Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 24th, 2023
"He was here before Christ, before civilization. He was king here! Rawhead, that's what they called him! Rawhead!"
Rawhead Rex started life as one of many stories in a young Clive Barker’s published collection called The Books Of Blood. As a story it has been hailed by the likes of Stephen King as one of the best horror stories ever written. I'm not sure I would go anywhere near that far, but there's little doubt it's a well-crafted horror tale. I read it years ago and recall that I was quite impressed. The movie version of the story is something else entirely. It fails on really one important element, and that's the design of Rawhead himself. It's one of the worst-looking film monsters I've ever seen. It's a cross between an ape and a clown without the colorful make-up, and the young actor that brought him to life did anything but. Still, there's some atmosphere to be found here, and a few good performances. It's one of those films where it might be so bad that it will always find something of a cult following. That's exactly what Kino Lorber Studio Classics is counting on with a UHD Blu-ray release in 4K. You heard that correctly.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 11th, 2023
"All my life I wanted to be a cop, you know. It's like I can remember nothing else. I remember this one time somethin' happened. A domestic argument or somethin'. Somebody stabbed somebody or somethin'. And -- there was this crowd around this tenement. I must have been nine, ten years old. I was this big. I went over to see what was going on. I noticed the red light -- goin' around and around, all these people, and I couldn't see. And I kept saying, ‘Do you know what's goin' on? Do you know?’ Nobody knew. It was like a big mystery behind that -- that crowd there. All of a sudden, the crowd just parted. Like the Red Sea, you see? And there were these guys in blue, and I said, ‘They know.’ What do they know? What do they know?”
Frank Serpico was a New York City cop in the 1960's and early 1970's. Thanks to the film, everyone knows who he is, and they also know about his struggle as an honest man in a hornet's nest of corruption. His honest stand saw him a pariah and almost killed when his fellow officers stood by as he was shot in the face. He would eventually recover and testify before the famous Knapp Commission that investigated the systemic corruption inside the NYPD. If you know his story, it's because of this film, because that's the plot, pure and simple. What isn't so pure and simple is the inspired performance by Al Pacino, still a relative unknown, who had just finished The Godfather but hadn't really had a lead role up to this point. Serpico changed all of that. Pacino was on a rocket ship to stardom, and this film as much as The Godfather started the whole thing going.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 18th, 2023
“You got everything money can buy, except what it can’t. It’s pride. Pride is what got you here. Losing is what brung you back. But people like you, they need to be tested. They need a challenge.”
There have been a ton of boxing films. They’ve been popular going back to the silent era. Most of them have many of the same themes. But there was always something about Rocky that stood out above all of the rest. That “something” can’t really be described or defined. As the Supreme Court once said about the definition of obscenity: “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.” That’s all you can say about Rocky. Some might call it heart. That’s about as good a word for it as anything else. Rocky himself would call it “stuff in the basement”. It almost demeans it to put a word on it at all. Whatever you call it, you don’t necessarily see it in Rocky … you feel it. Now the first 4 films are out together on UHD Blu-ray in 4K.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 17th, 2023
"Life is not like the movies."
Maybe sometimes life is exactly like the movies. You know the old phrase of art imitating life and that kind of thing. That's exactly the territory that's covered in Steven Spielberg's latest film The Fabelmans. It's an autobiographical film where the names are changed to protect both the guilty and the innocent. It's also the first time that Spielberg has directed his own writing in over 20 years. In those 20 years Spielberg has become something of a moviemaking machine, and I think he felt it was time that the machine walked away from the spotlight for a minute and allowed the man behind the machine to show his face again. It used to be about heart; lately it's been about box office, and more recently it's been about surviving after the hit the industry took with COVID. I think Spielberg had a lot of things to get off his chest, and it looks like he might have found the time and place to do just that. While the film is a love letter to people who still think movies are a kind of wizard's magic, it was also a little bit of therapy for this particular wizard. Like all autobiographies, it's not really finished, and that's the most profound takeaway I had when the film ended.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on February 10th, 2023
This may come to a surprise for some, but there was a time that comic book movies just weren’t taken seriously. We had Richard Donner and his Superman The Movie film, and then there was Tim Burton’s take on Batman. Every other movie that was based on a comic book property was treated as cheesy camp fodder that no one took seriously. Wes Craven’s attempt at adapting Swamp Thing was slightly impressive for the time, but in retrospect I’m just not really a fan of the film despite how much I like the DC character. As for the sequel, The Return of Swamp Thing, I know I’m in the minority when I say how much I enjoy this camp classic. The first Swamp Thing I felt took itself too seriously and was lacking in the fun practical FX department, but to be fair, it also had a low budget and felt the need to be an origin story. Helming the sequel is one of the B-movie workhorses of the industry, Jim Wynorski, who is responsible for the 80s kill-bot classic Chopping Mall. It’s time to return to the bog and deep dive into the camp classic from 1989, The Return of Swamp Thing.
The film wastes no time getting things started when a group of hunters are attacked by Leech Man in the swamp, and it is Swamp Thing (Dick Durock) that comes to the rescue. I’m a fan of these practical FX suits, and just seeing this fun showdown in the film’s opening minutes definitely sets the tone for the rest of the film. If this sequence leaves you groaning and rolling your eyes, well, to be fair, this film just isn’t for you. But if you like your old TOHO man-in-suit battles, and enjoys some goofy B-cinema from Roger Corman or Lloyd Kaufman, then this film you are going to eat up. From the get-go we know this film is very tongue-in-cheek, and sure, I one day want to see a straight-up horror adaptation of the character, but till then, this is what we got.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 24th, 2023
"What about the old American social custom of self-defense? If the police don't defend us, maybe we should do it ourselves."
Vigilante justice has always been a popular subject in our movies, television shows, literature, and even comic books. Batman is nothing more than Bruce Wayne out to get back at criminals like the ones who murdered his parents when he was a kid. Batman is the ultimate vigilante. And let's be honest. Haven't you ever once fantasized that you could cross that line and punish some injustice or another that crossed your path? The subject has been around since stories have been told. There are those landmark tales, however, that for some reason or another reach the soul of the masses. For good or evil? You can decide that for yourself. But one of those iconic vigilante films has to be the original Death Wish with Charles Bronson. There's some extra visceral element that isn't in so many of the imitators, remakes, or even sequels. The film has its own storied origin tale and long history of roadblocks before it ever hit box office gold in 1974.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 16th, 2022
LAIKA Films has produced some amazing movies which have elevated the wonderful world of stop motion animation. Paranorman, Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Missing Link (all underappreciated by mainstream movie audiences). But one movie stands above those fine films and is the one for LAIKA that started it all. Coraline. Today, I received the Steelbook edition (along with Paranorman) in brilliant 4K. I can hardly contain myself. Let's take a look.
As the credits start to roll, we see a doll being undressed as well as un-stitched. Then that doll is filled up with sand and re-stitched. A couple of buttons are carefully selected and hair is sewn-in. It is finally thrust into the world. Hey, that kinda looked like Coraline, who we will meet shortly.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 28th, 2022
I think I see your problem. You have this list. It’s a list of people you need/want to buy a Christmas gift for. The trouble is that they’re into home theatre, and you don’t know Star Trek from Star Wars. You couldn’t tell a Wolf Man from a Wolverine. And you always thought that Paranormal Activity was something too kinky to talk about. Fortunately, Upcomingdiscs has come to the rescue every Christmas with our Gift Guide Spotlights. Keep checking back to see more recommendations for your holiday shopping. These gift guides ARE NOT paid advertisements. We take no money to publish them.
"Maycomb was a tired old town, even in 1932 when I first knew it. Somehow, it was hotter then. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning; ladies bathed before noon, after their 3 o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frosting from sweating and sweet talcum. The day was twenty-four hours long, but it seemed longer. There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go and nothing to buy ... and no money to buy it with. Although Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself ... That summer, I was six years old."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 28th, 2022
"It's opening up all kinds of doors."
Alcatraz Prison was one of the country's most secure facilities for over 60 years. It was built on a rocky island off San Francisco. You couldn't dig through the rock, and the surrounding ocean was cold and heavily populated by sharks big enough to feed off the plentiful seal population. For 60 years no one had successfully escaped the prison. That record was broken in June of 1962 when three inmates, brothers Clarence and John Anglin, escaped with Frank Morris, who was believed to have masterminded the plot. Sixty years later the case remains officially open, and no one knows what happened to the three men. In 1963 J. Campbell Bruce wrote a non-fiction book called Escape From Alcatraz. The book attempted to document all of the serious attempts to escape the prison, which of course included the 1962 escape. The book also called attention to some of the conditions of the prison and was a part of the reason it shut down completely just a year after publication of the book.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 23rd, 2022
Many times when we watch films for the first time, we get distracted. Maybe it's a pretty girl, money issues, or perhaps you had something else on your mind that's hurting your focus. Whatever it is, it can really change your interpretation of a movie in a positive or negative way. One such movie for me is Mystery Men when I saw it in early 2000. Back when rentals were a thing, I remember renting this film and being distracted completely by someone who shall remain nameless. I barely liked the movie and didn't really watch it again until many years later only to realize I liked the film far more than originally thought. Four or five times later, I revisit the film again, this time in glorious 4K. Let's see how it does.
Thunder is rumbling, and we have arrived in the futuristic Champion City. A place of superheroes and supervillains. The scene is a private party with some rich senior citizens. All of a sudden, Big Red (played by Artie Lange) runs in with his gang of bad guys to rob the place. They steal everything in sight; nothing is safe, not even a prosthetic arm. But just when you think nothing can save these wealthy elderly members of society, we have a few heroes who might save the day.
