Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 20th, 2010
Flight Of The Intruder is one of those films that appears and disappears off of the film world radar about as quickly as a stealth bomber. It has had its share of accolades but often passes swiftly into that entertainment night of obscurity. While it is at its core a Vietnam War film, the movie never really appears to be about the war at all. It attempts to capture some of the sartorial wit of Catch 22 while still trying to pass itself off as a serious enough movie. Make no mistake. This film leaves no war cliché unused, particularly in the stilted, sometimes gung-ho dialog of its characters.
Jake "Cool Hand" (Johnson) is a bomber pilot during the Vietnam War. He's stationed on an aircraft carrier. He's growing a bit bored with the missions he's being ordered to fly. Instead of taking out the important military installations he's assigned to, the locations end up being just empty jungle, or worse. Some of them are simply civilian farms and villages. His morale is already pretty rock-bottom when one of these useless missions catches his plane some serious fire and kills his navigator. Now Jake wants to do something worthwhile, not to mention get a little payback on the enemy. Commander Camparelli (Glover) is growing concerned with the emotional state of his pilot. He tries to keep him reined in as best he can. Enter Jake's new navigator Lieutenant Commander Cole (Dafoe). This guy loves combat. He's just volunteered for his third tour of duty. Like Jake, he wants to make some kind of a real difference. Jake convinces him that they should fly an unauthorized mission straight to downtown Hanoi where it is believed there is a stockpile of SAMs (Surface to Air Missiles) that are responsible for bringing down a lot of American planes. They know it's likely a suicide mission and that even if they should survive, a court martial is about the best they can hope for from the service.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 16th, 2010
Remakes are a fact of life. It might seem now more than ever that we are plagued with this reality, but it's been true for a very long time. It's not so new, as you might expect. Even the lauded Cecil B. Demille The Ten Commandments was a remake of his own silent 1923 film. They've existed almost as long as the movies themselves and will continue to exist for the foreseeable future. So, the question should be: Why should a particular film be remade? Often technology catches up with the content in a film. The ability to create on the screen something that was simply impossible originally is a legitimate reason to tackle an older film. Sometimes the movie is so powerful that it bears retelling for a new generation.
But then there are the reasons why a film should not be remade. There are some classics that simply should be off limits forever. Would anyone even dare attempt to remake The Godfather? There are those films that are just not worth being remade. How many versions of Piranha do we really need? Then there are the films that are remade in title only, like the 1999 version of The Thomas Crown Affair.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 15th, 2010
Nearly 10 years before Ben Stiller spent his first Night At The Museum with that eclectic cast of characters, The Relic brought us a much different kind of night at a museum. What comes to life here is anything but playful. There's nothing amusing about this nightmare in a museum. Peter Hyams might be more famous for several other action science fiction films, but none of his works before or since The Relic could claim to be quite so atmospheric. Together with the truly genius invention of creature creator extraordinaire Stan Winston, this is a movie that never quite took its earned spot in the tradition of effective horror or monster movies ... until now. For the first time in high definition thanks to this new Blu-ray release, I feel like I've seen The Relic for the first time. And, you know what? It's a pretty good film.
A cargo ship is found afloat in the middle of Lake Michigan shortly after a scientist has stowed aboard to prevent the delivery of a series of crates. The crates were the result of a Brazilian anthropology expedition for the Museum Of Natural History in Chicago. Now the ship appears deserted until Detective Vincent D'Agosta (Sizemore) boards her to investigate the disappearance of the crew and the bloody signs of a massacre throughout the ship. He makes a gruesome discovery. The crew was all mutilated by someone or something. D'Agosta believes this can only be the work of merciless drug cartel folks. That is, until a decapitation at the museum appears to have parallels to the attacks on the ship. His drug-smuggling theory will be put to the test in his search for the killer, apparently still trapped somewhere in the museum. The investigation is brought to a premature conclusion as city officials pressure him to allow a black tie fundraiser to go on that night. Anyone who's anyone will be there. He reluctantly agrees to green-light the affair, while he and his team attempt to find the killer and keep the patrons safe throughout the night.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 15th, 2010
Holy crap, this movie made a boat load of money for Fox when it came out around Christmas 2006, making $250 million and running second only to the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel for box office money. And to see Ben Stiller finally appear in a film that could be considered a blockbuster success was nice too. And in Night at the Museum, he gets to play Larry, night security guard in the New York Museum of Natural History.
Based on a book by Milan Trenc, the story contains man… of the same qualities of a Jumanji or even a Zathura. Larry takes over for a trio of retiring night guards (played by longtime veterans Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney and Bill Cobbs) at the Museum. What he doesn’t know is that the inhabitants of the museum come to life at night, and he has to make sure that the inhabitants stay in said museum from sunset to sunrise, or else they turn into dust.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 9th, 2010
Growing up in life came a little later for me than most people. Most people seem to hit maturity right around their later teen years and early twenties. Honestly, I didn’t really grow up until I hit my mid twenties. But what would happen if one was forced to grow up sooner, say around their seventeenth birthday? Well then, you might be like Jenny Mellor from An Education who had to grow up a lot sooner than she probably expected to.
It’s 1961 in England. Jenny Mellor (played by Carey Mulligan) is 16 and entering her last year of school. She studies literature, plays the cello and is certain to ace her A-levels and be accepted to Oxford University. Her weakness is currently Latin but she promises to bring up that grade as soon as possible. Or else her father, Jack (played by Alfred Molina) says that she won’t make Oxford.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 7th, 2010
A spaceship crashes. From it emerge a monstrous creature called the Moorwen, and a man, Kainan (Jim Caviezel in Buff Action Mode), who is determined to hunt it down. However, he is promptly captured by vikings and taken to their village, at which point he must convince them of the terrible danger they are in. As it turns out, they don't take much convincing, once the Moorwen attacks.
Analyzing the zeitgeist is always a tricky business. How, for instance, to explain the fact that over the last several years there have been numerous film versions of Beowulf, almost all of the revisionist variety: Eaters of the Dead, Beowulf and Grendel, and now Outlander, to name but three. The newest take has fun with its mix of vikings and SF, and the monster action is good fun. Is anything here groundbreaking? No. But the film keeps its focus on providing the viewer with an exciting ride.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 7th, 2010
A young migrant farmworker raises money for his mother's medicine by prize fighting illegally in an old auto shop. As tensions mount on the farm where he works, he finds himself as a major chess piece in the battle between some Texas fat cats and the Mexican workers on both sides of the border.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 6th, 2010
Maybe the problem is that I just don't get British. I'd like to think I'm just as hip as the rest of you out there, but I'm just not so sure. I mean, I love Monty Python to death, but just could never get Benny Hill. I'm a huge Doctor Who fan from a long time ago, but some of the British science fiction movies and mini-series I've seen of late mostly just leave me scratching my head. It's like everyone in the world is in on this great funny joke and I'm the only one who doesn't get it. I hate feeling that way, but that's exactly what The Reeds left me feeling before it was all over.
A group of 6 friends are on holiday. They're driving some time away from home to enjoy a weekend on a rented boat together. When they get to the Marina, they find out that the boat they reserved is damaged, and there just aren't any others available to let. Well ... that's not exactly true. If the group is willing to drive to another location and pick up a boat left there, they can use it for the weekend. They quickly agree and get directions to the boat. They find the Corsair Star sitting in a marsh with a group of zombie-like stoic kids aboard. They chase them away and commence to start their cruise weekend. They decide to leave the open water and attempt to navigate a narrow passage through a vast plain of reeds. That's when the strange things start to happen. They spot the odd kids again and hotshot aggressive Chris (Mellor) jumps ship to give them a what for. They scatter, leaving a charred dog corpse behind them. Then they get snagged on a metal object that pierces the hull, not to mention Chris. It all goes downhill from there. The group begin to have odd visions, and more and more strange things keep occurring about them.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 6th, 2010
"It's New Year's Eve on the Poseidon. Partying voyagers toast the future. The future comes in a rush; a 150 foot rogue wave flips the cruise ship over. And a struggle to survive begins."
Poseidon doesn’t waste any time getting to the action, so I won’t waste any time with an introduction to this review. Yes, it’s a remake of the 1972 film, The Poseidon Adventure. Yes, it is chock full of convenient cardboard characters (a former Navy man, a fireman, a nurse, etc…). But we don’t watch movies like Poseidon for character exposition, do we?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 31st, 2010
"The year is 208 AD. After 30 years of civil war, a deathly calm has fallen over northern China. One by one the rebel warlords have met their end under the sword of Prime Minister Cao Cao. Now even the Emperor bows before his power. Yet, from the south a challenge is heard. Two leaders rise against Cao Cao's tyranny. The aging Liu Bei and the inexperienced Sun Quam. So Cao Cao petitions the Emperor to brand these men as traitors and declare a new war against the peaceful southlands."
And so the stage is set for John Woo's enormous epic Red Cliff. The scale of this film is simply one that must been experienced to quite understand. It has the grandeur of any of the largest films in Hollywood's history. But this film is not a product of Hollywood. Woo filmed his massive triumph in his native China. You won't find a bigger story told with more elaborate sets or with such a legion of actors, required to bring these historic battles to life. Gladiator. Kingdom Of Heaven. The Ten Commandments. Red Cliff deserves to stand with the best of them, and it will.
![Flight of the Intruder [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/flight-of-the-intruder-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![The Thomas Crown Affair [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-thomas-crown-affair-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![The Relic [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-relic-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Night at the Museum [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/night-at-the-museum-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![An Education [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/an-education-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Poseidon [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/poseidon-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Red Cliff (Theatrical Version) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/red-cliff-theatrical-version-blu-large.jpg)
