Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 27th, 2015
At this risk of going all 30 for 30 on you, what if I told you one of the most layered, soulful performances I've seen all year comes courtesy of a canine? White God is a hypnotic, Hungarian parable about a girl and her dog. Sounds simple enough, but director Kornel Mundruczo places an unprecedented amount of storytelling responsibility on non-CGI, four-legged performers. The results are occasionally uneven, but frequently spellbinding.
“Nobody wants a stinking mutt. That's what shelters are for.”
Posted in: The Reel World by Gino Sassani on July 25th, 2015
"Don't get hit too much."
Come on, it's the fight game. Warren Zevon said it best when he told us the name of the game was to be hit and hit back. If Southpaw highlights anything about the fight game, it's that basic principle. Director Antoine Fuqua makes sure that we see the physical toll of a fight in all its slow motion and gory detail. Such painful detail can be tiresome if there isn't something else to balance the experience. Southpaw certainly has that. But is it really enough?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 23rd, 2015
"You wanna see something cool?"
If you're old enough to remember audio tape, you might be old enough to remember Memorex. If you remember Memorex, you should recall their popular slogan: "Is it live or is it Memorex?". Of course, the idea was that the tape quality was so good you couldn't distinguish it from the real thing. What if robotics and artificial intelligence reached that same plateau? The point where you could not tell the difference between an actual human being and an artificial one. The threshold is determined by something called a Turing test. And that's exactly what writer/director Alex Garland presents you the audience with in Ex Machina. The question is, did it pass?
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on July 23rd, 2015
Amazing Space is a three-disc set (Blu-Ray, DVD and CD) that is essentially an ambient experience. There is actually a lot that I can say about the presentation, but it is not complicated on its surface. The cover picture shows a young woman in a silhouette sitting in a lotus position. That speaks volumes as well (as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words). The movie takes us on a musical journey from Earth to the farthest reaches of space and back again. The music can best be described as New Age and meditative. Again that is very important to the purpose of this presentation. The composer of the music, Kristin Hoffman, has a commentary extra which discusses chakras and meditation and the power of music. Maybe some of you don't know what chakras are, but it is very important to a large part of the world population, most predominantly Buddhists and Hindus. The idea of the powers of meditation have been embraced by many various religious and pseudo-religious groups, and it is widely practiced for the benefits to health and well being. The makers of the movie also have a stated intention of promoting the elimination of unnecessary light pollution. Light pollution is the wasteful use of energy to flood the night sky with excessive light, preventing easy access to enjoying the natural light of the heavens.
The cinematography is wonderful, and the experience is meant to be restful, calming and renewing. It is not meant to be a narrative or informational experience. It fits into the wider movement of the New Age. I'm sure everyone is aware of the phrase “New Age”, but it is a vague term that has been co-opted by a wide range of groups. It has been explored in the West for a few hundred years and became extremely popular in the 1970's. Yoga is a big part of the New Age movement. It suggests a spiritual connection to the Earth and the cosmos. It is not possible to do any kind of in-depth analysis of how this all relates and intertwines, but it might be important to any potential viewers of this disc.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 23rd, 2015
“When you get four vampires in a flat, obviously there’s going to be a lot of tension.”
The set-up for What We Do in the Shadows makes it sound less like your typical vampire movie and more like some kind of twisted season of The Real World. (Well…slightly more twisted than usual.) But besides finding a funny way to skewer bratty roommates and the mundaneness of everyday life, the movie works as a cheeky celebration of the classical cinematic bloodsucker.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 22nd, 2015
"Millions of people around the world believe we have been visited in the past by extraterrestrial beings. What if it were true? Did ancient aliens really help to shape our history? And if so, what if there were clues left behind, something hiding in plain sight? What if we could find that evidence?"
Ever since Eric von Daniken released his speculative book and its subsequent 1970 film Chariots of the Gods, there has been an entire field of study created around something commonly called Ancient Astronaut Theory, the idea is that extraterrestrials have visited many of our ancient civilizations. The theory continues that these visitors had a hand in shaping our development, whether it be through technology or even manipulation of our very DNA. These believers point to a world of evidence to support their claims. There are tons of images from earlier civilizations that could certainly be interpreted as depicting modern devices, concepts, or even spacemen. There is plenty of speculation that some of the knowledge and accomplishments of these peoples could not have been possible without some outside interference. There are even those who believe that aliens best explain our religious beliefs and that God himself was/is an extraterrestrial being. Whatever your own beliefs on the subject, there are certainly some fascinating points to be made. There is no question that the speculations and observations bring up some interesting queries that deserve our attention. This series attempts to document much of this evidence and the beliefs these findings have inspired.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 22nd, 2015
by Dustin P. Anderson
This is a documentary on the growing concern for the rising number of African-American children being born into unwed households. The film’s title 72% is a statistic of how many African-American single mothers are currently living in America. The documentary asks scholars and television personalities for their take on the growing crisis among the community. I feel I must make this quick addendum: as a white male I can only take this movie for how I saw it and how it made me feel. I am aware that I am not necessarily the target audience intended for this documentary, but it was a good watch besides.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 22nd, 2015
"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: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on July 22nd, 2015
Jokesters takes a long time to get to the point. The plot is extremely long-winded to the point that I questioned if the long awaited gruesome stuff would ever come. More time was spent on the setup, specifically the wedding reception sequence, than on the actual climatic events of the movie. Some of the setup was entertaining but it didn’t take long before I was considering hitting the fast-forward button just to get to the good stuff. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I put the disc in, but it didn’t take long for me to put together all that was going to happen (well, maybe not all; don’t want to come off like a know-it-all).
Speaking of the good stuff, that was a lot of preparation for a very predictable and disappointing climax. Not to beat up on it too much, but there were several things that needed to be done in order to elevate the overall experience. Half of the runtime dedicated to the setup should have been dedicated to the climax to better level the film. More time was spent on the events leading up to the killing than the actual killing itself. That is another aspect that needs to be addressed; by the time the blood and gore starts, the film is pretty much over. I would have loved to see more of a chase going on; it would have made things more suspenseful. Besides, the draw for a horror movie is the chase; there needs to be panic as well as the drive to escape.
Posted in: Tuesday Round Up by J C on July 21st, 2015
An offbeat vampire comedy and a fresh batch of alien-related theories highlight the latest crop of Blu-ray and DVD releases. Keep an eye on the site this week to find out what we think of What We Do in the Shadows. You’ll also be able to unearth our take on Ancient Aliens: Season 7 – Volume 1. On top of that, we’ve got reviews scheduled for the documentary 72 %, and horror-comedy The Jokesters.
Other titles coming out this week include the Robert Duvall Western Wild Horses, and the Donnie Yen martial arts thriller Kung Fu Killer, along with season 2 of Looking, and season 7 of Robot Chicken. As always, we’d love to hear from you: which of this week’s releases are you most excited about? And since we have stuff flying into UpcomingDiscs headquarters throughout the week — like the copy of Ex-Machina that arrived after last week’s Tuesday Round Up — be sure to keep an eye on this post for updates.
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