Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 30th, 2018
Criminal Minds is about to enter its 14th season, and unlike some of the other long-running shows on CBS, this one has had a fair share of bad luck. Cast members have gone, and even returned after a couple of years. A year ago the show's top star gets fired for physically threatening people on the set. The series has had two attempts to spin off, but unlike CSI or NCIS, neither show could get out of its second year alive. Not even Gary Sinise could save the franchise. It's understandable that as the series went into its 13th year, fans were just asking themselves what can go wrong now. It turns out that 13 was a lucky year for Criminal Minds. There weren't any big cast shakeups, and the show has gotten back its legs and delivered one of the better years of its run. If you've been away hoping for the show to get back on track, this is the season for you to rejoin.
While no one appears to be leaving after this season, year 13 brought in a couple of the characters from Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, and unfortunately, none of them was named Sinise. It turns out to be a case of good news and bad news for the BAU team. The bad news comes in the guise of Kim Rhodes, who played the rather nasty assistant Director Linda Barnes. She spent a few weeks on the spinoff and joins here as an internal threat to the team. She's out to break them up. Her episodes bring a lot of team tension to the show, and she's pretty much like a threat from within. Fortunately, she isn't long for the show, and we get back to the traditional storytelling. Kim Rhodes is actually a pretty good actress, and many fans know her best as Sheriff Jody Mills from Supernatural, where she almost had her own spinoff of that show.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 30th, 2018
You can’t call your TV show Masters of Sex and not expect to elicit a few chuckles. (You also can’t be surprised if people go looking for it on Skinemax Cinemax rather than Showtime.) But placing its titillating title aside, Masters of Sex turned out to be an engaging, often-excellent, and low-key adventurous period drama for four seasons. The show shined brightest when it was conveying the thrill of discovery and exploration. (Also, it turns out there was a fair amount of sex.)
The series is based on the Thomas Maier biography, “Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love.” (Excellent call by Showtime and the creators paring title down.) The real-life duo studied human sexuality from the late 1950s until the 1990s. The show’s first season chronicles their first meeting, as well as the relentless effort it took to get their pioneering sex study off the ground.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 30th, 2018
After two seasons it seemed as though Lucifer had finally found its niche, and I was looking forward to seeing what season three would have in store. The story of Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis) as the devil who has been vacationing on Earth is a fitting guilty pleasure of mine. This isn’t a show aiming to win Emmys; it’s simply a show that wants to indulge its audience for 44 minutes of fun, and week after week, it succeeds in doing just that. When Season 2 left off, Lucifer was kidnapped and left in the desert, and his wings had been returned to him. This is pretty much right where Season 3 picks up, and as expected, it’s a helluva fun ride.
Lucifer getting his wings back is a pretty big deal, and Season 3 spends a lot of time getting into what this all means and the sacrifice Lucifer made when he first removed his wings. This only further complicates things between Lucifer and his brother, Amenadiel (D.B. Woodside), who is now struggling with finding his purpose considering Lucifer has his wings back, while to Amenadiel’s dismay his wings have not returned. In episode 11, City of Angels, we get a flashback to when Lucifer first lost his wings. Personally this is one of my favorite episodes, and it feels like the writers and the cast had a lot of fun with this episode that is all about when Lucifer decided he wanted to stay on Earth. Everything from Lucifer and Amenadiel crashing a porn set to Amenadiel training to be a “human” fighter (with a sweet little homage to The Karate Kid), I mean, this episode is a fun ride.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 28th, 2018
"Ain't nobody feeling Team Kid Flash."
When Season 3 ended on The Flash, Barry Allen/The Flash (Gustin) is trapped inside the Speed Force where he sacrificed himself to free his friends. Months later we find Wally West/Kid Flash (Lonsdale) acting as the team's speedster. Iris (Patton) is now in charge of the team, while Caitlin (Panabaker) has left to tend bar, mostly running from her Killer Frost persona. Joe West (Martin) is lending police support where he can, and Cisco (Valdes) has honed his teleportation skills and gets the players where they need to be. But they are barely holding their heads above water, and the stress is finally getting to them. And that was before a robotic Samurai arrives threatening to destroy Central City if the team doesn't bring him The Flash. Of course Cisco comes up with a plan to free Barry, and it's no spoiler here to reveal that he does just that. After all, the show isn't called Kid Flash. It's called The Flash, and Barry is always going to be a key ingredient to that name. If all of this sounds a bit confusing to you, you're starting in the wrong place. Check out our reviews of the previous three years here.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 28th, 2018
NCIS is about to enter into its 16th season in just a short time. That in itself is a remarkable accomplishment in the days of short attention spans and hundreds of shows to keep that attention. What is more remarkable is that it continues to be the number one drama in the world. What could a series possibly have left to say after 15 years? Apparently, the answer to that question is: a lot. One of the reasons the series has stayed so strong for so long is the cast. And while it has changed considerably over that time, new members are brought in who always seem to fit into that comfortable family that makes up the appeal of the series. This show has become like that ragged, threadbare shirt that you can't quite part with. Comfort is the key here, and it doesn't appear to be going away any time soon. CBS's release of NCIS: The Complete 15th Season allows you to get caught up just in time.
This season is yet another changing of the guard for the show. It is the last season for Duane Henry as Clayton Reeves, the MI6 agent who has been working with the team. I have to admit that he never quite grew on me, and I'm not all that sad to see him go. He was too much James Bond and not enough...well...comfort. The same can't be said for the departure of Pauley Perrette as Abby. She's been a very important character for the show and a lot of the team's emotional center. Paired with the fact that the actress left under terms that weren't so friendly, this is a big blow to the series. She has publically claimed that she felt unsafe on the set and made some accusations that were a bit shrouded in a phrase "multiple physical assaults" that leave a huge question mark. The speculation turned to Mark Harmon's dog being a potential menace on the set. Whatever the reason, it left a cloud and there had been a couple of years of feuding between her and Harmon. The lasting effect is that the characters don't share a stage when they say goodbye. We meet her replacement for a couple of episodes this year, and the upcoming season just won't be the same.
Posted in: Tuesday Round Up by J C on August 28th, 2018
Since 1990, it's taken four different actors to bring Jack Ryan to the big screen. This week, Tom Clancy's CIA analyst arrives at UpcomingDiscs headquarters in UHD. Thanks to Paramount, we'll be reviewing the Jack Ryan 5-Film Collection in 4K. Magnolia appeals to a Higher Power, while over on the small screen Warner speeds through The Flash: Season 4 and makes a deal with the devil in Lucifer: Season 3. Finally, CBS taps into its dark side with Criminal Minds: Season 13.
We've also got a theatrical release on the docket as a father goes on an online hunt for his missing teenage daughter in Warner's Searching. One last reminder before signing off for the week: if you’re shopping for anything on Amazon and you do it through one of our links, it’ll help keep the lights on here at UpcomingDiscs. See ya next week!
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 27th, 2018
When it comes to Paul Schrader, I feel the argument can be made that he is the greatest American screenwriter. I know it’s a bold statement but when you look over his credits that include Taxi Driver, Rolling Thunder, Hardcore, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ and so many others I feel there just isn’t anyone out there that can compete. Lately though he’s seemed to have had a difficult time recapturing that greatness, there has even been a part of me that has felt that perhaps I should give up on hoping he’ll crank out one more great film and simply appreciate the filmography he’s delivered us cinema fans over the years. Paul Schrader, despite having some classic titles to his name he’s still a writer and a director that isn’t for everyone. His films typically are dark in tone and typically shine a light onto the underbelly of society that most would prefer to not know about. It’s because of his fearlessness in tackling these subjects that has made me a fan of his for years so when the opportunity to see First Reformed came along I didn’t hesitate, this was a screening I couldn’t miss.
As the film opens we get a long shot that pushes in to an old church, we quickly find out the church is named First Reformed. Inside we meet Reverend Toller (Ethan Hawke) as he is delivering a sermon to a very sparse crowd of parishioners. It doesn’t take long to realize that Toller is a damaged man, both physically, emotionally and spiritually. We get insight into the reverends thoughts through his journal entries that he writes and are narrated for us. Things get moving when Mary (Amanda Seyfried) approaches Toller after a service and requests he speaks with her husband Michael (Philip Ettinger) who she fears wants her to have an abortion.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on August 24th, 2018
Too often the word classic is overused and often misunderstood. When I hear or read a critic calling a new film a classic, my blood boils a bit. I often say that the only thing wrong with instant gratification is that it takes too damn long. It takes the endurance of time to define a classic. There must be some lasting effect on a culture. The 1973 Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman film Papillon fits that description, in my not-so-humble opinion. It's a film that had a strong impact upon me when I saw it so many years ago and is one of a dozen films I try to watch at least once a year or so. Because of those vivid images that remain with us so long, classics are bad choices for a remake unless there is truly something more that can be done with the material. Often it's a technical breakthrough that just wasn't possible when the film was first released. But even that rarely is reason enough. Today we can do photo-perfect images that sure beat the heck out of that constantly malfunctioning shark in Jaws, but still no shark film has ever come close to capturing the same impact. With Papillon the draw is that the second book written by Henri "Papillon" Cherriere is reported to have supplied additional material for the remake of Papillon. It wasn't enough.
The story is essentially the same. Cherriere (Hunnam) is charged with a murder he claims not to have committed and is sent to the infamous early 20th Century French prison in French Guiana where he experiences primitive conditions and inhuman treatment and from where he manages a daring and unprecedented escape. The additional material is quite scarce. This time we see how Cherriere was set up and arrested. That provides about 10 minutes of the film's opening act. The rest is a couple of minutes in the form of a coda where he returns to France as an old man to sell his story to a French publisher. The rest is pretty much all to be found in the original film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 24th, 2018
"So dark. You sure you're not from the DC universe?”
I've said many times in these pages that expectations can kill. That might have been more true for Deadpool 2 than any other film I've seen since the re-launch of Star Wars. The first movie didn't push boundaries. It obliterated the boundaries and kept on going. Fans had certainly been ripe for a raunchy R-rated superhero film, and the box office for Deadpool certainly proved that out by bringing in nearly a half a billion bucks. For a superhero film that might seem like small change, but for what was essentially a comedy, it was awesome money and demanded a sequel before the first run was over at the multiplexes. The problem is that raunchy comedies, like superhero films, share the deadly expectation curse. Rarely does a comedy film sequel live up to those expectations, and if you're anybody but Marvel, it doesn't happen often in the superhero genre either. If all of this sounds like it's leading up to a death knell for Deadpool 2, you're right. It does sound that way. Fortunately for us Deadpool 2 manages to escape its fated demise and not only work as well as the first film; Deadpool 2 is better.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 24th, 2018
“Who do you think you are, Jackie Chan?!”
I'm going to do my very best to describe how insane this movie is, but it still might not be enough. I want to try and be fair because there aren't many people who have worked harder to entertain audiences than Jackie Chan. The 64-year-old martial arts legend has more than 100 acting credits to his name in a career that has spanned well over 50 years. Naturally, there are bound to be some turkeys along the way. Unfortunately, Bleeding Steel — an obnoxiously incoherent sci-fi departure for the action star — firmly (and gloriously) falls into the turkey category.
Chan stars as Lin, a Hong Kong special agent with an ailing daughter who is in critical condition. Lin is rushing to the hospital to be by her side when he gets an urgent work call about a witness that needs to be protected. The witness is Dr. James, a geneticist who has been working on creating a mechanical heart(!) and bioengineered blood to create super soldiers. Lin chooses duty over his daughter and rushes to protect Dr. James just in time to be ambushed by a deranged, mech-enhanced villain named...Andre (Callan Mulvey), who looks like Darth Vader without his helmet on. Lin and his team face off against Andre's stormtrooper-sequel army, Dr. James gets caught in the crossfire, and half a dozen explosions later we finally get the Bleeding Edge title card. (Yes, everything I've just described happens in the first 15 minutes!)
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