The Jester’s Supper
Posted in No Huddle by Dan Holland on May 22nd, 2015
La cena delle beffe, or The Jester’s Supper (1942), is an Italian period drama that was produced in Cinecittà (Cinema City). Before WWII and its aftermath, Italy’s film industry was more like what you would see in Hollywood during the same time. Spanning from the 1930’s to the early 1940’s, this movement was characterized by light comedies and historical films. The Jester’s Supper is no exception, telling a tale of a love triangle, vengeance, and madness. Directed by Alessandro Blasetti, The Jester’s Supper follows
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Contest: Win See You in Valhalla From ARC Entertainment
Posted in Contests by Gino Sassani on May 21st, 2015
Our friends at ARC Entertainment want you to know about their latest release. It’s called See You In Valhalla. It stars Sarah Hyland from Modern Family. A young girl must face some tough secrets when her brother dies and she returns home. It’s a heart-warming tale that also stars Connor O’Farrell, Emma Bell, Bret Harrison and Steve Howley.
To win a copy, just follow these simple instructions.
- Fill out your name and email address in the comment form below – your email address will remain private and visible only to us.
- Do not post your address as an actual comment! Instead tell us – What did you do for your Mom on Mother’s Day?
- Only those comments that answer our question will be considered.
Contest is now closed Winners are Daryl Moad, Melissa Thomas & Gary Smith
Winners are notified by E-mail. If you did not get a confirmation E-mail from us, check your Spam filter and contact us. Any prize not claimed in 2 weeks will be forfeit and be placed in the end of year contests next Holiday Season.
Cymbeline (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on May 21st, 2015
At this point, it’s pretty difficult to find a play by William Shakespeare that hasn’t been produced for the stage or adapted for the screen many times over. So imagine my surprise when I came across Cymbeline, a Shakespearean play I’d never even heard of. (Though maybe that says more about me than it does about the play’s popularity.) Filmmaker Michael Almereyda transplants the action to the present day, but the tablets, cell phones, and other anachronistic touches aren’t enough to inject life into a languid, lurching film that largely squanders a pretty impressive cast.
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American Sniper (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 19th, 2015
“The thing that haunts me are all the guys that I couldn’t save.”
I have to admit I was a little skeptical that Clint Eastwood followed up his directing stint on Jersey Boys as quickly as he did to shoot American Sniper. The former was far from one of his better efforts, and he looked increasingly out of his element by the time it was said and done. He jumped into his preparation for American Sniper almost immediately, and the results could have been…underwhelming. Instead Eastwood hit his target with the kind of profound impact I don’t think I’ve seen from him since Unforgiven. Unforgiven won a Best Picture award, and deservedly so. American Sniper was nominated, although Eastwood himself was snubbed in the director category.
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Duck Dynasty: Season 7
Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on May 19th, 2015
“Meet the Robertson clan. They turned duck calls into a multi-million dollar empire. But running a family business is tough when the family just wants to run wild.”
The Robertson family is quickly becoming the most recognizable family on TV, considering they are flooding the stores with their books, DVD’s, and many other products you can find at Wal-Mart. I can’t help but think this is a family that is doing everything right, and good for them for the success they’ve managed. Seeing a positive reality show is refreshing, and the fact that it’s not filled with backstabbing and manipulation just allows it to stand out from everything else.
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The Pyramid (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on May 19th, 2015
If nothing else, The Pyramid has an intriguing premise. A father-daughter archaeologist team discovers an unusual, three-sided pyramid buried 600 feet underground that might even predate the ancient Egyptians. Essentially, this is Ancient Aliens as a found-footage horror film. Yes…unfortunately, I said “found footage,” a cinematic device that now feels even more decrepit than your garden variety mummy. So while the film’s opening act probably got people like this guy extremely excited, the movie falls apart the deeper the characters descend into the titular pyramid.
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Exclusive Interview With Ry Barrett From The Drownsman
Posted in Podcasts by Gino Sassani on May 19th, 2015
The Drownsman is out from Anchor Bay this week. Sofar I’ve had a chance to talk to the writer/director and one of the actresses on the film. This time I got to talk to The Drownsman himself. Ry Barrett plays Sebastian Donner who is, indeed The Drownsman. I had the chance to talk to Ry about the gig and what it was like wearing all of that “stuff”. Want to know what he said? Bang it here to listen in on my conversation with Ry Barrett
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Boardwalk Empire The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 19th, 2015
“As you know, in less than two hours liquor will be declared illegal by decree of the distinguished gentlemen of our nation’s Congress. To those beautiful, ignorant bastards. Rest assured that, dry though the country may be, I am in the midst of concluding arrangements that will keep Atlantic City wet…”
HBO has finally released a full series set of Boardwalk Empire on Blu-ray. This is an HBO trend that has gone full tilt in the last year, seeing such hits as The Sopranos, True Blood and soon The Wire all coming in wonderful full-series releases. They look great on your video shelf. Together they create a tremendous number of hours of quality television. I love having it all in one place. If you’re new to the show, what better time to climb on board?
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Pitch Perfect 2
Posted in The Reel World by Archive Authors on May 19th, 2015
We all love underdogs. Even if we think we’re the greatest thing since chipped beef on toast, secretly we think we’re the underdog. No matter how great our life is, we don’t think it’s good enough, and everyone’s out to get us. Pitch Perfect was a movie about underdogs, and it was an underdog itself. It was a movie about women, nerds and dorks. Just in case you think I’m being insulting, I actually think all three of those things are great, but they are not always given the respect they deserve. The first movie was thrown out in the marketplace with the expectation that it would starve and die.
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Mortdecai (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 18th, 2015
“A man of your age has no excuse for looking or behaving like a fugitive from a home for alcoholic music hall artistes.”
Sound like anyone you know? Johnny Depp is one hell of a talented actor. There are few in the industry than can so completely inhabit a character. He has an uncanny ability to make you forget Johnny Depp the actor and lose yourself in his performance. He is a chameleon physically and expressively. Unfortunately, Johnny has had trouble finding box office gold lately. You see, he’s having a lot of fun at our expense. But it’s not just we who are footing the bill for his tomfoolery. The studios are handing out hundreds of millions of dollars for box office misses
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Broadchurch: The Complete Second Season
Posted in No Huddle by J C on May 18th, 2015
“Nobody’s innocent. Everyone’s hiding things.”
The citizens of Broadchurch — the fictional seaside town that was rocked by the murder of a young boy in this superlative British crime drama — learned the above lesson the hard way. In fact, I felt pretty strongly that every compelling secret the series had to offer had surfaced during the show’s outstanding first season. So I was pretty dubious when I heard creator/head writer Chris Chibnall had gotten the band back together for an encore. Having now finished season 2, I’m thoroughly delighted to be proven wrong.
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Mad Max Fury Road
Posted in The Reel World by Jeremy Butler on May 15th, 2015
It is one of the most anticipated movies of the summer and another subject in the category of can Tom Hardy do no wrong? Mad Max: Fury Road is the reimagining of the iconic film that helped launch Mel Gibson’s career decades earlier. This is not new territory in Hollywood by any stretch of the imagination; remakes have happened so often in recent years that they have practically become their own genre. However, I would like to point out something that will hopefully set this film aside in the eyes of the audience: how often do you see a remake that is overseen by the creator of the original film that you know and love?
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An Irish Exorcism
Posted in No Huddle by Dan Holland on May 14th, 2015
Once more I dive into the deep chasm that is filled with contemporary, independent exorcism films. Reading the title, An Irish Exorcism, what can be expected of this film? I was hoping for the film to bring focus to what it means for an exorcism to be “Irish.” Do Irish Catholics perform exorcisms differently than other Catholics? Is there a world-famous exorcist who travels to Ireland in order to succeed in saving a child’s life, where countless priests have failed? Wherever your imagination takes you after reading the title is a step toward a more creative film. The only thing that sets An Irish Exorcism apart from other cookie-cutter exorcism films is that it is set in Ireland.
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The Cobbler (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on May 14th, 2015
“To truly know a man, you must walk in his shoes.”
On the lone special feature of any substance included on this Blu-ray, director/co-writer Thomas McCarthy admits The Cobbler was inspired by the well-known idiom listed above. I’m all for getting as many original ideas on the big screen as possible. But even if you don’t think basing a feature film on a popular saying is a shaky proposition, The Cobbler severely underwhelms because it totally fails to capitalize on its high-concept premise in an intriguing way.
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Exclusive Interview With Caroline Palmer From The Drownsman
Posted in Podcasts by Gino Sassani on May 13th, 2015
The Drownsman is now out from Anchor Bay. This time I talked with Caroline Palmer. Caroline made her feature film debut with The Drownsman. I had a great time talking with her. Now you can find out what we talked about. Bang it here to listen in on my talk with Caroline Palmer.
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The Midnight Special (3DVD)
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on May 13th, 2015
If you were around in 1972, television was a very different place. By midnight most stations were shutting down to the tune of the national anthem. After that there was a test pattern and a high-pitched ring that would fill your screen until dawn when programming would resume. Of course, there were also only three networks, and, if you were lucky enough to live in a large market, a handful of local stations. All good people were expected to be safely tucked into their beds long before 1:00 AM. It was a very different world from today when we get 24-hour programming on over 200 stations or more
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Lost River (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on May 13th, 2015
Lost River is the showy, laborious, mystifying feature filmmaking debut of actor/meme machine Ryan Gosling. Unfortunately, you’re more likely to have heard about the intensely negative reaction the movie received when it premiered at Cannes last year, than you are to have actually seen the film. Lost River now arrives on a bare bones Blu-ray that does little to clear up — or enhance — Gosling’s first foray into directing. So we’re left to assume he simply decided to make a movie out of his dream journal.
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Welcome Dustin P. Anderson To The Upcomingdiscs Team
Posted in Site News by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2015
Join me in welcoming Dustin P. Anderson to the Upcomingdiscs family. We’ve been doing some growing at Upcomingdiscs. I think Dustin is going to be a big part of that growth. He’s been doing reviews for a while and we’re lucky to have him here with us. His first review is up for your enjoyment.
Tanked: Season 2
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2015
“If you can dream it, we can build it.”
That’s the motto of Wayde King and Brett Raymer of Acrylic Tank Manufacturing (ATM). They are two guys from Brooklyn who moved to Vegas where they started ATM. Why they couldn’t do it in Brooklyn isn’t ever mentioned. Must be the high taxes. The duo claim that they are the number one tank aquarium manufacturers in the United States. That likely doesn’t include the mass-produce guys like All-Glass. Still, from what I’ve seen here, there’s no question these guys are good.
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Unfriended
Posted in The Reel World by Archive Authors on May 12th, 2015
by Dustin P. Anderson
The entirety of this movie is shot from the perspective of our main protagonist’s (Blaire) computer screen. Her friends start a video conference, and they are soon haunted by the memory of their friend who committed suicide due to cyber bullying (and I guess some regular bullying too). Her friends start dying from forced suicide (or suicide from being possessed by a spirit), and they must play this spirit’s game in order to survive. I was pretty excited to see if this movie could accomplish being scary from a bold new way of filmmaking.
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Exclusive Interview With Chad Archibald – Writer/Director Of The Drownsman
Posted in Podcasts by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2015
Leatherface. Michael Myers. Jason. Freddy Kruger. Look out, boys. There’s a new face in the game. The Drownsman is like a horror day at your favorite water park. This is a water world even Kevin Costner can’t sink. His name is Sebastian Donner and he’s coming at you in Anchor Bay’s new horror release: The Drownsman. I had a chance to talk to writer/director Chad Archibald about his wet new creation. It’s absolutely worth a listen. Bang it here to listen in on my chat with Chad Archibald.
The Barber (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2015
“It’s the guy next door, guy who sits too close in the theater, maybe even at church. Plain, ordinary, the everyday man. That’s the guy they should be afraid of. ‘Cause they never see him coming.”
Or maybe the friendly neighborhood barber. Max Enscoe’s screenplay for The Barber appears to touch on those fears. We’ve all seen those interviews with neighbors and friends after a particularly heinous killer is finally caught. He was quiet. Always went to church.
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Black Or White (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 12th, 2015
There are certain things that are obvious to some of us, and nobody wants to talk about them. All people are full of weaknesses that they then try to deny exist. People are people, but some people think they are better than other people. It seems obvious that we should all try to get over our hatred and be more accepting of all our differences and see how much alike we all are. Black or White is an important movie that comes in the form of a fun and heartwarming melodrama. The movie navigates through very murky and unexplored waters and comes out the other side triumphantly.
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Welcome New Upcomingdiscs Reviewer Deborah Bostock-Kelley
Posted in Site News by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2015
Join me in welcoming Deborah Bostock-Kelley to the Upcomingdiscs family. You might have seen her work in the Tampa Trib. She’s an accomplished writer and event producer. You can check her work for The Write One Creative Services. Look for her review work right here at Upcomingdiscs. Her first review is up right now.
Tracers (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on May 11th, 2015
“It’s like being kids again. The streets are our playground.”
The above quote refers to parkour, the art and discipline of moving through urban spaces that was popularized in France. French practitioners of parkour are called “traceurs,” which gives this totally clichéd, consistently ridiculous, but occasionally breathtaking action flick its title. You’ve seen the plot before (many times), but Tracers still vaults itself above the straight-to-DVD pack thanks to its freewheeling free-running sequences.
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