Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on February 14th, 2012
It really does seem like certain movies are created for the sole purpose of winning a boatload of Oscars. I don't really have a problem with this: I'd personally rather see studios and filmmakers make a shameless grab for prestige than make no attempt at all and revert to their de facto sequel/prequel/reboot mode. The problem is — despite that one clueless, rude person who insists on taking phone calls and texting during the feature presentation, and is somehow always seated directly in front of or behind you — movie-going audiences are more sophisticated than ever. More specifically, moviegoers are hipper to the way movies are sold and presented.
As a result, we usually end up resenting and rejecting these Oscar catnip offerings because who the hell is anyone to tell us what the best movies of the year are going to be before we even see them?! (Please observe a moment of silence for the Oscar prospects of Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar.)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 8th, 2012
"Gentlemen, I assure you she's the perfect type for the job. She's good at making friends with gentlemen, and we want somebody inside his house who has his confidence."
Say what you will about Alfred Hitchcock, but one thing he never lacked was confidence. Today filmmakers and film fans alike still worship at his altar. His church was the darkened neighborhood cinema, and no one held court better than the man fans affectionately refer to as Hitch. The flicker didn't come from candles as you might expect in such a place of worship. They emanated from the silver screen. He was canonized as the Master of Suspense, but Hitch was more than that, much more. He was actually quite a romantic at heart. Most of his films are romance stories. But Hitch placed these commonplace romances in uncommon environments. His lovers possessed all of the passion you would expect from a romance film, but their lives were usually in danger...and sometimes there were higher causes. Such is the case in Hitch's 1946 spy thriller Notorious.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on February 7th, 2012
Recent Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain famously appeared in a whopping six movies released in 2011. These include two Best Picture nominees (The Help, The Tree of Life), and two other movies that briefly generated a small measure of Oscar buzz (Take Shelter for Michael Shannon's performance, and Coriolanus for Vanessa Redgrave's work). Unfortunately, when people try to recount Chastain's outstanding breakout year, Texas Killing Fields is destined to become the sixth movie no one can remember. Heck, it's not even her best 2011 movie co-starring Sam Worthington. (That would be The Debt.)
Inspired by true events, the film derives its name from an area just outside Texas City where more than 60 dead bodies have been found since 1971. Worthington (Avatar) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) co-star, respectively, as Texas City homicide detectives Mike Souder and Brian Heigh. Though Souder and Heigh have their hands full trying to solve the Texas City murder of a young girl, Heigh allows himself to be pulled into a case involving another missing girl whose abandoned car was found in the killing fields, despite the fact that it's out of his jurisdiction. Chastain co-stars as a detective from the neighboring county (and Souder's ex-wife) while the gifted Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass, Hugo) plays a troubled Texas City girl who Heigh protects.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on February 6th, 2012
“I was dumb enough to think I'd be joining some elite police officers here. I don't know who these people are.”
Those words come from Kathryn Bolkovac (Oscar winner Rachel Weisz), a Nebraska cop who accepts a high-paying gig as a United Nations peacekeeper. The film, inspired by true events in 1999 post-war Bosnia, follows Bolkovac as she discovers a human trafficking/sexual slavery ring with an insidious connection to International Police Task Force personnel, including some from the United States.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 2nd, 2012
Written by Brian Ludovico
To film fans, the clause “Directed by Alfred Hitchcock” has almost become an adjective in and of itself. It has come to mean suspense created by using the viewer’s imagination and mind as a part of the film, first and foremost. These films didn’t have the freedom of CG, and consequently had to invent ways to achieve visual effects (watch the documentary on Birds or Rear Window for example). Besides the lack of freedom of creation that digital filmmaking now provides, the filmmakers had to tip toe around the Hays code, not only restrictive on sex and sexual undertones, but also on content (as we learn in the featurettes here) and gore. The phrase, and the adjective that bears the director’s name, has grown to include a certain quality of characters and meticulous film crafting in every phase of the production. Rebecca, therefore, can rightfully be called “classic Hitchcock.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on February 2nd, 2012
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson plays a hotshot college football player is at the cusp of making a big move to the NFL and riches when he collapses in the locker room due to a tumor growing in his chest, near his heart. Having to undergo cancer treatments, he loses his ability to play and must start again without all the advantages being a star came with.
It is sometimes hard to sympathize with a character he is so egotistical, and used his status to take advantage of other people, but he is undeniably a victim. Not only was he facing a lethal illness, but most of his family and friends treated him like a living lottery ticket. Of course, losing that ego is all a part of the all-too obvious character arc and life lesson's we are supposed to witness in this film. I spoil nothing by stating that he does indeed go through this crushing lesson in humility. While regaining strength after chemotherapy treatments, he just reconnect with his family members and find a way to earn a decent living. What unfolds would do the LIFETIME network proud. Tears are shed, fists open up for hugs, and the film lingers on at least 20 minutes longer than it should so that everyone can celebrate family for the sake of celebrating family.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 31st, 2012
Written by Joe Gause
Pass the tissue please! If you plan on watching this movie, I recommend you buy yourself a big box of tissue and be prepared to shed a few tears. This extremely well done post-WWII love story is designed to show you that life doesn’t always have a happy ending. The cast is nothing short of incredible, and the acting is top-notch. Here’s the short and skinny. Count Laszio de Almasy’s (Ralph Fiennes) plane is shot down in the final days of the war. He is badly burned and is in need of special care. Nurse Hana ( Juliette Binoche) volunteers to look after him in an old rundown church. During their time together she discovers that he has had quite a past. He had fallen in love with a married woman (Kristen Scott Thomas) and was secretly trying to convince her to leave her husband and be with him. Of course this never works out the way we want it to. And so begins the first of many tear-jerking events in this tale. She tells him to go away and never see her again (apparently cheating on her hubby was too much guilt for her), so our dear Count goes a bit love-crazy, hitting the drink a bit and becoming a bit like a stalker. One thing leads to another, and the husband (Colin Firth) learns of his wife’s wrongdoings, so he thinks the best way to get revenge on the Count is to run him down in his plane (not the smartest idea). Well, the plane crashes and misses the Count all together. Only problem is the Count’s love was also in the plane and is badly injured. She admits her love for the Count, and it seems we might just have a storybook ending here, but of course this is just false foreshadowing. The Count ends up leaving her in a cave while he walks through the desert for help, promising her he will only be gone for three days. He leaves her food and water and sets out into the vast sand. Well, as luck would have it, he is captured by the Germans, and it takes him quite a bit longer than three days to get back to her. Of course when our hero finally returns to the cave, his true love has died.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on January 30th, 2012
When I was in the fifth and sixth grade, I learned how to play a cello. Despite my attempts at learning the instrument, it was a constant struggle to be able to read sheet music and get my hands to cooperate in an appropriate manner. Personally, I think it had something to do with the fact that instrument spent half the time in the shop (school provided) rather than in my hands. Today’s review explores a similar subject, the movie: The Piano. Let’s see how well Holly Hunter does with her instrument.
We hear a voice. But it is not a speaking voice, rather a voice inside a female’s head. That female is Ada McGrath (played by Holly Hunter). She’s been a mute since she was six years old. For a little while now, she’s been without a spouse and unfortunately for her, she’s been promised to a man in New Zealand who has never met her. All of her belongings included her prized possession, a piano and her eleven year old daughter by the name of Flora (played by Anna Paquin) are put on a boat and the crew sets sail for the island.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 24th, 2012
It sounds like nothing new. Hard-boiled detective uses computers and other forms of technology to solve cases. It isn’t anything new, except the detective in question is Joe Mannix, and the series started in 1967. The computer that Mannix used took up an entire room and was queried using cardboard punch cards. This wasn’t science fiction. We’re not talking some newly discovered Irwin Allen series. Mannix didn’t go after aliens or robots. This was a down-to-earth gritty detective show. Mike Connors played the tough-as-nails detective. He was perfect for the part and blended into the role seamlessly for eight years.
The show was created by the team of Link and Levinson, who later gave us the detective in the rumpled raincoat, Columbo. It was groundbreaking in so many areas. While it might not be remembered today as one of the top detective shows, there can be no argument about the impact Mannix had on the genre. A decade later one of my favorite television detectives, Jim Rockford, would borrow rather heavily from Mannix. Like Rockford, Mannix was getting beat up a lot. They both had the same sense of style, wearing rather ugly sport jackets. Neither was afraid to bend the rules, or the law, when necessary. Again like Rockford, Mannix often falls for the wrong girl at the wrong time. Mannix was good with a gun and equally adept with his fists. The show received a ton of controversy from the start for the amount of violence it employed. Tame by today’s standards, Mannix was quite aggressive for its time. The joke was that the show’s producers mandated a fight or car chase every 15 minutes whether it was needed or not. I’m sure that wasn’t true, but nonetheless the show opened the floodgates for the detective shows that followed. In this first season, Mannix worked for the enigmatic detective agency, Intertect. They supplied him with the latest in modern technology and with his cases. His main company contact was Lou Wickersham, played by Joseph Campanella. Now Mannix is on his own and begins to resemble more and more these detectives that would eventually follow in his tire tracks.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 20th, 2012
"As you know, in less than two hours liquor will be declared illegal by decree of the distinguished gentlemen of our nation's Congress. To those beautiful, ignorant bastards. Rest assured that, dry though the country may be, I am in the midst of concluding arrangements that will keep Atlantic City wet..."
Lately, you might have heard a lot of folks talking about getting home for a little Nucky. Well... it's not what you think. They're talking about Nucky Thompson, played by Steve Buscemi on HBO's latest gangland series, Boardwalk Empire.
![Rebecca [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/rebecca-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![All Things Fall Apart [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/all-things-fall-apart-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![The English Patient [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-english-patient-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![The Piano [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-piano-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Boardwalk Empire: The Complete First Season [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/boardwalk-empire-the-complete-firs-large.jpg)
