Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 6th, 2010
Iron Man 2 comes out this week and is set to do fantastic business. Usually I’m a person who waits for movies to hit dvd and blu-ray and I’m already planning to when I can go see this movie. But one of the things I’ve come to appreciate over the years is when a big movie such as Iron Man 2 comes out, there are disc releases that dip into yesteryear and help to get you in the mood. Imagine my surprise when I was asked to review Iron Man: The Complete 1994 Animated Series.
To do this correctly, I really have to break up this synopsis into two parts. There is the first season and the second season. Trust me, they are so different from each other, I’m surprised they were released together. Everything from drawing style to the characters to the way they craft stories is different. It’s a fun ride either way but you’ll certainly prefer one over the other.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 28th, 2010
"Every town has a story... Tombstone has a legend."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 28th, 2010
Cocoon was based on a somewhat obscure novel by David Saperstein. It was also an unlikely film for beginning director Ron Howard. He had made it known since his career began that he had little respect for the science fiction genre. In an interview provided on this very release, he condemns the genre as not being about character or story. I'd say that Ron Howard just hasn't watched the right science fiction. I beg to differ with his assessment. Science fiction has been a remarkable tool to discuss some of the most important issues facing our society. When issues can be couched in aliens and other worlds, the censors and those who avoid socially conscious messages tend to make certain allowances, which has made it a very powerful genre over the decades. Still, that's not the way Howard sees things, and that's why he was likely a bad fit for Cocoon.
The movie has a lot of great actors and some very memorable characters. But Howard left the story somewhere else. Was it the cutting room floor? I don't know, but it never really appears on the screen. What we end up with is a movie with a ton of emotion and charming characters and moments, but it never quite comes together in a memorable film. It did well in 1985, pulling in a respectable $76 million at the box office and earning itself the number 6 spot for the year. There were Oscar nominations, and even a win. These are all impressive accomplishments. Still, Cocoon very swiftly passed out of interest and revealed itself as more a fad than an enduring film. To show just how far and how quickly the film fell, you need look no further than the 1988 sequel. While Ron Howard was not a part of Cocoon: The Return, most of the exceptional cast was back. The film bombed, pulling in just about $18 million, not enough to cover its budget.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on February 20th, 2010
Steven Seagal plays an LA cop who is forced into early retirement after being betrayed and shot by his partner. After an astounding recovery, which included blasting his partners brains all over the hospital walls (I'm assuming it was part of his rehabilitative therapy), he is hired by an old friend to be the head of security for his friend's daughter. This family is linked to some bad dudes who are keen on uranium and kidnapping, so Seagal is forced to slowly shoot everyone near him while mumbling something about being a tough guy or whatever.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 27th, 2009
Superman: The Animated Series was made in the same fashion as Batman: The Animated Series. The tone was a little more serious and a lot more action. It was first produced in 1996 and made 54 episodes through the year 2000. The show received high praise for raising the bar but at the same time keeping what was important to the mythos of Superman. In fact, it even received a nomination for an Emmy. Besides Smallville, this probably stands out as the best television adaption of the one known as Superman, the Last Son of Krypton and hero to the planet Earth (and beyond).
Most of us know the story of Superman, but perhaps it is best that we run it over a little bit adapted to the actual animated series. Krypton is approaching devastation but only one scientist believes it to be true, Jor-El. He feeds his information to a computer named Brainiac who is in charge of the planet and all of its major operations. The computer analyzes the information and says the planet is safe. Jor-El knows the computer is lying and can't convince the others of the danger.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 30th, 2009
It is true, I’m not a big fan of lawyer shows. A long time ago when I was about twelve years old, my future vocation wish was to become a lawyer. I visited lawyers, I talked to them for what seemed like hours. Except it wasn’t hours at all, it was more like thirty minutes. My realization then was that I wasn’t cut out for the business and went into what I do now. However, after watching Ally McBeal for a season of episodes, I come to the realization that I’m so very glad that I didn’t stick around.
Ally McBeal (played by Calista Flockhart) has just lost her job at her law firm. It seems that a co-worker decided to touch her rear in an unprofessional manner. The co-worker decided to say it was OCD and unfortunately Ally found herself on the streets. She is immediately picked up by an old colleague of hers named Richard Fish (played by Greg Germann) and invited to work at his firm.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 22nd, 2009
This was the final of Miramax 4 martial arts classics released as a collection or separately on Blu-ray. The collection featured some extraordinary action and top line star power for the most part. Zatoichi, for the most part, is the weakest of the four films. It is almost a solo effort by renowned Japanese actor Takeshi Kitano. He participated in writing the script. He is also the director, editor, and star of this rather off the wall martial arts film. The character of Zatoichi has appeared in many films and is as much a part of martial arts culture as Jackie Chan. Kitano does quite a superb job in portraying the blind swordsman, but it is in the other areas that he falls considerably short of the intended mark. Instead of reaching for the classic staples of the genre, he decides to take this tale in a far more fantastical direction. Swords blaze with such speed it’s impossible to really appreciate the skills, because you never actually see the sword. It’s out, slice and dice, and resheathed all in a blink of an eye. Rather impressive the first 20 times it occurs in the film, but before long it’s merely an old punch line that’s been repeated one too many times by a desperate comedian who doesn’t really have anything else. It’s sad, really. Because, Kitano does have something else to offer, and we certainly get glimpses of that. In the end, however, Kitano pushes the boundaries too often for me to take this film seriously at all.
The film is really a Western guised in the form of a martial arts film. The plot rings of Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter. When a blind masseur wonders into a village, he finds that it has been terrorized by a gang that extorts shop owners for protection and runs the local gambling and geisha houses. The blind drifter has startling skill with a sword he hides sheathed in his seeing eye cane. He has an uncanny ability to hear enough from his environment to counter any blow raised toward him and cut up his opponent quickly and quite efficiently. He meets up with Genosuke (Asano) who supplies the comic relief here. Genosuke is a degenerate gambler who can’t seem to catch a break in the local dice parlor. But he is impressed with the uncanny ability the masseur has of hearing the correct lay of the dice. The two of them clean up at the game. Deciding to spend some of their winnings at the geisha house, the pair meet two geisha girls who are actually more than meets the eye. They are the sole surviving children of a family slaughtered by the mob kingpin running the local gang. Together they plot to discover the identity of the boss and rid the village of the gang forever. The gang has employed the services of a very skilled samurai to enforce their will on the people. It doesn’t take much time to figure out that all of this is leading to a wild west style showdown between the samurai and the masseur.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 21st, 2009
Some of you might remember my review of the first two volumes of X-Men, the Animated Series. After the first thirty plus episodes, I secretly hoped that I would be able to bring you reviews of the rest of the series. Luckily, I was blessed enough to make this a reality when I received volume 3 & 4 at my door just before my fall vacation. How sweet it is.
When we last left the X-Men at the close of the original Phoenix Saga, Jean Grey in the form of the Phoenix had defeated D’Ken and saved the universe from the power of the M’Kraan crystal. In such, the crystal (with D’Ken trapped inside) had to be taken far away and flown directly into the sun. Phoenix accepts this mission and the mind of Jean Grey says goodbye to her fellow X-Men.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 21st, 2009
Only two social classes existed in the tiny town of Chekian, China, circa 1858: the peasant citizenry, and those who lived in the Governor’s palace. Lawlessness was the order of the day; the streets of Chekian crawled with scum and villainy of every degree, from pickpockets to kidnappers to roving gangs of thugs and extortionists. The worst of all was none other than Governor Cheng himself, the greedy and corrupt ruler of the town (James Wong). The governor’s latest profitable but nefarious practice: to hoard the town food supply and gouge the poor and starving for every sliver of their meager livings. Fortunately for these peasants, they have one advocate with the smarts and the guts to stand up for them: the mysterious Iron Monkey (Ronggaung Yu). To the Governor, he’s a masked rogue fit to be tortured when caught, but to the people he’s a saint clad in black, the Chinese Robin Hood or Zorro, a swashbuckling super ninja who employs his skills mainly in pilfering gold from the governor’s house, oftentimes from right under his nose.
The governor doesn’t just hate Iron Monkey, he’s absolutely terrified of him (as demonstrated in typical over-the-top, grindhouse kung-fu style histrionics). He’s gone to all sorts of measures in an effort to capture this righteous and elusive bandit, from doubling his private security staff, to setting elaborate traps, to hiring powerful but corrupt Shaolin monks. Try as he might, nothing works, and the Iron Monkey always escapes with his prize. Come hell or high water, Cheng is going to stop Iron Monkey once and for all. His underhanded technique uses the son of a Shaolin monk to get the father to promise to bring down the Monkey.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 17th, 2009
Pixar & Dreamworks have been monsters at the game of big budget film animation for quite sometime now. Many of us have enjoyed Shrek, Toy Story and countless others. Even their duds aren’t half bad. But there was bound to come a time when others need to share in the spotlight. In 2007, Filmax Animation, a Spanish company decided to release a film about a Donkey who has aspirations of being more than just another as... Sorry kids, I lost my place. It’s a film about a donkey who wants to be a horse, of course of course.
We all know the story of Don Quixote (or Quijote) and how he recruited Sancho to be his faithful squire. They traveled the land on quests in the name of chivalry and return home to find that they are indeed famous. However, Don Quixote has more important things in mind like finding Dulcinea, his long lost love & walking the countryside in search of truth and justice.
![Tombstone [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/tombstone-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Cocoon [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/cocoon-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-blind-swordsman-zatoichi-blu--large.jpg)
![Iron Monkey [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/iron-monkey-blu-ray-large.jpg)
