Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 16th, 2015
Gotham City. You know the name just as you know the names of Metropolis and Smallville. These are important places in the DC comics universe that have existed as part of modern American mythology since the 1930's. Warner Brothers has decided to tackle Gotham in much the way it spent 10 years bringing us to Smallville. But there is a decided difference to be found here. Smallville was indeed the origin story of Superman, and while the obvious answer might be that Gotham serves the same role for Batman, I found that to be a bit of an oversimplification. This is not the origin story for Batman, and while many of the future major villains from that universe take their first baby steps here, this is not their origin story either. This is an origin story for the city of Gotham itself. Unlike many heroes, Batman was a product of his environment. This is the story of how one city devolved so badly that a hero like Batman was necessary. What we see taking shape here is a place where a certain Dark Knight can thrive and spread his wings.
That means the city itself is the most important character of the show. To make that effective over a season of stories, the city must be created with a kind of style and atmosphere that would set it apart. While there are certain aspects of this Gotham City that owe to Tim Burton's style that set the mood for the first four films, there are also aspects of Nolan's gritty city here as well. It's at once familiar, but this is also unlike any city you've seen on television before. It exists out of place or time. There are cell phones, but not really computers. Detectives look through old newspaper stories on microfilm projectors. Some of us remember the days you had to do that at your local library. The cars are mostly from the 1970's, while the building decor and costumes appear more at home in the 1940's. It's an industrial city, but one where whatever industry once thrived here has long gone away. For something conceived in the original four-color world of comic books, this is a dark and colorless place for the most part. The only thing that's missing is the "abandon hope all ye who enter" sign at the city limits.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 16th, 2015
If something seems too good to be true, then it probably is. It’s a lesson that’s hardwired into our brains, yet often proves impossible to resist. That idea is also what jumpstarts the action in The Legacy, which is equal parts stylish, campy, and compulsively watchable. The 1978 thriller, directed by future Return of the Jedi helmer Richard Marquand, now makes its Blu-ray debut courtesy of Shout! Factory.
Margaret Walsh (Katharine Ross) can hardly believe her luck when she receives a $50,000 check from an anonymous client in England to take on a mysterious interior design gig. Meanwhile, her strapping boyfriend Pete Danner (Sam Elliott) flat-out can’t believe it, but Margaret insists they check it out since her family has blood ties to England. The Los Angeles couple is enjoying a motorcycle ride on the picturesque English countryside when they’re accidentally run off the road by a car. The man in the car is Jason Mountolive (John Standing), and he invites Margaret and Pete to hang out at Ravenhurst — his lavish estate — while Pete’s bike is being repaired. As soon as the couple arrives, they sense something is not quite right. Mountolive is nowhere to be found and creepy Nurse Adams (Margaret Tyzack) isn’t exactly forthcoming with answers. (And what’s up with the creepy cat that always seems to be hanging around?)
Posted in: Tuesday Round Up by J C on September 15th, 2015
That sound you hear blaring out of UpcomingDiscs headquarters this week is probably The Who. We’ll be saying B-Y-E to CSI, as The Final Season of the long-running procedural crime drama arrives courtesy of CBS/Paramount, which also delivers CSI: Cyber — Season 1. If you listen closely, you might also catch a little Electric Light Orchestra as Universal Music Group offers up ELO: Live in Hyde Park. HBO dives into the disturbed psyches of Nightingale and The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst. Shout! Factory passes down The Legacy and The Bold Ones: The Protectors — The Complete Series.
Disney swings by with Monkey Kingdom, MPI Home Video rockets Closer to the Moon and cops to The Seven Five, while A&E Home Video revisits The Returned: Season 1. Warner Bros. geeks out with The Big Bang Theory: Season 8, and you can already check out our take on Peanuts: The EMMY Honored Collection.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 14th, 2015
"My name is Walter O'Brien. I have the fourth highest IQ ever recorded: 197. Einstein's was 160. When I was 11 the FBI arrested me for hacking into NASA to get their blueprints for my bedroom wall. Now I run a team of geniuses, tackling worldwide threats only we can solve..."
By now you are used to the geeky technical expert that is a requisite part of many television crime-solving teams. It's become such a stereotype that it's more formula than character by this point. So what if you had an entire team of these super-intellects, and there was only one normal person in the line-up. What would that look like? You don't have to ask yourself that question any more. If you're curious about the outcome, you might find this new procedural drama from CBS of interest.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 14th, 2015
"He is a confused and tortured young man...”
The “he” in this case is Peter Snowden, a chatty, charismatic, and deeply troubled war veteran. “He” also happens to be the only character who appears on screen in Nightingale, a potentially-fascinating HBO Films experiment that doesn’t quite reach its potential. At least, “he” is played by Selma star David Oyelowo in what is a thoroughly mesmerizing performance.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 14th, 2015
"Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of Castle and Beckett. Their ongoing mission to explore strange new motives. To seek out new witnesses and new suspects for murder. To boldly go where...right over here."
I know there are fans out there who take the show pretty seriously. The DVD's aren't the only way you can get into the show these days. Castle has become a world all on its own. You can now buy actual mystery books in the Heat series written by "Richard Castle". There is a game and even a Marvel comic book series. Next thing you know they'll be The Castle Experience at Disney World. This is an ABC/Disney property, after all.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on September 14th, 2015
“All these years you’ve lived, but you’ve never had a life.”
Every woman’s fantasy: to remain young and beautiful forever. That is the fantasy, if I am not mistaken, correct? Well, women will be treated to the cost of said fantasy in The Age of Adaline, which shows the other side of the coin of the coveted fantasy. In my experience there are two fantasies that are popular among young ladies. The one mentioned above, and the opportunity to love, marry, and grow old with someone who loves them unconditionally. The Age of Adaline shows the latter is not possible with the former.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on September 14th, 2015
by Dustin P. Anderson
In this collection we view the Peanuts television specials that have nothing to do with any major holidays. Instead this collection focuses on lesser known episodes that center around other values that should be important in a person’s life. These episodes cover the Olympics, a trip to France, a first crush, and much more. Charlie Brown and the gang are presented here to make the audience laugh and learn, with valuable lessons for kids and classic moments for adults.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on September 14th, 2015
Two strangers lost at sea. What to do? What to do? Well, in the case of The Surface, the thing to do is be suspicious of one another and stay on opposite ends of the boat. Or at least that is how we begin. As expected when there is nothing to do at sea and you are trapped, the only recourse is communication and to question the choices that brought you to this particular situation. Trust me, there is plenty of reflection in this tale of two strangers thrown together by circumstance and forced to work together to overcome physical obstacles as well as a few emotional ones.
It took a minute to get my bearings with the story, as the beginning is not big on dialog. The story is almost ten minutes in before the first word is uttered. Instead it focuses on Mitch (Sean Astin) as he goes through basic tasks such as getting up, preparing a pack, and readying his boat before leaving his home. His first stop is to his mother at a treatment facility. Due to his mother’s Alzheimer’s, Mitch engages in a one-sided conversation which gives the first indication into his life, revealing an undercurrent of sadness. I at first surmised the reason for the sadness was his mother’s situation; however, as the film progresses, it is abundantly clear that the reasons go much deeper.
Posted in: The Reel World by J C on September 11th, 2015
At this point, the most shocking M. Night Shyamalan-related twist would be for the director to make a movie that people actually enjoyed. (The “M.” stands for “maligned,” right?) Hopes weren't exactly high when it was announced Shyamalan — who was once fated to become either “the next Hitchcock” or “the next Spielberg” — would be dabbling in the fading found footage genre. So imagine my surprise to find that The Visit — a broad, nutty mix of comedy and horror — is the director's loosest, most playful effort since Signs. It's also his first (subjectively) non-terrible flick in about a decade.
We meet a harried single Mom (Kathryn Hahn) as she prepares to send her two children on a week-long trip to meet her estranged parents. Becca (Olivia DeJonge) is a 15-year-old aspiring filmmaker who decides to document the experience of meeting her grandparents on camera; she also wants to find out the reason Mom had a falling out with them. Tyler (Ex Oxenbould) is a 13-year-old freestyle-rapping, germophobic goofball who enjoys undercutting his older sister's self-seriousness. The pair take a train to the rural Pennsylvania town where their mother grew up and are met at the station by Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie), who take the kids back to their dilapidated farmhouse.
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