Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on November 18th, 2015
Its spy vs. spy in Man from U.N.C.L.E., or at least it starts out that way. Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer play Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin respectively in this reimaging of the popular television series from the 60’s. Guy Ritchie is at the helm of the spy flick, which should give everyone high hopes that this will become the first film in a franchise. Though a bit dry at times, Man from U.N.C.L.E. proves to be a clever and engaging movie that stays true to the era it is set in. There is enough action, espionage, and beautiful women to capture the attention of the male audience, and the female audience is likely to be sated just being able to stare at Cavill and Hammer as a suave, well-educated, gentleman and a terse, committed, albeit volatile patriot. I’ll leave it to the ladies to determine which is which.
The film takes place after World War I; Napoleon Solo is a reformed criminal working off his sentence as the C.I.A.’s most effective operative. Solo ventures into Soviet territory in order to make contact with and extract Gaby Teller (Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina), the daughter of a nuclear scientist believed kidnapped to exploit his expertise. While carrying out his mission, Solo crosses paths with KGB’s top operative Kuryakin, whose mission it is to stop him. At odds, the two battle wits as well as weapons in an exchange Solo ultimately wins.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on November 16th, 2015
The geriatric care wing of a hospital — where the employees are undermanned and overworked, and many of the patients are in a near-catatonic state — is not the most obvious sitcom setting. That's partly the reason it took me a while to warm up to the first season of HBO's Getting On, an adaptation of the British series of the same name. The biggest drawback, however, was that those initial episodes didn't seem very interested in shaking the grim specter of the original show. But what a difference a year makes!
Before I get into all the ways Getting On improved during its second season, let's do a quick summary. The show is exclusively set within the Billy Barnes Extended Care Unit at Mount Palms Hospital in Long Beach, California. The staff includes Dr. Jenna James (Laurie Metcalf), the unit's spectacularly off-putting and self-centered director of medicine. Dawn Forchette (Alex Borstein) is the eager-to-please head ward nurse who is a professional doormat for Dr. James and a romantic doormat for on-again/off-again flame Patsy de la Serda (Mel Rodriguez), the unit's supervising nurse/resident stickler. Finally, there's overwhelmed, underpaid DiDi Ortley (Niecy Nash), who remains the most openly compassionate staff member.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 11th, 2015
"Different, entirely."
I have been a fan of Sherlock Holmes since I was a kid. Mixed amidst those Universal horror films I watched with my Pop on weekend chiller shows was an occasional Universal Holmes film with Basil Rathbone as the master of deduction. Soon followed the Doyle books, and a new world was opened for me forever. Since those days we have seen every kind of incarnation of the character possible, or so I thought. I've seen Holmes as a child in Spielberg's Young Sherlock Holmes. There have been several comedies and even a musical or two. Robert Downey Jr. has turned him into an action hero, and Benedict Cumberbatch has brought him into the modern world. I even remember Larry Hackman's television version of a motorcycle cop who has a head injury and believes he's the famous detective, gaining the requisite deductive skills in the process. It was called The Return Of The World's Greatest Detective. Star Trek fans reveled in Data's immersion in the detective's world, even bringing back his infamous nemesis as one of The Next Generation's more sympathetic bad guys. But in all of these incarnations I have never seen anything as truly remarkable as Mr. Holmes. It is most decidedly something different entirely.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 11th, 2015
I don't think there has ever really been a great film about a great writer. We naturally compare their lives to works of great fiction. Great fiction tends to distill the tedium and awkwardness out of real life. Real life can be exhausting in the day-to-day disappointments that can sometimes be wrapped in small victories. David Foster Wallace was a great writer. This is almost universally acknowledged. David Foster Wallace no longer is because he hung himself in 2008 at age 46. Many people who were in his life are now very protective of him and his privacy. They are angry at the idea of a movie being made about his life. Authors like J.D. Salinger and Thomas Pynchon have spent their lifetimes being reclusive, but the fact that they had published and provoked our thought means we are entitled to explore their lives. The problem always will be rising to the occasion and doing justice to the thoughts they provoked.
The End of the Tour is about five days a reporter for Rolling Stone spent with Wallace. The journalist was David Lipsky, who had written a novel of his own and was clearly in the grips of some hero worship. The hero he met was self-conscious to a nearly painful degree. He also seems to be struggling to be an average guy. I don't think the movie is a good indication of what Wallace was really like. But then, let's just look at this as a movie first. As I said, I don't think the author should be protected and hidden from us because he had faults and deficiencies. I think we should keep an open mind as to what the truth really is. I have listened to interviews done with Wallace, and he always comes off as reflective, thoughtful, truthful, intelligent, profound, and open-minded. I think the intention of this movie was to reveal a more unvarnished view of the writer.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on November 6th, 2015
“Argument is sugar, and the rest of us are flies.”
By now, we've grown numb to the fact that there are simply too many TV channels to count. So it's not surprising that many of them have to take increasingly extreme measures to get our attention. Unfortunately, that line of thinking has extended to television news, which began trending toward sensationalism — and away from reasonable discourse — a long time ago. However, the idea that noise and conflict attracted eyeballs wasn't the status quo during the late 1960s, when viewers had only three channels to choose from. Best of Enemies tells the story of how two towering intellectuals (and one desperate network) helped alter the TV landscape forever.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on November 6th, 2015
For me Haven has always been a quiet-storm series. It was a show that I had heard nothing about when I first started watching, but when I got started, I found it compelling. It’s a mystery series (or at least it used to be) based off a novella from Stephen King. In the beginning, one question was paramount to the series’ lead character: who is the Colorado King? That question took many seasons to answer, but now that the show’s time is limited due to Syfy announcing its decision to cancel the series, with the final episodes to air later this year, another question has arisen as the paramount question: who is Audrey Parker?
Brief recap: Audrey last season for the good of the town went into the barn in order to stop the Troubles, the generational affliction that grants the residents of Haven equally extraordinary and chaotic abilities. Nathan does everything in his power to stop her but ultimately fails, but despite Audrey’s sacrifice the Troubles do not go away, and a destructive meteor shower threatens to destroy the town. Concluding that they need Audrey in order to stop the chaos, they open a portal between worlds with the help of two new faces, Jenny and William. However, William turns out not to be what he represents himself to be and is soon revealed to be one of the original architects of the Troubles. As he continues to bestow dangerous and uncontrollable new Troubles on the masses , he also reveals that the reason that Audrey also returns to Haven to help the Trouble is a punishment because as her original self, Mara, she is the other architect of the Troubles. Eventually, William is captured and thrown into an abyss, but before being thrown he manages to bring back Mara.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 5th, 2015
"Be grateful for your gifts. They are all around you."
This is the gift that has been giving for 20 years. It's a bit hard to believe that it was all the way back in 1996 that we had our first adventure with Pixar's imaginative Toy Story. Since that time we've had two solid theatrical sequels and now a second television/video short. It's a bridge to the fourth theatrical film on its way. But that's still a couple of years down the road, so it's rather nice to be able to spend some time, no matter how brief, with the gang we fell in love with nearly 20 years ago. The Toy Story That Time Forgot is just that warm reunion we needed. It'd intended as a Christmas special, and it just may make those new Christmas tree lights shine a little brighter this season.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on November 3rd, 2015
There are no tigers — or any other large cats — to be found in Tiger House. The closest we get is a rather hefty guard dog whose screen time is tragically cut short. (Figured I’d give the animal lovers out there a fair warning.) Instead, the only prowling we see in this low-budget home invasion thriller comes from the violent gang of thieves who bust into a suburban home and hold the unsuspecting family inside hostage. Unfortunately for the crooks, there’s already an uninvited visitor in the house.
That visitor is Kelly (Kaya Scodelario), who has snuck over to see her grounded boyfriend Mark (Daniel Boyd). The movie opens with a flashback to the crossbow-related accident between the young couple that ruined Kelly’s aspirations of becoming a gymnast. Now Mark’s mom Lynn (Julie Summers) considers down-on-her-luck Kelly to be a bad influence on her straight-arrow son, which explains all the sneaking around. Meanwhile, Mark’s stepdad Doug (Andrew Brent) is some sort of financial bigwig, which makes him an attractive target for the group of crooks looking to rob a bank.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by BABY on November 2nd, 2015
"Dogs have been used by the military since World War I. Over 3000 dogs have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. 26 dogs and 25 handlers have been killed in the service of their country since 2003. This story is dedicated to their memory."
Baby here. Usually this is where I tell you that I'm the Shepherd/Chow mix who runs security here at Upcomingdiscs. Looks like I really did make that part up. No, I'm still in charge of security. Just ask AJ from Fed Ex. It's the Shepherd/Chow part. I took a test the other day and Gino didn't give me any time to bone up on it. OK, he did give me a bone, but it was all about something called a DNA test. I don't know what that spells, but it turns out that I'm also something called an Alaskan Malamute. Now, Gino's been asking me to go mute for years. Now I finally understand what that means. So while it looks like I didn't know who I really was, I do know something about the latest dog film Max. You see, Max is a hero, kinda like me. And just when I finally get to review a dog movie about a fellow German Shepherd, I find out about this Malamute thing. OK, I did make that last part up. Max is something called a Belgian Malinois but looks a lot like a German Shepherd, and that spells B A B Y. Looks like I just can't win. But what about Max?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 31st, 2015
"We're here."
I must start this review by admitting that I did not see 2008's The Haunting of Molly Hartley. In spite of the fact that very few people did actually see that film, I was surprised to find that a sequel would show up seven years later just in time for the Halloween private shock-fests and schlock nights. If you happen to be a fan of the original film, that doesn't mean you should get too excited by the sequel. There is little to tie these films together. Steven R. Monroe takes over the director's chair from Mickey Liddell. Sarah Lind now plays Molly, who was played by Haley Bennett in the first film. None of the original writers remain. While the title character remains, I suspect the thread that actually connects these two films wouldn't support the weight of a fruit fly. Therefore I intend to review this film on its own merits with no more reflections upon what once was back in the salad days of 2008.
