Into the Blu

I know there are some of you out there that hate Billy Joel, well, his music anyway. In fact, a very good long time friend of mine does and I just don’t get it. I have been a fan of Billy Joel’s music since I first stumbled across him, literally, back in April 1972. I was a freshman in high school at the time and a budding audiophile who had just discovered the sonic splendor of music on FM radio. I was tuning up the dial and found myself on WMMR in Philadelphia who was about to broadcast a new artist named Billy Joel, who was performing songs from his new album, Cold Spring Harbor, about to hit record stores. Continue Reading

While I’ve never been huge on having two films on the same disc for mostly irrelevant reasons, you can’t deny the value of getting two films for (occasionally) the price of one. My main debate against the combination of two films is (with the exclusion of sequels) the vast difference in quality between the two (I suppose this generally applies to sequels as well, but that’s a whole other debate). In the past when I’ve come across such combo discs there’s usually a movie I like paired with trash. As well, you have to start concerning yourself with compression issues, and of course the box art.

The two movies in question here are House of Wax (shares the name of Vincent Price’s 1953 film but in fact is not a remake) and Thirteen Ghosts (which is in fact a remake of the 1960 film).

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I remember walking through the upper level of a local movie theater last year when I saw the large cardboard standup of a film called Beverly Hills Chihuahua. “Dear God in Heaven.  How ridiculous is that film going to be?  Well, I can scratch that one off the must-see list.”  Yup…those were pretty much my thoughts at the time.  Then I recently discovered that I would be reviewing it.  Ugh.  But, you have to take the good with the bad and not every film can be as riveting as The Kingdom, so I reluctantly ejected the previous disc from my PS3 and in went Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

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Gary Marshall is perhaps best known for his golden television era. He was the mastermind behind such shows as Happy Days, The Odd Couple, and Laverne And Shirley, going so far to cast his daughter as Laverne in two of the shows and as a secretary in the other. What appears to get lost in that part of his resume is that he created what has been described as the ultimate chick flick. I don’t mean the term in a derogatory manner, but just like guys love to see Clint Eastwood making our day or Bruce Willis shouting yippee kiyay, women love fairy tales. Continue Reading

High School Musical originally aired as a television film by Disney. Upon its release it was the most successful television film for Disney, and its popularity has since only risen. High School Musical has been dubbed as a modern day Romeo and Juliet, as the story centers around the blossoming love of two high school students in rival cliques. I think any self respecting Shakespeare fan would find that comment laughable. Comparing a literary classic to this is amusing, a tale of two lovers bound apart by feuding families and two high school students who can’t date because one is cool and the other isn’t. Laugh out loud. Alright, I’ve never seen the movie, and I’m not about to write it off just yet. Disney doesn’t't often disappoint, and I happen to like musicals, a lot. I’m just going to have to rewind my mindset about 10 years and watch it from a pre teens point of view, who knows I might just be surprised. Continue Reading

Growing up musical movies really captivated me, as they do most children. It’s something everyone can appreciate and have a good time with, however, call it growing up if you want, but Disney just hasn’t been on stride with musicals as of late. Sure the success of High School Musical and others can debate that, but there just hasn’t been that pizzazz that I yearn. But I open my eyes and mind going into The Cheetah Girls: One World, hoping for a nostalgic journey to when these films captivated my imagination. Is Cheetah Girls going to impress, or just be another contemporary drag? Continue Reading

Not only is this the second Blu-ray release of I Am Legend, it is also the third time the Richard Matheson novel I Am Legend has been adapted to film. The first time was The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price, still the best version in my mind to date. The second attempt was the cult classic The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston, although major portions of the adaption were changed from the book. Finally we have are third version, this 2008 release of I Am Legend starring Will Smith.

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When it comes to ranking concert films, the best always seem to have The Last Waltz at or near the top of a very short list. For those unfamiliar with the production, the film centers around the farewell concert of The Band, the Canadian group who helped Bob Dylan transform and expand creatively in the ‘60s, and Dylan’s assistance in their album “Music from Big Pink” was retribution for this. The album continues to be widely regarded as a very influential piece of music decades after its release. The group continued to release albums and tour at a frenetic pace, until Robertson had finally grown weary of the pace in 1976. Rather than hold a simple farewell concert, which would have been the easy choice, The Band decided to make the event a celebration of their careers in a very pure sense. They decided to hold it on Thanksgiving at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom, where they held their first live performance seven years earlier. They fed the several thousand concertgoers before bringing them the group’s work. And little did the fans know they would be witness to one of the great live performances captured on film.

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Tinker Bell has been a Walt Disney icon almost since its inception. The character has gone way beyond her appearance in Peter Pan. In the decades since, she has come to represent the magic of Walt Disney and its many incarnations. Seen at the beginning of every Disney title, Tinker Bell is likely as recognizable as Mickey Mouse and his many friends. John Lassiter and the animators of Disney’s new CG animation studios take on this monumental character in the first of at least 5 announced films to feature the little fairy. Continue Reading

Chow Yun-Fat might not be a name known as well to those of us living in North America, at least not before the 2003 hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In his native China he has been a superstar for some time, redefining the martial arts film. Today he’s almost as well known here. The Replacement Killers was his first Western film. It’s one of those moments in cinema history where many audiences left without really knowing what to make of it all. I remember the first time that I saw the film, and I still don’t know how to quite describe it. The simple explanation is that it’s a typical Asian tough guy film like we’ve seen from Jackie Chan for about 20 years now Continue Reading

A family travels across the United States in an RV. Along the way they encounter all sorts of mishaps and adventures. From that short synopsis you might think I was describing the hilarious National Lampoon’s Vacation film with Chevy Chase. Unfortunately I’m not. Robin Williams, who is arguably one of the funniest comedic actors of all time, isn’t being very particular where he gets his film material from these days. In fact, I expected more out of Barry Sonnenfeld as well. When you team creative people of that caliber, you just have a right to expect more than a decidedly unfunny ripoff of a classic comedy film. Williams is certainly capable of better humor than Chevy Chase. He’s got so much more energy and delivery. Sonnenfeld is the genius who gave us things like Men In Black and the recent wickedly funny series, Pushing Daisies. Of course, he also brought us the disaster that was the Will Smith Wild Wild West film in the 90’s, so maybe we don’t have so much of a right to expect more after all. Continue Reading

Several weeks ago, I was given a number of Sony titles to review that were never sent to us for review. I made my choices and they were on their way to me. One of those Blu-rays was Running with Scissors. I chose it because I knew nothing about it and figured I would, without any kind of research, give it a shot. Once I got around to reviewing it, I truly wish I had chosen something else. Continue Reading