“31 Nights of Terror” Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich (UHD-Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on October 10th, 2018
“Why would anybody create a Nazi puppet?!”
There are two types of people in this world: A) the sort of person who reads the question above and says, “That’s offensive! I have absolutely no idea” and B) the joyful weirdo who replies, “Why would anybody stop at creating just *one* Nazi puppet?” If you’re in Group B, you’re in luck…the people behind Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich didn’t stop at one Nazi puppet. (Not even close!) More importantly, this bloody reboot of the 1989 cult horror classic features some of the craziest and most disgusting kills I’ve seen in a while. (I promise that’s a compliment.)
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Barry: Season 1
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on October 9th, 2018
“Acting is a very face-forward type of job. It’s in direct conflict to being someone who anonymously kills people. You want to have a hobby or something, you could take up painting. Hitler painted. John Wayne Gacy painted. It’s a good solid hobby. Never got in the way of what they were doing. You wanna have to go out there and burn a guy and have him say ‘Hey, there’s the guy from the chicken commercial?’ “
Not since Dexter have serial killers been so much fun. Barry Berkman isn’t exactly a serial killer.
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The 100: Season 5
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on October 9th, 2018
“We gather here today to remind ourselves what happens to the enemies of Wonkru. It doesn’t matter who you are, if you choose sides against us, if you divide us, if you defy us then you are not us. Before we give these traitors a second chance to be called brother, sister or seda, we pay tribute to those who have died, so that we may live.”
And there have been a lot of those folks. The series title once referred to the 100 teens who were sent to the surface of Earth a hundred years after a nuclear war to find out if it was habitable once again. By the time we reach the end of Season 5, there will only be four members of the 100 remaining alive.
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“31 Nights Of Terror” Contest – Win American Horror Story: Cult On DVD From FOX
Posted in Contests by Gino Sassani on October 9th, 2018
31 Nights Of Terror continues to roll with another giveaway. This time it’s our old buddies at FOX that have given us a treat for our readers. They’ve given us a copy of American Horror Story: Cult on DVD for a lucky reader. It’s the entire season on 3 DVD’s and it’s all up for grabs.
To win a copy of this prize, follow these instructions.
- Fill out your name and email address in the comment form below – your email address will remain private and visible only to us.
- Do not post your address as an actual comment! Instead tell us – What’s your favorite horror television show of all time?
- Only those comments that answer our question will be considered.
Contest is now closed. Winner announced this week!
Upcomingdiscs NEVER sells or shares your information with anyone.
Tuesday Round Up: October 9, 2018
Posted in Tuesday Round Up by J C on October 9th, 2018
We are reaching unprecedented heights with this week’s Round Up! Thanks to Universal, we’ll be scaling the tallest building in the world alongside Dwayne Johnson in Skyscraper (4K). Elsewhere, Warner Bros. counts to The 100: Season 5, and heads west with occult investigator John Constantine in Constantine: City of Demons — The Movie (4K). HBO hits its mark with hitman comedy Barry: Season 1, while Fox prepares for battle with Vikings: Season 5, Volume 1. Fries Entertainment Group gets animated with Starchaser: The Legend of Orin, Monarch stays for a 3rd Night, and Shout! Factory goes back to school for Saved by the Bell: The Complete Series. (We’ll have full coverage of the fan-favorite teen comedy next month, following the conclusion of “31 Nights of Terror.”)
Speaking of the spooky season, we’ll also be reviewing Columbia’s Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween on the big screen a little later this week. Finally, we are taking one small step to offer our take on Universal’s First Man. Before you run off until next week, here’s your customary reminder: if you’re shopping for anything on Amazon and you do it through one of our links, it’ll help keep the lights on here at UpcomingDiscs. See ya next week!
“31 Nights Of Terror” Contest: Win The 30 Film Universal Monster Collection on Blu-ray From Universal
Posted in Contests by Gino Sassani on October 8th, 2018
Universal practically invented Halloween, at least for me. I owe my love of movies to watching the Universal Monsters on chiller and shock theaters with my Dad. Boris Karlof, Lon Caney, Jr and Bela Lugosi would become icons for me. Now Universal has brought a mega-collection of those classic monsters to one huge Blu-ray collection of 30 films that feature the likes of Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man and The Creature From The Black Lagoon. Our pals over at Universal have given us one of these film collections to give away as part of our 31 Nights Of Horror. It’s been a while since our last contest. Now we’re going to make it up to you BIG TIME! Enter to win a copy of this massive Blu-ray collection of monster movie history.
To win a copy of this prize, follow these instructions.
- Fill out your name and email address in the comment form below – your email address will remain private and visible only to us.
- Do not post your address as an actual comment! Instead tell us – Who is your favorite all-time movie monster?
- Only those comments that answer our question will be considered.
Contest is now closed. Winner announced this week!
Upcomingdiscs NEVER sells or shares your information with anyone.
Now this is how you celebrate Halloween
“31 Nights Of Terror” Venom
Posted in The Reel World by Gino Sassani on October 7th, 2018
“Eyes. Lungs. Pancreas. So many snacks. So little time.”
The Marvel Venom character started simply enough with a desire to change the look of Spider-Man’s costume in the 1980’s. Spider-Man along with a collection of Marvel’s heroes were abducted by a character called The Beyonder to fight on a battle planet. It’s much like the iconic Planet Hulk story, which was used for the recent Thor film. When Spider-Man returns to Earth, he has a new black and white suit that he found in space. For quite a while the new look for the Web Crawler caused a debate in Marveldom about the hero’s new look.
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“31 Nights Of Terror” Sleep No More
Posted in No Huddle by Brent Lorentson on October 6th, 2018
It seems the 80’s is the go-to gimmick nowadays. With the success of Stranger Things and It, I can’t really blame the studios for cranking out the films set in this time period. Personally my favorite film to do this would be Summer of 84. For me it’s been the film that has best captured what it was like to grow up during that time period, but Sleep No More is definitely a film that I’m glad has climbed aboard the 80’s bandwagon. Personally what grabbed me was how the DVD boasts that it is from the creator of Final Destination. While the sequels fell more into the guilty pleasure category for me, the first film holds up and is great, so of course I’m curious to see what he has cooked up for Sleep No More.
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Big Fish and Begonia (Blu-Ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 5th, 2018
As some of you might know, I have a son, a three-year-old toddler. Since we live in the suburbs, we unfortunately don’t get out as often as we like to places like the beach or any other places where we might be able to explore the animals and creatures that inhabit the wondrous ocean. As a result, we have a tendency to watch plenty of underwater nature documentaries or whichever Pixar animated Nemo or Dory show we can find. Today, we have for review an animated tale about creatures who can turn into beautiful red dolphins so they can be a part of the human world. Is the movie as beautiful as it seems, or much like the dolphins, is it something else in disguise?
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“31 Nights Of Terror” The Originals: The 5th And Final Season
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on October 5th, 2018
“All I know for certain is if the four Mickaelsons come together, it will signal darkness like we’ve never known. So many possible tipping points, but without the benefit of hindsight, how can we know if we’re at the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end?”
We do have hindsight as Warner Brothers releases the final season of The Originals on DVD. This is the beginning of the end. It’s a bit of a shame. This show always had better stories and a more compelling cast than The Vampire Diaries had on their best season.
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A Star Is Born (2018)
Posted in The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on October 4th, 2018
When I first heard that Bradley Cooper would be making his directing debut with A Star is Born, honestly, I kind of groaned. It’s not because I didn’t believe he’d have the chops; after all, he’s worked with many successful directors over the span of his career. I groaned because I believed the world didn’t need yet another remake of the film. This will be the fourth incarnation of the film, and while many can debate on which version is their favorite, the film was pretty much a relic I felt should have stayed in the past. I mention this and want to also put out there even after some of the trailers I had caught for the film; my excitement level was pretty low going into this.
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“31 Nights Of Terror” The First Purge (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on October 4th, 2018
“This is the greatest s— show on Earth!”
The First Purge arrives in theaters a little more than five years after the (lowercase) first Purge rampaged into moviegoers’ consciousness as a nasty bit of R-rated, summer blockbuster counterprogramming. The movies are obviously quite popular, but I’ve never felt that any of them fully lived up to the killer concept at the center of this franchise. Unfortunately, that still holds true for The First Purge, which had a chance to deviate from the established formula in a variety of interesting ways, but ends up playing a lot like The First Three Purges.
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9-1-1: Season 1
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on October 4th, 2018
“911. What is your emergency?”
In the 1970’s my family watched a lot of television together. One of the shows that we rarely missed was Emergency starring Randolph Mantooth and Kevin Tighe, a Jack Webb show that lived in his Dragnet world. The series followed the adventures of fire station 51 and would bring us an hour of fighting fires and daring rescues. The show ran for seven seasons from 1972-1979 and was followed by a few television movies in the 1980’s. While there have been many shows in that mold, there really hasn’t been anything that came close to that series.
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“31 Nights of Terror” Exorcist II: The Heretic (Collector’s Edition) (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on October 3rd, 2018
“The world doesn’t want any more saints.”
Maybe the world didn’t want any more Exorcist movies…at least not any that looked like Exorcist II: The Heretic. This follow-up to William Friedkin’s 1973 genre-defining horror classic is not only regarded as one of the weakest sequels of all-time, but some consider it to be one of the worst films ever made. I hate to throw out a ***SPOILER ALERT*** so early in my review, but…I don’t think this is the worst film ever made. ***END OF SPOILER ALERT*** Instead, I find Exorcist II to be a nonsensical, somewhat intriguing disaster whose fatal flaw is that it took everything that everyone loved about The Exorcist…and decided to do almost the exact opposite.
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X-Men: 3 Film Collection (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 2nd, 2018
“Mutation: it is the key to our evolution. It has enabled us to evolve from a single-celled organism into the dominant species on the planet. This process is slow, and normally taking thousands and thousands of years. But every few hundred millennia, evolution leaps forward.”
Fox is taking full advantage of their version of the X-Men Universe these days. By this time next year, the group of mutants will once again be back with Marvel at Disney, and I suspect they will quickly join that studio’s MCU. I can’t blame Fox for getting as much out of it now as they can. With the pending release of Dark Phoenix and two television shows running, this was the perfect time to release the original film trilogy on UHD in ultra-high-definition.
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The Gifted: Season 1
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on October 2nd, 2018
There’s a lot going on with Fox’s X-Men property these days. Legion became the first live-action television series based on that universe. It’s an odd show that takes the franchise in more of a mental direction. There is a new film that features the First Class cast that deals with Jean Grey and her Dark Phoenix nature. While that film is being delayed…again, you can get your mutant fix with the release of the first season of The Gifted on DVD as well as the upcoming second season soon to air. This show is more in line with the kind of action and mutant powers display that fans of the franchise are likely looking for. It appears to exist in the X-Men universe created by Fox, as there are multiple mentions of the X-Men in the show. The first three films are now out in 4K, and there’s a lot of X-Men stuff coming to your home theatre. Add to that list The Gifted: Season 1 on DVD.
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C.B. Strike: The Series
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on October 2nd, 2018
Mention the name J.K. Rowling, and the first thing that pops into your head is Harry Potter. She was a struggling writer just getting out of a bad marriage when her first Potter book took the world by storm. Now she’s the wealthiest woman on the planet. The problem has been her life has since been Harry Potter all the time. I can well understand why she might want to find a way to distance future novels from all of that hype and expectation. So she invented Robert Galbraith and wrote a series of detective novels based on a character named C. B. Strike. The novels didn’t come close to the sales of a Potter novel, but they did fairly well, particularly in England. So BBC One and HBO got together for a joint production of the show for both England and the United States. The result is a kind of mini-series that tackles three of the novels in seven hour-long episodes starring Tom Burke as the title character.
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Tuesday Round Up: October 2, 2018
Posted in Tuesday Round Up by J C on October 2nd, 2018
It’s here! The calendar has officially turned to October, which means it’s time to dim the lights, dial up the frights, and celebrate 31 Nights of Terror. We’ll be highlighting a different horror-themed offering every day this month, including The Originals: The Fifth and Final Season from Warner Bros. RLJE Films is wide awake for Sleep No More and lives in wedded bliss with The Housewife. (Be sure to check out our interview with Housewife star David Sakurai.) Random Media returns to The Landing to unearth a past trauma, while Paramount steps behind the plate for WWII drama The Catcher Was a Spy. Finally, Fox dials up 911: Season 1.
There’s also a pair of big-time, big screen releases we’ll be reviewing a little later this week: Bradley Cooper directs (and sings along with) Lady Gaga in A Star is Born, while Tom Hardy suits up for Sony’s Venom. And now it’s time for your customary reminder: if you’re shopping for anything on Amazon and you do it through one of our links, it’ll help keep the lights on here at UpcomingDiscs. See ya next week!
“31 Nights Of Terror” Upcomingdiscs Interview With Actor David Sakurai From Housewife
Posted in Podcasts by Gino Sassani on October 2nd, 2018
31 Nights Of Terror is off to a quick start this year. RLJE Films is getting into the fray with their release of Housewife staring David Sakurai as Bruce O’Hara. It’s out today on DVD. David plays a mystical cult leader who makes a rather extraordinary connection to the film’s lead actress. I also had a chance to connect with David. We talked about the film and his motivation for the character. Now you get to make a connection and listen in on our conversation. Just bang it here to listen to my interview with David Sakurai.
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow: The Complete Third Season (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 28th, 2018
“How will we be remembered? Will it be for saving the world…Twice? Nope. We’re the team who broke time. That’s right. History has been torn to shreds, which means it’s up to us to put it back together again, piece by piece, finding these so-called anachronisms before we get torn to shreds. So please, don’t call us heroes. We’re legends.”
At the end of the second season the team broke one of the cardinal rules of time travel. You can’t revisit a time and place that you already visited. The result is that you break time, and that’s exactly what the Legends of Tomorrow have done. The result is that they have been recalled and dismissed from service by the newly-formed Bureau of Time. Now our legends are back in the mundane world, where Sara (Lotz) is working as a clerk at a bed and shower store, having fantasies of killing her boss.
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Occupation (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on September 28th, 2018
“Told you it was aliens.”
What if Michael Bay was Australian and he was only given $6 million to make an alien invasion movie? The result might look a lot like Occupation, a rollicking, gleefully dumb sci-fi/action flick that works best as a throwback to simpler (i.e. dumber) times at the multiplex. But while Occupaton has its charms, the movie’s shoddy special effects and production values consistently undermine the kickass story it’s trying to tell.
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Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: In Concert — Encore (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on September 27th, 2018
“So here we are…in the belly of the beast. A lot of power and money in this room.”
That cheeky line came from Iggy Pop during The Stooges’ induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. It’s also featured in Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: In Concert — Encore, a wonderfully comprehensive collection of the four induction ceremonies between 2010 and 2013. The 2-disc Blu-ray set features over 8 hours of content, including full induction speeches and 44 musical performances from rock and roll icons and rising stars. Iggy was right about the power and money in the room; this set features some of the biggest names in the history of music…plus A-listers like Meryl Streep and Oprah Winfrey!
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X-files: Season 11 (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 26th, 2018
“Is there life out there? Good heavens! To doubt it is a failure of more than the imagination. It is a failure to recognize the limits of our own stupidity. The nascency of our science. The rudiment of our tools. We listen. We search. We hope for a sign, as if our eyes and ears are good enough, our brains large enough, our egos small enough.”
By the time The X-Files had reached its seventh season, the two stars of the show were feeling the stress of doing over 20 episodes of the series every year. In the eighth season David Duchovny was going MIA, and Gillian Anderson’s Scully character had a new partner in Robert Patrick’s Agent Doggett.
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Macgyver: Season 2
Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on September 26th, 2018
Are you feeling a little déjà vu when you turn on a television or live stream these days? It seems like almost half the shows on television today are either revivals or reboots of shows that have aired before. Recently there have been revivals of The X-Files, 24, Prison Break, Growing Pains, Roseanne, and even Murphy Brown. The box office is filled with feature films of Star Trek, The Equalizer and Baywatch. While Tom Selleck is playing a family patriarch on Blue Bloods, Jay Hernandez is in Hawaii driving a bright red Ferrari in a new version of Magnum P.I. Hawaii 5-O is one of the most popular shows on CBS, and Charmed is bewitching an entire new generation of streamers on the internet.
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Solo: A Star Wars Story (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 26th, 2018
“A long time ago in a galaxy far far away…”
Yes, those lines open this Star Wars story, because the filmmakers want to be sure you know what you’re watching. This is Star Wars. Just in case there was anyone at all in the audience who had no idea they just bought a ticket to Star Wars. If he were dead, George Lucas would be rolling over in his grave. Instead, maybe he’s just having some restless nights with little sleep. It is Star Wars. And that means there will be a droid as a main character, space battles, and some good old fashioned one-reel-serial-days adventure. It’s a heck of a visual amusement park ride, and the film will certainly entertain. But I have to open by saying it is my least favorite of the Disney Star Wars films to date.
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