The Hulk (Family Friendly Version) I was surprised today to stumble across 10 listings on Amazon for Universal Studios movies on DVD listed specifically as “Family Friendly Versions”. The DVDs are all manufactured on demand (created only when ordered) and listed at $14.98 each. Titles include The Hulk, The Mummy, Bruce Almighty, Mamma Mia! (the [...]
The Rocketeer is out on Blu-ray today, and to remind you of the fun of this film, here are some clips. When Cliff first puts on the rocket pack, Peevy calls him a hood ornament: This scene is worth it for Cliff’s reaction, after his first flight. Also, the gopher line. This one’s pretty darn [...]
When I first had a chance to see The Rocketeer, I was too young to appreciate the appeal of a simple adventure story. (I thought maturity required cynicism.) Now, I’m thrilled to get a chance to better appreciate the excitement and nostalgia of this 1938-set tale about a guy with a jetpack who fights Nazis [...]
Thank goodness for light weeks! Most of what’s arrived at the house this week has been gifts for family for the upcoming holidays. Many publishers have emptier schedules these days, with 2011 books already released. After all, if they’re coming out now, then they’ll miss being on many best-of end-of-year lists, which have already been [...]
Disney has released the most-discussed musical number from The Muppets, recut into a music video. Here’s Jason Segel and Walter (Peter Linz) singing “Man or Muppet”, complete with my favorite surprise cameo of the film and a few intercuts of key movie plot points. It’ll spoil a few bits for you, but if you haven’t [...]
I really enjoy Suburgatory, a sitcom about a city teenager who moves to the suburbs with her single dad. I enjoy it even more now that I’ve read this humorous interview with show creator Emily Kapnek about the vision for the show. She even tackles the reaction of some fans seeing a bit too much [...]
As part of their newest release wave, Warner Archive is offering a set of TV movies starring Elizabeth Montgomery, including Black Widow Murders: The Blanche Taylor Moore Story. This one is a particular favorite for me, because I have a tenuous connection to the story. In addition to having one of those particularly Southern names, [...]
The Help stars Emma Stone as a well-meaning but not-yet-enlightened wannabe journalist in Jackson, Mississippi, in the early 1960s. She interviews “the help”, black maids who take care of the homes and raise the white children of the well-off women they work for, to create a book telling their stories. It’s a stunning, often funny, [...]
I skipped last week, because nothing showed up because of the American Thanksgiving holiday. Which made this week a bonanza! Wandering Son Book 2 The highlight, in terms of book I’m most looking forward to reading, is the second volume of Wandering Son. The two gender-swapped children are now in sixth grade, a time when [...]
Warner Archive has apparently been successful with their collections, since they keep announcing more of them — and the latest has a special bonus. The Andy Hardy Collection (hopefully labeled Volume 1) collects six of the 30s and 40s films starring Mickey Rooney. The first 400 of these box sets (priced at $59.95, no discounts) [...]
It’s Matt Smith’s second series as the Doctor! The 14-episode set begins with a disc containing the hour-long special A Christmas Carol, a charming story that freshens up the classic Dickens tale with comedy and a giant flying shark. The Doctor has to un-harden the heart of Michael Gambon by going back in time to [...]
KC and I went to see The Muppets on opening day, and while we enjoyed it, there were some aspects of the movie I wanted to talk about. It’s a good movie, but there were three things that left me wondering. The first was the central presence of Walter, the new Muppet. He and co-writer [...]
I’m going to have some good watching over the Thanksgiving weekend. The BBC was kind enough to send a review copy of Doctor Who: The Complete Sixth Series (due out next Tuesday). KC and I had been saving the second half of the season on the TiVo, so now we can discard those and watch [...]
Are you looking for some Warner Archive movies, but $19.95 seems a little too high? Through tomorrow (Monday November 21), you can get 25% off many of their products, which makes the standard films $14.96. If you’re looking for sets or multi-disc packages, you can save, too. Plus, they’re offering free shipping (to the lower [...]
I fully support this call for a TCM for television, a channel that treats classic TV shows with the same respect Turner Classic Movies does for film. … no one’s ever done a classic television channel the way I think it should be done. The emphasis in the past has been on nostalgia as an [...]
Neverwhere is a six-episode British TV series by Neil Gaiman that first aired in 1996. To mark its 15th anniversary, the BBC has put out this remastered DVD edition. Neverwhere: The 15th Anniversary Edition I’ve never seen it before, so these are the reactions of someone now, not someone with a fondness or a fandom. [...]
Since I thought I remembered the movie pretty well, for my first home video viewing of X-Men: First Class, I chose “X Marks the Spot” mode, which interrupts the film with interview inserts (such as director/co-screenwriter Matthew Vaughn explaining his goals for the film) and behind-the-scenes footage (including some special effects tricks and the design [...]
I thought I’d already reviewed this movie when it came out in theaters this summer, but apparently not. I enjoyed watching Captain America: The First Avenger, but I didn’t have much to say about it. Since everyone’s moved on to wondering about Marvel’s The Avengers, this film feels a little like marking time, like a [...]
Warner’s new digital movie scheme, UltraViolet, gets an article in the NY Times positioning it as a way for the studio to compete with rentals, especially Netflix. This strikes me as misguided. People who simply want to see a film for a buck or two for the night are not the same audience as those [...]
Green Lantern was the second home video release to carry the UltraViolet cloud-based authentication system for providing digital copies across devices. (Horrible Bosses is the first; both came out the same week, but HB was on Tuesday and GL on Friday.) When I tried UltraViolet, I first had a complete failure, but once my Flixster [...]
