Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 14th, 2017
"Freedom has a price. I died 7 years ago. Left behind a brother, a wife, a son, but the dead talk if you listen. They're there with you. Reaching out. Trying to tell us something. Because not all deaths are the same. Some are real. Some are a story. Question is: do you believe the story? Was the man who died who you thought he was? The dead talk. If you listen..."
The same can be said for dead series. Fox has been riding a wave of series revivals that have brought shows back from the dead in a limited-run event series format, and it has actually been doing well for the network. 24 was revived a couple of times. These episodes were used to take us from one lead character into another it was hoped could lead the way for a renewed franchise. While the series worked, the full revival did not. Perhaps the best example of Fox's event series is the six-episode return of The X-Files after so many years. It was a bit inconsistent, and six episodes were too few to tell a real good X-Files story arc. The series will return again with a slightly longer run. The most recent event series at Fox was Prison Break. At nine episodes it turned out to be just the right fit to tell another story of the brothers and their cohorts. It's now available on Blu-ray, and it's worth a look, but only if you have watched the first four seasons of the show's regular run. Otherwise things can get a bit confusing, and some of the nice subtle nods won't really pay off for you at all. But if you're a fan, it's worth the space on your video shelf.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on July 13th, 2017
In 2003, a commercial director named Sandy Collora made an 8-minute short film called Batman: Dead End, in which the Caped Crusader does battle with the Joker…along with Alien and Predator! While this sounds like a heavy dose of fanboy wish-granting, the film was Collora’s very serious attempt to show Hollywood big wigs what he could do. The mini-movie turned heads among the Comic Con crowd due to its gritty tone and impressive production values on a shoestring budget. Not surprisingly, this overlong Behind the Mask documentary is at its very best when it chronicles the making of what is widely-regarded as one of the best fan films ever made.
“Every kid in America knows what Batman should be.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on July 12th, 2017
Family is everything to Dominic Toretto. He has said as much in Furious 7, “I don’t have friends, I have family.” Over the course of seven films, we have seen him undertake impossible tasks including driving a car off a plane or through a building in order to rescue or avenge a member of said family. So what would make him make him betray that very family? In The Fate of the Furious, the team will face the biggest challenge they have ever faced when they find themselves working against their very leader. The long-running film franchise continues to up the ante with the action, producing its most action-packed film to date. Every time I think that there is no way the series can top itself, they add a tank or drive off a plane. This time, they got a submarine, y’all.
When we pick up with the team, Dominic and Letty are enjoying their honeymoon in Havana, Cuba. Their bliss is cut short when Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) has to call on Dom and his team to help him recover a stolen WMD. The heist is a success, and the team is on their way back to the rendezvous when Dom throws a curveball, stealing the weapon and disappearing. This betrayal hits everyone hard, especially Letty, who finds it impossible to believe. Adding to the shock is the return of Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) with a junior associate (Scott Eastwood) in tow, or Lil’ Nobody as Roman and Tej like to call him. Nobody informs the team that Dom stole the weapon at the request of Cipher (Charlize Theron) and that the two are working together.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 11th, 2017
From creator Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Blade 2) based off a book he co-wrote, The Strain has been a horror series that has continued to impress as it revs up to begin its fourth season on FX. It’s a show that centers around a vampire outbreak that began at JFK airport when a plane arrived with all its passengers and crew “dead”, and then things quickly spiraled out of hand. If your eyes rolled at the thought of simply another vampire story, let me take a moment to explain. What del Toro and Chuck Hogan created is a very unique take on the vampire lore, having their creature of the night more a victim of a wormlike parasite that creates a mutation in the body, and as we discover in Season Three, in the brain as well. If Season One was the start of the outbreak, Season Three has the human species hanging by a thread, struggling to maintain their place in the world where the scales are precariously ready to tip and plummet in favor of the bloodsuckers.
With the fate of Dr. Ephraim Goodweather’s (Corey Stoll) wife and the disappearance of his son in Season Two, it has left the good doctor in shambles. He’s drinking heavily and popping pills as he waits at home for his son to return home, though he’s haunted by nightmares that his son has now turned. The weapon he had created to kill off the vampires has begun to lose its effect, so he is tasked to create a new weapon, something bigger to finally tip the advantage back into the favor of the humans.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 11th, 2017
The Monty Python comedy group has been a staple of British comedy for decades; personally my favorite film of theirs will always be Life of Brian. For director Terry Jones, it’s been a while since he has stepped behind the camera to helm a picture, and it’s been even longer since he directed the 1983 classic The Meaning of Life. It’s not uncommon for directors to step away for years only to come back and return with some kind of passion project. Add into this mix Simon Pegg, whose comedic timing I would have figured would make him a perfect fit for a Monty Python film / revival; it just seemed that Absolutely Anything had everything in place to be a success. And as a comedic cherry on top, you have Robin Williams doing voice work for the film. This just has the ingredients for comedy gold. So how does a film with this talent get released and no one seems to know about it?
The film starts off with a group of aliens that capture information from a rocket that was launched out into space in the hopes that the items would come into contact with intelligent life. Well, the aliens (voiced by the Monty Python team) can’t seem to decide if they want to destroy the planet or bring us into their elite group, so they decide the way to vet us is by giving one human a limitless power where he can make anything happen so long as he waves his hand and says it out loud. Neil (Pegg) is the one who is randomly picked to receive these powers, and with a wave of a hand, comedy sort of ensues.
Posted in: Tuesday Round Up by J C on July 11th, 2017
The street racers-turned-international men (and women) of mystery from the Fast and Furious franchise famously live their lives a quarter mile at a time. In a related story, we tend to live our lives here at UpcomingDiscs one movie review at a time, and this week Universal puts the pedal to the metal with The Fate of the Furious in 4K. Elsewhere, Candy Factory explores the world of eSports with Game Changers, while Magnolia Home Entertainment jumps, jives, and wails with swing dancing documentary Alive and Kicking.
Finally, you won’t quite be able to get your stinkin' paws on a disc of War for the Planet of the Apes…but you can absolutely come back to check out our review of the summer blockbuster later this week. And while it's a brand new month, the customary reminder still applies here: 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 6th, 2017
"If you're nothing without the suit, then you shouldn't have it."
Email hacks have taken over a big part of our nation's conversation in recent times. Lost in the election leaks is the fact that Sony executives were also hacked, with many embarrassing emails released on the internet. The result was that the Sony Spider-Man plans for an extended universe of their own fell victim to the reveals. Executives were out of jobs, and suddenly Marvel and Sony were at the negotiating table, and while Sony still retains certain film rights to the friendly neighborhood, the character himself has now joined the combined MCU, and all is now right with the universe. We saw flashes of that integration in Captain America: Civil War. Now it's time for our favorite webslinger to headline a movie of his own, and in more ways than one, this truly is a Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on July 6th, 2017
“There are only two things wrong with money: too much or too little.”
This devastatingly simple yet endlessly revealing quote by poet Charles Bukowski appears at the start of Money, a lean, mean, low-budget thriller filled with well-to-do characters who nevertheless feel the need to steal millions of dollars. To be clear, there are more than two things wrong with Money — particularly in the movie's latter half, after the promising set-up starts to unravel — but the film still works as a brisk and entertaining game of cat-and-mouse mice.
Posted in: Podcasts by Gino Sassani on July 5th, 2017
The Candy Factory has been churning out the sweets of late. You must have noticed the many reviews we've had for the studios recent output. One of those films is the horror movie Wichita by first-time filmmakers Matthew D. Ward and Justyn Ah Chong. It's a claustrophobic thriller that combines a bit of cinema verite with serial killer character study. I had a chance to talk to the two filmmakers, and they were eager to share their experiences on the film. While the audio is a bit rough (cell phone conference call) it's worth a listen, to be sure.
Bang it here to listen in on my chat with The Boys
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 5th, 2017
When a film like The Belko Experiment comes along there is a part of me that wonders, how far off is the film from reality? Films like Death Race 2000, The Running Man, The Purge, and Battle Royale have all flirted with the idea of the government using murder as a form of entertainment while also using it as a way to control the public. You look at the violence in the world and how numb we’ve all seemed to have gotten towards violence in the news and our favorite TV shows. I can’t help but wonder, would it be so crazy to see murder on our television screens? Looking back at history and the gladiator times, there was murder for entertainment, where families would cheer on the bloodshed and carnage. So when I look at film like The Belko Experiment, it’s something that frightens me, more so than any creature feature Hollywood can concoct. After all, how well do we really know how governments around the world function? Perhaps a film like this wouldn’t become a reality in the states, but in places like North Korea or Russia or even South America, is it really out of the question for a game like this to go on? In a building with no windows in the middle of nowhere, is it a crime if no one is around to hear the screams? James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) pens a script that takes a harsh look at what people will do to survive under the harshest conditions, and at the helm we have Greg McLean (Wolf Creek) directing the action. Are you ready to take part in the experiment?
In Bogota, Columbia, Mike (John Gallagher Jr.) is heading into work. He works for Belko Industries which has an office building just outside of the city. On this day, it’s evident that it is not like any other normal day at the office. All the locals at the office have been sent home for the day due to a security threat to the building. All that remain at the office are its 80 American employees that are all led by Barry Norris (Tony Goldwyn). We spend a little time getting to know the employees, Wendell (John C. McGinley) who seems to have an innocent crush or is possibly stalking Adria (Leandra Florez) who is Mike’s girlfriend. There is the new girl at the office, Melonie (Dany Wilkins) and there are also a few familiar faces like Michael Rooker, who plays a maintenance worker in the building, and Sean Gunn, who is the paranoid pot smoker Marty. As you watch the film, there are plenty of faces that look familiar, and that is one of the immediate impressive things about the film: how great the cast is. Sometimes you don’t need A-listers to be a hit; you just need to fill it with the right talent. What works with the casting as well is how believable everyone is in the part. This is one of the first times in a while where an ensemble cast was put together and I could believe everyone fit the part. Whether you’ve worked in an office environment or just in a business with a variety of personalities, right from the get go you can identify with this group, and that is what is so crucial here, because when tough decisions come up and people are about to die, the decisions matter, and several of the kills and darker moments in the film are a punch to the gut.
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