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,
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 23rd, 2010
Written by Dave Younger
This is an entertaining and informative biopic of the American icon. Starting with a $600 loan from the bank, he parlays his good fortune of coming across Marilyn Monroe pay-the-rent nudes into an I-gotta-see-this magazine. Along the way he publishes some great fiction – Ray Bradbury says nobody wanted his Fahrenheit 451, so he sells it to Hef for $400 – and non-fiction: groundbreaking interviews with Jimmy Carter, Miles Davis and John Lennon. His road was filled with battles, because America in the 50s was staunchly conservative.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 23rd, 2010
Michael McDonald has been around for a very long time. In fact, with his white hair and beard McDonald makes a perfect little musical Santa. The man began his career as a backup singer for Steely Dan but made his real fame when he became part of The Doobie Brothers in the 1970's. But by 1982 it was already all over for the super-group. After about 5 years of wall-to-wall hits the group disbanded, and McDonald went out on his own.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 23rd, 2010
In Macao, a trio of gunmen butcher a family. Only the mother survives (barely), and her father (aging French rocker Johnny Hallyday, looking as hardboiled and grotesque as Mickey Rourke), a restaurateur who knows altogether too much about how to get by in the violent underworld, comes to town and sets out on a mission of vengeance. He hires a trio of hit men, and works with them in tracking down his enemies. They have to do so quickly, though, because Hallyday has been shot before, and the bullet lodged in his brain is gradually stealing his memory away. He wants his revenge while he can still remember why it is necessary.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 22nd, 2010
One man. One alien. One choice.
That’s the tag line for Hunter Prey, the latest project from Sandy Collora, idol to fanboys everywhere thanks to his 2003 short film, Batman: Dead End, believed by many to be the best fan film ever made. Well, after a long wait, he has finally made his first full-length feature film, and though it’s clearly hovering around the bottom rung of the budget ladder, there is much to admire here.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 21st, 2010
Monte Walsh and Chet Rollins (Lee Marvin and Jack Palance) are two cowboys in an era where their kind is becoming extinct. After a hard winter in the mountains, they discover that most of the ranches they knew have vanished, the land being bought up by Eastern corporations. They find work on the ranch once owned by Jim Davis, though he now answers to accountants back East. And though life, at first, seems all right, bit by bit they witness the end of their era, as a way of life dies, and the men who lived it are pushed to suicide, desperation, robbery and worse.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 20th, 2010
He's been called the King Of Late-Night. Today when there are so many talk shows on at pretty much every hour of the day, that might not appear to be such a huge distinction. There were talk shows on before Johnny Carson, but there can be no doubt that he invented the modern late-night show. For 30 years Johnny Carson was like a member of the family for millions of Americans. He was a friendly face at the end of a long, stressful day.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 20th, 2010
The setting for Gunsmoke was the by-now-famous Dodge City, circa 1870’s. Phrases like “get out of Dodge” would enter the popular lexicon as a result of this resilient series. Marshall Dillon (Arness) was charged with keeping the peace in Dodge City. The only other character to see the entire 20-year run was kindly Doc Adams (Stone). Star Trek’s own Doc, Leonard McCoy, took many of his traits from Doc Adams. He was the humanitarian of the city, always looking to help someone. Like McCoy
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 20th, 2010
This was Lucille Ball’s follow-up to I Love Lucy. Here Ball is a widowed mother of two, sharing her home with best friend Vivian Vance, who is a divorced mother of one. All the other members of household are, of course, faced with the disasters triggered by Lucy. I screened this set immediately after viewing its close contemporary, Petticoat Junction, and the difference between the two was instructive.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 20th, 2010
Who doesn’t have a soft spot in their heart, if not their DVD collection, for The Andy Griffith Show? The denizens of Mayberry have been with many of us our entire lives. For most of America, The Andy Griffith Show has become the template for any small rural town. The characters stand as prerequisite citizens in any said town. The town drunk, the local barber, the motherly little old lady, and the corner mechanic all look like Otis, Floyd, Aunt Bee, and Goober to most of us now.
![Michael McDonald- This Christmas Live In Chicago [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/michael-mcdonald-this-christmas-li-large.jpg)
