Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 10th, 2012
"December 7, 1972: Apollo 17, the final official lunar mission, lands on the moon. In 2011 eighty-four hours of classified footage is uploaded to www.lunartruth.com. This film was edited from that footage."
Yes, you get the picture. Apollo 18 is another "found footage" film that has populated the movie landscape since the time of The Blair Witch Project. Unlike that famed film, this movie did not go on to make any kind of box office history. In spite of a rather large advertisement campaign, the film pulled in a very modest $17 million. I'd say we've become somewhat jaded by these kinds of films, and we've begun to demand something more in order to put up with the intentional amateur shooting style and enough shakes to reward our attention with something akin to a hangover. There will continue to be a flood of these kinds of films, and some of them might even be quite good. I can't count Apollo 18 among them.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on December 14th, 2011
“Here's the thing, I... I live my life a certain way. And that is that I like to think that if you put your trust out there, I mean, if you really give people the benefit of the doubt, see their best intentions, they're gonna want to live up to it. It doesn't always work out, clearly, but, more often than not, I think that if you do, people will rise to the occasion. I really believe that.”
In a deck of Tarot cards there is a major arcana card called The Fool. It depicts a young man wearing colorful motley clothes and carrying all his possessions in a bag on his back. A dog barks at his heel as he heads off into the world, his eyes so full of wonder and excitement he doesn’t see the cliff directly in front of him. Our Idiot Brother is a movie about that kind of fool.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on November 21st, 2011
“10,000 people crammed… no bed, no toilets and little water.”
Julia Jarmond (Kristin Scott Thomas) is an American journalist living in Paris covering the anniversary of the 1942 Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, a horrific atrocity when occupied France bowed to the will of the Nazis and rounded up over 13,000 Jews to ship them off to concentration camps. As she investigates the story she discovers a dark secret in her French husband’s family directly connecting them to the event. The story is split between Julia’s modern day investigation and 1942 where it follows 10-year-old Sarah Starzynski (Melusine Mayance) as she deals with the horrors of the roundup.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 15th, 2011
Animation is traditionally geared towards kids. From Bugs Bunny to Monsters, Inc, cartoons have been a staple of kid’s viewing experience for decades. However, as time wore on, more and more adults have craved for animated experiences that not only are kid friendly but have adult nods so that the older audience can enjoy it. Shrek is probably the most famous of these types of pictures. Perhaps the sequel to Hoodwinked! can provide an equal passion to please both audiences.
Boingo the Bunny is locked up in the pen and the Happily Forever After agency is up and ready for business. The team is comprised of Red Riding Hood (or “Red” for short), Granny (Red’s grandma), Wolf W. Wolf, and Twitchy the Squirrel. They are overseen by Nicky Flippers, a very tall frog. At the time of the opening scene, Red is busy training with the Sisters of the Hood, a clan of Kung Fu Bakers. But the other three members of the group are more than ready to take on the evils of this fairy kingdom.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 20th, 2011
"In America we give our lives to our jobs. It's time to take them back."
It was only a matter of time before the current economic situation made its way into our theaters and finally our homes with a movie like The Company Men. Certainly the economy has influenced many films in the last five years. There have even been other movies to explore many of the current issues. But it's this film that makes those issues, particularly corporate raiding and downsizing, its sole reason for being.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 25th, 2011
Every year when the Academy Awards have been given out, I look over the winners in each category, and more often than not I scratch my head at the ultimate winners. I find myself wondering if they saw the same movie I saw. I start to ponder if there might be an alternate-universe version of these movies that somehow find themselves in the hands of the Academy jury. Sure, once in a while they get it right. Films like The Godfather, Gladiator and Unforgiven manage to fight off the competition and claim their earned statues. Most times, however, I find that a trend of political correctness enters the picture more than the quality of the films or actors themselves. It's the only way I can explain Sean Penn taking a statue over Mickey Rourke a couple years back. Films and actors are rewarded to showing the proper political philosophy. So, when I heard that The King's Speech won the award this year, I began to fear the same circumstances had once again prevailed. I hadn't seen the film, but the subject matter appeared to qualify. I considered it another undeserved Oscar given to an ambitious Hollywood crowd brown nose. Then I saw the film through this Fox Blu-ray release. It might not happen often, at least no more that a dozen times a day, but boy was I wrong about The King's Speech. This really was one of the best films not only of this last year but in quite a long time.
The Duke of York (Firth) has a serious speech impediment. He stammers, which isn't the most confidence-inspiring trait for a member of the royal family to have. In the past the problem likely would not have become an issue. But the invention of radio has made it essential for the members of the royal family to speak to the nation and the world. With the help of his extremely devoted wife Elizabeth (Carter), he has seen all manner of specialists both of sound scientific principle and the whack-job varieties. Nothing works. Elizabeth hears of an unconventional therapist who has a rather impressive track record. When she visits Lionel Logue (Rush) for the first time under an assumed name, she finds him a bit arrogant and unwilling to bend his rules, even for the Duke of York. Still, they decide to give the man a try. At first it appears as though this was merely another in a long string of failed attempts to help the Duke. He leaves as frustrated as he had ever been. It didn't help that the obstinate man insisted on calling him by the too-familiar name of Bertie, reserved only for close family. He treated the Duke like a child. The Duke exited holding a record made of an attempt to speak with blaring music in his ears. He decided he didn't need to hear the recording and suffer the usual humiliation.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 21st, 2010
"Nothing worse than an old hippie, man."
When I think of Cheech & Chong, I am brought back to the 1970’s. It was then that the pair had their first success with an iconic brand of “stoner” comedy. Their LPs sold millions across the country. You didn’t have to be a stoner to appreciate the jokes. I was about as straight as they come, but I really loved listening to Cheech & Chong. The material was about more than just getting high. It was timely, at least it was then. It mirrored the culture that we could see from our own windows, and like all inspired comedy, it was relevant.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 15th, 2009
Janky is a term that means shady or dishonest. An adjective that is anything but tasteful. Throw that in with the noun promoters and what you have is possibly the biggest revelation since somebody discovered Jon & Kate would have marital issues with eight children & a camera crew running around. Oh really? So, when I received Janky Promoters in the mail with Ice Cube and Mike Epps smiling ear to ear, all I could think was “Janky Promoters indeed.”
Russell Redds (played by Ice Cube) is an entertainment promoter. He has a fiancée named Loli (played by Jowharah Jones) who he plans to take to Aruba. He also has a kid named Seymour (played by Little JJ) who has aspirations of being a young rapper. It sounds like the perfect family but yet there are more than a few kinks in this scenario.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 15th, 2009
“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, with conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand a mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning, and her name: Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame . ‘Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!’ cries she with silent lips. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
The inscription above can be found inside the pedestal of The Statue Of Liberty, and while it’s not actually printed where most depictions appear to suggest, it has become somewhat of a motto for this country. I certainly have a warm spot in my own heart for this welcoming attitude to immigrants from around the world. I am a product of Italian grandparents who made the journey here in the 1930’s for a better life. But that ideal has been somewhat abused as of late. Those brave ancestors that many of us can be thankful for our American life did so at great personal sacrifice. Without ever giving up their individual cultures, beliefs, and lifestyles, they did manage to blend into the American landscape and took pride in both heritages. They did not demand that America coddle them. They never imposed their language on the already present society. They practiced their beliefs and traditions without requiring others to accommodate them. They worked hard so that their descendents might not have to labor so much. In so many ways they became models not only for their descendants, but for what good citizenship means. They cherished this new country.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 9th, 2009
“You’ve gotta know what you’re doing when you go in. You gotta have it figured out. Those are the rules. How you get in. How you get out. How many shots you’re gonna need. Make sure you know where everybody is. Make sure nobody sees you. Don’t hang around. Don’t get interested. Then you don’t make mistakes.”
How many times have we seen some criminal looking to do that one last job that can get them out of the business forever? This time it’s a hit man known as “The Chief” or “blackbird” (Rourke). He’s an American Indian, and he’s considered one of the best in the business. He sticks religiously by his rules. As the film opens we see that he kills a young woman in the shower just because she saw his face. Unfortunately for Blackbird, the girl happened to be sleeping with the guy who hired him. That guy’s not so happy that she got killed during the job. Now the hunter’s going to become the hunted as the boss wants revenge for the girl’s death. Enter Richie Nix (Gordon-Levitt) who’s a young punk super crook wannabe. He’s been threatening a car dealer he intends to shake down. To get wheels for that job he jacks a car that happens to be driven by Blackbird. The two end up becoming somewhat kindred souls, and Blackbird needs a place to lay low, so he agrees to school Richie and help him pull off the job. Of course, that doesn’t go well, and a woman at the dealership gets a good look at them. She and her husband get away, but now Blackbird and Richie have to track them down and kill them. The couple, Wayne (Jane) and Carmen (Lane) have already had their share of problems and were about to split up when they’re forced into witness protection. The two rekindle the old romance somewhat while trying to stay alive.
![Our Idiot Brother [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/our-idiot-brother-blu-ray-large.jpg)
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![The Company Men [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-company-men-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![The King's Speech [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-kings-speech-blu-ray-large.jpg)
