For the penultimate movie in my review of the Mel Brooks Collection, I selected the classic Spaceballs, Mr. Brooks’ send up of science fiction movies.  Although I thought I had watched this movie previously, I was surprised to discover that I had only watched it in parts and not as a whole.

When viewing the film previously, I had been struck by its obvious wink to Star Wars, emphasized through characters such as Barf, Dot, Yogurt, Pizza the Hutt, and Dark Helmet.  As a long-term lover of science fiction films, Spaceballs was treading dangerous ground.  My question was, was this film sublime satire, or pure farce. Read the full story

After reviewing the five Mel Brooks films in the collection I had not yet viewed, it was now time to revisit some old friends.  And first up was History of the World – Part I, a movie that I had first seen long before I was old enough to understand most of the jokes.

Before watching the collection, this film fully defined what I thought a Mel Brooks film was.  A musical number, genital-oriented humor, and an overall irrelevance for its subject matter would be what I thought of when I heard the words “Mel Brooks”.  However, after watching such treats as To Be Or Not to Be, Silent Movie, and even High Anxiety, I was curious to see if I remembered the movie correctly, and if it was truly as good as I thought it was. Read the full story

Movie trailers can be very deceiving. Far too often, you see a trailer at the theater and think, wow, that looks like an interesting film, only to find that the film sucks. Every now and then, a great trailer turns into a great film. The converse is also often true, a bad trailer proceeds a bad film.  Such is the case with the subject of today’s review… Cop Out. Read the full story

I can’t say that I have ever been a big fan of action films based upon early Greek mythology. Lord knows, I find the mythology fascinating and the sites in antiquity devoted to them incredibly interesting and must sees, belonging on anyone’s bucket list. It is just that the films made on the subject have been totally lame, for want of a better word. Unfortunately, the film that is the subject matter of today’s review, Clash of the Titans, is just another in a long list of weak and mindless films based upon this otherwise interesting subject matter. Read the full story

For my fourth movie in my review of the Mel Brooks Collection, I selected High Anxiety, Mr. Brooks’ loving spoof of Alfred Hitchcock movies.  Although I admire Mr. Hitchcock’s work, I can honestly admit it has been a few decades since I last saw one of his films (The Birds).

One challenge I anticipated with High Anxiety is that certain subjects like murder and suspense do not work well in comedy (like in Have you Heard About the Morgans).  Truly, the only way to make a thriller work with humour is to go way, way, way over the top, much like in the Police Squad series of movies.

However, my pleasant surprise at the quality of To Be Or Not To Be left me with some anticipation that this movie may also surprise me with its wit and charm. Read the full story

 After reviewing both Silent Movie and Young Frankenstein, I was extremely curious to see which of the remaining seven discs in the Mel Brooks Collection would fit into the categories of “underrated comedy” or “overhyped disappointment”.  For this third movie, I selected another Mel Brooks film I had not seen before, To Be or Not to Be, Mr. Brooks’ 1983 remake of Ernest Lubitsch’s 1942 original.

Mr. Brooks has never struck me as a subtle humorist, and I had some worry that a comedy-musical-drama about World War II and Nazism could be taken from funny to farcical under his guidance.  Perplexingly, I also had high expectations at the same time – with such rich subject matter, and a stellar cast, this movie had the potential to be really good.  And in short, this movie was really good, the type of comedy I grew up on, and the type that seems to have fallen out of favor with the viewing public. Read the full story

One of the joys of being a movie reviewer is that it forces me to sit down and watch classic films that I just never seem to have the time to watch.  Therefore, I was thrilled when assigned to watch Doctor Zhivago, the legendary Academy award-winning epic from Sir David Lean.  Little did I know that back in the 1960’s an epic meant many things, including an epically long run time (just over 3:15)!

More importantly, how does this film measure up against the “epics” of today, and how well did this translate to Blu-ray?  Although some films receive a loving restoration (The African Queen), how well would Warner Brothers treat this legendary film? Read the full story

Normally in my opening paragraph, I discuss my impressions of the film, possibly rekindle some old memories, and leave the reader with a question about the worthiness of the movie.  In my review for Shutter Island I am skipping this pretense.  If you like psychological thrillers with a touch of the supernatural, go buy this movie.  If you appreciate a haunting score that is as much a character as the actors, go buy this movie.  If you love to see films that are not made, but instead crafted, go buy this movie. Read the full story

It is not often that one sees a movie as divisive as The Lovely Bones.  Criticism has focused on the subject matter, its presentation, the CGI, and Peter Jackson’s treatment of Alice Sebold’s book.  Others have praised the tenderness that was used in the treatment of the subject, how it was handled with real emotional intelligence, and the quality of the cast. Read the full story

Avatar is probably the most eagerly awaited Blu-ray release to date. After all, the film did $2.6 billion in worldwide box office receipts and features some stunning CGI and at the present time, represents the state of the art as what can be done with CGI, albeit it at an incredible cost. Well, Avatar has finally arrived on Blu-ray and I couldn’t wait to pop it in to see whether it has the reference audio and video presentations that we all expected. Read the full story

Usually with the passage of time, we get a little better perspective on the Oscars and whether a particular winner was really the right one. Look back on some of the past winners and you just may scratch you head and wonder, “What were they thinking, they should have picked X”. I was thinking that this year on Oscar night when The Hurt Locker received seemingly all of the awards. While a fine film, I can help but wonder if the vote was swayed more on the subject matter than the actual merit of the film, as for me, the film doesn’t hold a candle to the subject of today’s review, Up in the Air. Read the full story

They say that truth is stranger than fiction and in the case of The Blind Side, that is certainly true. Had the book and the film been a work of fiction, we all would have rolled our eyes and said, you’ve got to be kidding me! What a tall tail! However, die to the confluence of too many improbable circumstances to count, The Blind Side is true. While it is a an enjoyable film featuring several wonderful performances, the question to be answered today is how well does it look and sound on Blu-ray? I guess you will just have to keep on reading. Read the full story

Ever since Toy Story burst on the scene with its incredible computer generated images, hand drawn animation began to fade away. After the release of Toy Story, each new CGI feature seemed to outdo the others, advancing the state of art even further, with more realistic and lifelike animation and movement. When it comes to CGI, the sky really seems to be the limit. However, lost in all this technical advancement was the sheer beauty of hand drawn animation, the kind that the folks at Disney Studios made so famous. I guess it was fitting that Disney, under the helm of John Lassiter of Pixar fame, would be the ones to bring hand drawn animation back to the screen with 2009′s The Princess and the Frog, which has finally made its way to Blu-ray. Read the full story

Making a movie out of a popular book is hard enough. Having the condense several hundred pages of text into a coherent two hour film can be quite a daunting task. The list of great books being made into mediocre films is long indeed. Even more difficult I would imagine is taking a very popular short illustrated children’s book and fleshing it out into a full length motion picture, while keeping true to the spirit of the book. Well that is just what director Spike Jonze has accomplished with the subject of today’s review. Where the Wild Things Are. Read the full story

I guess you can say that I am in the very distinct minority in the US when it comes to soccer. I love it, especially English football, which has a rick, deep and at times, crazy history. Teams like Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Everton, Leeds United, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forrest, Reading and Derby Country, just to name but a few. Even the names of the stadiums evoke the richness of that history, with monikers such as Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge, Anfield and Craven’s Cottage immediately coming to mind! Better than the Wachovia Center don’t you think? Read the full story

Steven Soderbergh’s films are if nothing, very complicated, with layer upon layer of intrigue. From Ocean’s 11,12 and 13 to Traffic it can get to be very difficult to keep up with the action and figure out where the film is heading. Dealing with an actual historical event and the lives of real people, it is a bit easier to follow a film as you already know the actual outcome. Making these characters and these stories into a great film is much more difficult than with works of pure fiction. Which brings us to the subject of today’s review, The Informant. Read the full story

As a reviewer, I am man enough to admit that I occasionally prejudge a movie based on its box.  And when I see that “WWE  Studios Presents” a Blu-ray starring Ted DiBiase (Jr. the wrestler) in The Marine 2, I could already feel the bad review writing itself.  Not only does this movie suffer from a weak pedigree (like “The Marine” really needed a sequel), and star a previously untested wrestler as the lead, but it also suffers from the stigma of “direct to video” from a barely credible production house. Read the full story