Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 26th, 2009
I was very eager to revisit this film now that it has come our way on Blu-ray and high definition. There are issues that I struggled with in my own viewing that I will discuss later in this review. In high definition this film becomes a case study in contradiction. It’s amazing how pretty a thing can be when it really isn’t very pretty at all. We are witness to bad things, but the director chooses to present these things amid a flurry of beauty. It’s a rather striking contrast, made more so on Blu-ray. It actually made for a much more effective experience, even if most of my initial feelings about the film remain unchanged.
![The Kite Runner [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-kite-runner-blu-ray-large.jpg)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 26th, 2009
"She was working in a bridal shop in Flushing, Queens 'Til her boyfriend kicked her out in one of those crushing scenes. What was she to do? Where was she to go? She was out on her fanny... So over the bridge from Flushing to the Sheffield's door. She was there to sell makeup, but father saw more. She had style! She had flair! She was there. That's how she became the Nanny! Who would have guessed that the girl we've described Was just exactly what the doctor prescribed? Now the father finds her beguiling. And the kids are actually smiling. She's the lady in red when everybody else is wearing tan... The flashy girl from Flushing, the Nanny named Fran!"
Not exactly Mary Poppins.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on March 26th, 2009
The WTO or World Trade Organization came into being on the 1st of January in the year of 1995. It was the successor to GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) and was designed to supervise and liberalize international trade. In their ministerial conference of 1999, they decided to have the conference on US soil. The site chosen was Seattle, Washington. The WTO had drawn criticism from protestors around the globe that proclaimed that the WTO was pursuing commercial interests ahead of human principles. In 1999, the WTO convened at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. Protestors came by the thousands and soon despite their peaceful efforts, riots ensued. There was mass police involvement. It also gave way to some of the more horrific scenes of innocents and guilty arrested alike. Battle in Seattle is a docu-drama directed by Stuart Townsend that mixes a drama-thriller with the real events that surrounded the days that followed November 30th, 1999 in Seattle, Washington.
Jay, Lou and Django (played by Martin Henderson, Michelle Rodriguez, and André Benjamin) are three activists who are planning a mass protest at the 1999 conference of the World Trade Organization in Seattle, Washington. Meanwhile, a SWAT cop named Dale (played by Woody Harrelson) gears up for that same conference in order to keep the peace. His mind is not on the protestors, instead his mind is focused on his wife, Ella (played by Charlize Theron) who is five months pregnant.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 25th, 2009
This is not your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. If you’re at all like me, you grew up on the 1960’s cartoon series and, of course, the Marvel comic. A lot has changed since those early days of the web slinger. There’s been a not too successful television live action attempt. The comics themselves have changed significantly. You can’t discount the enormously profitable Sam Raimi films, that have given new legs to an old superhero. It stands to reason that a new cartoon series was in order. Enter The Spectacular Spider-Man, the 10th series based on the Marvel character. This recent cartoon series updates the world of Spidey. The shows take from both the original comics and the film series to create a new fusion of the hero. Like in the comics, Parker is the loner high school kid teased constantly by bullies like Flash Thompson. He has a few girls on his radar like Gwen Stacey and Mary Jane Watson. He still lives with his kind old Aunt May. Unlike the film, Spider-Man was not endowed with his web slinging ability by the radioactive spider. He developed the shooters and the chemical mixture that makes them work. That means he can run out of fluid and lose his ability to shoot webs. The Osborne relationship from the movies exists here. It’s also likely no coincidence that the villains featured in the film have prominence here. Doc Ock, Sand Man, The Goblin, and even Venom are hinted at in the last episode of this collection.
These cartoons are actually pretty good. The animation is pretty solid. Some of the characters look rather strange. Aunt May looks like she’s a 20 year old with white hair. Character jaw lines have a distinctive angular style that makes everyone look like they’re posing for some tough guy magazine cover. MJ looks like a matchstick and says “tiger” way too often. They are not really standalone episodes. Unlike the 1960’s series there is a story arc that connects the episodes into a longer form. The character’s mythology is also played with quite a bit. The cartoons work in a few origin stories and connect them together as a master plan plot devised by OsCorp and spearheaded by Dr. Octavius. The only real complaint I have is that each disc, sold separately, contains a mere 3 episodes. While this is great for bit rate and picture quality, it’s not much of a bargain material wise. The total running time for each disc is just 69 minutes. (That’s about 23 minutes an episode.) Because the stories are continuous, you never really reach the end of the plot. I think Sony would have done much better to wait and release season sets of the cartoon. I wouldn’t be surprised if that comes, making these discs unnecessary in the long run, except to add more money in the Sony cash registers.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 25th, 2009
Suspense began life as a very successful radio show on the CBS Radio Network. It premiered in 1942 and lasted just over 20 years on the nation’s airwaves. When television began to make its own waves on the air in the late 1940’s, naturally many of those first shows would be programs that had already shown strong appeal to the radio audiences. Shows like Gunsmoke had been staples on the radio for years and would be a nice way to entice the first television crowds to the new medium. Suspense was one of those shows. It first broadcast in 1949 and was broadcast live from a studio playhouse in New York City. The anthology series presented stories that featured some kind of a horror or thriller theme. Public domain stories were great fodder for the series, and it certainly brought together some of the big names of that genre to the broadcasts. Names like Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Peter Lorre, Nina Foch, and John Carradine would give the show instant credibility. But, the episodes were not limited to the horror field. Crime dramas that involved murders under mysterious circumstances were another favorite staple of the series. Because it was aired live there were no taped copies to be used as reruns, so that each episode was intended as a single broadcast event. For reference purposes a kinescope recording was made, but not very well preserved. These were the days when the networks were just starting, and they didn’t reach a majority of the nation yet. These simple recordings were intended so that the episodes could air in the towns and cities where the networks had not yet penetrated, a whopping 67% of the nation in 1949. It would go on to become one of television’s first hit shows and lasted 15 years. Surprisingly, the radio version would continue for almost another decade after the television series left the airwaves.
These kinescope recordings were uncovered in 2007. Since then they have been released in various sets and collections. 90 episodes in all have been found and somewhat restored. This collection 3 offers the last 30 of those 90 episodes. They feature the likes of Boris Karloff, Eddie Albert, Walter Matthau, Pat Hingle, Lloyd Bridges, Arlene Francis, Jack Warden, Jackie Cooper, James Whitmore, Vic Morrow, George Reeves, and Richard Coogan. The episodes span the entire run from 1949 – 1954, although one episode lists an airdate of 1958. I could find no record of that episode airing at all.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 25th, 2009
This is one of those direct to video sequels I never saw coming. It’s not like anyone was exactly breaking down the box office doors to see the first Happily N’Ever After film when it debuted in January of 2007. Universally panned by the critics and audiences alike, it disappeared rather quickly from the scene and was, or so we thought, destined to become a distant memory, a legend used from time to time to scare little children into behaving for their parents. “Clean up your room now, or I’ll force you to watch Happily N’Ever After again”. Most of us where never really sure it existed at all. A quick expedition to the local theater revealed the name on a marquee, but did we ever see anyone actually enter the theater to watch the film? There was one scientist in Austria who claimed to have seen a couple enter the theater, but the snapshot he took was fuzzy and it was just not possible to confirm the siting. HBO did one of their expose stories on the existence of an audience for the film, but again no hard evidence was ever presented. It is said that stars like Freddie Prinze, Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sigourney Weaver, and even George Carlin provided voices for the film, but in interviews none of the alleged voice cast was willing to confirm they even worked on the film. Rumor has it that Carlin was presented with absolute proof of his participation just before he died. Of course, such rumors are rampant in Hollywood and should be discounted as unsubstantiated gossip.
Whether or not there ever was an actual audience for the first film, someone at Lionsgate decided that the film demanded a follow up. This former Lionsgate employee could not be reached for comment at Joe’s Car Wash, where he currently claims to be “cleaning up in the auto industry”. For some inexplicable reason the original voice cast decided not to be involved in the sequel. In fact the IMDB does not even list a voice cast at all on the film’s entry. It’s pretty bad when even industry nobodies want to distance themselves so badly from a project. If I had anything to do with this film, I’d sue to have my name removed from the credits.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on March 25th, 2009
This set contains all of the episodes from the first season (or “series” as it is termed in the UK). The show follows a standard teen drama format of a group of high school friends, this time from Bristol. Each token stereotype is covered in the main characters (the quirky girl, the party animal, the dweeb, the cool guy & girl, the ethnic guy & girl, the gay guy) and each receives their own episode to focus on them, with a few ongoing romantic plots stringing all of their stories together. Each of said episodes ends with the focus character coming to some sort of new advancement or revelation in their lives (Example: the character with an eating disorder bites into a burger).
The packaging has reviewers drawing comparisons between this show and Gossip Girl, as if Skins is the raunchier, overseas equivalent of it. The characters of Skins are at least not the privileged horde that infest North American teen dramas such as The OC or Gossip Girl, thereby making them a touch more relatable. At the same time, the situations and stories do get rather disconnected from reality. The beginning episodes wish to be more about real-life troubles, there's even one about homework (sort-of), but by the time the teens are in an episode where they are being deported from Russia and held at gunpoint, the series loses touch with teen issues and starts to play out like a juvenile Melrose Place.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on March 25th, 2009
Netflix on the Wii, Drugs & Guitar Hero: Metallica & Call of Duty Dogs vs Nintendogs - Welcome to the column that think this is the gateway drug to Benny Hill episodes & Jerry Springer reruns known as Dare to Play the Game.
I mentioned last week that I didn’t think I was actually going to complete Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection. My defining sentence is that honestly I don’t think I’m going to get the achievement for Mean Bean Machine. I was wrong. I got three achievements this week. First I got enough Photons in Vectorman and then I found my way through the first episode in Comix Zone (which is actually a fun game if you can figure out the best way to tackle each room). Last but not least, I found my way to defeating Robotnik in Mean Bean Machine with a very well placed triple combo. Yatta, indeed!
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Athena on March 23rd, 2009
Hi, Athena here. Well, this is going to be my last post for the doggie movies at Upcomingdiscs. Gino says it’s time to retire. He says my investments need to be cashed in so I can take it easy, before they’re all gone. I guess that means someone’s trying to eat up my treats. They better watch out or I’m going to go Siberian Husky all over them. I may be 14 years old and a little slow, but my teeth work just fine. Just ask Baby. She’s the newest member of the family here, and I had to let her know who the boss is right away, if you know what I mean.
Anyway…enough about me; of course there can never really be enough about me. Let’s talk about the latest Disney animation film, and the latest in a long line of movie dogs, namely Bolt (Travolta). Now, when this movie starts you get to meet Bolt and his human friend, Penny (Cyrus). Penny’s some kind of a spy or something, ‘cept she’s not really very good at it. You see, the bad guy is about to catch her, and I don’t think he wants her to give her some belly rubs. So, supercharged Bolt comes to the rescue. Man, that dog’s almost as cool as a Siberian Husky. He’s got something called super powers. He can shoot laser beams from his eyes and run faster than a race car. He even has a super bark that can cause earthquakes. Gino says it sounds and feels a lot like when I snore at night. Of course, Bolt is some kind of a white shepherd, and while they tried to make him look a little like a Siberian Husky, he isn’t one, so you know he doesn’t really have these super powers. Trust me, if Baby doesn’t watch out, she’s gonna see some real super powers, and that spells B I T E. Bolt is really just the star of a television show. The only thing is no one told Bolt that. So, when he thinks Penny has been kidnapped by the show’s villain, the Green-Eyed Man (McDowell), Bolt goes into action. He escapes his studio trailer and heads out into the great unknown to rescue her, just like on the show. He ends up locked in a box and shipped all the way across the country. Now he has to get back to California, before, at least he thinks, the Green-Eyed Man can do something bad to Penny. Along the way he meets up with a cute kitten, named Mittens (Essman) who was abandoned by her family, so she doesn’t think too highly of humans. He also meets Rhino (Walton), a hamster in a ball, who is a huge fan of Bolt’s television show, and like Bolt, thinks it’s all real. Along the way Bolt finds out that he really is an ordinary dog, and not a Husky, after all. But, this is a Disney film, so Bolt finds out that you don’t have to have super powers to be a super hero. He might not really have to rescue Penny, but she misses him a whole lot and he needs to get back to her.
![Bolt (Three-Disc Edition w/ Standard DVD + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/bolt-three-disc-edition-w-standar-large.jpg)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 23rd, 2009
In the vein of The Cincinnati Kid (1965) and a sprinkle of The Sting (1972) John Dahl brings us Rounders. Card prodigy Mike McDermott (Matt Damon) quits the game after losing everything. Once Mike’s best friend Les “Worm” Murphy (Edward Norton), gets out of jail, Worm attempts to get Mike back into the poker world. As Worm’s behavior begins to implicate Mike, Mike decides to come out of poker retirement.
The film itself is good. The on-screen chemistry between Damon and Norton is not forced. The other performances in the film do not distract from the narrative, with Martin Landau’s standing out. The film is shot very plainly without too many fancy editing techniques or wild Dutch angles. Dahl simply conveys a character piece that does what it is set out to do with little failure. David Levien and Brian Koppelman’s script has been appropriately dubbed “cool” by the poker community. Upon initial viewing most poker references will soar above the viewer’s head. However, upon multiple viewings, you tend to pick up on the language. This collector’s edition offers a plethora of bonus features which is miles away from the previous release.
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