Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 3rd, 2009
“A changing of the seasons brings wonder to the world. For ages has the magic of the fairies been unfurled. But nature’s greatest changes come beneath the Autumn sky and mysteries reveal themselves as harvest time draws nigh. This year a shimmering blue moon will rise before the frost. Perhaps its rays can light the way to find what has been lost.”
After giving us Tinker Bell’s origin story in the first film of this franchise, we get a chance to look even more deeply into this wonderland of fairies and magic. Ever wonder where that magical pixie dust comes from that allows fairies to fly? The origin of the substance is explored here. It seems there is a grand tree that produces the dust. Dust keepers care for the tree and cultivate the dust. They distribute it to all of the fairies on a rationing basis. Every 8 years the tree needs to be renewed or it will grow too weak and perish. On the 8th Autumn the fairies put on a revelry to celebrate the season and the new life the tree is about to be given. When the harvest moon rises, its rays will pass through the precious blue moonstone and those rays will create blue pixie dust. It is this snowlike blue dust that revitalizes the tree and the entire existence of Pixie Hollow.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 3rd, 2009
Written by Adrienne Ambush
If you were to take the movie Kill Bill, mix it with the Karate Kid, and then put it into animation form, the end result would be Chop Socky Chooks.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 2nd, 2009
There have been a couple of releases of Stargate. Mostly it’s been reissues of the same transfer. This time it really is an improvement. The Blu-ray contains a director’s cut which is about 16 minutes longer than the original. If you like the original better, you get that one as well. This was Devlin and Emmerich’s first real blockbuster. I found Independence Day and The Patriot to be better films, but Stargate has its moments. It’s a little hard for me to accept Kurt Russell as Jack O’Neal after 7 years of Richard Dean Anderson. I did gain a new appreciation for how closely James Spader and Michael Shanks portray the pivotal character of Daniel Jackson.
A whole franchise of Stargate has spawned from this 1994 motion picture, and over a dozen years later the franchise still remains successful. This film was originally intended to be a franchise of pictures but instead found its way onto television and writings, with a fair sized fan base. If people still like the concept thirteen years later, then it must be pretty appealing; myself, I have never seen this picture and am pleased that I finally have the opportunity.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 2nd, 2009
With so many cast changes, it didn’t really come as too much of a surprise to fans that the series was winding down. Only one more season would follow, and this year never clicked in quite the same way previous seasons had. By now the team was so significantly different that there was little of the cast chemistry that made this one such a winner. With its glory years behind and only one more struggling year to come, we reach the end of our journey with the IM Force.
Jim Phelps (Graves) led his team in a sixth season of Mission Impossible starting in 1971. The show continued its trademark traditions. Jim would receive a mission from the “self destructing” tape and would gather his IMF (Impossible Mission Force) team. The team was necessarily eclectic in nature, and it changed significantly in the sixth season. Gone were Leonard Nimoy, Leslie Ann Warren, and Sam Elliott in his signature role of Dr. Robert. Still in the team we had Barney Collier, the gadget man, played by Greg Morris. The muscle was still supplied by Willy Armitage, played by brute Peter Lupus. Together they took on missions that the government could not be officially a part of. They were always admonished that should they be caught “the secretary would disavow any knowledge” of them. Usually they were sent somewhere to put some evil mastermind out of business. Their tactics ranged from scams to outright theft. Sometimes they were a rescue team, while other times they would infiltrate a group of bad guys. There were certainly cold war elements to the whole thing. Each week the team concocted some convoluted con to play on their mark, walking away at the end of each episode often without getting any credit or congratulations.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 2nd, 2009
John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph are a pair of 30-somethings who are expecting their first child. They have been counting on Krasinski's parents to step in and help, but when these two suddenly announce that they're moving to Belgium, our “heroic” couple embarks on a road trip to find the perfect place to settle down and have their baby. Numerous encounters with eccentric characters is the order of the day.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 1st, 2009
Google this title now while you can, before Robert Rodriguez completes his Predator sequel "Predators" forever consuming your search results.
This DVD is a mashing of three different Animal Planet programs, After the Attack, Up Close, and Dangerous and Wild Discovery, together to make a compilation that is dedicated to the world's most dangerous animals (perhaps in an attempt to steal some of Shark Weeks thunder).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 1st, 2009
Decades after their moment in the sun in 1984, Canadian heavy metal band Anvil plugs along, playing bars and releasing CDs that barely sell, still hoping for that break that bypassed them while landing on their festival cohorts Whitesnake, Bon Jovi and the Scorpions. The documentary charts their new European tour that starts off promisingly but disintegrates into a disaster of Spinal Tap proportions, their struggle to produce and promote another new album, and a climactic return to the site of their past glory. While the opening minutes might engage laughter as one expects a real-life version of This Is Spinal Tap, the laughter is choked off almost immediately and replace by sympathy and real hope that these guys catch a break. They are not clowns – they have real talent – and the beyond-all-measure optimism of lead singer “Lips” is heartbreaking. A rock documentary to rank with the best of them, and one that proves that the absence of fame can be as compelling as its presence.
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 October 29th, 2009
“Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality. But, there is, unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real but not so brightly lit, a darkside.”
I have been waiting a long time for this release. Tales From The Darkside. Not since the likes of Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits has there been a really good sci-fi/horror anthology until 1984’s Tales. Not to say that each episode was a winner. In fact, most were pretty weak and relatively lame, but when this show was good, it was very good. These tales weren’t any ordinary specter spectaculars, but were told by spectacular story writers, directors, and producers. Look at just this first season and you’ll find some of the top names in the field involved in one way or another. You’ll see the likes of: Stephen King, Tom Savini, George Romero, Robert Bloch, Frank De Palma, and Harlan Ellison. The tales often came with a twist or at least a big finale in the end. Much like a train’s headlight in a long tunnel; you might have seen it coming from a mile away, but it’s hard to avoid the impact.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 29th, 2009
As a child growing up in the 1970’s I remember quite vividly the Saturday morning cartoon experience. It’s what we all lived for. We’d wake up early and pour out a bowl of sugar and milk, reaching for some cheap toy that was buried in the cereal box like Blackbeard’s own chest of gold. Then we would entertain ourselves with zany characters, superheroes, and action filled adventures until the noon news programs would begin and it was time to take our playtime outside. It was a far more innocent age, and we didn’t have video games to play. These were our video games. If they appear simple and at times crude, perhaps they were. But these were something of our very own. Watching them today, they don’t hold the same kind of magic they did then. That doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to revisit those days from time to time. It wasn’t the cartoons that were always special. But, Saturday morning … man, that was something special.
These cartoons are mostly Hanna Barbera shows which dominated the Warner archive from that era. No question this group contains some of the most recognizable characters from my childhood. Certainly, there some of the very well known titles from Bugs to The Roadrunner. I’m glad to see a few other characters added here like El Kabong and Atom Ant. It’s a very eclectic collection, to be sure, so you should find a little something for everyone.
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