Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 24th, 2011
The story of Romeo and Juliet is a story that is retold at least once every generation. It can be retold using a different time period or with alien races or perhaps even in a thirty second commercial. It is a fairly easy story and parts can be tweaked given the audience and intention. So begins the story of Gnomeo and Juliet. Take one part animation, one part garden gnomes and a dose of laughter that could be just what the classic play needs. Or it could become a tragedy of the highest order.
There are two elderly people who share a large house. One is Mrs. Montague and the other is Mr. Capulet. They can not stand each other. In such, part of their daily routine is to look after their separate prized garden. One is decorated in blue (Montague) while the other is decorated in red(Capulet). However, they both share one thing in their design. They both like to use garden gnomes. When Mrs. Montague and Mr. Capulet go away however, the gnomes magically come to life. So starts our story.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 23rd, 2011
When I was a kid, I always wished and hoped I had super powers. Frankly, I did not even think my parents were my parents, rather hosts for somebody who would eventually change the world. Somewhere along the way, I grew up (kinda) but always wondered what would happen if things were different. I Am Number Four explores the story of a teenager who could change the world with his powers if he can simply stay alive long enough. By the way, I still don’t think my parents were my parents.
Two men (played by Greg Townley and Reuben Langdon) are asleep in some remote part of the world. All of the sudden, they feel something is wrong and wake up. They find nothing, but then suddenly one of the men is grabbed by an unknown monster and taken out of the cabin by force. The other man witnessing this horrid event has no choice but to try and run to safety.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 20th, 2011
"The machines rose from the ashes of a nuclear fire. Their war to exterminate mankind had raged for decades, but the final battle would not be fought in the future. It would be fought here in our present... Tonight."
Where were you on Judgment Day?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 20th, 2011
The Usual Suspects is a most unusual movie, and in this case, that is a good thing. The Usual Suspects keeps you interested throughout its entirety by making you think and trying to figure out what will happen next. If only today's movies did the same thing!! As this has been one of my favorite movies of all time, the excitement I felt when I received this in the mail today could only be compared to a young child on Christmas morning.
A boat, thought to have $91 million in cocaine on board, is docked at a pier in San Pedro, near Los Angeles. Within seconds a thunderous explosion takes place. Soon after twenty-seven dead bodies are found at the scene. Miraculously, there are two survivors: a Hungarian gangster who clings to life in a local hospital and Roger “Verbal” Kint, a crippled con man from New York. As U.S. Customs Special Agent David Kujan conducts his grueling inquisition, Kint weaves a tale that begins six weeks earlier, at a police lock-up in New York. Five felons, accused of hijacking a truckload of gun parts in Queens, are brought in for a lineup. They are suspects. Strangers. With one thing in common: Keyser Soze — a criminal so feared and fabled. While an FBI sketch artist struggles to complete his rendering of Soze before the witness dies, Verbal Kint sits in the District Attorney's office, taking Kujan through the steps that led him there. The questioning is extensive. Agent Kujan is relentless and questions Kint for hours. In the end the surprise of all surprises takes place.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 19th, 2011
"The heat is on..."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 19th, 2011
During the Korean War, a platoon led by Laurence Harvey and Frank Sinatra is captured and sent off to Manchuria. Here the men are brainwashed into believing that Harvey saved them all in an incredible feat of heroism (which he did not) and that he’s a loveable guy (which he isn’t).The unfortunate Harvey is programmed to become a remote-control assassin. Back in the States, Sinatra is plagued by nightmare memories of the experience, and gradually comes to believe that something … really did happen. The question is whether he and Harvey can solve the mystery and discover the target before Harvey is triggered.
The Manchurian Candidate accomplishes a spectacular balancing act. It is simultaneously one of the most intense suspense thrillers ever to emerge from Hollywood, and an absolutely corrosive satire. Said satire is all the more brilliant for savaging both the extreme right and the extreme left of the political spectrum. Also of note is Angela Lansbury’s ferocious performance as Harvey’s gorgon mother. Only 37, and but three years older than the man playing her son, she is utterly convincing, and a villain for the ages. Unquestionably, this is director John Frankenheimer’s masterpiece.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 29th, 2011
Craig, played by Keor Gilchrist, is facing a lot of stress in his sixteenth year on this planet and he becomes convinced that he wants to kill himself and checks himself into a psych ward. During his mandatory 5 day trial stay he undergoes a less-than common journey of self-discovery with the aid of his fellow patients.
What could have easily been a very contrived teen comedy turns out to be a refreshing coming-of-age tale that does not need to pander to the audience with an over-abundance of lowbrow humour and/or romance drama. Mind you, it is not that this film is lacking in either of those departments completely as we do get a couple naughty jokes snuck in, and our protagonist does find himself in a “girl trouble” dilemma that motivated his self-institutionalizing. Thankfully the focus continuously draws back to Craig and his attempts to heal, making him the ever present nucleus of the film for interesting character subplots to float around him.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 25th, 2011
(What follows is my cohort Gino Sassani's review, as it was written for the Blu Ray release of this same film. I have only added changes for the Video and Audio sections as DVD is naturally different than Blu Ray).
The Picture Of Dorian Gray was actually Oscar Wilde’s only full-length novel. It was quite a controversial subject when it first arrived on the scene in 1890, but not because of the horror element. The book is often sexually explicit and contains more than a flirtation with homosexuality. The main themes have survived, but much of the work itself has been forgotten. We know the work almost exclusively from the classic film from 1945 where Hurd Hatfield played the title character. The more notable members of that cast included Peter Lawford, Donna Reed, and Angela Lansbury. That film downplayed the debauchery elements and focused on the one element that appears to remain strongest in our collective memories, that of the picture aging instead of the man. It’s that deal with the devil that most of us think about when we hear the name Dorian Gray, or Dick Clark for that matter.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 23rd, 2011
There are usually two schools of thought when it comes to judging sequels. One tends to be very harsh on the proceedings expecting it to surpass the original (which it hardly ever does) in all aspects of film-making. The other still expects a good film but realizes that this sort of thing is usually financially driven and just hopes for something that can favorable stand against the original. I happen to be in the later crowd. But, I certainly found myself inching towards the former when I received the blu-ray package to review Ip Man 2, Legend of the Grandmaster. Let's go inside, shall we?
Ip Man (played Donnie Yen)has escaped from Foshan and has made way with his family to the Hong Kong of the 1950's. His wife, Cheung Wing-Sing (played by Lynn Hung) is pregnant with her second child. However, the family is barely making ends meet. Cheung can't work much and Ip Man's martial arts school isn't going as well as planned. They can hardly cover rent and school fees for their son, Ip Chun (played by Li Chak).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 12th, 2011
"Jonathan Brisby was killed today. It is four years since our departure from NIMH, and our world is changing. We can not stay here much longer. Jonathan was a dear friend. I am lost in knowing how to deal with his widow. She knows nothing of us or the plan."
When Don Bluth left Walt Disney, he led an exodus of some of the studio's top talent. They were becoming disenchanted with the product Disney was producing at the time, and it is generally accepted that this was the dark ages of the studio. The group of animators joined Bluth and formed their own company, and the first film to come out of that collaboration was The Secret Of NIMH.
![Beverly Hills Cop [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/beverly-hills-cop-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Manchurian Candidate [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/manchurian-candidate-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Ip Man 2 (Collector's Edition) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/ip-man-2-collectors-edition-blu-large.jpg)
![The Secret of NIMH [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-secret-of-nimh-blu-ray-large.jpg)
