If you were around in 1972, television was a very different place. By midnight most stations were shutting down to the tune of the national anthem. After that there was a test pattern and a high-pitched ring that would fill your screen until dawn when programming would resume. Of course, there were also only three networks, and, if you were lucky enough to live in a large market, a handful of local stations. All good people were expected to be safely tucked into their beds long before 1:00 AM. It was a very different world from today when we get 24-hour programming on over 200 stations or more

Lost River is the showy, laborious, mystifying feature filmmaking debut of actor/meme machine Ryan Gosling. Unfortunately, you’re more likely to have heard about the intensely negative reaction the movie received when it premiered at Cannes last year, than you are to have actually seen the film. Lost River now arrives on a bare bones Blu-ray that does little to clear up — or enhance — Gosling’s first foray into directing. So we’re left to assume he simply decided to make a movie out of his dream journal.

Join me in welcoming Dustin P. Anderson to the Upcomingdiscs family. We've been doing some growing at Upcomingdiscs. I think Dustin is going to be a big part of that growth. He's been doing reviews for a while and we're lucky to have him here with us. His first review is up for your enjoyment.

"If you can dream it, we can build it."

That's the motto of Wayde King and Brett Raymer of Acrylic Tank Manufacturing (ATM). They are two guys from Brooklyn who moved to Vegas where they started ATM. Why they couldn't do it in Brooklyn isn't ever mentioned. Must be the high taxes. The duo claim that they are the number one tank aquarium manufacturers in the United States. That likely doesn't include the mass-produce guys like All-Glass. Still, from what I've seen here, there's no question these guys are good.

by Dustin P. Anderson

The entirety of this movie is shot from the perspective of our main protagonist’s (Blaire) computer screen. Her friends start a video conference, and they are soon haunted by the memory of their friend who committed suicide due to cyber bullying (and I guess some regular bullying too). Her friends start dying from forced suicide (or suicide from being possessed by a spirit), and they must play this spirit's game in order to survive. I was pretty excited to see if this movie could accomplish being scary from a bold new way of filmmaking.

Leatherface. Michael Myers. Jason. Freddy Kruger. Look out, boys. There's a new face in the game. The Drownsman is like a horror day at your favorite water park. This is a water world even Kevin Costner can't sink. His name is Sebastian Donner and he's coming at you in Anchor Bay's new horror release: The Drownsman. I had a chance to talk to writer/director Chad Archibald about his wet new creation. It's absolutely worth a listen. Bang it here to listen in on my chat with Chad Archibald.

"It's the guy next door, guy who sits too close in the theater, maybe even at church. Plain, ordinary, the everyday man. That's the guy they should be afraid of. 'Cause they never see him coming." 

Or maybe the friendly neighborhood barber. Max Enscoe's screenplay for The Barber appears to touch on those fears. We've all seen those interviews with neighbors and friends after a particularly heinous killer is finally caught. He was quiet. Always went to church.

There are certain things that are obvious to some of us, and nobody wants to talk about them. All people are full of weaknesses that they then try to deny exist. People are people, but some people think they are better than other people. It seems obvious that we should all try to get over our hatred and be more accepting of all our differences and see how much alike we all are. Black or White is an important movie that comes in the form of a fun and heartwarming melodrama. The movie navigates through very murky and unexplored waters and comes out the other side triumphantly.

Join me in welcoming Deborah Bostock-Kelley to the Upcomingdiscs family. You might have seen her work in the Tampa Trib. She's an accomplished writer and event producer. You can check her work for The Write One Creative Services. Look for her review work right here at Upcomingdiscs. Her first review is up right now.

“It’s like being kids again. The streets are our playground.”

The above quote refers to parkour, the art and discipline of moving through urban spaces that was popularized in France. French practitioners of parkour are called “traceurs,” which gives this totally clichéd, consistently ridiculous, but occasionally breathtaking action flick its title. You’ve seen the plot before (many times), but Tracers still vaults itself above the straight-to-DVD pack thanks to its freewheeling free-running sequences.