Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 24th, 2010
Jon Favreau's Iron Man was one of the happy events of 2008. It was a superb piece of super-hero entertainment, one that handled lightning-quick shifts in tone (grimness in Afghanistan, hilarity in Malibu) with a deftness that made the very hard work look very easy. It also reassured comic fans and mainstream audiences alike that there were still terrific movies to be made based on Marvel characters, reassurance that was sorely needed in the wake of the dire Spider-Man 3. So, the question with Iron Man 2 is, given the returning director and cast, was that same magic recaptured? The answer is a delighted yes.
The story picks up with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) basking in his fame as Iron Man. He puts on a showy entrance at the opening of the Stark Expo, thumbs his nose at a Congressional committee that wants to appropriate his suit's technology, and races fast cars. But beneath the levity is a dying man: he is being poisoned by the very element that is keeping his heart ticking. Other problems arise in the form of Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), the embittered son of a former research partner of Howard Stark (Tony's father), and Justin Hammer (a hysterically funny Sam Rockwell), Tony's self-regarding business competitor, who is a devious and corrupt as he is incompetent. Unlike Hammer, Vanko is dangerous, harnessing the same energy source as Stark to power his own super-suit. They join forces to destroy Iron Man. He, meanwhile, seems bent on destroying himself before they can get around to it. His behaviour becomes erratic, forcing best friend James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) to abscond with the War Machine suit, and he turns over his company to Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Into this mix comes SHIELD, embodied by leader Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and agent Natasha Romanoff, AKA the Black Widow (Scarlett Johnansson). Fury sees Stark as a potential asset, but only if he can both sort his life out, and save it. The question is whether he will do so before Hammer and Vanko's plans come to fruition.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on September 17th, 2010
Zeus' mighty bolt has been stolen, and whomever holds it may have the power to topple the king of the Gods. Zeus suspects Poseidon's estranged, half-human son is the Lighting Thief and threatens his wrath upon the entire realm if it is not returned. Percy Jackson is Poseidon's son, making him a Demi-God, but as far as he knows, he is a just a high school student living with Dyslexia, ADHD and struggling to live with his abusive step-father. As mythic monsters and Gods all start to threaten Percy's life, his best friend and his mother both reveal themselves to be protectors of his life, both with connections to Greek Mythology. Percy;s mother is taken to the underworld and so he sets out on a quest to discover the truth about his Demi-God heritage while fighting to get his mother back from the clutches of Hades, as well as discover who the true Lighting Thief is.
The story moves by at a fast pace, which helps keep the attention of younger, easy to bore audiences, but the conflict set-ups and exposition are a bit too been-there, see-that for my liking. We are meant to assume that Percy is an outsider, thus easier to relate to and sympathize with, because he has issues, but his Earthly problems (step-father, dyslexia) seem hastily tacked on and it doesn't take long before his super-human capabilities are revealed. This is especially aggravating during a wickedly illogical training scene where all of the demi-God children of Camp Half-Blood play capture the flag (fighting with real swords for no good reason!) and Percy earns the respect of the entire camp simply by being able to heal from any wound by touching water and inheriting a wondrous fighting ability from his father's side, without having picked up a sword before. The friends who join him on his quest also have amazing agility and skill, so we have a pack of kids with Superman syndrome, but none of them have enough have that 'Clark Kent' side to give them a mien of humility (do enough people reading this understand where I'm going with that analogy?).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 16th, 2010
Manchuria, the 1930s. The Japanese army has just acquired a treasure map, and are transporting it across the desert wastes by train. But the man who sold the map wants it back, and engages a snappily dressed killer (Byung-hun Lee) to steal it back. He is, of course, the Bad. He stages a spectacular (and spectacularly violent) train robbery. As fate would have it, at precisely the same moment, the Weird (Kang-ho Song) is also robbing the train, and the Good, in the form of a bounty hunter (Woo-sung Jung) is on board, too. The Weird makes off with the map, and what follows is a series of chases as the various factions scramble to get that map.
Director Ji-woon Kim's tribute to Serio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly follows its model's characterization, with the leads' cold-eyed killer, wacky scoundrel and cold-eyed hero clearly standing in for Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach and Clint Eastwood, only much prettier. The financial motivation and the setting of a country in chaos is similar, too. But while the film was a huge hit in Korea (outgrossing, it seems, the likes of The Dark Knight), it lacks the heart and brilliance of Leone's film. There are some wonderful moments during the train robbery and other set pieces, but the film gets draggy in between. The tone is a little uneven, too – the intent seems to be entertaining, cartoonish violence, but the dismissive ways in which women are killed smacks rather uncomfortably of genuine misogyny. There's a lot of visual pleasure to had here, but to ultimately mixed effect.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 29th, 2010
The original Batman: The Animated Series is one of my favorite cartoon shows of all time. Depending on which day you ask me, I might go ahead and say it is my favorite (the other times, I'll probably mention X-Men or Johnny Bravo). It was the perfect blend of cartoon super-hero drama, with a dose of dark and foreboding circumstances. Enter 2008, Batman: the Brave and the Bold, another Batman cartoon but on the lighter side of the equation. Would this show hold up as much as the historic original?
Before the Dark Knight, Batman Begins, heck even before Jack Nicholson wanted to dance with devil in the pale moonlight, there was a Silver age television show of Batman. It was light-hearted and we always knew that Batman was going to save the day and foil some of the most oddball villains along the way with intelligence and an awesome utility belt. Somewhere, in Heath Ledger's crooked smile and a really raspy squawk box for a Batman voice, we lost that wholesome value caped crusader.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on August 22nd, 2010
A renowned street fighter's brother is murdered, so he flees to a small town where his crippled father lives. While there he discovers an underground circuit of Mixed Martial Arts competitions and raw, street fighting prize matches. With the help of a former MMA champ (played by real-life UFC contender Michael Bisping), our hero fights his way up to the top of the underground action in order to pay off the gangster who slayed his brother, earn the respect he deserves, and what the heck...win a new love interest too.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 18th, 2010
Some of you are aware of this but my favorite movie of all time is Escape from New York. To me, John Carpenter and Kurt Russell represent the perfect director/actor combination. The director knows how to play the actor’s strengths (and minimize weaknesses) and the actor knows how to bring out the best in the direction. It is my sincere pleasure to cover this film on its first trip to the Blu-ray format.
In the year 1988, it was reported that crime had increased by four hundred percent. Things got so bad that they decided to turn Manhattan Island into one giant maximum security prison. Only prisoners live on the island and there are no police. Furthermore, if you are sent to the island, you are there for life. Exit from the island is impossible due to mines on all major bridges and a large 50 foot wall.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 28th, 2010
Woody Harrelson is Arthur Poppington, a child-like adult who fights crime by night in the guise of Defendor. His costume and weapons are DIY: a helmet that records his adventures on VHS, a duct tape “D” on his black turtleneck, a trench club, a slingshot, marbles, lime juice. He is obsessed with tracking down “Captain Industry,” a mythical figure whom he blames for the death of his drug-addicted mother. He runs afoul of corrupt cop Dooney (Elias Koteas at his scuzziest best), beating him and “rescuing” prostitute Kat (Kat Dennings), and the latter convinces him that the crime boss Dooney works for is, in fact, Captain Industry. Arthur sets out on his crusade, and the question is whether his naiveté will triumph, or get him killed.
A quirky, charming take on the super-hero genre, Defendor deftly mixes pathos and laughs. There is enormous fun in seeing Koteas taking one improbable beating after another, but there is also real sadness and drama in Arthur and Kat's stories. For all its “real world” patina, Defendor is ultimately no more realistic than The Dark Knight, but that in no way detracts from the deeply human, deeply moving, character-driven tale that unfolds. Quite the wonderful little movie.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 27th, 2010
"This is Hell, and I'm going to give you the guided tour."
There have been a lot of great prison and prison break films over the years. Who can forget Dustin Hoffman in Papillon or Clint Eastwood in Escape From Alcatraz? Of course, more recently we had The Shawshank Redemption. Lock Up won't ever taste the rare air of those classic films. In fact, it's not really a prison break film at all. There is an attempted break, but it's not quite the focus of the film. I almost felt like I was watching the sequel to a break film. That's because Lock Up deals with the aftermath of a prison break and shows us the consequences on both the escapee and the warden who was responsible for preventing said break. And that's where I think this movie creates its own niche in the popular genre. It's a unique film that might have left its most exciting moments in a past that we never got a chance to see.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 19th, 2010
G.I. Joe the Movie was originally supposed to be a real box office movie. It was to be the first of three animated motion pictures put out by Hasbro Toys. The other two were based on Transformers and My Little Pony. However, production delays caused the other two to go first. When Transformers and My Little Pony did poorly (gee, never would have guessed that a talking magical pony failed to grab box office sales), it was decided that G.I. Joe would go the direct video route. Years later, it still proved to be arguably the best of the three.
It seems that Cobra Commander and Serpentor just can’t get along. They constantly bicker as to who is in charge of Cobra and would rather accuse each other of incompetence than figure out how to defeat G.I. Joe. It is at that moment that a woman breaks into the Terrordrome. Cobra Commander tries to rally the troops and goes off to find this stranger leaving Serpentor behind. However, the woman still makes it to the Cobra Leader.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on July 14th, 2010
Street Hawk is an adventure series about a young cop named Jesse Mach, played by one-time 80s pop idol Rex Smith, who gets injured on the job and is selected to be a part of an experimental motorcycle / vigilante program (funded by the government), that is helmed by computer genius Norman Tuttle, played by a pre-Murphy Brown Joe Regalbuto.
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![The Good, the Bad, the Weird [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-good-the-bad-the-weird-blu-r-large.jpg)
![Beatdown [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/beatdown-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Lock Up [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/lock-up-blu-ray-large.jpg)
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