Hell on Wheels: The Complete First Season (Blu-ray Review)
Hell on Wheels tells the epic story of post-Civil War America, focusing on a soldier who sets out to exact revenge on the Union soldiers who have killed his wife. His journey takes him west to Hell on Wheels, a dangerous, raucous, lawless melting pot of a town that travels with and services the construction of the railroad, an engineering feat unprecedented for its time. The lavishly-produced series documents the railroad’s engineering and construction, as well as institutionalized greed and corruption, the immigrant experience and the plight of newly emancipated African-Americans during Reconstruction. Chronicling this potent turning point in our nation’s history, this fan favorite series shows just how uncivilized the business of civilization can be across 10 absorbing episodes. Continue reading ‘Hell on Wheels: The Complete First Season (Blu-ray Review)’
In Men in Black III, Agents J (Will Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones) are back… in time. J has seen some inexplicable things in his 15 years with the Men in Black, but nothing, not even aliens, perplexes him as much as his wry, reticent partner. But when K’s life and the fate of the planet are put at stake, Agent J will have to travel back in time to put things right. J discovers that there are secrets to the universe that K never told him — secrets that will reveal themselves as he teams up with the young Agent K (Josh Brolin) to save his partner, the agency, and the future of humankind. 
The hilarious Steve Martin (Father Of The Bride) and Academy Award nominee Queen Latifah (Best Actress In A Supporting Role, Chicago, 2002) star with Eugene Levy (American Pie) and Betty White (The Proposal) in this hysterical culture clash hit. 
Believing that the lives of an everyday family would be relatable to Americans in a way that existing TV shows were not, filmmakers set out to chronicle the life of the Louds, a seemingly “perfect family.” Once filming began though, the strain in the Loud’s marriage, the ups and downs of raising five children, as well as the criticism Pat Loud received for asking for a divorce and openly supporting her gay son, came sharply into focus. A complete departure from television shows of the time, An American Family gripped the nation, making the Louds a television sensation while leaving them unprepared for the consequences. In 2002, TV Guide named the documentary series one of the “Top 50 Greatest Shows of All Time.” Fascinating and illuminating, Cinema Verite stars an amazing ensemble cast. Along with Lane, the film features Academy Award and Golden Globe winner Tim Robbins (Mystic River) and Golden Globe and Emmy winner James Gandolfini (HBO’s The Sopranos). Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini directed a script written by David Seltzer. 
Filmed in high definition, recorded in Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby 5.1 Surround and DTS, with a running time of approximately three and a half hours, Live At Montreux 2004 includes all the greatest hits of his legendary career. The 25-song 2004 concert encapsulates the essence of this great artist, who has performed on the Montreux stage numerous times. One such time, in 1996, was with a Jazz Big-Band. Thirteen songs from that ’96 performance—including one with Tony Bennett (“There’ll Be Some Changes Made”)—serve as a bonus feature (in standard definition). From “In The Air Tonight” “You Can’t Hurry Love” and “Easy Lover” to “A Groovy Kind Of Love” “Another Day In Paradise” “One More Night” and “Against All Odds” the set-list accentuates the wildly fluctuating amount of genres and styles that Collins has smoothly assimilated within his own personal flair.
Director Tim Burton brings the cult classic series “Dark Shadows” to the big screen in a film featuring an all-star cast, led by Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter. In the year 1750, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from England to start a new life in America, where they build a fishing empire in the coastal Maine town that comes to carry their name: Collinsport. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy…until he makes the grave mistake of falling in love with a beauty named Josette DuPres (Bella Heathcote) and breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). A witch in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death—turning him into a vampire, and then burying him…alive. 
The 1992 presidential election was a triumph not only for Bill Clinton but also for the new breed of strategists who guided him to the White House and changed the face of politics in the process. For this thrilling, behind-closed-doors account of that campaign, renowned cinema verité filmmakers D. A. Pennebaker (Monterey Pop) and Chris Hegedus (Startup.com) closely followed the brainstorming and bull sessions of Clinton’s crack team of consultants—especially the folksy James Carville and the preppy George Stephanopoulos, who became media stars in their own right as they injected a youthful spirit and spontaneity into the process of campaigning. Fleet-footed and entertaining, The War Room is a vivid document of a political moment whose truths (“It’s the economy, stupid!”) still ring in our ears. 
After seeing The Avengers twice, it seems like the entire concept of combining the Iron Man, Thor, and the Captain America franchises along with all of their supporting characters into one massive movie seems like a kick-ass idea with no chance of failure. But back in the late nineties that concept represented some pretty audacious thinking considering that Marvel had up to that point only licensed their characters such as Spiderman, Daredevil, Punisher, and the Fantastic Four to other studios with mixed results. While I’m sure that they regret that decision now, it was a necessary one for them to raise the capital to make their own movies which they did starting with Iron Man to great success. The first Iron Man movie showed that Marvel meant to do business differently with their surprising and yet inspired choices, as they hired Jon Favreau to direct the film and in their most brilliant bit of casting to date, hired Robert Downey Jr. to play Tony Stark/Iron Man. That tradition continued through hiring Kenneth Branagh to direct Thor and Joe Johnston for Captain America. Marvel continued to surprise fans by casting Chris Evans as Captain America even though he was already playing another Marvel hero – Johnny Storm. All of those unpredictable and brilliant choices have led up to The Avengers, which represents the biggest roll of the dice for Marvel and yet it’s also the one most guaranteed to succeed. Can all of these disparate universes and characters fuse together to become the biggest superhero movie of all time? Two words…Hell yes!!! 
To satisfy consumer demand and serve the growing base of Blu-ray
Danger takes on a whole new meaning as the X-Men are forced to confront a reality they never thought possible. Continuing the saga of the Astonishing X-Men, comic book pages come alive when Shout! Factory, in association with Marvel Knights Animation, debuted the highly anticipated Marvel Knights Animation Astonishing X-Men: Dangerous on DVD, April 10, 2012. The highly popular “Dangerous” storyline and colorful visuals from the graphic novel by pop culture icons Joss Whedon and John Cassaday combine smart story telling, incredible action, and startling revelations in the second story arc of the acclaimed Astonishing X-Men multi-part series. This DVD invites viewers to delve deep inside the imaginative world of the Marvel Universe. 
Jaws comes to Blu-ray for the first time ever on August 14th, 2012 and features an all-new, digitally remastered and fully restored picture, as well as 7.1 surround sound. The film is one of 13 classic Universal films selected to be digitally remastered and fully restored from 35mm original film elements as part of Universal’s ongoing 100th Anniversary celebration. Directed by Academy Award winner Steven Spielberg, Jaws set the standard for edge-of-your seat suspense quickly becoming a cultural phenomenon and forever changing the movie industry. When the seaside community of Amity finds itself under attack by a dangerous great white shark, the town’s chief of police (Roy Scheider), a young marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss) and a grizzled shark hunter (Robert Shaw) embark on a desperate quest to destroy the beast before it strikes again. Featuring an unforgettable score that evokes pure terror, Jaws remains one of the most influential and gripping adventures in motion picture history. 
On April 14, 1912, just before midnight, the unsinkable Titanic struck an iceberg. In less than three hours, it had plunged to the bottom of the sea, taking with it more than 1,500 of its 2,200 passengers. In his unforgettable rendering of Walter Lord’s book of the same name, A Night to Remember, the acclaimed British director Roy Ward Baker (Don’t Bother to Knock) depicts with sensitivity, awe, and a fine sense of tragedy the ship’s final hours. Featuring remarkably restrained performances, A Night to Remember is cinema’s subtlest, finest dramatization of this monumental twentieth-century catastrophe. 
