Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on February 4th, 2016
– “Justice is not about popularity…” – “…but politics is.” The title of Show Me a Hero is taken from an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote: “Show me a hero, and I’ll write you a tragedy.” So it’s not a surprise that in the hands of David Simon — creator of an all-time great drama with […]
Posted in No Huddle by J C on February 1st, 2016
My first All Hallows’ Eve experience was an unexpected fright delight. The 2013 horror film featured a trio of stories tied together by a creepy clown and a familiar “babysitter-in-peril” plot line; it was a fun, unsettling, and grungy throwback to low-budget scares. So you can’t blame me for actually being pretty excited when I […]
Posted in Contests, Tuesday Round Up by J C on November 3rd, 2015
Avast ye mateys! We’re stepping out of the UpcomingDiscs ranch and testing our sea legs with Anchor Bay’s Black Sails: Season 2. Magnolia Home Entertainment lets us tour Tiger House and debates the Best of Enemies. Paramount is feeling Moody with Californication: The Complete Series, while Cinedigm earns its wings with Paper Angels and samples […]
Posted in Contests, Tuesday Round Up by J C on October 27th, 2015
We’re nearing the end of “Horrorcane” season here at UpcomingDiscs, so what better time to exorcise some last-minute demons? Strap yourself — or a possessed loved one — to the nearest piece of furniture, and check out our forthcoming review on The Exorcism of Molly Hartley, courtesy of Fox. Wild Eye Releasing tunes into The […]
Posted in Contests, Tuesday Round Up by Gino Sassani on October 20th, 2015
Howdy there, partners. Gino back in the Tuesday Round Up rotation. This time Johnny caught me asleep down at the bunkhouse, and now I’m pullin’ double duty tonight. That’s OK. I’m gettin’ him back later. I have a pretty good reptile collection here on the Upcomingdiscs Ranch, and I’m pickin’ out a special sleepin’ buddy […]
Posted in Contests, Tuesday Round Up by J C on October 13th, 2015
Ready to get Rocked? Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson headlines this week’s Tuesday Round Up, and he’s here to shake things up with Warner Bros.’ earthquake disaster hit San Andreas. Warner also hangs out at The Gallows, counts to The 100: Season 2, and develops quite The Following: Season 3. Shout! Factory answers our prayers with The Saint: Seasons […]
Posted in Tuesday Round Up by J C on October 6th, 2015
I can’t think of a more fitting way to kick off the first Tuesday Round Up of October than with the monster mayhem of Paramount’s Penny Dreadful: Season 2. And speaking of mayhem, the Showtime series is part of a whopping 26(!) titles making their debut today that we’ll be reviewing on this site very soon. […]
Posted in Tuesday Round Up by J C on September 29th, 2015
This week brings with it a lighter load than we’ve become accustomed to here at the UpcomingDiscs ranch. I’m thinking Liv, the undead heroine of iZombie, must’ve gobbled up some of our offerings. (Or at least the UPS guy who was supposed to deliver them.) Nevertheless, iZombie: Season 1 from Warner Bros. — which also […]
Posted in No Huddle by J C on August 19th, 2015
Discovery Channel’s annual Shark Week extravaganza is billed as “cable’s longest-running programming event.” The summertime ritual premiered in 1988, and its longevity is a testament to viewers’ enduring fascination with the majestic, sharp-toothed creatures. Of course, the flip side of that longevity is that coming up with new material each year is increasingly difficult. As […]
Posted in No Huddle by J C on August 17th, 2015
The Killing will leave behind two lasting legacies: it’s the show that wouldn’t die, and it could never quite stick the landing. The bleak crime drama drew intense criticism after failing to resolve its central mystery at the end of season 1, and was canceled by AMC after wrapping up the Rosie Larsen case in […]
Posted in The Reel World by J C on June 5th, 2015
“If you call out to one of the dead, all of them can hear you.” This lesson is very familiar to anyone who has seen either of the first two Insidious films, a pair of old-fashioned (no sex, no gore), highly-profitable chillers. Of course, a potential problem for this third installment was that the characters […]
Posted in No Huddle by J C on December 15th, 2014
“Screw you, it’s ‘Merry Christmas!’” A decent chunk of Jeff Dunham’s Very Special Christmas Special is devoted to taking back the most wonderful time of the year from anyone who insists on saying “Happy Holidays” instead of daring to utter the C-word. The wildly successful comic certainly knows his audience, and the live crowd here […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on November 19th, 2014
Laughing out loud and getting startled out of your wits are two of the most visceral reactions you can have as a moviegoer. For a director to elicit either reaction is challenging enough, which is why I was so delighted to be feeling both during the thrilling, funny finale of Housebound. It’s an even more […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on November 12th, 2014
Welcome to the Space Show looks like what would happen if you combined Steven Spielberg’s E.T. — or the openly-Spielbergian Super 8 and Earth to Echo — with the boundless imagination and quirky charms of anime. The result here is intermittently dazzling, but this particular kid-friendly alien adventure is ultimately less than the sum of […]
Posted in The Reel World by J C on October 11th, 2014
It’s October, which means there’s probably a new, spine-tingling offering coming at you every day. (That’s certainly the case here at UpcomingDiscs.) Kill the Messenger — a thoroughly compelling, true-life drama that channels the crusading spirit of All the President’s Men and The Insider — is no one’s idea of a horror movie. Unless you’re […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on August 26th, 2014
“Could you please reduce your level of hysteria?” There is a lot of yelling and a lot of outrage in The Normal Heart. The film chronicles the confusing, terrifying onset of the HIV-AIDS crisis in the early 1980s and how a group of gay men (and one intrepid doctor) in New York fought to draw […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on August 19th, 2014
It’s kind of astounding that it took this long for somebody to revisit Rosemary’s Baby. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not suggesting Roman Polanski’s indelible 1968 adaptation of Ira Levin’s 1967 novel was crying out for a remake. It’s just that at this point you’d be hard pressed to find any horror classic — or […]
Posted in No Huddle by J C on June 30th, 2014
What happens when you splice together the killer-couple kicks of Bonnie and Clyde and Natural Born Killers with the ritualistic depravity of torture porn offerings like Hostel and Saw? I’m not really sure who — if anyone — was looking for an answer to that particular question, but that didn’t stop Scavenger Killers from going […]
Posted in No Huddle by J C on May 21st, 2014
“You just never know who’s gonna be at the door.” A virginal babysitter with bad cell phone reception is terrorized by a masked killer in Mischief Night. You don’t have to be a gorehound to know this is basically the plot of every slasher movie ever made. So it’s natural for viewers to expect some […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on April 16th, 2014
“You show up late reeking of booze, handcuffed to a stripper, and you expect me to trust your judgment?” Even though we’re more than three years removed from his tiger blood heyday, it’s still impossible to separate Charlie Sheen’s bad off-screen behavior from the sitcom work he (somehow) cranks out every week. The latest example […]
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on February 13th, 2014
“You know, the smallest thing can change your life. In the blink of an eye, something happens by chance, when you least expect it, sets you on a course that you never planned into a future you never imagined. Where will it take you? That’s the journey of our lives. Our search for the light… […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on February 6th, 2014
“Don’t try to figure this out…I’m just a crazy, horny bitch.” This column strongly opposes cheating on your significant other. But if you absolutely can’t help yourself, you’ve got to be smarter about it than the numbskull played by Billy Zane in this film. In Scorned — a junky, over-the-top cross between Fatal Attraction and […]
Posted in No Huddle by J C on January 7th, 2014
We all know looks can be deceiving, but Voodoo Possession takes that notion to the extreme. Almost nothing about the film’s DVD cover art correlates to what you’ll actually see on screen. Cult favorite Danny Trejo gets top billing despite playing a largely inconsequential role in the story. (You know a movie’s in trouble when […]
Posted in The Reel World by J C on September 13th, 2013
“Personally, I prefer the ghosts to people.” The biggest reason Insidious became a surprise smash was because of its astoundingly straightforward and effective approach to delivering scares. The 2011 film came at the height of the “found footage” craze (and counted Paranormal Activity mastermind Oren Peli as one of its producers), yet it managed to resist […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on March 11th, 2013
On paper, pro wrestlers are the perfect action movie stars. Their beefy frames and larger-than-life personalities should make them naturals at kicking butt on the big screen, plus the performers are certainly familiar with choreographed combat. (This is the part where I planned to mention that wrestling is fake, but I don’t want to make anybody cry.) Even though Arnold, […]
