Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 23rd, 2010
Written by Diane Tillis
It is hard to talk about Inception without spoiling something. It is also hard to read any review and get a full feel for the film. Inception truly needs to be seen to understand why it is so amazing. On one level, it is an incredible action film that revolves around the heist scenario set in exotic locations such as France and Japan. On another level, the core purpose of the film is a complex discovery into dreams and the subconscious, and the consequences that come with manipulating the mind of another person. Inception is packed with inventive action, high drama, ideas and emotion. It is a masterpiece; whether it makes a billion dollars or not, it is a triumph for mainstream cinema. As the complexities of the film unravel themselves on the screen, Inception stands as a reminder that there is more to mainstream cinema than mindless entertainment. It forces the audience to think and question everything they are experiencing. If you give Inception the opportunity, I promise you will not be disappointed. In fact, you will want to talk more and more about the film once the credits roll to figure out what it all means. This is a sign of great cinema! Just for precaution, possible spoilers ahead!!
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.
This will-they won't-they (probably will) romance is told by trading the point-of-view and narrator between Bryce and Juli. This tactic makes the story more interesting to take in, despite the potential tedium of having the entire story essentially being told twice. The audience is privy to the continuous compare and contrast happening between Bryce and Juli's thoughts and feelings and so we get a more immediate understand of who they are, and what they are motivated by.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 10th, 2010
A suave Tom Cruise and a flustered Cameron Diaz (wow, what a stretch for both actors) bump into each other at Wichita airport, and a few minutes later do so again. Diaz thinks she might be on to something with the charming hunk, but she is more accurately into something, and in far out of her depth, as the plain flight turns into a gun battle and forced landing. Before she knows it, she doesn't know where to turn and whom to trust: the various menacing government officials (headed up by a sinister Peter Sarsgaard), or the cheery but possibly psychotic rogue Cruise. There will be many a narrow escape and an international location visited before she knows the answer.
Tom Cruise's return to action-adventure films was almost more notable for the off-screen backstory than the on-screen action. This, of course, was the film he chose to do when he backed out of the darker-edged Salt, where he was replaced by the rather more convincing Angelina Jolie, and which proceeded to beat Knight and Day at the domestic box office. (In fairness, neither film was a giant hit, and the overall worldwide business of both was pretty close.)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 29th, 2010
My wife is known as a very big Madea fan. She’s watched most of the Madea films and often quotes lines at random. So, naturally when I saw I was receiving a Tyler Perry film, I thought I might be able to slide the movie into my wife’s direction. However, Tyler is trying to expand his repertoire into something more than a one-trick pony and I kinda got left holding the bag (or the disc in this case). This should be quite the adventure staring Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodard, let us begin.
Today is a very special day. Andrea (played by Sanaa Lathan) is going to marry Chris (played by Rockmond Dunbar). Charlotte Cartwright (played by Kathy Bates) is doing a favor for her friend, Alice Reynolds (played by Alfre Woodard) by picking up the tab and throwing a lavish wedding. At the wedding, Andrea and Chris meet Charlotte’s son, William (played by Cole Hauser) and his wife, Jillian (played by KaDee Strickland).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 9th, 2010
"The hills are alive with the sound of music..."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 9th, 2010
His name was Fleming, Ian Fleming, and he would go on to create the most famous spy in literary history. James Bond would actually be based on Fleming's own experience in Her Majesty's Secret Service. But Fleming had another side. It's hard to believe that the man who gave us such ubervillians as Dr. No and Goldfinger brought us one of the most enchanting children's stories of our time. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's bond association doesn't end with its celebrated author. Albert "Cubby" Broccoli might have been just as instrumental for the success of Bond as Fleming himself. It was Broccoli who saw the potential and snapped up the rights to the spy series. He turned it into the famous Bond film series that still carries on the same traditions today, only at the hands of his daughter Barbara Broccoli. So it is only fitting somehow that Cubby would be the one to bring Fleming's children's story to life in movies, as well. The Bond associations don't end there. Director Ken Hughes brought us Casino Royale. The comic villain of the movie would be almost unrecognizably played by Gert Frobe, none other than Auric Goldfinger himself.
MGM has long been known for its epic musicals. The studio had a reputation for sparing no expense while delivering some of the most sweeping musical films known to mankind. Complete with complicated dance numbers and casts of thousands, the MGM grand-style musical was once something to behold. But Chitty Chitty Bang Bang wasn't really the model for these impressive spectacles at all. In fact, this movie follows more closely the Walt Disney model that it is one of the most misidentified films in the popular conscience. In a survey taken in the 1980's, only 1 out of 4 respondents correctly identified the film as an MGM production. The rest were confident that Uncle Walt and his Mouse House had given us the popular children's musical.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 8th, 2010
I'm not exactly sure what it is that audiences expected when Splice hit the box offices in June. I will have to admit that the trailers were not all that impressive. But I guess that most people didn't see what I saw when I looked at the early promotion for the film. I was fascinated by the appearance of the "creature", and the overall Frankenstein overtones were too much for me to resist. The movie compelled me from the first images and descriptions. Apparently, that wasn't the case in general. Splice tanked at the box office. It barely made $17 million. That's bad news, because the film cost $30 million to make. That figure is actually quite impressive. This was a small movie for one so ambitious. It looks like something that cost twice that to make. It didn't matter, in the end. You stayed away in droves. Back in June, you just might not have known any better. Lucky for you, my gentle reader, you have me to help to guide your home video purchases to get the most bang for your hard-earned buck. In this case, to also correct a serious miscarriage of justice. Splice is the best film you never saw.
Clive (Brody) and Elsa (Polley) are a husband-and-wife super-science team in the field of genetics. They work for a small pharmaceutical company where they develop designer life-forms in the hope of generating new drugs and compounds for the company to market. They are driven by William Barlow (Hewlett) to produce. When they do finally create a creature with drug potential, the company scraps any future gene-splicing. They want the couple to now focus on synthesizing the important compounds they can generate with the life they've already created. But the couple, particularly Elsa, wants to take their process to the next level. They want to incorporate human DNA in their experiments. Even though the company has closed them down, they continue in secret. The result of their undercover work is Dren. The specimen grows at an incredible rate, allowing the couple to study an entire life cycle in compressed time. But, the experiment gets complicated as Dren matures and evolves, making it harder to keep the creature a secret. They move her to a farm that was once part of Elsa's family home. There the couple begins to deal with the consequences of their actions.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 8th, 2010
When Wes Craven delivered his first Nightmare On Elm Street film back in 1984, there wasn't much expectation for the film to do anything but deliver a little profit for the new independent studio New Line Cinema. The film did quite a bit better than that. It made the small studio into a player in the industry with the budget to make mainstream films that would have never been possible if not for Craven's little Nightmare. You could say that The Lord Of The Rings owes its very existence, at least in the form of the Peter Jackson films, to Freddy Krueger. Of course, the studio just couldn't help itself, and they continued to cash in on the franchise time after time. After the 7th film, it appeared that even the fans were about done with Freddy Krueger. A misguided attempt to pit Freddy against Friday The 13th's Jason might have pulled in good money at first. But the film ultimately disappointed, and a follow-up became very unlikely, indeed. But, like all good cinema monsters, you can't keep a good fiend down. A Nightmare On Elm Street joined the increasingly long line of horror films that received the remake/reboot/reimagining/regurgitation treatment.
A lot of the 70's and 80's slasher films have been remade by now. All of the big franchise names have been reborn. Michael Myers, Jason, Leatherface, and now Freddy Krueger have all been given the reanimation treatment. With most of these bad guys, there was little problem with replacing the man behind the mask. No one actor had played any of these characters exclusively throughout the franchise run. While Kane Hodder came closest with both Freddy and Leatherface, he was not the only performer under the hood for either monster. Freddy Krueger was different, however. In all of the Nightmare films of the original run, Robert Englund had been the only actor to play Freddy. There was an attempt to replace him in the early goings of the second film, but the filmmakers discovered rather quickly that you can't just put a stuntman in the makeup and turn him loose. Freddy had a personality that had become quite intermingled with that of Englund. So the very first question that had to be answered when the subject of a do-over came up was who was it going to be in the red and green sweater wielding that knife glove. Could anyone but Robert Englund make the part work?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 4th, 2010
"The Toys Are Back In Town"
That's right. All of your favorite toys are back in Pixar's latest great film Toy Story 3. This time the toys are dealing with the inevitable. Andy (Morris) is about to go off to college. It's been a long time since he's played with his friends, and they are getting desperate and worried they will get tossed away. Although Andy bags them to be stored in the attic, a misunderstanding sends them to the curb and a date with the garbage truck. After that close call they decide to get themselves donated to Sunnyside Daycare, where they hope to live out their lives with tons of children to play with them. But things aren't all that sunny at Sunnyside. The place is ruled by the iron paw of Lotso Bear (Beatty) and his cronies. The bad guys include Big Baby. He and Big Baby once were accidentally abandoned by their owner and Lotso was replaced, making him bitter. Now the toys have to escape the armed camp of Sunnyside.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 1st, 2010
WELCOME! TO THE MOULIN ROUGE! *tips her purple satin top hat with an amethyst topped cane* Come in, come in! Take off your cloaks and have a drink of Absinthe! So many lonely women here tonight that need a partner... to dance with of course! Hope you brought lots of cash, your dancing shows, and perhaps a nice big diamond for one of our infamous Diamond Dogs! What's that? Oh! Yes of course! I know, you came to see a show, and of course to see our lovely Satine! Well take a look see, here she comes! *cues "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" and the curtains pull open!*
The year is 1899, meet Christian (Ewan McGregor)a young, handsome, man who intends to be a writer. He moves from England to the Montmartre district in France to write about love. One problem, he has never been in love before, so how can he write about something he has never experienced? -crash!- A man falls through the ceiling of his room (Jacek Koman) and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo) comes in through the door. A few heads pop around the hole in the floor, and they are discussing what to do about their narcoleptic friend who can't stay awake during the rehearsal for a play they are working on. Oh how they need a replacement, but where oh where are they going to find one? Christian is upstairs rehearsing with the group, and he comes up with some lines that blow their minds. They talk about introducing him to Satine, but decide that will wait till after they have some Absinthe!
![Flipped [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/flipped-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![The Family that Preys [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-family-that-preys-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Splice [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/splice-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Moulin Rouge! [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/moulin-rouge-blu-ray-large.jpg)
