Jeremy Butler

So whenever I am reviewing a movie, I try to identify positive things about the film. Even if I end up not liking the movie overall, I at least try to make sure to point out aspects that I think the film did well, a performance that was particularly strong, or a piece of dialog that resonated with me. It’s part of my process to ensure that I am delivering a balanced review. Even if the film isn’t my favorite, it still has the potential to provide some positive ray of light into my experience.  However, I’m not so sure that I will be able to do that this time around, as Guardians of Time was a film that I just couldn’t wait for it to be over. Now in the interest of fairness, it is abundantly clear that I am not the target audience for this film; that demographic appears to be steered towards the early elementary school crowd. I’d say no higher than second or third grade. Any higher and the production quality is not likely to hold up with them. Then again with this generation, given the technology that they have at their fingertips, it may not hold up with them now.
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I must confess that I missed the boat on the original film, so going into this film I had reservations regarding my ability to properly review this film given that I haven’t seen the original. These concerns were made irrelevant by the revelation that this film, Orphan: First Kill, is actual a prequel to the first film. In this film, we get to see the events that led Leena Klammer to become what several people in the film call her: a monster. In 2007, Klammer is a 31-year-old psychiatric patient with a rare hormonal disorder called hypopituitarism that gives her the appearance of a 10-year-old child. After orchestrating an escape from the Saarne Instituute in which she manages to kill at least two people, Leena researches missing American girls and finds that she bears a resemblance to a girl named Esther Albright, and hatches a diabolic plan. However, it is not long before she realizes that in this seeming ordinary role that she has managed to slither into that she is not the only one with blood on her hands.
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So this is not a movie that I would say aged well with time. However, if you could put yourself in the mindset of the time period of its release (1987), I could see the appeal. Lori Singer of Footloose fame and Anthony Edwards of ER fame star as married couple Roxy and Aaron Walston, whose life and relationship becomes strained in rural North Carolina in the post-depression late 1930s, when a young drifter named Jack Ruffin (Bruce Abbott, Re-Animator) comes to their tobacco farm to be a farmhand. Roxy, a shelter girl who married young and had a child is unable to resist the temptation that is Jack Ruffin. As expected, things do not end well. Based on a 1984 novel, Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail, the film shows the tragic results of the affair, which in this modern setting may appear cliché, but during that time likely would be engaging.
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Not crazy about the title. Personally, I think that the title of the novel on which this film is based  would have been better suited given the film’s plot. Based on a 1989 Sara Bird novel by the name of The Boyfriend School, this 1990 comedy tells to story of Gus Kubicek, a depressed and overweight cartoonist who is in love with a woman that won’t seem to give him the time of day. I’ve heard some excuses for getting out of having to go out with someone, but lying and saying you have to have dental surgery; that’s pretty low. Despite seeing numerous movies that utilize the “judging a book by its cover” trope, I still was able to see the appeal of the film, as soon as I was able to put myself into the mindset of the film’s time period. By doing this, I was able to avoid perceptions of it being cliché. This was a necessary measure to take, especially if you would like to be able to enjoy the film in 2022. Even so, I’m still not a big fan of the title.
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Now here is a series that me and my wife just didn’t seen eye to eye on. For her, the series was a triumph and had great depth. For me, it made me wonder whether we were watching the same thing. Because outside the beautiful scenery, I did not discern any great depth to this anthology series, which appeared to feature unhappy people. The series featured a cast of recognizable faces, which included Alexandra Daddario, Connie Britton, Steve Zahn, Sydney Sweeney, and Jennifer Coolidge; however, their characters weren’t what I would call loveable. It was difficult to find anyone pure or worth cheering for. Granted, the characters had varying degrees of sins, and none of them were what I would call evil, but none of them were worth investing in. Of course that is merely this humble critics opinion, as it would appear that many people have found something to love, given the series recent award success, such as two Critic’s Choice Awards and five Primetime Emmy Awards, including for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series, and Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. I guess this explains the series being granted a Season 2, which is scheduled to premiere in October 2022.
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Unfortunately, this film was a little immature to gain the Nalyce stamp of approval. While Japanese animated films have been her bread and butter in recent years, her tastes venture more towards anime such as Inuyasha and My Hero Academia. When it comes to Panda! Go Panda!, it was just too kiddie for her. Had this been a year or two ago, she would have been all about it. Perhaps there will be such an opportunity with my son, but given that he is only a week old, time will have to tell. As far as I’m concerned, it was a cute story if impractical. I recommend a suspension of belief if you chose to watch the film. Given that a suspension of belief is a prerequisite for all animated films, that shouldn’t be too much to ask. While I understand the need for this suspension of belief, I’m afraid I wasn’t fully able to achieve it at times.
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I would categorize this as a unique movie. Not only based on its premise, even though that did possess a measure of intrigue. Zero Contact has multiple things that make it unique, such as it is the first film from a major Hollywood studio to exist on the blockchain. According to my research, the film will premiere on new NFT platform Vuele, a premier platform for collecting, watching, and trading exclusive, limited edition feature-length films and collector NFT film content. However, while this is interesting and potentially could serve as a new frontier for cinematic releases, there was another factor that made the film unique in my eyes. To me, Zero Contact’s most unique quality is that the film was produced in 17 different territories entirely virtually during the 2020 global pandemic. Anthony Hopkins leads the cast and is supported by a cast of faces that I recognize, but whose names are not on the rolodex of actors that I keep in my head.
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I’m coming in kind of midway through the story on this one, guys. While the film does provide a couple of flashbacks to the previous film, those flashbacks do very little to fully provide needed context, making my viewing of Fortress: Sniper’s Eye a bit of a rocky one. Based on what I gleaned, Bruce Willis and Jesse Metcalfe play Robert and Paul Michaels respectively, a father and son duo who live in and manage a top-secret resort for retired U.S. intelligence officers. The resort is attacked by a group of criminals led by a familiar enemy. It is evident that there is shared history between the Michaels and Balzary (Chad Michael Murray). As expected, the Michaels, aided by others, are able to thwart the assault despite being outnumbered and outgunned. Balzary is thought to be killed, but not before making a plea to Robert to rescue his wife from her captors, which is ultimately revealed to be the reason for the assault. This is what frames the basis for our second film. Second of a planned three, I should add.
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“It’s simply his way of illustrating the misrepresentation of having quantum particles existing in two states. The cat in the box is either dead or alive. But we can’t tell until we open the box to observe it, so until we do so, the cat is both dead and alive.”

I’ve seen a lot of horror and thrillers in my time. This is my first one with mathematics at the heart of it. I applauded the film for introducing me to something new. However, the moments of intrigue are surrounded by periods where the plot seems to drag on. Also, I’m not sure that the characters’ reactions to particular events are sensible. For example, my daughter suddenly goes missing, and I suspect that her disappearance is somehow the result of my newly acquired residence. No matter how irrational that idea may be, the first thing I would do is get me and the rest of my family a hotel.
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All is fair in the spy game. Or least that is the principle that this film embraces, as every character attempts to get the upper hand on the others. Though the film is not without its thrilling moments, it does take a bit of time to get to those thrilling bits. Told in a nonlinear fashion, it takes a moment to adjust to the constant shift between the two plots. It is only when things start to synch that I found myself completely engaged with the story. On the plus side, the film has a cast of recognizable faces, to include Arrow’s Katie Cassidy, The Cleaning Lady’s Adan Canto, Chicago Fire’s Annie Ilonzeh, Dermot Mulroney, and last but not least, Mel Gibson. While I would not categorize the film as box office quality, there are some elements that make for an intriguing story once things get into a groove.
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I’m still looking for answers. I just don’t know the questions anymore. I just know there’s too much out there. Seas of filth. An endless onslaught of ugliness. Blight. Plastic. Cheap s#$t cloggin’ up our minds. Cloggin’ up the drains, poisoning our water, turning us to s@4t. Where does it all go? I’ve got blood on my hands. I’m stained. I’m dirty. No matter how hard I try, I can’t wash away the past.

With Adrien Brody’s picture-perfect delivery of this monolog, I was all in with this film. It was like Brody’s voice was made for this voiceover. And while the film did have some intriguing moments, it didn’t really break any new ground like I hoped it would. It reminded me of a couple years ago when Hollywood tried to remake Death Wish, and while I did enjoy this film immensely more than that one, Clean isn’t a film that I will feel compelled to rewatch anytime in the near future. The film essentially has more of a one-and-done feel to it.
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It took me a second to get past the title of this documentary. I had a feeling that it had some kind of significance, but without that context, all it was for me was grammatically incorrect. With that to start off, I have no problem admitting that I wasn’t really looking forward to reviewing this documentary. I know shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I was, and something about the title just rubbed me the wrong way. It felt ignorant. Now I must admit that I was actually the ignorant one given my lack of knowledge regarding the cultural significance of that title, the associated poem, as well as the prominent poet it came from, and the legacy of his prominent family. Why Is We Americans tells the story of the Baraka family, a family whose story is carved deep into the civil rights movement. It started with the family’s patriarch, Amiri Baraka (formerly known as LeRoi Jones), a poet/playwright/activist, as he shepherded his family through decades of social activism with poetry, music, and art.
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This season of the Paramount Plus long-running series did a bit of shaking up. For one, the series said goodbye to a main staple of the series with the departure Delroy Lindo’s Adrian Boseman. This departure came as a surprise, as he’d been with the series from its opening, and it wasn’t as if his character had been relegated in recent years. However, I suppose everything changes with time. Don’t imagine that it will be long before we see Delroy on the small or big screen again, as the actor already has four projects in production, including the MCU’s revamping of Blade (no confirmation on who he will be playing in the film, but my gut tells me Abraham Whistler). Now if the Lindo departure shocked you, brace yourselves, because he isn’t the only cast member who made their exit. Cush Jumbo, who’s played Lucca Quinn, is also saying goodbye. Lindo’s exit surprised me, but Jumbo’s floored me. Jumbo’s Lucca Quinn has been a significant part of the series, and with her gone, the show in a sense is losing the paradigm of the old lions vs the young wolves. Well, if you need a fix of Jumbo’s quiet presence, you can catch her on a Netflix adaptation of a Harlan Coben novel.
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So, I fully expected this movie to be one of those films that I would have to subject myself to in order to appease my wife. I mean, I was familiar with nearly every member of the cast, but given the film’s plot, I expected to be bored and to find it cheesy. It just seemed like a clash. Like it should be two separate movies: one that deals with the secret daughter of the king, and the other a story about a mermaid. However, it would appear that I’m eating my words, as The King’s Daughter proved to be a far more entertaining tale than initially advertised. Based on the 1997 novel of The Moon and the Sun, the story follows Marie-Josephe (Kaya Scodelario, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales), a rebellious, free-spirited young woman who grew up in a convent. Her days are normally spent giving the Abbess a hard time. Unbeknownst to her, she is actually the daughter of the legendary monarch, King Louis XIV (Pierce Brosnan).
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Here at Upcomingdiscs we have worked to bring you a large variety of reviews. Of course, we cover the big blockbuster films that hit the box-office and get us out to the multiplexes. We’re known for our television series coverage and have brought you the best in both television and streaming material. We also like to think that we introduce the world to some of the films out there that don’t have big budgets or advertisement campaigns. Tucked within these smaller releases you can find diamonds in the rough that showcase the kind of talent and storytelling you might get from a big studio but from artists who have visions that might not attract that kind of attention. The true fan of film is always on the lookout for these kinds of films and this monthly roundup is our way of bringing some of what we find to your attention. So do a little mining here and you might just find a diamond of your own
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