Posted in: Contests by Gino Sassani on December 26th, 2009
Walt Disney Studios has graciously given us a copy of Handy Manny's Motorcycle Adventure on DVD to give away.
To enter to win a copy of this Tools on Wheels Adventure, just follow these two steps...
Contest is now closed. The Winner is Miranda Vigiotti, Congratulations.
Posted in: Contests by Gino Sassani on December 25th, 2009
Walt Disney Studios has graciously given us a copy of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Choo Choo Express on DVD to give away.
To enter to win a copy of this Mickey Winterland Adventure, just follow these two steps...
Only those comments that list a Christmas Movie will be considered for the contest.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 25th, 2009
Christmas Town deals with Liza McCann (Nicole de Boer) an overworked real estate agent that travels to Hollyville with her son to visit her estranged father. Hollyville is filled with Christmas decorations and Yuletide spirit, which frustrates Liza, who has hated Christmas since childhood. However, through a series of surreal events, Liza begins to change her viewpoint and the story unfolds from there.
This film attempts to transcend the typical coming home for Christmas story by infusing it with supernatural and magical elements. However, the result is a difficult pill to swallow. The performances are flat, the score is dull and the story seems all too familiar. The comedic moments of the film are cliché and boring and unfortunately the characters are not likeable either. Nevertheless, the director does salvage some of the film with a beautiful British Columbia backdrop. There are some gorgeous landscape shots and are threaded through the film well. On the other hand, when the highlights of the film are without characters or dialogue, it does not bode well for its cause. This is a Christmas misstep and should be avoided at any cost.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on December 23rd, 2009
“Inspired by a true story,” two youth hockey teams on either side of the Canada/US border find friendship and bond through their mutual love of the game while tensions rise between those that support and those that protest the Iraq invasion and assorted post 9-11 security fears.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 23rd, 2009
Tycoon Tom Arnold sends employee and all-signs-point-to-being-future-son-in-law David O'Donnell and daughter Sarah Thompson (a ghastly person who is clearly Ms Wrong) to O'Donnell's home town in order to seal a real estate development deal. There O'Donnell comes up against former flame Nicole Eggert, who is fighting to preserve the town's pristine self. And yes, all of this is happening over the Christmas holiday, though it could just as well be the Fourth of July. At any rate, based on this setup, if there is a single one among you who can't anticipate every single turn of the story, allow me to be among the first to welcome you to the planet Earth.
Let's face it, though everybody and his monkey's uncle seems to have a Christmas movie up a sleeve, the form is actually murderously hard to do well. Think about it: how many really good Christmas movies are there out there? It's a Wonderful Life (1946). The 1951 version of A Christmas Carol. Director Bob Clark has given us two, though I can understand why most people prefer his A Christmas Story (1983) at this time of the year to Black Christmas (1974). Since A Christmas Story, I would argue that we have had precisely one new classic, and that is Elf (2003). All of which is to say that A Christmas Proposal is not a classic. It has all the life, zing and comedic timing of a dead fish. The closest it comes to having a glimmer of life is when Tom Arnold is (briefly) on the screen, and when your high point would be considered the low point in just about any other movie, you are in serious trouble.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 23rd, 2009
Eight-year-old Buddy (T. J. Lowther) likes living in the Alabama countryside with cousing Sook (Julie Harris in a tiny role), but circumstances dictate that he go to New Orleans for Christmas, there to stay with the father he has never seen (Henry Winkler). Old dad is, it turns out, a con artist with an inflated sense of self-importance, currently wooing Swoozie Kurtz, whose mother (Katharine Hepburn) recognizes Winkler for what he is. This being a Christmas movie, hard lessons and redemption will be called for.
At this festive season of the year, studios rummage through their vaults for those films that no one would want to watch at any other time of the year, but will happily do so when even the merest hint of sentiment and the word “Christmas” will apparently be enough to fill us with the warm glow of nostalgia and good cheer. In the movie's defense, it has a more interesting base than most such bargain releases – a Truman Capote story – but it is still a blandly executed made-for-TV pic with some good-looking production and costume design. Lowther, meanwhile, is simply too cold a fish to warm up to as Buddy, and Winkler's performance is both mannered and flat. You're going to have to be pretty undemanding to make it through this one.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 23rd, 2009
Kate Frazier (Kelly Macdonald) has fled her abusive husband and begun a new, solitary life for herself in Chicago, where she fends off the romantic interest of a number of men, and the curiosity of a great many people who all want to know how she received her black eye. One night, leaving the office, she sees a man about to jump from a building roof, and her scream startles him, breaking his suicidal trance. The man is Frank Logan (Michael Keaton), a contract killer. No longer interested in killing himself, he tracks down Kate, initially intending to kill her, since (though she doesn't realize this), she saw him moments after a hit. He collapses with pneumonia before he can carry out his plan, and she helps him to the hospital, whereupon a most unlikely relationship begins to bloom between two wounded people.
Since a bit chunk of this film takes place around Christmas, why don't we count it among the Christmas films I'm reviewing just now (the other two being A Christmas Proposal and One Christmas, since nothing says Christmas quite like a suicidal hit man. The thing is, this is far and away the best of the three movies in question. Keaton is compelling as a man who finds great difficulty in expressing emotions, and yet the strength of the those emotions are visible in every movement of his eyes, every micro-tremor of his face. In shaping the performance, he is enormously helped by the director, who is none other than Keaton himself, making his directorial debut. He and DP Chris Seager have crafted a film that is strikingly beautiful without being showy, understated yet very powerful. Here's hoping Keaton does more work behind the camera very soon.
Posted in: News and Opinions by Gino Sassani on December 23rd, 2009
All of us here at Upcomingdiscs wish you a wonderful and safe holiday season. Check back starting Christmas Day. We'll be running our 12 Days Of Christmas Contests. Each day for 12 days straight, we will post a new contest. It's your chance to win new prizes and your second chance at unclaimed prizes from 2009.
We have big plans for 2010. I hope you will continue to make Upcomingdiscs your first stop for the latest in video releases.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on December 23rd, 2009
EA MMA News, Heavy Rain delayed Trophies, & EGM to be Re -launched? - Welcome to the column that made a comeback several years but nobody knew they were gone known as Dare to Play the Game.
Still in Wii Land, population 2. See this is the problem when you get a new system that’s been around a little while; you spend a lot of time catching up. This week was indeed no different than last. I purchased what I hoped were my final two accessories for now, a classic controller and a second Wii Motion Plus. I really like the Classic Controller, it works really well, I only wish more regular Wii games actually supported the darn thing. But for VC games, it is a champ.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 21st, 2009
Here is an interesting fact for those reading this review. I don’t drink alcohol. In fact, the only time I’ve actually drank anything alcoholic is when somebody else spiked my drink (usually some kind of juice). So imagine my surprise when I receive a copy of a show based on alcoholic drinks to review. However, it might not be so bad when I realize it is in the style of all those “Travel to Destination A, show me all of the cool stuff that goes on there while making funny anecdotes” ones on the Travel Network that I actually enjoy.
Zane Lamprey is a comedian who has done a lot of reality shows. At first he hosted a few of those Girls Gone Wild specials and was in five episodes of Damage Control. He also landed a spot on the Food Network with the show Have Fork, Will Travel that unfortunately only lasted a season of thirteen episodes. But his most famous show to date has been Three Sheets.
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