Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 22nd, 2019
"He picked me out of a pile of pups, a tangled mass of paws and tails. He'd stopped at the farm on his way home from the speedway at Yakima. Even back then, I knew I was different than other dogs. My soul just felt more human."
There was a time when this kind of film would have been reviewed by Baby, the German Shepherd/Chow who used to run security here at Upcomingdiscs as well as fill in for the occasional dog film review. Baby's gone, and we haven't yet trained Aurora the Siberian Husky who resides at Upcomingdiscs to pitch in on reviews. The problem is getting her to put her ball down long enough to pay enough attention, let alone write a review. But we're working on it. Until then these duties have fallen back to me, the occasional dog lover, which usually depends on what Aurora is up to at any particular moment. As Baby would have said: "Let's not talk about that right now." The task at hand is another talking dog film which followed quickly on the heels of A Dog's Purpose and its sequel A Dog's Journey along with the most recent A Dog's Way Home. It's a trend that has produced some emotional moments at the cinema for those of us who have spent a large part of their lives with our canine companions. This time out we have The Art Of Racing In The Rain, which is based on the novel by Garth Stein. If you're hoping to have that same kind of emotional ride that these other films brought, I think you'll be in for a little disappointment.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 19th, 2019
"Make a little noise. Ruffle a few feathers."
I should confess from the beginning that I am a very dedicated Star Trek fan. I'm not a Trekkie or a Trekker, I'm a fan. I have often allowed my fan status to cause me to embrace the franchise even when it wasn't necessarily so good. As a young 15-year-old kid I attended the first 10:00 AM showing of Star Trek: The Motion Picture with a handful of friends on the opening day. We stayed through six showings and left sometime after midnight the following day, occupying the front row center and subsisting off the day's more limited concession offerings. Basically candy, popcorn and soda. Little has changed except for the lack of responsibilities that would allow me to spend 14 hours watching a single film over and over again. I'm still reluctant to dismiss anything Star Trek, but that's nearly what happened as I watched the first season of Star Trek: Discovery last year.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on November 11th, 2019
Director Roland Emmerich is no stranger to big-screen battles. The difference is that up until this year those battles have been against aliens, huge climactic changes, or giant lizards named Godzilla. There's no question that he understands how to shoot epic confrontation. The question I had going in to Midway was, can he deliver a battle that wasn't fiction? After nearly tow and a half hours, the answer came back somewhat mixed. This isn't the first time that the Battle of Midway has been brought to the big screen. In the 1970's Charlton Heston gave us a film that was more renowned for the trendy Sensurround gimmick than it was for the drama that unfolded on the screen. Sensurround was a fancy name for huge subs that would shake the theater, and if you were lucky enough to be seeing the film at a theater with enough money to go all the way, you might have found yourself in a seat that was wired to shake, rattle, and roll. Today the chains call that Dolby. This Midway didn't lend itself to some William Castle hustle. It's all up on the screen. The film bears no relation to that earlier effort except for the legendary battle in the Pacific that turned the tide of the Pacific theater of World War II toward the Allies. The film actually shares more in common with the classic Tora Tora Tora in that we spend a good deal of screen time with the Japanese players in the battle. Not at all like the earlier gimmick film, this movie is intended to place you squarely in the middle of the action. If that's what you came to see, you are certainly in for an immersive experience only without the hot-wired seat.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 7th, 2019
"This is where change begins."
We're a visual people, so most of you will recognize Taylor Sheridan from his role as a deputy chief of police in Sons of Anarchy when the controlled puppet regime had finally left the scene. It's not a remarkable role, and it's not a complete surprise that Sheridan found his calling more recently behind the camera. As a writer, his first script did hit it out of the park. Sicario is an awesome film populated with compelling and interesting characters who thrived on a broken system. That theme appears to have stuck with him, because the first season of Yellowstone appears to take us back in time to the days of open frontiers and cattle barons who struggled to keep their land amid lawless communities and raiding parties of American Indians who were portrayed as savage beasts who kill women and children in the middle of the night to become shadows of nightmares and the stories told to keep children in line. These themes are all there, but it takes place in a modern 2018 setting that does indeed make for an interesting new twist on an old idea. This is the dawning of the modern western where lands still stretch for miles and are still owned by a single family. It's Bonanza in the 21st century, and Kevin Costner thought enough of the idea to star in this television drama series for The Paramount Network.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on November 4th, 2019
"There's just more to it than picking the right color. It's the texture, the weight of the material. One wrong choice, it can destroy the look of the entire room."
Film rights can be a tricky and complicated issue. Sometimes these rights aren't quite clear and lead to popular titles never making it to the home video market, or at least suffering long delays as in the 1960's Batman television series situation. Often rights are held for certain periods of time and end up moving from holder to holder. That's been the case with the Terminator franchise. The result has been some sequels that pulled in different directions and failed to provide a nice linear history from film to film. Now those rights have reverted back to a favorable situation for the likes of James Cameron. The result is an attempt to get back to the original course of the first two films. Terminator: Dark Fate picks up from T2 and ignores any of the other films made since then. It's very much like the path taken by the new trilogy of Halloween films we got a taste of last year. There isn't any denying the fact that T2 was the best this franchise has had to offer. Something was always just a little bit off with the rest of the films. There's a texture to all of this that James Cameron has a unique eye for. And while he didn't direct this film, he created the story and produced the film. Like the new Halloween direction, this is also intended to be the first film in a new trilogy. The Terminator franchise appears to be back, and on track to please the legions of fans from the old to the new.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 1st, 2019
Every generation has had its Christmas classics, films that have become as much a part of the holiday family traditions as Christmas trees and candy canes. For me it has been the more modern A Christmas Story with ol’ Carl Kolchak himself, Darren McGavin. Kids today have taken more of a shine to even more recent films, but for more than one generation, Christmas wouldn’t be the same without Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life. Since 1947 the film became a seasonal fixture in neighborhood movie houses across the fruited plain. In the 1970’s the film temporarily fell into the public domain and was played relentlessly on local television stations as each holiday came and went. Unfortunately, these were usually prints in horrible condition, so that scratches and splice marks became a part of the experience, not to mention ads for department stores touting their early bird specials. It is with that experience that I, as did most from my generation, become acquainted with Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey. When the home video market began to bloom with VHS in the mid 1980’s, a better print resurfaced, so that the experience improved dramatically, along with the loss of those commercials. Of course, this new resource of home entertainment created a fight for the rights to the film to once again be restored to a single owner. It ended up being the film’s score that would allow the rights to be enforced once again. The crappy television prints disappeared, and by the early 1990’s, efforts to restore the film began.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 1st, 2019
Ultraman is a huge part of Japanese culture and pretty much has been since the original live-action show in 1966. Perhaps Godzilla started the ball rolling, but Ultraman brought us these monsters on a regular basis. In Japan, Ultraman is like our Superman. He’s an iconic hero and a huge part of the pop culture. Since the 60’s he has appeared in many forms, most of them animated. But it is this 1966 series that made a ton of us kids fall in love with him and an entire genre. Yes, there were many from the era: Space Giants featured a giant fighting robot who fought monsters and sometimes converted into a spaceship (yes, before transformers were ever thought of); Johnny Socko had his giant robot; and the list goes on. But it was Ultraman who started it. Eiji Tsuburaya, who created the original Godzilla, formed a new company outside of Toho Pictures. Ultraman was pretty much the first thing out of the new shop.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 29th, 2019
"From the day we arrive on the planet, and blinking, step into the sun, there's more to see than can ever be seen. More to do than can ever be done. There's far too much to take in here. More to find than can ever be found..."
There's a period in the 1990's that has often been referred to as the second golden age of Disney animation. The studio had fallen from its once mighty perch, and most film historians tend to agree there was a creative dark ages through the 1980's. But the renaissance of the studio began with Aladdin in 1992 would go on to include such tremendous classics as Beauty And The Beast and The Little Mermaid. None of these films speak to the resurgence of the animated feature like The Lion King. The film set every animated record there was and holds some of those box office records today. It can be safely stated that the great flood of animated projects that followed can be traced to the impact of The Lion King. In 1996 Simba was the most popular name chosen for new housecats. Elton John saw his appeal extend to children, and there could be no mistake that the animated feature was back. That's the legacy of The Lion King.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on October 28th, 2019
We take it for granted. Every day our lives depend on the flow of electricity to our homes, workplaces, entertainment venues, and hospitals. Living in Florida where you might brush the occasional hurricane, it's the thing I dread the most when a storm approaches. I don't worry so much about damage to my home as I do the inevitable five days without power. No AC. No television. No refrigeration for the food. We are so dependent that it's hard for me to comprehend that I grew up knowing people in my own family who lived before there was any electricity service at all. In another 70 years people will be saying the same thing about the internet. We all know Al Gore invented the internet. But who got us connected with this whole electric power grid? Like most things in a capitalistic society, there was fierce competition. Companies fought for the ability to bring electricity to your home. City by city, the contest endured until eventually the entire country could bask in the glaring glow of the world's first light bulbs. The Current War: The Director's Cut takes us inside that struggle to win that race. It's a compelling story, and even if it doesn't all ring quite true, it's an entertaining journey to the moment in time when everything changed.
Posted in: Random Fun by Gino Sassani on October 28th, 2019
If you are planning a trip to Tampa, Florida you may already have a list of places you'd like to visit while you are here. I'm sure most of those lists are pretty much the same. Unfortunately, few of those lists likely contain the Tampa Theatre. Who wants to visit a movie theater on their vacation, anyway? You do. Yes, it's a beautiful historic building dating back to 1926. Of course, you can grab some popcorn and soda and enjoy both recent releases and classic films there. The pipe organ performances alone are worth the price of admission. It was the first commercial building in Tampa to have air conditioning (man-made air, it was advertised at the time), so it's never a bad idea to get out of the heat. And if you're into those haunts and ghosts that have populated our 31 Nights of Terror, then you absolutely can't afford to miss Tampa Theatre. You see it's also been described by more than one international paranormal expert as the most haunted site in town. Do I have your attention now?
