NCIS: Hawai’i: Season Two
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on October 19th, 2023
“How much do you know about the family business?”
Well, for over 20 years, the family business over at CBS has been the NCIS franchise, and another decade longer if you consider it was a spin-off of JAG, which lasted 10 years on its own. It’s been a busy 20 years, I can tell you that. About seven years into the original show’s run, we got our first NCIS spin-off with NCIS: Los Angeles. That show focused more on action and a lot of explosions. The show just finished its final year after 14 seasons. Then there was NCIS: New Orleans that brought the focus to the unique culture and tastes of The Big Easy. It lasted seven years, and there’s an upcoming NCIS: Sydney which is about to take us down under to grab that shrimp on the barbie. Things continue to expand, and now we have NCIS: Hawai’i, which expands the franchise and solves a situation at CBS. For decades they have kept a Hawaiian studio on the islands.
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Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match (UHD Blu-Ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 16th, 2023
In 1995, I remember very vividly going to see Mortal Kombat on the big screen during my summer off from college (when very often I had nothing else to do). I was instantly wowed by all of the characters that I had played with in the first two video games and seeing them brought to screen. The music was absolutely fantastic (and still one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard). However, what I have carried with me most from that experience is my utter love of one character. Johnny Cage. Fast forward nearly thirty years, and we finally have a film where he is the main character and no longer some sort of side gag by all those involved. Let’s go to the Cage Match! Join me, won’t you?
Passion (Blu-Ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 16th, 2023
It’s a genuinely rewarding experience when you find a new director that you find intriguing. Mostly because as the consumer, it’s then a research project to find everything that person has ever done and then dissect which films you can go find to watch immediately. When I watched Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, I had that experience instantly. I wanted to see more of Rysuke Hamaguchi’s films. So I bought a Criterion Blu-ray copy of Drive My Car back in July. Shortly after that, I saw that his student film, Passion, was going to be released by Film Movement on Blu-ray, and I was eager to get a copy. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait too long, because the opportunity to review presented itself even before the release date. Let’s dive into this film and see the early workings of a true master of the conversation.
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan – Season Three (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 11th, 2023
“Jack, we have done our jobs and done them well. This fight was passed down to us and will continue with or without us. But we will always be better than the institutions we serve, and that is what matters when it matters most. There are no heroes in our profession. But occasionally there are good men. Men who act on what is right, not simply doing what they are told to do. I have not always lived my life with honor. But perhaps I have done enough to die with it. I hope the same for you.”
Witness the birth of — actually make that rebirth of –one of the most popular action heroes in literature. Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan has been a character of many jobs and many faces over the years. Baldwin, Ford, Pine, and Affleck have all stepped into the role of the man who has been a soldier, an analyst, an operative, and a president. What might appear as a clear advantage for this Amazon Prime streaming television show can be just as much a liability. When you throw in the Tom Clancy novels, comic books, and fan fiction, there is a ton of Jack Ryan history that pretty much gives us a story arc from his humble beginnings to extraordinary exploits
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31 Nights Of Terror: Halloween H2O: 20 Years Later Steelbook (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 11th, 2023
“I met him fifteen years ago. I was told there was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding, even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six-year-old child, with this blank, pale, emotionless face and the blackest eyes … the devil’s eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized that what was living behind that boy’s eyes was purely and simply … evil.”
Blumhouse and David Gordon Green recently finished a sequel/reboot of John Carpenter’s Halloween with mixed results. He got Jamie Lee Curtis to return for all three films in the trilogy. Most of the various sequels and reboots did not include the original film’s star, but Green was not the first one to get her to return to the role of Laurie Strode.
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31 Nights Of Terror: A Haunting In Venice
Posted in The Reel World by Michael Durr on October 9th, 2023
When it comes to watching films at the theater, often I will want to see a movie sometimes three, four weeks into their release. The crowds have quieted down, and I can often focus on the movie rather than the person next to me who might be munching on their popcorn a little too loudly or on their cell phone. However, with many films not sticking around as they should, it can often be difficult to make that work. This past Sunday, I was fortunate enough to go with my dad to see A Haunting In Venice, a film that opened in mid-September to honestly rather tepid box office earnings. I had seen Murder on the Orient Express on 4K disc and Death on the Nile with my wife in theaters, so I certainly wanted to see the third film in the Kenneth Branagh’s version of Hercule Poirot. So quality time aside, was this film actually worth our matinee dollar, or was it better spent at the local sandwich shop? Let’s take a look.
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31 Nights Of Terror: The Exorcist: Believer
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 8th, 2023
“What do you think evil is? I’ll tell you what I think evil is…”
It’s sequels/reboots made by filmmakers who haven’t got one single clue what made the original such a classic. The Exorcist was a masterpiece of filmmaking and is truly one of the most compelling horror films even 50 years later. There are a lot of reasons for that. Unfortunately, David Gordon Green couldn’t name a single one if you gave him a cheat sheet in one hand and William Friedkin’s complete notes in the other. Blum House took a huge risk after they finished their Halloween trilogy. The films were hit and miss with some good moments. But most fans of the original never could completely bond with the films. So Blum House decided they liked this 3 film reboot/sequel idea and took a chance on committing $400 million for a trilogy of The Exorcist. Like the Halloween trilogy it would ignore all but the original film and take it’s story directly from that moment onward.
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31 Nights Of Terror: Totally Killer
Posted in The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on October 7th, 2023
It’s October, so that means all the studios and streaming services are going to be unleashing some spooky new releases to please their viewers who are attempting to get into the Halloween spirit. This weekend Amazon Prime is releasing Totally Killer, a Blumhouse production that continues to ride the wave of 80s nostalgia with a time travel slasher film. The trailers looked fun and with Kiernan Shipka (The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) in the lead, and I’m always in the mood for a new slasher with franchise potential. Does the film deliver the goods, or is this one dead on arrival? It’s time to strap in and travel back to 1987 and see what this is all about. In 1987 the town of North Vernon was terrorized by the “the Sweet 16 Killer” after he killed three high school girls, stabbing them sixteen times each. 35 years later, Pam (Julie Bowen) still hasn’t gotten over the murder of her three friends and has become very protective of her teenage daughter, Jamie (Kiernan Shipka).
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31 Nights Of Terror: Natural Born Killers (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 6th, 2023
“My Mamma told me to pick the right one.”
In 1982, Cheers first broke on the network sitcom circuit. It was a small Boston bar owned by a has-been baseball player living on the glory years he didn’t really have. It was the bar where everyone knows your name. Behind the bar there was Woody. Woody was pretty much a kid who looked up to the owner in an almost hero-like way. He was naive and was easily and often taken for a rube. But he was kind, and no matter how out of it he might be, there wasn’t an evil bone in that character’s body. It was all an act. Of course, it was a television show where Woody was played by Woody Harrelson.
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Hardcore (Blu-ray)
Posted in No Huddle by Brent Lorentson on October 6th, 2023
Paul Schrader is one of my cinematic heroes and despite his numerous accolades I feel he’s one of the most underappreciated artists to work in film. He has a way of capturing the underbelly of society through his writing and visuals that very few can equal. When he and Martin Scorsese worked together on Taxi Driver that was such a perfect pairing, it’s Schrader’s best screenplay he’s ever produced, and I know this is a controversial take but I feel it’s also Scorsese’s best film. Hardcore would be the second film that Schrader would go on to direct, eventually he’d end up with 27 directing credits, but Hardcore for me is his standout film where he worked as both writer and director. This film isn’t for everyone and despite it being released in 1979 the subject matter remains provocative but for those willing to take a walk into some seedy areas this is film that will take you for a ride you won’t soon forget.
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31 Nights Of Terror: he Giant Gila Monster / The Killer Shrews (Blu-ray)
Posted in No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 5th, 2023
“Here comes Gordy.”
In the 1950’s Gordon McLendon owned a series of radio stations throughout Texas along with a string of drive-in movie locations. Those drive-ins needed films to draw crowds, and Gordy wasn’t happy with the cost of some of the distribution deals that came to him. So he decided to team up with a couple of guys and try his hand at making his own movies. The first guy he teamed with would become well known to television audiences, but not for the movies he helped produce with Gordy. Ken Curtis would become the beloved Gunsmoke character Festus, a deputy who had more in common with Don Knotts than Marshal Dillon. He may not have been the sharpest point on a tin star, but America loved him. They might have thought twice if they knew about this partnership. The third leg of this tripod was Gordy’s father, B.R. McLendon. Together they would make Hollywood history, or is that Hollywood infamy? That’s for you to decide. They made three movies in total, but the first two are where that history was made.
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NCIS: Los Angeles: The Final Season
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on October 3rd, 2023
“That’s the most important thing. Just have fun.”
You shouldn’t need a primer on the NCIS franchise by now. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last decade or longer, you’re up to speed on these guys. If not, you still could have some fun and enjoy the CBS DVD release of NCIS: L.A., but NCIS has been around for over 20 years, and this particular version has been around for 14 seasons now. That’s a lot of characterizations under the bridge and a ton of character evolution and stories that can’t help but give you maximum mileage out of the release. If you aren’t up to speed, you can check out over 30 seasons of various NCIS reviews by just banging it here: NCIS Reviews. That should keep you busy long enough to get you to the point that we’re here talking about Season 13. So hopefully you are up to speed, and we can get on with it. Shall we?
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“31 Nights Of Terror” The Exorcist 50th Anniversary Edition – Theatrical & Extended Director’s Cut (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 2nd, 2023
“Have you ever heard of exorcism? It’s a stylized ritual in which rabbis or priests try to drive out the so-called invading spirit. It’s pretty much discarded these days, except by the Catholics who keep it in the closet as a sort of embarrassment. It has worked, in fact, although not for the reason they think, of course. It was purely the force of suggestion. The victim’s belief in possession helped cause it. And just in the same way, this belief in the power of exorcism can make it disappear.”
By now we’ve all heard of The Exorcist. The film was based on a best-selling novel by William Peter Blatty. Blatty himself based the story on a real exorcism of a young boy many years earlier. And that’s where the true power of the film begins. The monsters of horror movies often allow us a sense of unreality that protects our inner selves from being truly terrified.
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“31 Nights Of Terror”
Posted in Site News by Gino Sassani on October 1st, 2023
Well … it’s October, the start of Horrorcane season, and for fright fans that means that all the ghouls and goblins will be coming out to play. Before long it will be All Hallow’s Eve, and many of you will be having a spooktacular time of it all.
Here at Upcomingdiscs, we’d like to help get you in the mood to boo. All month long we’ll be offering up our “31 Nights of Terror” to help unsettle those dreams just a bit. We’ve just been elected your Night Mayor, and now we’re going to officiate a mammoth month of monsters and mayhem. Nearly each and every night in October we will bring you at least one horror related post. These posts will include contests, articles, podcasts, and reviews (of course).
So check back every night before bedtime … but before you turn out the lights.
PAW Patrol: The Mighty Pups
Posted in The Reel World by Michael Durr on September 30th, 2023
The first Paw Patrol movie opened up in August of 2021 during the pandemic era where barely anyone wanted to go anywhere that wasn’t a grocery store (because somehow that was safe). It still managed to pull in forty million domestic and another hundred million internationally. With the built in audience from the television series, a sequel was almost a no-brainer. I remember taking my family to go see the first Paw Patrol (the theater was quite bare) and actually enjoying it quite a bit. It certainly helped to bring all of the key elements from the television series and produce something that wasn’t nauseating and over-the-top. However, sequels of movies based on popular properties often go the wrong direction. Let’s see what the Mighty Pups have in store for us in their second outing.
The Creator
Posted in The Reel World by Jeremy Butler on September 29th, 2023
“Then we have something in common. You aren’t going to heaven because you aren’t a good person, and I’m not going because I’m not a person.”
So, this film focuses on a interesting viewpoint: what if Skynet weren’t the bad guys? In this Gareth Edwards directed film, John David Washington plays a hardened ex-soldier, grieving the disappearance of his wife, who is recruited to hunt down and assassinate the Creator, an elusive architect responsible for creation of advanced artificial intelligence that humanity has been at war with since a nuclear attack years earlier. Sound familiar? As previously mentioned, while one can draw parallels between the early events of this film and the future that Sarah Connor tried to prevent for her son, in that story, artificial intelligence becoming sentient was the cause; in The Creator, AI appears to be on the losing side of the battle with humanity. Score one for humanity. As a result, they only have one refuge: Asia, or to be more precise, New Asia.
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Staying Alive (40th Anniversary Edition) (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 28th, 2023
Coming up on its 40th anniversary, Staying Alive continues to be one of the most bizarre sequels to be made by a major studio, starring John Travolta and co-written and directed by Sylvester Stallone. The film was intended to be a sequel to the massively popular Saturday Night Fever, but when Staying Alive came out, disco was pretty much dead, and really there isn’t much that connects the films but for the character Tony Manero (John Travolta) and that there is dancing in the film. When the movie came out it was a financial success, but it was pretty well hated by critics of the time to the point that even one of the film’s stars, Finola Hughes, was awarded a Razzie for her performance. Apparently the film has a loyal cult following, but now after 40 years I’m here to give this film a fair shake and decide for myself: is it as bad as people say, or is it a gem from the 80s that will make us all nostalgic for when there were several movies with the cast in leotards, headbands, and over-the-top dance numbers?
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Malone (Blu-ray)
Posted in No Huddle by Brent Lorentson on September 28th, 2023
In 1987 when Malone was being released, the peak of Burt Reynolds’ career was behind him. He was still successful and was doing films and TV shows after that, but there was a distinct change in the quality of the films he was putting out. At this time there was a bit of a shift with what an action hero looked like. Guys like Reynolds and Bronson were being nudged aside for Stallone and Schwarzenegger. This was the rise of the action hero who reigned well into the late 90’s. Thankfully the smaller studios understood there was still an audience that wanted to see Burt Reynolds on the big screen, and that’s where Malone fits in. It isn’t a film that is trying to be anything special, and I feel its ultimate fault is that it is so generic, so familiar, that it becomes so forgettable at the same time.
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NCIS: The Complete Twentieth Season
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on September 21st, 2023
“You mean to say you don’t miss this?”
Season 20 brings us to several milestones in the NCIS run. It has now become the longest running procedural in CBS history. It lags behind only the Law & Order franchise in sheer number of episodes. This season gets us to and beyond the 450th. This is also the first complete season that does not include the man who pretty much started it all. Yes, Mark Harmon has left the building, and Leroy Gibbs does not appear at all in this 20th season. Mark Harmon does indeed remain one of the show’s executive producers, but to what extent he is actually still involved I can’t speak to. I can tell you that he doesn’t show up on any of the production features, nor is he mentioned for any particular contribution or involvement. So this must have been a scary season for the cast and crew of NCIS. I’m not sure how they felt going into the year, but I suspect they were feeling pretty good for themselves and the show by the time it was over.
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3 Days of the Condor (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 20th, 2023
“Don’t expect too many mistakes from this man. After all, he does seem rather more interesting than just another reader researcher. For example; has he gone into business for himself? Was he turned around? Does someone operate him? Is he homosexual? Broke? Vulnerable? Could he be a soldier of fortune? Did he arrange the hit? Is that why he’s still in flight? Still, he may be innocent. But why didn’t he come in gently?”
Sydney Pollack might have been channeling the essence of Alfred Hitchcock when he directed 3 Days Of The Condor. It’s hard not to see the similarities to some of Hitch’s work. But he might also have been having a bit of precognition at the same time. The later novels and films about Jason Bourne bear a striking resemblance to this 1975 thriller.
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Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 20th, 2023
“This is The Batman we’re talkin’ about here.”
In 1992 Batman: The Animated Series hit television sets all over the country. It was perhaps the biggest comeback for the Dark Knight since Adam West went camp with the cowl in the 1960’s. Yes, the Tim Burton film and its sequels went a long way to bringing the bat back into the popular culture, but the series is what took the fans by storm. Kevin Conroy became, for many, the definitive Batman when he was hired to voice the series, and Mark Hamill finally got out of the shadow of Luke Skywalker with his voice rendition of the Joker. The show was a hit, and around the early years it was decided to do a direct-to-video movie called Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm. Somewhere in the production Warner Brothers had a change of heart. They decided to roll the dice on a theatrical release of the animated feature, likely assuming the series fans would flock to their multiplexes in droves.
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Star Trek: Picard – The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 19th, 2023
“Space … the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before.”
Nearly 20 years after the original Star Trek left the network airwaves, Gene Roddenberry set out to discover whether he could catch lightning in a bottle once again. Some say he did an even better job with Star Trek: The Next Generation. There are times I tend to agree. The Star Trek sequel series had a lot more advantages from the moment it was conceived. Star Trek, a series that barely registered on the ratings during its three-year primetime voyage, became a huge sensation in syndication. By the time The Next Generation came on the scene, the original show had been syndicated in over 20 different languages all over the world. It had launched an animated series, and a fifth feature film was already in the early stages of consideration. So it isn’t quite fair to judge the success or quality of The Next Generation over the original series. One thing is inarguable. The second would never have existed if not for the first.
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Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: Something New
Posted in No Huddle by Jeremy Butler on September 16th, 2023
How does a Hallmark resolve a fallout with the actress who is the star of their most popular movie mystery series? Reboot the series the character’s early years and cast a younger actress, it would seem. Candace Cameron Bure’s departure from Hallmark and partnership with its competitor Great American Family was quite the shakeup for the network, and it seems that it was merely the beginning for an even bigger shakeup, as Hallmark witnessed a mass exodus of their talent pool and the cancellation of some of its popular mystery movie series. However, as the name of this would suggest, the network clearly suggests that they are ready for something new. The issue with that is that this reboot in my opinion I highly doubt is going to help them achieve that goal. I’ll give them points for wanting to break new ground. However, I question if rebooting the series is truly breaking new ground or praying that lightning strikes twice. Love her or hate her, the Candace Cameron Bure-led series was without a doubt the network’s biggest moneymaker, so I can understand the desire to keep a good thing going. That being said, I have doubts about Skylar Samuels filling those enormous shoes.
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The Flash: The Ninth and Final Season (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 14th, 2023
“Do you give people hope? Are you moving through your city like a guardian angel? Do you make a difference? That bolt of lightning chose you. Don’t ever forget it.”
There’s one thing about being the fastest man alive. You get to the end faster than anyone else … the finish line, if you will. But not so for Barry Allen, best known in the world of comic books as The Flash. When Arrow debuted back in 2012, no one could have foreseen where it was all going to lead. Greg Berlanti and a few others had created what we all thought was just another comic book hero television show. The Green Arrow wasn’t one of the better known heroes, but he was part of the Justice League for many years, and he had a rather interesting origin story that could be told over the longer form of a television series.
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Number One With A Bullet (Blu-ray)
Posted in No Huddle by Jeremy Butler on September 12th, 2023
“You might have saved my life, but you ruined my career, buddy.”
If I’m being honest, it was really difficult not to view this as a parody of buddy cops movies. I know that wasn’t its intention, but if I could make a recommendation; rebranding it as such would bolster its credibility. Between the helicopter vs. airplane shootout, and the dogged, always-get-your-man main character sitting in his empty apartment eating raw steak, I’m not sure how I was supposed to take this film seriously as a buddy-cop film. That said, the film is not without its charms or entertaining moments. I’d even be willing to go as far as to suggest that it worthy of whatever cult status that it has managed to achieve. It may have even became a blueprint for future buddy cop films, or at least a rough outline for them, had it not for another, more popular and realistic buddy cop film that also came out that year. Robert Carradine’s Nick Barzack may have been unpredictable, but Mel Gibson’s Martin Riggs was crazy! Carradine never stood a chance.
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