News and Opinions

At the turn of the millennium a decade and a half ago, lists were pretty popular. It didn't matter if you were into the world of sports or movies, everybody was looking for the all-time best of everything. The American Film Institute got into the trend by releasing top-100 lists. Heroes, villains and memorable quotes all got the treatment. We all argued about the "classics" we felt were unfairly slighted and the "idiotic" choices that did make the lists. If only the lists were so much larger. Then everyone's favorites would be included and we could all finally find a list we could agree on. But, what number would that be? 100 was too small. A million was just too large. What number might be just right? 1001?

The millennium passed and the manic number of lists subsided. 2007 came and we all learned what a Bucket List was. We all started thinking about those wonderful things we felt we simply must experience before we kick that figurative bucket. If you're reading these pages, you likely included a list of films that you had to see before you die. It seems that the folks at Barron's Publishing have attempted to answer that question for us with their encyclopedic book: 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

Forget everything we've said about these guys. It's not often that we have to admit we were wrong here at Upcomingdiscs. This is one such time. We said good things about the program. I thought I'd finally found a good movie database, the Holy Grail of the industry. Well... it works fine....for a short time. In less than a year it's been pretty much broken and they'll charge you all over again to get a working version. What is wasted is your original money and the time you spent entering your films. For us that meant literally thousands of titles. Save your money and stay far away from this one. I'll keep looking for a good program. When we offer a recommendation, we want you to be able to count on it.

Bolide Software's attempt to hook you on a never-ending money grab isn't what you're looking for. There's got to be a great database software out there. I promise you. We will find it.

From all of us here at Upcomingdiscs:

We wish you a wonderful and a safe New Year.

It turns out that 13 is going to be your lucky number this Halloween. The folks at Busch Gardens are celebrating their 13th year of Howl-O-Scream and it appears they've created an eerie night of spooks and spectaculars for your fright. Upcomingdiscs will be there for all of the action and we'll be reporting back in early October.

In the meantime, yours truly was invited to sneak into the bowels of the park at 2:00 AM just a few days ago. No, I didn't have to climb over the walls or outrun the Cheetahs. It was all part of a media night invitation to preview one of the new haunted houses for Howl-O-Scream. It was a blast, to be sure. Best of all, they've captured my descent into Oglethorpe Asylum where "The Creature" is stirring and he isn't a mouse. Check out my early morning adventure and then check out Howl-O-Scream for yourself. Bang it here for the video: Gino Scream Cam

We closed out another month of contests and here's to the winners:

The Jodi Picoult Collection - Ron Crouch

Every now and then we try and give a little push for films made here in our back yard in Florida:

Check out the trailer for Step Up:Revolution hitting theaters on July 27th.