Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on September 16th, 2013
Half of this story deals with a group of teenage faeries, who are smitten with some cute boys from a neighbouring magical kingdom, trying to connect with said boys. The other half deals with this same group of faeries and boys fighting against a trio of evil witches trying to steal all of the world's “positive magic.” In both halves there is a lot of girlish giggling, butterfly fluttering and sparkly colours....the enemy of any diabetic epileptic.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on September 12th, 2013
Modernizing Sherlock Holmes has been a popular trend in film and television lately. We have seen two slick action film adaptations courtesy of Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes and its sequel), a contemporary BBC adaptation (Sherlock) and now there is Elementary, which transplants Sherlock Holmes and his loyal companion Watson from Victorian Era England to modern USA (New York, more specifically).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 26th, 2013
Any story about a hidden world that exists just outside the view of human eyes is bound to fire up your imagination. It helps explain why the Toy Story movies and Monsters Inc. are some of the most beloved family films of the last 20 years. Epic — the latest offering from Blue Sky Studios — seeks to capture some of the inventive magic of those Pixar films, but too much of the movie winds up playing out like a generic hero’s journey. Thankfully, there are still plenty of things to like in this animated hit, which suggests there’s a big world of little people out there.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on August 25th, 2013
Chicago Law firm Lockhart & Gardner is facing bankruptcy so each attorney works harder to reel in high profile clients so that they can save themselves from being sold, or shut down. Meanwhile Alicia Florrick (played by Juliana Margulies), who is an attorney at this firm, is caught amidst her husbands election campaign for the office of governor, as well as the temptation to become either an Equity partner in her current firm, or leave to be a name partner in a brand new one.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on August 17th, 2013
For nine seasons and several TV-movies afterwards, Raymond Burr was Los Angeles based defense attorney Perry Mason. This character’s verbal gymnastics, and uncanny hounding for evidence makes his famous winning streaks seem not just plausible but rather entertaining to behold. His adventures have been well-reviewed by myself and my reviewing compadre Gino on this very site (https://upcomingdiscs.com/?s=perry+mason).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on August 17th, 2013
It is very common for Nickelodeon to release these sorts of compilation sets. Previously I had covered their themes of Learning the ABCs as well as their Christmas release (as found here: https://upcomingdiscs.com/?s=nickelodeon). This time we get 6 different Nick Jr. programs focusing on the "Wild West" (aka, country music, cowboys hats and horses).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on August 17th, 2013
Best known as the launch point for Michael J Fox's career (along with a major booster from the Back to the Future films), Family Ties was a decently delightful series that may now be mostly remembered via the many references placed into Family Guy (creator Seth MacFarlane has noted it as one of his all time favourites). It has been previously covered very well on this site, which can be found at this link: https://upcomingdiscs.com/?s=family+ties
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on August 2nd, 2013
I’ll say this about a program that has remained consistent in quality for twenty seasons…it makes for challenging reviews. Talking about each season of Gunsmoke is difficult in that you either write briefly to try to avoid redundancies, but might seem too hasty, or you have to labour over each episode, in which case, you’re only going to have hardcore fans paying attention. Since this website has touched on previous seasons: ( https://upcomingdiscs.com/?s=gunsmoke ) I shall opt for the former option, and hope y’all out there catch that I’m not being hasty…but respect a show that warrants no fresh complaints after 9 years a-runnin’ thus far.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on August 1st, 2013
This is the third stab at making an animated series about these radical reptiles. This lone DVD acts as a sampler of seven episodes taken from the middle of its first season, instead of the complete season set. (A common move from Nickelodeon.) These episodes introduce the characters well enough that it will make you curious to see more of what this series has to offer.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 25th, 2013
I don’t care if it makes me sound like an awful human being, but I wanted The Demented to be much nastier than it actually was. The packaging for this straight-to-Blu-ray offering trumpets the fact that it’s “from a co-producer of A Nightmare on Elm Street” and producer Steven Monroe, who directed the I Spit on Your Grave remake. Since I’m not delusional, I didn’t expect this film to be nearly as good as a horror classic like Elm Street. But I also didn’t think it was unreasonable to expect the competent thrills of the Spit remake. Instead, the filmmakers have given us a sub-SyFy gloss on 28 Days Later... and dozens of other (infinitely superior) horror movies.
