Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 14th, 2006
Disney's Valiant is a film by the producers of Shrek, but it is certainly not up to the same caliber of filmmaking. Still, it has a certain charm despite its rather obvious humor. Also, the animation is excellent. Children are sure to love this story of a young pigeon named Valiant, who wants to join the Allied Forces in the fight during World War II. He's a cute little guy, but he's too small to reach his lofty aspirations... or so all those close to him say. But when every squad of carrier pigeons is ...
Posted in: News and Opinions by Archive Authors on February 14th, 2006
On March 28th, Universal Home Video will release Peter Jackson's King Kong in separate 1-disc Standard and 2-disc Special Editions. Each version will be presented in an anamorphic widescreen transer, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. As extras are announced, we will pass them along.
Posted in: News and Opinions by Archive Authors on February 10th, 2006
Fox Home Entertainment will release the Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt family comedy Cheaper By The Dozen 2 on March 14th. This disc will be presented in both anamorphic widescreen and full screen transfers, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. Extras will include an Audio Commentary (by Director Adam Shankman), trhee featurettes ("Fox Movie Channel: Casting Session," "Camp Chaos," & "Comedic Trio"), and Trailers.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 8th, 2006
One of the unfortunate responses to the emergence of a successful movie is the appearance of copycat films. When Gladiator won the Academy Award for Best Picture, all these sword and sandal flicks went into production. Now we have epics such as Troy, Kingdom of Heaven and Alexander to show for it. Sometimes, the backlash is even worse when the hit film is a bit of a surprise hit. Such was the case with The Fast and the Furious. Now, I really enjoyed Furious, but I knew on the...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 7th, 2006
A sequel to Ingmar Bergman’s 1973 classic Scenes from a Marriage, Saraband reintroduces us to Marianne (Liv Ullman) and Johan (Erland Josephson) after 32 years apart, when Marianne decides it’s time to pay her ex-husband a visit. Upon arrival, she becomes involved in strained family relations between Johan, his son Henrik (Borje Ahlstedt), and Henrik’s daughter Karin (Julia Dufvenius). There are implications that Henrik and daughter share an incestuous relationship, highlighted by a scene where they lie...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 7th, 2006
I have always held a place in my mind and heart for the warmth of Mickey, even though I usually prefer the antics of Goofy or Donald Duck. Mickey just seems to have that innocent, charming look to him that one would not picture as someone who would get into mischief. This is probably why Disney slowly phased Mickey out of cartoon shorts and relied more on Donald Duck, Goofy and the rest. Funny Factory with Mickey Volume 1 contains 8 Mickey shorts totaling 61 minutes.
The 8 cartoons we are given range...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 6th, 2006
Synopsis
At first glance Once Upon a Mattress would appear to be a bit of a Disney cash grab, an often performed musical featuring a couple of aging comediennes, one of which had performed a role in the musical for decades.
Based on a musical by Dean Fuller and Marshall Barer and directed by Kathleen Marshall, Once Upon a Mattress is a musical and hilarious take on The Princess and the Pea. Sir Harry and Lady Larkin (Zooey Deschanel, Elf) are in love with one another, b...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 6th, 2006
Synopsis
For awhile, Jim Carrey looked to be taking the career path that Michael Keaton had previously established. Start off with strong, hilarious comedic performances, attempt to get into dramatic roles with some critical success, and fade into the sunset, with the occasional bad script choice. While Carrey hasn’t dipped into the Jack Frost period yet, with The Truman Show and Man on the Moon, Carrey had established the fact that he could pull off carrying a dramatic movie, and do it...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 5th, 2006
The concept of the musical biopic is nothing new. We have seen many films come and go, some good and some bad. A majority of these musical biopic films try to tell the rising of a group, whether or not the group is a reality, in a manner that will connect with the audience. Robert Townsend’s The Five Heartbeats is a prime example of a film that connects with its audience by taking this concept of the musical biopic just that one step further than we might expect from a film like this.
The Five Hea...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 5th, 2006
Judd Apatow and Paul Feig may have been stung by the criticism and cancellation of their show Freaks and Geeks back in 2000, but that did not deter them from pressing forward with another project. Freaks and Geeks was about a group of kids growing up in high school in the 1980s, while Undeclared is about the first year of college for a group of kids.
Now there are a lot of similiarities between Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, but I’ll focus on some of the bigger things, b...
