Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 16th, 2016
"He's back. The Sarge is back."
But not for long. Phil Silvers was aptly named. If anyone in show business had a silver tongue, it was Phil. He started, like most comedians of the era, in Burlesque and Vaudeville. There he honed the natural talent that would make him one of the first true television stars in the industry. With The Phil Silvers Show he introduced us to the character of Sergeant Bilko. From 1955 to 1959 Silvers and his Bilko character would take the television landscape by storm. In 1956 the show became the very first series in television history to win three Emmy Awards in a single year. That year the wins came in the Best Comedy Series, Best Actor (Silvers) and Best Director. The last honor went to the show's creator, Nat Hiken.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 16th, 2016
"Baby, if you've ever wondered, wondered whatever became of me, I'm living on the air in Cincinnati,
Cincinnati, WKRP. "
It almost sounds like a take on Harry Chapin's WOLD, and in many ways it is. The song was hot for a while on radio stations. It seems that DJ's couldn't resist songs about DJ's. Who saw that coming? Of course, the song is the opening theme to WKRP In Cincinnati. The show is back on DVD thanks to the folks at Shout Factory. If that's not big news, this absolutely is: it's back with most of the original music intact including the opening and closing themes. For fans of the show, it's the news we've been waiting for for decades now.
Posted in: Contests by Gino Sassani on February 15th, 2016
Our good friends at Mill Creek have sent over a few goodies for our readers here at Upcomingdiscs. They've managed to stitch together a sweet prize with Frankenstein: The Mini Series on Blu-ray. This little television version of the Mary Shelly classic stars William Hurt, Donald Sutherland and Luke Goss and is sure to chill you for the upcoming Spring.
To win a copy of this prize, follow these instructions.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on February 15th, 2016
“It's like five minutes before every launch, everyone goes to a bar, gets drunk, and tells me what they really think of me.”
During the final act of Steve Jobs — which is less of a biopic and more of a three-act performance piece inspired by the visionary Apple co-founder — the movie winks at its own gimmicky premise. The cheeky reference to the film's rigid, laser-focused structure is appropriate given that Jobs obsessively measured the design his own products down to the millimeter. The result is a movie that wonderfully mirrors its protagonist: Steve Jobs is enthralling, endlessly imaginative, and kind of exhausting.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 15th, 2016
“No war was ever like this.”
McHale’s Navy actually started life as a dramatic episode of Alcoa Premiere, hosted by Fred Astaire. It was April of 1962 when Ernest Borgnine would introduce the audience to his most famous television role. The network loved the character but not the show’s format. By October of the same year the television series would debut not as a serious drama but a half-hour comedy. Who knows how a dramatic series would have performed? The comedy became a classic. People couldn’t get enough of the stuff, and two movie versions were produced during the show’s four-season run. These films have been collected here on a single DVD release.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on February 15th, 2016
When it comes to horror films about relationships, we’ve all gotten used to the same old story where a jilted ex-lover isn’t ready to let things go and violence and mayhem ensues. What is actually refreshing about Sociopathia is that we get a love story mixed with some graphic horror while seeing the story unfold through the eyes of a mentally unhinged young woman. While Sociopathia may not be in the same league as Fatal Attraction, it is still a film worth watching for those who are fans of trashy, exploitive horror films. And with Valentine’s Day right around the corner, this maybe the feel-good flick you single folks may be looking for to validate your single life.
Mara (Tammy Jean) is a single lesbian who is struggling in the dating world while also juggling her career as a film effects artist. It’s very early on that we see Mara isn’t right in the head after we see her kill her lover and then go on to treat her in a very doll-like fashion, all while continuing to converse with the corpse as though she were still alive. While this is effective in showing us how unstable Mara is, this turns out to be a case of too much too soon. Once we’ve seen how far off the deep end she is, there really isn’t anywhere else for this character to go.
Posted in: The Reel World by Archive Authors on February 13th, 2016
Deadpool may be one the most singular and unique characters in the history of comic book lore. His character has a very rabid fan base among the elite of Marvel comic nerddom, and they have been watching very carefully to see that he has been treated properly by the Hollywood people. He hasn’t been in the past, but more about that later. He may not be the biggest name in the Marvel universe, but he might be the most extreme. Just in case you live in a cave or under a rock, the Marvel universe is inexorably taking over the actual universe with films like The Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Ant-Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Hulk, Wolverine, Daredevil, and on and on. To get back to what happened to Deadpool in the past, we go to the movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine. This also gets into the 20th Century Fox vs. Disney battle over the rights of Marvel characters (which is actually only a small part of the picture, since Columbia owned Spider-Man for a long time ,but let’s not go down that rabbit hole). Lots of hard-core comic book fans were incensed at how far 20th Century Fox was straying from the origins and substance of the source material with the X-Men movies, but especially in the case of Deadpool, who is sacred to many. I shouldn’t say sacred, but what can you do, since the character of Wade Wilson (A.K.A. Deadpool) is very profane and NSFW.
Let’s discuss Ryan Reynolds for a moment. Reynolds has been a Deadpool fanboy for years and is specifically mentioned in the comics in a description of Wade Wilson as a cross between Reynolds and a Shar Pei. It should be noted the main characteristics of the Deadpool comics is that it has strong content in both sex and violence that is relentlessly full of silly fun and that Wilson is fully aware that he is in a comic book and talks to the reader in a self-aware manner. So Reynolds played Wilson in the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie, and Fox did not show proper concern for the concerns of the core fans, and hysteria ruled. Reynolds then took it upon himself to try to get a proper Deadpool movie made (again, I shouldn’t say proper). I think this time they got it right (and when I say right, I mean wrong in all the best possible ways).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 13th, 2016
"You have got a tricky day ahead of you."
It's safe to say that Daniel Craig peaked as James Bond with Skyfall. Sam Mendes was the man who figured out how to make Craig work in the part. The secret wasn't in the classic images of Bond's past, but in the future. Instead of trying to mold Craig into Bond, Mendes molded Bond into Craig. It was the right thing to do as long as Daniel Craig was going to continue in the role. With Mendes repeating as director and John Logan from Gladiator and Penny Dreadful fame handling the script, expectations were through the roof for this one. That is before Craig himself toured the interview circuit complaining about playing James Bond. I believe there was a reference to a hot poker in the eye being preferable to reprising the role again. Now I've seen Spectre twice, and I don't believe Daniel Craig has anything to worry about. I suspect the next film will sport a brand new James Bond. And indeed, I think this film proves it's time for a change. Let the speculation games begin.
Posted in: The Reel World by J C on February 12th, 2016
“Hi...it's been a long time.”
If Project Runway has taught us anything, it's that “in fashion, one day you're in and the next day you're out.” To a lesser extent, that adage can also be applied to comedy stars, since audience's tastes seem to shift almost as often as style trends. (There was a point in time when Pauly Shore was a movie star...that really happened!) As a result, any sequel to 2001's Zoolander — Ben Stiller's really, really, really, ridiculously good looking absurd fashion satire —had the odds stacked against it.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 12th, 2016
"Most women like a man with a bad reputation. Mind you, I'm not really bad. It's just I'm not troubled by my wicked thoughts. In fact I rather enjoy them. It's all perfectly natural. Man may have evolved from the trees, but his eyes still swing from limb to limb."
Years before he became the iconic suave British secret agent with the license to kill, Roger Moore might just have put himself in the running through his six-year run on British television’s The Saint. The show was part of the British Invasion of spy shows that came close on the heels of the first James Bond film Dr. No. Moore played Simon Templar, known throughout the globe as The Saint. While Templar wasn't really a spy, he acted like one most of the time, and the series managed to cover most of the conventions of the genre. There was always a pretty girl or two for Templar to either romance or rescue...often both. Like Bond, Templar was a globetrotter. Episodes took place all over the world. One episode might be in New York City, another in London, while the next two weeks took us from Rome to Paris by way of Monte Carlo.
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