Fanboy & Chum Chum is one of Nickelodeon’s newest shows, and it is pulling some tremendous numbers with each subsequent episode. “Brain Freeze” is a collection of seven episodes that will immediately bring viewers up to date with the show. The titular episode surrounds Fanboy and Chum Chum chugging a Frosty Freezy Freeze, which in turn leads to a mind-crippling brain freeze. As the day gradually spins out of control,…
Rio is one of those films that viewers of all ages can appreciate. This is due to the fact that the film showcases the trials and tribulations of an underdog, who meets a tremendously interesting cast of characters on the way. Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) is a macau that has never learned to fly, and is constantly egged on by a number of the local animals. Feeling that ey is missing…
Fans of 2005’s Hoodwinked will be pleased to know that this is a fairly straightforward sequel to the original Hoodwinked. In this film, a star-studded cast that includes Hayden Panettiere (Red), Patrick Warburton (Wolf), Bill Hader and Amy Poehler (Hansel and Gretel) and even Glenn Close (Granny) will have viewers on the edge of their seats throughout the film’s entire hour and a half runtime. The film is fleshed out…
Not since The Big Chill has a drama so deftly relied on music to serve as its own character in a movie. The emotional indie, The Music Never Stopped, is based on a true story by neurologist/researcher Oliver Sacks (the doctor who also inspired the book and eventual movie “Awakenings”) about a father (played flawlessly by J.K. Simmons) who uses music to connect with his son (Lou Taylor Pucci), hospitalized…
After a bumpy couple of seasons, the long-running HBO series finally gets back into its groove with the seventh and second to last season. This season finds actor Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) between movies, hooking up with porn star Sasha Grey (essentially playing herself) and getting addicted to booze and Cocaine. His hangers on have each found their own lives, Eric (Kevin Connolly) managing other actors; Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) pitching…
Matthew McConaughey may have just found his ticket out of the romantic comedy ghetto. Lincoln Lawyer, based on the wildly popular Michael Connelly novels, centers around the somewhat sleazy defense attorney Mickey Haller who works out of his Lincoln Continental (get it?). Don’t worry, Haller (played deftly by McConaughey) is a loving dad, gets along great with his ex-wife and has just the right amount of charm to make you…
American TV audiences have a problem saying goodbye… well, let me clarify, American TV show producers have a problem saying goodbye as evidenced by how often they keep the shows on life support long after all of the story lines have been exhausted and the audience has moved on. Though NBC’s ER happens to be a big exception to that rule. By centering the show around a revolving cast of…
There has been a lot of buzz surrounding Hobo With A Shotgun over the course of the last year. This DVD (and Blu-Ray) release looks to be the comprehensive release regarding this DVD. Hobo With A Shotgun focuses on Rutger Hauer’s character as ey moves into a new city and looks to try to make a new start. However, the denizens of the city are sufficiently messed-up to ensure that…
Nightbeast is a 1982 film directed by Don Dohler (The Alien Factor, The Galaxy Invader), which had on its crew a young J.J. Abrams. Nightbeast focuses on the exploits of an alien that is using a deadly gun to waste the inhabitants of a small city. Along with the sheer body count, there are gore shots and other scenes of destruction that will keep viewers interested throughout. Troma has bundled…
There are a number of examples of films that use a non-acting celebrity that end up being some of the worst of all time (Kazaam, for example). However, Love’s Kitchen is a movie that looks to destroy this belief; the inclusion of Gordon Ramsay in the film seems to work well. This is likely because the title does not only revolve around Ramsay; Dougray Scott (Rob) and Claire Forlani (Kate)…
I had a Hungarian grandmother, so the topics that are covered during Hunky Blues are tremendously interesting to me. This documentary, directed by Péter Forgács, showcases the unique experience of Hungarian immigrants to the United States. To showcase the first-hand materials that ey has found, Forgács presents viewers with footage culled from the Library of Congress, different members of the New Jersey Hungarian community, and even from the museum on…
Peace is an interesting concept. Despite being a nation that prides itself on peace, the United States has gotten in to a tremendous amount of war. The idea of peace is something that is poorly defined; this is why the Perpetual Peace Project has gotten together to create this DVD. By trying to tease out what peace means, both in terms to individuals as well as in a philosophical sense,…
ER: The Complete 15th Season captured the final episodes of the venerable show, which all originally aired in 2008 and 2009. These twenty-two episodes tie together a number of the loose ends that had been presented viewers over the course of the show, while still having time to create cutting-edge medical drama. Where the 14th season had seemed to sputter due to the writer’s strike, the 15th season immediately hits…
Kino continues to impress with their Blu-Ray releases in 2011. The Romantic Englishwoman is a film that has been relegated to the dustbin of history, but represents an impressive title that should be sought out by anyone that is a fan of seventies cinema, Michael Caine, or of comedies of errors. The Romantic Englishwoman surrounds a couple; Lewis (Michael Caine) and Elizabeth (Glenda Jackson) are visited by a German named…
The 39 Steps is a fantastic bit of cinema from deep in the VCI vault; this 1959 film features Kenneth More and Taina Elg and is a recreation of the 1935 Hitchcock thriller, which itself was based on a spy novel by John Buchan. The film starts out with Richard Hannay (More) attempting to save a woman nearly killed by a driver. After realizing that things are not exactly as…
The Con Artist has the supreme injustice of being released straight to DVD, rather than receiving a proper theatrical run. This is not due in any fashion to the quality of the picture, and really does speak to the fact that American audiences will not give a movie a chance if it does not contain sufficient star power. The Con Artist is headed up by Rossif Sutherland and Rebecca Romijn…
Dora’s Big Party Pack is the latest release by Nickelodeon, and it is a boxed set that contains three different DVDs – Dora’s Big Birthday Adventure, Super Silly Fiesta, and It’s A Party!. This bundled set gives viewers nearly five hours of material, while ensuring that each of the individual releases continue to contain the material that they did when they were originally released. Each DVD has a video quality…
Primal Scream is a band that has never gotten the adoration in the United States that they have around the rest of the world. While they have flirted briefly with fame here (2006’s Country Girl is the one track that I can call to mind), the band has continually been making music since 1982. Eagle Vision has placed their Screamdelica Live release onto Blu-Ray, placing a tremendous amount of additional…
A great amount of what ESPN does is simply too short to act as anything but a brief introduction to the topic at hand. In terms of baseball’s 162-game season (and lengthy yearly history), what they provide is simply not enough. There is a new series out by Ed Rendell that looks to delve the depths of baseball, for each of the league’s storied franchises. The great thing about the…
The amount of depth that the Criterion Collection gets in regard to cinema is amazing. Raffaello Matarazzo had a tremendous career that ran for thirty years (1933 to 1964), but eir name has to now been largely forgotten. This collector’s set includes four films: Chains, Tormento, Nobody’s Children, and The White Angel. The video transfer for each of these black and white films is simply stunning, while the stories that…