Posted in: Disc Reviews by BABY on April 7th, 2011
"You can't keep a good dog down."
Baby here again. Yeah, that's right. I'm the German Shepherd/Chow mix that runs security here at Upcomingdiscs. I make sure only the best movies get through my complicated security system. And that spells F A N G S. Okay, I made that last part up. I try to keep them all out, but let's not talk about that right now.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 6th, 2011
"We all know the story. Virginal girl, pure and sweet, trapped in the body of a swan. She desires freedom, but only true love can break the spell. Her wish is nearly granted in the form of a prince, but before he can declare his love, her lustful twin, the Black Swan, tricks and seduces him. Devastated, the White Swan leaps off a cliff, killing herself, and in death finds freedom."
Darren Aronofsky made a huge name for himself with The Wrestler. That film was a great comeback for Mickey Rourke, who was ripped off at that year's Oscars by the more politically correct Sean Penn. Aronofsky considers The Black Swan to be a companion piece to that film. You will certainly be able to see what he's talking about, but he's missing one important element in this film. He doesn't get near the powerful performance out of Natalie Portman that he did from Rourke. She was also nominated for an Oscar, but unlike Rourke, she didn't deserve to win it. She didn't.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 6th, 2011
If you are old enough to have seen the original Tron back in 1982, you know how much things have changed in the digital world since then. The block graphics of the film and subsequent game might have been state-of-the-art at the time, but it looks like something very primitive to the younger generation. Like all good science fiction, many of the incredible elements of the film have become quite commonplace. The idea that a person can be scanned by a laser and transported into a virtual world might still be out of reach, but it turns out that using lasers to scan objects is exactly how we get three-dimensional images of real-world items into the virtual world. When Flynn is communicating with his program, the program is represented by an image of Flynn himself. Today we'd call Clu an avatar, and it's become quite common for people to socialize in environments like Second Life, where their avatar representatives engage in the same kinds of activities we do in the real world.
Tron wasn't quite the huge box office film you might have expected. It did pull in about $5 million on its opening weekend, which was pretty respectable in 1982. The film ended its box office run with just under $40 million from a $17 million budget. That's not where Tron found its biggest success. The film became more popular as the years went by and some of the content was getting more and more like reality. The game became a classic and is still found in the occasional arcade. That was another trend started by the film. It was one of the first films to spawn a video game, something almost every big-budget genre film does as a matter of course today. The movie was a milestone in computer-generated images combined with animation. It took nearly 30 years, but it really isn't a surprise that Tron has finally gotten a sequel. It's been a commanding presence for years at ComicCon. It's the little big movie that wouldn't die.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 6th, 2011
Hammer has risen from the grave. A group of investors have resurrected the film brand and intend to honor the tradition of the once-defunct horror giant. President Simon Oakes is a self-proclaimed fan since he was a kid. He has no interest in trying to fit Hammer into the new mold of torture porn or slashers. He acknowledges that there is plenty of room for those kinds of films in the horror genre. He hopes to bring back more than just the Hammer name. He intends to bring back the gothic spirit that was Hammer Films. Let Me In appears to have been a sincere effort in that direction. But the look and feel of that film along with the rich Hammer legacy have set the bar incredibly high. The last thing I expected from all of this was a direct-to-video standard stalker film called The Resident.
Juliet (Swank) has just come from a bad breakup. She caught her ex sleeping with her friend. Now she's trying to set off on her own. She's an ER doctor at Brooklyn Hospital and is looking for an affordable apartment in the area. She gets a call from Max (Morgan) who owns a nice vintage building with a vacant apartment he's fixing up. The place is huge with a spectacular view and is a "reasonable" $3800 a month. She takes the apartment and finds herself somewhat charmed by Max in the process. She finds herself a little creeped out by his grandfather August (Lee). This leads her to send Max mixed signals. She kisses him but pulls back. Later she invites him to her bed but pulls back again. Apparently, she's still in love with Jack (Pace), who is trying to win her back. Max doesn't take rejection very well and has a series of secret passages into her apartment and a large assortment of peepholes throughout. Juliet finds herself feeling uncomfortable in the apartment but just can't quite put her finger on it, which is more than we can say for Max who has no trouble laying his fingers on her. The last 20 minutes of the film is a typical run-and-chase piece with very predictable results. There aren't any twists or surprises to be found here at all.
Posted in: Hardware Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2011
"Sherlock Holmes, the immortal character of fiction. Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he's ageless, invincible and unchanging. In solving significant problems of the present day, he remains -- as ever -- the supreme master of deductive reasoning."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2011
"They rob, kill, and terrorize, and they've left their mark on our nation's history."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2011
"Once upon a time, a single drop of sunlight fell from the heavens. From this small drop of Sun grew a magical golden flower. It was said that this flower held the power to heal the sick and injured. From this flower sprang a glorious kingdom, ruled by the most generous king and queen, who were soon to have a baby..."
That baby has been the subject of many tales over the years. Walt Disney himself had begun work on an animated feature based on Rapunzel back in the 1940's. Uncle Walt was fascinated with timeless fairy tales, and they became the studio's specialty over the years. For one reason or another the film was pushed back and eventually shelved for other titles. But it seems that the studio that still bears his name continues to have the same fascination with fairy tales and fables. Somehow you probably just knew that they would eventually dust off those old plans and return to the story of Rapunzel.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2011
"And it came to pass in these days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And all went to be taxed, everyone into his own city. So it was that Joseph, a carpenter, went up from Galilee unto Bethlehem to be taxed with his wife, Mary who was with Holy Child."
Every spring around the time of Easter you could count on several annual films to make their way to televisions across the country for special family presentations. For Easter you had The Greatest Story Ever Told and King Of Kings. For Passover there was always The Ten Commandments. And so it is an appropriate time to see all three of these films make their way unto high definition and Blu-ray for the very first time. We've already reported on the excellent release of The Ten Commandments. Our review of The Greatest Story Ever Told will come to these pages very close to Easter itself. That leaves the one more in this Holy Trinity of movies to review.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 1st, 2011
One of the (many) reasons that Scream 3 was such a weak entry is that it tried to riff on the rules of trilogies, when, at the time of its release, there really weren't any horror film trilogies, with notable exception of the Omen series (and the not-so-notable exception of the trio kicked off by Captive Wild Woman in 1943). But the last few years have seen the completion of two horror trilogies, whose third parts were a very long time in coming. Dario Argento wrapped up his Three Mothers trilogy with the disappointing Mother of Tears in 2007. And now, hitting home video, is a primal roar that also happens to be José Mojica Marins' 2008 conclusion to his Coffin Joe saga.
Despite his enormous list of crimes and his total lack of repentance, Coffin Joe (Marins) is released from prison after serving a mere 40 years. Administrative bungling appears to lie behind his freedom – a hint of the vein of mordant humour that runs through the film. Met outside prison by his hunchbacked assistant Bruno (Rui Rezende), Joe is at first thrown by the 21st-Century metropolis he finds himself in, and Marins has some fun with the Gothic and wildly out-of-place Joe and Bruno stumbling along through the traffic. But things take a darker turn very quickly, once Joe is back in the slums, and embarks once more on his quest for the superior woman who will bear his son, and ensure the immortal continuity of his blood.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Bob Ross on March 30th, 2011
A newspaper article infuriates the White House, which retaliates with all its political might to discredit the story, crush its author and cover up its own internal corruption. Sound familiar, like maybe All the President’s Men? If that’s among your favorite docudramas, then make room on the shelf for Fair Game, a real-life paranoid trip that unfolds across continents but finds its emotional center in a quiet suburban home.
There are striking similarities between the 1976 Redford-Hoffman classic and the inexplicably overlooked Fair Game. There are also major differences: The ’76 film exudes the idealism of its era, while the new one is steeped in the cynicism of modern media. The older movie is told from the viewpoint of hustling young reporters, while the one released this week on video comes through the eyes of a married couple -- respected officials whose careers collide in a cataclysm of government disinformation. Yeah, there’s another huge difference to point out: This time, the good guys don’t win.
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