Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on October 30th, 2013
There are five clans of Vampires that are secretly living amongst humans. Said secret is maintained by a code of conduct called the “Masquerade” which states that vampires can never reveal themselves to a human; nor can they “embrace” (bite and convert) a human without approval from the highest council. Defying this means that your lengthy life is forfeit. A detective discovers the truth about the Masquerade when his girlfriend loses her life after defying these very rules, and he sets out to reveal the entire realm of vampires in San Francisco.
The vampire clans resemble mafia crime syndicates. They operate in secret to both hide their supernatural identities, and hide their financial operations; many of which have spanned centuries. So the story of the detective seeking to uncover the vampire world operates on different levels; revealing the truth behind the murders and other crimes these groups are committing, along with the aforementioned exposure of their supernatural lineage.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on October 12th, 2013
A New York city homicide detective is haunted by the night where her mother was murdered by two gunmen, who themselves were killed by a mysterious being. A decade after that night she finds out that the mysterious being is still around. As this “Beauty” and her “Beast” finally meet, they start investigating the truth behind their secret ties to each other.
The similarities between this adaptation of Beauty and the Beast and any others begins and ends at the title. Originally slated as a reboot of the 1987 series that starred Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton, this series trades the romance and battle of misfits for crime investigations and military conspiracies.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on October 10th, 2013
This latest incarnation of “90210” ending in its fifth season means it ran for half the length of the original series (which ran for ten). Like the original, the stories of these sexy Beverley Hills residents began in high school. Now we see the sorts of adults they've become and the absolutely ridiculous success they've had. They all started on the top, and somehow manage to claw their way...to the top. Yup...real growth here.
What is this “ridiculous Success” I speak of? Oh, how about the fact that amongst the main characters is a successful club owner (which would warrants even more bragging rights since it's located in California), a software guru (yes, the word “guru” is actually used) and a freaking movie star whose film is #1 at the box office. Incredibly relatable stuff, no?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on August 17th, 2013
Best known as the launch point for Michael J Fox's career (along with a major booster from the Back to the Future films), Family Ties was a decently delightful series that may now be mostly remembered via the many references placed into Family Guy (creator Seth MacFarlane has noted it as one of his all time favourites). It has been previously covered very well on this site, which can be found at this link: https://upcomingdiscs.com/?s=family+ties
In this, its final season, we see a number of major events occurring inside and outside the Keaton Family. There are many very serious scenerios occuring in this comedy, such as when Steven, the father of the family (played by Michael Gross, whom I best remember from his role in the Tremors series) has a heart attack in a three-part story arc called Heartstrings, or when the Keatons defend their new African-American neighbours after they become the target of racist actions committed by other people in their neighbourhood in a two-parter called All in the Neighbourhood.
The focus of the overlapping narrative is placed onto the exodus of Michael J Fox's character Alex as he receives a lucrative job offer in New York city, a story that runs right to the finale of the show itself. Throughout all seven seasons we saw the comedic conflict between the fiercely Republican Alex and his former hippy parents and the show completes the arc by having Alex follow his capitalist minded ambitions to Wall Street, but not before reaffirming his loving connection to his entire family.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on December 19th, 2012
The debut season of this Comedy Central program was entitled "Hoodies" on it's DVD and Blu Ray release. Season 2 is called "Deep V's" in honour of the garment Daniel Tosh, the host, wears in each episode. Very little is different as far as format or new segments are concernced since the last time I wrote about this show (https://upcomingdiscs.com/2012/06/05/tosh-o-hoodies-blu-ray/. To avoid redundancy I shall simply add to that review with a couple new relevant points for this season.
YouTube had all but killed off the idea of mailing silly home videos to the likes of America’s Funniest Home Videos. These days, people prefer to stream dozens of videos on their computers and save themselves from the watered down jokes of Bob Saget or current host Tom Bergeron. Tosh.O takes a similar format of displaying such silly videos, but focuses on things that have gone “viral” online. Like AFHV, Tosh.O adds their own commentary and sketches to the presentation but in a much more crass, cable-savvy manner.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 17th, 2012
A wealthy mother of three has a secret revealed about her past when her well-meaning son brings a homeless man over for dinner. This production is a play that has been filmed (not adapted) with a laugh-track spliced in, making it resemble a television show. It's meant to be inspirational but it's really just a big mess.
Every single scene in this “film” is flawed. The moral questions brought up are contrived and the solutions are ridiculous. The matriarch of the family has made millions in real estate and is planning to shut down a homeless shelter by buying the property (this is actually revealed at the climax of the film but it's so incredibly predictable that I may as well put it right here at the beginning of my review). One of her children wants to stop the deal and save the shelter after befriending one of its residents. I may as well spoil this part too: the homeless man turns out to be the father of the family. That's right. The characters in this film only exist in total extremes; either incredibly rich or utterly poor. The solutions to everyone's problems is when a millionaire faces a moral dilemma and uses their wealth to fix everything...just like it is for all families right? Totally plausible and relatable right?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 14th, 2012
There are two films that are on the main disc; an experimental film by Nicholas Ray and a documentary by Susan Ray about the making of said film. They are perfect companions on this release and I feel one is crucial for the other, therefore I'm going to treat neither as simply a “Bonus.”
We Can't Go Home Again
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 27th, 2011
Dirty Tricks stars Martin Clunes as Edward, an underachieving English teacher. Edward meets an accountant (Neil Dudgeon) and begins an affair with his wife, Karen (Julie Graham). When Karen unfortunately passes away, the aging detective (James Bolam) assigned to the case, suspects Edward is involved. Edward is a charming protagonist at first and suddenly the lies and absurdities begin piling up. On the outside, the film resembles a typical comedy and as the film unfolds it becomes a mystery. Is Edward who he continues to say he is? Or, is Edward making appeals of innocence to both the audience and the characters within the film? As a viewer, you will struggle with this question throughout. British television enthusiasts will not be disappointed with this effort.
Martin Clunes plays the role of Edward to perfection. The subtleties of his performance are remarkable. His lying springs the famous George Costanza line to mind “it’s not a lie, if you believe it”. There is an organic quality to his performance which is the most appealing. Clunes is perfectly cast and the film would not be a third as entertaining without him. The other performances are not as dazzling as Clunes. However, within the narrative of the film, they are a nice compliment to a great performance.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 27th, 2011
In 1954 several canisters of film were found in a German archive, simply entitled “Das Ghetto”. Inside were reels of film shot in the Warsaw ghetto in 1942, mere months before the zone was shut down and the people sent off to death camps. For years this footage was considered an important historical document, as its raw footage chronicled day-to-day life in the ghetto and was unlike any footage existing at that time.
Some forty-five years later, however, another reel was found that shed new light on the veracity of the original footage.This new reel contained what appeared to be outtakes from the other reels and clearly showed that much of the original footage had been carefully staged.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on December 16th, 2010
Thierry Guetta has the habit of filming everything he does in his entire life. This habit did not shake while filming the, technically illegal, work of his cousin 'Invader' who is a street artist that pastes up images from and inspired by the video game Space Invaders. Guetta quickly fell head over heals for this underground movement of creating street art and started documenting some of the most famous street artists in the entire world, including the ever (in)famous 'Banksy.' It was Banksy who questioned Guetta as to what his plans were for all of this footage, which was originally nothing, and encouraged him to make a documentary about street art as it is a temporary medium (since it is considered vandalism, all pieces are removed or destroyed soon after being created) and these pieces deserved to be recorded for history's sake in a formal film. Guetta's attempt at the film was deemed unwatchable and so Banksy took over the film and turned the camera on Guetta so that his personal story would be told along with displaying many artists' work.
Some speculations state that this film is an elaborate prank being pulled by Banksy. Remaining anonymous as he directs this film, who is to say that the art made by Guetta is not in fact created by Banksy as a way of demonstrating that pop art is the last vestige of the under-talented, and yet they can make millions if hyped just right. Indeed, the climax of the documentary is Guetta putting on an epic gallery opening in Los Angeles as his new moniker “Mr Brainwash” (a name that has been seen as evidence towards Bansky's message of how hype can brainwash the masses and disguise lack of depth or meaning). I do not subscribe to this theory, as this film seems more like a jab at those (Mr Brainwash being central) who use marketing and gimmicks to make money from something that should be about expression and not profits.
