Pacific Rim: Uprising
Posted in Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 19th, 2018
When Pacific Rim first came out, I had a blast with the film. It was the ultimate giant-monster-versus-giant-robot film that my inner ten-year-old has wanted to see for so long. Sure, the film had some dialog issues, but the world that Guillermo del Toro created with the film was so over-the-top and beautiful that the bad dialog was easy to forget. It knew what it was, brainless eye candy, and it delivered in a big way. Now we have the sequel coming out; del Toro is no longer at the helm, and in his place we have Steven S. DeKnight whose previous directorial efforts have been episodes from Daredevil and Dollhouse. Does the sequel hold up? Well, to put it bluntly, not even close.
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Will and Grace: The Revival Season One
Posted in No Huddle by Brent Lorentson on June 19th, 2018
It’s been eleven years since that cast and crew took their final bow on the show Will and Grace. In those eleven years so much has occurred such as gay marriage and the rise of the social justice warrior. Just one glance at our political climate these days you can imagine there is plenty of material for comedy gold, heck there was even the revival of Roseanne that attempted to seize the moment. But of all the shows that are on the reboot and revival trend train Will and Grace is the one sit-com I feel is the most suited to take the airwaves. A lot of time has passed, a decade in Hollywood is a few eternities and would seem to be an overwhelming task to reunite the cast and crew but it would seem the stars have aligned for this show but will it actually work?
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Tuesday Round Up: June 19, 2018
Posted in Tuesday Round Up by J C on June 19th, 2018
Welcome to this week’s monster-iffic Tuesday Round Up! We kick things off with Universal going back for a second round of robots vs. kaiju butt-kicking with Pacific Rim: Uprising (4K) and trying not to go too crazy with Unsane (4K). And while calling Scrooge McDuck a monster is probably a bit strong, the penny-pinching quackster and his nephews get into some hot water in Duck Tales: Destination Adventure. In less monstrous news, Lionsgate puts the petal to the medal with Flower and Warner Bros. kicks things into high gear with soccer-centric family film Alex & Me.
The end of the week brings the biggest (and certainly oldest) monsters of them all. We’ll have a dino-tastic review of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. 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!
Love, Simon (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 17th, 2018
Despite falling into the “coming of age genre”, Love, Simon is actually so much more than your typical mainstream teenage film. In the 80’s John Hughes ruled the box office with his films, everything from Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink and of course The Breakfast Club were the films that spoke to the kids of the era. It’s been a while since a film has come along that has fit into the genre that has managed to handle the awkwardness of being a teenager while also toeing the line of being heartfelt and humorous. Over the years there have been attempts to capture the essence of the 80’s John Hughes films, but these seem to always fail by either going to raunchy or attempting to make the lead characters cool and popular.
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The Great Silence (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 17th, 2018
When it comes to the Italian western aka the spaghetti western, the first director who comes to mind is Sergio Leone (The Good The Bad And The Ugly); and then there is Sergio Corbucci. While Leone was blazing a successful career, Corbucci first came onto the scene with his film Django. The film was dirty, violent, and mean. For those who are only familiar with the Quentin Tarantino version of Django, well, you’ll definitely see the films are drastically different aside from them both being revenge films. Much later on Corbucci got the chance to follow up his first big hit with another western, The Great Silence. I had gotten to see this dark western before, though it was in the form of a bootleg copy.
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The Death of Stalin
Posted in No Huddle by John Delia on June 17th, 2018
Irreverent, totally off-the-wall, and exaggerated are the good things about the dark comedy Death of Stalin. The film goes bonkers on the Russian regime lead by Stalin as they picture the death of their leader in 1953. In actuality when the Soviet leader died rumors were rampant on whether it was ordinary or murder; well, this film isn’t going to answer that question, but it’ll lay to rest the madness of it all. You don’t have to be a historian to enjoy the film, just be able sit back and laugh at what may or may not have taken place.
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Incredibles 2
Posted in The Reel World by J C on June 16th, 2018
“You’re not good…you’re super.”
For a while, it honestly felt like Disney/Pixar was messing with us. When The Incredibles swooped into theaters in 2004, it was simultaneously one of the best animated/action/superhero movies I’d ever seen. Plenty of people shared that opinion, so a sequel seemed like a no-brainer. That’s why it seemed like a cruel joke when we got not one but two forgettable Cars sequels before The Incredibles got a chance to suit up again. Guess what…the wait is officially over!
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Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Posted in The Reel World by Gino Sassani on June 15th, 2018
“It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. A beautiful day for a neighbor. Could you be mine?
Would you be mine?”
Anyone who was a kid from the 1960’s to the 1990’s and beyond recognizes Mr. Rogers and his Neighbor Song. The man defined children’s programming for television, and he did so from a small studio tucked away in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania for almost 40 years.
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Oh Lucy! (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on June 15th, 2018
“Americans are loud, aren’t they?”
Oh Lucy! earns the exclamation point in its title within the first two minutes. The movie opens with a shocking leap that is meant to jolt the audience, but barely causes our disaffected heroine to raise an eyebrow. It’s played off as a throwaway moment, but it establishes the fact that this quirky Japanese/American dramedy with oodles of personality probably isn’t going to go where you expect.
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Tomb Raider (2018) (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 14th, 2018
For some reason, adapting video games into good films has been the nut Hollywood just can’t seem to crack. The Resident Evil series has been successful, but I wouldn’t say it really holds up to the game. Personally, Silent Hill has been the only adaption I’ve really enjoyed, and that film has divided fans as well. As for the Tomb Raider franchise that kicked off in 2001, sure, it had some fun sequences. And with Angelina Jolie becoming a hot commodity at the time, it’s not too much of a surprise that it did well at the box office. Now 17 years later, the time has come for Tomb Raider to get a makeover and work its way through the reboot machine.
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The Strangers: Prey at Night (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on June 14th, 2018
“Why are they doing this to us?”
Back in 2008, The Strangers stalked its way into theaters. The movie was an especially nasty bit of home invasion horror; its stunningly simple premise (three masked psychos terrorize doomed couple) and the random nature of its killings was both what the movie’s fans admired about it and what left its detractors wanting more. Ten years later, The Strangers: Prey at Night hits a lot of the same notes while incorporating a self-aware tone about horror movies and some ’80s-inspired flair. Call it The Strangers Things.
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Terminator Genisys (UHD Blu-ray) (4K)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on June 13th, 2018
“A straight line…you just go, and you never…look…back.”
Well, I hope you’re ready to have everything you know about the Terminator franchise turned on its head. As a franchise known for his alternative timelines where the things we come to know are often turned around, my previous statement may sound like the usual bread and butter to you. However, I must say that I feel like the latest incarnation of the franchise, Terminator Genisys, has really outdone itself this time.
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Every Day (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on June 13th, 2018
“I am someone who wakes up in a different body every day.”
Every Day manages to be both clumsily straightforward and frustratingly vague about its fantastical premise. The movie centers on a mysterious traveling spirit known as “A,” which — as you can read above — inhabits a different body every day. Unfortunately, there’s little-to-no exploration as to why or how A (conveniently) only inhabits the bodies of camera-friendly teens. The best thing about this premise is that it injects the otherwise tired and homogeneous teen romance genre with a new look. (Actually, it ends up being closer to 15 new looks.)
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Tuesday Round Up: June 12, 2018
Posted in Tuesday Round Up by J C on June 12th, 2018
Summer continues to heat up, and so does our weekly Tuesday Round Up! This week’s crop of releases features action, comedy…and titles that contain plenty of both! Warner Bros. goes digging for adventure with Tomb Raider (4K), the big-screen reboot of the mega-popular videogame franchise. If you’re looking for laughs AND action, Paramount has you covered by releasing the Eddie Murphy one-two punch of Trading Places and Coming to America on Blu-ray and the Jerry Lewis 10-Film Collection before changing gears and giving everyone’s favorite time-travelling killer cyborg a UHD makeover with Terminator: Genisys (4K). And if you want to watch a really nice guy run for a long time, Paramount is also releasing a little movie called Forrest Gump (4K). Universal keeps the laughs coming with Will & Grace — The Revival: Season 1, but also gets scary with The Strangers: Prey at Night. Last but not least, Fox injects some romance into the week with teen dramedy Love, Simon.
Of course, I couldn’t go on and on about all this great action and great comedy without mentioning the sequel to a movie that did both at the highest level: later this week, we’ll have a review for Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles 2. On top of that, Warner Bros. tries to avoid being “it” with Tag, while Focus Features throws on a cardigan and revisits beloved icon Mister Rogers with Won’t You Be My Neighbor. Before you run off until next week, here’s 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!
Trading Places (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 11th, 2018
Eddie Murphy has a ton of films under his belt. If you’re like most folks, his antics have long ago become tired and worn out. Come with me now to a time when Murphy was young and full of energy. Trading Places was really only Murphy’s second film after 48 hours. In Trading Places, we get vintage Eddie Murphy. You can tell he was still hungry. Today he simply calls too many performances in. Dan Aykroyd was also at a turning point in his own career. It hadn’t been too long since he lost his longtime partner Jim Belushi to a drug overdose. He was just learning to stand on his own. Put these two guys together today, and there’s not much chance you’d get the solid gold that was possible in 1983.
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Coming to America (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 11th, 2018
Remember when Eddie Murphy was funny? You know, before the fat suites and fart jokes. I guess many of you hadn’t even been born yet. Ronald Reagan was still president of these United States. CD’s were the latest thing. VHS was just catching on. The Rams were still in L.A., and it was the Cardinals that were playing in St. Louis. No one had ever heard about DVD, Blu-ray, 4K, MP3, or Wi-fi. It was 1988 and Eddie Murphy was staring in Coming To America. This is the second of 2 classic 80’s Eddie Murphy films that Paramount is delivering on Blu-ray this week. They happen to be 2 of his best films in 40 years.
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Altered Perception
Posted in No Huddle by Brent Lorentson on June 11th, 2018
“Drugs are tested by the people who manufacture them, in poorly designed trials, on hopelessly small numbers of weird, unrepresentative patients, and analyzed using techniques which are flawed by design, in such a way that they exaggerate the benefits of the treatments.” Forbes
This is the quote that opens up the film Altered Perception. It lets us know right out of the gate that we are about to watch a film that involves drug testing.
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Ocean’s 8
Posted in The Reel World by Gino Sassani on June 10th, 2018
“It’s not just for profit. It’s for revenge. It’s a twofer.”
Hollywood has been making a greater effort these days to add some diversity to their film casts. From minorities to women, this has been a year of unprecedented changes in the makeup of so many films. One of the new trends in this effort is to remake/re-imagine/reboot an already established franchise with a gender-switched cast. The results have been somewhat mixed. The female Ghostbusters film was a complete disappointment. And while it might be easy to blame the female cast, the issues go much deeper than that.
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Hereditary
Posted in The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on June 9th, 2018
There has been so much hype around Hereditary since its debut at Sundance that by the time I got to watch it, I didn’t believe it was possible to live up to this hype. For months I’ve followed this film, hearing it being compared to The Exorcist and being proclaimed the scariest film of all time. I read these things and all I can think is they are simply setting this film up for disaster at the box office, because it’s hard to believe a film could ever be this good. Personally, The Exorcist is my favorite horror film. It’s stood the test of time, and while for audiences of today the film may not seem so scary, for me it was the notion of how it could all really happen that got under my skin.
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Hotel Artemis
Posted in The Reel World by J C on June 9th, 2018
“Plenty of people out there to patch up the good guys…”
We’ve definitely gotten more than our fair share of movies and TV shows focusing on the lives of heroic doctors who heal common folk. Heck, even superheroes have someone like Night Nurse to tend to their more serious nicks and bruises. But what about less savory fictional characters…aren’t big screen bad guys entitled to quality health care too?! Hotel Artemis, the star-studded directorial debut of screenwriter Drew Pearce, answers that question with flair and the appropriate playfulness.
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First Reformed
Posted in The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on June 7th, 2018
When it comes to Paul Schrader, I feel the argument can be made that he is the greatest American screenwriter. I know it’s a bold statement, but when you look over his credits that include Taxi Driver, Rolling Thunder, Hardcore, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ and so many others, I feel there just isn’t anyone out there who can compete. Lately, though, he’s seemed to have had a difficult time recapturing that greatness. There has even been a part of me that has felt that perhaps I should give up on hoping he’ll crank out one more great film and simply appreciate the filmography he’s delivered us cinema fans over the years.
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The Steam Engines of Oz (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 7th, 2018
“I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
The infamous line from the classic The Wizard of Oz is what kicks off this film, and this is simply as close as it gets to ever achieving the greatness of the original film. Over the years we have had several remakes and sequels to the story we love that takes us on a journey through the magical world of Oz, so when a steam-punk version of the material came along, it was something I got a little excited for. Unfortunately the version of the film we get this time around seems to be full of fun ideas but nothing that actually delivers to the screen.
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RWBY Volume 5 (Blu-Ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on June 7th, 2018
Up until roughly 3 to 4 weeks ago, I had only heard of RWBY. I watched a lot of Red vs Blue, even owned their ten year blu-ray box set and their season 11-13 steelbook. I was fully aware that RWBY was a product of Rooster Teeth, I just had largely ignored it because what 42 year old guy watches an anime show with four teenage girls as the leads? Then the head honcho of this site told me we had this blu-ray set available for review. I thought about it a couple of minutes, and went for it. Then in the next 2-3 weeks leading up to the review, I proceeded to binge watch the entire run of RWBY from Amazon Prime, VUDU (Free Movies on Us) and even YouTube, the primary vehicle to watch the show on. In a word, I was hooked.
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South Park: The Complete Twenty-First Season (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 6th, 2018
“Look at ’em. Every day people are buying more and more of them Amazon and Google thingies while we just sit here and lose our jobs. It ain’t right. Automated personal assistants and self-driving trucks. Whatever happened to people jobs?”
Not sure machines will ever take over writing good television. With the release of season 21, the one-year experiment South Park had with the year-long story arc has come to an end. I think it’s more than fair to say that the vehicle just doesn’t work on a show that has always flipped off the idea of continuity.
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A Wrinkle in Time (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on June 6th, 2018
“We can’t take any credit for our talents. It’s how we use them that counts.”
Much has been made about the fact that Ava DuVernay’s A Wrinkle in Time is the most expensive movie ever directed by a woman of color, carrying a reported $103-million price tag. The good news is the filmmaker has absolutely infused her own personality and perspective into this live-action Disney spectacle (no small feat, by the way). The bad news is that DuVernay has taken those considerable resources and made a wildly uneven movie that, at various points, somehow manages to look both way more expensive and way cheaper than its budget would suggest.
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