Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 8th, 2019
In my review for The Hole in the Ground I talk about my feelings about the “Evil Kid” sub-genre. To sum it up, it’s pretty much my least favorite of the horror genres. Well, this week I got back to back reviews for movies in that genre, and I have to say, The Prodigy managed to surprise me. It brought in only $14 million at the box office with a production cost of about $9 million, and most of the critic reviews were not so kind to the film. Horror and critics really don’t get along so well, as history will show, mainly because for the longest time there has been a bit of a stigma attached to the genre. Thankfully things have started to change in recent years, but some critics still look at horror as nothing more than flashy B-rate cinema. Here at Upcomingdiscs I’d like to think we have always loved the genre and appreciate it at its most absurd and sometimes gory nature.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 7th, 2019
Hollywood just can’t seem to get enough of kids doing creepy things and the parents believing their child has turned into some kind of monster. We’ve seen these films before, and to be honest, aside from The Omen and Children of the Corn, I can’t think of any other films in the “Bad Children” sub-genre that have made much of an impact on me. This week I’ll be reviewing two of them, and the first happens to be The Hole in the Ground. The major turnoff I have towards these kinds of films is that they play it too safe. It seems these movies tend to avoid crossing certain lines, and, well, that’s frustrating. After all, these tend to be horror films, and isn’t that the point, to make your audience squirm with unease and have genuine dread? It’s only a movie; it’s OK to be a little provocative in the name of entertainment.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 2nd, 2019
If it wasn't clear enough before, I think the Avengers: Endgame box office mauling put the final point on the situation between Marvel and DC. When it comes to Cinematic Universes, DC has had an impossible task of keeping up. Avengers took in more on the first weekend than Aquaman did its entire run. The box office round goes to Marvel, and it appears DC has started to come to grips with that fact and has started to transform their own films away from the team-up/combined universe and is going back to basics. Where DC has built a rather strong shared universe for their characters is in the animated feature department. In the last handful of years DC has released some very strong animated films, and that's where there appears to be a place where they not only compete with Marvel but leave them in the dust. The latest proof of that idea comes with the Warner Brothers release of Justice League vs. The Fatal Five out on UHD Blu-ray in 4K. It's a solid film with plenty of cheerful action and adventure that always got bogged down in the films with the notable exception of Wonder Woman.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on May 2nd, 2019
“I didn’t violate every natural law to lose you again.”
If that is not a declaration of love, I don’t know what is. It is also quite possibly Keanu’s only true display of feeling in this movie. Replicas showcases Reeves as a scientist who basically plays God following a tragic accident that claims the life of his wife and children. As I mention earlier, given the emotional elements that occur in the film, I expected there to be a larger range of emotions, such as profound loss and desperation, but I never quite saw these outpours of emotion from his character, who approached everything quite clinically. Will Foster is a pioneer in neurochemistry who is attempting to transfer human consciousness to synthetic body, which would essentially allow human beings to outlive their human host. After several failed attempts, his boss, Jones (John Ortiz) tells him that the project is on the verge of being shut down.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 1st, 2019
“In space no one can hear you scream.”
That was the slogan that drew a conglomerate of horror and science fiction fans to theatres in 1979. Was it horror or sci-fi? Alien turned out to be a rare cross-genre film that managed to satisfy both audiences. Ridley Scott started out by bringing the “space ship” film away from the glamorous bright future and depicted a world startlingly very much like our own. In Scott’s gritty future, companies are quasi-government agencies, and these astronauts are not explorers out for glory and heroism. They are strictly blue-collar workers trying to make a buck. It’s hard to imagine that most of the cast, including Sigourney Weaver, were relative unknowns at the time. Weaver would create a new model for female leads that would later pave the way for actors like Linda Hamilton.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 1st, 2019
If I’m being honest, I never would have guessed that Nicole Kidman could ever pull off playing a dirty undercover cop. I’m not saying she’s a bad actress; I just never thought the day would come that she would play such a lowdown gritty role, and I’m so glad she did. How Kidman wasn’t showered with awards this past year for her performance in Destroyer is beyond me. This isn’t just a good performance, but what we get in this film is a woman who transforms herself into a role so different from what she’s done in the past that I respect the chance she took with this role, and the result is mesmerizing even if the film suffers from some pacing issues.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 26th, 2019
Just imagine for a moment that a 12-year-old version of yourself was taking a little stroll and you came across a sword that was protruding from a slab of concrete. We’ve seen plenty of versions of the King Arthur story. Some have been good (Excalibur and First Knight) but many have been not so good. In the case of The Kid Who Would Be King, it’s not a story about King Arthur but more an adventure that asks what would happen if a boy were to find the sword in today’s world. The film didn’t do so well at the box office, which isn’t a big surprise considering the film was made in the UK and not the States, but is the film one to be overlooked and forgotten, or is this a gem worth checking out? Simply put, this is perhaps the best “kids’” film I’ve seen in years, and this is a film that I’m willing to bet will garner a cult status in the years to come.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 19th, 2019
I don't scare. As a lucid dreamer, I am incapable of having nightmares. That might be one of the reasons I have always been attracted to horror, both in film and television. In my entire life I've only been frightened by one film, and that was the final segment of Trilogy Of Terror. There was something about that manic little doll that actually scared me. Of course, I was 10 when I saw it, and hiding behind a chair in our living room because I was supposed to be in bed. For whatever reason, that vivid memory remains. Around the same time I saw the first Night Stalker films, and I wanted to a writer just like Carl Kolchak, and yet another vivid memory remains. Yet a third memory was having our sitter pick me up from school. Often she'd volunteer to buy us ice cream or candy on the way home. I always declined. What would make a little kid refuse free sweets? It was a half-hour soap opera, of all things. Of course, I'm talking about Dark Shadows, and the thing that Dark Shadows, The Night Stalker and Trilogy Of Terror all have in common beyond the vivid memories is that they each came from Dan Curtis. For this once pre-teen kid, Dan Curtis pulled a hat-trick in the late 60's and early 70's, and I'll never forget it.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on April 19th, 2019
It is uncanny; I swear any time anyone mentions Kim Possible, I instantly start to hear the theme song in my hand. It’s like as soon as her name is mention, all I hear is, “Call me, Beep me, if you wanna reach me.” It’s been well over a decade since I’ve seen an episode, but that theme song is just as catchy now as it was back then. Kim Possible was from an era on the Disney Channel that produced some of the best original television content and movies in my humble opinion. An animated cartoon about a high school student who is also a secret agent, who didn’t want to be that back then. So I was extremely excited to be able to share the live-action movie version with my daughter, but the sad reality is that the live action version is a cheesy and generic shadow of the series that I was so fond of during my childhood.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 19th, 2019
One of 2019’s most anticipated releases is M. Night Shyamalan’s conclusion to his superhero trilogy with Glass. This has been a trilogy 19 years in the making, following the release of Unbreakable and then 2016’s Split. When I first saw Unbreakable, I was a projectionist, and I had to screen it the night before it was released to make sure everything was spliced together and the film played properly, and I just remember not really liking the movie at first. I ended up giving the film another try, and I found I liked it a little more. Now over the years I’ve seen it several times, and the film has grown on me. I’ve grown to appreciate the film to the point that when that final scene in Split plays and we got the reveal of David Dunn (Bruce Willis) I was extremely excited at the prospect of seeing this character revisited. Before I get much further, if you haven’t seen Unbreakable or Split, if you plan on seeing Glass, do yourself a favor and watch the previous films first, and even if you have seen them, it wouldn’t hurt re-watching them just so the films are fresh in your mind while experiencing the conclusion of this trilogy. With all that out of the way, how was the film? It’s time to suit up and find out.
