Posted in: News and Opinions by Gino Sassani on December 24th, 2010
Merry Christmas to you all, from all of us here at Upcomingdiscs.
A few of our good friends at the various studios have become Santa's Helpers again this year.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 23rd, 2010
"I have come to tell you a story..."
Director Phillip Noyce is no stranger to the spy-and-espionage genre. His father was an intelligence officer with the Australian government, and he spent many years of his childhood listening to tales of derring-do. He often recounts in interviews how he would play spy as a young man. He would pick out some stranger he'd see while out and about. For the next several hours he would follow that person, noting their actions, all the while practicing not getting caught. He'll tell you that his nerve got the best of him or he might have very well found himself following in the footsteps of his father. Perhaps someone else would have been making films about his exploits. Instead he gravitated to the next best thing. He decided to make movies about such things. Some of those films like Clear And Present Danger and Patriot Games are solid examples of the genre. Others might not be quite so successful at the box office but are often better than their numbers might indicate. Count Salt in that category. Salt was obviously intended to start a new franchise. The ending doesn't even hide the setup for another film. But the reality is that the movie made only about $118 million on a $110 million budget. $7 million might sound like a lot of money to you or me, but in Hollywood those aren't the kinds of numbers on which solid franchises are built. Too bad, really, because Salt is a pretty entertaining film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 23rd, 2010
"And now I wish to present an entertainment which has given pleasure to many of the crowned heads of Europe. Ladies and gentlemen, tonight for your eyes alone..."
In the 1950's and 1960's Hammer picked up where Universal had left off. They became the studio for the very best in horror films. With names like Lugosi, Karloff and Chaney finally reaching the end of their reign, Hammer offered up the likes of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. They resurrected all of the famous Universal monsters in their own image. Now we had a new cycle of Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man and The Mummy. While the films were somewhat low-budget and released mostly through the drive-in circuit, these films made a bloody splash with horror fans all over the world. But by the time the 1970's had begun, the studio was falling behind in the horror genre. Anthony Hinds had left the studio, and with him went some of the passion for the horror films that made Hammer famous. The studio heads became more interested in other kinds of films, and the horror department languished for a time.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 23rd, 2010
Michael McDonald has been around for a very long time. In fact, with his white hair and beard McDonald makes a perfect little musical Santa. The man began his career as a backup singer for Steely Dan but made his real fame when he became part of The Doobie Brothers in the 1970's. But by 1982 it was already all over for the super-group. After about 5 years of wall-to-wall hits the group disbanded, and McDonald went out on his own. His first solo album was an almost instant hit. Unfortunately for McDonald and his many fans, he wasn't the most prolific artist and took 9 years to follow up that album. By then times had changed, and he never has quite captured the fame that started with The Doobie Brothers and continued through his early solo career.
While McDonald's solo career hasn't exactly been soaring in the last 20 years, he has found ways to stay in touch with the loyal fan base. Christmas has been kind to the rocker. He has released a couple of Christmas albums with some level of success. He also continues to do Christmas concerts, a tradition that began in his Doobie Brothers days.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 20th, 2010
He's been called the King Of Late-Night. Today when there are so many talk shows on at pretty much every hour of the day, that might not appear to be such a huge distinction. There were talk shows on before Johnny Carson, but there can be no doubt that he invented the modern late-night show. For 30 years Johnny Carson was like a member of the family for millions of Americans. He was a friendly face at the end of a long, stressful day. He was that dependable routine that you could set your biological clock by. You would lie back in bed and let Johnny bring the world to you. You could count on a wide assortment of entertainment experiences. Johnny would deliver a monolog that often touched on the hot topics of the day. The news programs might be depressing, but Johnny always gave you a reason to crack a smile at the worst of times. There were characters like Aunt Blabby and Carnac who became comfortable old friends. The top names in show business competed for precious minutes on his stage, and if you were very lucky you spent some time on the couch and some face time with Johnny and his faithful sidekick Ed McMahon. Johnny could make or break your career in three minutes. He brought you the best of the new comics and musicians while delivering the big stars just as well. When you made it to The Tonight Show, you really made it.
There will never be a complete season or complete series set for Johnny Carson. There are several problems that present themselves almost immediately. Johnny was on nearly every night for thirty years. Do the math and you'll realize there have been thousands of episodes. The sad fact is that many of these moments are lost forever. Footage has either been lost completely or is in such bad shape as to be almost unwatchable. The was so much variety that having a full season would be a logistic nightmare to find those favorite moments. No, there just isn't ever going to be a complete anything when it comes to Johnny Carson. But Respond2 Entertainment has come about as close as I would have believed possible with the extraordinary release of 4 Decades Of The Tonight Show. Now, I hesitate to even call this a comprehensive collection. Again, I'm just convinced that wouldn't be possible. This comes as close as it gets.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 20th, 2010
The setting for Gunsmoke was the by-now-famous Dodge City, circa 1870’s. Phrases like “get out of Dodge” would enter the popular lexicon as a result of this resilient series. Marshall Dillon (Arness) was charged with keeping the peace in Dodge City. The only other character to see the entire 20-year run was kindly Doc Adams (Stone). Star Trek’s own Doc, Leonard McCoy, took many of his traits from Doc Adams. He was the humanitarian of the city, always looking to help someone. Like McCoy, he had a taste for bourbon and a soft heart underneath a rather gruff exterior and was always ready with free advice. Dillon’s love interest throughout most of the series was Miss Kitty Russell (Blake). While there were certainly a few romantic undercurrents, the romance never came to fruition. Miss Kitty was a prostitute on the radio and was likely one here as well, but CBS chose to underplay that aspect of her character as a “saloon girl”. Finally Dillon’s faithful sidekick deputy was Chester (Weaver). Chester often found himself in trouble and was the naïve son figure to Dillon.
Gunsmoke is the longest running scripted live action television show in history. The series ran from 1955 to 1975. At first it was a half-hour black-and-white show that evolved into a color hour by 1967. It actually started before the days of television, premiering on radio in 1952. Then it was William Conrad as the tough-as-nails Marshall Matt Dillon. When television came into its own, Gunsmoke made the jump to the bright living room box and made history. Westerns would ride across our small square screens for the next three decades, making it the most successful genre of that time, and it was Gunsmoke that started it all. The television version of Gunsmoke was originally conceived as a vehicle for John Wayne, who opted to remain in movies. Yet it was Wayne himself who suggested James Arness, and it turned out to be a career for the one-time “carrot” monster from The Thing. Gunsmoke started before all of the big westerns and was around when most of them had departed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 20th, 2010
Who doesn’t have a soft spot in their heart, if not their DVD collection, for The Andy Griffith Show? The denizens of Mayberry have been with many of us our entire lives. For most of America, The Andy Griffith Show has become the template for any small rural town. The characters stand as prerequisite citizens in any said town. The town drunk, the local barber, the motherly little old lady, and the corner mechanic all look like Otis, Floyd, Aunt Bee, and Goober to most of us now. Griffith himself brought fine qualities to his role of Sheriff Andy Taylor, but it was Don Knotts as the incompetent but lovable deputy Barney Fife who stole the show. And who was that sweet little boy? He grew up to be a first class filmmaker with plenty of Oscars on the shelf. No question that The Andy Griffith Show started something back in 1960.
Sheriff Taylor (Griffith) is a widower with a young son, Opie (Howard). His extended family includes lovable doting Aunt Bee (Bavier). His deputy, Barney (Knotts) appears to be a few trout short of a stocked creek. They live in the small southern town of Mayberry.
Posted in: Podcasts by Gino Sassani on December 19th, 2010
On Friday I got the opportunity to chat with Jeffrey Combs for a few minutes just as he had returned from doing some voice work for Transformers Prime. Many of you know him from the Re-Animator franchise as the iconic Herbert West. He's played a few parts in Star Trek including one of my favorites, the Andorian Shran. Recently he appeared in William Malone's wonderful horror masterpiece Parasomnia. Bang it here to listen to my chat with Jeffrey Combs: Jeffrey Combs Interview
Posted in: Contests by Gino Sassani on December 16th, 2010
"You'll shoot your eye out, kid."
Get what you want for Christmas. Warner Brothers has been generous enough to slide a free gift under some lucky reader's Christmas tree. Win a Free Download Of A Christmas Story
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 16th, 2010
John Wayne Gacy was one of Chicago's most infamous killers. He most remembered for the images of him as a clown. He used to entertain at parties in the costume. While it was never really part of his killing life, he was forever known as the Clown Killer. Gacy would entice young men, often gay hookers, into his home where he would drug them and have sex with them. He would also trick them into putting on handcuffs, and he would strangle them to death. He buried the bodies of his victims in a crawlspace beneath his house, where the mass grave's discovery would lead to his arrest and conviction. A bit of a surprising development was that Gacy himself ended up drawing an accurate map of where each of the bodies could be found, because he didn't want them to rip up his floors. Of course, it should have been clear to him by then that he wasn't going to be living there ever again.
We all know the story. There have already been countless films and documentaries as well as books dealing with every aspect of the killer's life and crimes. Apparently, there was another little known story that hadn't gotten quite the same amount of attention. In the 14 years that Gacy was incarcerated awaiting his eventual execution for the murders, he was quite the communicative butterfly, writing to many of the folks who wrote to him in prison. He would attempt to manipulate these people from behind his own prison cell. One of these pen pals was criminology student Jason Moss. Moss would later write a book about his experiences with Gacy called The Last Victim. In the book he described the correspondence that led to him actually visiting with Gacy in the last days leading up to his execution. Obviously, there are going to be some liberties with the film, but it is nonetheless a fascinating character study of a relationship that got terribly out of hand.
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