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 Gino Sassani on August 16th, 2013
"You know, there's been a heap of legends and tall tales about Robin Hood. All different, too. Well, we folks of the animal kingdom have our own version. It's the story of what really happened in Sherwood Forest."
It didn't even start as a Robin Hood story at all. Walt Disney had many ideas and plans for fables and fairy tales that he hoped to bring to life with a feature animation film. It's no surprise that most of these ideas and plans simply never went beyond the dreaming stage. A few were caught up in production struggles, and remnants of those efforts can still be found in the treasure trove that is the Disney Archives. Some of these projects, however, were reinvented and became something very different from what was originally planned.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on August 14th, 2013
“Men around here’ll write you off after 40, so I know they’ll bet against us. All we have to do is bet on ourselves to win.”
The conventional wisdom in Hollywood is that meaty roles for women quickly dry up when actresses reach a certain age. So director Susan Seidelman (She-Devil, Desperately Seeking Susan) and the stars of The Hot Flashes — a well-meaning, by-the-numbers sports comedy — deserve credit for at least trying to take their cinematic destinies into their own hands.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 14th, 2013
When the show ended in 1966 it was still one of the most popular shows on television. Both Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore wanted to do something else. Both were made confident by the huge stardom the show provided them, but neither was ever able to reproduce the magic here. Of course, Mary Tyler Moore found great success with a different kind of show in The Mary Tyler Moore Show. That one would go on to become a classic in its own right. CBS didn't want the show to end and continued to run the reruns for another four years before offering them to syndication where they continue to be a hit. Now that final season of classic episodes is available on high-definition Blu-ray for the very first time.
When one thinks of The Dick Van Dyke Show it's hard not to think of its star Dick Van Dyke. After all, it's his name on the opening credits, and he does play the lead character in this groundbreaking television comedy. There's little question that the show became a wonderful vehicle for his many comedic talents. But the genius behind the show wasn't really Dick Van Dyke at all. It was Carl Reiner (yes, Meathead's father) who was the true brains behind the show.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 14th, 2013
The quack pack returns for season three of the A&E reality series smash hit, Duck Dynasty. After season 1 I was thinking perhaps this would be a show that would be amusing but quickly lose steam with the season that would follow. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The Robertson family is quickly becoming the most recognizable family on TV considering they are flooding the stores with their books, DVD’s, and many other products you can find at Wal-Mart. I can’t help but think this is a family that is doing everything right, and good for them for the success they’ve managed.
Season 3 offers up another 13 episodes of “reality” television the entire family can watch together. The storylines may be more scripted than I’d like, but let’s face it, reality TV would be boring if not for producers putting together scenarios to hold our interest. As for the personalities of the family involved throughout the show, I’d like to believe they are no different once the cameras stop rolling.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 13th, 2013
“Well, when you love someone you don’t have to be nice all the time.”
In this current age of message boards and morning-after recaps, the pressure is on to make your voice the loudest if you want to be heard in the wilderness of the Internet. For snarky TV critics, that often means declaring something is either the “Best ____ Ever” or the “Worst ____ Ever”, with little room for anything in-between. But even within these sharply-divided times, I believe HBO’s Girls — which is brilliant just as often as it is maddening — stands out as the most polarizing show on TV.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 12th, 2013
Let's face facts. War is heck. Sure, we can go back to ancient times with the Romans or more modern offerings such as the World Wars or even Vietnam, but perhaps more recent offerings between smaller countries and territories can be just as brutal. But what can be surprising is the emotional and physical toll it takes on those soldiers even years after it happens. Our film today, Killing Season takes us into two different sides in the aftermath of a very brutal altercation, the Serbs and the Bosnians.
We get text across the screen. In 1992, the Serbian Army invaded Bosnia starting a war marked by large-scale massacres of civilians in the name of ethnic cleansing. Over two hundred thousand people died. We watch as brutal war scenes take place. In 1995, Operation Deliberate Force was created by American and NATO forces to finally put an end to the horror of that long and dreadful altercation complete with prisoner of war camps and deadly surrenders.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 10th, 2013
Plenty of movie critics out there like to praise the artsy movies like they are the second coming. We see it all too often. Critically acclaimed, revolutionary, captivating, all over used words to described the latest movie that often is nothing more than a good reason to sleep for two hours. For me, I love a different type of movie, in a generic term, the cult classic. A movie that is so awful, it is often fantastic in its own way. A frequent subsection of this is the campy erotic thriller. One of those films is on the docket today, and that film is the DePalma classic: Body Double.
Let's cue the scary music! Bring in the fog! As we roll back from the very fake graveyard, we see a rock and roll vampire (played by Craig Wasson) laying in his coffin. As he is about to hit his moment and rise from the grave, he gets an unfortunate case of claustrophobia. Cut! Cut! It appears the actor, Jake Scully is having issues on set. Director Rubin (played by Dennis Franz) wants to know what happened out there and Jake does his best to explain it away. They almost go back for a second shot but not before the graveyard catches on fire thus calling it quits for the day.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 8th, 2013
"With a name like Banshee how can you not be drawn in?"
Alan Ball got my attention in 2001 with HBO's black comedy Six Feet Under. It was one of the most original shows I had ever seen, and to this day I find it hard to characterize the series when asked to do so. It was there that he also introduced me to Michael C. Hall, who continues to amaze me in the role of Dexter over at Showtime. When Six Feet Under left the airwaves, Ball didn't waste very much time in bringing his quirky style back, this time to the horror genre. True Blood would put a rather strange twist on the lovesick vampire craze, and while that show has not kept up the same kind of clever writing and wickedly brilliant stories, Ball has lent his name and talents to another cable show. This time it's on Cinemax, and the series is Banshee. And while Ball is a producer and not the day-to-day runner of the series, it is nonetheless another pretty strange show that defies any particular genre or characterization.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 7th, 2013
For those who don't know, I have been married twice in my life. I am currently going through my second divorce. At nearly thirty eight years old, I have lived the relationship life of arguably several lifetimes but something usually keeps me coming back. Am I done with love? Only time will tell. Today's blu-ray review is about a six year old girl who sees life through the divorce of her mother and father. Something tells me we are in for a very long and bumpy ride.
Susanna (played by Julianne Moore), a mom puts her six year old daughter, Maisie (played by Onata Aprile) to bed. Susan decides to sing "Rock a Bye Baby" to the daughter before breaking out the acoustic guitar and playing a few gentle chords as Maisie slowly goes to sleep. The day begins again or rather we see Maisie paying for some pizza as we hear a heated argument in the background.
