Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on December 23rd, 2017
I suspect that at about this time last year too few Americans knew anything about Dunkirk and the pivotal role it played in the early moments of World War II. In July Christopher Nolan brought his 70mm cameras out to play and we relived the courageous evacuation of over 300,000 British soldiers from their surrounded position just across The English Channel. Dunkirk was an incredible film that will likely take away some Oscars for the year. But what Nolan's spectacle failed to demonstrate was the reason for all of that action. Why were civilian vessels picking up these soldiers? Those questions are answered in Darkest Hour. I suspect that this film might be sharing some of the stage come Oscar night. e two films appeared less than 6 months apart in the cinemas but they make extraordinary companion films. As movie-goers we couldn't have asked for a better one-two punch on a subject a lot of people have been learning more about just by going to the movies.
Gary Oldman looses himself completely as Winston Churchill here. It starts with the clever use of prosthetics that make the unlikely actor look more like the iconic British Prime Minster. How much of his body was a fat suit and how much was pounds put on by the actor ala De Niro in Raging Bull, I'm not sure. But the work on the actor's face hides away the actor and brings out Churchill. But it's not just the look alone that sells this role so completely. It's one of Oldman's finest performances that makes this character so compelling. Winston Churchill was a force of nature and Gary Oldman delivers just that in Darkest Hour.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Dan Holland on December 23rd, 2017
Valley of Bones is one of the most interesting films I’ve seen recently, simply because it takes an old B-movie trope and transforms it into a decent drama. However, rather than unearthing some soon-to-be-live prehistoric beast in the desert (a la The Mole People, Tarantula, or The Black Scorpion), Valley of Bones keeps the excavation underground and the real danger way out of the control of the characters. Where the trope is to have the fault of having a monster on the loose lie with the excavation team, this film develops the danger and drama as an outside force imposing upon the excavation team. While this form of external conflict can be found in countless films, this is the first I’ve seen it as it applies to a family-run archeological dig.
The film takes place in a portion of the Badlands within the United States, where it is rumored that a large, complete Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil has been discovered. Anna, a paleontologist first and a mother second, is tipped off to this astonishing find by McCoy, an unsavory drug addict. McCoy owes a large sum of money to the notorious gang run by El Papá, but his tenacity will not let him go down without a fight. McCoy cons Anna into helping him unearth the “dead lizard” so that he can pay off his debt and save his own daughter from being collateral damage. As a result, Anna, her son, and her team must survive what has come to be the most dangerous dig they have performed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 22nd, 2017
Most movies are just not very good. Lots of money goes into turning out boring, repetitive garbage. You watch it and then dispose of it and make room for the next thing. There are some who do more, but the more you do, the greater the risk. Most filmmakers are not given the freedom to take really big risks, but someone who has been given the opportunity to take the big risk is Christopher Nolan. Interstellar is $165,000,000 gamble shooting for the moon. Actually Nolan is shooting for something way past the moon. He wants to take us to another galaxy. There is so much speculative science in this film that it is mind-boggling. The cutting edge of real science is, frankly, getting crazier and crazier. The average person really has no idea how crazy, but Interstellar is going to try to show us just how crazy. The true nature of some of the elements of the theory of relativity and other related theories is that they defy all logic.
One of the most important things in Interstellar is its attempts to deal with some of the properties of time. The laws of physics tell us time acts differently in different situations. In this movie time rules everything in people's lives, but the main character is given the power to do something with time that most of us don't even imagine. It's important to know some of these situations are described in actual scientific theory. In fact, real science is getting closer and closer to God all the time. Most people who don't believe in God don't expect science to contradict that way of thinking. Interstellar doesn't talk about God, but it comes close to doing something similar. It is science's contention to state statistically there are millions of planets with intelligent life out there. Some of those intelligence forces will seem like God to us. This is simple science, but people have such a wide range of beliefs that no one will ever agree on what is the truth. The reason we don't agree is because mankind is just not smart enough to have real answers.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on December 21st, 2017
When Christopher Nolan has a new release, it’s an event to get excited about. There are few directors I can say this about. Sure, there are directors that I like, but still there are few who manage to capture what makes going to the cinema an experience. Dunkirk is his latest cinematic opus. Despite it being his shortest film, with the exception of The Following, this is the first time he has shot a film almost entirely in IMAX form. What’s the big deal? Well, aside from the picture being twice the size of the regular format, what he does with these cameras is deliver a beautifully striking picture of destruction and survival. There’s a lot of buzz going around with this film, and already it’s being looked at as the first real Oscar contender of the year. Is the film worth the hype? Is it really Nolan’s best picture?
Christopher Nolan is widely known for his Dark Knight Trilogy, as well as Inception and Interstellar. While I’m a fan of these films, it’s his film Memento that has always stuck with me as his most inspired work, a film that plays with a timeline to serve the overall experience of the film. Dunkirk is yet another film that unfolds over the course of three timelines to tell its story of heroism and survival. While I appreciate Nolan’s attempt to be innovative with this storytelling technique, it’s definitely something I feel harms the overall film, because as the film unfolds we jump from one scene in the afternoon to another scene at night, and the sequences are edited to in such a way that tonally they coincide, but visually it’s jarring. But still that’s not the greatest fault I find in the film; instead, it’s that I feel we are missing the entire first act of the film.
Posted in: Uncategorized by Gino Sassani on December 21st, 2017
I think I see your problem. You have this list. It’s a list of people you need/want to buy a Christmas gift for. The trouble is that they’re into home theatre, and you don’t know Star Trek from Star Wars. You couldn’t tell a Wolf Man from a Wolverine. And you always thought that Paranormal Activity was something too kinky to talk about. Fortunately, Upcomingdiscs has come to the rescue every Christmas with our Gift Guide Spotlights. These gift guides ARE NOT paid advertisements. We take no money to publish them. The kinds of things we recommend here are things I would be delighted to find under the tree.
Fox has put out a few good releases this year, and you really should think about putting some of this under the tree:
Posted in: Holiday Gift Guides by J C on December 20th, 2017
The countdown to Christmas has reached single digits! Hopefully, that means everyone on your naughty/nice list (which, I assume, you've checked twice) has been accounted for. But maybe that's not the case, and you're racking your brain for a last-minute gift idea. Fortunately, Upcomingdiscs has come to the rescue every Christmas with our Gift Guide Spotlights. These gift guides ARE NOT paid advertisements. We take no money to publish them. The kinds of things we recommend here are things we would be delighted to find under the tree.
For well over a decade, HBO has been producing some of the most extraordinary content on the small screen. This past year was no exception. Take a look at some of these complete sets that will be sure to please any fan of quality television.
Posted in: Holiday Gift Guides by Gino Sassani on December 20th, 2017
I think I see your problem. You have this list. It’s a list of people you need/want to buy a Christmas gift for. The trouble is that they’re into home theatre, and you don’t know Star Trek from Star Wars. You couldn’t tell a Wolf Man from a Wolverine. And you always thought that Paranormal Activity was something too kinky to talk about. Fortunately, Upcomingdiscs has come to the rescue every Christmas with our Gift Guide Spotlights. These gift guides ARE NOT paid advertisements. We take no money to publish them. The kinds of things we recommend here are things I would be delighted to find under the tree.
The folks at Acorn keep churning out the best of British television productions. Take a look at some of these complete sets that will be sure to please any fan of quality television.
Posted in: Holiday Gift Guides by Gino Sassani on December 20th, 2017
I think I see your problem. You have this list. It’s a list of people you need/want to buy a Christmas gift for. The trouble is that they’re into home theatre, and you don’t know Star Trek from Star Wars. You couldn’t tell a Wolf Man from a Wolverine. And you always thought that Paranormal Activity was something too kinky to talk about. Fortunately, Upcomingdiscs has come to the rescue every Christmas with our Gift Guide Spotlights. These gift guides ARE NOT paid advertisements. We take no money to publish them. The kinds of things we recommend here are things I would be delighted to find under the tree.
Warner Brothers continues to lead the industry with television on Blu-ray. Other studios have experimented with some of their shows but no one puts more TV out in HD than Warner Brothers. Here are some of my favorite titles from 2017. Any of them would look great under the tree this season. Warner also has a nice collection of DC films out on Blu-ray.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 19th, 2017
Like most people my age (I'm not telling), I watched my fair share of Full House. I wished I could be as cool as John Stamos, be as funny as Dave Coulier and wished Bob Saget was my dad. Then I grew up and realized I wasn't as cool as John Stamos, didn't find Dave to be quite as hilarious (sorry Dave), and still wished Bob was my dad (Actually, even more so when I found out he was quite the dirty comic). Fast forward about twenty years and the Full House theme has been brought back into the present with some familiar faces and a few new ones. Let's take a look at Season 2 of Fuller House.
If you are one of those people like myself who have never seen an episode of Fuller House and need a quick rundown of characters, well here you go. We have DJ Tanner-Fuller (played by Candace Cameron Bure) who is widowed, a veterinarian and has three kids. The three kids are Jackson (played by Michael Campion), age 13, Max (played by Elias Harger), age 7 and Tommy Jr (played by Dashiell & Fox Messitt), age barely out of the womb (probably around 2). In addition, we have DJ's sister, Stephanie Tanner (played by Jodie Sweetin) who has moved from London to help DJ raise her kids. Also, she is ridiculously hot. (There I said it, I'm sure it will come up again).
Posted in: Tuesday Round Up by J C on December 19th, 2017
We're less than a week away from Christmas, and it appears Santa is a Christopher Nolan fan! This week, two of the acclaimed filmmaker's blockbusters arrive on UHD. Warner Bros. does battle with Dunkirk (4K), while Paramount goes out of this world with sci-fi hit Interstellar. Meanwhile, Universal explores a unique royal friendship between Victoria & Abdul.
Before signing off for the week, here’s the usual reminder: if you’re shopping for anything on Amazon — maybe a last minute Christmas gift — and you do it through one of our links, it’ll help keep the lights on here at UpcomingDiscs. See ya next week and have a very Merry Christmas!
On The Web
Sponsors
