Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on November 24th, 2016
There is a way this film could have been great if not a little amusing. Imagine if James Bond was being stalked by Q; what would Bond do? Sure, I’ll admit it’s a silly notion, but it’s all I could think about as I watched this film about a millionaire and his family being stalked by a disgruntled I.T. worker. In general, it’s a story we see a couple of times a year, the seemingly charming figure that comes into a person’s life that turns out to be crazy and throws everyone’s life into chaos. Films like Cape Fear and One Hour Photo are just a couple of examples of films that tackled the stalker sub-genre; even last year’s overlooked gem The Gift showed you can still be terrifying with a little creativity.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 24th, 2016
"Space...the final frontier. These are the continuing voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one man gone before!"
Of course, we never did get five years from that original show when it ended after just three years in 1969. The new film series has tried to fix that for us. The latest film picks up the five-year mission just after three years have gone by. It's a double homage to the original show.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on November 23rd, 2016
It’s been a while since Nicolas Cage has been in a big studio-released film. It doesn’t mean he’s doing bad movies; it just means he’s not doing any tent-pole releases that flood the multiplex. Seeing Nicolas Cage in a film like Army of One is simply a snapshot of how modern cinema has to evolve for better or for worse. Really, I don’t mean to come off as though this is a bad film or inferior to any other films past or present, but ten years ago this is a film that would have had a much wider release and would easily have gotten more attention. After all, who could resist Nicolas Cage in a film helmed by the director of Borat?
Posted in: Tuesday Round Up by J C on November 22nd, 2016
It is Tuesday, November 22...do you know where your pets are? Turns out our furry friends might be getting into some exciting adventures when we're not around. Thankfully, Universal has been kind enough to offer us a close, ultra HD look at these animal shenanigans with The Secret Life of Pets in 4K. Elsewhere, HBO searches for love with Looking: The Complete Series and The Movie, RLJ entertainment gets some assistance from the I.T. department, and Severin delves into The Killing of America. Lionsgate gets sequel-happy with Return of the Living Dead III, C.H.U.D. II, and The Mechanic: Resurrection. Finally, we'll also be bringing you a pair of pre-Thanksgiving theatrical releases as Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard play spy games in Allied and Billy Bob Thornton returns for more debauched Christmas fun in Bad Santa 2.
One last reminder before signing off for the week: 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 November 21st, 2016
In the summer of 1974 The Paper Lace released a song called Billy Don't Be A Hero. It has the distinction of being the first and perhaps only hit record to top the charts twice in a year by different bands. The second release in 1974 was by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. For some reason the song was playing over in my head as I watched Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. I'm not sure if it was because the title characters share the same name or because both deal with war. The song was written about the Civil War but was thought by most to be about Vietnam, likely because of the release dates. Vietnam was an unpopular war, and the same can be said for the war in Iraq. The similarities continue. The song ended up fading as summer candy pop music, and the same is likely to be the fate of this film.
Posted in: The Reel World by J C on November 19th, 2016
“I'm writing a book about magical creatures.”
The wizarding world J.K. Rowling conjured for her “Harry Potter” series captured the imaginations of children (and many, many adults) throughout the globe because it was precisely that...a fully realized, living and breathing world with its own lingo and lore. So while spinning off a corner of that universe might seem like a blatant cash grab, Rowling's imagination has provided particularly fertile ground for new franchise opportunities. (OK, OK...the part where Warner Bros. agreed to make five of these before the first one even came out *does* feel like a cash grab.) For example, this latest crowd-pleasing stab at a billion-dollar series is based on...a fictional textbook mentioned in Rowling's “Potter” saga.
Posted in: The Reel World by Archive Authors on November 18th, 2016
Howard Hughes used to be a very big deal for a very long time. Warren Beatty was a big deal for a long time as well, and they have a lot in common. They were both renowned horndogs. Hughes was not only extremely rich, but enormously famous. The Hughes Tool Company, which was instrumental to the oil industry, was the original source of his wealth, but Howard Hughes became better known for his forays into the movie business and aviation industry. There has already been a movie about Hughes called The Aviator starring Leonardo DiCaprio, but Warren Beatty has been working on a Hughes movie since the 1970’s when he frequented the Beverly Hills Hotel where Hughes had multiple bungalows.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on November 18th, 2016
“Does death only come for the wicked and leave the decent behind?”
Throughout its first five seasons, Game of Thrones has been relentlessly cruel to its viewers heroes in a way that shocked audiences and upended genre expectations. But as Thrones edges toward its conclusion — and as the TV adaptation becomes more unmoored than ever from the George R.R. Martin novels that inspired it — certain storytelling conventions seem to be inevitably taking over. I seriously doubt this saga will have a traditional “happy ending,” but season 6 is as close as the show has ever come to being a full-blown crowd-pleaser.
Posted in: Tuesday Round Up by J C on November 15th, 2016
Christmas decorations have been creeping onto store shelves for weeks now and temperatures here in the Sunshine State have begun to plummet all the way down into the high 50's. Those are two sure signs that winter is coming. Here's another: the latest batch of episodes from a certain wildly popular HBO fantasy series arrives this week. Game of Thrones: Season 6 highlights our latest Tuesday Round Up, but there is plenty more you should look forward to. Anchor Bay enlists in the Army of One, while Paramount boldly goes to toon town with Star Trek: The Animated Series.
On top of all that, this is also an extremely busy week in terms of theatrical releases we'll be reviewing. Be sure to come back to the site this weekend to see if Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them recaptures the magic of Harry Potter, and whether Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk scores with fans.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 14th, 2016
"What we do has consequences, intended and unintended. The decisions we make, the actions we bring have weight."
When upcoming heavyweight contenders like Brian Koppelman, David Levien, and Andrew Ross Sorkin get together, you have reason to expect big things. And Billions is very much about heavyweights. The entire show is one big metaphor for a heavyweight prizefight. In one corner you have U.S Attorney Chuck "The Scholar" Rhodes, played by Paul Giamatti. He's the reigning world champion with a record of 80+ to 0. In the other corner is Bobby "Axe" Axelrod, played by Damian Lewis; he could also be considered undefeated.
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