Posted in: Contests, Tuesday Round Up by J C on January 12th, 2016
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. In 2016, that last sentence sounds like a spoiler-phobe’s worst nightmare. Fortunately, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is actually the title of Tom Stoppard’s existential, “sideways Shakespeare” comedy, which gets a 25th anniversary Blu-ray release this week courtesy of RLJ Entertainment. Speaking of RLJ, they’ll also be administering our Painkillers. (You can already check out our chat with star Colm Feore.) Hallmark pledges All of My Heart and nods to So You Said Yes. Finally, Shout! Factory scores a 10 with the Bo Derek double feature Bolero/Ghosts Can’t Do It.
We still want to give you more free stuff. Once a month we’re going to give away a surprise DVD title from our archives to a lucky winner who comments in our weekly Round-Up posts. All you have to do is comment in a Round-Up post — like this one! — and tell us which of the featured titles you’re most curious to read about. (Quick reminder: You're not telling us which title you'd like to win; your free DVD will be a surprise.)
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on January 8th, 2016
“I just have this sick feeling that something awful is going to happen.”
I pride myself on being able to keep a reasonably open mind when I pick up a new title to review. But sometimes I can’t help but judge a crappy movie book by its cover. That was actually the case with Kill Game, featuring an androgynous Michael Myers-lookalike brandishing a bloody knife on its cover. I was fully prepared to roll my eyes through this movie, which also nods to Saw, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and The Big Chill (a little). Much to my surprise, I found myself kinda-sorta getting into this twisty, nasty, low-budget slasher.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on January 7th, 2016
“Ballet is the ultimate optical illusion. We make effort appear effortless.”
If ballet dancers make the seemingly impossible look graceful and elegant, then Flesh and Bone similarly soars when it doesn’t try quite so hard to conjure drama. The best version of this provocative Starz miniseries explores the psychological toll that ambition, competition, and the (impossible?) quest for creative perfection can take. Unfortunately, the series also introduces way too many subplots and distractions during its 8-episode run.
Posted in: Contests, Tuesday Round Up by J C on January 5th, 2016
Happy 2016, everybody! We closed last year with a bang — and I’m not just talking about the fireworks above UpcomingDiscs headquarters on New Year’s Eve — and we’re hitting the ground running for our first Tuesday Round Up of 2016. HBO is on the case with True Detective: Season 2. Cinedigm is Full of Grace, plays a Kill Game, offers a horror twist with Little Dead Rotting Hood, and is en pointe with ballet drama Flesh and Bone. Shout! Factory cops to Hill Street Blues: The Final Season, and the studio’s Scream Factory chills us to the bone with The House Where Evil Dwells/Ghost Warrior double feature. Meanwhile, A&E examines more evidence of Ancient Aliens: Season 8.
You can already read our takes on Universal’s The Visit and Green Inferno, along with RLJ Entertainment’s Adulterers and XLrator’s Wrecker. RLJ is also playing fetch with Robo-Dog, while XLrator keeps us at Close Range. Magnolia enters the lab with Experimenter, Green Apple Entertainment shares Susie’s Hope, and Comedy Central gives us a tour of Broad City: Season 2. Finally, Lionsgate takes a trip to Mercury Plains and dives into the Battle for Skyark, while Paramount holds us Captive.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on January 4th, 2016
At this point, the most shocking M. Night Shyamalan-related twist would be for the director to make a movie that people actually enjoyed. (The “M.” stands for “maligned,” right?) Hopes weren't exactly high when it was announced Shyamalan — who was once fated to become either “the next Hitchcock” or “the next Spielberg” — would be dabbling in the fading found footage genre. So imagine my surprise to find that The Visit — a broad, nutty mix of comedy and horror — is the director's loosest, most playful effort since Signs. It's also his first (subjectively) non-terrible flick in about a decade.
We meet a harried single Mom (Kathryn Hahn) as she prepares to send her two children on a week-long trip to meet her estranged parents. Becca (Olivia DeJonge) is a 15-year-old aspiring filmmaker who decides to document the experience of meeting her grandparents on camera; she also wants to find out the reason Mom had a falling out with them. Tyler (Ex Oxenbould) is a 13-year-old freestyle-rapping, germophobic goofball who enjoys undercutting his older sister's self-seriousness. The pair take a train to the rural Pennsylvania town where their mother grew up and are met at the station by Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie), who take the kids back to their dilapidated farmhouse.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on January 4th, 2016
“This road is like a magnet for serial killers.”
There's a difference between paying tribute and ripping somebody off. Wrecker — a high-speed, low-budget actioner — bills itself as “an homage to road classics like Duel.” Unfortunately, that's far from the only nod to Steven Spielberg's 1971 thriller. Wrecker rehashes every significant story beat from Duel, except with a lot less filmmaking skill and a pair of infinitely more annoying protagonists.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on December 31st, 2015
“We're in hell.”
The Blu-ray cover for Bone Tomahawk features a grizzled Kurt Russell donning a cowboy hat. That image immediately indicated to me that I would be in steady, exceedingly capable hands for the forthcoming Western adventure. What I didn't necessarily expect was for Bone Tomahawk to also deliver one of the more frightening, engrossing, and pulse-pounding movie-watching experiences of the year.
Posted in: Contests, Tuesday Round Up by J C on December 29th, 2015
Well, partners, it’s time for the final Tuesday Round Up of 2015…and we've got plenty of fireworks before year's end! We’ll be setting our sights on Hitman: Agent 47, courtesy of Fox. Lionsgate pulls one last major Heist, and Image Entertainment cuts straight to the Bone Tomahawk. Finally, the end of the year also means it’s Showtime! Reviews for two of the cable channel's series are on the way: Warner Bros. is utterly Shameless: Season 5, while CBS/Paramount reacquaints us with Ray Donovan: Season 3.
This is actually the fifth Tuesday of the month, which means you fine people are getting an extra chance to win free stuff. Once a month we’re going to give away a surprise DVD title from our archives to a lucky winner who comments in our weekly Round-Up posts. All you have to do is comment in a Round-Up post — like this one! — and tell us which of the featured titles you’re most curious to read about. (Quick reminder: You're not telling us which title you'd like to win; your free DVD will be a surprise.)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on December 25th, 2015
With their impossibly beefy frames, larger-than-life personas, and familiarity with staged combat (sorry, buddy), pro wrestlers fit the old-school action star mold perfectly. Unfortunately for them, Hollywood isn’t nearly as interested in action flicks that don’t have superheroes, dinosaurs, or Liam Neeson. And while interconnected cinematic universes are all the rage at the moment, Lionsgate and World Wrestling Entertainment have a pretty interesting partnership themselves. Their latest offering is the dopey, compulsively watchable 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown, which is considerably more entertaining than it has any right to be.
You may have guessed by now that 12 Rounds 3 (even the title is wonderfully ridiculous) is the third film in the saga. However, it’s also the second film in the “Action Six-Pack” series, a recent pact between Lionsgate and the WWE to make a sextet of action flicks starring the latter company’s wrestlers. (The first film in the “Six Pack” was Vendetta.) Even before this partnership, the WWE had found a measure of straight-to-DVD success by plugging its superstars into action vehicles that are only vaguely related to each other. (See, The Marine series.)
Posted in: The Reel World by J C on December 23rd, 2015
“I'm guessing most of you still don't really know what happened.”
There is absolutely nothing funny about the financial crisis of 2008. Besides the fact that the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble led to the failure of countless businesses and a disastrous decline in consumer wealth, the crisis involved key phrases like “credit default swap” and “collateralized debt obligation.” Those terms are much more likely to make your eyes glaze over in boredom or confusion than they are to inspire laughs. The Big Short cannily recognizes this challenge and crafts a farcical, incisive narrative about a small group of outcasts who saw the whole thing coming.
