It's pretty obvious what Movies & TV blog is about. We churn out recaps, reviews and news on the stuff that interests us.
Tony Black and Zack McGhee have been together for nearly 4 years. They spend altogether too much time watching movies and TV, and being glued to their computers. This blog combines all three at once, thereby gaining them maximum efficiency.
By Tony Black | Friday, February 27, 2009, 12:42 PM
I was a big comic book nerd as a kid. I mostly collected Superman comics but I still paid attention to the other big comic books: Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, etc.
The animated X-Men TV series that premiered on Fox in the early 90’s immediately gained my attention. It is heralded as one of the most faithful comic book to screen adaptations.
Through Amazon.com’s recommendations, I learned that they are finally releasing the series on DVD; something fans like myself have been craving for a very long time.
X-Men: Volume 1 is priced at $17.99 on Amazon.com. It includes the following:
Disc 1
Night of the Sentinels (Part 1)
Night of the Sentinels (Part 2)
Enter Magneto
Deadly Reunions
Captive Hearts
Cold Vengeance
Slave Island
The Unstoppable Juggernaut
Disc 2
The Cure
Come The Apocalypse
Days Of Future Past (Part 1)
Days Of Future Past (Part 2)
The Final Decision
Till Death Do Us Part (Part 1)
Till Death Do Us Part (Part 2)
Whatever It Takes
Volume 2 is also priced at $17.99. Episodes include:
Disc 1
Red Dawn
Repo Man
X-Ternally Yours
Time Fugitives (Part 1)
Time Fugitives (Part 2)
A Rogue’s Tale
Beauty & The Beast
Mojo Vision
Disc 2
Reunion (Part 1)
Reunion (Part 2)
Out of the Past (Part 1)
Out of the Past (Part 2)
The Phoenix Saga (Part 1): Sacrifice
The Phoenix Saga (Part 2): The Dark Shroud
The Phoenix Saga (Part 3): Cry of the Banshee
The Phoenix Saga (Part 4): The Starjammers
The Phoenix Saga (Part 5): Child of Light
Both volumes are set be released April 28 and, as far as I can tell, include no special features.
I couldn’t find any information about when the rest of series will be coming to DVD but I am sure it will be hitting store shelves latter this year.
Will you buy the animated X-Men series on DVD? What other animated series did you watch growing up? What other TV shows are you anxiously awaiting on DVD?
By Zack McGhee | Saturday, February 14, 2009, 01:54 PM
My predilection for genre movies should be clear from the affection I voiced for the 3-D antics of My Bloody Valentine in a mid-January blog post. With the Friday the 13th remake close at hand, Tony and I spent January binging on all but one of the first eleven Friday films. (We skipped the especially incoherent Jason X, which I saw at a midnight show at the Danbarry way back in 2001.) Here’s how I’d rank them, in order of preference:
Friday the 13th (1980)
Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
Friday the 13th: Part 2 (1981)
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (1986)
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
Friday the 13th: Part III (1982)
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
Jason X (2001)
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
Although digesting ten episodes of the Friday franchise in a month was frequently taxing, it nevertheless heightened my anticipation of the remake, which made its debut Friday, February 13. After seeing it, it’s something of a missed opportunity. After all, if you get the chance to start over after nearly a dozen films or 28 years (whichever comes first), then you might do something more creative than essentially culling together a stew of Jason’s Greatest Hits. With echoes of Parts 1, 2 (did you spot the wheelchair?), 3, 4, 7 & 8, the highlights are the extended opening and Jared Padalecki (“Supernatural”), whose likable quasi-victim protag acts as counterpart to Jason Ritter’s character in Freddy vs. Jason, which was penned by the same pot-obsessed dynamic duo as this one.
The degrees of violence vary wildly from nonexistent (premature cutaways) to an overstayed welcome (screwdriver in the neck). It’s a competent slasher flick, and certainly it’s the best-photographed Friday yet. But when it comes down do it, it’s just not the least bit clever or inventive — par for the course, I guess, but I’d secretly hoped for more. (Particularly discouraging is that amongst all the mayhem, one girl is inexplicably kept alive as a plot device.) Only the third movie featuring Jason to be shot in ‘Scope, after Part 3 (which had to be, due to the over-under 3-D process) and Freddy Vs. Jason. Memorable for me as the largest screen I’ve ever seen a Friday on, since I’ve seen most on video, except for Jason X (at the Danbarry) and Freddy Vs. Jason (at the Regal).
By Tony Black | Tuesday, February 3, 2009, 12:43 AM
I think it is safe to say that the vast majority of Heroes fans have been gradually getting more and more disappointed with the series since the awful season 1 finale.
Well, fellow fans, I think the moment we’ve been waiting for has arrived. The return of Heroes (Volume 4: “Fugitives”) on Monday was one of the best episodes I had seen in a long while.
They appear to finally be breaking away from the standard season template they have been stuck on since season 1: Saving the world from some devastating event.
This season promises to bring most of the heroes together (at last) to fight the forces of evil and I can’t wait to watch it happen.
With the dwindling ratings in the fall of Volume 3: “Villains,” Heroes creator Tim Kring new it was time to make some changes. New writers and no time travel? Sounds promising to me.
Side note: Did you happen to catch the un Heroes Super Bowl ad where the cast is playing football against NFL players? If you didn’t, you can watch it below or on Hulu.com.
Did you watch the return of Heroes? Did you like it, or did you feel like it was more of the same? What do you hope to see this season?
By Tony Black | Tuesday, February 3, 2009, 12:01 AM
The hour long episode of The Office which followed the Super Bowl on Sunday delivered some chuckles, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call them laughs.
The opening sequence where Dwight stars a fire just to see if his coworkers were paying attention during his lessons on fire safety is the funniest scene of the episode. From there, the episode just gets less funny.
The entire bootlegged film storyline where Jim, Pam and Andy try to watch a new movie on a laptop starring Jack Black, Jessica Alba (who was only in it for what seemed like 2 seconds) and Cloris Leachman was pointless.
Blogger Roger Catlin felt that The Office was the wrong type of show to air after the Super Bowl. “Its subtle, understated deadpan is the opposite of the boisterous, over-the-top excess of the game and its trappings.”
Bloggers from Newsday.com and PalmPeachPost.com, however, enjoyed the episode. Verne Gay of Newsday writes “The episode is largely brilliant, and includes some of the most inspired bits/lines in the show’s run.”
Don’t get me wrong, the episode had its moments… like Angela throwing her cat into an opening in the ceiling and then watching as it fell crashed through a ceiling panel onto her desk. And you’ve got to love the Pam-Jim love.
If you forgot to record the episode or missed part of it you can watch the entire post-Super Bowl episode of The Office below or at Hulu.com.
What did you think of the post-Super Bowl Office? Was it all that you had hoped for, or did you find it lackluster? Did you see the promo for the next episode? Do you really think Karen’s baby is Jim’s? I don’t. But if it is, I might stop watching the show. YOU DON’T MESS WITH THE PAM-JIM LOVE!!!
By Tony Black | Monday, February 2, 2009, 11:02 PM
Poor Saturday Night Live. Ever since their return from the holidays, the live comedy sketch show has been anything but funny.
This past Saturday, comedian and actor Steve Martin hosted SNL and it was their best episode of 2009. But that really wasn’t hard to achieve.
This was Martin’s 15th time hosting SNL and some people think that he is to blame for the episode’s failure. TV blogger Leslie Gray Streeter remarks that Martin should have noticed that the writing wasn’t funny during rehearsals. Streeter believes that Martin wasn’t used to his full potential and was wasted on bad writing and I have to agree.
To be fair, however, Martin is understanding less and less each day just what “funny” is as he is starring in another absurdly silly Pink Panther movie set to hit theaters this Friday.
So what did you think? Was Martin the problem with the newest episode of SNL or was it just more bad writing?
Despite the gaffs, there were still a couple humorous moments in the episode:
You can view more clip’s from the SNL with Steve Martin at Hulu.com
Next Saturday on SNL: Some guy no one’s heard of. Okay, that was mean. It’s Bradley Cooper. Yeah, I had IMDB.com-him too. He is one of the cast members of the upcoming movie He’s Just Not That Into You which is also set to hit theaters this Friday.
By Tony Black | Sunday, February 1, 2009, 08:05 PM
Most of you are probably like me and only watch the Super Bowl for the commercials, right?
Okay, so maybe I am in the minority, but the fact remains that the Super Bowl is always primmed to deliver some very entertaining commercials during the breaks in that game they are playing (it’s soccer, right?)
If you weren’t able to catch all the commercials as they aired (bathroom break, snack break, etc.), you should be able to watch them in this nifty video widget I have embedded in this blog entry.
In addition to commercials, there were a lot of new movie trailers: UP!, Transformers 2, G.I. Joe, Year One and more. You can watch most (if not all) of them at TrailerAddict.com.
So, tell me what you thought of this year’s slew of Super Bowl commercials? Which was your favorite? Which one didn’t you like? Which was the weirdest? Which was the silliest?
