Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 23rd, 2011
A sure sign that Easter is just around the corner is yet another home video release of perennial seasonal favorite The Ten Commandments. In years past, we got the multi-disc edition, complete with original silent version of the film. This particular version is rather more stripped down, as far as features go, but it does mark the film's extremely welcome arrival on Blu-ray.
The first act of Cecil B. DeMille's epic is as much a tale of Egyptian power politics as it is the story of a man coming to terms with his identity and destiny. We follow Moses (Charlton Heston) as, rising from triumph to triumph, he has the throne of Egypt within his grasp (much to the displeasure of Yul Brynner, the Pharaoh's actual son and rival for the affections of the sinuous Anne Baxter), only to lose all worldly power when he realizes he is actually the son of Hebrew slaves. Cast out of Egypt, he returns to demand the liberty of his people, and comes clutching a fistful of plagues to make sure his former brother pays heed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Bob Ross on March 17th, 2011
Connections between Eastern and Western cinema aren’t new, but they do seem to be proliferating. Back in 1964, Italian maestro Sergio Leone borrowed from Japanese genius Akira Kurosawa, turning Yojimbo into A Fistful of Dollars. Just last year, Korean writer-director Lee Jeong-Beom looked to the West for multiple influences, and the result is The Man From Nowhere, a psychological action-thriller that alternately engages, confuses and kicks major butt.
The film was a late-summer hit in its homeland, but it’s probably OK that the rest of the world had to wait until now for this technically superb Blu-Ray release. Subtitled gangster yarns don’t sell well in the American market – at least not the ones that rely on gritty plotting instead of high-wire special effects. In other words, this is no Crouching Tiger, kids. That’s more of a Chinese development. Like Leone’s Man With No Name, The Man From Nowhere is an enigmatic antihero, and the main reason you root for him is because everyone else in the picture – rival gangs and creepy cops – is more disturbed than he is. The exception is an innocent young girl who becomes a kidnap victim whom our hero vows to rescue.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Bob Ross on March 10th, 2011
If you don’t already know and love the format, you will be inclined – and well advised – to stay far away from Jackass 3. For some oversensitive souls, the sight of adult males getting smacked, slugged, stomped, shocked, slimed, kicked, catapulted and covered with excrement is simply unappealing. I know, sissies, right? But if you relish the notion of seeing men take abuse that makes them moan, bleed and barf, then the third and final (please, Lord) pseudo-documentary in the series is a guaranteed gross-out of a maximum degree. Heck, if you’re lucky, you might even toss your cookies as violently as some of the movie participants themselves.
Johnny Knoxville, the only real actor among these delinquents (he was excellent in The Ringer, A Dirty Shame and Grand Theft Parsons), demeans himself once again, presumably for cash, and possibly because he knows that by turning 40 on March 11, he knows darn well that he better not let himself be run over by a buffalo or crushed by a professional linebacker ever again. And ringleader Knoxville takes the gentlest bashings in the bunch. Experienced victims Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn and Steve-O go through ordeals that are designed to make the audience cringe and the Jackass gang guffaw like drunken donkeys. (There is a real donkey in the film, by the way. It gets the honor of repeatedly kicking one of the guys in the crotch.)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 8th, 2011
"Detroit ain't so bad, in fact it's kind of charming."
Director Benny Boom decided to move the S.W.A.T. franchise away from L.A. and bring it to Detroit. But he's not going to be winning any accolades from the Detroit Chamber of Commerce anytime soon. He openly admits that he picked the city because he was attempting to create an environment with a lot of decay. He jokes that by filming in Detroit there was no need to create those conditions because they were free for the taking in the city. The main character begins the film by insulting the city. It'll be interesting to see if Boom is invited back for a future project.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 4th, 2011
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has made a career out of redefining himself. Of course, we all know that he started as a rather flamboyant wrestling personality. He had a pretty good run, but it was never going to be enough to really satisfy Johnson's own drive to perform. He made the natural transition into movies, faring far better than most of his fellow wrestlers have been able to do. He naturally gravitated toward the action films where his bulk and toughness more than made up for his inexperience. Then he decided to try something a bit different. He began to make family films, often surrounded by cute kids in various situations. The role suited him better than expected, and it looked like he was also having a lot of fun. He even began to drop "The Rock" from his name. It was a good run, and one I hope isn't completely over. But Johnson has found his way back to the kind of movie that gave him his start. Johnson's back in the action game once more. He's bulked up again and eating up scenery in a Clint Eastwood posture for Faster.
The story is a three-ring circus. There are three separate stories going on that play out simultaneously.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 23rd, 2011
"In training they give you an F. Out here you get killed."
When was the last time you saw a good train movie? There have been a few classics. Most of the best merely happened on a train with the drama having to do with what was happening on the train. I can't really remember when I saw a good train film where a train itself was the source of the tension. Yes, there have been several films where terrorists hijack a train and threaten something bad if their demands weren't met. But in Unstoppable, the threat really is just the train. There's no political agenda at all going on here. It's really quite a clever threat when you think about it. The train doesn't "want" anything. It's powered by its own laws of "nature" and can't be talked down or reasoned with in any way. There's no emotion to get in the way. It just drives forward at its own pace. It doesn't care what is in front of it or what it's left behind. It merely is. In fact, Unstoppable can be a metaphor for runaway technology, the machine that can't be stopped. What a rather nice old-school device for one of society's deepest philosophical quandaries.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by BABY on February 12th, 2011
You know you're in a lot of trouble when a movie opens up with the wedding of two dogs. Hi, I'm Baby. I'm the German Shepherd who runs security here at Upcomingdiscs. If you work for either UPS or Fed Ex, no introductions are necessary, and that spells R U N. I want to know why it is that you humans think that dogs want to look and act like people. We don't need no stinkin' sweaters. We don't want to walk on our hind legs. And we don't want to get married. Now I know why some politicians want a law to protect the definition of marriage. The truth is I get along just fine being a dog. I kind of have it made here. Someone always brings me my breakfast. I get belly rubs and treats all day long. The only job I have is protectin' this place, and that job's a cinch. Sure, it would be great to be able to open that fridge door by myself and the whole opposable-thumbs challenge gets in the way every now and again. But at the end of the day, it's a dog's life after all. There's a reason why people say stuff like that. You may think you have all the power, but when I give those delivery guys a piece of my mind, who do you think does all the runnin'? 'Nuff said.
Every now and then Gino asks me to look at some dog movies that get sent here. Okay, yeah, some of these things do happen to slip through my security net. Gino likes that, for the most part but, I'm afraid I really fell asleep on the job for letting Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 get through the door. And someone's gonna pay down the road for that one. But it was my mistake, so it was only fair I had to watch the stupid thing and then write the review while Gino sits here and plays his pinball machine doing something called "poppin" all the dang time while I'm trying to concentrate. Sensitive ears here, by the way. Anyway... here's what I found out.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 10th, 2011
Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) is a self-centered dealer in exotic cars. He imports high-end sports cars into the states and sells them to the highest bidder. Within the first 10 minutes, we learn that he is not above bribing the EP for the cars to pass emissions, that he treats his girlfriend poorly, and that his father has just passed away. As he goes to the reading of the will, hoping for a big payday, his father leaves him only a car. Charlie is furious to learn that more than $3 million in a trust account has gone to an anonymous person. Turns out the anonymous person is an institutionalized autistic savant named Raymond (Dustin Hoffman).
Since Raymond is a voluntary patient, Charlie organizes his discharge (for his own nefarious reasons) and the two set off on a journey to Los Angeles. Along the way, the cold and calloused Charlie warms up to Raymond, even as the autistic man has more and more difficulty in living life outside of the controlled environment of the institution. So it’s basically a road movie that tracks the change in character of Charlie from a money-hungry bastard to a caring individual. In the end, Charlie becomes less concerned with the potential money he can get from Raymond and more on the health and safety of Raymond himself. It’s a satisfying arc for Charlie. The film is widely credited as an insight into a condition (autism) that previous to 1988 wasn’t very well understood by the masses. The writing is strong, the directing excellent, and the acting top-tier.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on February 7th, 2011
Westerns are typically fun movies to review because they usually don’t deviate much from a basic formula. There is usually a criminal, and there is usually a good guy out there to shoot that varmint. Technically, that is all there is to it. Furthermore, the budget (unless big stars are involved) is small, making for some creative storytelling. Today, we get to review an Australian western: Red Hill. Let’s see if it differs from the typical American one.
We overlook a lush Australian landscape (aren’t they all this way?) and pause to look at some horses. Suddenly, there is a disturbance in the distance and the horses run. Dun dun dun. Scene shift. Shane Cooper (played by Ryan Kwanten) is up and getting ready for first day of work. His wife, Alice (yes…Alice Cooper, played by Claire van der Boom) who apparently got her Frankenstein fed, is very pregnant. They talk about his first day, and soon he goes off to work.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 2nd, 2011
"This used to be a gentleman's game."
I must confess that I had not even heard of the comic book titles created by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner. I think that might have been one of the best things that could have happened to me as I sat down to watch the film Red. With a cast this strong, there was little doubt that they would provide a powerful stamp on these characters. No insult intended toward the graphic novels, but I can't imagine these characters any other way now.
![The Ten Commandments (Two-Disc Special Edition) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-ten-commandments-two-disc-spec-large.jpg)
![The Man from Nowhere [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-man-from-nowhere-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![S.W.A.T.: Firefight [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/swat-firefight-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Faster [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/faster-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Unstoppable [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/unstoppable-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Rain Man [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/rain-man-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Red Hill [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/red-hill-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Red (Movie-Only Edition) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/red-movie-only-edition-blu-ray-large.jpg)
