Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on April 12th, 2017
“At the turn of the century, Sea Island Gullahs, descendants of African Captives, remained isolated from the mainland of South Carolina and Georgia. As a result of their isolation, the Gullah created and maintained a distinct, imaginative, and original African American culture.”
Prior to watching Daughters of the Dust, I was completely unfamiliar with Sea Island Gullahs. To tell their story, the film (intentionally) deviates from the traditional narrative playbook, which doesn’t necessarily make for the most pleasurable movie-watching experience. However, the three key adjectives used in the opening text — “distinct,” “imaginative,” and “original” — absolutely apply here.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Dan Holland on April 11th, 2017
Drunk History is a good example of a good idea that lost steam very quickly. I remember when initial idea was aired as a web series produced by Funny or Die in 2007, and it was a rather brilliant idea. The show was not picked up by a major network for six years; then in the summer of 2013, it made its premiere on Comedy Central. Granted, I remember being excited about this premiere. However, about midway through that first season, I realized how too much of a great idea can be a bad thing. The format just became tiresome and dull after a few episodes. Now, four years later, the show has returned for four entire seasons, but it definitely feels it has run its course.
If you are not familiar with the series, Drunk History was created by Derek Waters, and the format is as follows: Someone from the world of comedy is interviewed by Waters about some historical event as they are getting incredibly drunk. Meanwhile, the show cuts from the talking-head style interview to a dramatization of the event in question, being performed by other comedic actors. However, rather than actually using original dialog, the actors perform pantomime while lip-syncing to the voiceover provided by the drunken musings in the interview. It is this lip-syncing that really makes the show impressive, but the drunken musings provide the primary entertaining content.
Posted in: Tuesday Round Up by J C on April 11th, 2017
Election season is firmly in the rearview mirror, but I reckon this week’s weekly Round Up could easily be dubbed “Super Tuesday.” Veep is in its second term as the Emmy winner for Outstanding Comedy Series…that being said, I’m not sure anything in this fiercely funny and profane show can match the levels of ridiculata we’ve already witnessed in real life. You’ll get a chance to cast your vote this week as the brilliant HBO comedy’s fifth season arrives on Blu-ray. And speaking of brilliant HBO comedies arriving on Blu-ray this week, be sure to pay a visit to Silicon Valley: Season 3. Elsewhere, Universal says hello to The Bye Bye Man, Cohen Media Group releases a 25th anniversary edition of Daughters of the Dust, and Showtime opens up the big top for The Circus: Season 1.
Oh and I almost forgot: later this week, a certain street racing franchise speeds into theatres with The Fate of the Furious, so be sure to check back for our review. Now it's time for your weekly reminder before signing off: 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: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 6th, 2017
Let me tell you a few things about movie reviewers. We're the kind of people who love watching movies. We spend entirely too much time doing so, and we can find some entertainment even in a bad film. We're the kind of folks who don't ask what's playing when asked if we want to go to the movies. The answer is always yes. When someone applies to write for Upcomingdiscs, one of the first things I tell them is that they have to watch a movie all the way through...no matter how bad it might be. I've always been the kind of person who could do that. I've watched some stinkers in my day, and I never once left a film until the ending. Sure, there have been a couple of times I was tempted. I've had a few painful experiences. No film has ever put me to the test as much as Why Him? Halfway through the movie I was asking Why me? The answer is that I'm the only reviewer here capable of running UHD 4K Blu-rays. I should have known there would be a cost, and Why Him? was a steep one.
The plot is a promising one that quickly becomes so improbable that the plot value is completely lost in a downward-spiraling parade of bad behavior. It all starts at the 55th birthday of Ned Fleming, played quite painfully by Bryan Cranston. He's the founder of the family printing business with many loving employees who are gathered as son Scotty (Gluck) delivers a video testimonial to the patriarch. Daughter Stephanie (Deutch) is away at college but joins the event via Skype. It's all a typical love-fest until her boyfriend Laird (Franco) shows up in the background pulling down his pants and dancing a genital gig for the shocked viewers. It's almost Christmas, so Stephanie decides to invite the family to California to meet the previously-secret boyfriend, and things just get worse from there.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 6th, 2017
With Season 8 gearing up, Season 7 of Archer makes its way onto DVD, for many to binge and catch up before the season premiere. I have to admit this was a show I had watched perhaps a handful of episodes but I could never quite get into. I’ll admit at times I can be a bit thick-headed when it comes to watching an animated series. After repeated requests (or demands that may or may not have been at gunpoint), I settled in and binged a season of Archer. To my surprise, I had a blast with the show and quickly devoured more episodes which finally caught me up to Season 7. So what trouble has the former world’s greatest secret agent, Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin) gotten himself into?
The season kicks off with a nice visual reference to Sunset Boulevard as a pair of detectives discuss the significance of a body floating in the pool of a famous Hollywood actress. Unfortunately the body belongs to none other than Sterling Archer. The show then quickly takes us back six months earlier to where Archer and his cohorts are now starting up their own private detective agency. It seems like the logical jump since being international spies for a terrorist group, and being drug dealers didn’t seem to work out so well.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2017
"You have to start somewhere."
I could sense a great disturbance in the Force. I could not quite put my finger on the reason, but there appeared to be much to worry about with the debut of the first ever Star Wars film that was not one of the driving episodes in the epic story of the Skywalker family and friends. There was worry that Disney might have been pushing their luck with these sidetrack stories. The Force Awakens was very good, but should the Mouse House really be tempting fate with such "filler" material? Then there were the disturbing reports that the film required so many rewrites that as much as $5 million had been spent on the services of Tony Gilroy to provide those touch-ups. There were reports of extensive reshoots, and all of this was enough to have Star Wars fans worried. We needn't have wasted the stress or time. Not only is Rogue One: A Star Wars Story just fine, it's better than fine. It's actually a very good movie.
Posted in: Tuesday Round Up by J C on April 4th, 2017
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…the latest entry in a massively beloved sci-fi franchise hit theaters and became the highest-grossing movie of 2016. Ok, so it was more like 3 ½ months ago, which isn’t all that long. And it was playing practically everywhere, so chances are you didn’t have to drive very far, far away to go watch it. Nevertheless, the commute will be nonexistent now that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is out on Blu-ray! Disney was nice enough to send us a copy and we’ll have a review of this disc very soon. On top of that, Omnibus Entertainment introduces us to Heidi. Finally, we’ll be wrapping up the week with some panache thanks to the big-screen release of Going in Style.
Even though it's a brand new month, the same 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: Contests, Expired Contests by Gino Sassani on April 3rd, 2017
20th Century Fox asks the question Why Him? And we have the answer. Thanks to our cool buddies at Fox we've got a copy of Why Him? on Blu-ray to give away to a lucky Upcomingdiscs follower. Bryan Cranston and James Franco battle wits in this confrontation between Dad and the Rich Boyfriend. We're giving away the laughs. All you have to do is enter.
To win a copy of this prize, follow these instructions.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on April 3rd, 2017
"What have you been up to in your little zoo?"
It appears that we have been due for one of those untold stories amid the many tales of courage and bravery both fact and fiction, real and imagined, that have been told of the World War II era. There have been plenty of the battlefield hero films that include last year's exceptional Hacksaw Ridge from Mel Gibson. Then there are the quiet and unlikely heroes. These are people who did incredible things that were often unknown during the war and often even after it was all over. Schindler's List has become the gold standard for these kinds of emotional war movies. The Zookeeper's Wife is set in the mold of that kind of a film, telling essentially that very kind of tale. Here the action begins with the invasion of Poland, which was the spark that ignited a local territorial conflict into a global event. It is here at the moment of that spark we find Antonina Zabinski, played by Jessica Chastain, who used her small local zoo to save nearly 300 Jews from the Nazi extermination machine failing with only two souls during the entire war. This is that untold story which most of you will discover for the first time.
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on April 1st, 2017
"In space no one can hear you scream"
Yes, Life is very much a knockoff on the basic premise of 1979's Alien. That's not so much of a problem for me. It's become increasingly true that there are few truly original ideas remaining, at least in Hollywood. And while it's trendy to complain that this is the unique state of affairs of our time, that isn't really true either. Alien itself was pretty much a knockoff of the 1958 classic It The Terror From Beyond Space, where a vicious life-form is a stowaway on a ship sent to rescue the lone survivor of a Martian expedition. In all three films we are treated to a claustrophobic rendition of Agatha Christi's Ten Little Indians as an alien creature picks off the confined astronauts one at a time. No, a film doesn't need to be terribly original in order to be entertaining. And Life certainly has its entertaining moments. More technologically advanced than its predecessors, the film is quite visually stunning. Unfortunately, it devolves pretty much into a slasher film in space. Instead of hapless and stoned teenagers making the kind of stupid mistakes that play into the hands of a maniacal killer, we have men and women who are supposed to represent the best and brightest planet Earth has to offer... making the kind of stupid mistakes that play into the appendages of a maniacal alien creature.
On The Web
Sponsors
