Wednesday Season One Blu-Ray Review

 

Full Disclosure Notice:  Warner Bros. Discovery sent me this Blu-Ray for free so I could review it.  If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, we may receive an affiliate commission.

 

It seemed like streaming might kill of physical media, the studios had slowed or completely stopped the production of DVD’s for the television shows in hopes that you would sign up for their streaming services.  But it seems like as streaming has yet to turn profitable, those studios are missing that revenue stream from physical media.  That return to physical media is creating some strange bedfellows.  Wednesday is a Netflix original produced by Amazon MGM Studios, and is being distributed by Warner Bros. Discovery.

 

Wednesday also seems like something that could have only happened during the streaming era.  Watching the show, you can just feel the Netflix executives looking at the streaming numbers for CW shows like Riverdale and trying to figure out how they can get their own Riverdale.  It turns out the Addams Family IP was available and they got the Smallville creators to do the show.  But of course, being streaming, they had to have a much higher budget and bigger names so they got budding star Jenna Ortega to play the titular character and Tim Burton to direct the first four episodes (the duo is re-teaming this summer for the Beatlejuice reboot which could explain why it has been a year and a half since the series premiere and the second season has yet to start filming).  Then frequent Burton collaborator Danny Elfman was brought in to do the score which includes a cello version of Paint it, Black which just adds to the prestige of the show.

  

There is also an impressive adult cast.  Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzman, and Fred Armisen pop up as Morticia, Gomez, and Uncle Fester respectively.  Though, these are mostly just cameos because the show is about Wednesday being sent off to the Nevermore Academy, a private school for monstrous outcasts that her parents went to.    Thing is the only member of the family to stick around, and then steals most scenes it is in.  The staff there includes Brianne of Tarth herself; Gwendoline Christie playing the principal and former Morticia roommate at the academy.   The nineties version of Wednesday Addams, Christina Ricci plays the schools den mother… and its horticulture teacher… and its librarian. She is also the school’s first “normie” teacher (which is not suspicious at all).  The rest of the high school aged cast look, and act, like they were plucked from central CW casting.  Though Emma Myers as Wednesday’s extremely peppy werewolf roommate is a standout.  It is the perfect mix of annoyingly perky and likeable.

 

Considering every other iteration of The Addams Family was about them interacting with normal people, it is weird that Wednesday sees the family’s only daughter going to a school filled with vampire, werewolves and sirens.  Though, even in a school full of outcast weirdos, Wednesday manages to be the biggest outcast.  Still, the CW-ification of the character is strong besides the high school setting.  Despite being an outcast in a school full of outcasts, Wednesday yet somehow finds herself in the middle of a bizarre love triangle with a classmate and a townie.    And of course there is now a murder mystery that has to be solved because there always has to be a mystery now.  But hey, all the money Netflix pumped into the show does enhance the show over your run of the mill CW crap.  Burton’s direction does give it a very stylish look.

 

The Blu-Ray includes all 8-episodes on two disks and… that is about it.  If physical media is going to make a comeback, studios need to add a little something to entice fans to buy it.  Look at the music industry which is almost all streaming now.  But a lot of the physical albums released  now are deluxe editions with disks of B-sides, outtakes, and / or even full concerts.  If we are going to bring back Blu-Rays, bring back the extras.  Where are the deleted scenes, outtakes, audio commentaries, featurettes, or even special packaging?  If you want someone to buy a physical copy of your show or movie, give the people something to display.  But if you were interested in Wednesday, but not enough to sign up for Netflix, now is your chance to watch the show, which logged 6 billion minutes of viewing in its first five days and remains Netflix’s most popular English TV series of all time with 252.1 million views, at about the price of a month or two of the service.

 

Wednesday Season One is now available to purchase online and in-store from major retailers on Blu-Ray and DVD. 

Lucifer: The Complete Sixth and Final Season Review

 

Full Disclosure Notice:  Warner Bros. sent me this blu-ray for free so I could review it.

When I wrote about the fifth season release of Lucifer, I joked there was only one more season left to get a physical release… until the inevitable reboot.  In between released, Lucifer actually found his way back on television… well, in a way.  Lucifer Morningstar did pop up in another show, but looks very different than the one we saw for six seasons.  Instead, this version of Lucifer looked more like Brianne of Tarth than the suave British man we were used to.   We will have to wait a little longer to see Tom Ellis back wearing wings.

 

A lot happened at the end of season five, God resigned and Lucifer become his successor, Chloe quit her job to join him in heaven, with the vacancy open, Maze became the ruler of Hell.  Amenadiel decided to become a cop.  Oh, and Dan died and no one could find him in heaven, which mean there was only one place he could be.

 

The sixth and final season starts six months later.  Lucifer and Maze still have not actually started to rule over their new kingdoms yet.  Amenadiel is getting ready for his first day on the job, and Dan, well… he is still dead (though Kevin Alejandro remains in the credits).  Despite Chloe retiring and Dan dying, the show still finds a way to keep its usual case of the week theme going.  Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights) who appeared at Dan’s funeral last season is back, taking the detective position on the force and of course Ella is still a forensic analyst. 

 

Over the first five seasons, Lucifer has run ins with his fellow angels, his mother, Cain, Eve, his twin brother, and even God himself appeared last season.  How do you top God?  Well, there is a special new guest star that has a hidden connection to Lucifer who pops up this season with a shocking twist.  It is an end of a era, but cannot keep a good devil down and we already seen a new version of Lucifer and I will only be a matter of time before we see him again, it may even once again come in the form of Tom Ellis.

 

There is not much in the way of extras, just a gag reel and deleted scenes from one episode that last less than ten minutes combined.   All ten episodes of the sixth season are contained on three Blu-rays and can be found at www.warnerarchive.com and on your favorite online retailer sites.  Lucifer: The Complete Series will also be available, containing all 93 exhilarating episodes from the phenomenal series, as well as countless hours of bonus features from all six epic, not-to-be-missed seasons. Lucifer: The Complete Series is priced to own on DVD for $112.99 SRP ($134.99 in Canada).

Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Eleventh Season

  

Full Disclosure Notice:  Warner Bros. sent me this DVD for free so I could review it.

 

Last decade we only got two seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm, but we already got two seasons in the first two years of this decade.  I guess Larry David did not have much to do during the pandemic than write because this was the quickest turn around for a season since the fifth, back when he was pumping them out every year to fifteen months.

 

The crew is back for the the eleventh season:  Jeff Garlin (as manager Jeff Greene), Susie Essman (as Jeff’s wife Susie), Cheryl Hines (as Larry’s ex-wife Cheryl), JB Smoove (as Leon).  Of course, what season of Curb be without some celebrity cameos and of course Ted Danson and Richard Lewis are back as themselves as well as a few other familiar faces playing themselves.  Vince Vaughn is back as Marty Funkhouser’s half-brother while Tracey Ulman, Julie Bowen, and Kaley Cuoco also make appearances this season.

 

Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Eleventh Season is available now on DVD and digital platforms.  All ten episodes are here on two disks, but do not expect much in the way of extras.  Now we sit and wait until Larry gets inspired enough to write season twelve.

Congratulations, You’ve Just Been Erased

 

Full Disclosure Notice:  Warner Bros. sent me this blu-ray for free so I could review it. 

 

In another measure of full disclosure, I feel like it is also important to mention I have never seen the original Eraser movie.  I thought about watching before checking out Eraser: Reborn, but then realized a fresh perspective from someone who is not tainted by seeing the original may be more interesting than a review that just a point by point comparison of the two.

 

Not only have I not seen the original, I barely remember it ever existed.  I think I only remember the name because it was always one of those movies that seemed to be on free weekend previews for premium cable channels.  Honestly, based on the name alone, I for some reason always thought it was a sci-fi movie (let us be honest, a sci-fi movie where someone goes around erasing people sounds pretty cool).  Then, when I first started and saw that a character loading up on guns (not really the best way to open a movie based on recent events), I then I began to think it was some sort of The Punisher type vigilante movie.  Wrong on both accords.

 

That character who was packing an entire arsenal to himself is actually a U.S. Marshall played by Dominic Sherwood (Shadowhunters) who is basically the only person in the film I recognized (sorry fans of the original, no Arnold cameo).  I am currently halfway through a re-watch of Justified and even fresh in my mind I do not remember Raylan Givens needing more than one gun at a time.  Nor did he engage in much hand to hand combat except for the time he got in a bar fight that resulted in him losing his iconic hat.  I think Sherwood gets in more fights in a single movie that Rayan got in during his six seasons.

 

So Eraser: Reborn is definitely an action movie, and an action movie in the vein of those that were made when the original was released in 1996 or even a decade earlier.  Watching the movie got me thinking of The Big Picture podcast which coined a phase “Garbage Crime.”  These are movies that will not be winning any awards, or light up the Tomato Meter, but are just light dumb crime movies that you watch when you have nothing better to watch and tired of searching.  Not necessarily a derogatory term but certainly not the most glowing nickname.  They are probably made even better if you have a buddy who also likes these types of movie to watch with.

 

Eraser: Reborn certainly fit the bill.  Sherwood is no Arnold nor is he Raylan because the movie goes over the top even though budget restraints keeps them from really going as big as the writer and director wants to go.  There is a pretty absurd action sequence with a moving shipping container and there is one of the wildest safe house in film history, quite literally.  Speaking of budgetary restraints, this movie looks like it could have been a TNT show during the ’10.  Maybe an Eraser show would fit into other current dadcore shows that Prime Video pumps out these days like Bosche and Reacher.  Someone who “erases” a new person every week sounds like a pretty good idea for a television show even without the big twists the movie has.  It already has a great catchphrase to use every week: “Congratulations, you’ve just been erased.”

 

Eraser: Reborn is available today on DVD, Blu-Ray, and digital.  Or you could just wait until this fall when it is scheduled to hit HBO Max.  Just do not ask me why we could watch The Batman on HBO Max after 45 days but have to wait two to three times as long for a straight DVD movie.  Really, why even make straight to DVD movies anymore?  Just put them straight on streaming.

Lucifer: The Complete Fifth Season Review

 

Full Disclosure Notice:  Warner Bros. sent me this blu-ray for free so I could review it.

You cannot keep the devil down, neither Fox, who canceled Lucifer after three seasons, but was later saved by Netflix for three more season, nor the character himself.  At the end of the fourth season, Lucifer returned to Hell as a way to protect his new nephew from demons who may escape.  In the fifth season premiere (DVD and Blu-ray out today), which picks up about two months after the finale, he even tortured the person whose murder Detective Decker is investigating.  Though, it does not take too long for the devil to make it back to the City of Angels.

 

New daddy Amenadiel is not the only family member Lucifer runs into in the fifth season, one of which will look extremely familiar.  One character you will be seeing less of is Trixie who gets demoted to “Recurring” this season.  There are still plenty of cases of the week, or, well, episode since Netflix released the episodes in two bunches.  Lucifer even does some ripped from the headline stories like a pop star attempted to by a convent.  Granted, when Katy Perry tried to do this, there was significantly less murder.

 

Lucifer: The Complete Fifth Season comes with all 16 episodes spread across four Blu-rays (four episodes per disk).  There is not much in the way of bonus features; there is just a couple deleted scenes and a gag real.  Lucifer: The Complete Fifth Season, out today, is priced to own on DVD at $29.98 SRP ($39.99 in Canada) and will also be available on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Archive Collection.  Warner Archive Blu-ray releases are easily found at www.warnerarchive.com and on your favorite online retailer sites.  Lucifer: The Complete Fifth Season is also available to own on Digital now via purchase from digital retailers.

 

For those wondering when you can complete the Lucifer series collection, while no official date has been released yet, the first two Netflix season were released about a year after the last batch of episodes of that season were released.  So it is likely the final season could be released as early as this September.  Well, “final” season unless there is a reboot which does not seem out of the question.  Like I said earlier, you cannot keep the devil down.

A Long Time Ago We Used to Be Friends... And it Is Nice to See You Again

Full Disclosure Notice: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD I reviewed in this blog post. The opinions I share are my own.

Okay, let me get this out of the way first, this is a review of the DVD Veronica Mars: The Complete First Season (2019) which is kind of stupid and a little confusing. Yes this is the new season, listed as number four on Hulu and called season four by everyone except apparently Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. But it will not be too hard to tell apart from the original first season as Kristen Bell has long hair in the new season and is sporting a gun which she never used when she was on free television. The 2019 version with just two disks is significantly smaller and is as thick as the movie version of the show.

The first Veronica Mars first season launched the same year as this blog and topped my very first Best Television Shows of the Year… and the second… and the third. Unfortunately it was eligible for a fourth because The CW unceremoniously canceled it so they could air shows like Farmer Takes a Wife and Pussycat Dolls Present. By some miracle they were able to revive the show via Kickstarter which was a trial balloon that was not that successfully since no other major studio tried to revive a show or movie that way since.

Then last year I was scrolling Deadline when something popped out like a fever dream: a Veronica Mars reboot was coming. I had to read the article a couple times to make it sink it and realize just where it was being revived, which thankfully turned out to be Hulu, a streaming site I already subscribed to. Then it was a long wait until it debuted. Sure there was plenty of casting notices (it was weird that Dick Casabancas Sr. was announced before Junior), trailers and other cast interviews to pass the time.

And then it premiered and it was like seeing old friends again. Sure calling this season one was silly, but maybe Warner Bros. Home Entertainment because it is not the same show anymore, and really it should not be. With Veronica in thirties now, you cannot have silly high school cases like missing dogs and test cheats (though there is a new character who seems like a young Ronnie fill in if they chose to go that route later). Then with only eight episodes instead of twenty-two, gone are the cases of the week mysteries, replaced with one long case to take up Ronnie’s time.

Rejoining Kristen Bell is Enrico Colantoni as her father Keith and Jason Dorhing returns as the obligatory psychotic jackass turned beau Logan who has been dating Veronica since the movie. Those three are the only characters that get the main title sequence but we get multiple episode from Dick, Wallace, Weevil, and Deputy Leo who has gotten a promotion but will always be Deputy Leo to me. There are also plenty of cameos from the original seasons including a few that they could not quite fit into the movie.

Among the new cast are Oscar winner J. K. Simmons who plays an associate of Dick Sr. from his stint in Chino (we saw Dick Sr. flee the country because of SEC violations and turned himself in at the end of season three). Patton Oswalt plays a pizza delivery boy by say/true crime aficionado by night who gets caught up in the first crime. Bell’s The Good Place co-star Kirby Howell-Baptiste is a bar owns in Neptune. Then there are a few more recognizable cameos throughout the season including someone Dick unsuccessfully hits on who has spent the last decade on one of the most popular sit-coms.

The case in question is a serial bomber that has attacked Neptune at the height of Spring Break. The problem with a single case taking an entire season to solve is that many episodes that just devolve into a red herring of the week. There are multiple suspects that are fingered through the season but at the end, most just turned out to be insignificant.

Still, of all the single season to solve only one mystery shows, Veronica Mars is one of the best with its witty banter and the chemistry between the Mars’ who just continue to make their claim as the best father-daughter team on television. Veronica Mars also goes straight to the top of the otherwise lackluster best television show reboots of all time. The DVD is kind of bare bones in terms of special features; there is just the 2019 Veronica Mars Comic-Con panel that runs about twenty-six minute. But I believe this is the first time the show will be available to watch in Canada (sorry non-North Americans, you will still have to wait unless you have the right DVD player).

The show was on the bubble during its short run last decade but we are in different times and a show with a dedicated on a streaming site may have a better chance at renewal (Veronica Mars has been in the top five on Hulu’s popular tab for most of its run). We are also in a time when shows do not need to air once a year. So hopefully Kristen Bell, creator Rob Thomas, and Hulu will hopefully agree to give us a fifth season of Veronica Mars in a year or three (just do not make us wait like as song as we did for the movie or fourth season). Or as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will likely call it: Season Two (2020ish).

Own VERONICA MARS (2019): THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON on DVD today (October 22).

Ready for a Story About Superheroes? Or, What if I Told You This Was Actually a Story About Super-Zeroes?

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this blog post. The opinions I share are my own.

Disney+ made big waves by saying you can stream their service in 4K compared to Netflix which costs an extra three dollars. None of this really matters to me because I do not have a 4K TV. And even if I did, I am not sure I would be able to stream in 4K because I sometimes have trouble streaming in 1080p. One of the secret big disadvantages of the streaming era is that broadband in America kind of sucks. Other nations pay less for much better speeds. So if you want to watch something in the best quality, the be best to watch is to purchase the physical copy so you do not have to worry about buffering or internet outages.

Case in point, Doom Patrol. I watched earlier this year on DC Universe, which also offers 4K streaming at no extra cost, but like I said earlier I do not have a 4K TV. Not that I could watch on my HD TV either because DC Universe did not have an app for my Playstation or Android TV (it has since released one for the latter) so I was stuck watching on my laptop. I have to say, re-watching the season on the Blu-ray looks so much better. You have not lived until you have seen a horde of butt with teeth in glorious HD.

Okay, watching Doom Patrol on a laptop with a mediocre connection was still pretty good, it did top my list of the Best Television Shows of 2018-19. The group was introduced in the best episode of the first DC Universe show Titans and there were some tweaks to their own show from that episode (the Chief got recast, Negative Man got moodier, Beast Boy got forgotten), it was still mostly the same weirdness that made the Titans episode so good.

Timothy Dalton (Penny Dreadful) plays the Chief who hosts this group of outcasts in his mansion. Elasti-Girl has been there the longest after the actress who has trouble controlling her body and April Bowlby (The Slammin’ Salmon) is great with a pithy comment when one is needed. Then came Negative Man, who has some sort of negative energy with a mind of its own living inside of him. The latest addition (not counting Beast Boy) is Robotman, voiced and played in flashbacks by Brendan Fraser (Encino Man), as a former race car driver who was save by the Chief after a car accident where only his brain was save and put into a robot body, natch.

Returning to the mansion after a decade’s long hiatus is Crazy Jane and her sixty-four personalities, each one weirder than the next with their own abilities. Diane Guerrero (who voiced Jessica Cruz in Justice League vs. the Fatal Five) is great as all of them and it is a shame that could not get a whiff of attention at this year’s Emmy. Granted it took Tatiana Maslany three seasons to get nominated for Orphan Black and did not win until the fourth. Rounding out the group of heroes is Cyborg who was never in the Doom Patrol in the comics yet was a founding member of the Teen Titans, a show he did appear on.

Of course every superhero needs a good supervillain and Alan Tudyk (Firefly) chews all the scenes he can fit in his mouth as Mr. Nobody who is also the show’s de facto narrator. There are plenty of other Doom Patrol rouges gallery and allies that pop up throughout the show like Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man (be sure to always watch the background for more on him), Danny the Street (a living sentient street) Joshua Clay, Beard Hunter (who, um, hunts beards... so I guess his name is self-explanatory), the Bureau of Normandy, Willoughby Kipling (a Constantine rip-off because DC would not let Doom Patrol use Constantine in their comics so they made their own), Cult of the Unwritten Book, Lodestone, Flex Mentallo (who can alter reality with his flexing leading to one of the weirdest scene on the show which is saying a lot). Oh yeah, and Butts with Teeth.

As superhero fatigue slowly creeps (or much faster for some people) in as we keep seeing the same themes over and again, Doom Patrol is the cure because you have never seen anything like this team on the big or small screens. And as Disney dominates with the PG-13 shows and movies, Doom Patrol is very R. Sure I am not sure I needed to see Brandon Frasier naked but we do get to hear Crazy Jane’s most vulgar personalities in their most profane (really, the episode where we go inside her mind may be the best of the season). Oh, and did I mention the Butts with Teeth? This show is awesome.

Doom Patrol: The Complete First Season comes with all fifteen episodes across three disks (five per disk). The Blu-ray also comes with about fourteen minutes of deleted scenes. All deleted scenes are put of the disk with its corresponding episode, but you cannot watch them individual, they are grouped together on the disk. The final disk also has two bonus features, both about five minutes each. Firsts is a gag reel and boy, do the actors on this show like to break out into dance. The other is “Doom Patrol – Come Visit Georgia PSA about scouting locations for the show. The Blu-ray also comes with a digital copy (I know a started this review complaining about streaming) but keep in mind the code that came with my copy expires 12/31/2020.

Own Doom Patrol: The Complete First Season on Blu-ray and DVD October 1!

We Named the Dog Indiana

Last month apparently was Indiana Jones Month on CBS as episodes of The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother centered on exploits of the greatest fake archaeologist ever. (Thankfully no one was forced to make homage to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull… yet.) That continues here as I inducted the original trilogy into the Scooter Hall of Fame. For men of a certain age, Harrison Ford is a god among men; the guy went from Han Solo to Indiana Jones. No one comes close to that two headed monster. The only person who comes close is Samuel L. Jackson but he was still a bit player in Star Wars and The Avengers.

Screw Amy Farrah Fowler and her silly logical takedown of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Who cares if the Nazi faces would have melted off even if Indiana Jones was not even in the film, it is the journey that matters. And what a journey it was. Indiana Jones was the first action movie I saw that was legitimately funny. There was not a one-liner Harrison Ford did not like to crew on and it was only equaled with his comical hatred of snakes (full disclosure notice: I have the same totally rational hatred of the creature). Armed with only a bull whip, Indiana Jones trotted across the globe on a race to find the rarest of artifacts before they fall into the wrong hands.

The second installment, The Temple of Doom got dark, like rip your beating heart out of your chest and you do not even die dark. The temple in question involved child slavery, black magic and ritual human sacrifice. That was even out by giving Indy a side kick Short Round (who had a nice one-two punch himself as his second movie he played Data in The Goonies but was rarely seen after that). The film also featured a very memorable mine cart chase that should have been made into a rollercoaster ride (at least one in America, there is one in Disneyland Paris).

As dark as the Temple of Doom was, they went the complete opposite route with the follow up The Last Crusade, no beating hearts being ripped, not even any melting Nazi faces. They even went so far away from the previous movie that they replaced the teenaged Short Round as the side kick with Indy’s elderly father (a very game Sean Connery). Though not as entertaining as the first two, it was entertaining to watch the two leads try to out grouch each other.

The less said about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull the better.

He Was the Single Most Hopeful Person I've Ever Met

In a measure of full disclosure, I should admit, I have never read The Great Gatsby or even saw the four previous movie adaptations. For some reason, none of my English teachers at any level required me to read it (although I had to read Animal Farm twice and Romeo and Juliet more than that) and when it comes to reading for pleasure, I tend to reach for the non-fiction, so I came into the latest adaptation as a clean slate with no preconceived ideas on the property. I did not even see the Paul Rudd television version from a couple years ago.

Though I came to it with no preconceived notions, I do not have a problem with properties being re-imagined, great stories should be told over and again and over different mediums. Nor do I have a problem with out of the time period music like when a children’s choir sang When Doves Cry during Romeo + Juliet. That movie was directed by Baz Luhrmann who also updated the most recent iteration of The Great Gatsby. Own The Great Gatsby on Blu-ray Combo Pack and HD Digital Download today.

Being that it is directed by Baz Luhrmann, you know what you are getting, a grand, if not completely over the top, version of the F. Scott Fitzgerald book. And if you do not like over the top, especially in your classic works of literature, you will probably want to skip this version. But if you do not mind grand spectacle, or really enjoy when directors go over the top, you will enjoy this fun ride through the 1920’s New York City elite. And Luhrmann went all out with the party scenes putting you right in the middle, wishing you would get an invitation.

Not surprisingly, the titular character is played by Luhrmann’s Romeo, Leonardo DiCaprio, although this time around Claire Danes is replaced by Carey Mulligan who seemed to revel in playing a campier role than she has played before. Of course the most important role is that of the narrator Nick Carraway, except Tobey Maguire never felt comfortable in the part, but then again, that may have been the point because Carraway just did not fit into the society he found himself in after meeting his neighbor. Contrast that to newcomer Elizabeth Debicki who plays Jordan Barker and is so striking you cannot take your eyes off her when she is on screen even when surrounded by much bigger stars (this may have been all wig because the actress is completely unrecognizable from her character in the special features with her long blond hair).

As well as most of the music worked in Romeo + Juliet, the music in The Great Gatsby just falls flat. Most of that blame has to be heaped on musical supervisor Jay-Z who spent the first half of the movie shoehorning in his own songs even when they just feel flat in the scene. But the most egregious song placement was the ill advised Beyonce cover of Back to Black which actually played during a party scene. And I hope you do not hate Lana Del Rey because her contribution to the soundtrack gets placed quite often. It is clear Luhrmann should have let whoever helped him with the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack helm the one for his latest film.

This review is for the Blu-Ray Combo pack that the special features are the same on all versions (there is also a Blu-Ray 3D combo pack which features the theatrical version of the film in 3-D high definition, hi-definition, and standard definition; and there is also a two-disk DVD version; all three versions come with an UltraViolet version). All told, there is almost two hours worth of extras that comes with the movie, most of which is your standard fair of behind the scenes specials and a couple deleted scenes. The most interesting extra is of a trailer to first movie adaptation of The Great Gatsby where you can see just how over the top Baz Luhrmann made his version almost a century later.




Full Disclosure Notice: This Blu-Ray was given to me by Warner Bros. for the purpose of reviewing it.

A Very Spoilery Review of the Red Dawn Remake

I have a kinship towards the alumni of Dillon High School so I will support their movies no matter how crappy they are (*cough*The Roommate*cough*). So this past weekend I had a Tyra Collette double feature of G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Red Dawn. I did not have high hopes going into either of them but G.I. Joe was enjoyable, it had Trya, The Rock, Channing Tatum died early on and there was a really cool fight scene on the side of a mountain, so it was an enjoyable two hours for the most part. Sure the film suffered from Blockbuster fatigue where every summer movie for the last five years has to feature at least one city blow up.

Full Discourse Notice: I should not before going into deal about the updated version, I have never seen the 1984 original of Red Dawn and really all I know about the film is from what I learned from the I Love the 80’s segment which was basically telling a story about how much Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey hated each other on that set and how ironic they went on to star together in Dirty Dancing. So if you have not seen the Red Dawn reboot (or The Avengers or Terminator 2), stop reading now or you are about to be spoiled.

Red Dawn started out enjoyable enough, it had Trya, Tim Riggin’s father, Thor, and some cool fight scenes. Sure the plot was flimsy, the way the North Koreans were able to invade an American city with no U.S. military backlash was a little silly and I never figured out why some Americans were in detainment camps while others were able to come and go in the city as they pleased.

But the movie moved into guilty pleasure territory when Jeffery Dean Morgan showed up with his Navy Seal buddies showed up and added some much needed comic relief. They also set up the climactic battle which came to a satisfying finale when Thor killed the big bad Korean who killed his father at the end of the first act with his father’s gun. So all is well, the Wolverines make I back to the base with the piece of technology that will help rid America of the Koreans, Thor goes over to Tyra for a celebratory make out session… and gets shot in the face. What the frack!?!

Obviously the writers wanted to go for a shocking ending and killing off the main protagonist does the twist. But where the surprise twist at the end of, say, Memento, makes you instantly want to watch the movie again as soon as the credits roll, the shock ending only makes people irate. It is bad to kill off the main protagonist just minutes before the ending but you certainly do not kill him off in a surprise attack, at least give him an honorable death like, well, I was going to say Agent Coulson in The Avengers, but he may not have actually died. The only example that is coming off the top of my head was the time The Terminator melted himself down for the good of mankind at the end of T2.

The writers apparently did this so Thor’s douchebag little brother would have this grand transformation from selfish douchebag at the beginning of the film to the leader of the insurgency at the end. But you know what writers; I still did not care about the douchebag brother by the end. If you really needed the douchebag brother to have some grand transformation, how about just shooting Thor in the leg? Then the ending is douchebag brother giving his big speech, then walk off the stage where Thor is in a wheelchair and says to his douchebag brother, “Dad would be proud of you. I am proud of you.” End Movie.

But no, you have to go with the stupid ending. There is a reason no other film kills off the main protagonist a minute before the credits run, because the audience does not want to see it. Instead of the audience telling their friends, “You should go see Red Dawn because of the surprise ending,” they are going to tell them, “Avoid Red Dawn at all costs, it has one of the worst endings of all time.”

Red Dawn gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

We're all Gonna Have so Much Fun We're Gonna Need Plastic Surgery to Remove our Smiles

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to ruin my childhood, it looks like we will be getting a National Lampoon's Vacation reboot in the near future focusing on a grown up Rusty Griswold. But instead of getting a return of Anthony Michael Hall, Johnny Galecki, Ethan Embry, or even Jason Lively (that is actually a pretty impressive lineup of then unknown actors, certainly better than the former Audrey’s which is just Juliette Lewis and three actresses no one remembers) Ed Helms will star in Theme Park Vacation. Granted I would still watch if it involved strapping a dead Chevy Chase to the roof of the car.

But like many reboots and remakes, no matter how bad it will be, it will not taint the brilliance of the original Vacation, this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame. The movie was not just a comedy but a horror film for any child facing a long trip stuck in a station wagon with their family where anything that can go wrong does like getting stranded in the desert or when your aunt does en route to her son’s house and you have to strap her to the roof of your car.

And reaching your destination is no oasis either when you find the amusement park you drove thousands of miles to go to is closed for repairs. So the Griswold’s would do anything an sane family would do, kidnap the security guard, the always funny John Candy, and make him run free in the park. We have all been there.

Many kids these day may just know Chevy Chase today as they bumbling old dude who just got fired from Community, but Vacation came at a time when he was about to make the funniest run at the multiplex possibly ever. He followed up the Vacation with Fletch, European Vacation, Spies Like Us, and ¡Three Amigos!, all released over a three year span. I defy anyone to find a funnier concentration of films by anyone ever. Unfortunately after completing a string of sequels in 1989 (Caddyshack 2, Fletch Lives, and Christmas Vacation) he really has not been that funny since. Anyone remember Cops And Robbersons? It may be better if you did not.

Family’s a Messy Business, Ain’t Nothing Thicker than Blood.

Full Disclosure Notice: I have never seen the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre film. Or its three sequels. Or the Jessica Biel reboot. Or even the Jordana Brewster prequel to the reboot. So I went into the seventh (7!) film in the series Texas Chainsaw a complete newbie. Texas Chainsaw 3D (another full disclosure notice: I do not own a 3-D enabled HDTV because I am morally opposed to 3-D and refuse to watch it, but if you are fine with it, the Blu-Ray comes with both the 2-D and 3-D versions on one disk) actually picks up right where the first movie picks up and the title sequence actually recaps that film for those that are new to the franchise like me, or just need a refresher just to get the other quasi-sequels and reboots out of your head.

The film starts with the police coming to the Sawyer house to investigate the events of the first film and then fast forwards to present day where we meet Alexandra Daddario (Adam Braverman’s hot assistant on Parenthood) who learns she not only is she adopted, her birth grandmother has left her the family estate. So she hops in a van with her boyfriend Trey Songz (who I know now why he goes by a pen name after learning his government is Tremaine Neverson, no one is making babies to an artist named Tremaine Neverson), best friend Tania Raymonde (Ben Linus’ daughter on Lost) and her boyfriend, some random dude who, along with the random hitchhiker they pick up, you know will not be lasting very long. Soon as they arrive in Texas, Daddario learns of her family, and the town’s dirty little secret. And that secret carries around a chainsaw.

Texas Chainsaw is you typical paint by numbers horror film that you have already seen before even if you skipped the earlier Chainsaw films. The kills are pedestrian and really the only scene that really crept me out was when Leatherface created his latest “mask” and put it on. Of course the young people in the film are stupid (but that does lead to an unintentionally funny scene where they try to drive the van through a gate) and the cops are not the smarter. But there is an interesting scene where one cop goes into Leatherface’s lair with his iPhone sharing video with the sheriff and mayor, but that did not even pay off like I was hoping for.

There is an attempt at a twist near the end of the film but it comes off as forced as well as pretty telegraphed for anyone who paid attention to the early parts of the films with a couple characters who overlook some horrible things to justify their actions. For those that saw the original and wonder why they would want to watch the newer version, it does boast actors from the original movie including Leatherface himself Gunnar Hansen, the girl that escaped his house of horrors Marilyn Burns, Bill Moseley who was in the sequel and John Dugan who actually reprises his role as Grandpa Sawyer which apparently is a record for the longest amount of time between someone playing the same role in a movie.

The Texas Chainsaw Blu-Ray is also filled with almost two hours of extra over nine featurettes not including three separate audio commentaries one with the producers, one with the creator, and another with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre alumni. The alumni also get their own featurette: Texas Chainsaw Legacy. There is also Resurrecting the Saw about how the new film came about; The Old Homestead on how the recreated the original house (surprisingly the house used in the first movie was moved and is now a restaurant for anyone who wants to eat at a place that once housed cannibals); Casting Terror about how the new cast were recruited; while Leatherface 2013 was dedicated to recasting the iconic character; Light Camera Massacre focused on making the film in 3-D, It’s in the Meat deals with the special effects makeup in the movie, as well as six five minute fly on the set look into six scenes. In lieu of any deleted scenes, there is an Alternative Opening which is essentially just and extended scene.

And though I am morally opposed to 3-D on television and at the movie theater, it is cool that the cover is in 3-D with Leatherface coming at you with his chainsaw. Granted it uses the same 3-D technology that was used on A Tribe Called Quest’s Beats, Rhymes & Life CD cover seventeen years ago (just realizing how old that album is makes me feel really old). Both the blu-ray and DVD version come with a digital copy code where you can get both the UltraViolet version of the film and was download a copy from iTunes for anyone who wants to view the movie on the go or while running away from your local chainsaw wielding maniac.


Full Disclosure Notice: This Blu-Ray was given to me by Lionsgate for the sole purpose of reviewing it.

WWII from Space: A Review

No, WWII from Space is not some new sci-fi movie, it is the latest special from History being released on Blu-Ray and DVD (they retail at the same price so you definitely want to pick the former if you have a player for it) today. Sure there have been hundreds, if not more, documentaries on the Second World War, what sets latest special apart from the rest is, well, it is seen at the very macro level from space. You can look down from miles above the Earth as battalions go through Europe and the Pacific theaters in the deadliest war the world has ever witnessed.

WWII from Space features the most impressive CGI I have ever seen for a documentary on the subject, and I have seen my fair share because I spent a lot of time watching the History Channel back when it went by that name. We do not only get to see the war from a satellite’s vantage point but they also go beneath the ocean to show us where ships were sunk and submarines traveled. Of course we get insight from military minds, professors, and a few eye witness accounts.

There really is not any new information, so anyone who had gotten past high school will not learn much new, though I did learn a couple new facts in the hour and a half like the trade of information the British gave to us in hopes that we would help them out (they basically gave us every war time information they had). The special is also very American centric, it starts off with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and does not even get into the strategy of the other countries until about forty minutes in when they focus on Germany invading Russia. I was also a bit disappointed that the glossed over the rest of the European theater after the invasion of Normandy which gets wrapped up in about a minute. But WWII from Space is definitely worth checking out if you are a history buff, or if you have one in your family and want to stock up for a birthday or Christmas.


Full Disclosure Notice: This blu-ray was given to me by Lionsgate for review.

The Real Vikings Collection from History

Last week, History launched its first ever scripted series Vikings, but for those that want to learn about the Nordic warriors without the poetic license that comes with a work of fiction, even if based on real events, History has compiled three of its specials on the subjects for The Real Vikings Collection. All three specials were an hour long and fit on a single disk. The first special is Foot Soldiers: The Vikings from 1998 and it hosted by the very nineties Richard Karn of Home Improvement fame. Despite being the oldest (and thus being the only one presented in the old timey 4:3 presentation), it is the most entertaining of the specials where you leaned where the myth of the Viking helmets with horns came from and you even get to see Al on a surfboard. You also learn of the special Viking fighting force, the Berserkers, who would fight on mushrooms. And yes, that is where our term “berserk” came from.

The next special is an episode of Lost Worlds from 2007 which takes CGI models to show us what Vikings societies looked like at the time based on archaeological digs and artifacts from the time (which include a Buddha statue despite the Vikings never ever making it to the Far East). The third special is an episode of Warriors with Terry Schappert (rechristened “Viking Terror” on the DVD) where the former Green Beret looks at the different fighting styles and weapons from the “Hell’s Angels of the Middle Ages”.

Even for those that are watching the scripted Vikings series, it is interesting watching this DVD collection to see what the series got right and what they are taking liberties with. While each special has its own focus on the Viking culture, one event all of them focused on was assault on the English monastery as featured in the second episode which is widely considered the beginning of the Vikings era in Europe. It does look like the set design has gotten the living quarters and the boating design very close to how the Vikings built things in their times. And the special could depict what could be coming up in future episodes or season. I really hope a Vikings battle, as demonstrated by Schappert, gets staged.


Full Disclosure Notice: This DVD was given to me by Lionsgate for review.

A Very Spoilery Review of Looper

Over the weekend I watch the movie Looper starring Joseph Gordon-Levett where he plays the younger version of Bruce Willis (even though he clearly looked like he was a younger version Ed Norton to the point that I wondered if Norton was replaced at the last minute and Gordon-Levett just said, “screw it, I spent months perfecting my Ed Norton, I am just going to go with it) who has to kill his future self when his future crime boss sent Willis back from the future to be killed off by current day looper, thus closing the loop. As the title suggests, this review is going to be very spoilery, so if you have not seen the film, stop reading, go watch the movie and come back here. It is definitely worth watching and discussing which is what I am about to do.

Last chance, because I am about to spoil the ending.

There are eventually three theories when it comes to time travel, 1) time is a linear unit so if you went back in time you will not be able to change anything because it already happened and you were already there, like on Lost. 2) If you time travel you are creating an alternative timeline so you can change the future in the current timeline, just the timeline you just created, like on Terra Nova (or so I assumed, I never watched the show). 3) If you go back in time, be careful because you may alter history, like when Marty McFly almost ceased to exist when he made up with his future mom. Looper follows the third theory of time travel.

Before, and during the movie I have always subscribed to the philosophy that you do not kill Hitler if given the chance via time travel. Who knows, Hitler may have been suppressing someone ever worse that would rise in his void. You may even cease to exist because you grandfather may have met, and fallen in love with someone who would have died at the hands of the Nazis instead of your grandmother meaning your father is never conceived, and neither are you. But there was a point where I figured that Bruce Willis has changed enough; he might as well kill the Rainmaker.

This is why I was a bit disappointed with the ending. At the end, starring at Willis starring at Emily Blunt, shielding the future Rainmaker, Gordon-Levitt had three options: 1) kill Willis and help Emily raise the Rainmaker and make sure he harnesses his powers for good. 2) Help Willis hunt down the future Rainmaker to make sure his reign of terror never starts. But Joseph picked the third and what I thought was the worst of the three options he had: killing himself (and in turn taking Bruce with him to the afterlife) leaving the world to fend for itself against the Rainmaker.

That is not to say I did not enjoy Looper, it was my favorite sci-fi movie since Inception, but the more I think about the ending, the more I dislike keeping it from being as good as Inception along with some of the lesser quibbles I have (how does Blunt know about Looper? I was disappointed that Jeff Daniels did not play a bigger part in the whole of the movie; I thought he would turn out to be the Rainmaker’s father or possibly the older version of his inept employee that kept shooting his own foot). But the movie did make me think and I wish there were many more movies released these days that make you think and debate as much as I have spent debating the ending with myself alone.

Looper gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

They Didn't Discover This Modern America, They Built It

We have all heard of Vanderbilt University, Rockefeller Center, Carnegie Hall, JP Morgan Chase, and Ford Motors, but there namesake had more to shape America than even your history teacher would have you believe. They became the first men in America more powerful than the president (and even bought one of them) and gave us what would become the foundation of America in the twentieth century: railways, oil, steel, electricity, and the automobile. Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, Henry Ford were the basis of History’s The Men Who Built America.

The series took place over the five decades in between the Civil War and the First World War when the industrial revolution propelled the United States into a super power it remains today. Spread over eight episodes (the series was originally aired in four two hour segments, but has been cut done to an hour for the home video release) it follows those five men as they compete with each other while using each other product in a battle to become the richest man in the world. Really it mainly follows the middle three as Vanderbilt dies early on and Ford does not show up until the last episode to introduce the same work practices that are used today.

The mini-series is narrator by Campbell Scott and features commentary from historian and some of today’s most notable entrepreneurs and businessmen like Donald Trump, Mark Cuban, Jack Welsh, and Alan Greenspan. Even though many of Men lived over a decade ago it is amazing the parallels to today. You have the liberal unions taking on the guns for hire conservatives of the Pinkertons. When Rockefeller testifies in front of Congress in defense of his shady business practices actually said he was just a figurehead at his own company during some illegal or just immoral times almost word for word excuses that Mitt Romney had when confronted about Bain Capital. But the most obvious parallel to these times was the election of 1896 where the Men Who Built America, in a rare bit of collusion, pulled their wealth together to buy the president, the difference being they actually were successful (that and the South voted for the Democrat while the Republican candidate swept New England). Ironically they were undone when their president was assassinated and his replacement brought anti-trust lawsuits against the big businesses at the time (which makes you wonder what modern day Roosevelt Republican will have the guts to brake up today’s too big to fail banks).

The Men Who Built America is a fascinating narrative on a period that is quickly rushed by near the end of the school year in history class. It is filled with plenty of fascinating tales, like how Carnegie recruited an elephant to prove that his bridge across the Mississippi, the largest at the time, was safe to travel across. Even funny at times, like Morgan and Rockefeller trading Christmas presents. And even horrifying like when Thomas Edison, as bankrolled by Morgan, invented the electric chair just to make his rival Nikola Tesla look bad. Which begs the question, when does Tesla get his own movie? He keeps showing up in during stories in this time period, ends up being the most interesting figure, but has never gotten the starring role himself.

The blu-ray (the press release who have me to believe the DVD version have the exact same features) features three disks with the first featuring the episodes A New War Begins, Oil Strike, A and Rivalry Is Born. The second hosts Blood Is Spilled, A New Rival Emerges, and Owning it All. The third disk has the final two episodes Taking the White House and The New Machine. Each disk features a couple never before seen on TV clips which combine to around twenty-six extra minutes.


Full Disclosure Notice: This Blu-ray was given to me by Lionsgate for review.