Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on October 5th, 2016
“Be the hero of your own story.”
Not the funniest addition to Kevin Hart’s reign as the king of comedy, but still a welcome sight. This time around, Hart teams with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for Central Intelligence. I’ve been anticipating this movie since behind-the-scenes footage leaked earlier this year, and the official trailer did nothing but fuel the flames of my excitement. After watching it, I can say that despite a few predictable plot twists, I still found the overall product to be extremely funny and worthwhile.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 5th, 2016
"Book 'em, Danno."
It's been 30 years since we first heard that phrase. Still it persisted in the modern lexicon along with the term Five-0, which is still shouted in high-crime areas in cities all over the country whenever a police presence is felt closing in on the bad guys. Hawaii Five-0 ended in 1980. That's when Tom Selleck took over the sets and production crew on Hawaii to work as Magnum P.I. until 1988 when it all closed down for good -- or did it? Wouldn't you know it, the show has been resurrected and become the hottest drama on television. A younger Steve McGarrett and company are back in action and Hawaii ...the world might never be the same again. Not sure what I'm talking about? You've got five seasons of the new Hawaii Five-O to catch up on. Let's give you the quick 411. Roll wave...
Posted in: Tuesday Round Up by J C on October 4th, 2016
Welcome to the first Tuesday Round Up of October! You've probably noticed that the spooky season is in full swing around these parts thanks to our “31 Nights of Terror” and we're going to keep the monster mayhem going thanks to Showtime's Penny Dreadful: The Final Season. In other horror-related news, Level 33 leave us in scary hands with The Caretaker, while Allied Entertainment giddily declares OMG...We're in a Horror Movie. RLJ Entertainment sees things through The Mind's Eye, and Lionsgate digs deep with 6 Plots. (You're in luck: enter to win a copy of 6 Plots by clicking here!) Magnolia bedevils us with Satanic and (in non-horror news) pays respect to The Last King.
Anchor Bay sows some Wild Oats, and Time Life stays up late for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson: The Vault Series — Archive Collection (which features the incomparable Joan Embery, who we got to chat with recently). Finally, HBO bids an action-packed farewell to Banshee: The Final Season.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on October 4th, 2016
Imagine being able to move things with your mind, no matter the size. To suddenly be able to send a car or a person flying through the air merely through the power of your thoughts. I’m sure we have all thought about having such extraordinary power. For Zach Connors, it is a reality; however, the power is more curse than a gift. The Mind’s Eye presents an engaging and intriguing look into what it would be like to possess this psychic ability. From the inability to control the power, to the isolation, to the envy and lust to obtain the ability for themselves, the movie hits on several key aspect and all the while never loses steam as it heads towards the final battle, which in itself is quite the meeting of the minds. Pun intended.
Zach Connors (Graham Skipper) is a drifter with the ability to move things with his mind. It is an ability that he cannot fully control and has forced him to leave behind everyone he ever loved, from his father to the love of his life, Rachel Meadows (Lauren Ashley Carter). Following a confrontation with police which results in him losing control and injuring the officers, he is arrested and approached by the mysterious Dr. Slovak (John Speredakos). Claiming to be an expert in the field of psychokinesis and offering to help Zach, the stranger offers him a place at his institute in order to help him gain control of his power. Zach is hesitant until the doctor mentions Rachel, who apparently is undergoing treatment at the institute.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 4th, 2016
He's been called the King of Late-Night. Today when there are so many talk shows on at pretty much every hour of the day, that might not appear to be such a huge distinction. There were talk shows on before Johnny Carson, but there can be no doubt that he invented the modern late-night show. For 30 years Johnny Carson was like a member of the family for millions of Americans. He was a friendly face at the end of a long, stressful day. He was that dependable routine that you could set your biological clock by. You would lie back in bed and let Johnny bring the world to you. You could count on a wide assortment of entertainment experiences. Johnny would deliver a monolog that often touched on the hot topics of the day. The news programs might be depressing, but Johnny always gave you a reason to crack a smile at the worst of times. There were characters like Aunt Blabby and Carnac who became comfortable old friends. The top names in show business competed for precious minutes on his stage, and if you were very lucky you spent some time on the couch and some face time with Johnny and his faithful sidekick Ed McMahon. Johnny could make or break your career in three minutes. He brought you the best of the new comics and musicians while delivering the big stars just as well. When you made it to The Tonight Show, you really made it.
There will never be a complete season or complete series set for Johnny Carson. There are several problems that present themselves almost immediately. Johnny was on nearly every night for thirty years. Do the math and you'll realize there have been thousands of episodes. The sad fact is that many of these moments are lost forever. Footage has either been lost completely or is in such bad shape as to be almost unwatchable. There was so much variety that having a full season would be a logistic nightmare to find those favorite moments. No, there just isn't ever going to be a complete anything when it comes to Johnny Carson. But leave it to Time-Life to go into the vaults and at least bring out some gems. This is the second volume, so the discs start with # 7.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 3rd, 2016
“Warning! The truly unusual motion picture you are about to see contains many scenes of graphic violence. It is not intended for the faint of heart, nor the young and impressionable.”
Anyone who makes it all the way through 1987's Blood Diner — a gleeful, inspired exercise in bad taste — can't say they weren't warned. That being said, the tongue-in-cheek disclaimer that precedes the film still may not be enough to prepare you for the utter silliness and depravity that follows.
Posted in: Contests, Expired Contests by Gino Sassani on October 2nd, 2016
Our friends at Lionsgate Home Entertainment wanted to help us get 31 Nights Of Terror off to a frighteningly good start. They've given us a copy of 6 Plots on DVD to give away this Halloween season. It's a claustrophobic nightmare as one girl must find a way to save six friends who have been buried alive with their worst fears. Six times the fright, and free to one lucky winner here at Upcomingdiscs.
To win a copy of this prize, follow these instructions.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 1st, 2016
“I guess I’m just not used to being chased around a mall in the middle of the night by killer robots.”
It’s October, and that means it’s the start of 31 Nights of Terror, and this year we’re kicking things off with one of my guilty pleasures growing up, Chopping Mall. This came out at a time when slashers were pretty much a dying genre, but there was still a demand to have horror films up on the big screen. I never got to see this in theaters, but I remember the VHS box art from my local mom-and-pop video store. The idea of the robotic hand clutching a shopping bag with a head on it was something that gripped the teenager in me. Sure, the film is nothing like what the box art teases, and the original title Killbots is a far more accurate title, but from a promotional standpoint, in the vein of the old Roger Corman films, I get why they did this. So what’s it all about? Well, grab your keys, grab your wallet, because we’re about to take a trip to Park Plaza Mall and see what it’s all about.
Posted in: The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on October 1st, 2016
It really doesn’t seem so long ago that all the major news networks were showing footage of the destroyed oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that was pumping out gallons upon gallons of oil into the ocean. The BP oil rig disaster was all we could talk about in April of 2010, and all of us at home were left wondering if they’d ever plug up that hole and stop the leakage of oil that would go on to destroy hundreds of miles of beach coast property as well as cause long-lasting effects on the fishing industry. Everyone was looking for someone to blame, and plenty of it went to BP. While this made for engaging news for a while, it never seemed like a story that Hollywood would want to invest in and make a film about. Now it’s 2016, and Deepwater Horizon is a big-budget blockbuster about to hit the big screen with some of Hollywood’s heavy hitters. With Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, Lone Survivor) at the helm as director and with the material in the back of my head, I was thinking this could be a film to keep an eye on as award season is about to kick into high gear. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is quite the film I expected, and it has me wondering what could have been.
While the story does focus on the tragedy on the oil rig Deepwater Horizon, it’s Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg) who we are following on most of this journey. Mike is just your regular guy at home with his wife, Felicia (Kate Hudson) and their daughter. When we first meet them, it’s the morning he’s set to travel out to the rig, and he’s saying his goodbyes since life on the rig keeps him away from home for weeks at a time. Not much time is wasted here, but it does a good job of setting up the emotional bond we’ll need for this character once all hell breaks loose down the road, but of course we have a scene that conveniently sets up the looming disaster as his daughter discusses a school project with her dad. It’s not a new method to use foreshadowing, but as I continued to watch I found myself wanting the film to simply move it along and stop beating it over our heads. We even get hints of bad omens as the rest of the crew comes together and travels out to the rig, enough where a superstitious person would have conveniently avoided this particular trip if possible.
Posted in: The Reel World by Archive Authors on October 1st, 2016
In 1997, $17.3 million dollars (or $25.5 million adjusted for inflation) was stolen from Loomis, Fargo & Co in Charlotte, N.C. It was the second largest cash robbery on U.S. soil after a Loomis Fargo armored car robbery by the driver earlier in the same year for $18.8 million in Jacksonville, Florida. The facts of the robbery and subsequent events are pretty ridiculous, and now Hollywood has made an out-and-out silly farce out of something that in reality was a silly farce. After having seen the movie, I tried to compare actual events with the insane stupidity that happened in the movie. That was actually my biggest problem with the movie. If they had tried to adhere closely to reality, it might have played funnier.
Masterminds was directed by Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre) who has disappeared after his last two movies tanked. Almost everyone would agree that Napoleon Dynamite is a brilliant comedy. It is inspired from start to finish, but it was a small independent film, and now he’s directing a much bigger budget film. The film stars Zack Galifianakis (The Hangover I, II and III), Owen Wilson (Night at the Museum I, II and III), Kirsten Wiig (Despicable Me I and II, Bridesmaids, Ghostbusters, SNL), Jason Sudeikis (Horrible Bosses I and II, We're The Millers, SNL), Leslie Jones (Ghostbusters, SNL), Kate McKinnon (Ghostbusters, SNL) and many other well known crazy comic actors. All these stars are aggressive scene stealers and fall all over each other (literally) to act ridiculous. The main character is David Scott Ghantt (Galifianakis). Almost all the real life names are used, and the actual Ghantt consulted on the movie. Ghantt was one of the few employees of the armored truck company with keys to the vault. He is targeted to be the pawn of a massive robbery even though the movie portrays him as a helpless sap. Steve Chambers (Wilson) manipulates Kelly Campbell (Wiig) to manipulate Ghantt to do 95% of the work involved. Ghantt is not in love with his strange fiancé, Jandice (McKinnon) and falls for Kelly's halfhearted flirtations which is the main motivation for the robbery. Once the robbery has been successfully achieved (although with enormously stupid stunts and miscalculations before that happens), Ghantt is sent to Mexico with $20,000. Eventually Chambers decides to send a hit man (Sudeikis) who has a pathological pleasure in the execution of his duties.
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