‘TRON: Legacy’ Fights for the Users and the Audience
December 18th, 2010 by Aaron Neuwirth
In 1982, Disney released an original science fiction film known as TRON. Despite its unique concept and the presence of Jeff Bridges, the film was only met with moderate success, developing a cult following over the years. TRON’s most notable aspect, at the time, was in regards to the way it pioneered the use of computer technology to create its special effects. Despite this notable quality, the film was disqualified from Oscar consideration regarding the special effects, because it was deemed to have cheated. Now, 28 years later, due to the power young geeks who grew up watching TRON and are now working for Disney, a sequel has been made. Continue reading ‘‘TRON: Legacy’ Fights for the Users and the Audience’
The Resident Evil franchise is a series I nearly gave up on had it not been for my friend Susan’s advice to me in 2008. You see, quite honestly, I take my films very seriously and well, Resident Evil movies just didn’t cut it for me. I was just not able to take the lunacy, stupidity and over-the-top nature of them. Resident Evil: Extinction was that final nail in the coffin. I liked the first film, hated the second outing and just thought the third one was okay. But what was really wrong with me? I’ll tell you what it was…I forgot how to have fun in life. 
The World at War is without question, the definitive historical documentary account of World War II. The scope and breadth of this documentary series is unparalleled as it covers events from 1933 through the war’s end in 1945. Commissioned by Thames Television in 1969, it took four years to assemble all of the footage (including some rare footage in color) and it ended up costing what would now cost around $12 million dollars to produce. 
Tangled is the 50th animated classic from Walt Disney that uses the story from Rapunzel and reportedly is the second most expensive movie ever made, at a cost of $260 million dollars due to it’s six years in development. Starring Mandy Moore, Zachery Levi, Donna Murphy, Brad Garrett, Ron Perlman, and many more, this movie was a hit at the box office with almost $200 million in ticket sales. 
The Secret Life of the American Teenager (aka The Secret Life) should keep its secrets to itself! I admit that my taste in movies and tv shows rivals that of any fourteen year old girl. That’s slightly embarrassing given the fact that I just turned 33. That being said, it was painful to sit through 602 minutes of The Secret Life. 
The calendar year of 2010 started off a little rough, in my opinion, for the world of movies. It was a little too rough, if you don’t mind me saying. Anyway, it was not until the month of March that I saw the first film I deemed worthy of even talking about, Shutter Island. Needless to say, by April I really had my reservations about this year. I was let down by Iron Man 2 and a few others I had high hopes for, but I knew (although I could not prove it at the time) that Mr. Nolan was about to conjure up something really special in Inception, so I kept my head held high in eager anticipation of being proved wrong about this lackluster calendar year. Was I disappointed? 
This past summer at San Diego’s Comic-Con, I had the very rare opportunity to speak with Oscar-winning actor Jeff Bridges regarding his role in the revival of the Tron franchise. I had asked the seasoned screen vet what his reaction was when he was approached to do a sequel since the first film came out nearly 30 years earlier. I remember the original film quite well (now if only my dvd copy would turn up). Though its effects are quite dated by today’s standards, it is not only a timeless adventure for me, but for many film fans around the globe as well. 
Knight and Day represents a return to form for Tom Cruise who had a choice of movies to pick from (The Tourist was one of them) before he decided to sign on to this movie. I believe it was a good decision since Knight and Day lets Tom Cruise be Tom Cruise. There’s a lot of action and humor in the movie and it really provides a showcase to remind people why Tom Cruise became a movie star in the first place. 
The estrogen network, aka Lifetime, brings you the fourth season of Army Wives on a four disc DVD set. The show is based on the novel Under the Sabers: The Unwritten Code of Army Wives by Tanya Biank and it offers a look at a life in the military for the soldiers and how it affects their family. 
Here’s some news I have been looking forward to promoting for a long time and now that it is finally official…I am free to do so! MPI Home Video has announced plans to release my buddy Adam Green’s Hatchet II in all its Unrated glory on February 1st. Technical specs and bonus materials have yet to be announced yet, but there is a 
Director Darren Aronofsky does not direct by-the-numbers, easy-to-watch, run-of-the-mill movies… Black Swan is no exception to the Aronofsky rule, pulling out a gut-wrenching performance from sweet little Natalie Portman… She stars in this psychological thriller about preparing for a ballet performance in Swan Lake… Vincent Cassel (and is there a better actor to portray slimy, self-sufficiency than Cassel?) plays the dictatorial director, who pulls and pushes Portman to her last fiber of sanity, so she will be “perfect” for the performance. 
Stop! Freeze right there! I want to play a game. No, not like Jigsaw does in the Saw movies, but I want to play good cop, bad cop. What? You want to be the bad cop too? How will that ever work out? Well if you are talking about the Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg action-comedy film The Other Guys, I have a hunch that’s it’s going to work out to be a pretty ball-busting hilarious good ole’ time for you. But that’s just me. Let’s take a closer look and find out why. 
It was in 1998 when a 29-year old director by the name of Brett Ratner brought together an unlikely pairing of martial arts guru Jackie Chan and fast talker Chris Tucker. While it may have looked like a quirky attempt to replicate Lethal Weapon on the surface, Rush Hour took on its own identity, pullingin a handsome sum of money from theaters around the globe. Here we are 12 years later (hard to believe!) and the cop action/comedy is finally coming home to Blu-ray. 
To reference a 
