Anime DVD Review: Baccano! Volume 3
Explosions, pretty ladies, speakeasies, and the fresh smell of blood, what an immortal gangster dreams of! Oh, did I forget the knife in your back? There’s a couple of those, too. That’s what you’ll find in the world of Baccano!
DVD Review: Ron White: Behavioral Problems
“Tater Salad" rides again. Away from his Blue-Collar Comedy buddies and making waves on his own. Now available on DVD!
Everyone's favorite scotch-swilling, unapologetically crass Texan is back on the stage, solo, with enough quips, anecdotes and observations to appease the closet curmudgeon in us all.
Highlights:
– Ron's anecdotes cover a wide range of topics, from national defense, to paper manufacturing plants, to marijuana. The are delivered with Ron's signature aplomb and each is quite funny in turn.
Blu-ray Review: Sin City Recut – Extended – Unrated
"She smells like angels ought to smell." -Marv
2005 was a crazy year for me. I mean, I didn't wake up next to any dead strippers like Marv from Sin City, but life got in the way of me seeing Sin City in the cinema. While I had some of the original Dark Horse Presents issues chronicling Sin City's initial appearances, and had bought a couple of the trade paperbacks, it wasn't until Christmas of 2005 that I was able to see the film translation on DVD. Needless to say I was blown away at this most true comic book movie of all time. It's stark black and whites broken only occasionally by accent colors or the full color seen in Kadie's bar showed what a comic noir film could be.
DVD Review: The Reader
"It doesn't matter what I feel. It doesn't matter what I think. The dead are still dead." – Hanna Schmitz
When The Reader hit the box offices in 2008 I asked a friend what it was about, to which she responded, "Well, it's a love story." While the film does start out with an affair, passionate, forbidden, erotic, and tragically doomed, all the makings of an epic love story, anyone who can sum this film up as being just a love story wasn't really paying attention.
Chronologically, the story begins in a very well-created post WWII Era Germany, when 15 year old Michael Berg (David Ross) meets 35 year old Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet). Their affair lasts three months during which time Michael discovers that Hanna greatly enjoys being read to. Then as suddenly as it began, it ends, when Hanna disappears with no warning on Michael's 16th birthday.
DVD Review: The Count of Monte Cristo: Gankutsuou, the Complete Series
Albert de Morcerf is the son of a high-ranking aristocrat who doesn’t really know what he wants to do with his life. His childhood friend, Franz d’Epinay, takes him to Luna, a planet of festivals, to give him a break from the expectations of aristocratic Paris. While on Luna, the paths of Albert and the Count of Monte Cristo intersect. Franz tries to warn Albert that the Count is too shady for his own good. Albert does not listen and invites the Count to his home in Paris. The Count agrees, saying he was planning on buying a place in Paris, and sets a date for three months from that day.
Blu-ray Review: The Day The Earth Stood Still 3-Disc Special Edition
"Klatuu Barada Nikto"
More of a "re-imagining" than a remake of the original 1951 film of the same name, The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) stars Keanu Reeves (Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, The Matrix 1-3, Constantine) as the enigmatic space alien in a cloned human body Klatuu. While in the '51 film, Klatuu comes first to educate, then ultimately threaten the humans of earth against the dangers of nuclear weapons, in the 2008 version, Al Gore Klatuu instead warns against the effects of global pollution, warning that the humans of earth will be exterminated before the council of alien races that he represents allows the humans of Earth to push Earth's global climate past the tipping point toward certain doom for the planet.
DVD Review: Project Blue Earth S.O.S: The Complete Series
“No one can escape the judgment of the Imfabels”
DVD Review: Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage
Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage
The underbelly of society, where even good people are bad is where you will find the city of Roanapur. It is a city controlled by Pirates, Mercenaries and the Mafia. In the midst of this is a small organization, The Lagoon Company, are doing what ever it takes to survive. This leads to some rather unforgettable stories, and I do mean unforgettable. Black Lagoon is a hard hitting saga that does not fear to take on the real issues in the criminal world, from child abuse and torture to Honouring the Family name. This dark series of events will make you think twice about the romantic ideal of the Criminal world that is often portrayed in Anime and Film alike.
