Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 24th, 2014
Bruce Dern is the one generating the greatest praise. June Squibb (About Schmidt) who plays Dern's wife has also gotten multiple nominations. Woody Grant (Dern) is seen at the start of the film walking the winter roads of Billings, Montana. It is his intention to walk to Lincoln, Nebraska. The local police pick him up, and we are introduced to his son, David (Will Forte). The heart and soul of the movie is watching Dern and Forte interact. Forte is best known for acting silly as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, but his performance in this film is perfect. He is dour and forlorn and takes it on himself to be the only family member who tries to care about his father's feelings. He takes his father on a road trip because he believes he is slowly sinking into dementia. His dad believes he has won a million dollars because he received a magazine subscription sweepstakes letter. Everybody but Woody knows that it's a scam, but David wants the chance to spend some time with his dad. Woody's wife Kate (Squibb) thinks they are both insane and doesn't ever mince words for one minute. The film turns into a reunion with many people from the past and an unexpected journey to forgotten places. David doesn't know much about his dad, and he will start to learn a lot. They take an extended stop in Woody's home town of Hawthorne, Nebraska where much of his family still lives. For a time, many people in Hawthorne believe Woody really is rich including his former business partner, Ed Pegram (Stacy Keach). Many members of the family members and friends start to come up with stories about how they lent Woody money over the years.
Through it all David is by his father's side, tenderly finding ways to support him and make him feel good about himself in what is clearly near the end of his life. The whole film is handled with such finesse and subtle wit, filmed in pristine black and white that beautifully makes nearly every image like a classic photograph. Bob Odenkirk (Breaking Bad) as the other brother, Ross, adds ably to a continuous stream of humorous vignettes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on December 22nd, 2013
Unless it’s the Zucker brothers or Mel Brooks, I wouldn’t ever consider myself a fan of parodies. But every once in a while, one will come along that can squeeze a few chuckles out of me. The found footage and reality genre has saturated the market, and it was only a matter of time before a filmmaker decided to lampoon the genre. Ghost Team One takes on the genre, and instead of taking the easy route and simply spoofing what’s already been done, the film makers actually made the effort to mold a decent story and film it in the style the Paranormal Activity films have made popular, only Ghost Team One does so with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek.
Roommates, Sergio (Carlos Santos) and Brad (J.R. Villarreal) decide to start documenting everything that is going on in their apartment after Sergio believes he had an encounter with a ghost. Armed with Gopro and other digital cameras, the two embark on trying to acquire proof on camera. Sergio does what he can to try and take this seriously, while Brad continues to derail the experiment with his oversexed antics that consist mostly of him violating the camera or those around him on camera. But once the two meet Fernanda (Fernanda Romero), a true believer in the supernatural, the guys buckle down to try to impress her.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on December 5th, 2013
People have used a lot of different words to describe Michael Bay and his films: “loud”, “blockbusters”, “mindless”, “soulless”, “Hitler” and, of course, “awesome.” One of the words you don’t normally associate with Bay’s undeniably successful output is “clever.” I daresay Pain & Gain is the most interesting movie the action auteur has ever made; the film is both seriously silly and surprisingly smart in how it presents its stupid characters.
“Unfortunately, this is a true story.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 21st, 2013
Nickelodeon has released a Holiday compilation DVD before(https://upcomingdiscs.com/2011/11/15/nickelodeon-favorites-merry-christmas/ which makes this particular release a sort of sequel to that. This time around only two shows are featured, and there is half the episodes featured than in the previous release.
The Bubble Guppies episode “Happy Holidays, Mr. Grumpfish” is the main features advertised on this release. The episode is all about making the grumpiest citizen of their underwater community feel the Christmas spirit. There are moments where the characters do lessons aimed at pre-schoolers (things like counting to 10 and such) and there is a ton of pop style songs. The latter of which I find 100x more grating on my nerves than the former. This may be an acceptable episode of the show, but it doesn't stand out as a memorable holiday special.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 21st, 2013
It was inevitable. Spongebob Squarepants gets its own Christmas Special. Usually television shows take the lazy route and inject their own characters into a familiar Christmas story and make a parody or adaptation (how many times have we seen Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol redone?). Thankfully this special offers a unique tale of the malevolent Plankton creating a special fruitcake that turns any eater into a totally jerk. Will Spongebob's demeanour make him immune? Of course...but what of the rest of Bikini Bottom?
This episode/special takes up a full half hour time slot, which separates it from many of the other Spongebob stories that range closer to 10 or 15 minutes in length. That is not its most notable characteristic though. This episode adopts the Rankin/Bass style stop-motion of animation that has become synonymous with Christmas specials. Though the movements are far smoother and more frantic than the classics it is honouring, the animation is well coordinated and looks very nice.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 20th, 2013
"Space... the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before."
What a difference a couple of years makes. Rick Berman was pretty stubborn about wanting The Next Generation to live on its own without connecting to the original show, perhaps as much as the fans would have liked. There was, of course, the cameo by DeForest Kelley in the pilot, but he was never called McCoy, only Admiral. Yes, we knew who he was, and his interplay with Data was intended to remind us of his relationship with a certain Vulcan. The original Enterprise would be referenced in The Naked Now that first season. It was the only direct sequel of an original episode to air. When season 3 brought the return of Mark Lenard as Sarek, Berman was insistent that no mention of Spock or the original show be made. After a barrage of pleadings from the writers he relented... slightly. He decreed that Spock's name could only be mentioned once and no other connections be in the script.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 16th, 2013
In the Florida everglades, the Wedloe family have a 650-pound tame bear for a loyal pet. A very young Clint Howard stars as Mark, the son of a game warden (played by Dennis Weaver),who leads Ben around on several adventures and merry mishaps. Though “merry” may be the wrong word as Mark and Ben encounter their fair share of real life dangers.
Right off the bat, this show leaps into stories that are far more intense than one might expect from a family program from the 1960s. In the debut episode, the entire community faces a deadly hurricane. The characters spend the entire hollaring at eachother in the driving rain as things get torn apart around them. As the season continues, the high stakes hardly let up as members of the Wedloe family are threatened by poachers, wrestle with alligators, get trapped by wild fire, and square off against a huge number of malevolent hunters, voodoo doctors, and wildlife in every single episode. At one point little Mark is trying to help Burt Reynolds get out of a crashed plane while fighting away a tiger with a fire extinguisher...you read that correctly. Each tale was always moral and wholesome, but never exactly soft.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 13th, 2013
Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol is vastly re-imagined with characters from Dora. Swiper replaces Scrooge as the one who travels through time in order to learn the true meaning of Christmas. This special is twice the length of a normal episode.
Music and singalongs have always been a part of the Dora the Explorer experience but this particular special is formatted more like a typical children's musical. There are fewer moments where the characters do that unnerving pause in anticipation of the audience to talk to the television, and more time spent on songs. Sometimes they merge the audience participation/pausing moments with the music during a reoccuring tune about swiper not swiping. Repetition is a staple of children's programming...it can also be a device that forges madness in the mind of adult viewers.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on October 30th, 2013
There are five clans of Vampires that are secretly living amongst humans. Said secret is maintained by a code of conduct called the “Masquerade” which states that vampires can never reveal themselves to a human; nor can they “embrace” (bite and convert) a human without approval from the highest council. Defying this means that your lengthy life is forfeit. A detective discovers the truth about the Masquerade when his girlfriend loses her life after defying these very rules, and he sets out to reveal the entire realm of vampires in San Francisco.
The vampire clans resemble mafia crime syndicates. They operate in secret to both hide their supernatural identities, and hide their financial operations; many of which have spanned centuries. So the story of the detective seeking to uncover the vampire world operates on different levels; revealing the truth behind the murders and other crimes these groups are committing, along with the aforementioned exposure of their supernatural lineage.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on October 12th, 2013
Jenna Hamiton (played by Ashley Rickards) is looking to make a great impression in high school but things get off to a dreadful start. After breaking her arm in a bathroom accident (sounds less gross than it is), rumors spread throughout her new school that she attempted to commit suicide. She has plenty of attention but not the sort she wanted. Now her quest is to take the misunderstanding and turn into an opportunity to shine. Cris-attunity! (as Simpsons fans would say).
This shows sets itself up to resemble a teenage Sex and the City, with the main character's narration coming from her writing. Jenna has a blog whose name was “Invisible Girl” until she took an optimistic turn and renamed it “That Girl Daily” (by Season 2 she reveals her true name in the blog's name and continues to post with total exposure). This is the thesis for the show and the method in which it tries to be relatable. Teenagers do not want to be invisible, but they don't want to be an embarrassment either. Jenna is this statement in a nutshell. She lost her virginity at summer camp, but the boy she lost it to ignores her until she takes a stand (or a stage, more accurately) and owns her own awkwardness. From that point on she hurdles over and around the odd machinations of her friends, family and oddball guidance councillor.
