Ben 10: Ultimate Alien Power Struggle (DVD Review)
May 23rd, 2011 by Gerard Iribe
Cartoon Network has released Ben 10: Ultimate Alien Power Struggle on DVD for your viewing pleasure. This is a 2 disc DVD set containing 10 episodes of the insanely popular kids television show. I should post this disclaimer: Ben 10: Ultimate Alien Power Struggle is actually PART 2 of the first season. I say that, because nowhere on the package will you find that information. This is somewhat of a blunder, because viewers will start off at episode eleven and will wonder what happened in episodes 1-10. This set contains episodes 11-20, so we’ll have to work with what we’ve got. Let’s get to it. Continue reading ‘Ben 10: Ultimate Alien Power Struggle (DVD Review)’
Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane is the man behind American Dad which centers around CIA Agent Stan Smith and his family and their wacky adventures. Stan’s family consists of his wife Francine, daughter Hayley and son Steve, and an alien named Roger. Roger was rescued from Area 51 by Stan and most days Roger makes Stan regret that decision. Last but not least is Klaus – a German man trapped in a goldfish body. American Dad could have easily been called Craziest Family Ever. 
Serving as a warm-up and placeholder for the upcoming Avengers movie, The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes airs on the Disney XD channel and has now been released on DVD. This action-packed superhero series features Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Ant-Man, Wasp, Black Panther, Nick Fury, and The Hulk. There’s also appearances from the Fantastic Four and some of the other heroes and villains from the Marvel Universe. These two volumes offer a continuing storyline and true to character portrayals. While the animation could be better, this new series is the best animated show Marvel has released to date. 
This DVD set marks the beginning of a series of episodes that were later combined into films, that tell the tale of C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower, a fictional Royal Navy officer whose exploits were spread across eleven books. This set contains the first two adventures which were The Duel and The Fire Ships. Starring Ioan Gruffudd (The Fantastic Four), Robert Lindsay (Wimbledon), Jamie Bamber (Battlestar Galactica), and Paul Copley (Queer as Folk). These first two movies show the start of Hornblower’s career as a seasick midshipman who later becomes a decorated Admiral. Forester’s Hornblower character was also an inspiration for Gene Roddenberry’s own Captain James T. Kirk for the Star Trek series. 
How would you like some acting lessons from such dramatic heavyweights as Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Judi Dench, Ben Kingsley, and David Suchet? As impossible as that may seem, that’s exactly what you get when you watch Playing Shakespeare since each of these performers are on hand to assist Royal Shakespeare Company’s Associate Director John Barton in teaching the essentials to performing Shakespeare’s plays. 
Disney took a huge gamble in 1982 when they released TRON into the marketplace. It was so unlike anything else, that it never found an audience worthy of its ambition. For most movies, that would have been the end of it, with no chance of redemption or an ongoing franchise. Then a couple of things happened. The world changed and people as a whole became more technologically savvy and open to a film that is so focused on an electronic world.
One of the most popular and successful British drama series in television history, Upstairs, Downstairs: Series One tells the story of the aristocratic Bellamy’s and the servants that support them. Upstairs, Downstairs is the winner of seven Emmy Awards, two BAFTAs, a Golden Globe, and a Peabody Award. 
Have you ever wondered where your family came from? Or whether or not there were any scoundrels or perhaps royalty in your bloodline? I know I have and that’s why I wanted to review this. The shows format is simple: get some famous people and have some genealogists help them track down their historical relatives. For this first season the stars are: Lisa Kudrow, Brooke Shields, Emmitt Smith, Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker, Spike Lee, and Susan Sarandon. 
There is definitely no urgency to see the movie Urgency. The direction of the movie was disappointing and (aside from Brian Austin Green), the acting was not believable at all. Even worse, the film was full of silly things that made this serious drama turn into a comedy because I kept chuckling out loud at the stupid oversights and plot errors.
Thomas Jefferson is one of our nation’s most important and least understood Presidents despite being the most researched and quoted of all of them. He was a man of many contradictions and this DVD attempts to provide the viewers of an overview of Jefferson’s life and offers a closer look at his inconsistent nature. 
On October 13, 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed in the Andes Mountains with forty-five passengers aboard. Due to pilot error, their flight plan and position was incorrect which led search patrol to look for survivors in the wrong area and eventually to abandon the plane and passengers as lost. Left to survive on their own, the ill-equipped survivors had to survive in one of the most desolate places in the world and make choices that no human being should ever be forced to make in order to survive.
I believe that there have been three major productions of Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days. The first one was with David Niven which was followed by this mini-series with Pierce Brosnan, and finally the Disney version with Steve Coogan and Jackie Chan. This three part mini-series shared the earlier entries stunt casting of various stars (mainly from television) to play small supporting parts. 
There have been many comedy teams throughout the years such as Laurel and Hardy or The Three Stooges, but one of the biggest acts was Abbott and Costello. The combination of the straight man schemer (Abbott) and the man perpetually in trouble (Costello) was a winning combination and led to their great success. 
Before Kenneth Branagh brought his own adaption of Hamlet to the big-screen in 1996, he played the role on stage under the direction Derek Jacobi who himself played Hamlet years earlier to great acclaim. The year was 1990, and Branagh was on the brink to international stardom but not quite there yet. 
