Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 1st, 2011
Sometimes you walk into a movie simply knowing that you are about to watch a train wreck. I am not talking about Unstoppable or Under Siege 2 (though the latter was arguably a train wreck in its own right) either. It is the kind of movie where you hope there is enough action and some mindless t&a to get you through the ninety minutes. Then maybe at the end of it all, one can forget about it and move on. Let us move on to the dinner course this evening, Blood Out.
It is just another day in Anytown, USA (this movie was filmed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana but you would never know it). Drugs are all over the streets and the sides break down between those who deal the dope and those who try to deal the justice. On a bust, Sergeant Michael Savion (played by Luke Goss) chases after a drug dealer and lays him out with two bullets to the back. But unfortunately before he falls dead, the thug shoots a little girl beside him, killing her instantly. Michael blames himself as he goes back to the station.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 29th, 2011
Craig, played by Keor Gilchrist, is facing a lot of stress in his sixteenth year on this planet and he becomes convinced that he wants to kill himself and checks himself into a psych ward. During his mandatory 5 day trial stay he undergoes a less-than common journey of self-discovery with the aid of his fellow patients.
What could have easily been a very contrived teen comedy turns out to be a refreshing coming-of-age tale that does not need to pander to the audience with an over-abundance of lowbrow humour and/or romance drama. Mind you, it is not that this film is lacking in either of those departments completely as we do get a couple naughty jokes snuck in, and our protagonist does find himself in a “girl trouble” dilemma that motivated his self-institutionalizing. Thankfully the focus continuously draws back to Craig and his attempts to heal, making him the ever present nucleus of the film for interesting character subplots to float around him.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 25th, 2011
(What follows is my cohort Gino Sassani's review, as it was written for the Blu Ray release of this same film. I have only added changes for the Video and Audio sections as DVD is naturally different than Blu Ray).
The Picture Of Dorian Gray was actually Oscar Wilde’s only full-length novel. It was quite a controversial subject when it first arrived on the scene in 1890, but not because of the horror element. The book is often sexually explicit and contains more than a flirtation with homosexuality. The main themes have survived, but much of the work itself has been forgotten. We know the work almost exclusively from the classic film from 1945 where Hurd Hatfield played the title character. The more notable members of that cast included Peter Lawford, Donna Reed, and Angela Lansbury. That film downplayed the debauchery elements and focused on the one element that appears to remain strongest in our collective memories, that of the picture aging instead of the man. It’s that deal with the devil that most of us think about when we hear the name Dorian Gray, or Dick Clark for that matter.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 25th, 2011
Dicky Eklund was the pride of Lowell, Massachusetts. While he constantly reminds the neighbourhood of his glorious fight against Sugar Ray Leonard, he has descended into a crack addiction that is breaking his family apart, and hindering the training of his up-and-coming brother, Mickey. As Micky inches closer to big opportunities in the fighting world, he must also battle the demons his family place upon him.
Part sports movie, and part character drama, this film's story is the sort of underdog tale that will be familiar to Rocky fans, and being a boxing film, it is readily susceptible to being compared to that series. If I may start with a focus on the sports movie angle, it diverges from the Rocky series most obviously by having less focus on the training (no big musical montages here) and the 'big' fights. Another divergence involving the fights this film has, one that is even more important to me,is a difference in how the actual fights were choreographed. I have never cared for the simplistic trading of head-shots, with little blocking, in the Rocky films. The Fighter has blood and blocking the way a true fight would have. The camera quality changes to something hand held looking when inside the ring with Micky and Dicky, and there are frequent flashes to the real life fight of Eklund vs Leonard, both of which help to make it seem like Mark Walhberg (who plays Mickey) is in an actual bout.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 23rd, 2011
Boxing has never been a particularly popular sport for me to watch. The boxing world has always seemed to be one of lies and politics. But on the other hand, I will watch with interest any movie that has boxing as a major subject. Rocky, Raging Bull, heck The Great White Hype are all fine examples of exciting boxing movies. That is why when I received Knockout with Steve Austin, my interest was peaked a little to say the least. Let us see how it goes.
Matthew Miller (played by Daniel Magder) chews his nails and doesn’t like the fact that he is in the middle of nowhere (Tacoma, Washington). His mother, Christine (played by Janet Kidder) gets after him for his nail biting and tells him that he had to drop out of private school and go to public school because times are tight. She does it in a rather melodramatic manner and it is no wonder that Matthew didn’t just punch out her lights right there. That would have been a boxing movie to be proud of.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 14th, 2011
(checks calender) “my goodness its been a few days...time to review another Michael Madsen film”
Michael Madsen goes WAY outside of his normal acting niche and plays a badass killer. Really different from his previous roles (please refer to my two month old review of Madsen's Brazen Bull to reveal just how sarcastic this opening paragraph is https://upcomingdiscs.com/2011/02/23/the-brazen-bull/#more-15588).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 14th, 2011
When the WB merged with the UPN to form the hybrid CW, a lot of good things happened. The new network stepped away from the twenty-something shows that began to all look the same after a while. The network began to take on cutting edge genre shows like Supernatural and Smallville. But deep down inside there was still that family drama mentality that drove at least one of the parent networks. Life Unexpected is, unfortunately, a totally expected result of that dark place.
The premise is actually pretty interesting. Lux (Robertson) is a 16-year-old girl who has spent her entire life in foster care. She has been bounced from home to shelter to home again 7 times in those 16 years. She's lived with drug addicts and abusive situations. She's had it, and so she decides to seek legal emancipation. Because her parents are still alive and somehow never gave up their rights, she needs their signatures on the court documentation. She finds her father first. Nate Bazile or Baze (Polaha) is a guy who's refused to grow up. He lives in a loft above a bar he runs primarily so he can drink for free. His father (Thomas) owns the building, and the bar is just one of many unresolved issues between them. He lives with two roommates who are only slightly more mature than he is, including English teacher Math (Basis). He's shocked when Lux shows up, because he didn't even know she existed. Together they contact her mom, Cate (Appleby), who is a popular radio talk show host with her partner and soon to be fiancée Ryan (Smith). Cate gave Lux up for adoption unaware that she had a heart condition that required her to remain in the hospital until she was three. That made her a tough adoption candidate. So, when Lux shows up she is just as surprised, believing she was happy and in a family. The emancipation doesn't happen, and Baze and Cate are given joint custody of Lux.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 13th, 2011
A Spring Break whale-watching cruise goes off-course and then blows up, thanks to the stupidity of the popular kids, and two groups of high schoolers find themselves washed up on a deserted island. The aforementioned populars, led by the egomaniacle The Rog (Robert Adamson) immediately establish their dominance, squandering supplies and tormenting the unpopulars. These unfortunates turn to reluctant leader Flynn (Gary Entin), who begins planning a revolution. Pulled between the two groups is Peggy (Lindsey Shaw), cheerleader and girlfriend to Rog who nonetheless has too much intelligence and self-respect to remain satisfied with either role.
The feature-length directorial debut of Severin's own John Cregan sheds new light on that company's interest in 80s teen comedies. But Cregan's touchstones go deeper than that. Obviously, the proceedings are very Lord of the Flies, but there is also a hint of Massacre at Central High (1976) with the idea that deposing one tyrant might simply lead to the rise of another. Devolved doesn't go all the way in plumbing those depths of darkness, though. It is, first and foremost, a comedic satire, and its touch is quite assured. The writing is sharp, and the action is frequently interrupted by a reality-TV-style narrator who portentously comments on the events, occasionally providing helpful animated diagrams.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2011
"May, 2009 - Seven brave astronauts are about to launch on the most challenging and risky missions ever flown in space. This is the last chance to save the Hubble Telescope."
You have to really go back to April of 1990 to get to the start of the story. That's when the shuttle Discovery launched from Cape Kennedy with the Hubble Telescope in its cargo bay waiting to bring the ends of the universe to our waiting eyes. I was there that day among the crowd of hopefuls as the shuttle ignited its thrusters and pierced the sky for space. I bought a commemorative coin from a roving vendor and drove the two hours home without even listening to any music. Watching a shuttle launch is an almost religious experience that, unfortunately, few will ever know. I've been lucky enough to witness seven.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 4th, 2011
I have been reviewing various discs for plenty of years now. As a rule, I’ve stayed away from most documentaries as I know that unless they involve video games, I will probably use them for a sleep aid. That is not to say I can’t enjoy them, I just know my track record. Then, I received the grand mother of all documentaries, The Civil War by Ken Burns with an anniversary edition to boot. Yep, this is going to be a long and bumpy ride, let’s hold on shall we?
“To understand our history is to understand the Civil War”, Shelby Foote (Writer and Historian).
