Best of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 16th, 2012
When I was eight, nine years old I remember watching two things on a regular basis. First, was wrestling (think back to the old NWA days) and the second was He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. He-Man is a very fond memory of my youth and I could always count on that show for a good adventure. I even had He-Man and Skeletor action figures and they would do battle for control of Castle Greyskull. However, I am still not exactly sure what Orko was. Perhaps we will find out in Mill Creek’s latest release: The Best of He-Man Season 1 and 2.
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Home on the Range (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 16th, 2012
The “Patch of Heaven” farm is about to be seized by the bank, unless $750.00 can be raised, and raised quickly. By lucky coincidence, that is precisely the reward being offered for the capture of cattle rustler Alameda Slim. Three plucky cows (voiced by Roseanne Barr, Judi Dench and Jennifer Tilly) decide to capture Slim and win the reward, thus saving their home.
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Hatfields & Mccoys: Bad Blood
Posted in No Huddle by Brent Lorentson on July 16th, 2012
Just to forewarn you this is not a review for the mini-series that aired on the History channel with Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton. Instead this is for the bad knockoff that seems to have been released just in time to catch any spillover interest from the Costner version. So how does this version of the battle between the two feuding families hold up? Well, not so good, and I’m being generous in saying that.
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The Miracle Match – White Squall – Prefontaine
Posted in No Huddle by J C on July 15th, 2012
In ranking the popularity of sports in America, there’s football and then there’s everything else. The hierarchy for sports movies, however, is a little more competitive. I’ve got boxing edging out baseball for the top spot due to two Best Picture wins (Rocky, Million Dollar Baby) that should’ve been three (Raging Bull), and the fact that even a recent movie like The Fighter can bank almost $100 million at the domestic box office while snagging a couple of Oscars despite boxing’s profile currently being in the toilet in this country. Boxing and baseball are probably followed by football, hockey and basketball, in some order.
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Spec Ops: The Line (Xbox 360)
Posted in Game Reviews by Michael Durr on July 14th, 2012
Looking over my video game collection, there is certainly a feel of games that are either set in the past or set in the future with the exception of sports games and a couple of driving titles. In particular, I do not look at a shooter and think that I want to play something that takes place now. I am a sucker for fantasy and sci/fi shooters primarily. But today, I have just the opposite, a very realistic present day third-person shooter in the name of Spec Ops: The Line. Let us see how it plays.
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Barbarella (Blu-Ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on July 13th, 2012
Taking place in the 41st century, an astronaut named Barbarella (played by Jane Fonda) has been ordered to search out a missing Earth scientist named Durand Durand. On this mission, she is forced to land on a Planet called Lythion where she must overcome various erotic obstacles in this psychedelic camp classic.
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Ice Age Continental Drift
Posted in The Reel World by Gino Sassani on July 13th, 2012
“I love a terrible turn of events.”
Ever wonder how the continents formed and the land masses on planet earth got their present shapes? The short answer appears to be nuts. Literally, nuts. For a decade our children have been getting their geologic time lessons from the folks at Dreamworks animated feature shop. Yes, the same folks who brought us the Shrek series. Ice Age came out in 2002 and took the box office like a blizzard piling up a drift of cash that amounted to almost $180 million before it was over.
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Demoted
Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on July 12th, 2012
Two sales executives have a rambunctious party at a strip club that inadvertently results in their boss’s death. Though they are not fired, they are demoted to the level of secretaries, while their former cohort, whom they used to pick on relentlessly, is elevated to be their new boss.
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Exclusive Interview With Jack Perez, Director Of Some Guy Who Kills People
Posted in Podcasts by Gino Sassani on July 12th, 2012
Hope you are enjoying our Some Guy Who Kills People coverage. I also got to chat with Jack Perez who directed the film. Bang it here to listen to our conversation: Jack Perez Interview
The Collapsed
Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on July 11th, 2012
An undisclosed infection has decimated the world’s population. This film follows a family of four who are trying to survive the fallout of this viral apocalypse by escaping a city via the woods, in search of a rural area they used to live in.
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American Reunion: Unrated (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on July 11th, 2012
Right before this movie hit theaters, I made a snarky joke about how I was already mentally preparing myself for American Funeral in about 20 years. (I imagined the gang reluctantly reuniting following the death of a 50-year-old Steve Stifler in a tragic, orgy-related accident involving high school girls…except it turns out Stifler faked his death to get the crew back together and shenanigans ensue.) It was an easy joke to make because I felt American Reunion came with a detectable whiff of desperation.
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Mannix: The Seventh Season
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on July 11th, 2012
It sounds like nothing new. Hard-boiled detective uses computers and other forms of technology to solve cases. It isn’t anything new, except the detective in question is Joe Mannix, and the series started in 1967. The computer that Mannix used took up an entire room and was queried using cardboard punch cards. This wasn’t science fiction. We’re not talking some newly-discovered Irwin Allen series. Mannix didn’t go after aliens or robots. This was a down-to-earth gritty detective show. Mike Connors played the tough-as-nails detective. He was perfect for the part and blended into the role seamlessly for eight years.
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Streets of San Francisco: Season Three (Vol 1 & 2)
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on July 11th, 2012
If you weren’t around in the 1970’s, you might be surprised to find out that film superstar Michael Douglas was once in a television cop show. It was this influential crime drama that allowed Douglas to show off the acting chops that would earn him a spot in the Hollywood elite for decades to come. It didn’t hurt any that he was able to team up with Karl Malden, an undervalued talent in his own right. The two of them literally bring the show to life. The series was run by Quinn Martin, himself no stranger to groundbreaking television.
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You’re Nobody Till Somebody Kills You
Posted in No Huddle by Brent Lorentson on July 10th, 2012
A serial killer is on the loose in New York dispatching up-and-coming hip hop artists. Is it a feud between rappers, a crazed fan, or is it all part of a conspiracy connecting all the homicides involving rappers reaching back to the days of Tupac and the Notorious BIG? Chances are if you’re anything like me you couldn’t care less. I take rappers about as seriously as Carrot Top, and I’m willing to wager it’s Carrot that has more talent. But people still enjoy the music, and as long as the fans are happy that’s all that matters.
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Storage Wars: Volume 3
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 10th, 2012
One of my favorite television pastimes is watching some Storage Wars episodes. Initially, it was the lure of finding that goldmine buried beneath a pile of trash in a storage locker. But as I got more into it, I realized that it was the people who kept me coming back episode after episode. Barry, Jarrod, Brandi (she is a cutie), Darrell and even occasionally Hester all intrigue me as I watch each episode. Here in my hands is Volume 3, let’s see if the viewing pleasure continues.
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G.I. Joe Series 2: Season 2
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 9th, 2012
As expressed many times on these reviews, I grew up with the original G.I. Joe, the original Transformers, He-Man and so forth. In those shows, I tended to perhaps forgive some of the quirkiness and things that we would probably never see in a cartoon in this decade simply because I loved them so much as a kid. But would I be so forgiving with a G.I. Joe series that started out in the 90’s, when I was already in high school? We shall soon see when I review Season 2 of the second series of G.I. Joe.
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Duran Duran Live 2011: A Diamond in the Mind (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on July 9th, 2012
When Duran Duran’s new concert film arrived at UpcomingDiscs headquarters, the staff was practically fighting over the Blu-ray. (“You take it!” “No, YOU take it!”) Needless to say, no one was tripping over themselves to spend a significant amount of time with a band once dubbed “the prettiest boys in rock.” When I expressed admiration for a few of their songs, I became this site’s Duran Duran Fan (By Default). After watching this lively 2011 performance, I feel pretty good about removing the “By Default” portion of my title and simply calling myself a fan of the band.
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Wilfred: The Complete First Season (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on July 8th, 2012
“Come on Ryan! These are big existential questions, best left for boring Russian novelists and teenagers on acid. Real people don’t think about this shit!”
As Wilfred: The Complete First Season begins, Ryan Newman (Elijah Wood), a miserably depressed out of work lawyer, just reached the end of his rope. One night, after meticulously composing the final draft of his suicide note, he downs a handful of pills, chugs them back with a bottle of NyQuil and heads off to bed. Nothing happens. He can’t even fall asleep.
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Jeff Who Lives at Home (Blu Ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on July 7th, 2012
An aimless slacker named Jeff shambles out of his mother’s basement (where he lives, hence the movie title), tasked with a chore, but is sidetracked by a theory that he is being given signs. What are these “signs” meant to mean? Not even Jeff knows as he runs into his brother and mother along his seemingly random path. The films asks, is said path truly random? Or is he finally on a journey to find true meaning in his life?
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Alice: The Complete First Season
Posted in Disc Reviews, No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 7th, 2012
“Early to rise, early to bed. And in and between I cooked and cleaned and went out of my head.”
There was a new girl in town for the 1976 television season. Well, she wasn’t exactly new. The whole thing started out as a feature film called Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore starring Ellen Burstyn as the title character Alice Hyatt. The film was one of the first feature films directed by Martin Scorsese. Burstyn won the Oscar for her performance as Alice, and the film achieved a ton of critical acclaim, and two years later a sit-com on CBS that lasted nine seasons.
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Butterfly Swords
Posted in No Huddle by J C on July 7th, 2012
Any movie that features one man flying through the air before slicing another guy’s face clean off within the first three minutes and concludes with a swordsman using his female companion as a bow to launch himself in the air like a human arrow so he can rip straight through a bad guy’s body pretty much defies criticism. (And I didn’t even mention the part where the bad guy comes back a few minutes later, despite the fact that he’d also been decapitated.) Believe me when I say I haven’t even scratched the surface of the insanity that is Butterfly Swords.
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Gene Simmons Family Jewels: Season 6
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on July 6th, 2012
I’m not sure if it’s a case of morbid curiosity, but I ended up somewhat liking the show. At about 21 minutes an episode, it’s just the right length. Even if I did find this stuff entertaining, there was only so much of Gene’s family I could take in one sitting. The premise is simple and has been done to death by now. Cameras follow some famous person or family in the hopes of providing compelling drama for millions of viewers. OK, so that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but so is the idea that we’re going to get an intimate inside look at these folks while the cameras are rolling.
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Law & Order: Criminal Intent: Year Seven
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on July 6th, 2012
“In New York City’s war on crime, the worst criminal offenders are pursued by the detectives of the Major Case Squad. These are their stories.”
Dick Wolf used to pretty much own NBC and prime-time drama. His flagship series Law & Order lasted 20 years, tying the record held by Gunsmoke for the longest-running scripted drama. It was his wish to break the record, but by season 20 the franchise had lost some steam and was axed by NBC. It wasn’t a total loss for Wolf, who had two other Law & Order shows still running at the time
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Stone Temple Pilots – Alive In The Windy City (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 6th, 2012
It’s a little hard for me to realize it really has been 20 years since Stone Temple Pilots emerged out of the grunge scene with their album Core. I remember hanging out at my friends house playing Sega Genesis while listening to this tape (yes, cassette tape) over and over with some Pearl Jam and Nirvana thrown in as well. For me these guys are like moments of time from my past that I’ll always look fondly upon. Whether it was my first mosh pit or first house party, this was the music that surrounded me.
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Some Guy Who Kills People
Posted in No Huddle by Brent Lorentson on July 6th, 2012
We’ve all heard the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover”; well ,in this case it should be extended to not judging it by its title either. I read the title for Some Guy Who Kills People and thought it was a clever ominous title, but the movie that followed didn’t live up to the title but instead pulled a bit hard at the heartstrings. I came into this one expecting horror and instead got pleasantly surprised by this sweet horror (very loosely fits in this case) comedy about a relationship between a father and daughter.
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