Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 26th, 2017
"Guns change everything, and a bullet is forever."
This new USA Network series is based very loosely on the 2007 film staring Mark Wahlberg. The film was based on the bestseller novel Point Of Impact by the ironically named Stephen Hunter. The series started life with several events going against it. The film really didn't make much of an impact itself. It lost money with a domestic box office total under $50M and about the same in the world-wide box office. So it wasn't necessarily a no-brainer for a television series adaptation.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Dan Holland on July 26th, 2017
La Vie de Jean-Marie (The Life of Jean-Marie) is a documentary that pitches itself as an “excellent example of cinema verité,” leaving it exposed to the tremendous legacy that specific film movement left upon cinema history. For those that don’t know, “cinema verité,” or “truth cinema,” is a style of documentary invented by French filmmaker Jean Rouch around the late 1950’s. The idea behind this style of cinema is “reveal the truth” through the use of the camera and the spontaneity of the film’s subjects. La Vie de Jean-Marie does indeed wear the shoes of cinema verité quite well; however, it does so in an exhausting fashion.
Posted in: Tuesday Round Up by J C on July 25th, 2017
Looks like the unofficial theme of this week's Tuesday Round Up is girl power! Scarlett Johansson looks good in any situation, but Paramount was generous enough to present her in dazzling 4K with this week's release of Ghost in the Shell, a live-action adaptation of the Japanese manga/anime classic. HBO says farewell to Girls: The Final Season, while Warner Bros. bids an honest goodbye to Pretty Little Liars: The Final Season. Warner also remembered to send along the Rosario Dawson/Katherine Heigl thriller Unforgettable. Meanwhile, Lionsgate/Vestron Series momentarily crashes this girls party with the Warlock Collection on Blu-ray.
Luckily, the end of the week gets us back on brand with the release of the Charlize Theron action romp Atomic Blonde. Now it's time for the customary reminder before signing off for the week (and for July): 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 Brent Lorentson on July 22nd, 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 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?
Posted in: Contests by Gino Sassani on July 21st, 2017
Hot cars and plenty of explosive action. If that sounds like your idea of a good time our good friends over at Universal Studios have just the thing. They've given us a copy of The Fate Of The Furious on Blu-ray to give to one lucky Upcomingdiscs reader. It's family against one of their own in this eighth entry in the Fast And The Furious franchise. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Vin Diesel, Jason Statham, Kurt Russell, Scott Eastwood, Michelle Rodriguez and Charlize Theron want to bring the party over to your house.
To win a copy of this prize, follow these instructions.
Posted in: Uncategorized by Gino Sassani on July 21st, 2017
If you're looking for a little nostalgia on DVD, you have a lot of options out there. Front and center you'll find that Time-Life has been bringing out a lot of memories. We've already looked at such shows as The Wonder Years, Dean Martin Roasts, and Mama's Family over the years. We've also got some insight on another classic television milestone in the coming weeks. For now we take a look at four recent releases that bring back the good old days. I'm talking about: Hee Haw: Pfft! You Was Gone, Bob Hope Salutes the Troops, The Best of Tim Conway and The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson: Johnny And Friends Steve Martin, Robin Williams and Eddie Murphy. It's song, dance, and laughs on DVD. And away we go
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 20th, 2017
"We'll figure something out. We always do."
You should know the setup by now. If not, you can check out our previous reviews: The 100 Reviews. You'll discover a series that changes quite substantially with each new season. In fact, the title itself was no longer relevant to the series after the first episode. The originally 100 was quickly whittled down in size. Then the rest of the Ark came down, and in Season 4 there are about 500 of the Ark's inhabitants on the planet.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on July 20th, 2017
We here at UpcomingDiscs strive to provide our beloved readers with the most informative and well-thought-out reviews, regardless of the movie or TV show genre that comes flying through the door. Collectively, our awesome little staff covers a wide range of interests. But when swing dancing documentary Alive and Kicking arrived at UpcomingDiscs HQ…there was only one man for the job. The toe-tapping doc is equal parts enlightening and entertaining, whether you’re a swing dancing novice (like my wife/occasional movie-watching partner) or — like me — a guy who’s been into this stuff for the last 15 years.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 19th, 2017
Every year it seems the “summer” movie season seems to start sooner than the year before. Here we are, the second Friday of March, and already we’ve seen the huge box office weekend for Logan, and now this weekend we have the release of Kong: Skull Island. Ever since Kong first graced the big screen back in 1933, every film that followed was a mega-event. Personally it wasn’t till 2005 that theatergoers got to fully experience the massive beast in all his glory as he became worthy of the title “the 8th wonder of the world”. Now we have Legendary Entertainment playing in the giant monster movie sandbox with plans to set up a series of monster films. All this leads up to the inevitable clash of the kaiju monsters where we will finally see the showdown of Godzilla vs. King Kong. Before we begin to get too excited, how does our current trip to Skull Island fare?
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Dan Holland on July 19th, 2017
Over the last eight years or so, the abstract concept of nostalgia has become a commodity. Film, television, and videogames have been adjusting their aesthetic to incorporate stylistic visuals that are intended to draw in what seems to be a relatively specific demographic: “80’s kids.” Whether it be Stranger Things, Kung Fury, or Turbo Kid, these films have succeeded (and failed) to create a new style out of this “nostalgia aesthetic.” However, being a child of the 90’s, I have noticed that these “nostalgia aesthetics” have shifted toward my decade.








