Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 8th, 2011
Saying there is an “elephant in the room” often means someone is ignoring some enormously obvious truth. To say that Patrice O’Neal can be ignored is foolish…and to say that he speaks the truth…well, you’d have to be pretty jaded to take this man seriously when he flips one PC view of the relationships between men and women on their heads.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 1st, 2011
Our Planet is a merging of a large handful of documentaries that originally aired on the History Channel. Here they are packaged together to thematically display the “Past, Present, and Future of Earth.”
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on March 30th, 2011
The Nazis have been the subject of countless documentaries and films. On this occasion, The History Channel has decided to place the focus on the people of Germany, with a time line that starts at approximetaly the First World War and leads to the end of the Second World War. With the aid of newly discovered home videos gathered from Germany & Russia, we see a combination of German life during this time, as well as public and private views of Nazi discourse and planning.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on March 5th, 2011
William S Burroughs was the third hit of the 1-2-3 combo of Alan Ginsberg’s Howl, Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, and Burroughs’ Naked Lunch which closed out the 50s and defined the so-called “beat generation.” This film documents the significance of Burroughs work as a part of this scene, and the influence he had on artists, musicians, filmmakers, and countless others.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on March 3rd, 2011
A criminal defense attorney, played by Matthew Modine, has lost all hope after his family dies in an accident. On the brink of suicide, he is called upon for one more case, defending a young man who may face the death penalty on a murder charge.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on March 2nd, 2011
Ok…here’s the pitch! A movie that’s just jokes! Dirty jokes! Story? Maybe sure sure, but its all about jokes! We all love dirty jokes right? We have some actors act them out…one after the other…and that’s it…the whole movie is jokes!
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on February 25th, 2011
A Wild West overlord is plotting to shrink the world’s population. This evil plot is running along smoothly until a shrunken Texas ranger escapes in a whiskey bottle and finds himself saved by a plucky sibling duo named Luke and Lucy, along with their gaggle of wacky friends. The group become honourary rangers and set out to battle evil.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on February 23rd, 2011
A young couple are drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse when they investigate a piece of real estate and a psychopath starts to trail them. Brazen Bull is the title of the film and the killer’s mantra, which means he acts as if he has nothing to lose, when in fact he’s already lost everything.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on February 16th, 2011
A Chicago man has a strange genetic disorder that makes him involuntarily travel through time. This film follows the unimaginably complicated romance he has with a woman who he has known since she was a little girl and they never get to age chronologically together, and sometimes share different memories of the past (which might be the future for the other…I know…I told you its complicated).
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on February 9th, 2011
In this satire of modern life, Zach Galifianakis plays a man named George Washington Winsterhammerman who has a beautiful wife, a large house, a stable job in the world’s most successful corporation, and even a boat. Despite all of this he fears he is showing symptoms (which include dreams) that he might be about to literally explode, a mysterious and unexplained epidemic that is sweeping the country.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on January 27th, 2011
A young man wants to stimulate the economy of his tiny community, mostly for the sake of his parents struggling motel, and inadvertently welcomes what would become the original Woodstock festival into his back yard (literally).
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on January 25th, 2011
Not quite a concert film, not quite a drama. This film follows a young man named Bruno, who sleeps with his life long crush, the night before she moves from Toronto to Paris. On this final night, Broken Social Scene are playing a free show and Bruno uses a connection to get backstage passes as a last ditch effort to win over his crush. All the while, we are treated to a multi camera view of that very same concert, running the duration of the entire film.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on January 22nd, 2011
A young Cambodian boy, named Sokvannara “Sy” Sar, is spotted performing a traditional dance by the film’s director and American Dance patron Anne Bass. She immediately takes note of his smooth talent and figures he has massive potential as a classical ballet dancer. Sy is given a rare chance to audition at the School of American Ballet in New York and then proceeds on a unique and fast-paced journey through a new world of dance, in a nation that is completely alien to his homeland.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on January 20th, 2011
An ex-con trying to pull one last heist is sucked into a booby trapped house and must face against a madman who is torturing the family within. The makers of 3 SAW films (and not the first three) have ventured into familiar territory of nonsense gore, whisper thin plot, and then even more nonsense gore.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on January 18th, 2011
A young dreamer named Power is fired from his mining job just before his union-leader father instigates a strike. Wishing he could be a drummer, but never getting the chance to play an actual kit, Power does not know what to do with his constant ambitions that make him air-drum 24/7. Fate steps in and he discovers an underground movement of air-drumming that all leads to a major event in New York city where he will have a chance to face off against a billionaire country-music star, who just so happens to be the son of the evil Copper Mine owner who is treating his Union friends, and family, so unfairly.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on January 2nd, 2011
8 corporate hopefuls gather at a mysterious location and are instructed to take one final exam as a final test to see which one will walk away with a prestigious job at a major company. The trouble is their exam papers are blank, and it would seem that there is not even a question to answer. For 80 minutes each must solve the puzzle without being disqualified by breaking one of the few rules, all of which double as a riddle/clue to solving the exam question and answer.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on December 16th, 2010
Thierry Guetta has the habit of filming everything he does in his entire life. This habit did not shake while filming the, technically illegal, work of his cousin ‘Invader’ who is a street artist that pastes up images from and inspired by the video game Space Invaders. Guetta quickly fell head over heals for this underground movement of creating street art and started documenting some of the most famous street artists in the entire world, including the ever (in)famous ‘Banksy.’
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on December 14th, 2010
7th heaven reaches its 11th and final season of rampant political correctness and lessons of family togetherness through Christian love. Yes, that was a mildly passive aggressive summary of this show, but I feel sometimes one strong bias deserves another to challenge it. This show, the story of a very large family lead by a Minister (and don’t deny it, he leads them) as they convey their socially and politically conservative Protestant Christian point of view of “real-life” situations.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on December 13th, 2010
The comedy team of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer should be commended for their unwavering attempt to destroy the spoof comedy entirely. Sure, they aided the Wayans brothers in creating the first Scary Movie film (which is decent spoof film) but in 2006 they started their campaign with Date Movie and continued right through Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, Disaster Movie, and now Vampires Suck. Did they succeed? And did it take the recent loss of Leslie Nielsen to have us be reminded that spoofs where once a glorious and enjoyable thing.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on December 12th, 2010
Bryce and Juli first meet in the second grade. Juli is convinced that Bryce is walking around with her first kiss, while Bryce is not returning any sense of being similarly infatuated with Juli. As the years pass by, Bryce manages to keep her at bay, until things “flip” (as it were) and it is Juli who may be veering away from Bryce.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 25th, 2010
A surgeon named Michael Foster, played by Peter Gallagher, has his world turned upside down when his wife disappears one morning without a trace. Initially he suspected she was having an affair and ran away with another man, but as strange evidence gathers he soon realizes that she has been a part of a strange coven of witches and her disappearance might not have been her choice.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 19th, 2010
Here is a second volume of episodes from the Marvel cartoon’s first season, which is geared towards young children. The review for the first volume, written by the highly skilled and suspiciously well-dressed Michael Durr, can be found here: http://upcomingdiscs.com/2010/07/12/marvel-squad-vone/ . Dr. Doom is still using his many evil minions to obtain fractals of the shattered Infinity Sword before the Superhero Squad, a team of Marvel heroes assembled for their unique skills depending on the mission as led by Iron Man, can stop him.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 17th, 2010
A 911 operator returns to work after suffering the loss of her child during delivery, only to start suffering what seems like hallucinations of a lost girl and a menacing man. Obsessed with what she sees, she starts a journey from New York to Pennsylvania to discover the truth behind her visions.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 17th, 2010
Based on the books by Jan Guillou this film is in fact the merging of two epics produced in Sweden. It also happens to be Sweden’s most expensive production thus far. It tells the tale of a boy raised in a convent and trained to become a warrior by a former knight Templar. He falls in love and has a child with a young woman named Cecilia and the two are forced away from each other. Cecilia must pay penance living as a nun while Arn is sentenced to 20 years fighting in the name of God as a Knight Templar in Jerusalem.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 11th, 2010
The Trailer Park Boys are household names in Canada; the central characters even more than the show itself. The mockumentary TV series has been a cult sensation since its inception in 2001, right through its seven seasons and two feature films. Here is the introduction to Ricky, Julian, Bubbles and other charmers from the Sunnyvale Trailer Park.
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