Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 20th, 2021
"Scared yet? You should be."
There have been a ton of changes in the Arrowverse that started in 2012 with the CW premier of Arrow. It told the story of Oliver Queen, The Green Arrow. Other shows and heroes were added along the way that included time-traveling heroes of The Legends Of Tomorrow, Supergirl, Black Lightning, Stargirl, and most recently Batwoman and Superman and Lois. But the best of these Arrowverse shows has always been and continues to be The Flash. But a lot has changed since then. The mothership, Arrow, has been gone for two years. Supergirl ended last season along with Black Lightning, and Legends Of Tomorrow appears to be fading fast in just plain silliness. Too bad DC doesn't own the rights to Howard The Duck. He'd fit right in. Of the new shows, Stargirl shows a lot of promise with a pretty solid ensemble. Batwoman, for so many reasons, is a complete mess, and Superman & Lois looks to be the most promising future of the Arrowverse. The jury is still out after only one season. But The Flash remains the touchstone of quality in this collection and is now the longest running of the entire franchise. There's a reason for this, and Season 7 will give you even more reasons to run toward The Flash. However, if you're thinking of joining The Flash for the first time in Season 7, that's not going to work out so well for you. Hopefully you're a speed watcher, because you have 6 to go. You're going to love what this series has cooking, but you need to start with getting yourself caught up in order to fully appreciate what is in store for you here. In addition to the many seasons, crossovers, and other shows, COVID has reared its ugly head and kind of mixed up the order of some things. That means you're not really getting Season 7 from the beginning when you buy this set. You're getting the last three episodes of Season 6, and Season 7 starts on the fourth episode and gets a bit truncated by the shorter production schedules. That's a lot to get caught up with, so check out our reviews of the previous releases here.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 2nd, 2021
"There's a war coming to Gotham, and now there's no Batwoman stop it."
Well ... that's halfway true. After just one season in the cape and cowl, Ruby Rose rather abruptly quit the show. That's a pretty big red flag when you lose your titular star and character after just one season. For many shows that might have been the end of the road. Not true for Batwoman. They had several choices. They could have recast the part and just pretend it's the same character with a new look. They could have killed the character off and found a new one to replace her. Of course, with the multiverse now closed down, the most likely option of replacing her with another Earth's Kate Kane might have been the best option. The announcement came pretty much on the heel of Rose's departure that they would not recast the part. That turned out to be partially true, but more on that later. The choice was made to put an entirely new character into the suit.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 18th, 2021
When Justice League hit the box office in 2017 it was met by relatively good box office numbers but not warmly received overall. It was a troubled shoot. During production Zack Snyder had to leave the director's chair when his daughter Autumn passed away. When you consider how hard the folks at DC have been chasing the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was no surprise that they brought in Joss Whedon to pick up the pieces and finish the film. Whedon, of course, directed the first Avengers film for Marvel, which turned into the perfect example of how to bring a diverse group of heroes together for a film. Whedon was also the king of the ensemble cast from his early days on Buffy The Vampire Slayer and later Firefly. The first problem was that Whedon and Snyder have very polar opposite styles. Snyder rules with tons of angst, darkness and brooding characters. That's great for Batman. Not so much for Superman. Whedon loves to keep things light no matter how big the stakes of the film's events might be. It's night and day, and it's no wonder it really didn't work out so well. Later we would start to hear stories of abuse by Whedon on the set, mainly from Ray Fisher who played Cyborg. The studio fumed, and the fans expressed their disappointment by demanding that DC/Warner Brothers allow Snyder to go back and make the film he really wanted to make, and so the wheels began turning.
DC eventually relented, and after nearly four years, they put a pile of money on the table and granted the Snyder fanboys their wish. But things are different now, and a new cinematic release is pretty much out of the question. So it was originally decided there would be a mini-series made for HBO-Max, the company's streaming service. The idea of a series and film went back and forth, and eventually a kind of hybrid ended up taking the slot. What we got was a four-hour film separated into seven distinct chapters and a decidedly obvious halfway point. So you could watch it in seven roughly half-hour segments, two films, or one mega-marathon film. The HBO-Max numbers were pretty good, and so now the film is available on UHD Blu-ray in 4K in a much better-looking presentation than it had during its initial life as a streamer.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 16th, 2021
"Space...The Final Frontier. These are the continuing voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before!"
From the moment of the first UHD releases, I have had a wish list of films I wanted to see in 4K. Most of them have finally reached my home theater video shelf, but there remain a few elusive titles that I am still waiting for. Paramount is doing a great job, but two of my most wished for UHD franchises happen to be The Godfather films and the original Star Trek films. I'm still waiting for The Godfather, but the Star Trek wait is somewhat over. I say somewhat because this new release from Paramount contains those first four films. Star Trek: The Motion Picture is eventually going to be released with upgraded f/x and a few other upgrades. But the original version of the film is included with the trilogy of The Wrath Of Kahn, The Search For Spock, and The Voyage Home.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on September 9th, 2021
It would seem that the animated film and the 2021 live-action film suffer from the same issue: more time is dedicated to setting up the tournament than the actual tournament itself. I suppose I should take solace in the fact that the two are consistent; however, I’m afraid that is not the case for me. I would have much preferred that proper time be allocated to what is supposed to be the main plot of the film. The whole point of this franchise is to show champions fighting to protect the Earth realm, but it would seem that more time is shown depicting the underhandedness that the other realms attempt to use in order to secure Earth realm by other means. If that was the case, hell, why even have a tournament, if our fate is going to be decided through other measures. OK, that is my little rant about the film, but in truth, it is not a great film, but I wouldn’t go so far as to categorize it as terrible one. There are a few things to enjoy about it. Want to know more? Keep reading.
So the film maintains a good measure of continuity with its preceding film (Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge). Following Earth triumph, there should have been peace, but of course that wouldn’t make for a good movie. So to resolve this disharmony, we are thrown back into the thick of it. Basically, Shao Kahn, as expected, is a sore loser about losing the tournament, so he declares war on Earth realm. He sends his Outworld army to take the Earth realm by force. Also as expected, Earth’s champions rise up to defend humanity. Though initially succeeding in holding back the forces of Outworld, Lord Raiden agrees to Shao Kahn’s demand that another Mortal Kombat be held in order to determine the fate of Earth realm once and for all.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on August 9th, 2021
Retaliation resumes sometime after the original movie. Duke (Channing Tatum) is now leader of his own team, which includes Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson), Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki), Snake Eyes (Ray Park), and Flint (DJ Cotrona). After completing a successful mission, the team returns to base camp and awaits extraction. Dropping their guard, the group enjoys downtime; however, when a security patrol arrives ahead of schedule, it does not go unnoticed. Their suspicions are proven right, as a massive assault devastates the camp. Unable to adequately defend themselves, the team suffers heavy casualties including a vital and precious member of the team. (I’m sure you’ll have no trouble figuring out who.)
The only survivors of the attack, the remaining team members quickly put it together that only one person could have authorized the attack: the very man that they take their orders from, the President of the United States. Unbeknownst to them, the President is not who they think he is. He has been captured and replaced by COBRA chameleon Zartan, who has undergone revolutionary surgery to become the President’s double. Slandering the Joes in the media with claims of unsanctioned missions, the President (Zartan) puts COBRA in their place, giving them immeasurable power.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on August 9th, 2021
So it’s back to the one that started them all with this review. Coming hot on the heels of a film set to reboot the franchise comes the re-release of the first live-action film adaptation of the popular Hasbro property starring Channing Tatum, Marlon Wayans, Rachel Nichols, and Dennis Quaid. I remember loving the film back when it initial debuted, but now seeing it through the scope of age and wisdom, I can recognize that the film was only decent in comparison to the rave review I’d probably would have given it years earlier. That is not to designed to be a dig, because there are aspects of the film that I still to this day truly enjoyed, but it is very clear that story development was second to the action, as I watched again. Not to mention, not much was done in the way of character backstory and development, especially if you are someone with no familiarity with these characters prior to the watching of this film. The franchise appears to be addressing that now with the recent origin story release of one of the franchises’ most popular characters, but rectifying that now does nothing for this adaptation.
As I stated earlier, the film is not a complete lost cause, because there are aspects of the film that really shone, particularly Marlon Wayans’ performance. Now when I initially heard about his inclusion, I was a skeptic, because I knew him only as the over-the-top member of the Wayans family, but now I know him as Ripcord, the G.I. Joe team’s HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) Jumper. A natural comedian, Wayans brings that element to his performance, giving balance to Tatum’s more serious performance. In the film, Ripcord is Duke’s (Tatum) best friend and partner. True Wayans is the film’s comic relief, but he also brings in the romance element of the film with his constant and shameless pursuit of Rachel Nichols’ Scarlett. This too brings some comic relief, but there is also some genuine chemistry between Nichols and Wayans, which I feel really improved the overall quality of the film. In fact of the two romantic angles portrayed in the film, I must say that this was my favorite.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 25th, 2021
It continues to amaze me how well Warner Brothers does with their DC products in the television universe but manage to execute so poorly with their films. Despite being a bit formulaic, the CW DC shows are still a blast to watch but it’s the more adult oriented shows Titans, Doom Patrol and Swamp Thing that have left me most impressed. Now they have released Pennyworth for the Starz Network, despite the confidence I have in the other shows I went into this one with cautious optimism. The biggest question that bothered me was do we need another series that delves into the Batman universe? Gotham recently wrapped up, there’s a Batwoman series, Joker was only 2 years ago and a new Batman film coming next year, not to forget all the other incarnations of the Dark Knight. What had me interested though is the notion of finally getting to see Alfred Pennyworth as the former SAS officer in his prime and the chance to see how he became entangled with the Wayne family. Was the series a letdown or yet another success for the DC television universe?
The series was brought to life by Bruno Heller, a writer with experience in this universe since coming off from writing for Gotham. Now if you’re thinking you enjoyed Gotham and perhaps this is a prequel you can enjoy with the kids let me stop you for a moment and say, this one is not for the kids. This series embraces its adult content with its over the top violence, an abundance of sex, drugs and profanity that more closely resembles a Quentin Tarantino film than a comic book series, and I love it for that. Season one was a fun little romp that sets up the story of how Thomas Wayne, Martha Kane and Alfred Pennyworth all met. Season 2 delves deeper into the development of their friendships and relationships and in the process shows how Lucius Fox was brought into the fold. This is all done while a battle is taking place between London and the Raven Union which is led by Lord Harwood (Jason Flemyng) whom we met in the first season. Season two, while it does continue the story I’m a little disappointed with the direction it goes with this so much focus on a war and take over by the Raven Union, my disappointment is with how little most of it doesn’t involve Alfred at all.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on July 21st, 2021
"Throughout history, different cultures all over the world reference a great tournament of champions. That dragon marking, I think it's an invitation to fight for something known as Mortal Kombat."
While I do rate this adaptation of the popular video game better than its incarnations that came before it in the 90s, I still wouldn’t categorize it as a great movie. It’s a bit too short on explanation to reach that level. It starts off promising with a showdown battle between the two most popular characters of the game, played by Joe Taslim (Sub-Zero) and Hiroyuki Sanada (Scorpion). The fight is everything that I expected it to be; well-orchestrated with the right amount of bloodshed. However, as the story goes on, the quality of the storytelling takes a hit as the film takes the position that the audience is already well-versed in the backstory of the film. For me, this seemed liked the wrong approach to take, especially if you are trying to attract a younger generation to the series. We have to remember that Mortal Kombat is based off a video game series that is nearly thirty years old. Granted, it has seen much revamping over the proceeding years that has kept the series current, but even so, a voiceover explaining the backstory of the tournament would have gone a long way. We get a title card that offer some details, but it’s not enough.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 6th, 2021
I remember when The Golden Compass came to theaters. I know I saw it because I was a projectionist and had to screen the print, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember anything about the film. Perhaps that’s why that when I first heard about HBO doing a TV series adaption of the beloved book series His Dark Materials, I wasn’t all that thrilled. I’d never read the young adult series, and considering the amount of awful YA film and TV adaptations that have bombarded us for nearly two decades, it too played a role in squashing any excitement I might have had in different circumstances. I was definitely pessimistic about watching the , but when I finished Season 1, I was excited about where the next season would take us. I loved the characters, the daemons, and the worlds that the show took us to. Not since Stranger Things had I been more excited about a new series. Season 2’s can be a make-or-break for a lot of shows. Expectations have been made by the audience, and sometimes things just fall apart, but sometimes there is the rare occasion where Season 2 manages to only get better. I’m happy to say in the case of His Dark Materials, things definitely improve.
Season 1 left us off with a bit of a cliffhanger as we see Lyra (Dafne Keen) and Will (Amir Wilson) stepping through portals from their worlds, and we’re just not sure where they’ll end up. Well, the pair end up in a city called Cittagazze, a place where there are no adults. Only a few children are living in hiding in the town because of these wraithlike figures called Spectres that basically suck the “dust” or human life-force from adults. The set design for this new world is impressive, which is a good thing because a lot of time is spent at this location over the stretch of Season 2. Lyra’s daemon, Pan (voiced by Kit Conner) is still going through multiple changes and remains one of my favorite aspects of the show, though thankfully daemons are not in constant peril this season. Instead more focus is placed in the importance of Lyra and Will and how the pair fit into a prophecy that of course will impact the world and all its multiverses.
