Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 28th, 2018
“Told you it was aliens.”
What if Michael Bay was Australian and he was only given $6 million to make an alien invasion movie? The result might look a lot like Occupation, a rollicking, gleefully dumb sci-fi/action flick that works best as a throwback to simpler (i.e. dumber) times at the multiplex. But while Occupaton has its charms, the movie's shoddy special effects and production values consistently undermine the kickass story it's trying to tell.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 27th, 2018
“So here we are...in the belly of the beast. A lot of power and money in this room.”
That cheeky line came from Iggy Pop during The Stooges' induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. It's also featured in Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: In Concert — Encore, a wonderfully comprehensive collection of the four induction ceremonies between 2010 and 2013. The 2-disc Blu-ray set features over 8 hours of content, including full induction speeches and 44 musical performances from rock and roll icons and rising stars. Iggy was right about the power and money in the room; this set features some of the biggest names in the history of music...plus A-listers like Meryl Streep and Oprah Winfrey!
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 26th, 2018
"Is there life out there? Good heavens! To doubt it is a failure of more than the imagination. It is a failure to recognize the limits of our own stupidity. The nascency of our science. The rudiment of our tools. We listen. We search. We hope for a sign, as if our eyes and ears are good enough, our brains large enough, our egos small enough."
By the time The X-Files had reached its seventh season, the two stars of the show were feeling the stress of doing over 20 episodes of the series every year. In the eighth season David Duchovny was going MIA, and Gillian Anderson's Scully character had a new partner in Robert Patrick's Agent Doggett. They used Duchovny's absence as a new story arc in the overall mythology, and the story became the search for Mulder. It provided an interesting chance for Anderson to take even more center stage, and she actually handled the changes pretty well. But even Anderson was getting tired, and the ninth and final season would feature Anderson in only a limited role as Doggett and his new partner Agent Reyes, played by Annabeth Gish, became the new agents on The X-Files. The missing Mulder storyline began to get stale, and the show limped through that final season. But fans hoped that Mulder and Scully would find a way to reunite and bring back the core team that really was the heart of The X-Files.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 26th, 2018
With Halloween just around the corner, it’s that time of the year when the studios start cranking out horror films to fill up the shelves hoping that eager fans will scoop up any new horror titles they can add to their collection. The Row is one of those releases that has the cover with beautiful girls and the tease of murder and mayhem to ensue. Does it deliver what the cover is attempting to sell? Well, the simple answer is yes, but to call this film horror is the equivalent of calling a toddler’s finger painting art. This is a film that sadly is a product of the times. Though it has an R rating, the film seems tame, and considering the director claims he was aiming for Spring Breakers meets Friday the 13th, I have to wonder if he saw either of those films.
Riley (Lala Kent) and her best friend Becks (Mia Frampton, yes, Peter Frampton’s daughter) are attending college, and as rush week is occurring they are looking to join the Phi Lambda sorority. As it turns out Riley’s mom was also a member of the sorority, just one of the many mysteries that seem to shroud her mother’s past, a mother Riley seems to know little about since her mom died when she was seven. Randy Couture plays Riley’s overprotective father, who is on suspension after a drug bust goes wrong, so to deal with his empty nest syndrome he manages to involve himself with a homicide case involving a student who is killed at Riley’s college. It just so happens that it seems this killer is just getting started, and there are plenty of pretty sorority girls who can be potential victims.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 24th, 2018
"Once upon a time there was a magical forest filled with fairytale characters. One day a powerful curse trapped them in a city which had no magic, and each of them forgot who they really were. This is how it happened..."
Once Upon A Time hasn't been a big ratings winner for the last few years. Each season the show appeared on the bubble and ended up getting renewed at the last minute. One of the reasons the show managed to escape the axe was because it had some value for the network's parent company, Walt Disney Studios. The show was a good way to keep the studio’s properties in front of an audience. That's pretty much what the show finally became. They threw the books at us, from Frozen to The Little Mermaid. With that value in mind, the decision was made last season to keep the show but completely retool it. The network cut most of the cast and started the story over again.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 23rd, 2018
"My name is Kara Zor-El. I'm from Krypton. I'm a refugee on this planet. I was sent to Earth to protect my cousin. But my pod got knocked off course, and by the time I got here, my cousin had already grown up and become... Superman. I hid who I really was until one day when an accident forced me to reveal myself to the world. To most people, I'm a reporter at CatCo Worldwide Media. But in secret, I work with my adoptive sister for the D.E.O. to protect my city from alien life and anyone else that means to cause it harm. I am Supergirl."
So, you're asking yourself, who the heck is Kara Zor-El, and what is this D.E.O.? I get it. You're just not caught up on the CW series Supergirl. It's not such a good idea to start here, however. You can check out our reviews for the first two seasons here. Catch up on the episodes, and then join the rest of us for Supergirl: The Complete Third Season.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 21st, 2018
It’s okay to groan. I get it. Just when you thought the found-footage genre was dead, another film manages to get released. I think at this point we all simply have to accept that this is a genre that will never completely die on us, but we can always hope that it will eventually produce a hit every once and a while. When it comes to Found Footage 3D, it’s a bit of a mixed bag for me, and since the Blu-ray came with both a 3D and 2D version, I did in all fairness watch both versions, and there is definitely a version that won out, and if the time comes that I check this out again, I know how I plan on doing so. In case you were wondering, the disc does come with two individual 3D glasses, not the ones you can pick up at your local theater, but instead the throwback red and blue kind.
The clever twist that Found Footage 3D has going for it is that it is found-footage film about a film crew that is setting out to make a horror film in 3D. It doesn’t take long before we realize how the film is very self aware understanding the numerous typical tropes that are in the genre and knows there are two key rules they need to follow. Rule #1: give a reason for why the people are videotaping every moment, and Rule #2: when the third act comes along, have a good reason to explain why they are still filming and not tossing the camera aside. Derek (Carter Roy) is the over-the-top filmmaker with a vision to make the first found-footage horror film in 3D and is overly ambitious by also having the making of the film shot in 3D as well.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 21st, 2018
Just about everyone has heard of Rolling Stone magazine. For me it was circa 1995 when I bought my first Rolling Stone magazine that had the band Green Day on the cover. While I never had a subscription, I still remember hitting up the Barnes and Noble and getting the new magazines when I could. It was the magazine I went to to read up on my favorite bands and random pop culture influences. The magazine is now celebrating 50 years of journalism on music, politics, and just about everything else in between. In the 4 ½ hour documentary, it is a combination of interviews and archival footage that tells the story from when the magazine was birthed in San Francisco to becoming one of the most popular publications of our time.
Though the Blu-ray says that it is told in two parts, the reality is that the two-disc set is broken up into six episodes that run just over 40 minutes each. Jeff Daniels handles the duties as the narrator, who starts off by explaining to us to where the magazine’s name came from as well as introducing us to the magazine’s creator and editor, Jann Wenner. The first episode really helps set the tone by telling the story of how the magazine and its staff came together as well as revealing how some of the magazine’s breakout articles first came together. From a story about Ike and Tina Turner before they were household names to John Lennon and Yoko Ono and their Bed In for Peace. It’s kind of amazing seeing how the magazine wasn’t so popular yet but was a part of something as historic on pop culture. Personally I really enjoyed getting to see Annie Leibovitz discuss some of her first shoots, and it’s easy to understand why she has become a legend in the photography world since.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 14th, 2018
"You're in a stolen cop car with a dead hooker in the trunk; you don't have to obey traffic laws."
The Big Bang Theory certainly didn't obey the established laws for television comedy. The series was certainly more cerebral than most, and a lot of jokes went over a lot of heads, I suspect. But it was never about the geek factor or the IQ of the characters. The show was simply about the characters, and that extended family has spent 11 years in our living rooms or home theatres. But like all good things, The Big Bang Theory is about to come to an end. Jim Parsons was never the show's top billing, but there's little doubt that Sheldon became the most engaging character. When Parsons was offered $50 million for two more seasons, he turned the offer down. Instead of trying to do the show without him, the decision was made to bring the long-running comedy to a close. The upcoming 12th year will be its final season. Fans don't have much to be sad about. 10 years appears to be the ceiling for even the best comedy shows to grace our television screens. Monster hits like Seinfeld and Friends didn't break 10 seasons. Classics like M*A*S*H or All In The Family never saw 11 and 9 seasons respectively. 12 years will be a very respectable run. The fans will also get to hang out with Sheldon for the foreseeable future, albeit as a little kid in Young Sheldon. Finally, fans will have these Blu-ray collections to revisit these characters for many years to come. Old shows don't die; they just live on through discs or streaming services.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 13th, 2018
“It was the 'hate the performer' festival.”
With more than 600,000 people in attendance, the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 became the largest musical event of its time. In terms of sheer numbers, it was even bigger than Woodstock a year earlier. But instead of celebrating peace and love, the hippies who attended Isle of Wight were put off by performers who showed up in ostentatious vehicles. They were determined to aggressively protest the commercialization of music, which led to fences being torn down and artists subsequently dropping out of the festival lineup. Joni Mitchell: Both Sides Now — Live at The Isle of Wight Festival 1970 documents how one of the quietest, most unassuming artists in the lineup made some everlasting noise.
