while jogging those old memories just enough to bring the occasional smile to your face. Think about it. Could you really ask a movie to do anything more?

"Luke Skywalker has returned to his home planet of Tatooine in order... But, you know this story..."

Know this story, you do. It's the opening of the third, or actually the 6th in sequence, but it is the 3rd one made, unless you count... Never mind. This is the prologue to Return Of The Jedi. Not so long ago in this Galaxy, Family Guy took a shot across the bow of those Imperial Cruisers with its extremely funny and on the spot spoof of the first Star Wars film, or actually the 4th chapter.... Star Wars: A New Hope. It was only a matter of time before Seth MacFarlane would steer his own ship back into George Lucas's universe a third time. With equal parts faithful adaptation and off-the-wall detours, he's done it again, delivering another very funny tour into the dark side.

Futurama was the brainchild of Simpson veterans Matt Groening and David X Cohen. With the growing popularity of their iconic cartoon, it was no surprise that Fox would tap the team to bring another show to the network. When Futurama premiered in 1999, it was a combination of The Jetsons and The Simpsons. That would be ironic for those of us who think the Simpsons theme is a direct knock off of The Jetsons. It was 1000 years in the future, and the joke was that no matter how much things changed, they hadn’t really changed at all. The space-age series would use many of the writing and art team from The Simpsons. That meant the character designs, at least the humans, would look exactly like the people in the other show. The writing would include that same subtle wit that implanted tons of references for the adults who were watching. The show never seemed to click with the kids, but it was not really meant to. The subject matter was considerably more adult in nature, and there really weren’t any cuddly characters. All of this likely led to Fox’s decision to cancel the show after four years. It wasn’t a quick and painless demise, either. The show suffered through months of purgatory. It was on, then off again. The final episodes were moved around and often rescheduled. In the end it was an uphill battle, and Futurama lost.

But the cancellation was not to be permanent. The show found new legs on cable and finally with a handful of home video movies. Interest was once again high, and Futurama was back from the grave. Now the episodes can also continue on home video. Here you'll find a collection of 13 episodes on 2 discs.

Congratulations to all of our December Contest winners.

Don't forget we have a ton of Holiday Giveaways running through Jan.

On the 10th Day Of Christmas we looked under the tree again here at Upcomingdiscs and what did we find? The Santa's Helpers over at CBS were at it again. This time they left a copy of the Monte Walsh on DVD under the Upcomingdiscs Christmas tree. To win a copy of this Lee Marvin Western just follow these two steps…

Contest is now closed Winner is Patty B

On the 9th Day Of Christmas our friends at Image Entertainment were at it again. This time they left two copies of Van Gogh: Brush With Genius for two lucky Upcomingdiscs readers. So lend me your ears and enter to win this IMAX documentary. Just follow these two steps…

Contest is now closed Winners are Carol Ames & Mike

On the 8th Day of Christmas we have a copy of  Trading Places on DVD. This is the special "Looking Good, Feeling Good Edition". Help yourself to feel good by bringing in the New Year with this Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphie Classic. To win, follow these instructions.

Contest is now closed Winner is Rose