God bless the deranged maniacs at the Warner Archives and their desire to not let anything be forgotten. As part of their exponentially-growing manufacture on demand DVD program, they’ve added to their already impressive list of animated releases with a 2-disc release of Hanna-Barbera’s The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley.
Martin Short has had a wide and varied career in comedy, and inamongst appearing on SCTV, Saturday Night Live and his film career, he created a character named Ed Grimley. Formed from equal parts of sight gags from his SCTV days and a voice he used to do to annoy his wife, Ed caught on with America during Short’s SNL run. When NBC and Hanna-Barbera looked for a way to compete with CBS’ Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, the hyperkinetic Mr. Grimley was tailor-made.
Featuring a mini-reunion of the SCTV gang, the series features Martin in the titular (a word you want to hear more often, and so seldom do) role, with Andrea Martin and Catherine O’Hara, with Joe Flaherty reprising his SCTV creation Count Floyd. Jonathan Winters rounded out the crew, adding in his comedy genius.
The comparison to Pee-Wee is easy to make on the surface, but at its base, Ed’s show was a surreal take on a sitcom, as opposed to the kids show parody of Mr. Herman. Ed has no desire to find adventures; he’s more than happy practicing his triangle and enjoying the company of his neighbors at the palatial Freebus Arms. But adventure seeks him out, and before you can say “Uncle Balfour’s favorite Mantovani record” he’s running n a horse race or getting a new identity after testifying in a robbery trial or being whisked to Kansas via a hurricane.
Ed Grimley was one of the last shows made at Hanna-Barbera before their purchase by Turner, and was one of its last truly original works. With character work and story direction by Scott Shaw! the show had a unique voice that stood above the sadly dying world of Saturday Morning cartoons. It’s popped back up on Cartoon Network on occasion, but thanks to Warner Archives, fans can get their triangle on whenever they please.
How well does anyone really know their pet…or ANY animal? Behind a cute and/or cuddly exterior there may lurk a cunning crime-fighter with a brown fedora, a top-secret identity and a license to thrill! Meet the heroic Animal Agents of the O.W.C.A. (Organization Without A Cool Acronym) when “Phineas and Ferb: Animal Agents” comes to DVD on February 26, 2013.
Join Perry the Platypus – a.k.a. Agent P – and his fellow operatives as they team up to thwart Dr. Doofenshmirtz and his dastardly “Inators.” Be they furry or feathered, scaly or slimy, these fearless agents roll over for nobody when it comes to crushing evil in the Tri-State Area and beyond. Fully loaded with over two hours of animated animal-themed adventures, including the exciting, two-part “Phineas And Ferb” cliffhanger “Where’s Perry?”, “Phineas and Ferb: Animal Agents” is a fun-filled, action-packed laughfest that will drive audiences wild!
Phineas and Ferb: Animal Agents includes a cool activity spy kit complete with a set of paper binoculars, trading cards and O.W.C.A. I.D. Badge.
Creators / Executive Producers:
Jeff “Swampy” Marsh & Dan Povenmire
Cast:
Vincent Martella (TV’s Everybody Hates Chris) as voice of Phineas
Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Nanny McPhee) as voice of Ferb
Ashley Tisdale (Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure) as voice of Candace
Alyson Stoner (Step Up 3D, Camp Rock 1 & 2) as voice of Isabella
Caroline Rhea (The Suite Life of Zach and Cody) as voice of Mom
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment are partnering with Operation Gratitude to launch the care package initiative “Operation Skyfall” in honor of the February 12 Blu-ray and DVD release of 007’s latest adventure.
Beginning at 10:00 a.m. Feb. 12 at the Army National Guard armory in Van Nuys, California, volunteers including military families, war veterans, fans and more will be on hand to assemble up to 7,000 Skyfallbranded care packages to be sent to active duty soldiers overseas. The packages will include personal care items such as body wash, deodorant, shaving cream and other toiletries and will feature a DVD copy of the explosive 23rd installment of the James Bond franchise, Skyfall.
“Skyfallis the most popular Bond film ever made and an action-packed film like this can really boost morale with our troops overseas,” said Operation Gratitude founder Carolyn Blashek. “Operation Gratitude has been supporting our servicemen and women for 10 years and this partnership was a great opportunity to provide some much needed entertainment along with toiletries and personal letters that our Military heroes greatly enjoy.”
Bond fans in Southern California are encouraged to come out and support “Operation Skyfall” by helping assemble the packages the morning of February 12 in Van Nuys. For more information on how to volunteer please OpGratVolunteer1@yahoo.com.
Fans can also send donations in the name of “Operation Skyfall” directly to Operation Gratitude by visiting www.OperationGratitude.com.
In SkyfallBond’s loyalty to M (Judi Dench) is tested as her past returns to haunt her. With MI6 now compromised from both inside and out, M is left with one ally she can trust: Bond. 007 takes to the shadows – aided only by field agent, Eve (Naomie Harris) – following a trail to the mysterious Silva (Javier Bardem), whose lethal and hidden motives have yet to reveal themselves.
There are flashes of characterization, wit, and warmth in House at the End of the Street, making you hope it is a cut above your modern day horror film. The movie largely focuses on the mother and daughter tandem of Sarah (Elisabeth Shue) and Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence), as they struggle to start fresh in a town after divorce. They can only afford to rent such a nice house because it is situated near the home where a young girl murdered her parents so is tainted. Of course, right there, you know the daughter is still around. Then we learn the son, who had been living with relatives when the heinous act occurred, had moved back in. And we’re off.
The movie, said to be inspired by a short story written by Jonathan Mostow, probably worked better as prose, where more could be done to set mood and character without falling into the tropes that reduce this to a cookie cutter thriller that fails to really thrill. The best thing it has going for it as some twists and turns towards the end that are interesting but are not explored (nor will I discuss so as not to spoil it for fans).
What makes the movie interesting to watch is the cast, headed by Shue, who hasn’t done much interesting work since Leaving Las Vegas, but makes the most of the underwritten role of the mother tightening her grip on the teenage daughter she loves, realizing she’s losing her at the same time. Lawrence, a major star thanks to Winter’s Bone and The Hunger Games, also doesn’t really get enough to work with but plays the new girl at high school rather well. Her scenes with Max Theriot, the boy next door, are some of the best in the film.
Had screenwriter David Loucka and director Mark Tonderai –two men with negligible credits — played more with the mother/daughter, new girl in town threads, this could have been a far richer, more believable tale. Instead, they fell into the trap of using that as window dressing, focusing instead on the mystery of who is trapped under the floor of the cursed house. The soundtrack by Theo Green adds a level of suspense that the perfunctory photography fails to deliver.
The disc coms with the 101-minutetheatricalversion and the unrated 107-minute version, which is just more of the same, making it all the more disappointing. The promised shocking added twist is interesting and could have made the film more interesting, and certainly more of a Hitchcockian thrill ride as promised in the short extra “Journey Into Terror” where the cast and crew heroically make it sound like the film was worth the effort. For Lawrence, this is one of those she will keep on her resume and probably never talk about again.
This release, out now from 20th Century Home Entertainment comes with both versions on a Blu-ray disc and the standard DVD and digital copy are on the second disc.
Now that The Amazing Spider-Man is out on DVD and Blu-Ray, there is now a short video, “Everything Wrong With The Amazing Spider-Man In 2 Minutes Or Less”, that gives us 53 different Movie Crimes crimes throughout the film, like Peter Parker’s Comics-Code safe usage of the phrase “Mother Hubbard” and his magic skateboard. (Warning: There are spoilers in this video.)
I do have to admit that we glossed over a lot of these in our review when the movie first came out in July. What about you? What do you think was missed?
Using the new Doctor Who Limited Edition Gift Set, your noble author will make his way through as much of the modern series as he can before the Christmas episode, The Snowmen. And thank you all for wearing your ID cards…
Rose has let time get away from her a bit, but once that’s sorted, she and The Doctor have come back just in time for the…
Rose returns home after a brief time away…no, sorry check that; she’s come back a year after she left, relative to the current timeline. So after a great deal of explanation to friends and family as to where she’s been, she ruminates about the things she’s seen on her roof, how nobody else knows about what she knows…until the giant alien spaceship comes careening through the skies over London and into the Thames. Unable to make it past the police blockades in central, they watch the events on the TV.
Inside Number Ten, the Prime Minister is missing, and a minor back-bencher, in a staggering coincidence, is the highest-ranking politician in the city, and is named acting PM. A little TOO coincidental – as soon as he and a couple of civil servants are alone in the PM’s conference room, they begin to laugh with the confidence that a plan has come together. The spaceship, and the alien within, are all a dodge to place these three people in power. They are members of a race called the Slitheen, who are packed into the skins of the now deceased politicos like Wonder Wart-Hog into his Philbert Desanex suit. They plan to panic the planet into releasing nuclear hell, wiping everyone out, and sell off radioactive chunks like a galactic Odd-Lot. The Doctor needs the help of Jackie and Mickey to do the only thing that can be done to eliminate the threat – blow up Number Ten.
This is the first two-parter of the new series, and the end of the first episode is a perfect old-school cliffhanger, with every member of the cast in peril in separate locations. This also gives the impression there’s more than a couple Slitheen suits, as well. Even now, the subtle art of sleight of hand can stretch a dollar.
As he did with the Nestene, The Doctor offers the Slitheen a chance to walk away. We see that happen quite a bit in the new series; like Sun-Tzu said, do everything you can to prevent going to war, but when you have to, go in hard and fast, with intent to win. Odds are The Doctor helped co-write that book.
Once again, the collection of recurring characters grows. Penelope Wilton brings us the spectacular Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North, who will move on to great things in a very short period of time. And another member of the Torchwood crew makes an appearance; Toshiko Sato, seen here as the coroner examining (and running from) the little alien. The Slitheen themselves became recurring characters – they’ll return later this season, as well as more than a couple times on The Sarah Jane Adventures. One recurring actor, Lachele Carl, is almost unnoticed, but she’s the only one to appear as a named character on all three Who series. The American newsreader she plays doesn’t even get a name in this adventure, but does eventually – Trinity Wells. She appears every time news about aliens is reported from the US in future episodes throughout the Davies run of the show.
There’s an extra on the DVD that talks about the miniature work used to get the shot of the ship crashing through Big Ben. After the shot was completed with the LEFT wing of the ship tearing through the clock, the CGI team realized it looked better with the RIGHT wing going through. So the miniature shot was flipped, but not corrected – if you look quickly, you’ll see the number on the clock faces are reversed.
Re-watching the Eccletson season, I’m struck as how much more realistic the world feels. The look on everyone’s faces as an alien ship crashed in their midst is that of not horror, but mild inconvenience. Jackie’s reaction to Rose’s prodigal return is honest and angry. The series of shots as a progressively larger number of people fill up Rose and Jackie’s flat, more there to scold Rose than to see the events on the telly are hilarious. And at the same time, he shoehorns in the fact that uncontrollable flatulence is a tell for a Slitheen. The balance of the serious and the silly is expertly done. Moffat’s interpretation of the world is much broader, more tongue in cheek, Not better or worse, just different. Similarly, each of The Doctor’s companions had family, as I’ve mentioned before. Amy didn’t – no parents, just a mysterious aunt who never even appeared on screen. This allowed the trips they took to be less tied to home. When they brought Rory into the narrative in a larger way, he joined the crew, resulting in no substantive reason to pop back to Earth for a while. Only in the first half of the season did we meet Rory’s Dad, and we learned that their visiting times on Earth were few and far between.
If anything, I think the more serious (relatively speaking) take Davies took in his years gave Steven the freedom go go bigger in his run of the show. If they’d started that big, it might not have caught on. It certainly looks like the back half of the new series will take a more serious turn, as the last couple of episode certainly did, but we’ll see how much of a balance Moffat can keep.
If you’re not sure what to buy somebody who’s a fan of something, you can’t go wrong by giving them everything.
This year’s Doctor Who analogue to the Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle is the Doctor Who Limited Edition Gift Set, collecting the entire run of the new series on DVD, from Eccleston to Tennant to Smith. It also includes a replica (dang) of the eleventh Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver, a copy of IDW’s Doctor Who comic, specifically the San Diego Comic-Con special issue, and a set of lovely art cards of the Doctors of the new series and their companions.
Each of the series sets is as complete as they can physically be without including DNA samples. All the episodes, plus the episodes of the late lamented Doctor Who Confidential, cut scenes, episode commentaries, prequel episodes, the Children in Need and Comic Relief sketches, features from the website, and believe it or not, many more.
Rounding out the set is the trilogy of specials BBC America did as a lead-up to the new season: The Women, Destinations and Timey-Wimey of Doctor Who. In each, cast members, celebrities and various dignitaries all ruminate and reminisce about the series, discuss the possibility of the technology of the show crossing over to the real world, and compare how quickly they’d race into the old TT40 if it landed and The Doctor held out his hand and said “Join me”.
Now, a set like this demands one’s attention. And that’s exactly what I’m going to give it. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be doing A Doctor A Day, where I’ll watch and review (at least) one episode a day, all in preparation for the new Christmas episode The Snowmen, lensing, oddly enough, on Christmas Day.
The Doctor Who Limited Edition Giftset is available via Amazon and any number of online purveyors of fabulous.
Pride, Prejudice and Zombies was a quirky, fun mash-up of genres that sparked a brief fad of similar works. Of the rushed releases to fight for shelf space, about the only worth successor was Seth Grahame-Smith’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. This is early Abe; pre-White House, when the rail splitter used his axe in imaginative ways, keeping the frontier safe from the undead. Given the nation’s continuing fascination with Honest Abe, it was tailor made for Hollywood.
This summer, we got director Timur Bekmambetov’s interpretation and thanks to a script from Grahame-Smith, the finished product is pretty much what you expect: atmospheric popcorn fun. While attention has returned to the more somber Abe with Steve Spielberg’s forthcoming Lincoln, 20th Century Home Entertainment has released Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter on home video and it’s well worth a look.
Starring Benjamin Walker, the film’s protagonist looks perfectly capable of dealing death to vampires while cracking the occasional joke which was the man’s signature. The story sets out early in his life when he saw his mother poisoned by a vampire, named Jack Barts (Marton Csokas), and years later, after being trained by Henry Sturgess (Dominic Cooper), exacts his grisly revenge, setting Lincoln on his path to destiny. Along the way, he befriends shopkeeper Joshua Speed (Jimmi Simpson), working and living at the general store. And he meets his future wife, Mary Todd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), when she was young, pretty and still sane. We rush through the 1800s at a pretty fast clip so suddenly he’s president and the Civil War is threatening.
His mission to eradicate vampires leads him to learn they all report to Southern plantation owner Adam (Rufus Sewell) and his sister, Vadoma (Erin Wasson). Adams offers Confederate president Jefferson Davis (John Rothman) his vampire’s allegiance in the coming war. Don’t come looking for a history lesson in the plot although it does nicely weave the vampires’ plight and desire for dominance into the slavery issue (slaves make for plentiful and tasty food it seems). Nor should you look for the vamps to follow the standard rules so the bitten become vampires instantly and Abe’s axe is dipped in silver, better for werewolves than vampires.
The film veers from playing it with tongue firmly in cheek to deadly serious and the shifting can be jarring and dissatisfying. Bekmambetov, best known for the stylish Wanted, does a better job with the look of the film, using a dark color palette and keeping things feeling eerie. His action is frenetic but unoriginal, which is a shame. His cast does what they can but the tone affects their performances, wasting some fine potential.
Thankfully, the transfer to disc is pretty flawless and sounds good. The Combo Pack comes with the standard Blu-ray, DVD, and a code for both an iTunes digital copy and UltraViolet copy. The extras are a standard assortment, starting with Audio Commentary with Writer Seth Grahame-Smith which is interesting although his wit needed more air time. The Great Calamity (7:43), is an interesting CGI-animated short about vampires in America as told by Edgar Allen Poe to Lincoln, featuring the story of Elizabeth Bathory. The Making of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (75:21) is a five-part making-of documentary which tells you everything you need to know and then some. Lincoln Park’s “Powerless” Music Video (2:54) and theatrical trailer round out the assorted extras.
The escapades of New York Police detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle was well known even in the early 1960s and attempts to tell his story fell through until he was captured in print in the best-selling Robin Cook book The French Connection. William Friedkin helmed a film adaptation that made Doyle the poster boy for brutal but effective policemen for the next decade and catapulted character actor Gene Hackman into leading man status. The French Connection is very much a product of the 1970s as filmmakers were shaking off the restrictions of the now-dead studio system and a new wave of filmmakers were stretching their muscles, trying things that were new and fresh in terms of structure, production, and performance.
As part of 20th Century Home Entertainment’s Signature collection of classics now on Blu-ray, this film is a reminder of just how good a movie can be when all the right elements fall into place. When first released in Blu-ray back in 2009, Friedkin was intimately involved in the transfer and touted its improvements. Overlaying a saturated color print over a black and white print, Friedkin obtained a washed out color palette that he felt properly represented his vision and while purists howled. This new version is also approved by both Friedkin and Cinematographer Owen Roizman and looks good, certainly better than the original DVD. The transfer captures Manhattan at a time when it teetered on the brink of grime and bankruptcy.
Why did this win the Best Picture Award in 1971? It’s a story of good versus evil, drugs, an immortal car chase and terrific performances by an ensemble that featured Roy Scheider as Doyle’s partner Buddy “Cloudy” Russo, ex-con-turned-coffee shop owner named Sal Boca (Tony Lo Bianco), and French shipping executive Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey), who is trying to brink 120 lbs. of heroin into the city. The core story is the attempt by Doyle and Russo to find out when the shipment will arrive and arresting Charnier, but getting the facts and then executing the arrest propels the movie with the tempo of a finely tuned race car. Doyle is the center, profane, racists, crude and mesmerizing.
Speaking of races, the car chase is a class as Doyle commandeered a civilian’s Pontiac LeMans and chased an elevated train carrying an escaping hitman. Shot in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, it followed the BMT West End Line (now the D and B lines) until the subway collided with another. The front mounted cameras was undercranked so the speed appeared higher than it was but was an adrenaline-pumping sequence that elevated the film to the upper echelon of action pics at the time.
The disc re-presents the 2001 DVD’s extras including two audio commentary tracks – one from Friedkin, the second with Hackman and Scheider. The deleted scenes are accompanied with Friedkin’s interesting commentary and there are two documentaries: the BBC-produced The Poughkeepsie Shuffle and Untold Stories of The French Connection – 30th Anniversary Special. New to Blu-ray are seven new pieces: Anatomy of a Chase; Hackman on Doyle; Friedkin and Grosso Remember the Real French Connection; Scene of the Crime; Color Timing The French Connection; Cop Jazz: The Music of Don Ellis, and Rogue Cop: The Noir Connection, with historians James Ursini and Alain Silver. Like others in the Signature series, it comes with a glossy booklet with tons of information on the film.
The Nintendo Wii U Deluxe Set, listing at 349.99, is already sold out before its release on the 18th
Nintendo of America today announced a benefits incentive program for purchasers of its new [[[Nintendo Wii U Deluxe Set]]]. By signing up with their Club Nintendowebsite and registering their system purchase, users will receive a ten percent “points rebate” on purchases of WII U made through the Nintendo e-Shop. In addition, for each five hundred points earned in this fashion, users will receive a five dollar credit on future purchases in the eShop.
Club Nintendo allows users to earn points by registering their Nintendo purchases, and by taking brief surveys about the reasons for purchase and opinions on gameplay. The points can be redeemed for downloadable games or collectible accessories. High points earners are also eligible for rarer limited-edition items, made available for free.
This is the latest in a series of promotions intended to drive business to the Nintendo eShop. The release of [[[New Super Mario Bros 2]]] for the 3DS offered a 50 point Club Nintendo bonus for buying the downloadable version of the game. Another promotion running now allows users to receive a free downloadable game with the purchase of one of a select set of new releases for the 3DS. Nintendo does not offer their downloadable games at a discount over the store-bought versions, which makes them far more profitable to the company – while saving money on printing and shipping of physical media, they also receive the full price of the game, not just the wholesale price made if sold to a retail store. It also eliminates the resale market – the downloaded games cannot be sold back to a store, and can only be transferred from one system to another a limited number of times. Special offers like this are clearly intended to make the digital purchase more appealing to the user.
With this offer, a fifty dollar or higher game would effectively earn an immediate five dollar rebate towards further eShop purchases. However, the final list of Wii U games available through the eShop has not yet been revealed; only four retail games have been announced so far, including NintendoLand, which already comes with the Deluxe Set. Nintendo customer service reps have stated it will include their both “full-size” retail releases like New Mario Bros Wii U, as well as many smaller games at lower price points. Their retail games are delivered on a DVD, which holds up to 4.2 GB of data. It’s almost certain most of their releases do not fill those discs to bursting; if they did, only about 8 retail games could be stored on the system’s 32GB internal storage. The system does support additional storage via SDHC cards, and while external hard drive support has been reported, no details are available. So at the moment, the viability of downloading a high number of their retail games is questionable, rendering the ability to truly take advantage of the promotion somewhat limited.
The Wii U Deluxe Set retails for 349.99, but is already sold out via pre-sale, and like many new systems, is commanding usurious prices via ebay and other secondary markets. It features, for an additional fifty dollars over the basic system, an extra 16 GB of storage, the game Nintendo Land, and additional accessories including a charging cradle for the new Wii U Game Pad.
While the promotion begins officially in December, all Wii U purchases made starting on the day of release (Nov. 18th) will qualify. Details on the promotion are being made available at the Nintendo site at http://ddp.nintendo.com/
Martin Short has had a wide and varied career in comedy, and inamongst appearing on SCTV, Saturday Night Live and his film career, he created a character named Ed Grimley. Formed from equal parts of sight gags from his SCTV days and a voice he used to do to annoy his wife, Ed caught on with America during Short’s SNL run. When NBC and Hanna-Barbera looked for a way to compete with CBS’ Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, the hyperkinetic Mr. Grimley was tailor-made.
Inside Number Ten, 
This year’s Doctor Who analogue to the Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle is the 
