Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 27th, 2019
When it comes to Batman, he’s a character you can enjoy in just about every visual medium out there, and there is something out there for adults and even the little kids to enjoy. Personally, I think Batman: The Animated Series is the best adaption out there. I cherish those discs, and I dust off those DVDs plenty just to enjoy seeing my favorite caped crusader. When it comes to the LEGO take on the Batman property they are aiming for a much younger demographic, and that’s fine, so when you watch these films, you do have to keep that in mind. So how does LEGO BATMAN: FAMILY MATTERS stack up against the numerous other adaptations out there? To be fair, it’s somewhere in the middle.
With a running time of 79 minutes, there isn’t much time to waste when it comes to story, and the film pretty much jumps into it. Bruce Wayne, aka Batman (Troy Baker) is starting to find it cumbersome to play the part of Bruce Wayne the businessman; it seems to just get in the way of his crime-fighting job. This is despite the fact that Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Batwoman are all playing their part in fighting crime. It’s at a business meeting where scientists at the Wayne Corporation reveal their new project, Brother Eye, an AI super brain that’s able to make decisions on the fly. Once Bruce sees what it can do, he decides to just sell Wayne Enterprises so he can focus on being the caped crusader. It’s a rash and impulsive move that we quickly see the fallout from.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 21st, 2019
"My name is Oliver Queen. After six years of being a vigilante, the only way to achieve my goal and save my city was to confess to being The Green Arrow. Now my family and friends must carry on my mission without me. I am no longer a hero. I am inmate 4587."
Who the heck is this Green Arrow of whom you speak? If that's your first question, you need to go back a couple of grades and catch up with the rest of us. The comics are good place to begin, but the television universe is its own place and not tied so tightly to the DC comic book universe. Your best place to go to catch up would be the first six seasons. It'll be worth the effort, and I can get you started with those reviews found here. This review will not contain spoilers from the seventh season but very well must contain some from the previous year. So if you're not caught up, do that first.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jeremy Butler on August 16th, 2019
“That’s a great fifth option; let’s work on the other four.”
This line is one of the signature witty clips that Ryan Reynolds brings to the character of Pikachu in this movie adaptation of the popular Nintendo DS video game, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu. It is clear that Pokemon is standing the test of time, as I remember collecting and playing the cards in my youth. Though the card game appears to have fallen out of favor, the franchise received a resurgence a few years ago with the emergence of popular mobile phone app, Pokemon GO! In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised of the popularity of app led to the decision for this live action film starring Ryan Reynolds, Justice Smith, and Bill Nighy. This was a solid opening in my opinion, though I am skeptical of its film franchise potential, given that those without a basic understanding of the video game or card game (there does not appear to be any connection to the original animated series or subsequent animated films besides inclusion of the Pikachu character) are unlikely to get by the questions of “What are Pokemon?” or “Where do they come from?”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 13th, 2019
I’ll go ahead and get this out of the way, Batman: Hush is my favorite DC graphic novel; it’s one I’ve read multiple times and one I’ve dreamed to see done as a live action film. The story is just one that offers up so much for the fans to enjoy, and considering it features just about all of the core characters in the Batman rogues gallery, it’s simply a graphic novel that I’m surprised it’s taken this long to tackle. When it comes to DC, though, they’ve been pretty hit-or-miss when it comes to their properties being adapted for the big screen, but for television and their animated films they’ve been successful. Basically when I heard Hush was going to be an animated film, it’s one I got excited about, but in the back of my mind I was worried this could end up being like The Killing Joke, great material that just didn’t connect. So how was this adventure with the caped crusader?
The story for Hush was originally done by writer Jeph Loeb and was a whopping 300 pages of beautifully crafted panels. For the most part the whole story is here, but there have been a few liberties taken (mostly with fleshing out the Batman and Catwoman relationship). The trimming is expected, considering this was only an 82-minute feature. In a perfect world I would have loved to have seen this get the kind of treatment we saw with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse. It’s a story certainly geared more towards adults, but with the large assortment of villains is a huge attraction to the project, and going the animated route would save on having to shell out the big bucks for big-name actors to fill these roles.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 19th, 2019
Warner Brothers has done an impressive job when it comes to their live-action DC Universe television shows. Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow have been fun, entertaining experiences. Now with them starting up their own streaming service, they have upped the ante by releasing Titans. When I first heard about this one I wasn’t sure what to think, considering I wasn’t much of a fan of the animated series, but I’m so glad I came into this show with an open mind, because this show is jam-packed with coolness. Since this was made for a streaming service and not broadcast television, not only do we get superheroes dropping F-bombs, but we get some edgier storytelling along with some violent action you may not expect. Seriously, this one is not for the kids. The show introduces us to Dick Grayson, aka Robin ( Brenton Thwaites) a year after he has fled Gotham City and has moved to Detroit to become a detective. It doesn’t take long before we find out he’s made the move from being Batman’s sidekick because he’s started to develop a taste for dispensing violence and is worried about what he could become. Don’t worry; he’s still down for inflicting some vigilante justice, but we see it comes at a price over the course of the season. It’s not long before he meets a young girl, Rachel Roth (Teagan Croft), who has some dark supernatural powers that are drawing some negative attention her way which eventually leads her to Dick. The heart of the show is about these two orphans at different stages in their life. Dick is attempting to step out into the world and make a name for himself, while Rachel is alone and in desperate need of help. There is some nice chemistry between these two as we see them develop a sort of brother-sister relationship, and it’s the strength of this bond that makes it easy to want to invest our time in these characters.
We also get to meet Kory Anders, aka Starfire (Anna Diop), who has powers of her own but has lost her memory, though she has reason to believe Rachel is the key to getting back her memories. Along the way we also meet Gar Logan, aka Beast Boy (Ryan Potter), who has a gift for turning into any animal (though we only see him as a tiger), and he develops his own unique relationship with Rachel. The four together make up the core group of the Titans, though there are plenty of other characters who weave their way in and out of the storyline.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 12th, 2019
"After the bridges blew and the government declared Gotham off-limits the city was up for grabs. Given over to criminals and murderers. Now territory is controlled by whoever has enough power to hold it. I mean we have Penguin in City Hall for God's sakes..."
Gotham City. You know the name, just as you know the names of Metropolis and Smallville. These are important places in the DC comics universe that have existed as part of modern American mythology since the 1930's. Warner Brothers has decided to tackle Gotham in much the way it spent 10 years bringing us to Smallville. But there is a decided difference to be found here. Smallville was indeed the origin story of Superman, and while the obvious answer might be that Gotham serves the same role for Batman, I found that to be a bit of an oversimplification. This is not the origin story for Batman, and while many of the future major villains from that universe take their first baby steps here, this is not their origin story either. This is an origin story for the city of Gotham itself. Unlike many heroes, Batman was a product of his environment. This is the story of how one city devolved so badly that a hero like Batman was necessary. What we see taking shape here is a place where a certain Dark Knight can thrive and spread his wings. That's finally going to happen in the final moments of this the fifth and final season of Gotham. It's out now from Warner Brothers, and it's the last 12 episodes of the Batman origin story. But Gotham was more than that.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 11th, 2019
In the late 1980’s Batman was in trouble. No, he wasn’t tied to a table saw by The Joker. Catwoman didn’t have her claws on him. It was the camp residue of the 1960’s television series. The idea of a Batman film was clamored after by fans, but the studios couldn’t get the Adam West series out of their minds. And, while the success of Superman might have awaken the studio bosses to the appeal of comic book films, there was surprisingly very little interest in a Batman film. Since DC Comics had become a part of the Warner Empire, it seemed only logical that they would want to do the film. But even Warner resisted for several years as a team tried to get the Caped Crusader back on the movie screen.
The Dark Knight was the brainchild of a young comic artist named Bob Kane. He was actually inspired by a Leonardo DaVinci drawing and quote. He was looking at the bat-like wings DaVinci designed for human flight and immediately set to work on creating the follow up to Superman. Unlike Superman, Batman had no superpowers. His parents had been killed in front of his eyes, gunned down on their way home from the theater. The young millionaire’s son grew morose and dark. When he matured, he used the vast resources of his wealth to design weapons, armor, vehicles, and gadgets all around the theme of the bat. With the help of the family butler, who raised the young lad after the death of his parents, Bruce Wayne became the night avenger, Batman. The comic was an almost overnight success. Now there was a superhero who didn’t rely on supernatural powers. This hero relied on his own intelligence and resourcefulness to fight the criminals of Gotham City. The comics would lead to movie serial reels and animated adventures. In the 1960’s Batman would explode on to television screens in a campy, not-so-serious incarnation. Graphic novels in the 1980’s would bring the comic book out of the shadows of guilty pleasures for adults and bring these conventions to the mainstream world of literature. Artists like Frank Miller would bring the Dark Knight back to its roots and expose the world, once again, to Batman. By 1989, the time was right to bring Batman back to life -- live action, that is. And who better to capture the dark and psychologically disturbed world of Batman than Tim Burton.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 7th, 2019
It hasn’t quite been four months since A Star is Born was released on Blu-ray and 4K and already we have a new release, only this time the film is about 11 minutes longer. For some this might seem like a double dip, while others this is exactly what fans of the film have wanted. For me, I’ve always been a fan of extended cuts of films where we get to see how certain deleted scenes actually fit in the film. Sometimes the extended cuts of films can improve the experience. The Lord of the Rings series is one set that comes to mind. As for A Star is Born, does it breathe new life into the Oscar-nominated film, or does it drag it down?
When I first heard that Bradley Cooper would be making his directing debut with A Star is Born, honestly I kind of groaned. It’s not because I didn’t believe he’d have the chops; after all, he’s worked with many successful directors over the span of his career. I groaned because I believed the world didn’t need yet another remake of the film. This will be the fourth incarnation of the film, and while many can debate on which version is their favorite, the film was pretty much a relic I felt should have stayed in the past. I mention this and want to also put out there even after some of the trailers I had caught for the film; my excitement level was pretty low going into this. Well, this turned out to be the sleeper hit of the year for me. Sure, many could have told me this would be a hit, and because of the cast I wouldn’t dispute it, but when I walked out of the auditorium I felt like I had experienced something special (even if it had been made three times before).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 2nd, 2019
If it wasn't clear enough before, I think the Avengers: Endgame box office mauling put the final point on the situation between Marvel and DC. When it comes to Cinematic Universes, DC has had an impossible task of keeping up. Avengers took in more on the first weekend than Aquaman did its entire run. The box office round goes to Marvel, and it appears DC has started to come to grips with that fact and has started to transform their own films away from the team-up/combined universe and is going back to basics. Where DC has built a rather strong shared universe for their characters is in the animated feature department. In the last handful of years DC has released some very strong animated films, and that's where there appears to be a place where they not only compete with Marvel but leave them in the dust. The latest proof of that idea comes with the Warner Brothers release of Justice League vs. The Fatal Five out on UHD Blu-ray in 4K. It's a solid film with plenty of cheerful action and adventure that always got bogged down in the films with the notable exception of Wonder Woman.
The film begins a thousand years in the future and the League of Superheroes. Their HQ is invaded by three members of their chief nemesis, the Fatal Five. In an attempt to stop them from stealing their time machine the heroes attempt to trap them inside a frozen time bubble, but can't set the trap in time. The three bad guys: Mano (Rodriquez), The Persuader (King) and Thorack (Jessup) manage to steal the time machine and return to our present day with Starboy (Gabel) silently on their trail.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2019
Ever since I was a kid I used to love to hear and read stories about the iconic filmmakers from the days before I was born. I soaked up material on John Ford and Hitchcock. Fritz Lang and James Whale were superhuman, it seemed. Meeting Robert Wise was a dream come true, and getting an invitation by Ray Harryhausen himself to attend his Hollywood star ceremony was an honor. But all of these folks were either already gone or at the end of their careers by the time I got to this planet. Since that time there have been plenty of great talents, but the only one in my lifetime who ever seemed to live up in that rarified air was Clint Eastwood. As both an actor and director, I'm not sure anyone has made more of a mark during my generation. Clint's approaching 90, and reality dictates that his days of directing movies are coming to a close. As an actor every film has the potential to be his last. So I have to ask myself why Warner Brothers would give this potential swansong such unfair treatment. Critics were not given a chance to attend screenings when the film came out. As a voting member of SEFCA, I received over 150 films for awards consideration as 2018 came to a close. None of them happened to be The Mule. When I asked a Warner rep about the slight, I was admonished to forget about the film and just move on. I was even told by a SEFCA co-member that I shouldn't be so greedy for screeners. I'm not ordinarily a conspiracy nut. But something doesn't pass the sniff test here, and after finally seeing the film in 4K, I'm convinced of it.
The Academy Awards are no longer what they once were. What used to be an extraordinary celebration of the art of film and filmmaking is now a political rally. I suspect the "powers that be" didn't want Clint Eastwood anywhere near that political rally. He's got nothing to lose at this point, and I don't think he's the kind of guy to just shut up and take it. I can't prove any of this, of course. And I might even catch some flack for proposing the idea. But if it's true, there are a lot of folks who should be ashamed of themselves. Warner Brothers bears the greatest shame, if true. I doubt anyone has made as much money for Warner over the years than Clint Eastwood and he's owed better treatment. This is not about my or anyone's political beliefs, but about a legend who won't be here for decades to come, and it's unfortunate if the fact his politics don't align with the Hollywood establishment caused this movie to be treated like the crazy uncle you lock away in the attic when company comes. 'Nuff said.
