Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 2nd, 2018
Sports movies have been something of a cliché for years now. And it's not really a recent phenomenon. Everybody remembers Ronald Reagan appearing in Knute Rockne All American as the famous George Gipp. That was 1940, and Hollywood is still selling films that ask teams to "win one for The Gipper". That's exactly what you get in director Sean McNamara's The Miracle Season. Substitute high school volleyball for college football, and you likely already know the story before you even order your popcorn and soda. Of course, even with established Hollywood formula and a well-trodden story, things are never quite that simple. Somehow the better films still tend to touch an emotional nerve, and when it's all based on a true and inspiring story, well then, break out the Kleenex and try to keep the tears from diluting your already watered-down drink. Still, some of these films manage to stand out from a very crowded field. So what exactly does it take to do that, and does The Miracle Season have what it takes? That's a little bit complicated.
The film begins with the story of two best friends. Caroline and Kelly have that special kind of bond, as the opening narration explains. We are treated to a montage of the close friends from young girls to adolescents who eventually find themselves teammates on Iowa City West's volleyball team. In 2010 they took home the state championship, and hopes are high as the girls begin practices for the 2011 season. All of the hope and enthusiasm is delivered by Caroline "Line" (Yarosh). Her energy and drive are contagious, and it's quickly evident why she's the natural leader of the team and a favorite of Coach "Bres" Bresnahan (Hunt). Her cheerfulness is even more amazing when we learn that her mother is dying of cancer and unlikely to survive to see her daughter win a second championship. She still manages to stay positive and keep her mother and father smiling. She decorates her shoes to dedicate the new season to her mother and encourages her friend Kelly (Moriarty) into believing she can also be a team leader. With someone like Caroline pushing the team, that second championship appears in the bag.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 2nd, 2018
"30 years ago during the Cold War, there was an experiment... Something went wrong. They opened up a passage directly beneath us. When you go through this door, you come out the other side, you're in another world, identical to ours. Same experiment... When this door opened our paths began to branch off more and more over time."
That setup describes the premise behind the new original science fiction series on Starz, created by Justin Marks, a writer who most recently delivered the script for Disney's live-action Jungle Book film. This is his first attempt at building a series from the ground up, and it's absolutely a winner.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 31st, 2018
"Every bridge, every building grows from an engineers imagination."
Dream Big: Engineering Our World is the second of Shout Factory's latest collection of IMAX films to be brought into the capable arms of the UHD/4K format. And while this film doesn't take us so much into the natural beauty of some picturesque place on our planet or deep into the darkness of space, it does deliver a rather grand look at some of the wonders of the man-made world. Both films were directed by Greg MacGillivray, which binds them together in a somewhat nice little bow.
Posted in: Tuesday Round Up by J C on July 31st, 2018
Having Oscar winner J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) as the star of your TV show is enough of a reason for us here at Upcomingdiscs to check it out. But the only thing better than getting J.K. Simmons to front your show is having *two* J.K. Simmons butting heads! One of the new releases we’ll be reviewing this week is the Starz doppelganger drama Counterpart: Season 1, courtesy of Lionsgate. Meanwhile, Acorn will be putting their trust and Keeping Faith: Season 1.
Later on in the week, we’ll have our tissues ready for an emotional return to the Hundred Acre Wood with Disney’s Christopher Robin. 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: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on July 28th, 2018
"Your mission should you decide to accept it. Isn't that the thing?"
And that has been the thing. Since 1966 Mission Impossible has plotted out nine seasons of television and six movies, thrusting Tom Cruise into an action hero icon. Cruise and company have taken their time with these films. It's been over 20 years, and we're only on the sixth entry. For the first five films, each of the Missions have been directed by a different director, from John Woo, who directed the second and worst of the films, through J.J. Abrams, who turned the ship around with the third, which was also his first feature film, to Christopher McQuarrie, who becomes the first director to repeat in the series of films. In fact, McQuarrie has become quite the Tom Cruise collaborator these days, also directing his Jack Reacher film and writing his version of The Mummy. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and now Fallout offer a nice apology for the train wreck ... or was that a plane wreck ... that was The Mummy. The fact remains that this is the one rare franchise that appears to be getting better with each outing.
Posted in: The Reel World by John Delia on July 28th, 2018
A cool little film with a lot of mixed messages, Eighth Grade tells the story of a young girl entering her teenage years. Nicely acted and directed, the movie works on the heartstrings and leaves you with a feel-good sentiment. If you can remember the years when your next step would be high school, you may be surprised by the film that very little has changed. There’s one more week of eighth grade, and Kayla Day (Elise Fisher) finds herself full of angst mixed with hope as she deals with what she leaves behind and looks forward. A lot is taking place including her last band practice, Kennedy’s birthday swim party, and upcoming High School Shadowing Day. It’s also the announcement of class superlatives that precedes graduation day.
But all that means less to her because she’s totally immersed in her YouTube blog and hoping that her viewers are listening. Her topics are solid recommendations and include the most important of them all, “Being Yourself.” While she preaches as if she does things her blogs advise, she’s often too shy to live them herself, like “Putting yourself out there” and “How to be confident”. What does affect her are a want to be noticed for who she is, getting a boyfriend, and having a perfect person to shadow with at the upcoming High School Shadowing Day.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on July 27th, 2018
As the summer winds down from the season's requisite anchor film blockbusters, there will be increasing room for a few independent films that will make their way from the festival circuit to fill the newly vacated screens at your local multiplex. For some it will be to attain eligibility for the year-end award season. For others it will be a short window to turn a profit from what was conceived more as a work of art. For others it's a chance to become a sleeper hit. And for others yet, it's an opportunity to deliver a social message on the larger soapbox of the big screens. Blindspotting appears to be on the cusp of all of these things. But perhaps it comes a little early for any awards consideration and at a time where it is still competing with the mega-films of the summer. There's no doubt that the film attempts to hit us with a message, but it falls just short of that accomplishment. Blindspotting works best as a character study, and it's in that mode that the film almost approaches compelling.
As the film begins we meet Collin, played by Daveed Digs. He's been in prison for severely beating a man at a club, and now he's just days away from probation. His probation will last a year, where he'll stay at a halfway house, work a job, and attempt to follow some simple rules that he doesn't quite make. We jump forward, and he's on his last three days of probation. But his biggest problem getting through them will be his relationship with long-time friend Miles, played by Rafael Casal. Miles hasn't had the sobering experience of prison and is still too wild to keep Collin out of trouble. But Collin is torn between his loyalty to his close friend and wanting to turn his own life around. It doesn't help that in the short time he was in prison his neighborhood has begun to fall to gentrification, and he's starting to feel alienated from his own life. Of course, he spends too much time with Miles. They work as partners for a moving company and spend most of their off hours together. Collin is starting to realize the harm the relationship is doing, but he might not be able to pull himself away before it ruins his second chance.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 27th, 2018
"Wildlife and its habitat cannot speak, so we must, and we will" - Teddy Roosevelt.
Actually they do speak for themselves, and Shout Factory's UHD/4K release of National Parks Adventure gives that wildlife plenty of grand opportunities to speak to us through the grandeur of the American National Park system. Last year Shout Factory showed us what the UHD/4K format could really deliver by releasing a series of IMAX films in the new format. It was a bold move that has really paid off. IMAX cameras utilize 65 and 70mm film, which offers source material that is actually much higher resolution than 4K. Unlike many recent digitally shot films which tend to be done in the neighborhood of 2K, these films have a film element as high as 8K. There's been a gap in the Shout Factory IMAX releases, but I'm happy to report that they're back with two new films.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on July 27th, 2018
It goes without saying this film is not suitable for children. Swung is a film in the vein of the 50 Shades of Grey franchise; however, where those films focused on BDSM, this film is centralized along swinging, or engaging with multiple partners. Brace yourself, because you will definitely see more than you think you will in this unrated movie. Granted, it is not just all about sex. The primary focus is the relationship between our two lead characters and the strain and struggles that they are encountering. In this regard, Swung was relatable, as it addresses intimacy, custody matters, and the difficulties of unemployment. Starring Elena Anaya and Owen McDaniel as the couple, they serve as our eyes into this dark world that will possibly change their relationship forever.
Alice and David are very much in love and committed to one another, but the spark has gone out in their sex life. Being without employment and unable to meet his child support requirements, coupled with only being able to see his child on rare occasions have diminished David’s ability to satisfy Alice. Alice does her best to be supportive, but after discovering a particular kind of voyeuristic content on David’s laptop, begins to wonder if the issue is her. Determined to make the relationship work, Alice attempts to take part in this activity with David. After a chance encounter with another couple, things suddenly change, and the spark is instantly relit.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 26th, 2018
Like so many others, when I read the book Ready Player One by Ernest Cline I simply fell in love with the nostalgic ride through the 80’s, all thanks to a virtual reality world called The Oasis. From start to finish it was a book filled with pop culture references that would make film and video game geeks squeal with delight, and it was no surprise that the book was a hit and would be turned into a film. There were only two names I could think of that could ever come close to making this film a reality: Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg. With Spielberg involved, he was the only person I could imagine who had the clout to get all the licensing rights needed to pull this adaption, but still the biggest question I had was, does Spielberg still have it in him? I’m not questioning the man’s talent, but instead it’s the magic and wonder he would bring to his films, from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET, to Jurassic Park, where he could get us to believe the fantastic and impossible was real while we sat in a dark auditorium watching his film.
The Oasis is an open virtual reality world like nothing we have ever seen before, but with how our technology is developing it is quickly becoming a possibility for things to come. There are worlds and planets within The Oasis where you can be in constant battles to win coins, or go to exotic places for a vacation. It’s a world where you can be whatever you want and experience just about anything you want. Basically think about Westworld, but on steroids. The creator of this world is Halliday (Mark Rylance) who before dying announced to all of The Oasis that he created an Easter Egg hidden somewhere in The Oasis, and whoever was to find it would gain sole control of The Oasis and all of Halliday’s fortune.
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