Tag Archive: movies


ADMIT ONE – Movie Preview Weekend of 10/7/11

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October 14, 2011

The Lion Kind 3D slipped from the top spot last weekend only to see another kids movie, Dolphin Tale, take number one while Moneyball continues to wait its turn in the number two hole. Courageous and 50/50 also had very strong showings to round out the top 5. This weekend should be interesting though as only two big movies are coming out and so we only have two previews for you (there was no way in hell I was going to preview Human Centipede 2). Can they shake-up the Top 5 or will all the hype and publicity both these new movies have been getting be all for naught?

1) Real Steel (Buena Vista)

Ten years into the future, the sport of boxing has died and in its place has arisen robot boxing, which allows 10-foot tall metal titans to pummel each other in ways humans never could. One of these former human boxers, not knowing anything but the fight game, finds that he is not nearly as good with a control pad as when he was the one actually in the squared circle. But with a little faith from his son and a bunch of spare parts, this down-on-his-luck scrapper looks to make one last run at glory.

When I first heard of this movie, I admit that I groaned. Loudly. But the more I think about it, the more I admit it has an appeal there that might make it an actual decent movie. Or at the very least, when you describe something as Rock’em Sock’em Robots crossed with Transformers and Rocky, you have something that will interest a good amount of the viewing audience for at least its opening weekend. Starring Hugh Jackman as the down-on-his-luck boxer, this movie has a lot of entertainment potential as long as it doesn’t take itself too seriously in the end. And blows up a lot of robots.

2) The Ides of March (Sony/Columbia)

An idealistic PR man for a new presidential campaign starts to get a taste of the seedy underbelly that is the American political landscape as he and his candidate get closer and closer to election day.

With as much turmoil and debate that surrounds the American political process now, this movie, which looks to poke holes in the process and shed a little light on the flaws of our government, might make a bigger splash that we would initially think and has Oscar nods written all over it. With a star-studded cast including George Clooney as the suave new political candidate and who also co-wrote the screenplay and is directing the movie, this drama could be a sleeper to keep an eye on at the box office and could catapult Ryan Gosling into the Hollywood elite depending on his performance. Throw in dramatic powerhouses Paul Giamatti, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, and Jeffrey Wright and this movie has winner written all over it in my book.

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ADMIT ONE – Movie Previews Weekend of 9/30/11

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Amazingly, The Lion Kind 3D has taken the top weekend spot two weeks in a row and last week’s strong favorite, Moneyball, has had to be satisfied with a backseat position. Could this weekend’s newcomers hope to make a dent in the standings and overcome the re-released animated favorite and this instant baseball classic?

1) 50/50 (Summit Entertainment)

Loosely based on the true-story of a 27-year-old diagnosed with cancer and how he coped and overcame his disease with the help and hijinx of his family.

Normally a very dramatic subject, this light-hearted uplifting take on perseverance looks to see Seth Rogan and Joseph Gordon-Levitt play off each other like a classic comedy duo with Levitt as your typical straight man and Rogan as the bumbling buffoon with a heart of gold. Quick witted one liners wrapped in this heart-warming tale of family and friends coming to the support of a kid facing his final curtain should be a strong contender for your box office bucks this weekend if you’re looking for a laugh or something more light-hearted to see with your significant other. It also is good to see that Rogan might actually be funny in something for the first time in a couple of years.

2) Courageous (TriStar)

Four police officers give their all for their jobs and protect the streets as best they can. But when tragedy hits close to home and they realize that they may be giving a bit too much to their professional careers, their faith in themselves and each other will be tested.

Although the standard cop drama is not my cup of tea, this one looks to be well made with a lot of lesser known actors to help pull off the gritty real-life feel the movie goes for. Of course, it’s pro-Gospel message could give it a strong appeal in certain regions of the country and turn off large parts of others, but it is easily the least likely to do much at the box office this weekend because of it’s limited release in less than 1200 theatres (most blockbusters are released in 3200-3600 theaters). This sleeper drama could be a good change of pace from your standard action/drama flick, but if you’re against heavy religious overtones, then you’ll likely want to steer clear of this one altogether.

3) Dream House (Universal)

Soon after moving into what they thought would be their dream house, a couple and their kids learn of horrific murders that took place within the walls of their home and that the former residents might not have left when that happened.

Just another in a long line of films with a super-natural evil lurking in the residence, Dream House has mediocre (at best) written all over it. Even with real life married couple and acting powerhouses Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz starring, you have to ask yourself if the only reason they took these roles was so they could work together on a project shortly after their nuptials. There are plenty of better horror movies still out in the theaters or coming out in the coming weeks, so if you’re looking for a scare, you can find something better than this one for sure.

4) What’s Your Number? (Fox)

A woman looks back on her past 20 relationships and wonders if one of them could have been “the one” and if she let him get away.

I look at this and I ask myself, why? Why is Captain America (Chris Evans) doing this movie? Why do horrible rom-coms like this ever get green lit? Why must I bother even looking at this on my list of new releases? WHY? This movie looks beyond generic and has ‘awful’ written all over it. If you have a girlfriend who wants to see this movie, do whatever you can for her to avoid it. Cook her breakfast in bed, give her a foot massage, do whatever you can to escape probably the worst one hour and 46 minutes of your movie going life. Or maybe go rent some more bearable rom-com to appease her, but if you willingly accept going to th

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ADMIT ONE – Weekend Movie Preview – 9/23/11

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Much like last week, it looks like we have a pair of strong possibilities to come out ahead in terms of being worth your viewing pleasure and we also have a pair of stinkers. So grab your popcorn and a soda, kick back, relax, and check out my movie previews for this upcoming weekend!

1) Moneyball (Sony/Columbia)

Based on the true story of the late 1990s-early 2000s Oakland Athletics, Moneyball follows how General Manager Billy Beane was able to turn one of the cheapest organizations in baseball into a winner for several years while teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers were trying to buy championships.

Living in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area for the past 25 years, I was always aware of how my Yankees were considered the “evil empire” and how everyone rooted for this perennial underdog Oakland team. And they did push us and others to the brink a few times. But always came up short in the end. Still, Billy Beane changed baseball for a time and it was a great story to see these rag tag misfit players come away with AL Western Division Championships. If you’re a fan of baseball and are older than the age of 15, you’ll probably really appreciate this story and to me this is the must see movie of the weekend.

2) Abduction (Lionsgate)

Triggered by seeing his face on a missing persons’ website, a young man will uncover a giant conspiracy on his quest to find out the truth about himself and where he comes from.

This movie seems completely unbelievable and this is coming from a guy that worships Star Wars and Batman. You expect me to believe that this kid from Pittsburgh goes from being a mild mannered nobody to a super-spy in an instant after his home gets invaded? No radioactive bugs, cosmic rays, or being from another planet? And what was with that scene with him at the Pirates game running around a crowded PNC Park? Going back to our first movie, anyone who knows baseball knows that there hasn’t been that many people at a Pirates game in 20 years. It’s really a shame that tremendous supporting cast with Alfred Molina and Sigourney Weaver will be wasted, but I still can’t believe they’re casting the werewolf kid in other movies now. Are they banking on his teen fan-base following him into other franchises? All in all, Abduction has flop written all over it.

3) Dolphin Tale (Warner Bros.)

Based on the true story of a boy who helps develop a prosthetic tale for an injured dolphin after it was caught in a fishing trap.

Would it be insensitive to say I’m eating a tuna sandwich right now? Anyway, this might appeal to a very young audience as it has Free Willy written all over it and I loved that movie when I was seven. Now, not so much. What kills me the most is this is “based on a true story”. I would love to get the dolphin’s point of view on this whole thing. Seeing it show up to the movie premiere and flop down the red carpet in a nice suit and tie. But you can’t. Because it’s an animal. And at the end of the day, animal stories hold no real value for me in terms of entertainment. This is a 200-word article buried a dozen pages back in the NY Times, not a feature film. I think it’ll do alright this weekend because little kids will eat it up, but I don’t see this as being anything more that a solid kid empowerment movie and so I’m personally steering clear.

4) Killer Elite (Open Road Films)

After his mentor is taken hostage, a retired member of Britain’s Elite Special Air Service will do everything in his power to get him back, including taking down an entire top-of-the-line hit squad, and get to the bottom of the kidnapping.

Although this looks like a somewhat generic action movie, I’m actually very interested to see it because of its all-star cast of Robert DeNiro, Clive Owen, and the current king of the over-the-top action film, Jason Statham. Big explosions, lots of elaborate action sequences, and some cool fight scenes and stunts, has me rather curious to see just what this movie is all about. Although I still expect Moneyball to easily win the weekend, I think this could quietly sneak into a number two or three spot depending on how many guys are looking for their action fix this weekend. It definitely has a lot more potential to be entertaining than Abduction, that’s for sure.

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Admit One – Movie Premiere Preview for Weekend of Sept. 16th, 2011

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September 22, 2011

Channeling my inner Jay Sherman, I look ahead to this weekend’s upcoming potential blockbusters. Winning the top spot at the box office always puts a target on your back, but I don’t know if the disease-oriented thriller Contagion, which took last week’s number one position with it’s over $22 million dollar opening weekend, has much to worry about from any of this week’s new contenders. Let’s take a look.

1) The Lion King 3D (Buena Vista)

In the jungles of Africa is a hierarchy of animals, forever ruled by lions who must maintain the Circle of Life. But the jealous brother, Scar, of the current king, Mufasa, puts plans in motion to usurp the throne by eliminating the king and his son, Simba.

Like all great Disney animated classics, the voice acting is superb, the songs are wonderful, and the animation is priceless. My only concern is pushing this into 3D now, but even so, I saw this as a kid and know enough people my age who have kids now that this is a perfect chance to give their little ones a similar experience to what we all had as children—to see this on the big screen in a movie theatre and spend some quality time with their family. I actually wouldn’t be surprised to see The Lion King 3D do decently well this weekend and if you have kids who are new to the film, I recommend you take them.

2) Straw Dogs (Sony/Screen Gems)

An L.A. screenwriter relocates with his wife to her hometown in the deep south. As their relationship begins to become strained due to the move, both are put in danger by some of the twisted locals and are forced to defend themselves to the bitter end.

Putting aside the premise of your stereotypical southern hillbillies looking to do deranged things to pretty girls, I can’t even begin to take this movie seriously because it has James Marsden in it. Every time I see him, I just keep thinking of the guy who made Cyclops a wuss in the X-Men movies and was the surrogate father of Lois Lane’s bastard son in Superman Returns. I can never see any geek ever taking him seriously in anything he does as long as he’s still best known for those two stains in the world of geekdom and this movie doesn’t look to do him any favors either.

3) I Don’t Know How She Does It (Weinstein Company)

A comedy that centers around the hectic life of one woman who is a finance executive as well as the breadwinner in her family.

I’m still trying to figure out how Sarah Jessica Parker gets roles. The last time she was even remotely relevant was when Family Guy compared her face to a foot (very fitting I might add). This is why when most actors get older, they go into voice acting. Take a cue Sarah. On the other hand, I want more Christina Hendricks! She is amazingly beautiful. Honestly though, even with a star studded comedic cast, this movie has as much fun written on it as an appendectomy. If I wanted to listen to a middle-aged woman complain and make bad jokes about her job, deadbeat husband, and spoiled kids, I’d go back to Jersey and have dinner with my mother. I heard about this movie once a while ago, and thought the producers had come to their senses and buried it after I didn’t hear about it again. So much for that idea.

4) Drive (FilmDistrict)

A Hollywood stuntman is underpaid and underappreciated, so he begins moonlighting as a wheelman for various illegal jobs. When one deal goes wrong though, a hit is put out on his head and he’ll have to use his skills in ways he never thought about before.

I’m actually really intrigued about this movie. It has a great cast of actors who I always enjoy like Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman (who every geek out there worth a damn is a fan of) and it’s a bit of a twist on your standard heist movie which we haven’t seen enough of lately. Not to mention it has Christina Hendricks (see above review). The real question will be how pretty boy Ryan Gosling does in the lead role of an action-oriented movie like this. We know he can do drama, but can he do his own stunts like in the role he’s playing? If you’re going to see anything this weekend and don’t have kids, I think this is the one to go with and is my movie pick of the week.

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Will Leaks Spoil ‘The Dark Knight Rises’?

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September 13, 2011

Originally Published: September 6, 2011, on EGMNOW.com

Same Bat-Time, Very Different Bat-Channel?

I remember the year or so leading up to the release of The Dark Knight. The cast had been revealed and immediately people, admittedly myself included, started to freak out that Heath Ledger would be the Joker (a role he’d win a posthumous Oscar for). The ‘Broke-bat Mountain’ jokes were numerous and very few of us had the faith that Christopher Nolan could catch lightning in a bottle twice as he did with Batman Begins. Then the movie was released and Ledger is now talked about in geek circles as possibly the best Joker ever (not by me, but he did do a great job). So when casting was announced for The Dark Knight Rises, people definitely raised on eyebrow, but Nolan and his crew had earned the respect of us from the previous movie to have faith in that they knew what they’re doing.

Now for the past several weeks, on an almost daily basis, a few clever people from Pittsburgh (I know how oxymoronic that sounds) have snuck in camera phones or flip cams to the set where The Dark Knight Rises is being filmed. As locked down as the set of The Dark Knight was, the set of The Dark Knight Rises seems to be as porous. We have confirmation of several tumbler Batmobiles, the Bat-Pod, a breakout from Blackgate, an invaded football stadium converted from the Steelers’ Heinz Field before the NFL pre-season began, a fight between Bane and Batman on the steps of City Hall, Catwoman riding out of City Hall on the Bat-Pod, a blooper of Anne Hathaway’s stunt double smashing an IMAX camera, a Batwing more reminiscent of a UFO, and there are still months of filming left if we are to believe the six month anticipated shooting schedule.

All this leads me to several questions. If Nolan was able to run such a tight ship with The Dark Knight, what has changed, if anything? Or is this all a ploy to throw detail hungry fanboys off the trail of the movie’s bigger picture and to help build up all the hype, much like the release of the first six minutes of the movie did at San Diego Comic Con before The Dark Knight? But even if this is some clever plot to keep us all distracted and away from whatever secrets Nolan is trying to protect, could these images actually do damage to the film instead?

Although Anne Hathaway looks phenomenal in her Catwoman outfit, there has already been fan outrage that she lacks Catwoman staples like a bullwhip and cat-ears. I’m not saying she has to be in bright purple spandex, but some small odes to the comic costumes would be a nice touch. And many are saying Bane looks absolutely abysmal, looking more like a common thug crossed with a young Hannibal Lecter than the mastermind behind the Knightfall comic book story arc of two decades ago. Could these quick to judge fan opinions from leaked footage and stills do anything to the powerhouse audiences this movie is sure to draw next July? Not likely, but if too much of the plot can be determined from this footage, you might start to see the comic community find less and less reason to go see this in theatres, or try harder to procure leaked scripts and film reels like with X-Men Origins: Wolverine a couple of years ago.

Then, of course, there is also the option that Nolan is purposely trying to bring people’s opinion of the movie down. When trying to aspire to great expectations like this movie is, it will be much harder to reach that brass ring with audiences than to surprise audiences who are expecting less. This may be part of the reason that Ledger’s Joker was so successful because many of us going in were filled with doubt about whether or not he could pull it off so that when he gave the performance he did, we immediately put his portrayal onto a previously unthinkable pedestal.

No matter what happens, I’m sure The Dark Knight Rises will draw a ton of bank, but it should be interesting to see how all this leaked footage affects people’s opinions before and after seeing the movie and whether or not it hurts or helps it in the end.

The Dark Knight Rises will hit movie theaters mid-July of 2012 and conclude Christopher Nolan’s celebrated (so far) trilogy of the Caped Crusader. What do you expect from this final movie? Are you disappointed by what members of Batman’s Rogues Gallery were featured? Should Nolan and Bale come back for a fourth? Sound off below!

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X-Men: First Class Character Profile: Sebastian Shaw

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May 25, 2011

Originally Published: May 25, 2011, on Comicvine.com

We are all very aware that there are clearly going to be many differences between the X-Men: First Class movie and the comics it is based off of. Another story arc that we are sure to see some loose liberties taken with in the movie will be the Hellfire Club and its leader, Sebastian Shaw, played by Kevin Bacon.

Sebastian Shaw first appeared in January 1980 in X-Men #129 as the Black King of the now infamous Hellfire Club. A shrewd businessman and strategist, Shaw was a self-made billionaire by age 40. This rapid influx of wealth caught the attention of Ned Buckman, the head of the New York branch of the Hellfire Club, which at the time had a very anti-mutant agenda unbeknownst to Shaw.

Shaw was invited into the club’s Inner Circle as the Black Bishop. But when Shaw and his lover came under attack for being mutants, his lover being killed, Shaw used Emma Frost to coerce Buckman into killing himself and all other members of the club’s Inner Circle instead. This left a power vacuum that Shaw quickly plugged as he announced himself the new Black King and began his pro-mutant machinations for the club and his ultimate goal of world domination.

Shaw’s first appearance in the comics would help set up one of the most dramatic story arcs in X-Men history as it would start The Dark Phoenix Saga and also marked the first appearance of two other very popular characters, Kitty Pryde and Emma Frost. Emma was Shaw’s right hand lady with her psychic abilities and Shaw had sent Emma to distract the X-Men and test their limits when they went to investigate the manifestations of Kitty’s powers. This was all to allow original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants member, Jason Wyngarde, the original Mastermind, a clearer chance to manipulate Jean Grey’s mind while the X-Men were distracted and split up (Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, and Professor X went to see Kitty while Cyclops, Jean, and Nightcrawler went looking for Dazzler in New York) and begin preparing her to become Shaw’s Black Queen for his vision of the Hellfire Club. Of course, this would backfire, drive Jean mad, and unleash the Dark Phoenix, but that’s another story for another time.

Aside from being a brilliant tactician, Shaw also possesses a mutant power similar to that of Bishop’s in that he can absorb kinetic energy and re-metabolize it. Shaw cannot redirect the energy into blasts of his own like Bishop, but like Bishop he can use it to increase his strength, speed, stamina, and invulnerability and often takes a pummeling early in a fight from his foes in order to build up his reserves and dish out punishment on a more personal level with his fists later on.

Now we haven’t seen much of Shaw in trailers or whatnot except that members of his Hellfire Club usually accompany him or there is one shot where he is talking to Angel Salvadore. Since I highly doubt we’ll see anything in regards to Dark Phoenix, I think it would make sense for Shaw and his Hellfire Club to have their own agenda for the mutant race and this is what puts them in conflict with the X-Men and maybe even gives Magneto the inspiration to form the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants later on. And this would at least stay true to Shaw as a character who plans for world domination through force and his vast fortune.

Also, even though Kevin Bacon is not nearly as imposing a physical force as Shaw comes across as in the comics, I’d at least like to see him get his hands dirty and slug it out with some of First Class’s heavy hitters like Beast, Havok, and maybe even Darwin. You could very easily have him absorb one of Havok’s blasts and go to town on some of the X-Men who use more hand-to-hand techniques when fighting their foes. No matter what though, this classic X-Men villain is sure to give these First Class recruits a run for their money.

So what do you guys think? Just how far will Shaw and the Hellfire Club go in the movie? Will Shaw get his hands dirty when push comes to shove or will he remain more simply as the brilliant tactician behind this odd roster of the Inner Circle of Emma, Riptide, and Azazel? Let us know what you think with comments below!

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Sucker Punch Movie Review

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April 14, 2011

Originally Published: April 13, 2011, on Screened.com

I remember growing up painting with watercolors and I always used to love mixing my favorite colors to make new ones. There was one time though when I tried to mix all my colors and all that ended up doing was make black. No color. Devoid of the vibrancy and energy that you could get when mixing just a red with a blue or a red and yellow. So I couldn’t blame Zack Snyder when I heard Sucker Punch was going to be a movie that combined zombie Nazis, killer robots, fire-breathing dragons, and half-naked hot chicks (only trumped of course by fully naked hot chicks). But knowing all this, I also knew that it was going to take some real move magic to keep this from just becoming a bland, boring experience that happens when you combine too many elements and stray too far from the basics like plot and character development.

A 20-year old girl simply known as “Baby Doll” (Emily Browning) is institutionalized in an insane asylum after accidentally shooting her sister in an attempt to prevent her from being molested by their step-father. In the hopes of collecting the inheritance the girls were to receive after their mother’s passing, the step-father greases some palms in order to have a doctor (Jon Hamm) rush to the asylum and perform a lobotomy on the grief stricken Baby Doll. In order to help cope with her gruesome fate, Dr. Vera Gorski (Carla Gugino) helps Baby Doll to retreat to a fantasy world where she is able to open up and begin to lay out a master plan of escape for herself and four other girls she befriends in the asylum, Rocket (Jena Malone), Amber (Jamie Chung), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), and Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish).

Unfortunately, even with this more than capable cast, Zack Snyder’s first foray into film with a completely original script is exactly what I feared, a hodgepodge of great elements and pieces that simply don’t mesh well when mixed altogether and ends up becoming bland and predictable. In fact, after the first ten minutes I was able to piece together exactly how the rest of the movie would go and this made the remaining 99 minutes a bore-fest that pushed the limits of my digital watch’s battery as I kept checking it on average every five minutes to see how much more of this poor attempt at sensory overload I had to endure.

After Baby Doll creates her alternate world in order to cope with her situation, the plan she comes up with gives the film a hint of a cheap heist movie as her and her sexy cohorts must go around and collect certain items from the asylum in order to orchestrate their escape. While doing this, Baby Doll creates a new world within her coping mechanism world each time and so her quest for fire pits her against fire-breathing dragons and her quest for a map puts her in some twisted WWII trenches against Nazi zombies. Although each sequence is action-packed and cinematically beautiful, they feel more like prolonged video game cut scenes and the fact that Baby Doll must do this repeatedly makes the movie as a whole feel like you’re watching someone play one long fetch-quest in a crappy RPG.

On top of this, the tragic fate that comes for some of the characters falls on an uncaring audience because it seems that in taking the time to make sure his use of licensed music fit with the action scenes he was creating, Snyder neglected to develop any of his characters. In fact, there seems to be such little connection with the audience to these characters that there are points in the movie where you don’t know if you should be hoping for the half-naked heroines success or actually rooting for them to fail just to liven up this one dimensional film foray.

There are some small positives to Sucker Punch though. Sucker Punch could be a prime example in a college film editing class of how to do things properly as I won’t deny that Snyder’s signature cinematography, special effects, and use of licensed music were again well implemented throughout the film, but at this juncture these technical points have almost become an industry standard and so shouldn’t blow you away by any means.

Aside from this, Sucker Punch really just falls flat. What was supposed to be a movie that kept you guessing and came at you from various angles, much like the maneuver for which the movie takes its name, is nothing more than a predictable waste of time that tries to distract you with bright lights and beautiful women in order to cover up its glaring lack of plot, character development, and originality.

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New Captain America: Super Soldier and Thor: God of Thunder Screenshots

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March 22, 2011

Originally Published: March 22, 2011, on Comicvine.com

With their theatrical release date right around the corner and new movie posters being shown off, SEGA wanted to make sure we didn’t forget that they have corresponding video games coming out to go along with these summer blockbuster comic book movies.

Both Thor: God of Thunder and Captain America: Super Soldier will officially be available three days before their respective movies with Thor coming out May 3, 2011, and Captain America coming out July 19, 2011. Both games will also be available on Nintendo Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and in stereoscopic 3D for both the Xbox 360 and PS3. Speaking of the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, let’s take a look at some of the new screenshots for both games.










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Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam Blu-ray Review

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December 23, 2010

Originally Published: December 18, 2010, on Collider.com

Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam is the latest animated short to be released by the folks in charge of the DC Animated Universe. The Man of Steel, in his Clark Kent guise, is doing a newspaper piece on Billy Bastion, a young orphan with a heart of gold who tries to always see the good in the world. It is this eternal optimism that has also piqued the interest of a mystical being known as the Wizard Shazam. Unbeknowst to Billy, he has been marked by the Wizard in order for him to keep an eye on him. This mystical mark though is also acting as a beacon for the Wizard’s greatest failure, Black Adam.

Black Adam was originally a champion of Shazam, but his dark heart quickly led him to using his powers for evil and so the Wizard banished him to the farthest star system he could think of. With the powers of a god though at his disposal, Black Adam has been traveling back to Earth for centuries and now wishes revenge on those who had wronged him.

Now, left with no other choice, the Wizard must prematurely bestow Billy with the same powers as Black Adam to help protect Earth from all manner of villainy as he will now become the new Captain Marvel, Earth’s Mightiest Mortal. Billy must quickly learn about his powers and how to be a hero from Superman who, as always, conveniently shows up and together they must stop Black Adam once and for all.

Origin stories can be very fun if done properly and this animated short’s quick pace, great voice acting, and shiny stylized looking animation all come together very well on the Blu-ray format as probably the best short yet by DC’s animation gurus. All the major voice actors, George Newburn as Superman, Arnold Vosloo as Black Adam, Jerry O’Connell as Captain Marvel, and Kevin Michael Richardson as Mister Tawky Tawny also gave great performances and really made you believe in their characters motivations.

And Newburn continues to rival Tim Daly’s classic 1990s Superman voiceover portrayal here in more recent times. Even the changes they made to Bastion’s upbringing in order to make him a character that the audience could immediately get behind was forgivable for diehards and didn’t take anything away from the piece or the theme of the character.

The only real weak point of this piece is the most obvious one in that it is less than 30 minutes long for what easily could have been a full-feature all on its own for one of comics’ oldest heroes (first appearing in February of 1940 even though he didn’t become a DC property until 1972).

And since this adventure is less than 30 minutes long, it has been bundled together with the other DC shorts that were featured on their more recent full-length animated films. Extended versions of the Green Arrow, The Spectre, and Jonah Hex shorts are included to help flesh out this Blu-Ray package into a more respectable length closer to 70 minutes.

Unfortunately, if you are a fan of the DC Universe and have been collecting the animated movies up to this point, then these added shorts, which were needlessly extended with a couple of minutes of filler animation each to try to extend the Blu-ray further, don’t add much to this disc overall really. Even with special episodes from Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Batman: The Animated Series, and Justice League Unlimited that highlight all the characters featured on this disc, there is only 30 minutes of non-documentary original content.

It is because of this lack of original animated content that I can’t recommend this to anyone who has bought Batman/Superman: Apocalypse, Batman: Under the Red Hood, or Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths already. Sorry Captain Marvel fans, but I’d just rent this or wait till it hit the bargain bin if you really want to purchase this solid, albeit very short, representation of your hero.

Rating: C

-Ray Carsillo

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Spider-Man 3 Review for the Nintendo Wii

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December 5, 2010

Originally Published: December 5, 2010, on Youtube.com/CGRundertow

As a part of CGR Undertow, I reviewed Spider-Man 3 for the Nintendo Wii.

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