Armageddon is one of those movies so incomprehensibly over-the-top and ridiculously silly that it is impossible to take anything on-screen seriously.  When NASA finds out that a “meteor the size of Texas” is hurtling towards Earth with an 18-day window until total planetary destruction, they decide to send a hardly trained group of “the world’s best drillers” to the meteor itself in order to plant a nuclear bomb and blow it up from the inside.  What could possibly go wrong?

Needless to say, a lot does.  And almost none of it makes any sense.  However, if (and that’s a big if) you are the type of person who can watch a movie without applying any logic whatsoever, than Armageddon is a thoroughly entertaining epic.  However, if a film is required to make sense for you to enjoy it, than this is probably not the movie for you. 

As with every Michael Bay film, this is a loud, fast-moving film, perfect for those with Attention Deficit Disorder.  The camera is never standing still and Bay can’t get to his next edit quick enough.  Even the characters are over-the-top caricatures.  But all things considered, they managed to assemble a pretty impressive cast. 

Bruce Willis stars as Harry Stamper, the leader of this motley crew of roughnecks.  His daughter Grace is played by Liv Tyler, and in the first act, Harry finds out that she has been secretly sleeping with Harry’s best employee A.J., played by Ben Affleck.  This leads to a ridiculous set piece in which Harry chases A.J. around an oilrig shooting at him as the rest of the cast chases after.  This scene quickly establishes the nature of the film, one that feels almost as much like a theme park stunt show as much as a film. 

Once this motley crew is summoned to NASA and briefed on the situation, Harry insists on one last night of freedom for his crew as well as several “demands” including the right to never pay taxes again.  This all leads to the overly long and completely expected montage of how the group spends the last night on Earth.  Some of these sequences are quite funny, and most just drag on too long.  However, it is in these moments that we really get to know the characters, and start to appreciate just how entertaining this group can be. 

Without these moments on Earth, nothing that happens in space would really matter.  Yes, the movie is about saving the entire planet, but as an audience, we have to be able to root for the characters and not just the situation.  Once our crew blasts off, this becomes a very different type of film.  The action becomes more of a focus, but because we have spent so much time with these characters, there is more of a connection to the chaos happening onscreen. 

As with any film of this genre, there is a very predictable mix of humor, tragedy, and just plain spectacle.  The meteor itself is a fascinating location for several action sequences, and while it never feels like anything but a soundstage, it’s visually compelling enough to keep things interesting.  The screenwriters are able to milk a lot of drama out of the simple act of drilling through a combination of mechanical problems and eventual conflict among the crew. 

Navigating all these problems is Billy Bob Thornton as Dan Truman, the NASA director.  He makes the most of his role, and while his character occasionally feels like a device, Thornton brings a humanity the character desperately needs.  Thornton and Tyler sit out most of the film’s action sequences, but their interactions at NASA make them feel as if they are integral parts of everything that is happening.  They are tricky roles, expertly played.

This is the epitome of a summer blockbuster.  It feels a little dated now, but when it was released, the special effects were considered extraordinary.  The scope was huge, helping cement it’s place as an event film.  This isn’t an important movie, but it’s a fun one. 

Unfortunately, the Blu-Ray doesn’t do the film justice.  The only bonus features are the music video to Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing,” and the theatrical teaser and trailer.  I was really hoping for a lot more material, as this seems like the type of production that could have had some really interesting behind-the-scenes footage.  The sequences of destruction are still impressive, and the sequences on the meteor are really fun.  The movie is definitely too long (151 minutes) and it drags a lot, especially in the first act.  But overall, I had a great time watching it, and I’m glad to add it to my collection, even without any decent features.

I suppose I should start this review with a confession.  For the most part, I don’t really like Westerns.  In fact, it’s pretty much the only genre I don’t like.  For the most part, I find them all too similar, with the characters drawn in very broad strokes and the action too redundant from one film to the next.  So this was my mindset as I begrudgingly began the film. 

As the film opened with a scratchy black-and-white history of the city of Tombstone and the cowboys who ran the town, I feared the worst.  I was already bored.  And yet, as the film progressed, I began noticing the scope of the town, with its incredible ensemble of characters, and that’s when I realized that this was not a typical Western.  It may have the trappings of the genre, but this was more akin to an ensemble character-study.  It turns out that there are over 85 speaking roles in the film, and the screenplay by Kevin Jarre utilizes all of these parts to make the city of Tombstone a fascinating locale, and in essence, a character itself.

That’s not to say that this is some low-budget, dialogue intensive artsy film.  This is a very mainstream and exciting film.  The story is told mostly from the perspective of Wyatt Earp, perfectly embodied by Kurt Russell.  After the prologue establishing the ruthlessness of the cowboys, the story picks up with Earp arriving in town with his brothers, Morgan and Virgil, and their wives.  We quickly learn that Wyatt had already made a name for himself as a lawman, and now that he was residing in Tombstone, a lawless town, his reputation made him both a target and someone to fear. 

Eventually, Wyatt runs into his old friend Doc Holliday, played by Val Kilmer.  These men couldn’t be more dissimilar, with Earp as the lawman and Holliday as the drunken, cheating gambler who will stab a man to death with little provocation.  And yet, there is a history between them.  One which isn’t fully explored, but which led to a strong mutual respect for each other.  Kilmer steals the show as Holliday, playing him as a darkly funny, yet semi-tragic character.  Diagnosed with tuberculosis, Holliday is riding out his final days by trying to push the limits of what he deems “entertainment.”  Mostly drinking and gambling. 

When these two characters meet up, the film really kicks into high gear.  The cowboys begin to realize that they are losing control of the town, which leads to the infamous “gunfight at the OK Corral.”  This sequence is very brief, but very powerful.  The filmmakers could very easily have staged this as a standard shoot-out, but they wisely never lose sight of the characters involved, showing us the emotions, strategies and mistakes of this epic encounter.

This is a turning point for the film, where battle lines are decisively drawn.  Almost every character in this film is flawed, but none completely unlikable.  There is no real good and evil.  Up until this shootout, even the cowboys have a glimmer of humanity about them.  After the gunfight however, things become more black-and-white.  People were killed in that shoot-out, and retribution becomes a theme.  The film becomes very exciting, but the characters evolve with the action sequences, and the changes are permanent. 

Tombstone is one of those films that is everything you would expect from a classic movie.  There is a great deal of humor mixed with tragedy, and the story is compelling.  When the movie was over, I felt like I had been taken on a journey.

Unfortunately, the new Blu-Ray release isn’t quite as compelling.  Having never seen the film before, I don’t know how it compares to the DVD release, but I can’t imagine this looks much better.  The picture quality and the sound are perfectly fine, but nothing really stands out with the superiority of most Blu-Ray releases.  As for the extras, there is a feature entitled “The making of Tombstone,” which runs just under half an hour.  Broken down into three segments (An Ensemble Cast, Making an Authentic Western, and The Gunfight at the OK Corral), this feature does not contain any new material.  It is all archive footage from when the film was shot.  As for the material itself, it’s exactly what you’d expect from those names.  The best stuff is at the beginning, where they discuss the real-life characters, and give backstories that are only hinted at in the film.

Also included are the Director’s original storyboards.  Running about four minutes, these are presented as a slideshow, and while it’s always interesting to see behind-the-scenes material, there is nothing inherently fascinating about these specifically.

Despite the lack of bonus material, I love this Blu-Ray.  If it wasn’t for this release, I probably would never have even seen the film.  I’m thrilled to have discovered it, and it even got me wondering what other great movies I’ve missed out on because of my bias against the genre.  Having completely forgotten that I was watching a Western, Tombstone won me over.

Avatar has been an incredibly long time coming. The genesis of the project begun in the mid 1990’s with an idea from James Cameron. Deciding that technology was not evolved enough to see his vision come true, Cameron shelved the idea and made a small film called Titanic. You may have heard of it. Whilst pursuing other underwater documentary projects such as Ghosts of the Abyss, Cameron was evolving technology to see the creation of Avatar, finally starting production in 2005.

However, by the time of the film’s release in December 2009, it was clear that Avatar was something special. Audiences instantly connected to it and as they flocked to repeat sessions, subsequently bringing their family and friends along, the film grossed higher and higher week after week, soon surpassing Cameron’s own Titanic in worldwide revenue (at the time of print, around the $2.6 billion (U.S.) mark), and becoming the highest grossing film of all time whilst pushing 3D as cinemas next technological breakthrough. 


Avatar is presented in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with AVC MPEG4 compression. This is a deviation from the 2D theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1, but results in more vertical information. This is James Cameron’s preferred aspect ratio.

Technically, the transfer is perfect. It’s crisp, clear, beautiful and breathtaking; almost every positive adjective that one can think of.



No matter what your opinion, there can be no denying that it’s pushed the art of CG into new territory, and that its innovative 3D production and presentation has altered the visual landscape of film, probably forever. I suspect, when we look back a decade or two from now, Avatar will be considered as influential on the cinema as Star Wars was in its day, both technically and in the sheer number of young people it will inspire to become filmmakers and effects artists themselves.

And you also can’t deny that the film has made huge amounts of money, so it’s certain to trigger a ton of copycat 3D-fantasy epics, and possibly even its own sub-genre. 



Part of Avatar’s success is that it’s a simple, visual story and its message appeals to a wide variety of audiences – perhaps less so here in the US but certainly around the world. And its IMAX 3D theatrical presentation is nothing less than a near irresistible roller coaster ride. Even if you dislike the story, it’s hard not to want to take the ride at least a couple times. My own take is more straightforward: I saw twice in IMAX 3D and enjoyed it both times. The story is fine for what it is, and holds up a couple times, but this is NOT a film I’m likely to watch again very often – especially in 2D only.



For the initial release of Avatar on Blu-ray, Twentieth Century Fox have elected to release a completely bare bone disc and then for the holiday season of 2010, release a special edition loaded with additional content, including deleted scenes with completed visual effects.

Avatar’s story is not original, but it is not trying to be. It is trying to present an archetypal tale in a new way. For that, it succeeded greatly. Its script may be lacking, but its 3-D visuals are so phenomenal that they render all other problems negligible. Now we have the film’s visuals downgraded to 2-D, and its problems become more prominent. I’ve heard detractors of 3-D filmmaking say that they found no benefit in Avatar being a 3-D movie. I would challenge them to watch it on Blu-ray and see if they feel the same way.

One, Two gonna write a review. Three, Four hope you don’t think it’s a bore. Five, Six it’s time for a horror film fix. And why not have it be the one film that jumped started a new dimension in the telling of horror films. I remember seeing this film way back when and not being able to sleep for days without waking up in a sweat. Now, much older and wiser I have watched it again. This classic has come to a true telling with this new Blu-Ray edition. If you thought seeing this film on the big screen or even on VHS/DVD before, you are in for a surprise. In the HD, 7.1 surround format, Wes Cravens nightmare of a creation comes out more vivid than ever before.

Wes Craven has been delighting and scaring us whether we are awake or in our dreams since his first cult classic ‘The Last House on the Left’ in 1972. His penchant for writing characters that delve into the human psyche are unmistakable with the one that anyone, even if they’ve never seen the film knows, Freddy Krueger. Now most know the story of ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’, an accused child molester is burned by a couple locals and he comes back to wreak revenge on the children of those who did the burning. He’s weapon of choice, their dreams.

I’m not going into details of the plot or the ‘oh my god that was so fake’ but rather the interesting aspects of the creation of this film as this is the Blu-Ray edition. Having seen the original back in the day I decided to watch the Focus Points version of the movie. During the movie, a disk flashes and when you press the ‘enter’ button it cuts away too many aspects of the preproduction, mutli-angle takes, different versions of the same shot or insight from specialist about dreams. It was quite humorous to find out the character of ‘Freddy’ was named after a bully of Craven’s named Fred and Krueger because he thought a German name would be frightful. How many of you wanted to know how they created the face in the wall effect, spandex. (Yes it can be used for something other than clothes and I still stand behind spandex is a privilege not a right.) Or that even today doctors are still trying to understand the meaning and process of dreams.

What I found the most interesting is how the use of dreams was based on the theory that if you die in your sleep you die in real life and that of articles Craven came across about mysterious deaths among Hmong tribesmen. The tribesmen were stricken by an unexplained illness that caused them to die in their sleep in such a horrible way; people thought it was their dream that killed them. It was between these two happenings that Craven was able to piece together a story that can be told as a ghost story. To boot ‘Freddy’ was based on a true character as well. He may have been named for a bully but his actions are that of a drunken man Craven had run into when he was a child. He had the hat and the bugged out, expressive eye’s that one actor made famous.

 What about those actors? How can you forget Robert Englund? A classically trained actor who was chosen to play what would become an icon in the horror genre. Englund took all the words and advice from Craven and added the fact that he would have to show up hours before anyone else to get ready and put that emotion, that anger into one of the most menacing characters on film. To fuel that emotion he had on screen was some of the ‘beautiful’ actors in the film, Namely Heather Langenkamp who played the lead heroin Nancy Thompson and a young man making his debut, Johnny Depp. Yes, THE Johnny Depp. A fun fact was that Craven was looking at potential actors for the part in which Depp would play, Glen Lantz, and when his daughters saw his picture they said, “Dad, you have to use him. He’s hot!” Wonder how many others they have been able to lead to stardom?

You will enjoy this production for many reasons. You have two different commentary tracks, alternate endings or the trivia track. The extra content in the special features is also fun and entertaining for any movie buff or anyone wanting to know more about dreams; Never Sleep Again is a making of the film; The House That Freddy Built is a history of what the Elm Street franchise became; Night Terrors an inside look with professionals on the study of dreams.

To put it simple this is a must for any true collector of the horror genre. This film set a standard that many have tried to duplicate but none have been able to do. Craven is a master of suspense, storytelling and messing with the human psyche. He is quoted as saying, “Horror films don’t create fear. They release it.” Well you should see this film in its new format and be ready to check your heart rate after. Seven, Eight watch this movie with a date. Nine, Ten, what’s this, déjà vu again?

The game is afoot! The world’s greatest sleuth dons his miniature deerstalker hat and puts his extraordinary deductive ability into animated action when The Great Mouse Detective: Mystery in the Mist Edition comes to DVD on April 13, 2010 from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. In the greatest little mystery in Disney history, the renowned Basil of Baker Street takes on his archenemy, the evil genius Dr. Ratigan, and this time the battle is for the entire city of London! With fresh and exciting bonus features, The Great Mouse Detective: Mystery in the Mist Edition will thrill audiences with an exciting game of “mouse and mouse” that’s not elementary by a long shot!

Inspired by the adventures of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes, The Great Mouse Detective: Mystery in the Mist Edition marks the directing debut of now legendary filmmakers Ron Clements and John Musker, creators of such Disney animated blockbusters as The Princess and the Frog, The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. As Basil sniffs out one clue after another with unmatched ingenuity, kids and adults will delight in a heartwarming and suspenseful adventure that goes from Baker Street to the tower of Big Ben in the charmingly downsized London of Mousedom.  An intriguing mystery, spectacular animation and unforgettable characters make The Great Mouse Detective: Mystery in the Mist Edition a devilishly clever family gift!

Viewers can test their own powers of deduction and go behind the scenes of the movie with bonus features that include:
• So You Think You Can Sleuth? — An animated look at the history of detective work, complete with a crime-solving puzzle for the entire family.  
• The Making Of “The Great Mouse Detective”
• “The World’s Greatest Criminal Mind” Sing-Along Song

When talented toymaker Hiram Flaversham is mousenapped, his winsome daughter Olivia turns to the most famous mouse detective of them all, Basil of Baker Street. Accompanied by his assistant and confidante, Dr. David Q. Dawson, Basil uncovers a villainous plot by the “slimy, contemptible sewer rat” Dr. Ratigan to replace Moustoria, Queen of Mice, with a look-alike robot and take control of the entire rodent population of London. Based on Eve Titus’s book Basil of Baker Street, The Great Mouse Detective channels the spirit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous creation into a richly  animated, Sherlock Holmsian tale set in Victorian-era London’s underground mouse kingdom.

(Check out this clip from the DVD!)

The special features on the DVD are pretty sparce, including a Sleuth adventure for the kids So You Think You Can Sleuth?), along with a rehashed Making of the Great Mouse Detective for the adult. It was a nice trip back in time to see the 80s clothes and crazy hair styles.

If you are an animation collector or just a fan of a fun entertaining story, the Great Mouse Detective is definitely a film you should pick up. You will not regret it.