Into the Blu

Ah, magic. In a time where films and television shows that deal with the supernatural are so prevalent such as Supernatural, Harry Potter, the Twilight films and so on; it’s always interesting to see some of the older flicks that dealt with the supernatural. How do the films from the last couple decades fare compared to the modern supernatural revival?

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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. Continue Reading

I must say that I find it amazing that a modest sci-fi movie hit from 1994 has spawned now three television series, from the original Stargate SG-1 to Stargate Atlantis to the subject of today’s review Stargate Universe. While I enjoyed the original film, I can’t say that I was a huge fan of SG-1 and have not liked Stargate Atlantis at all. How will Stargate Universe stack up against the prior two series? For yours truly, it is easily the best of the bunch and well worth a look. Continue Reading

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. Continue Reading

One of my most cherished Christmas presents as an adolescent was a boxed set of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.  To the fertile mind of a 12-year old, these were the best books ever, igniting a life long affinity for fantasy literature.  What made the books even more special is the prose used allowed a reader to form strong visions in their own mind of the characters, places, and action contained therein.

After reading the books, I was excited to discover that an animated version of the book existed, and lobbied hard to get my buddies to rent it when we were having a movie night.  And after we all sat back and viewed the movie, we looked at each other with the same expression on our faces: “What in heck was that?”

So the question is, after 28 years of watching various forms of animation, have I gained a new appreciation for Ralph Bakshi’s labor of love?  Does being on Blu-ray make the movie any better? Continue Reading

In the early 1980’s, I used to help my Dad do the off-hours cleaning of a major electronics store, with payment for my services being that I could play all the Atari 2600 I wanted.  Unfortunately, some days all of the Atari cartridges were locked up, and I was forced to find other diversions in the store.  This led me to the A/V department, and the original RCA Selectavision Video Disc player.

Although Star Wars IV was always my favourite, one day I found Escape from New York in my favourite Selectavision player.  I was suitably impressed (as most 14-year olds are) with the post apocalyptic artwork on the cover, so on went the player, and into my memory went one of my favourite movie memories of my preteen life. Continue Reading

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. Continue Reading

When of the benefits of doing reviews of Blu-ray films is the chance to revisit old gems, films that you loved but may have forgotten about or not having seen in a long time. One of those films for me is Cocoon which has recently been released on Blu-ray. It has been many years once I have seen this film and was one I couldn’t wait to check out once it was released on Blu-ray. How would it hold up all these years later? Continue Reading

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. Continue Reading

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). Continue Reading

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.

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My first brush with Greek mythology happened early on in my life, during the summer of 1981, with the theatrical release of Clash of the Titans.  Although I was a mere 7 years of age, I remember the experience fondly and all the countless hours of enjoyment the movie’s action figures gave me as I bashed them around in my Little Tikes green turtle sandbox.  Now, almost 30 years later, a new generation of fans will be able to not only experience the mythological adventure in an all-new take on the story (this April’s Clash of the Titans CGI spectacular featuring Sam Worthington and Liam Neeson), but also they will be able to re-live the original film in all its splendor with a new digitally remastered presentation on the Blu-ray format.  But before we start talking about how it looks and sounds on its new Blu-ray release, I wanted to spend a few moments reflecting on the film itself and whether or not my recent viewing was as memorable and magical as it was when I was a little tike. Continue Reading