Up Blu-Ray and DVD Combo: Pixar Looks at Life’s Ups and Downs
Posted by: Ernie Estrella on November 21, 2009 at 7:13 am
Year: 2009
Running Time: 96 Minutes
Rated: PG
SRP: $45.99
Studio(s): Disney Pixar
Release Date: November 10, 2009
Feature/Film: A
Instead of sequels like Toy Story 3 and Cars 2, I’ve preferred the more recent Pixar projects like Ratatouille and Wall-E for their “big picture” concepts and experimental narrative devices. Their latest release, Up has all of those things, and something no other Pixar film has, an lasting emotional effect that will bore into your heart. Co-drected by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, the Monsters Inc. tandem returns to showcase the full life of Carl Fredricksen voiced by Ed Asner, a lonely and retired balloon salesman who jumps into adventure to honor a promise he made to his late wife.
Up’s opening is like a complete film all by himself, Carl’s life unfolds before us as a young boy who meets a girl named Ellie, brought together by their love of explorers and adventurers, one in particular, Charles Muntz (Chistorpher Plummer) who seeks out new worlds in his zeppelin. Muntz is accused of being a phony and gets in his dirigible and goes to South America to bring back proof of his findings. Next is a montage assembly of important scenes of their Carl and Elli’s life together is done without dialogue, just big band music behind a sweet love story playing out from their friendship into boyfriend and girlfriend, then husband and wife who renovate the old abandoned house they used to play in as children. Then his entire world was taken away from him.
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Fight Club 10th Anniversary Edition Blu-Ray: After 10 Years, We’re Still Talking About It (Don’t Tell Tyler Durden)
Posted by: Ernie Estrella on November 20, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Year: 1999
Running Time: 139 Minutes
Rated: R
SRP: $34.99
Studio(s): 20th Century Fox
Release Date: November 17, 2009
Film/Feature: A+
Fight Club was heralded by modern and contemporary critics and masculine film buffs alike, as a modern American classic, ten years ago for its relevance and its harsh comment on this country’s way of life. With the 10th Anniversary blu-ray release, it was a proper time to revisit Fight Club to see whether or not that kind of immediate reaction aged well over time.
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Brüno Blu-Ray: He’s Gay und Wünderbar!
Posted by: Ernie Estrella on November 18, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Year: 2009
Running Time: 82 minutes
Rated: R
SRP:$ 39.95
Studio(s): Universal Studios
Release Date: November 17, 2009
Film/Feature: B
(In Borat’s voice) Larry Charles and Sacha Baron Cohen’s extremely pop-u-lar 2006 film, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, put people on alert. Beware of an Anti-Semetic man with a camera behind him. This man, he have great powers, to show… people’s prejudice. I like him very-much!
Cohen’s latest film, Brüno does much of the same, this time, in a different costume, in the character of Brüno, a flamboyant Austrian TV host as the fish out of water, and plops him in Hollywood to seek out fame. He hires an agent (Lloyd Robinson as himself) to create the Brüno brand in the City of Angels. Brüno (Cohen) observes the star map of fame and like an instruction manual, follows in their footsteps: he tries to get his own talk show, start a charity, adopt an African-born child (Chibundu Orukwowu), and even, act straight. Surely, if successful, one of these will give him the reward of fame.
This time around Cohen never breaks character to hijack fashion shows, boot camps, sex parties, the Hollywood scene, blue-collar folk, and again, that bottomless pool of material, the Bible Belt of the USA. Brüno flaunts his over-aggressive sexuality onto men–unsuspecting or otherwise–who wouldn’t know a joke if it slapped them in the face with a 13-inch sex toy. Paula Abdul, Pete Rose, Latoya Jackson, Ron Paul; they all couldn’t escape him.
The degree of good taste or sensitivity is worth a debate, but Cohen and Charles are trying to get answers to the following questions: How far will people go to become famous? Would parents compromise their children to be famous? Is prejudice against race any different when it’s about sexual orientation? How vapid and removed are celebrities from their own common sense and independent thought? Can someone rid themselves of their “gayness” as easy as following a four-step plan? All of those sound like ludicrous questions but Charles and Cohen discover in some parts of America, it is quite the contrary. As Cohen found out with Borat, being openly prejudice put people at ease with their own prejudice. Here by being not just gay, but outwardly gay, prompts some of the strongest reactions out of people.
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Star Trek DVD and Blu-Ray: A Fun Film, But Not Good Sci-Fi
Posted by: Ernie Estrella on November 17, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Year: 2009
Running Time:
Rated: PG-13
SRP: DVD:$34.95 Blu-Ray: $39.99
Studio(s): Paramount Studios
Release Date: November 17, 2009
Pop Culture Shock usually gets the blu-ray of such big studio releases but due to limited material PCS was given the DVD to screen. I will try to list the differences where possible.
Film/Feature: B-
In an attempt to recharge the Star Trek franchise, Paramount handed the bridge of the USS Enterprise over to director/producer J.J. Abrams (Fringe, Cloverfield). His goal was to do what devoted Trekkers and Trekkies didn’t want to hear. “Let’s make a movie that EVERYONE will like.” He not only recharged it, he hit reboot and started over. Rather than dance in between what’s been already done, Abrams and crew created a film that tells the story of what happened before. No this is not Enterprise and Scott Bakula is nowhere to be seen. We get something completely different, and a little familiar…
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Food Inc. Blu-Ray: If You Care About Your Body, Then You’ll Care About This Film
Posted by: Ernie Estrella on November 11, 2009 at 3:58 am
Year: 2008
Running Time: 91 minutes
Rated: PG
SRP: $34.98
Studio(s): Magnolia Home Entertainment
Release Date: November 3, 2008
Film/Feature: A+
The arrival of the golden arches signaled a change that farmers had to produce food fast and cheap. Once the demand was in place, so too did the system arrive that would supply it. With the help of government subsidization, unhealthy food is now more affordable than a pound of fresh produce. When you’re counting pennies, ingredients that would be used for a homemade meal isn’t as convenient as fast food. What’s the cost of that convenience? Your health? Your career? Your life?
Food Inc. takes a look at farming conditions, the companies who control the farmers, the dependency of corn and its contribution to E. Coli pandemics, the struggle to get said companies to label their food, mistreatment of laborers who work at the slaughterhouses, and the controlling of the seeds which basically puts the farmer under a dictatorship. That’s a lot, but Food Inc. is clear in presenting informative facts and testimonials that should provoke the viewer to consider what it is they’re putting on their plates and take the time to be a better informed consumer.
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Taking of Pelham 123 Blu-Ray: A Remake Done Right
Posted by: Ernie Estrella on November 10, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Year: 2009
Running Time: 106 Minutes
Rated: R
SRP: $39.95
Studio(s): Sony Pictures
Release Date: November 3, 2009
Film/Feature: B
Taking of Pelham 123 is a remake of the 1974 film, Taking of Pelham One Two Three. In the original film, Walter Matthau plays a New York City Transit cop who tries to stop four men from hijacking a subway train. The leader of the hijackers is played by Robert Shaw, and the film was a damn good one. I’d be the first one to criticize Hollywood in rehashing a perfectly good film–if it was bad.
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Transformers Revenge of the Fallen DVD: Absolute Bayhem
Posted by: Ernie Estrella on November 6, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Year: 2009
Running Time: 149 min.
Rated: PG-13
SRP:$ 29.99
Studio(s): Dreamworks, Paramount
Release Date: October 20, 2009
Pop Culture Shock usually gets the blu-ray of such big studio releases but due to limited material PCS was given the DVD to screen. I will try to list the differences where possible.
Film/Feature: C-
To run the plot down quickly, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is trying to move on with his life and enjoy the normalcies of a young adults. Go to college, go through a rites of passage, etc. but his relationship with the Autobots, and especially his grandfather involve him in things out of his control. He must live out a destiny, reluctantly, and accept it to save the human race against one of the original Decepticons, The Fallen who last visited the Earth thousands of years ago.
Megatron is revived, and gets his troops back together with the help of a very cool update of Soundwave and Ravage who retrieve the last known piece of the Cube from the last film. Sam though has the rest of the key for a great big weapon that will call the Fallen back to Earth, and arm a weapon that will destroy the sun, ending all of humanity as we know it. They set a trap for Optimus who gets ambushed and slaughtered in a righteous forest battle. Sam escapes and regroups with the help of his girlfriend Mikaela (Megan Fox), his college roomate, Leo (Ramon Rodriguez), and Seymour Simmons (John Tuturro) and an ancient Decepticon turned good, Jetfire who they find hanging out at the Smithsonian, warp to the middle east where the Matrix of Leadership is hidden and must be retrieved to revive Optimus Prime. Everyone converges upon the great Pyraminds of Egypt that are covering the weapon the Decepticons want to unleash. Can Sam get the Matrix to Optimus in time? Can he rescue the day? Can he please rescue this film from it’s paper-thin plot? I wish.
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G.I. Joe The Rise of Cobra DVD: Knowing is Half the Battle
Posted by: Ernie Estrella on November 6, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Year: 2009
Running Time: 117 minutes
Rated: PG-13
SRP: $24.99
Studio(s): Paramount
Pop Culture Shock usually gets the blu-ray of such big studio releases but due to limited material PCS was given the DVD to screen. I will try to list the differences where possible.
Film/Feature: C
If you were hoping for a live action version of the cartoon, then G.I. Joe The Rise of Cobra hits that mark. If you expected the film to transcend what the cartoon was, well then, you’re out of luck. But in comparison to Hasbro’s other brand-gone-wild, Transformers, I think G.I. Joe is more faithful adaptaion of the beloved 1980’s cartoon, which was really about two opposing covert teams in some special arms race, showcasing tricked out weapon-vehicles, specialized soldiers, in every terrain known to man. As a kid you never cared about what these things would look like in real life, you just wanted the toys. So after 45 years, what did you really want out of a GI Joe movie directed by Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, Van Helsing)? An extension of the cartoon? Or some crazy bastardization with cool effects? The Rise of Cobra is a bit of a mixture of those two, something in the middle of not-so-good and not-so-bad. And based on all of the Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes outfits I saw at Halloween, I think the goal has been accomplished.
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Drag Me to Hell Blu-Ray: Sam Raimi is Back From the Dead.
Posted by: Ernie Estrella on October 28, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Year: 2009
Running Time: 99 Minutes
Rated: PG-13 Theatrical/Unrated Director’s Cut
SRP: $39.98
Studio(s): Universal Studios
Film/Feature: B+
Remember when filmmaker Sam Raimi didn’t have Spider-Man attached to his name? It was a long time ago, and for those who don’t know or remember or don’t know your film history, Raimi was the mastermind behind the Evil Dead Trilogy (Evil Dead I & II, Army of Darkness) and in this world where geeks have taken over the entertainment world, Raimi is as American as baseball and apple pie. Surely stuck in big studio and corporate character suffocation, Raimi cleanses his palette with something new. After ten years with Peter Parker, we get a sample of our old Sam back, sans Bruce Campbell, in Drag Me to Hell, a simple and casual trip back down memory lane for his most ardent of fans.
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Not Forgotten Trailer: Indie Thriller Mixes Voodoo, Pulp Fiction, Simon Baker & Paz Vega
Posted by: Ernie Estrella on October 28, 2009 at 5:30 pm
“Tis the season to be scary…” or maybe not. TV’s Mentalist star, Simon Baker stars in Not Forgotten, an indie thriller that reaches into the depths of Mexican black magic to uncover the skeletons in his character Jack Bishop. He is provoked when his 11-year old daughter is kidnapped and that’s when our home boy goes off, voodoo style.
Not Forgotten also has plenty of pulp fiction elements that may bring you on board or drive you away from this Tex-Mex amalgam of The Serpent and the Rainbow and History of Violence. The one sure thing that this film has going for it is a lot of Spanish seductress–and one of my personal favorites–Paz Vega (Sex and Lucia, Spanglish, The Spirit) who plays Amaya Bishop, Jack’s second wife. That means a lot of spice, a lot of flavor, and a lot of wow-wa-wee!
Check the trailer after the jump.
Not Forgotten is a direct-to-DVD/Blu-Ray that is coming out Tuesday, November 3rd.
