I was somewhat surprised to see the movie Halo Legends in my docket for upcoming review.  As a long-time Sony and Nintendo gamer, I had never played any version of Halo, and saw no need to, based on my age-related dislike of first person shooter games.  Really, my complete knowledge of Halo could be summed up as there was a green armored guy named Master Chief, and you use him to shoot lots of aliens.

 As a general rule of thumb, movies based on video games tend to well, lets say, not quite meet expectations.  Although there are exceptions to the rule (like Pokémon, or Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within), for each good movie there is three or four bad ones (like Street Fighter or Super Mario Brothers). Read the full story

Being one of the few people I know who is not a huge Star Wars fan, only seeing the original trilogy and The Phantom Menace, I was pretty bewildered when I heard that not only was there an animated film that was made to fit within the new trilogy, but there was an entire television series that predated the film… And this isn’t even that series! This is a new unrelated series that takes places throughout the Star Wars chronology at different times. Confused? Let’s see if it’s worth figuring out.

Read the full story

For some time, Trailer Park Boys has been a guilty pleasure of mine.  Although I did not find the show appealing when it first aired, subsequent viewings made me a fan of its unique style of humor.  Although the show appears simply crude on the surface, there is a lot more going on with the characters than superficially appears.

However, no-one would compare Trailer Park Boys with M*A*S*H or The Simpsons.  Whereas the other shows became legendary for their subtlety, heart, and humor, the Trailer Park Boys possesses little of these qualities. 

And although this works in 30-minute slices on their TV show, can a feature length movie be carried by this sort of nihilistic and profane humor?  After its viewing I can say yes, but only if you are already a fan of the show and its “acquired taste” type of humor. Read the full story

As mentioned in my review for The Princess Bride, it is nice to see older titles now being made available on Blu-ray at attractive prices. Not only does it allow the collector to affordably upgrade their collection, it also allows them to fill in holes where they’ve missed a movie in a previous format.

Read the full story

For reviewing Ben 10: Alien Swarm I enlisted the official kids of this movie reviewer.  Although I normally am very comfortable in critically watching youth-oriented fare, my complete ignorance of Ben 10 necessitated I call in the backup team. Read the full story

Half a century ago seems like a long time; but it was around that time that one of Hollywood’s most gifted and eccentric directors was in his prime; making classic films that would set the stage for today’s filmmakers. Alfred Hitchcock was one the kind of director that doesn’t really exist anymore; similar to Orson Welles, his films were carefully crafted masterpieces that were so layered that even today there are countless books and websites dedicated to analyzing his works. North by Northwest was screenwriter, Ernest Lehman’s attempt to create the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures, did he succeed? Read the full story

Michael Mann’s crime epic, Heat, is declared as one of the best heist films ever. Utilizing the chemistry between two superstars from the genre and containing one of the greatest shootouts in cinema history, Heat’s résumé definitely has all the right stuff for being an essential Blu-ray to own, but as with the recent Michael Mann film “Public Enemies” sometimes a poor sound mix or poor video quality might make the disc unworthy of a Blu-ray purchase. How does Heat stack up? Read the full story

In advance of reviewing JCVD, I had heard mostly positive things, especially about the acting of our eponymous hero, Jean-Claude Van Damme.  Although not expecting Shakespeare or high art, when the Blu-ray cover screams “He deserves not a black belt, but an Oscar” (this from a reputable source), one cannot help but be excited.  After all, we all enjoy seeing an actor surprise us with previously unseen ability and depth.  And what better character is there for any actor to play other than a caricatured version of themself? Read the full story

There is something strangely appealing about teen horror movies, though I am unsure if this appeal is from nostalgia for my teen years, or an admiration for the humorous and creative ways the movie characters die.

Regardless, when watching a teen horror movie, I expect to laugh out loud, remark on the stupidity of at least one of the lead characters, be disgusted by at least one “gut explosion”, and enjoy the requisite topless scene.  On all counts, “The Final Destination” did not disappoint. Read the full story

As the Blu-ray format has grown over the years, many changes have taken place throughout the film industry.  One recent studio trend has been the re-release of supposed classics onto this newly accepted format.  Although there may be a niche market for many of these obscure titles, one may argue against the need for a release on a high definition format.  Rockers made its way onto Blu-ray 30 years after its initial release.  We’ll explore whether it’s worth the possible upgrade from DVD. Read the full story

I will have to admit that I hadn’t really heard of this film before it arrived on my doorstep. It has been my general experience since I began to do these reviews that when I normally haven’t heard of a film, there is a very good reason for that, namely, it is a bad film. While not completely awful, The Invention of Lying is another film that proves the general rule. And that is too bad as the premise for the film was actually rather promising. Read the full story

With all the snow and very cold weather gripping us here on the East Coast, it seemed perfectly natural to watch a film that is set in Antarctica in blistering cold conditions, right? After all, why watch a film set in the tropics with all that lush green foliage and warm temperatures. Well, that is the choice I made when I decided to check out Whiteout. Was it a good one? Well….. Read the full story

The Montreux Jazz Festival is arguably the finest music festival in the world. It has always been a dream of mine to attend the festival and hopefully, one day, I will be able to do so. However, with Blu-ray, with its high definition picture and lossless multichannel audio capabilities, we now have the technology that can transport us to a concert venue without us ever having to leave the couch. How successful this experience is in our home depends, in part, on the quality of the video and audio on a given disc, which can vary widely from release to release. The question to be answered today is how successful Eagle Vision’s Carlos Santana Presents Blues at Montreux 2004 is in being able to transport us to Montreux. The short answer, pretty darn good. Read the full story

Two Girls and a Guy is a 1997 independent comedy starring Robert Downey Jr. and Heather Graham, it focuses on love, lust, trust and everything in between in modern relationships.

It tries to examine and reflect on some sort of universal truths about new age relationships. However with an ambitious script and the expectations that come with a pitch like that, if done poorly the film just has a higher height to fall from… Let’s see what happens. Read the full story

Every now and then, a movie comes out of nowhere to become a big hit, catching the critics and studios by surprise. This summer it was the subject of this review, The Hangover. Perhaps audiences were looking for some lighthearted comedy in today’s tough economic times. Whatever the reason, this film was a huge commercial success, grossing well over 10 times its cost of $35 million. I guess I was one of the few who didn’t see The Hangover in theaters as I can’t say that the subject matter appealed to me very much. However, when the Blu-ray arrived for review, I didn’t hesitate to pop the disc into the player to see what the fuss was all about. Much to my surprise, I found the film to be enjoyable although far from a comedy classic. Read the full story

I guess you could say that I am a relative newcomer to the world of Harry Potter at least in regards as the books are concerned. My wife loved the books and had read them before the movies started to arrive but I did not. I went into each of the early films without any knowledge of the plots other than that Harry was a wizard. That was about it. The films were well done and were easy to get into even without any prior knowledge from the books. Perhaps that was even better as I had no clue what was coming next. Read the full story

DC and Warner Bros. certainly seem to have it together as they have released not only animated film after animated film the past couple of years, but they are all great stories with strong characters (both physically and in a literary sense) that provide a high value of entertainment.  Following up this year’s release of the the Green Lantern on Blu-ray is the highly anticipated release of Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.  Promoted heavily at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, DC’s latest story made a thunderous arrival upon its release. Read the full story