Posted in: Disc Reviews by BABY on August 24th, 2011
Baby here again. No, you're not seeing double unless you're seeing two of me. That would be very bad since you're reading this and I'm not really there at all. No, you're not seeing double. But, thanks to the guys at Disney and a little bit to the guys at UPS who somehow got this thing through my tight security net, we get not one but two classic Disney animated movies on one Blu-ray release. This thing has so much canine content that you're gonna need a doggie bag for all the leftovers. Speaking of leftovers, you can send any of that stuff to us here at Upcomingdiscs in care of Baby. Now, how many paws am I holding up?
Of course, the movie should have been called The Hound And The Fox, because we know who should get top billing here. But don't blame the guys at Disney for that one. That blame belongs to a guy named Daniel P. Mannix. You see, he wrote a children's book a while before, and this was another one of those Disney versions of a classic story. I guess that means I should tell you the story.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 24th, 2011
NCIS is a spin-off, of sorts, from the popular military lawyer show JAG. You could say that NCIS is the Order to JAG’s Law. The NCIS is a real government agency that deals with criminal activity inside or involving the US Navy or Marine Corps. The series has an incredibly global feel and honestly looks damn good for television. Production values are high, and the location stuff is out of this world, or at least all over it.
Special Agent Gibbs (Harmon) heads up this group of criminal investigators. Harmon has always been good, but I dare you to find a character he’s played better. He just eats up the part. You won’t have any trouble believing that Gibbs is the seasoned veteran investigator leading this team. Special Agent DiNozzo (Weatherly) is a former Baltimore homicide detective who often lets his determination run his investigation into trouble. He’ll bend a rule or throw a punch, whatever it takes to bring down the bad guy. The newest member of the team is Israeli Mossad Agent Ziva David, played by Cote de Pablo, a newcomer to television. She has the unenviable task of replacing popular actress Sasha Alexander, who exited the show after two seasons. She is, perhaps, one of the most complicated characters I’ve yet to encounter in ensemble television. She’s difficult to read and shows a performance level beyond the scope of a beginner. Rounding out the cast are two very nice characters. Pauley Perrette plays the goth chick/forensic specialist Abby Sciuto. She reminds me a ton of the Penelope Garcia character from Criminal Minds. She’s flirty, far too informal for Gibbs, but is a lot smarter and tougher than she appears. Making himself more visible in this series is David McCallum as pathologist Ducky Millard. Ducky is the Quincy of the group as he checks out the bodies. His dry wit makes him my favorite character on the show.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 24th, 2011
"I never thought we'd get back to this table. I can't tell you how good it felt to have dinner together again. We hadn't done that since the accident. To be honest, sometimes it felt like we'd never get over it. But somehow we did."
But will we ever get over the Walker family? This was to be the final season of the series, and the network wasn't exactly kind in its last days. The budget was slashed so that most of the characters appear in limited episodes. You won't find near so many of the Walker family gatherings as you did in previous years. This plays out very much like a series that is winding down. There are still some nice moments, and most characters get closure.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 22nd, 2011
"Hello, Pretty Bird..."
Director/writer Carlos Saldanha is perhaps best known for his work on the Ice Age films. He's been a part of the director duties on all three of the films so far. It's natural that he might wish to step away from the popular franchise and find a computer animation project that is more of a work of passion for the young talent. He decided to write and direct his own feature and set it in his native Brazil. His own childhood growing up in the area allows him to infuse the creative process with vivid environments and a story that is rich in cultural flavor, particularly the music of the country. It's a work straight from his heart, and it takes us on quite a nice journey through his home country. But is Rio up to par with the likes of the Ice Age films? Probably not.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 22nd, 2011
In my life, I have always made a habit rooting for the underdog. Whether it would be in the business world with a small company or at the NCAA March Madness tournament with a Cinderella team, I always like to see the unexpected. It happens in movies too for the most part, I routed for Rocky, I routed for the Indians in Major League (didn’t root for Rudy though, that was too much even for me.) But what would I think of the little soldier in Little Big Soldier? Well, we will have to see.
It is the year 227 B.C., battles are waged, and wars carry on. Land is gained, people are lost. However, we as the viewer are interested in one large battle between the Liang and the Wei that involves over 3000 people. There are those three thousand people that are soon annihilated by each other in an attempt to win for the other side. It is then when we join the action in progress with bodies lining the earth as far as the eyes can see. The ground is silent until we see one body move in the distance.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on August 21st, 2011
“The Hamptons are like a zombie movie directed by Ralph Lauren.”
Although I prefer genre films, chick flicks can prove a guilty pleasure. I can get in touch enough with my feminine side to shed a tear at a powerful love story, laugh at romantic misadventures, and embrace the belief in soul mates. So I slipped on my pink silk pajamas, grabbed a box of tissues, curled up on my chaise lounge and approached Something Borrowed with an open mind. OK, I might not have pink pajamas or a chaise lounge, but, in all fairness, this romantic comedy, based on the bestselling novel by Emily Griffin, doesn’t have anything particularly romantic or very funny in it. What it does have are vapid, banal, selfish caricatures trapped in a forced premise which could be resolved in minutes if anyone acted in a remotely adult manner; as well as something borrowed from just about every bad rom-com movie that came before it.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 20th, 2011
The grindhouses may be long gone, but their memory lingers on, thanks to releases like this one, which, being released in 1993, is from the twilight years of theatrical exploitation, and thus more accurately from the second, virtual life the grindhouse aesthetic found on home video. This is the life of Jeffrey Dahmer, narrated in retrospect by the serial killer (screenwriter Carl Crew). Dahmer recounts his obsessions and growing need to kill, and a fair bit of the film’s running time consists of Dahmer hooking up with young men and murdering them.
The film has, then, a very episodic structure, with very little clear narrative progression. Text on the screen fills us in as to dates and locations, and that is about it. The insights into the mind of a serial killer are of the most obvious kind. There is a bit of restraint present when it comes to the killings, in that there could have been a lot more gore, but they are certainly unpleasant, and I don’t necessarily mean that it a good way. No, they shouldn’t be fun, but the endless parade of murders becomes the film’s reason for being, and the lack of any connection between the audience and the victims is a problem. Given how recent the killings were when the film was made and released, it’s not too surprising that the victims’ families were a little upset. So this is an exploitation film in the purest sense, and interesting for that reason, and rather off-putting for the same reason.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 19th, 2011
"Who knew mothering was so hard?"
If you thought that mothering was hard, you should see the work and creativity that goes into making a motion-capture computer animation feature. What started with The Polar Express led to a wonderful holiday special in the hands of Walt Disney with last year's charming A Christmas Carol. Now Disney has taken the magic one step farther with the recent release of Mars Needs Moms.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 18th, 2011
Sometimes, I look through my collection of dvd and blu-rays. I tend to notice patterns fairly well. First, I like plenty of science fiction or thriller types. On the animation front, for the most part I tend to like anything oddball or superhero. Plain jane ordinary kid cartoons never seem to be my thing. The weirder the better. Today, I review Hey Arnold!, the first season. Perhaps I can give this Nick classic some bland cookie cutter love.
Hey Arnold! was a show that ran from 1996 to 2004 on the Nickelodeon network. It was a staple for that station for many years. It even churned out a movie at one point. It had a ton of characters but I will go over a few. There is the main character, Arnold who is in the fourth grade. His head is shaped like a football (something that many of the earlier cartoons beat to death) and he stays with his grandparents, Phil and Gertie. He also has a pet pig named Abner and they live in an old apartment building.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 17th, 2011
After reviewing the entire first season of Batman: The Brave & the Bold, it looks like I am back for another season of that Silver Aged Guardian of Gotham. Outrageous adventure and more kooky villains await this reviewer every episode. We get twelve episodes to sink our teeth into and it looks like there will be some interesting plots for us to tackle this time around. Let’s go Boy Wonder, to the Batcave!
These twelve episodes of the Batman, Brave & the Bold are all over the map. As explained before, there is some minor continuity but pretty much we can jump into any episode we darn wish and not feel like we have missed anything. Remember, the setup is one two minute teaser, followed by a roughly twenty minute full length cartoon. Without further adieu, let’s look at this half of season two with four episodes of my choosing.
![Little Big Soldier (Bluray + DVD Combo) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/little-big-soldier-bluray-dvd-co-large.jpg)
