DVD Review: Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales
Christmas time is here, and with every holiday season comes the Peanuts Christmas specials. Every year, like clockwork, A Charlie Brown Christmas is aired on TV, or played in millions of households across the US, and even the world. The perennial classic has become synonymous with Christmas, and the country stops to sit down with family to watch it. In 1992, a new Christmas special is shown. It’s Christmas Time Again, Charlie Brown.In this special, we get to watch as the gang gears up for Christmas… and watch as Charlie Brown has to find a way to afford a present for his girlfriend, Peggy Jean. Starting in 2003, I Want A Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown premiered following Rerun and his quest for a dog for Christmas. But in 2002, a different kind of special for Peanuts came out. It was a series of vignettes dealing with what goes on for the gang during Christmas time.
Now you can own Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales on DVD!
DVD Review: Inception
Imagine entering a lucid dream in which the rules of physical reality can be bent and broken, where a person’s subconscious is open for exploration, where their deepest secrets reside. Now imagine that you can use a vaguely-defined technology to infiltrate and extract those valuable secrets and sell them to the highest bidder. You’ve just looked into the world of Inception, The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan’s summer blockbuster for 2010. Now you can own Inception on DVD!
TV on DVD Review: Boy Meets World: The Complete Fourth Season
“Someday, Topanga’s going to be a mother, and I’m going to be the father. Or, the uncle. Or, the way I’m going, the guy down the street with the binoculars.”
The Season
DVD Review: Batman Beyond: The Complete Series
Do you ever wonder what the future will be like? Now you can stop wondering, because the story of the Dark Knight of the future is here: Batman Beyond: The Complete Series is now available on DVD! Batman Beyond tells the tale of Terry McGinnis and an elderly Bruce Wayne as the two take on criminals in this futuristic world of tomorrow! Taking place in the future of the DC Animated Universe, this series does a fantastic job at creating a new and dangerous world of villains for Terry to face, as well as acknowledging the vast history of the comics and prior DC Animated cartoons.
Episode Highlights:
DVD Review: Iron Man- Extremis Motion Comic
The past few years have given birth to a new way of experiencing our favorite comic book series along with giving newcomers an easy window into experiencing comic book series: The Motion Comic. Not exactly fully animated (nor is it fully still), Motion Comics add flare and voice acting to existing comic book titles out there. Recently we’ve been seeing more and more of these pop up, especially as mini web series that various comic book companies put out in episodic bits. Watchmen, Astonishing X-Men and even Batman: Mad Love have all been adapted into this new format, and now it is Iron Man’s turn with Warren Ellis’s Extremis storyline, which is now available on DVD.
DVD Review: Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics
Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman. We all grew up with these heroes around. Their comic books entertained us many a day during our childhoods. These films and television series fed our imaginations, and we played super heroes, or maybe even played a villain. Since the 1930’s, every generation had the same characters to look up to. And recently these characters have grown up into he kind of heroes that we all want to be in our current day and age. We know their stories and origins, but most of us know nothing about the company that publishes them. We may know most of the facts about the creations of the heroes, but all of the facts and how they relate are known only to the few who are practically historians on the subject. Now DC Comics has authorized, and released through Warner Brothers, a documentary on their seventy five year history, Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics.
DVD Review: Doctor Who: Revenge of the Cybermen
The time of the third Doctor had just passed, and the time of the fourth had just arrived. At the end of he previous season Jon Pertwee had just regenerated into Tom Baker, and the new Era began. It was the first season of the latest Doctor, and all of the great things in the Tom Baker era were still to come. At this point the writers were still figuring out who this new Doctor was, and the facets of his personality. His bohemian attitude, and all of his eccentricities were still being figured out. It was still in this time, the first season, that this serial takes place. This serial, “Revenge of the Cybermen,” follows on a continual story arc that had run from the end of the serial that began the season, “Robot,” and runs until the serial “Terror of the Zygons.” It also follows the classic serial that is infinitely important to the series, “Genesis of the Daleks,” as it tells the creation of Daleks.
Now you can own Doctor Who: Revenge of the Cybermen on DVD!
DVD Review: Doctor Who: Silver Nemesis
Ronald Reagan is president, Margaret Thatcher is prime minister, and Doctor Who is 25 years old. The year is 1988, and it’s the silver anniversary of Doctor Who. Throughout the year, products and specials are released to celebrate the momentous occasion, such as a 25th Anniversary soundtrack and a 25th Anniversary special Magazine. Fans of the series were celebrating Doctor Who all across England. It seems that for the silver anniversary then, that “Silver Nemesis” would be an apropos title for the 25th anniversary serial, which this one happens to be. This serial was also part of a darker turn in the storyline of the series, with an intention of revealing who the Doctor really was. This episode featured the inevitable return of the Cybermen, as they were one of the most popular alien villains, next to the Daleks.
Now you can own Doctor Who: Silver Nemesis on DVD!
DVD Review: Legends of the Superheroes
Biff!
Holy Pop Icons, Batman!
In 1966 Adam West and Burt Ward began their 120 episodes of Batman on television. Cancelled after only three seasons, Batman became an icon whose camp pop culture has still not lost its lustre even now over forty years later. From the Batusi to “Holy [something], Batman!” the show’s tropes will live forever.
Getting the show on disc has proved problematic, as legal troubles have thus far prevented a DVD release. We can get the Batman Movie from 1966 on DVD, but that’s all the 60s Batman we could get. …Until Now.
DVD Review: Lost Boys: The Thirst
“The Black Dalai Lama? Never heard of him. We’re keeping the cover.”
Lost Boys: The Thirst looks better than any straight to DVD movie I have ever seen. The few special effects worked, looked like a theatrically released movie and didn’t add to any cheesiness. The lighting, quality and all other visual components far exceeded my expectations. If you randomly walked in on any scene you wouldn’t get the “oh, I must have passed out watching the Twilight Zone and woke up during a Bruce Campbell-less SyFy original movie” feeling.
DVD Review: Jonah Hex
In American fiction, the Western has been one of the most important genres of the last century. It mythologizes the history of our country. Not the founding, but a point in history when the country was just starting to mature. We see that period of history as we want to, with heroes and villains, that arguably teach us right from wrong. This is why it has always been a no-brainer to combine the Western with other genres from science fiction to horror, and everything in between. This sub genre is called Weird West. The earliest film example is The Phantom Empire, a 1935 serial starring Gene Autry. Shortly after this, the idea of crossing genres with westerns died out until the late 1950’s. Once the trend restarted a new movie was released every few years, until 1990, when the idea becomes popularized with Back To The Future – Part III. After this there is a movie released at least one each year, until 1999, when the Western becomes popular once again. Television had also used this idea a few times with differing results each time, the most notable series being The Wild Wild West (1965-1969), and The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (1993-1994). In the 1970s, comic books also started upon this trend, since it was easier to depict these genre-bending stories. The first widely popular comic was Weird Western Tales, where one of the most well known comic heroes of the Weird West got his start. The character was Jonah Hex, and now his tale is available for you to own on DVD!
DVD Review: Human Target – The Complete First Season
"I work with a cover, blend in to the background, let you appear vulnerable so the threat reveals itself and then eliminate the threat."
If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire…Christopher Chance! Based on the DC Comics series, Human Target follows the adventures of Christopher Chance (Mark Valley), the man you turn to when your life is at stake. Chance is a man of many talents, and is an expert at blending into the background to seek out the threat and literally become a human target. Now the Complete First Season of Human Target is available to own on DVD!