Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on June 9th, 2013
For 8 long seasons Rawhide followed the adventures of a cattle drive. Season 6 was separated into two releases. Here we shall look at what Part One has to offer. Feel free to browse previous releases covered by Gino on this same site: https://upcomingdiscs.com/?s=rawhide
Clint Eastwood got his first major role playing foreman Rowdy Yates for the entire run of this series. By the sixth season, Eastwood seems to be a far more comfortable and confident actor than what we saw in earlier seasons. A real white hat, Yates is often the voice of reason when his Trail boss (played by Eric Fleming) has his doubts. Although sometimes he needs a boost as well, and that comes in the form of support from their ever-lovin' cook Wishbone (played by Paul Brineger).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on June 7th, 2013
For nine seasons and several TV-movies afterwards, Raymond Burr was Los Angeles based defense attorney Perry Mason. This character's verbal gymnasitcs and uncanny hounding for evidence makes his famous winning streaks seem not just plausible but rather entertaining to behold. His adventures have been well-reviewed by myself and my reviewing compadre Gino on this very site (https://upcomingdiscs.com/?s=perry+mason).
The formula (for lack of a better term) of each episode maintains in this first half of the final season. The primary suspect is profiled, caught and examined in the first half of each story. When things do to trial, the true guilty party is found out, often on the witness stand, as Perry’s uncanny winning streak gets the best of those who try to hide the truth from him. Said winning streak might spoil one’s enjoyment of the show since the outcomes can be predicted during the opening titles screen, but the crimes (most often murders) are elaborate enough to maintain interest for the most part. At the same time, I feel it should be noted that the pacing of the show can often be slow. Think of it being a closer relation to Matlock than the sexier modern Legal dramas like The Practice. Not to say that it is better to have attorneys with chiseled jaws or short skirts versus methodical investigation and character development, but you had better prepare yourself for a lot of men in suits standing in one spot speaking their thoughts aloud.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 7th, 2013
With most of my teen years spent during the 90’s it’s no surprise that still many of the bands I grew up with manage to remain on my playlist. Garbage is a band of the 90’s you couldn’t help but take notice of because though the airwaves were saturated with alternative music, Garbage was doing it with a female vocalist. Shirley Manson wasn’t just a pretty face; she had the vocals and stage presence that was hard to resist at the time. “I’m only happy when it rains” as well as “Stupid Girl” have been tracks that any time I catch them on the radio I can’t help but crank the radio a little louder and get a little nostalgic to the way things were in my teens.
Though Manson and the band managed to reach the status of performing the opening theme song for the Bond film The World is Not Enough, the band seemed to gracefully step out of the spotlight. With the chance to check out this Blu-ray I was more than happy to take this and indulge myself a bit. Now that I’ve had the chance to see it, well, my only regret is that I didn’t have the chance to see them in their prime.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 5th, 2013
“Each director was given a letter of the alphabet and asked to choose a word. They then created a short tale of death that related to their chosen word. They had complete artistic freedom regarding the content of their segments.”
It’s easy to see why 26 talented filmmakers from across the world leapt at the chance to show audiences 26 different ways to die. Obviously, you can’t exactly be squeamish when you sit down to watch an anthology called The ABCs of Death. But I still wish fewer directors had interpreted “complete artistic freedom” as “make the most ridiculous and disgusting movie you possibly can.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 3rd, 2013
Bringing big-screen action and spectacle to the small screen is almost always a losing proposition. (A moment of silence for Terra Nova.) It’s just too hard to maintain on a week-to-week basis over the course of multiple seasons. Falling Skies — which, like Terra Nova, counts Steven Spielberg as one of its executive producers — may not be terribly original, but it’s one of the more successful attempts at consistently bringing large-scale thrills to television.
In case you missed the first season of TNT’s hit sci-fi series, here’s a quick catch-up. Less than a year after a devastating, worldwide alien invasion that wiped out most of Earth’s population, we meet the members of the Second Massachusetts Militia Regiment. (Better known as the 2nd Mass.) Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) is the history professor-turned-second in command of the 2nd Mass who frequently clashes with the more militant Captain Dan Weaver (Will Patton) and flirts with pediatrician-turned-combat surgeon Anne Glass (Moon Bloodgood). Tom has three sons: jockish oldest son Hal (Drew Roy), eager youngest son Matt (Maxim Knight) and middle son Ben (Connor Jessup), who was kidnapped by the aliens and outfitted with what humans call a "harness", which affixes itself to children’s spines and allows the invaders to control their minds. A lot of the first season centered around Tom’s efforts to save Ben and culminated with the 2nd Mass’s attempt to bring the fight to the aliens in Boston. The final scene had Tom voluntarily entering a spaceship in an effort to keep Ben safe.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jonathan Foster on May 29th, 2013
When someone tries to break in and take something from the building you’re in, what do you do? Well, according to “The Official Good Guy Handbook”, you must immediately lock down the building, retreat to a secure room, and try to get help from the outside. Of course, you must do all this while repelling the bad guys, ignoring their threats and bribes, and (of course) watching out for the double cross.
This is the problem CIA agent Emerson Kent (John Cusack, 2012) faces in The Numbers Station. After a botched black-ops mission, Kent is given one last chance. His new assignment: guarding Katherine (Malin Akerman, Watchmen), a code operator at a classified “numbers station” in England. It’s her job to receive coded messages and broadcast them to agents in the field. While bored with his assignment, Kent is always on the lookout for danger. This hyper-awareness is what saves their lives when they are attacked as they show up for their shift one day. Barely making it inside, they find the other team has been killed and a heavily-armed squad is waiting outside to take them out as well. Together, Emerson and Katherine must figure out what their enemies want and how to get out alive.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on May 24th, 2013
“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”
Just in case the film’s title wasn’t a big enough clue, this opening quote from famed science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke makes it abundantly clear the domestic disturbance in Dark Skies won’t be caused by grumpy ghosts or a dastardly demon. This effective little sci-fi/horror movie follows the low-budget template established by recent hits like Insidious, Sinister and the Paranormal Activity franchise, but looks to the not-so-friendly skies for its source of terror.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 24th, 2013
Forget about all of the sequels, remakes and copycats. At least that's what original Texas Chainsaw Massacre writer/director Tobe Hooper wants you to do. As far as he's concerned, Texas Chainsaw 3D is the official follow-up to the groundbreaking, flesh-tearing 1974 cult classic film. To bring the point home, Hooper has signed on as a producer and brought along the original Leatherface Gunnar Hansen and Marilyn Burns who played Sally, the girl who got away in the original film. Both have cameos here.
They say you can't go back home again. In the magic world of movies you can always go back. In fact some argue that Hollywood has spent far too much time looking back than moving forward. Texas Chainsaw 3D takes you back to the highlight moments of the first film and then picks up the action just moments after the end credits began. That means creating the farmhouse and property of the Sawyer clan just as it looked in the 1974 film and matching it quite nicely in 2013. The result is an impressive journey back in time that would find even the most rabid fans at a loss to determine any significant differences between the two locations and houses. This time the film is shot in Louisiana instead of the titular Texas, but you'd swear nothing's changed in 40 years. Of course everything about making a movie has changed, and that is the heart of this trip down memory lane. The place may look the same, but this isn't the same Texas Chainsaw, not by a Texas mile.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 22nd, 2013
"I found this website... "How to Cure a Serial Killer in Ten Easy Steps" and this is the 1st step."
Dexter left us with quite a shock at the end of the 6th season. Shows have left us with cliffhangers before, but this was one of the most exciting season finales I've seen in a long time. Sister Deb walks in just as Dexter does his plastic playtime act, and there's no way to wiggle out of this one. As fans of the show, we knew that things just weren't going to be the same...and we were right.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 20th, 2013
Well, it is that time of the year when we must see what the blood suckers, shape shifters, wolves and the faeries are up to. No, I am not talking about the State of the Union address; I’m talking about the latest season of True Blood. Season Five to be exact. In these twelve episodes, we again travel to the land of Bon Temps, Louisiana and see exactly what delicious trouble and dastardly deeds our characters can get themselves tied up in.
We join Bill Compton (played by Stephen Moyer) and Eric Northman (played by Alexander Skarsgard) cleaning up their little mess (actually Eric is doing the majority of the cleaning while Bill talks on the phone) after they gave Nan Flanagan the true death at the end of Season Four. However, once they leave the mansion, they are immediately captured by Authority security.
