Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 2nd, 2010
"In December 2005 a tragic accident began a series of extraordinary events that thrust a grieving family and the small Victorian town of Ararat into the media spotlight. This film is a record of those events."
How many movies over the last 10 years have started with that line? It scares me right from the jump, but not in a good way, when I realize I'm about to watch another "found footage" or "real event" film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 31st, 2010
"The year is 208 AD. After 30 years of civil war, a deathly calm has fallen over northern China. One by one the rebel warlords have met their end under the sword of Prime Minister Cao Cao. Now even the Emperor bows before his power. Yet, from the south a challenge is heard. Two leaders rise against Cao Cao's tyranny. The aging Liu Bei and the inexperienced Sun Quam. So Cao Cao petitions the Emperor to brand these men as traitors and declare a new war against the peaceful southlands."
And so the stage is set for John Woo's enormous epic Red Cliff. The scale of this film is simply one that must been experienced to quite understand. It has the grandeur of any of the largest films in Hollywood's history
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 31st, 2010
"More of this is true than you would believe."
What was intended as a somewhat thought-provoking quirky comedy looks a lot like something you would expect to see on a late night rerun of The X-Files. All of the subject matter has been covered there, just not quite in this way. It all started with a non-fiction book written by Jon Ronson. He claimed to have researched various government studies in human behavior that entered into the world of the paranormal. It was part of an ideology of waging non-lethal war. It was a strange combination of 1980's new age mysticism and actual studies that showed that soldiers in World War II were, in fact, quite reluctant to kill
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 31st, 2010
"Maybe I'm not being clear enough. Maybe I need to be honest with you and tell you what I want. I want your soul to open up for me."
Clive Barker's name has been synonymous with horror for quite a long time. Along with Steven King, there is likely not another name out there that has been responsible for so much written terror. His stories have sold hundreds of millions of copies and inspired many films and television projects. He's been called the modern Edgar Allan Poe, and when you witness something so frightening at its very base as Dread happens to be, it isn't hard to understand how he came by that kind of a reputation.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 31st, 2010
An ancient facility beneath Antarctica becomes the launching platform to the lost city of Atlantis. Atlantis is buried beneath an ocean in another galaxy and can only be reached with an additional symbol on the Stargate. Because of power limitations this trip, at least for the time being, is a one-way adventure. A crew of scientists and military officers from many countries assemble to explore the Pegasus Galaxy from the Atlantis gate. Led by scientist Dr. Weir (Higginson) and Maj. John Sheppard (Flanigan) they take over the Atlantian command center and begin to explore.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 30th, 2010
In the long run what was more important to Pixar and its relationship with Disney wasn't the milestone that Toy Story provided being the first computer animated feature. Movies are, as much as we'd like to think otherwise, a business. In the end, a film has to make some money. Toy Story was like a private printing press for the two companies bringing in nearly $200 million at the box office. Add another nearly $200 million in foreign receipts, and this prototype of a movie pulled in nearly a half billion dollars before the first DVD was released. That's huge for what was basically a children's cartoon. The second Pixar film would be A Bug's Life, and it would bring in nearly the same kind of jingle.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 30th, 2010
It's hard to believe it, but Toy Story was the very first computer generated animated feature film. CG graphics had already appeared as parts of films starting with the "Genesis proposition video" from Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan. It was a rather fitting movie for this Hollywood and technological first to occur. The piece was rather short and not as breathtaking as we've come to expect today, but, it did herald the beginning of a new era in filmmaking, to be sure. What better place for such an historical technological breakthrough than in Star Trek?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 30th, 2010
This series from Comedy Central began as a low budget film hosting show in a small television station in Minnesota. It was the brainchild of Joel Hodgson. It ended up running for 11 years and a feature film version.
Mystery Science Theatre is an acquired taste. For me, I’ve really got to be in that certain mood to watch it. That’s the beauty of these DVDs. You pop them in when you’re ready. The idea is pretty whacked. Depending on the season you’ve got, Joel or Mike is trapped in space on the “Satellite of Love”. Doomed to spend his life watching very bad films,
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on March 29th, 2010
My dad was an ex-Vietnam officer, 1st lieutenant in the United States Army. He gave a lot for his country but never forced me towards any military service. He wanted me to focus more on my studies and make sure I got a proper education. I don’t think I could comprehend what my father or any military personnel in a war situation goes through. However, with the dramatization in Brothers, I can see on some level the horror that some of our fine soldiers have to live with.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on March 28th, 2010
Around Thanksgiving of last year, I started to see trailers of a particular movie that quite literally made me laugh out loud. The reason behind it is because I knew with the title of the movie and the obvious plot, there was no way I was not going to review it when it came to dvd & blu-ray. I have a reputation for certain movies, I guess you could say. That movie was Ninja Assassin. Several months later, I am reviewing it for a mass audience. Funny how that works.
![Red Cliff (Theatrical Version) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/red-cliff-theatrical-version-blu-large.jpg)
![The Men Who Stare At Goats [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-men-who-stare-at-goats-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Ninja Assasin [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/ninja-assasin-blu-ray-large.jpg)
