Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 26th, 2011
"Through the snow, and sleet, and hail / Through the blizzard, through the gale / Through the wind and through the rain / Over mountain, over plain / Through the blinding lightning flash / And the mighty thunder crash / Ever faithful, ever true / Nothing stops him, he'll get through."
When Walt Disney's big gamble with Snow White paid off an entire studio was created and financed. The man and his merry little band were on top of the world. But then Walt decided to try and sophisticate his audience somewhat, and the result was box office disaster. Both Pinocchio and Fantasia did miserable business, and the grand new studio was on the ropes. It's hard to believe that either of these movies failed on their original release. Walt's confidence in them has since been amply rewarded. Both are considered beloved classics today, but they appeared to be heralding the death of the studio when they were released. The studio needed a hit, and they needed one badly. It's a bit ironic that with all of the groundbreaking technological advances and innovations the studio had already made that it would be one of their simplest and least expensive efforts of the era that would lift the studio back on to solid ground. That movie was Dumbo.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on September 26th, 2011
“There's something I've been dying to ask you. What's in the basket?”
If you are not familiar with Writer/Director Frank Henenlotter’s earliest full length feature, Basket Case, you’ve missed a grindhouse style, exploitation cult classic. It was shot on a shoestring budget, features non-professional actors, cheap special effects, and a script straight out of the fever dreams of a madman. In short, it is brilliant.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on September 25th, 2011
“...and now the killer video that kills you seven days after you watched it, we're the only station that has it and we are showing it all night.”
Gone are the Wayan Brothers and in their place, David Zucker (Airplane, Naked Gun), one of the pioneers of the spoof movie, takes the helm. In some ways this is an improvement, in some it loses some of the naughty punch the Wayans brought to their films Scary Movie and Scary Movie 2. Gone are Shorty and Ray (and most of the sex and drug jokes with them) and in their place we have a not-yet-insane Charlie Sheen, the great Leslie Nielsen and a very funny Simon Rex. The spoofs are not quite as wide ranging, focusing primarily on The Ring and Signs, but they still manage to slam 8 Mile (not funny) The Others (still not funny) and The Matrix Reloaded (should have been funnier). The wisest thing Zucker did was center the movie around the star really carrying this franchise, Anna Faris.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on September 24th, 2011
“Cindy, this is a skeleton, this is bones! Would you run from Calista Flockhart?
The quote above is from one of my favorite scenes in Scary Movie 2. A reanimated skeleton stalks Cindy (Anna Faris) through the halls. She runs into Brenda (Regina Hall) and begs her to help. Brenda looks down the hall and sees it is just a skeleton. She kicks its ass and rearranges the bones to humiliate it. The problem is the Calista Flockhart reference. She might have been a cultural icon in the late 90s, but she’s been off the map for over a decade. The shelf life of pop culture parodies like Scary Movie 2 is very short.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 23rd, 2011
It all started as an internet show. Amanda Tapping was fresh from her stints as Samantha Carter in the Stargate franchise, and the SyFy Channel saw some worth in keeping her around for something else. The show was unique in more ways than just its origins. There are few sets on the series. Most of the show is shot in huge green screen rooms where even ordinary environments are computer generated. It's an evolution of the film Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow. I guess it was my complete disenchantment with that film and a shrinking regard for the more recent projects at SyFy that led me to pass on this show when it made the jump from web series to full television show. This was my first exposure to the world of Sanctuary and I was, at least somewhat impressed with what I saw.
Dr. Helen Magnus (Tapping) has been around for a little over 150 years now. She was part of a group of five Oxford students who conducted experiments with vampire blood among other things. It was somewhat of a wild group that included Jack The Ripper (Heyerdahl), Nikola Tesla (Young) and Nigel Griffin (Gale), also known as The Invisible Man. A sixth man Adam Worth (Tracey) wanted in and was the inspiration for Stevenson's Jekyll & Hyde. Now Dr. Magnus heads a place where "abnormal" creatures can be protected. The place is called Sanctuary, and it's part of a global network begun by her father.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 22nd, 2011
"It's the summer of 1863, more than two years into our nation's devastating Civil War, and the stakes have never been higher. The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, led by Robert E. Lee, crosses into Pennsylvania. Trailed by the Union's Army of the Potomac, Lee's 75,000-strong army heads toward Harrisburg, but the forces meet instead near Gettysburg, a quiet farm town that would become synonymous with the epic battle that all but decided the outcome of the American Civil War."
The Civil War is still the bloodiest war that Americans have ever experienced. The battle at Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle of that war. While the war raged on for two more years, there is little doubt that the turning point came here at this place and time. It's not really a surprise to find that History put together a riveting documentary about the pivotal battle. It's a bit surprising that they pulled out all of the stops and created quite an epic documentary produced by the famous Scott Brothers Ridley and Tony.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 21st, 2011
When you think of Sam Peckinpah, Straw Dogs usually isn't the film that comes to most people's minds. For most of us it's the 1967 classic The Wild Bunch. Straw Dogs did little business at the box office in 1971. In fact it was banned in many countries including England where it was shot. The movie was criticized for its unrestrained violence and the rather brutal depiction of a rape. Critics were unimpressed at the time, and the film faded away for a while. It received a bit of a resurrection in the mid-1980's when the film showed up at second run houses and eventually on home video. Perhaps it can be appreciated now, in a time where these taboos have been broken consistently and the film no longer appears to be the controversial piece it was then. If you have any doubt on that score you need look no farther than the remake in theaters now. While you'll find it often a word-for-word retelling, the level of violence has been amped up considerably. If you take the time to watch the original, you might find yourself asking what all the fuss was about.
David Sumner (Hoffman) is a mild math teacher who wants pretty much to be left alone to do his quiet research. He decides to return with his wife Amy (George) to the small rural English town where she grew up. It sounds like the perfect place for David to do his research in peace and quiet. To try and be a good guy he hires several local tradesmen to do work on the estate his wife recently inherited from her father. There's a roof that needs fixing and a rat problem that needs to be controlled. The group of locals happens to be led by Charlie Venner (Henney) who was also an old love interest of Amy's. The locals begin to leer a bit at Amy, and she is upset at her cowardly husband who doesn't appear willing to stick up for her. The teasing by the group extends to both of the Sumners and escalates to the point where a cat ends up killed. Still David refuses to push the issue. When the guys take him out on a hunting trip, it's really to keep him busy while two of the gang rape Amy. Still, she keeps quiet about the attack, while David is finally upset that the guys stranded him out on the moors.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on September 20th, 2011
“You're like the maid of dishonor.”
Bridesmaids, from director Paul Feig, producer Judd Apatow and based on a script by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, became the highest grossing R-rated female comedy of all time, edging out Sex and the City. Although coined by many as the female version of The Hangover, and there are certainly similarities, this does the movie a certain injustice. Where The Hangover is funny in a mean-spirited, rude-boy way, Bridesmaids taps into Apatow’s gift for producing comedies with human characters we care about and balancing the comedy with a touch of pathos without crossing into dramedy territory. Both movies are structured around an upcoming wedding and deal with sex and body functions in a frank and explicit way, but that’s where the similarities end.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on September 16th, 2011
“Listen, I know you’ve been playing for Luke all year, but for this game… I want you to play for you. You’ve earned it. I want you to take the burden of this family off your shoulders and I want you to go out there and I want you to have a ball. I want you to hit someone haaard! I want you to play for the joy of playing the game… or the love of playing for the CHAMPIONSHIP!”
Luke (Stefan Guy), a rising star at lacrosse and football in high school and seems destined for a bright future until he climbs in the car with a reckless teenage driver. One deadly car wreck later, Luke is laying brain-dead in a hospital with his devastated parents, Steven (Aidan Quinn) and Maryanne (Andie McDowell) by his side. The hospital explains that law requires them to pull the plug on brain-dead patients, but keeps Luke alive long enough for his classmates, teachers and big brother Jon (Ryan Merriman) to say their goodbyes. Grief from Luke’s sudden death ravages the Abbate family. Jon initially decides to sit out the rest of the football season, but coaches and pastors intervene, and soon family, faith and football save the day.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 16th, 2011
Written by John Delia
If you are looking for action and adventure then you will not want to miss X-Men: First Class, a top-notch production that thrills. The explosive storyline under the able direction of Matthew Vaughn contains all the explosiveness you would expect from a prequel to Marvel Comics’ famous X-Men.
![Basket Case [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/basket-case-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Scary Movie 3 (Unrated Version) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/scary-movie-3-unrated-version-bl-large.jpg)
![Scary Movie 2 [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/scary-movie-2-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Sanctuary: The Complete Third Season [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/sanctuary-the-complete-third-seaso-large.jpg)
![Straw Dogs (Unrated Version) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/straw-dogs-unrated-version-blu-r-large.jpg)
![5th Quarter [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/5th-quarter-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![X-Men: First Class (+Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/x-men-first-class-digital-copy-large.jpg)
