Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark – Limited-Edition Steelbook (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 14th, 2022
“For nearly three thousand years, man has been searching for the lost ark. It’s not something to be taken lightly. No one knows its secrets. It’s like nothing you’ve ever gone after before.”
Just in time for the wrap of principal photography on the next and final Indiana Jones film, Paramount cashes in on the renewed interest with the long-awaited, at least from this reviewer, release of the first four films in the Indiana Jones franchise on UHD Blu-ray in full ultra-high-definition complete with HDR and Dolby Vision. OK, I lied about the long-awaited four films. Now you can own the first on its own in this special Steelbook release of Raiders Of The Lost Ark on UHD/4K. No, I’m not going to call it Indiana Jones And The Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and yes, Han shot first and those feds in ET were not carrying walkie talkies in those hands. So sue me.
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Eraser: Reborn (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 14th, 2022
“Congratulations, you’ve just been erased.”
In 1996, when Eraser came out, it was pretty much what everyone expected from an Arnold Schwarzenegger film: lots of action and cheesy one-liners. It was far from Arnold’s finest work, but it was fun, and the big guns used in the film were pretty cool, too. Eraser is a film you can look back fondly on if you grew up in the 90s, because it was silly fun and nicely directed by the legendary Chuck Russell, who had a pretty good streak of films going when he did Eraser. Before he’d had success with the breakout Jim Carrey film The Mask, and before that he had the remake of The Blob and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors. I bring this up because the reason Eraser worked when it did was because it had the biggest action star on the planet in its lead role and a talented director working behind the camera, and to top it off a $100 million dollar budget to play with.
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Jurassic World Dominion
Posted in The Reel World by Gino Sassani on June 10th, 2022
“Bigger. Why do they always have to go bigger?”
You don’t really need me to answer that one, do you? What started with Jurassic Park in 1993 and even earlier with the blockbuster book by the late, great Michael Crichton has actually been 65 million years in the making. When an idea has been percolating for that long, you have to go bigger, or the audience will go home. Expectations take a bite out of your options, and by a sixth film you really have to come up with a game-stopper, so what do you do? You reinvent the franchise after two sequels failed to capture the magic and awe that was Jurassic Park. You let the idea sit for a decade or so, and then you bring it back with enough of the new and enough of the old to bring folks back into the theaters. And that’s just how they did it with the Jurassic World trilogy. The first two films gave us a new cast of characters with the likes of Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.
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Exclusive Interview With Julian David Stone, Author Of It’s Alive
Posted in Podcasts by Gino Sassani on June 3rd, 2022
We mostly deal with movies and television shows here at Upcomingdiscs. As the name implies discs are what we’re all about. But once in a while we find something we just have to tell you about. Many times we take a look at books written by or about the film industry folks. It’s rare when I came upon a novel that I just have to tell you about. It’s Alive is deserving of that rare post. Written by Julian David Stone the novel takes us back to the Hollywood of the 1930’s. It’s the very first days of the “talkies” when actors first spoke on film. It was the height of the “studio system” where stars were at the beck and call of the studios who paid their salaries. It was also the rise of Carl Laemmle, Jr. or Junior to those who knew him. His father, Carl Sr founded Universal Studios and now it was Junior’s turn to shine. It’s just days before the production start on Frankenstein and Junior still can’t convince his father that these horror films are going to launch Universal into the future. Worse. He still hadn’t decided who would play the pivotal role of The Monster. Bela Lugosi was intended for the role following his hit in Dracula but he was playing hard to get. There was this other guy discovered by the film’s director, James Whale. He was an unknown small-bit actor by the name of Boris Karloff. We all know how it turned out. Now go deep inside and see how it almost didn’t happen. I read the book and I loved it. I also got the chance to spend some of my Memorial Day Monday talking with the book’s author. Now you get to eavesdrop on that conversation and let us take you back to 1931. Bang it here to listen to my interview with Julian David Stone.
You can pick up the book from our Amazon link to the right. You can also head over to the author’s web site here: Stone Web Page.
Infinite (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 3rd, 2022
“There are among us a people, gifted with a perfect memory of all their past lives. They call themselves Infinites. Among the Infinites, two groups have vied for power. On one side the Believers, dedicated to using their knowledge for the protection and growth of all humanity. Against them stood the Nihilists, who see this power as a curse. New technologies have given the Nihilists an opportunity to end all life on Earth, and the race is on for its control.”
Infinite is an adapted story from D. Eric Maikranz’s novel The Reincarnation Papers. On the surface this is one of those great concepts that could support a film franchise, and might have accomplished just that if the film itself hadn’t taken the route of spectacle over substance. It doesn’t help that this film was hurt by the COVID shutdown of productions and never ended up with the wide release it was originally intended to have.
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Paramount Presents: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 3rd, 2022
“Let me speak to you directly and from the heart.”
My first exposure to The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance wasn’t the film at all. It was the song (The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It was a 1962 hit song by Gene Pitney and was written to be included in the film. I wouldn’t really be taken with the song until James Taylor would cover it and have his own hit with the song in 1985 with his album That’s Why I’m Here. By then I’d seen the film but only on late-night television broadcasts which offered bad transfers and plenty of commercials that caused the film to be chopped by over 26 minutes. The funny thing about the song is that while it was written to be included in the film, it actually never appears. Director John Ford thought it sounded too modern and suggested it would only weaken the film and insisted it not be used
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Lucifer: The Complete Fifth Season
Posted in No Huddle by Brent Lorentson on June 2nd, 2022
When I heard Fox had cancelled Lucifer after Season 3 and Netflix had picked up the show, I have to admit I got excited about the possibilities. I had hoped that the transition from network TV to the streaming service would mean the show could get away with more, because the show wouldn’t be bound to network rating guidelines. As it turns out, the show still has its TV-14 rating, but on the bright side the episodes are longer now, which in my opinion is a good thing. When Netflix picked up the show, they had announced that Season 5 would be the last season of the show. While the show does take some major storyline leaps as ways to wrap things up, thankfully things don’t come to an end just yet, as a Season 6 was produced and is currently airing on the streaming service.
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Top Gun Maverick
Posted in The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on May 27th, 2022
It has been about 36 years since the release of the first Top Gun. This is one of my earliest memories as a kid, seeing the movie on the big screen with my parents at the old Main Street 6 Cinemas. I was a bit obsessed with this movie growing up. I had a copy of the film that I had recorded off of Showtime, and over the years I’d imagine I’ve seen Top Gun at least 100 times. I was obsessed with the movie and its soundtrack. Kenny Loggins and “Danger Zone” lived rent-free in my head throughout my childhood. I know I’m not alone on this when saying just how much Top Gun is a movie I just love. It’s not perfect, but I just can’t find anything I dislike about it. Even in my forties, I look at this film as comfort food. It doesn’t matter the time or day, if it’s on, I can’t help but sit down and watch it. I’m putting this out there because, yeah, when I heard the talk of them first doing a sequel
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Batman, The (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 27th, 2022
“They think I’m hiding in the shadows, but I am the shadows.”
You have certain expectations when you go to a superhero/comic book movie. Sure, it changes a little depending on the character that you’re going to see. But there are certain things that all of these films tend to have in common. There’s an expectation of frantic action and some mind-bending special f/x. You’re looking for colorful villains who tend to act over-the-top and always provide that gentle wink back at the audience. When these expectations aren’t met, audiences tend to be disappointed, and big-budget films can end up costing the studios hugely in the end. Even as we appear to be reaching the last days of the limited pandemic crowds, that risk gets multiplied. It also doesn’t help if audiences are still riding the high off the first big global billion-dollar film in almost three years.
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Licorice Pizza (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 27th, 2022
Licorice Pizza marks writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s 9th feature film, and it seems to be his most personal film to date, as it takes place in his hometown of San Fernando Valley during 1973. It’s difficult to go into a Paul Thomas Anderson film and not have high expectations. I can’t even guess the number of times I’ve watched Boogie Nights, and Magnolia is one that I adore just as much. These two films just impacted me from the first time I experienced them in the cinema and really fostered my appreciation for film and storytelling with large ensembles. Since then I’ve been waiting somewhat patiently for PTA to do another film like those two, but instead he’s grown as a filmmaker and genuinely become an auteur. While I can look at his films The Master, There Will Be Blood, and Phantom Thread, they are great cinematic achievements that show he can do award worthy films and that he’s definitely one of the best working directors out there, BUT
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Ray Donovan: The Movie
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on May 27th, 2022
“Who’s the wolf now, Ray?”
For all intents and purposes, Season 7 was the final season of Ray Donovan. The end came rather suddenly, and after it was too late to create and film some kind of satisfying finale for the series. The cast and crew were taken by surprise, so you can imagine how the fans of the show were taking this. To make matters worse, the last episode, while not a complete cliffhanger, leaves too many strands of thread that weren’t connected. There’s nothing satisfying about the finale, and that created waves in the world of fandom. Star Trek is famous for being the first television show that a network cancelled and then brought back because of a huge letter-writing campaign that flooded network executives and pushed them into an unprecedented action for that time. The show was brought back.
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Grand Slam (Blu-Ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 25th, 2022
The original heist movie is often credited to The Asphalt Jungle, directed by John Huston. A criminal mastermind, a million-dollar jewel heist, a band of outlaws, and the dame in a seamy and gritty underworld. It had all the qualities that would set up that genre for decades to come. Today’s offering is another film that is often listed on top-twenty lists for the genre, Ad ogni costo, better known by its English title as Grand Slam. In it, a retiring school professor recruits four criminal masterminds to steal ten million in diamonds. We’ll have to see if it makes the grade or is doomed to be held back for another year.
Beverly Hills Cop II (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 20th, 2022
From the bouncing opening music by Glenn Fry to the final frame of Eddie Murphy’s smile, Beverly Hills Cop had established itself as a classic. The movie had a complicated history, and it’s a kind of miracle that the version we know ever happened at all. The movie was originally conceived as a straight action film with the plan to have either Al Pacino or Clint Eastwood in the title role. At that point the script was called Beverly Drive. When they couldn’t get Al or Clint, they turned to Sylvester Stallone, and Sly took the role. He took the script and rewrote it to fit his own particular style. The main character’s name went from Axel Foley to Cabretti so that he could be called The Cobra. The problem with Sly’s version is that the cost was rising higher than the execs at Paramount were willing to put out. Sly was offered another film to drop Beverly Hills Cop. He took his rewrites with him, and they eventually formed the nucleus of his movie Cobra. The rest of the film had already been cast, so imagine their surprise when the action movie they thought they were making with Rocky turned into a comedy/drama starring the Saturday Night Live but unproven box office comedian Eddie Murphy.
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Clean
Posted in No Huddle by Jeremy Butler on May 20th, 2022
I’m still looking for answers. I just don’t know the questions anymore. I just know there’s too much out there. Seas of filth. An endless onslaught of ugliness. Blight. Plastic. Cheap s#$t cloggin’ up our minds. Cloggin’ up the drains, poisoning our water, turning us to s@4t. Where does it all go? I’ve got blood on my hands. I’m stained. I’m dirty. No matter how hard I try, I can’t wash away the past.
With Adrien Brody’s picture-perfect delivery of this monolog, I was all in with this film. It was like Brody’s voice was made for this voiceover. And while the film did have some intriguing moments, it didn’t really break any new ground like I hoped it would. It reminded me of a couple years ago when Hollywood tried to remake Death Wish, and while I did enjoy this film immensely more than that one, Clean isn’t a film that I will feel compelled to rewatch anytime in the near future. The film essentially has more of a one-and-done feel to it.
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Touch of Evil (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 18th, 2022
“Susie, one of the longest borders on earth is right here between your country and mine. An open border. Fourteen hundred miles without a single machine gun in place. Yeah, I suppose that all sounds very corny to you.”
Orson Welles was a huge personality in Hollywood both in his stature and his work. Taking a controversial poke at media giant Randolph Hearst, he struggled against fierce odds to direct a film that is often considered the best, or at least one of the best films ever made. Of course, I’m talking about Citizen Kane. I happen to believe the first two Godfather films are better, but there’s little doubt that Citizen Kane was a masterpiece. Because it was so good and because Welles never functioned well in the Hollywood system of his age, his other films often get overlooked. Touch Of Evil is one of those films, and in many ways it’s just as good or better than Citizen Kane. Like that film and pretty much everything Welles ever did, it came with plenty of controversy and behind-the-scenes drama. But Welles was used to that by 1958, so he should have known better.
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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 18th, 2022
After watching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, my mind wandered over to Inception, of all places. Remember how Ellen Page’s character pretty much only existed so other people could explain to her — and, by extension, us in the audience — the rules of the movie’s universe and what the hell was happening? Well, watching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy for the first time felt a lot like what I imagine Inception would look like if Page’s novice architect hadn’t been in the script: words and items have dual meanings, characters have double (and triple) motivations, and good luck figuring out everything that’s going on in this complex world! The plot, however, is deceptively simple: veteran spy George Smiley (Gary Oldman) is called out of retirement to uncover a Soviet agent in the highest ranks of MI-6, the British intelligence service. (I’ll refrain from further discussing the plot so that I don’t give anything away, but also because there’s a decent chance I haven’t comprehended everything that happened. That being said, my second viewing of this movie went considerably smoother than the first.)
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Breakout (Blu-Ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 16th, 2022
The year of 1975 was an interesting year. I was born, Jaws was the top grossing film of the year, followed by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Other interesting films included Return of the Pink Panther, Three Days of the Condor, Rollerball, and The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother. Somewhere after those films and others, we have a film called Breakout, which featured the action star Charles Bronson. Fresh off his greatest film, Death Wish, Breakout would be one of the three films with Bronson that would come out during 1975 (other two being Hard Times and Breakheart Pass). In Breakout, we explore the topic of prison escape. Let’s make sure this one gets out with good behavior.
Pushing Hands (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 16th, 2022
Director Ang Lee has come a long way since his 1991 debut film Pushing Hands. When you look at Ang Lee’s impressive resume, the only film that stands out is sadly his only major misstep as a director, and that’s the 2003 film Hulk, the movie I feel audiences have been trying to forget and comic fans simply want to pretend doesn’t exist. When you look at the rest of his resume, there are some impressive titles that have made a difference within the Hollywood cinema landscape. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain, and Life of Pi are just a few of his films that are standouts that were commercial successes but at the same time define his unique style and focus when it comes to character. Pushing Hands is character study that was released during the rise of independent cinema in the 90’s when film focused more on characters and finding unique voices that could tell great stories on a limited budget. What makes the film all the more unique is that it’s a martial arts film without the violence we’re used to seeing on the big screen, and instead its focus is more on the holistic methods of tai chi.
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Kin: Season 1
Posted in Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 16th, 2022
What do you get if you take The Sopranos and mix it with Animal Kingdom and place it in Ireland? That’s pretty much the best way I’d go about describing the first season of the new AMC television show Kin. The show only runs for eight episodes, but I have to say this is the most satisfying gangster story I’ve seen in some time. No, I’m not about to say it is better than The Sopranos, but it definitely has the potential to be in the same league if the show continues with the momentum it has going for it. What’s a shame, though, is that with so many cable channels and streaming services out there, this is a show that has gotten lost in the mass of content, and it deserves to be recognized. The Kinsellas family is a small-time crime family based in Dublin. The family runs their business under Eamon Cunningham (Ciaran Hinds) who is pretty much The Godfather over all of Ireland. Mostly Cunningham deals with drugs, but literally if you are involved with any sort of crime, he’s still collecting on it. Then there is Frank Kinsella (Aidan Gillen, aka “Little Finger” from Game of Thrones) who is in charge of the Kinsella family and their small ring of criminal activity.
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Why Is We Americans?
Posted in No Huddle by Jeremy Butler on May 16th, 2022
It took me a second to get past the title of this documentary. I had a feeling that it had some kind of significance, but without that context, all it was for me was grammatically incorrect. With that to start off, I have no problem admitting that I wasn’t really looking forward to reviewing this documentary. I know shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I was, and something about the title just rubbed me the wrong way. It felt ignorant. Now I must admit that I was actually the ignorant one given my lack of knowledge regarding the cultural significance of that title, the associated poem, as well as the prominent poet it came from, and the legacy of his prominent family. Why Is We Americans tells the story of the Baraka family, a family whose story is carved deep into the civil rights movement. It started with the family’s patriarch, Amiri Baraka (formerly known as LeRoi Jones), a poet/playwright/activist, as he shepherded his family through decades of social activism with poetry, music, and art.
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Privilege (Blu-Ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 10th, 2022
From the beginning of civilized history, the government regardless of where it resides has always preferred its society to conform, to act alike so that there is no trouble or dissenting. It is far easier if people fall in line so that the ruling class can continue to prosper while its peasants struggle along. Truth is that most citizens would rather not rock the boat, so they forsake their personality and their soul for another day that was like yesterday. Even when there is conflict or angst within a society, it’s often manufactured by the government in order to give its people a perceived outlet for their deepest and darkest emotions. Today, we explore Privilege, a film that takes a look at the not so distant future where a British pop star takes the UK by storm, but little does the public know that the government is the one pulling the strings.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Posted in The Reel World by Gino Sassani on May 6th, 2022
“You cannot control everything, Strange. You opened a doorway between universes, and we don’t know who or what will walk through it.”
The last time that director Sam Raimi played in the Marvel sandbox it was on the third of his own Spider-Man trilogy featuring Tobey Maguire in the webslinger’s role. Since then he’s kind of gone back to his horror roots and even returned to the Evil Dead franchise with a television series that continued the exploits of Bruce Williams as Ash. It’s only fitting that he would see both of these worlds collide in a perfect storm that allows him to once again recreate that old 4-color universe on the big screen with both a connection to Spider-Man and his horror roots. The result is the latest MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) that picks up right where Spider-Man: No Way Home left off. Of course, I’m talking about Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. The story pretty much picks up where we left things in the recent Spidey adventure as well as picking up some threads dropped on the Disney + shows, most notably Wanda Vision. It’s a twisted nightmarish corner of the MCU that we haven’t truly explored to this extent before and the results might not come close to the wonderful ride we took recently with our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man but it’s a nice detour from the typical that also sets the stage for quite a few other surprises that I really won’t be able to tell you about… at least not yet.
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The Good Fight: Season Five
Posted in No Huddle by Jeremy Butler on May 6th, 2022
This season of the Paramount Plus long-running series did a bit of shaking up. For one, the series said goodbye to a main staple of the series with the departure Delroy Lindo’s Adrian Boseman. This departure came as a surprise, as he’d been with the series from its opening, and it wasn’t as if his character had been relegated in recent years. However, I suppose everything changes with time. Don’t imagine that it will be long before we see Delroy on the small or big screen again, as the actor already has four projects in production, including the MCU’s revamping of Blade (no confirmation on who he will be playing in the film, but my gut tells me Abraham Whistler). Now if the Lindo departure shocked you, brace yourselves, because he isn’t the only cast member who made their exit. Cush Jumbo, who’s played Lucca Quinn, is also saying goodbye. Lindo’s exit surprised me, but Jumbo’s floored me. Jumbo’s Lucca Quinn has been a significant part of the series, and with her gone, the show in a sense is losing the paradigm of the old lions vs the young wolves. Well, if you need a fix of Jumbo’s quiet presence, you can catch her on a Netflix adaptation of a Harlan Coben novel.
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Edgar G. Ulmer Sci-Fi Collection
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on May 5th, 2022
Edgar G. Ulmer started his career working for the early German masters of Expressionism like Fritz Lang and F. W. Marnau. He set out on his own doing ethnic films in the Ukraine before coming to America and trying his hand here. His most notable film has to be the 1934 The Black Cat, which brought Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi together for the first time and remains a classic to this very day. Unfortunately for Ulmer, he fell in love with the wife of Carl Laemmle, the head of Universal Pictures. He later married Shirley, but the result was he was barred from every major studio in Hollywood. He had a huge box office success in 1934 with Universal, but his affair in 1936 ended any chance he would get to ride that future. He was relegated to the independent studios where he had little money and a hard time getting good actors or distribution.
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Cyrano (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 29th, 2022
“What’s the word for when you’re bad at expressing yourself… Speechless.”
The story has been around for centuries. After Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet, it might well be one of the most imitated stories on film and television. There have been countless plays on the Cyrano themes, from The Brady Bunch to Friends. It’s a timeless story first portrayed in a stage production by Edmund Rostand in 1897, but the story goes back to the life of an actual historic figure from the mid-17th century. Of course, his life has been highly made up and likely little to nothing remains of fact from the actual person. The play was a hit, and the general ideas presented there remain popular to this very day. Now there’s yet another screen version based on a play written by Erica Schmidt, who happens to be the wife of Peter Dinklage’s wife. I was honestly not looking forward to the new film adaptation of Schmidt’s adaptation of Rostand’s adaptation of literary works going back to the 17th century. It’s frankly been done to death
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