February 2008 Archives

Nebraska..a land of wheat with a sky as big as the world. That's how one of the episodes from "The Fugutive" Season Two DVD started when I watched it. I thought that was funny since I just got back from Nebraska on business. Although on the episode it wasn't 9 degrees like it was when I went. It was Jesus cold. Anyway if your familiar with "The Fugutive" it's about a Doctor who gets framed for the murder of his wife and then escapes when his train derails. I saw the Harrison Ford movie but this was a whole different slice of pie. The show dates from the early 1960's and is all in Black and White and split up between Acts I through IV. Yeah..I know..old skool huh?


Anyway it's really well done and the acting seems to be pretty good. Not Twighlight Zone good but good for the time. The music for all the episodes is excellent. The special effects are non existant besides making it rain outside and some driving scenes. No real behind the scenes speciahls on this DVD although they could of thrown in some gag scenes or deleted ones. Overall "The Fugutive" Season Two is a good buy if your a fan of 1960's TV or the series in general.

I give it a B+
 

I have to admit to you that I knew very little about this movie before recieving a copy to review. I mean, I knew someone made Beowulf into a movie, and I knew it had some bigger names, such as Angelina Jolie involved, but that was about it.

So I was pleasantly surprised to watch the movie for the first time with very little clouding my judgement.

When I first started watching the movie, I felt there was something not quite right, but I couldn't place it.  It wasn't something about the story which was bugging me, but the movie in general.

I was about 20 minutes into it before I realized that it was entirely computer generated!  I later found out that the movie had also been released as a 3D movie.  Damn I wish I knew that earlier :)

Anyways, the movie is based on the legendary tale of Beowulf versus Grendel.  However, this isn't the same poem you were forced to read in highschool.  Far from it.

I just have to say that the animation is amazing.  They've made a movie worthy of the legend, in my opinion.  But I did have one issue.

Once again you know the drill. This is an awesome Hong Kong action flick made even better by the Behind The Scenes Features. Check out the ultimate feature below which is an interview with the man, the myth and the legend Jon Woo....before he sold out to Hollywood ; -)

Once again What can I say? Not only is Hard Boiled on the best Hong Kong action flicks to ever be made, it also has some of the best Behind The Scenes Features ever This one is a interview and discussion with the main villian of Hard Boiled. Check it out and all the action scenes below.....

When Dave asked me to watch and review this movie I was a little surprised. After all, it's not your "typical" movie review. It's an older movie (originally released in 1992) which I never really heard of.

It's about a cop who is trying to infiltrate a group of gun runners in Hong Kong.  But when he starts getting close he loses his partner and friend in a shootout with the gunrunners.

Before I go any further I should mention that this is a John Woo movie.  John Woo, in case you aren't familiar with the name, aslo was involved in movies such as "Face/Off", "Broken Arrow" and "Mission Impossible II" so you know that this is obviously an action flick.

It stars Chow Yun Fat, who has starred in other well known movies such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and, more recently "Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End".  It also stars Tony Leung, another big action star, who has starred in such movies as "Hero" with Jet Li.

Chow Yun Fat is the main star - the cop who's partner was killed in the shootout.  And later we find out that Leung is also a cop, but at first we think he is the "bad guy" in the movie.

The movie revolves around a pair of gun smugglers.  Leung works for one, but the other wants him to cross over.  As one would expect, there's lots of fighting and martial arts throughout the movie.

But the best part of this movie, to me was the ending.

What can I say. Not only is Hard Boiled on the best Hong Kong action flicks to ever be made, it also has some of the best Behind The Scenes Features ever It's basically a Film School on DVD.  I give the Behind The Scenes Features a A+. Even the boring ones are good. Check out the location guide below. 

Uamanke ea o ka ainai ka pono. Ahhh today we are talking about Hawai'i Five-O. And the first person who can translate that gets the full season of Walker Texas Ranger. Just leave your best guess in the comments below. What can I say? Hawai'i Five-O was, is, and will be one of the best cop shows to ever be on Network TV. The thing that makes Hawai'i Five-O a classic is that it has good action, great acting from Steve McGarret and crew, and good suspenseful plots. I mean what other show was exploring the themes of Heroins affect in the seventies? Not a whole lot I can tell you. Hawai'i Five -O was dismissed as eye candy by a lot of critics back in the day but that is just not the case.



The show really pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable network TV back in the day. I really do think the only way they got away with it was the sugar coating of shooting the whole show in the beautiful back drop of Hawai'i. The best part to me was showing that this island paradise had the same flaws that the mainland had, from heroin to gangs to prostitution. Hawai'i was paradise, but a flawed paradise to McGarrett and his crew. Another groundbreaking thing that Hawai'i Five 0 provided was the casting. From Chin to Ben to Dan-o the cast was very diverse. The Hawai'i islands are some of the most diverse areas in the United States and the show really highlighted that even back in the 70's. As I mentioned before it was truly groundbreaking in it's casting of native islanders and other races. When was the last time you saw an Asian person on the damn Brady Bunch? I thought so. Meanwhile Chin Ho and Ben were both main characters on this show, one an Asian American and the other a native hawai'ian. Overall I give the DVD set of season 3 a A. It would of been an A+ plus but there are no behind the scenes features which really bummed me out. I mean not even some old bloopers? Or maybe McGarret's hair acting crazy on a bad day? Anyway go out and but this today. It holds the test of time and will kick CSI's ass any day of the week.

Overall A.

And get to translating if you want that Walker, Texas Ranger DVD set.

As I mentioned yesterday this 2 disc set is full of behind the big screen gold. Check out this video as "The Thing" meets a nearly 1 ton Kodiak bear on set. Good luck with that "Commish"!

Although I disagree with Rob a bit on his review of FF2 I have to admit that this two disc special had some amazing special features. Check out the Inspiration to make the movie below in this cool video starring the man himself Stan Lee. He talks about how the Silver Surfer was one of the most popular Marvel figures ever and his parallels with Jesus Christ.....yeah that's what I thought??