Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 1st, 2016
“I guess I’m just not used to being chased around a mall in the middle of the night by killer robots.”
It’s October, and that means it’s the start of 31 Nights of Terror, and this year we’re kicking things off with one of my guilty pleasures growing up, Chopping Mall. This came out at a time when slashers were pretty much a dying genre, but there was still a demand to have horror films up on the big screen. I never got to see this in theaters, but I remember the VHS box art from my local mom-and-pop video store. The idea of the robotic hand clutching a shopping bag with a head on it was something that gripped the teenager in me.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 30th, 2016
“A creature that gestates inside a living human host…and has concentrated acid for blood.”
If you're a fan of sci-fi, horror, or action films, chances are you're also intimately familiar with the creature at the center of the Alien franchise. Ridley Scott's 1979 original is a masterpiece of space horror, so it would've been foolish for any follow-up to try and replicate the same formula. Instead, James Cameron's classic sequel succeeds by transplanting an entirely new genre into the series (Aliens is basically a war movie) while maintaining the sense of terror that made its predecessor a classic. You can get a fresh look for yourself now that Fox has released a 30th Anniversary Edition.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Dan Holland on September 26th, 2016
When it comes to titles from Blizzard Entertainment, I was always more into the Starcraft and Diablo franchises. I played World of Warcraft (WoW) for a small period of time when it became a popular MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), but my interest in the game quickly died. The aesthetics were a little too cartoony for my liking, plus, you paid for a subscription. Regardless, I am just one fan of Blizzard: WoW caught on like wildfire. I still know people who are playing the game to this day.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 22nd, 2016
Growing up I was obsessed with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series; it was the Saturday morning cartoon I just couldn’t get enough of. When I couldn’t watch the cartoon, I’d be playing with the toys and eventually the video game back in the original Nintendo console days. So when the movies came out, my parents had no choice but to take me to see them. Back in those days we had the turtles in rubber suits; as a kid the experience was fun but still just not as good as the cartoon. As I got older, well, those original films seem to hold up less and less, and when the news came that an updated version of the film would be coming out I got a little excited, that is till I saw the trailer for the 2014 film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 22nd, 2016
“Does doing things the legal way really make it better?”
Since movies are at their core a form of escapism, they have a way of glamorizing anyone who violently slashes through the red tape of the criminal justice system. It helps explain the enduring appeal of vigilante/revenge movies and it's probably why we're meant to root for the charitable bank robbers in Marauders. While the movie contains some cool flashes of style and occasionally bumps up against some interesting ideas about justice, it ultimately gets way too bogged down in red herrings and pointless subplots.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 20th, 2016
Victor Garber appears to me a man of extremes, at least in his climate preferences. Of course, the actor was aboard James Cameron's ill-fated Titanic when it struck an iceberg before Leonardo DiCaprio dies because he was too stupid to climb aboard a huge floating door. On television recently, Garber jumps to nuclear fire as one half of the superhero Firestorm in the DC television universe. For this release, actually filmed a few years ago he heads back to the ice, and not just any ice. This time Victor Garber narrates an IMAX documentary called Wonders Of The Arctic. Shout Factory has released the documentary as part of their impressive IMAX titles in 4K on UHD Blu-ray.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 16th, 2016
Scuba diving is the closest thing I've ever experienced to being on an alien world. Everything around you looks and feels totally different from what we see on land. Even our relationship to gravity changes. There's nothing like it on this Earth. The ocean is a diverse place and quite resilient. The Last Reef makes this point rather dramatically in the opening minutes of the documentary. It begins with a newsreel that takes us to the nuclear explosion experiments that were conducted off the Bikini Islands in 1946. Yes, that's where the swimsuit got its name. The Islands were making the newsreels because of the tests.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 15th, 2016
"This is encouraging."
For the first time in a long while, the Winchester Brothers end and begin a season together. Dean's just had the Sign of Cain removed, and the cost is the approaching darkness. I'm not talking a little storm blowing through. Here in Florida we know all about that kind of darkness. No. This is The Darkness, and it's the big bad for season 11 of Supernatural. You heard that correctly. We're talking 11 years with number 12 arriving any day now. Once again it's "end of days" kind of stakes, and we have another season to save the universe.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 15th, 2016
"Going on down to South Park and meet some friends of mine."
After 20 years or more, they really do feel like friends. I've known Cartman, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny longer than most real people in my life. Only the Simpsons have been around longer these days. Over those years South Park has always been a series of stories that rarely connect with each other in any significant way. There have been multi-part episodes, and certain experiences have come back up over the years. Still, we're talking about a universe where killing Kenny had become a running joke and happened pretty much in every episode.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 14th, 2016
“Accidental president...that's what they'll say.”
Lyndon Baines Johnson became the 36th President of the United States under the most tumultuous circumstances imaginable. Besides being thrust into office after the shattering assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Johnson had to immediately contend with multiple political crises. Most notably, LBJ faced pressure from several different fronts as he worked to pass what eventually became the Civil Rights Act of 1964. All The Way, buoyed by a funny and ferocious lead performance, offers a thought-provoking and entertaining look at a truly complex figure.
