The Virginian Season 7
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on April 24th, 2013
As The Virginian entered its seventh year there were very few changes. Of course, this would be the final year, that could be said. The only new cast member was David Hartman who played David Sutton, a drifter who comes to the notice of The Virginian and hires on at Shiloh. He doesn’t appear in many episodes and is almost completely gone in the last handful of stories, returning only for the final episode of the year. Unfortunately, there was one cast member taking his leave. Clu Gulager would no longer be on the show as Deputy Ryker. Many of the rest of the cast would also leave at the end of the next season.
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Interview with MANBORG Director Steven Kostanski
Posted in Blog Posts, Random Fun by William O'Donnell on April 24th, 2013
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Steve Kostanski, a special effects artist working out of Toronto who has been a part on such productions as Silent Hill: Revelation and the upcoming Pacific Rim, began making the film Manborg as a personal project. It was mostly shot in a garage with his friends and a budget of roughly $1000. Now, much to his surprise, the film has become something of a cult sensation as it screens in theatres all over the world as well as receiving a loaded DVD release in almost every region. I spoke to the Director about the explosion of Manborg fandom worldwide:
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Knuckleball!
Posted in No Huddle by J C on April 23rd, 2013
“Nobody grows up wanting to be a knuckleball pitcher. It’s born of desperation; it’s born of necessity.”
By the start of the 2011 season, there were only two active knuckleballers in Major League Baseball. One was a failed power-hitting 1B/3B, while the other had been cut by his team at the start of the previous year’s spring training. Knuckleball! — an engaging documentary dedicated to the kookiest pitch in baseball history — illustrates how that desperation extends beyond the few brave souls who have attempted to make a living in the big leagues by throwing very softly.
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Dragon (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 22nd, 2013
Donnie Yen continues to deliver one great martial arts film after the other, easily making him the most entertaining martial arts star for quite some time. Sure, there are those who cling to the idea of Bruce Lee being “the best” or perhaps mentioning Jackie Chan or Jet Li for more modern viewers. But for me it’s Yen, and I have no problem saying he may be the best martial arts star of all time. His work with Ip Man, Seven Swords, and Flash Point are staples in a career that has been going since 1984.
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Gangster Squad (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on April 22nd, 2013
“I want to talk to you about the war for the soul of Los Angeles.”
This could easily describe the current rivalry between the surging L.A. Clippers and the geriatric Los Angeles Lakers, but Gangster Squad has slightly weightier matters on its mind. The stylish 1940s and 50s cops-and-crooks saga wants to tell a story about corruption and violent men unable — or unwilling — to turn off their capacity for hurting others. Instead, the film winds up being a somewhat shallow 21st century gloss on The Untouchables. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
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The Lickerish Quartet
Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on April 22nd, 2013
You need to imagine you are back in 1969. Many of you will have no idea what a different world it was back then. So many things did not exist, like computers and the internet and cable television. So much is available now that people could only fantasize about then. Now any unsupervised 10-year-old can see just about anything they want. It’s hard to imagine how big a difference that is. Hiding Playboy magazines under the mattress was about as bad as it got back then. There was a huge unfulfilled demand for adult entertainment when adults couldn’t find much that excited or titillated them.
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Pawn (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on April 22nd, 2013
“Whose move is it?”
To be honest, I’m not much of a chess player. I know how all the pieces move and I enjoy the mental challenge, but I never really committed to becoming proficient at the game. (Now, if we’re talking Connect Four, you don’t want to run into me in a dark alley.) Pawn establishes its intriguing chess motif early on, before almost completely abandoning it in favor of becoming more of a generically twisty thriller.
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Oblivion
Posted in The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on April 19th, 2013
Ever wonder what would happen if you took all the best or most memorable parts in a sci-fi film and cut them all together? What you get is the hodgepodge mess that is Oblivion, which unless I’m mistaken or blinked a bit too long and missed it, doesn’t have an original bone in its already weak story. Though they say if you’re going to steal, then steal from the best; the problem is that when you play it off as your own, please be able to give us a refreshing twist on a classic scene, not just make it cool. Sure people will say the same about Tarantino, but he owns up to it and puts a spin on it that is undeniably his own.
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Magic Journey to Africa (Blu-ray 3D)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on April 18th, 2013
“I want to visit a country of dreams, imagination and magic.”
Instead of “dreams, imagination and magic”, the Africa presented in this confounding, family-friendly offering from Spanish filmmaker Jordi Llompart is a place of trippy visuals, head-scratching dialogue and horrid CGI. Magic Journey to Africa — billed as a “giant screen spectacle” — is now available for home consumption, where the film’s dazzling 3D presentation is its only saving grace.
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A Monster In Paris (Blu-Ray 3D)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 17th, 2013
The computer-animated feature film has reached the point where you don’t have to be one of the big boys to play. While Pixar and to a lesser extent Dreamworks have dominated this feature form pretty much since its inception, there have already been a handful of independent films that have managed to leave their mark on the landscape. Now the foreign market is getting into the act as well. A Monster In Paris, or Un Monstre a’ Paris, is the result of that evolution.
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The Big Picture (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 16th, 2013
Sometimes a movie comes along that rises above simple entertainment and actually has something to say. The Big Picture is the kind of movie that has profound ideas about love, family, and the pursuit of your dreams. Is it possible to really have it all? The perfect spouse, the perfect family and live out your lifelong passion and dream? Many who have families, especially when starting young, can understand the idea of sacrifice for their families; it doesn’t mean they just cast their hopes and dreams aside, but once marriage and children are involved the direction your life may take was never the direction you had planned at all.
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John Dies At The End
Posted in No Huddle by Jeremy Butler on April 16th, 2013
“Solving the following riddle will reveal the awful secret behind the universe, assuming you do not go utterly mad in the attempt.”
Never question the importance that a title plays in the success of a film. The title is the first thing that you encounter when discovering a new movie. Let me set the scene: you are at home, bored and looking for a movie to watch so you go to a Redbox kiosk or log onto your Netflix (given that video stores are close to extinct at this point); you narrow your selection down to two titles.
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Crush (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Jonathan Foster on April 16th, 2013
“When I get a crush, it’s really bad.”
Everyone has experienced it before: you meet that special someone, and a crush sidelines you. They fill your head when you’re not with them. When they’re near, you act like an idiot. The downside comes when your crush is not reciprocated; or worse, they don’t even know you exist. Most people can move past the disappointment and heartbreak to get over a crush. But for an unlucky few, their crush can turn into a dangerous obsession.
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The Place Beyond the Pines
Posted in The Reel World by Gino Sassani on April 12th, 2013
“If you ride like lightning you’re gonna crash like thunder”.
The best film that you may not get an opportunity to see this year is The Place Beyond The Pines. The film has already scored great buzz at a few film festivals and is about to see a very limited theatrical release. It’s one of those films that absolutely deserves better, but somehow as you watch it you realize that this limited environment is a perfect match for the movie.
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Trance
Posted in The Reel World by Jeremy Butler on April 12th, 2013
The power is in the mind, or at least it is in Trance, the latest psychological thriller from Academy Award winning director Danny Boyle. From the original trailer I saw of this film, I had the wrong impression of this film completely; I was intrigued by the film, but I just expected it to be another heist film. Now, for the record, I love heist films; I love the watching the thieves plan the heist, I love watching them execute the theft, and I even love the eventual double-cross that everyone always sees coming. To call Trance simply a heist film is to severely undersell its value.
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42
Posted in The Reel World by J C on April 12th, 2013
“You give me a uniform, you give me a number on my back — and I’ll give you the guts.”
More than any sport, baseball is all about numbers. Unfortunately, some of those numbers — like 73 (home runs in a single season) and 500 (career homers) — mean a little less in light of the steroid era. Others, like 56 (Joe DiMaggio’s legendary hitting streak), seem destined to live on forever. The most significant number on that shortlist might be 42, worn by Jackie Robinson when he broke Major League Baseball’s color line on April 15, 1947. 42 — the film, not the number — is significant for a somewhat surprising reason.
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Lucky Bastard
Posted in The Reel World by Gino Sassani on April 11th, 2013
“Lucky Bastard was a pornographic website that invited fans to have sex with porn stars. The following footage is believed to be the last video shot for the site.”
You know exactly what that kind of an intro means. You should. The found footage genre has been around even long before it was turned into a modern trend by The Blair Witch Project. Since that time the genre has appeared in both large and small budget films. The shaky footage usually covers a variety of sins by the filmmakers. Rarely does the genre have anything clever or new to dispense. That’s not exactly true with Lucky Bastards.
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Rise of the Guardians
Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 11th, 2013
The boogeyman, who goes by the name Pitch Black, is gaining power by turning children’s dreams into nightmares. An alliance of fantasy characters, North (Santa Claus), (the Easter) Bunny, Sandman, and Tooth (Fairy), come together to face this opponent. They call themselves Guardians who have sworn to protect all of the world’s children. In this adventure they recruit a new member, Jack Frost, who is on his own personal quest of discovery.
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Willow (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 11th, 2013
Looking back, it’s amazing how far visual effects have come since 1988. I can remember sitting in the theater watching Willow for the first time and believing everything I saw up on the screen wasn’t the work of movie magic, but I believed it to be reality. Perhaps some far off land where there are swordsmen fighting evil sorcerers and trolls lurk in the shadows of abandoned castles. This is a thought I’d like to believe I’m not the only one that hoped this was a reality, but if I am I’m fine with that. Willow came out at a time when Hollywood was trying to bring large-scale fantasy to the screen with other releases like Excalibur, Legend and Conan.
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Earth’s Final Hours (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on April 10th, 2013
“Why save a few when we can save them all?”
An excellent question; have you ever noticed that in disaster films as soon as an apocalyptic event is discovered, plans go into motion to protect the elite such as the president, his cabinet, and a few select others while the rest of the world is left out in the cold to be lambs to the slaughter? Well, in Earth’s Final Hours, the lambs fight back, working to save the many rather than just the few.
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The Invisible Man (Complete Series)
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on April 10th, 2013
David McCallum has been a vital part of two outstanding television shows in his illustrious career. The Scottish-born actor played the Russian/British secret agent Illya Kuryakin in the spy series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. The series capitalized on the whole James Bond fad that was sweeping television both in England and in the United States in the 1960’s. The series lasted five years and over 100 episodes. In recent years McCallum has added a 10-year run as pathologist Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard on the number one scripted show on television: the original NCIS. In between he’s appeared on countless other shows both in England and the States.
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Contest: Win Knuckleball! on DVD From MPI
Posted in Contests, Expired Contests by Gino Sassani on April 9th, 2013
Play Ball!
Our friends over at MPI want to help kick-off baseball season with a look at that ever-elusive pitch: The Knuckleball. Ricki Stern & Annie Sundberg give you an “inside baseball” look at the infamous pitch. It’s called Knuckleball! and we have three copies for our Upcomingdisc readers.
To win just follow these 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 – Who is your favorite all-time pitcher.
- Only those comments that answer our question will be considered.
Contest is now closed Winner is Tim
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.
Jackie Robinson: My Story
Posted in No Huddle by Jonathan Foster on April 8th, 2013
“I’ve always advocated, and I still will advocate until the day I close my eyes and die, that there should be a national holiday honoring Jackie Roosevelt Robinson, so then all people will know who this man is.”
That statement by fellow Brooklyn Dodger Don Newcombe illustrates just how important Jackie Robinson was, not just to baseball, but to professional sports as a whole and the civil rights movement. When Robinson strode onto Ebbets Field in 1947, he shattered a color barrier that had been in place since professional baseball began.
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Down the Shore (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on April 8th, 2013
For better or worse — okay, it’s worse — it’s now impossible to hear the words “Jersey” and “Shore” without thinking of a certain group of knuckleheads on MTV. Down the Shore is a dreary, observant drama set in the region and starring James Gandolfini. If anyone is ever going to restore the area’s good(?) name, you figure the Sopranos star is a better bet than most, having previously dominated the Garden State from a pop culture standpoint by starring in the landmark television drama.
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Jurassic Park 3D
Posted in The Reel World by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2013
“Welcome to Jurassic Park.”
With those words begin an adventure that started with the legacy of Willis O’Brien’s The Lost World. You see, dinosaur films are nothing new; they have held our child-like fascination since the industry was born. Jurassic Park was, however, something very new when it thundered into our cineplexes and forever in our imaginations 20 years ago. The marriage of brand new CGI technology with Stan Winston’s superbly detailed animatronics models transports you back 65 million years in time.
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