Modern Family Season One (Blu-ray Review)
September 29th, 2010 by Sean Ferguson
This is without a doubt the funniest show on TV right now. Usually when a show this good is on TV that means that no one is watching it and it’s going to be canceled like Arrested Development. The good news is that that’s not the case this time as not only is the show doing well in the ratings but it’s also winning Emmys. Show-runners Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd who last produced the underrated Back To You, have rebounded from that cancellation with this expertly cast comedy. It’s a show that the entire family can and should enjoy together! Continue reading ‘Modern Family Season One (Blu-ray Review)’
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke
After the critical and commercial success of The Fellowship of the Ring, the expectations were higher for The Two Towers. For Peter Jackson and crew, The Two Towers was the hardest movie to make out of the three because when their script was changed from two movies (as originally intended) to three, some major changes were made. The beginning of the film was actually supposed to be the conclusion of The Fellowship of the Ring and they changed to ending so that the Battle at Helm’s Deep would be the climax. 
The greatest and most ambitious series of fantasy movies has finally come to Blu-ray! The Lord of the Rings trilogy represents one of the biggest gambles in modern film history as all three films were filmed at once with a director who was better known for small horror movies, not to mention the fact that fantasy films generally aren’t successful at the box office. 
While she is better known as an actress nowadays, Janeane Garofalo has been doing stand up for decades now. She won the title of being the “Funniest Person in Rhode Island,” after entering into a talent contest by Showtime and went on to continue doing stand up during the 80s but never really hit the big time until the 90s (a fact she mentions during the concert). In 1992, she was added to a ground-breaking new show called The Ben Stiller Show where she joined a talented cast that included Ben Stiller, David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, and Andy Dick. 
One of the biggest movies in Disney history, Beauty and the Beast is finally coming to Blu-ray October 5th in a new Diamond Edition release! The only animated movie to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture until another Disney/Pixar release of Up eighteen years later, it won a ton of awards including Oscars for its music and the first Golden Globe Best Picture (Comedy or a Musical) win for an animated film. 
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is one of those movies that has production stories just as interesting as the movie itself. Before the book was published, actor Kirk Douglas read it and bought the rights to the book and turned into a play that he took to Broadway. Despite good reviews and a great cast, the play closed after six months and Douglas went about trying to make a movie out of it. While traveling Europe, he ran into director Milos Forman and told him that he would send him a copy of the book to see if he would be interested in directing the movie. 
I was very happy to get this movie to review as I had missed it in the theaters and I was excited to see what Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney could do after their last swashbuckling effort resulted in the Pirates of the Caribbean series which I loved. You see, I have a serious weakness for these types of films as I love the old Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks movies and nobody seems to make those kind of films anymore. I’m hoping with the success of the Pirates trilogy, the National Treasure series, and now this, that the studios will start making adventure films again. 
The most anticipated movie in our household (especially by my son) is finally coming November 2! Not only is Toy Story 3 getting the Blu-ray treatment, it’s also getting a deluxe box set that contains the entire trilogy and all of their special features in a replica of Andy’s wagon train toy box. Toy Story 3 dominated the box office this summer (over 1 billion dollars!) and is currently ranked as the 5th biggest worldwide movie of all time. 
My family and I are big Disney fans. We go to Disneyland whenever we can, we watch the Disney Channel, and we also enjoy all of the Disney/Pixar movies too. My two year old especially loves all things Disney so we watch a lot of it in our household. He seems fascinated by Tinker Bell and I’m not sure if it’s because she is cute, short, and blond which seems to be his preference or if it’s because she can fly around. Whatever the case, he is a fan of Tinker Bell and I am fond of her as well from my time growing up watching Peter Pan. 
Hidden by darkness. Guarded by witches. Discovered by a boy. Stolen by a King. Whoever owns it controls the world. Or destroys it… That was the original tag line to Disney’s 25th animated release of one of my all-time favorite Disney movies. This was such a different kind of Disney film that a lot of people thought that it was too dark, especially after following The Fox and the Hound, but that darkness and the fantasy aspect to it is what made me want to see the movie so badly. 
For those 8.9 million Disney Channel Movie premiere viewers who made Camp Rock a huge success, here comes the sequel you’ve been waiting for…Camp Rock 2! All of the elements that made the first one so popular have returned – The Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato, and a new talented group to round out the cast. I’ve never seen the first movie but thanks to my son’s love of the Disney Channel, I’ve seen plenty of music videos and clips of the movie to be familiar with it. 
For those 8.9 million Disney Channel Movie premiere viewers who made Camp Rock a huge success, here comes the sequel you’ve been waiting for…Camp Rock 2! All of the elements that made the first one so popular have returned – The Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato, and a new talented group to round out the cast. This time, a rival Rock Camp opens up across the lake and rivalry develops between them. Of course that means war between Camp Rock and the snobby Camp Star and the returning cast from the first movie are back to help Camp Rock win. 
Hidden by darkness. Guarded by witches. Discovered by a boy. Stolen by a King. Whoever owns it controls the world. Or destroys it… That was the original tag line to Disney’s 25th animated release of one of my all-time favorite Disney movies. This was such a different kind of Disney film that a lot of people thought that it was too dark, especially after following The Fox and the Hound, but that darkness and the fantasy aspect to it is what made me want to see the movie so badly. 
One of Walt Disney’s biggest gambles has to be the much beloved Fantasia. At the time, Disney wanted to bring Mickey Mouse back in a big way as a comeback vehicle where the animation would be combined with classical music selections to tell a collection of different stories. Disney spared no expense to achieve the desired focus on quality and detail and even Mickey Mouse was redesigned to have a more modern and realistic look. Famed conductor 
One of the most influential movies of the post-apocalyptic genre, Mad Max will arrive on Blu-ray on October 5. This is the movie that catapulted the career of an unknown Mel Gibson into a box-office draw. In this movie, Gibson stars as Max Rockatansky who is basically Dirty Harry of Australia. Set in a dystopian future, where the civilized world as we know it has ended and societal norms have degraded to the point that gangs openly terrorize what’s left of the populace. 
Yes, the hills will be alive with the Sound of Music this November! This is one of my all time favorite musicals (a genre that doesn’t have that many movies that interest me) and I can’t wait for this to come out. Brilliantly directed by Robert Wise, with a stellar cast, great songs and choreography, and breathtaking panoramic visuals, this is the kind of movie that Blu-ray was created for. 
The final season of arguably one of the greatest TV shows ever made will be released this August with a ton of great extra features especially if you buy the complete collection that includes even more goodies; like the Senet game played by Jacob and the Man in Black and a collectible ankh and a black light along with a custom LOST island replica. I have to say that I loved this show even though it’s deliberate machinations sometimes maddened me to distraction. This is a show that you need to watch in order and with your full concentration. 
