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.
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.
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.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Dan Holland on October 1st, 2016
Before The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling had a fruitful career writing teleplays in the early 1950’s. One of his earliest successes, Patterns (1955), was aired on a program named Kraft Television Theatre. The popularity of the play was so enormous that a second encore performance was aired the same week of its release, and it was written as a feature film the following year. Given its impressive history and my love of Serling’s writing, I was really looking forward to watching the the film. However, I was surprised that I did not enjoy myself as much as I was expecting.
Posted in: Podcasts by Gino Sassani on September 30th, 2016
Fans of The Johnny Carson Show know who Joan Embery is. If you love animals you know who she is. She has been working with and for animals all of her life. She's been an ambassador to the world famous San Diego Zoo. Time Life is releasing its second collection The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson The Vault Series. Joan Embery appears in some of these 12 full episodes. I had the honor of talking with her for a short time. I invite you to eavesdrop on that conversation. Bang it here to listen in on my conversation with Joan Embery
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 30th, 2016
“A creature that gestates inside a living human host…and has concentrated acid for blood.”
If you're a fan of sci-fi, horror, or action films, chances are you're also intimately familiar with the creature at the center of the Alien franchise. Ridley Scott's 1979 original is a masterpiece of space horror, so it would've been foolish for any follow-up to try and replicate the same formula. Instead, James Cameron's classic sequel succeeds by transplanting an entirely new genre into the series (Aliens is basically a war movie) while maintaining the sense of terror that made its predecessor a classic. You can get a fresh look for yourself now that Fox has released a 30th Anniversary Edition.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 28th, 2016
Shonda Rhimes now has a fourth series running on ABC this past season. Joining Scandal, Grey's Anatomy, and How To Get Away With Murder is the new series The Catch. The series is based on a series of novels by Kate Atkinson and was actually created by Jennifer Schuur. And while The Catch distinguishes itself rather nicely from the usual Rhimes formula, you can still expect the bed-jumping antics that Rhimes is so obsessed with. It's the one thing that all four shows have in common. It doesn't matter whether she's a writer, creator, or just a producer; there's never been an episode of a series with her name on it that doesn't have plenty of sex. In this case it's a sad distraction from what turned out to be a rather clever show.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 27th, 2016
The title might be a bit misleading. Alicia is not so "good" these days. She's tougher and more willing to make the hard choices. She's more cutthroat in court and even when it comes to asserting her position in the firm and with her cheating husband. This is not the "stand by your man" show it might have appeared to be when it began. It's evolved, and that only makes for better television. And now that it has finally come to an end, it's easy to see that Alicia is now just as calculating and manipulative as her husband ever was. If the show was going to stay on the air, there might have been need for the title to change. Of course, I always took it as ironic anyway. Fans will have all the time in the world now to debate such subjects.
Posted in: Tuesday Round Up by J C on September 27th, 2016
It's getting to be that time of year. The color orange and the sheer number of pumpkin spice-flavored offerings are about to officially become overwhelming. That's right...it's almost October, which also means the arrival of the spooky season. As always, we'll have plenty more on that front once October properly kicks off. But in the meantime, this week's Round Up is highlighted by a pair of creepy throwback flicks. Lionsgate takes a violent trip to the Chopping Mall and has a killer meal at the Blood Diner. Meanwhile, ABC/Disney is on the case with The Catch: Season 1, while Warner Bros. courts some royal drama with Reign: Season 3. Finally, Film Detective discovers some Patterns in a Rod Serling-scripted 1950s drama.
One last reminder before signing off for the week (and for September): 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: No Huddle Reviews by J C on September 27th, 2016
“This is when we roar.”
When Fox’s Empire premiered in early 2015, it became an instant sensation that re-wrote the ratings record books. The show’s mix of high drama and hip-hop obviously struck a chord with an underserved segment of TV viewers. Of course, that also means expectations were sky high for this second season. While Empire has inevitably lost some of the sizzle from its unprecedented debut, this unapologetically over-the-top soap rap-era has also managed to avoid the dreaded sophomore slump.
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