Blu-ray Reviews: The French Connection I & II
The 1971 Academy Award winning film The French Connection pulled in not only Best Picture, but four other Oscars for that year, including Best Director, Actor, Editing, and Writing in its category. The French Connection also won three Golden Globes and a host of other awards.
In 1975, it’s underlauded sequel The French Connection II premiered. Now you can own them looking, according not only to ComicsOnline, but also to Director William Friedkin who said so of the first movie, the best that anyone’s ever seen them on their new Blu-ray format.
One important thing to note is that these were made in 1971 and 1975, meaning cultural sensitivity had not yet been invented. Our heroes use racial epithets in a harsh and hurtful way because they can. The violence may not be as graphic by today’s standards, but there is plenty of reason to take the R Rating seriously.
DVD & Blu-ray Review: Madagascar Escape 2 Africa
Marty: This is not crackalackin’.
Alex: Definitely lacking on the cracking, my friend.
Gloria: Is this place great or what?
Alex: I’m going with “or what”.
Remember how funny Madagascar was? Didn’t you love the trailer for Madagascar 2? You know, where it’s got that great elevator intro building up to the “I like to Move It-Move It” song, then Julien the king lemur pops out of the cake in drag, then the penguins fly the plane and… Yeah, after that? well…
DVD Review: The Wizards of Waverly Place: Supernaturally Stylin’
Like anything found on the Disney Channel, The Wizards of Waverly Place is a series that is appropriate for all ages, but with its high degree of goofiness, this series in particular shows itself to be solidly among the masses of tween-centric shows out today in that it’s actually a show that only those with patience for light unrealistic morality comedies will likely enjoy.
DVD Review: Phineas and Ferb vol. 2 The Daze of Summer
“There’s a hundred and four days of summer vacation, and school comes along just to end it. So the annual problem for our generation is finding a good way to spend it. LIKE MAYBE…”
So begins every episode of Phineas and Ferb. Each episode contains 2 stories, so while this DVD only contains 5 episodes, you get 10 cartoons.
Blu-ray Review: Sideways
Sideways is now available on Blu-ray.
Swirl:
For those of you unfamiliar with this vintage, Sideways is a 2004 comedy/drama from Alexander Payne, the director of Election starring Paul Giamatti (Lady in the Water, The Amazing Screw-On Head) as Miles, a high school teacher/novelist/oenologist (wine enthusiast) who takes his friend Jack, played by Thomas Haden Church (Spider-Man 3), on a pre-nuptual vacation to California’s central coast wine country. Miles just wants a mild retreat, while Jack has a more carnal conception of a bachelor’s trip.
DVD Review: Mary Poppins 45th Anniversary Edition
A Jolly Holiday
About a quarter century before it came back into fashion with Who Framed Roger Rabbit Disney’s classic Academy Award winning film Mary Poppins was a pioneer in integrating animation with live action, and with the addition of musical numbers throughout, it really is a jolly holiday wiv Mary as she nannys the Banks family and sings her way into our hearts.
Practically Perfect in Every Way
Blu-ray Review: Max Payne – Unrated
“They were all dead. The final gunshot was an exclamation mark to everything that had led to this point. I released my finger from the trigger. And then it was over.”
-Max Payne, from his pre-flashback monologue in the original game
Blu-ray Review: Dexter: The First Season
Dexter has finally come to Blu-ray Disc and now is the perfect time. Showtime has aired three cable-length seasons of this razor-sharp yet frighteningly inviting series about Dexter Morgan, Miami PD forensic blood-spatter specialist by day and bloodletting vigilante by night, and they’ve finally teased us with DVD releases long enough and have finally put out the story arc that started it all in sharper-than-ever 1080p high definition Blu-ray with 5.1 Dolby TrueHD audio.
Story
Blu-ray Review: Ghost Town
Ricky Gervais from the original UK version of The Office finally settled down and stopped being annoying long enough to make a movie where he doesn’t act like a complete twat (to use Brit vernacular). While his character in Ghost Town, Dr. Bertram Pincus, DDS, is like his Office character David Brent in that he’s someone who starts out as someone you would never want to be around, unlike Brent, Pincus doesn’t have to hit bottom before he acts like a human.
DVD Roast: Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget: Uncensored
You know Comedy Central roasted Bob Saget, cause you saw the commercials interrupting while you were trying to watch The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and South Park.
Blu-ray Review: Serenity
Etta Courum Nas Mehkh!*
Good, now that you’ve calmed down, it’s time to talk about Serenity. Once upon a time there was a little show called Firefly. It was conceived, written and directed by Joss Whedon, who you may remember had a similar relationship with another little multi-media franchise that included Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Angel spinoff. In the Fall of 2002, Joss brought one of the best shows ever written back to the same network that he had brought so much awesomeness to with the Buffy-verse. To show their appreciation, FOX executives in charge of television scheduling that year** did everything in their power to bury, bugger, and bomb this glorious show that was the best of all things Sci-Fi, Western, Action, and Comedy, and was simultaneously all heart.
Blu-ray Review: The X-Files: I Want to Believe
After five years since the television series concluded, The X-Files finally returns with their second cinematic adventure, The X-Files: I Want to Believe
Like many other reviewers I’ve read since the cinematic debut of this film, I wasn’t initially particularly thrilled with the story, but I was very much thrilled to see Mulder and Scully back together again after all these years. This film doesn’t completely fill in the blank since they left the FBI, but it gives you a pretty strong idea as to what’s been going on the whole time.
iPhone Game Review: Iron Man: Aerial Assault
When the Iron Man movie came to theatres this year, it raised the bar for not only comic book movies but all action movies. It featured solid characterization, exciting action, and amazing special effects.
When Iron Man subsequently came to Blu-ray, it also raised the bar in production value for its medium, Making it the best way to experience an already epic movie.
Can a game, which only came out recently, well after the releases of the film and the DVD, hope to measure up, or is this another example of some disappointing cheap ploy to exploit name recognition?
Blu-ray Review: X-Files: Fight The Future
The X-Files TV show ran nine seasons from 1993 to 2002. Season five of Fox’s Golden Globe and Emmy-winning series The X-Files ended with its highest viewership ever, the X-Files division of the FBI within the show had just been shut down, and fans were eager to finally see the X-Files movie, which we learned was shot in during the break between seasons 4 and 5, but picked up right where season 5 left off: the X-Files were no more, but Mulder and Scully were still FBI Agents.
Blu-ray Review: Bam Margera Presents: Where the #$&% is Santa?
As Christmas is upon us and many are feeling some negative aspects of the economy. Have you been to the mall and noticed the population of Santa’s village is a little lean this year. I don’t mean to say that they’ve lost weight individually, but that there are fewer elves, and… Hey, where’s the man himself?