The Final Word on Physical Media
Demolition Man is a fun ride and one of Stallone’s better entries in the 1990s second maybe to Cop Land and just ahead of Cliffhanger. One can’t discount Wesley Snipes who to that point had been the hero and takes a fun villainous turn with an over-the-top performance that matched up well with Stallone’s macho personality.
The Specialist is the tale of three movies: Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone are in one (average film); James Woods in another (an over-the-top but fun one); and Rod Steiger, with help by Mr. Camp himself Eric Roberts (in a bad film) who seemed to be on a different page from everybody else. As a whole, this is an uneven movie with poor pacing for the first two-thirds and it wasn’t until the action-packed finale that things come together.
Super Hybrid borrows ideas from several other movies and that’d be all well and good… if it had at least been an entertaining flick. Instead it’s a boring horror movie with card-board cutout characters – and a caricature in the case of one –, a mundane story and just an all around inane plotline to begin with.
It’s too bad that the series went in this direction as this third entry in the successful Spy Kids series is downright awful in every way imaginable. The story itself isn’t very exciting, the acting is at best passable and the plotline with the Toymaker doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
It’s another installment in the franchise and Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams continues to be a fun action-filled adventure for the kids. However, this time around I wasn’t as enthralled with the plot as it became tiring to get through. That said, there are far worse films out there and much worse for families so it’s still a passable movie.
Spy Kids is a fun little movie that kids will enjoy and even adults might find amusing. The acting by the kids was actually decent enough and unlike so many other child actors, they never got on my nerve which is a feat in itself.
Copycat has been compared to Silence of the Lambs and Se7en. I don’t quite agree as both of those are easy suspense-thriller classics in my book, but it still is a solid thriller that features a couple good performances and is well written and finely directed.
Despite some decent visual and practical effects, Red Planet is just an ordinary movie in that hellish spot between the good and bad making it a forgettable film as a whole.
Bridget Jones’s Diary is still after all these years, 10 to be exact, is a great British comedy with three fine performances. The Blu-ray itself is decent enough with good video and audio transfers and all the features from the DVD were ported over so anyone thinking of upgrading will not miss anything.
Despite only having a relatively short 97-minute running time, Source Code is a far more impactful film than others that are a good 40-50 minutes longer. The reason in part to this is the efficiency of director Duncan Jones who jumps in to the mainstream after the success of indie hit Moon and makes a splash.
Tekken is just the next in a long line of failed game to film adaptations. I didn’t feel this was a bad movie, just an average one. It held some entertainment value but not nearly enough to recommend this.
The “I <3 iCarly Collection” isn’t anything special as it just contains the previously released DVDs of “iFight Shelby Marx”, “iSaved Your Life” and “iSpace Out”. The features are the same, the audio and video is the same so unless you don’t already own these, in which case you can get them at a decent price (though I still recommend the season volume sets), then you can pass this on by.
Wild Cherry is yet another comedy trying to repeat/copy better movies but doesn’t measure up in any way. I do have some respect for Tania Raymonde for her, um, “commitment” but otherwise it’s more cheap shelf filler at Best Buy and Wal-Mart.
Endure is a finely directed thriller with a good performance from Judd Nelson, thick stache and all, but the story itself is far too simplistic that it would’ve been better suited for a television series like “Criminal Minds” or “CSI”. I also had a problem with some of the behind-the-scenes decisions between the choppy editing and an overbearing and, at times, needless score during some key scenes.
Marvel Knights “Iron Man: Extremis” and “Spider-Woman: Agent of S.W.O.R.D.” are two decent motion comics which I’m certain will thrill fans of each character and the comic book they are based upon. For me, I’ve never been a big fan of the motion comic but even so, they are entertaining and at a low price is worth picking up especially if you don’t already own the individual DVD releases.