Disc Reviews

Turok is a property that seems to come and go. In the 1950's, it was introduced to lure kids away from the television sets because it had dinosaurs and intriguing stories. It was later updated when it got inserted in the Valiant comic world and rose to sell nearly 2 million copies with its first issue for the universe. In more recent times, Turok has become a series of video games by Acclaim. So it was only natural that an animated dvd would also hit the mix. However, would the character be more representative of its roots or perhaps take on a more futuristic feel akin to the current property portrayed in the video game?

When MI-5 first hit American shores, Alias was in full swing, and the comparisons were inevitable. After all, both were sy shows set in a post September 11 world, and both were slick, fun thrillers. Fast forward to 2006, however, and the landscape has changed dramatically. Alias is now off the air, having crashed in spectacular fashion, yet MI-5 is still going strong. In fact, the show just seems to keep getting better and better.

The neurotic Shannyn Sossamon goes to Paris to visit sister Alecia Moore (aka Pink). The outgoing Moore cajoles her mopey sister to attend a party in the city’s catacombs, where the bones of some six million people are stacked. It doesn’t take long before Sossamon becomes separated from her friends, and is pursued by a maniac through the maze of tunnels.

Barrows, Alaska, is just settling down for a month-long winter’s night. Many of the residents leave for the dark period, but those who remain encounter a series of strange crimes (all the cell phones in town being stolen and melted, for instance). It turns out that the incidents are the work of a man preparing the way for an invasion of vampires. After all, what better hunting ground than a town with no day? Josh Hartnett leads a dwindling band who hunker down and struggle against overwhelming odds.

Waitress is a film that could easily be passed-over as a tired, generic chick flick when perusing the DVD section of your favorite retailer. Those that take a chance on this underrated film, however, are in for a real treat. This is a film that has genuine heart, is honest and surprisingly funny.

There was a new Cowboy in Dallas, and he wasn’t throwing touchdown passes. But Walker was almost gone before he could really get started. After just four episodes, the show’s production company suffered financial collapse and the show was rescued at the last minute by CBS Productions, who would continue to run the show for its nearly decade-long run. For nine years Norris brought us the ultimate Texas Ranger in a formula cops and robbers show.

Family Ties is likely remembered most as the series that launched the career of Michael J. Fox. There’s no question that he owes a great debt to Alex Keaton. It’s almost a bit awkward now to watch him as this young, extremely conservative teenager after Fox has spent so much of his life as a liberal poster boy in the last couple of elections. Politics aside, it’s hard not to credit his performances in Family Ties and the Back To The Future films for launching him into a well deserved lucrative career.

The original Bachelor's Party was produced roughly 25 years ago in the 80's. Drugs, Sex, Tom Hanks and a donkey with a taste for belly dancing and cocaine all highlighted this cult favorite film that actually did very well for it's time and genre. However, 2008 decided to release a sequel to this movie. Naturally, they could not get Tom Hanks to even do a cameo since he's busy doing important films that involve him walking around an airport or naming inanimate objects "Wilson". However, throw in some hot comics and even hotter females with some solid writing and you might just have a really fun and racucous time.

The web has a way of delivering some of the most interesting material. Flash animation in particular can produce some very funny shorts. Furthermore, these shorts are unedited and can be downloaded by millions of people on a whim. These viral episodes can be played over and over again, with little care to the quality or the content. But what happens when they take that idea and decide to make into a feature length film? In this case, proof that people will download anything.

It'll be interesting when man travels past the moon to far away places in outer space. The science of it will be reason enough for the rest of the world's population to pay attention, but I want to find out, more than anything, if every deep space crew in real life runs into the same problems that they do in the movies.

In Sunshine, a movie by director Danny Boyle, I thought that the deep space crew in the film would be relatively free of space movie cliches. This just didn't seem like one of those movies. But I'll be damned if at the end of the movie Cillian Murphy wasn't racing panicked through the corridor of his space ship, determined to detonate a nuclear bomb before a clock reached zero.