Posted in: Super Round Up by Gino Sassani on February 26th, 2019
Howdy Pards. Last week we didn't have a lot to share with you so we stayed down at the bunkhouse on Tuesday. Things are still quiet this time of the year but we have a few things coming your way. In fact some of it's already here. Walt Disney Studios lets us go sleepin' with the fishes in the 30th anniversary Blu-ray of The Little Mermaid along with some fun and games as Ralph Breaks The Internet on Blu-ray. Congrats to Rami Malek for his Oscar playing Freddie Mercury but Universal has a different kind of queen with their Mary Queen Of Scots on UHD and that's 4K here on the ranch. Monarch Home Entertainment goes invisible with The Unseen out on DVD. Sony Pictures takes control of our screens with The Possession Of Hannah Grace on DVD. On the big screen Focus Features names the thriller Greta for a reel world review this Friday.
And, Partners, don't forget. If you'll be making that video withdrawal from Amazon, lasso yourself one of our many links to get there. It helps keep us going here on the Upcomingdiscs ranch. Until next week, share some light with someone this week... television light, that is. Now let's get those titles rollin'!
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 26th, 2019
All good things must come to an end, and so it was at Walt Disney Studios. The Golden Age of feature film animation had started with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. By the end of the 1970's, it was all but gone. As the studio entered the 1980's the things had gone from bad to worse. Walt was gone, and so it seemed was the magic. Most of The Nine Old Men had either retired or passed away. The studio leadership was considering closing the animated studio and moving on to live-action films only. It was a dark time for the artists and creative folks at the Mouse House. A shadow had fallen. Sounds pretty much like the beginning of a Tolkien tale, doesn't it?
Enter a new regime. Michael Eisner became the new head of the company, and Jeffrey Katzenberg teamed up with Walt's brother Roy Disney to head the new studio. The first thing they did was banish the animation studios from the Disney lot and set them up in warehouse-like trailers in the middle of industry nowhere. It looked like the axe had finally fallen. But the exile turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to this new generation of Disney talent. Under the new leadership the creative forces banded together and began to do something they hadn't in a long time. They began to dream once again.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 26th, 2019
Ralph Breaks the Internet is a sequel to the hit Disney animated film Wreck it Ralph. In Ralph Breaks the Internet, we follow our heroes from the last movie, Ralph and Vanellope, as they travel the internet in search of a broken part for Vanellope’s arcade game. They find the missing steering controller on eBay, and it’s the last one in existence. Up for auction, they give the winning bid for $27,000. They now must find a way to earn the money to pay for the controller with a deadline in five hours, or they will lose Vanellope’s game forever. Ralph Breaks the Internet is a painfully average film, and compared to its predecessor, a huge disappointment. This sequel wasn’t bad, however, but it wasn’t too great either. There’s one big problem I had with this movie, and it’s Ralph. Ralph in the first movie had already gone through his character arc and was a very well developed character by the end of the film. In this movie it feels like they purposely broke the character just for a story line. Ralph in Ralph Breaks the Internet is now a needy, clingy, and annoying character. Throughout the movie Ralph is constantly holding Vanellope back from doing the things she wants to do to save herself. People who relate to her should start to feel how annoying Ralph can be.
Ralph was not the only problem I had with this movie. There is also a major plot hole that’s impossible to overlook. It doesn’t make sense that Ralph was able to leave his game for over 24 hours without it being infected by a bug. After all, he’s literally the bad guy in the game Fix-It-Felix, Jr., so how come nobody noticed he was missing? It wouldn’t be that bad of a plot hole except for the fact that Ralph being away from his game was the whole conflict in the first movie. You would think the writers and filmmaker would have noticed this, but I guess not.
Posted in: The Reel World by Jeremy Butler on February 22nd, 2019
It is surreal to know less about a subject than your six-year-old daughter, but that was the case going into How to Train Your Dragon: Hidden World. Aside from a knowledge of this franchise’s existence, I knew next to nothing about the films as a whole. My daughter, Nalyce, on the other hand turned out to be a subject matter expert about the series, as well as he television series, apparently. It was quite the role reversal having her explain to me significance of Hiccup and his dragon Toothless. Also, it gave us something to bond over, which was further expanded upon thanks to the opportunity to take her with me to this screening. For me, I found the film to be a wholesome family experience and a satisfactory conclusion to a well-liked franchise, though I’m sure there remains the opportunity for expansion of the film’s universe. Nalyce was mesmerized by the Hidden World and the different species of dragons. All in all, this is a treat for the whole family.
The film picks up after the events of the previous film with Hiccup embracing his role as the chief of Berk and its citizens. Along with his Night Fury dragon Toothless, and aided by his closest companion, he has taken the mission of liberating captured dragons from poachers. Though his actions are noble, this mission is creating a strain on Berk, as it is resulting in overcrowding as well as depleting their resources. Seeking a solution to this issue, Hiccup recalls a tale his father told him as a boy about a hidden world where all dragons originate from. He becomes determined to find his world so that his people and their dragons can live in harmony away from the threat of poachers.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by John Delia on February 22nd, 2019
"Three months ago, I was cutting grass on my front yard. The mailman shows up with a letter from the army. Now I'm here, and no idea where I'm going to end up."
Wow, another gut-wrenching action-packed war film that takes on an ominous shroud of terror. It’s perfect for war buffs and horror fans who just can’t seem to get enough. The film Overlord from J.J. Abrams, the producer of the Cloverfield series, takes off in five minutes of absolute madness; then turns its guns on the Nazis as a squad of paratroopers look to complete a battalion saving mission. I loved every minute of the fast-moving film, and it brought back memories of the recent Trench 11 (2017). If you like this one, check that one out for the fun of it.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on February 22nd, 2019
It was 1985 when The Key to Rebecca first aired. It was a made-for-TV film based on the novel by Ken Follett. I had never heard of the film until a couple of days ago and had no knowledge of the book, so I was pretty much going into this with nothing more than the blurb you can read off the back of the DVD box. The one thing that jumped out at me was the running time on the film: 3 hours and 14 minutes, so one thing I knew was it would be a film I’d be spending a decent amount of time with. I have nothing against long film. I don’t care what the runtime is on a film, just so long as the film is good, and unfortunately The Key to Rebecca didn’t turn out to be the suspense-filled spy film I had hoped it would be.
The film takes place during the 2nd World War and is set in Cairo, Egypt. It’s in the middle of the desert; where the film opens up and we see Alex Wolff (David Soul) is being rescued. It doesn’t take long before we discover that Wolff is working as a spy whose purpose is to supply information to the Nazis as they prepare to advance into Egypt and seize control. This is where Maj. Vandam (Cliff Robertson) comes in. Basically he is a spy hunter, and after it is discovered that a spy is responsible for the murder of a British soldier, he is put to task to find the spy and uncover his mission. It’s a fun setup, but with a 3-hour-plus running time, there is so much padding to this story that it loses its punch.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on February 20th, 2019
When I first heard that Bradley Cooper would be making his directing debut with A Star is Born, honestly, I kind of groaned. It’s not because I didn’t believe he’d have the chops; after all, he’s worked with many successful directors over the span of his career. I groaned because I believed the world didn’t need yet another remake of the film. This will be the fourth incarnation of the film, and while many can debate on which version is their favorite, the film was pretty much a relic I felt should have stayed in the past. I mention this and want to also put it out there that even after some of the trailers I had caught for the film, my excitement level was pretty low going into this. Well, this turned out to be the sleeper hit of the year for me. Sure, many could have told me this would be a hit, and because of the cast I wouldn’t dispute it, but when I walked out of the auditorium I felt like I had experienced something special (even if it had been made three times before).
The film opens with Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) taking the stage and performing for a large crowd. After his show he’s looking to get a drink and stops off at the closest bar; as it turns out it is one that caters to drag queens. Jackson doesn’t care about the location; all he’s interested in is getting some drinks, but that all changes when he sees Ally (Lady Gaga) perform on stage. As the night stretches on and the two continue to get to know one another, one thing is undeniable; the chemistry between Cooper and Gaga is phenomenal. The flow of the first act of this film is perfect, and by the time Maine has Ally convinced to go on tour with him, I was convinced this movie would be a box office smash.
Posted in: The Reel World by Jeremy Butler on February 20th, 2019
If you look at the box office rankings for last week, you will undoubtably see Alita: Battle Angel occupying the number one slot, and with good reason. I know what you are thinking: last week is being heralded as one of the worst box office performances for a Presidents’ Day weekend, but that does not damper my opinion of the film. Though it took a second for me to gain traction with the series, as I was unfamiliar with the original source material, I found myself treated to a unique action-packed experience. Alita is unquestionably one of the top action films of 2019. I know it’s early, but I have no reason to doubt that my claim will be just as true as the year continues. I would have liked it a bit more if they expanded on the universe slightly more, but it was still a solid opening for the inevitable franchise.
By the year 2563, the world has been ravaged by a catastrophic war known as “The Fall,” dividing the population, high-born members of society reside in a sky city known as Zalem, while low-born people live underneath in the junkyard metropolis known as Iron City. Many low-born people have cybernetic limbs and enhancements. One day cyborg surgeon Dr. Dyson Ido discovers a disembodied female cyborg with a fully intact human brain. Providing it with a body, the cyborg returns to life but does not remember her former life or her own name. Naming it Alita, Ido takes the cyborg and raises it like a daughter.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on February 20th, 2019
American Vandal is a mockumentary series that premiered on Netflix back in 2017. For those unfamiliar with the term “mockumentary,” it is a parody film or television series in the format of a documentary. This particular series is a parody of the Netflix series Making a Murderer and a investigative podcast called Serial. American Vandal has been on my radar for quite some time thanks to a friend of mine that sang its praise for weeks, trying to convince me of the show’s merit. My buddy’s recommendation had me intrigued, but as you can imagine my queue of media content is a long one, and I was waiting for inspiration to strike to push the series to the front of the queue (thank you, Upcomingdiscs). First thing I did after watching the series is call up my friend and let him deliver his “I told you so” speech.
The series follows two student investigative reporters, Peter Maldonado and Sam Ecklund, as they begin to investigate an act of vandalism that left 27 faculty cars defaced with phallic images. Following the incident, class clown Dylan Maxwell is quickly deemed to be responsible and promptly expelled. Dylan is a notorious prankster, and his prior history of drawing phallic images makes his guilt a forgone conclusion. However, as Peter and Sam begin to examine the evidence more closely, Dylan’s culpability becomes less clear.
Posted in: Uncategorized by Gino Sassani on February 20th, 2019
Kirk Taylor is an artist with many talents. He's an actor who can be found on such films as Oliver Stone's Full Metal Jacket and television shows ranging from Law & Order to Chicago Hope. He's an acting coach, musician and composer. He's living proof that an actor of faith can still make his mark in the entertainment industry. His latest appearance is as Cephas (Peter) in the film Revival! along with Chaka Khan and Mali Music. It's a retelling of The Gospel According To John that's part Jesus Christ Superstar and part classical stage production. It's a film that's hard to nail down. But I decided to give it a try and that led to an interesting conversation with Kirk Taylor. There's a passion for his art and faith that is very evident in his conversation. You don't have to take my word for it. Bang it hear to listen in on my conversation with Kirk Taylor.
Find out more about the film here: Revival: The Movie
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