Home Video

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – The Complete First Season

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Season One
  • wiki: link

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - The Complete First SeasonContinuing the adventures began in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. suffers a bit from having to play with last year’s toys and deal with the fallout of the planned Marvel feature film releases rather than make any real strides on its own. Thankfully thee release of Thor: The Dark World and especially Captain America: The Winter Soldier bolstered the season’s second-half, giving it new life to end the show’s First Season on a string of strong episodes.

Without question Clark Gregg is the show’s star. Reprising his role as Agent Phil Coulson, returned from the dead in a mysterious manner (which turns out to be somewhat disappointing once revealed), Coulson puts together his own strike time including two military specialists in Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) and Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), a pair a bickering scientists (Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge) and a computer hacker (Chloe Bennet) they adopt in the first episode. Throw in an old S.H.I.E.L.D. tricked-out cargo jet, and the team is ready for action.

…

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – The Complete First SeasonRead More »

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – The Complete First Season Read More »

Congo

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Congo
  • IMDb: link

CongoAlthough it’s not his best work, Michael Crichton’s 1980 novel Congo is actually a pretty good story. Sadly, the same can’t be said for the big screen adaptation made 15 years later. The film stars Dylan Walsh as a scientist who has raised a sign-language speaking ape named Amy and decided to return the gorilla back to the wild with the help of a bizarre financier (Tim Curry) whose interests in the gorilla’s doodles make him believe Amy could lead the group to the legendary lost city of Zinj.

The movie condenses and jumbles the motives of everyone involved producing a single expedition which also includes a scientist (Laura Linney) looking for her ex-fiancé and his team who were attacked by strange murderous gray gorillas (rather than motivated by the corporate greed of the priceless diamonds lost in the jungle as in the novel), a great white hunter who happens to be black (Ernie Hudson), and a member of the group who you know has no chance to make it out alive (Grant Heslov).

…

CongoRead More »

Congo Read More »

Assault on Arkham

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Batman: Assault on Arkham
  • IMDb: link

Batman: Assault on ArkhamPurposely made to resemble the look and tone of the Arkham Asylum video games (which are more fun to play than watch) and featuring the New 52 version of the Suicide Squad (widely regarded as DC’s worst comic over the past three years), Batman: Assault on Arkham is something of a mixed bag. The character designs are drab, the character interactions are particularly one-note, and the logic of the script is rather weak (sending Task Force X into Arkham not to find a dirty bomb but to retrieve a questionable source of information).

The straight-to-DVD movie does offer us Kevin Conroy reprising the role as Batman, but the rest of the voice cast, while not awful, is quickly forgettable. The squad itself is made up of Deadshot (Neal McDonough), Killer Frost (Jennifer Hale), the least impressive version of King Shark possible (wasting the talents of John DiMaggio), a particularly slutty Harley Quinn (Hynden Walch), the argumentative Captain Boomerang (Greg Ellis), the rather nondescript Black Spider (Giancarlo Esposito), and the quickly-dispatched KGBeast (Nolan North) whose unfortunate early exit is rather disappointing.

…

Assault on ArkhamRead More »

Assault on Arkham Read More »

Person of Interest – The Complete Third Season

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Person of Interest – Season Three
  • wiki: link

Person of Interest - The Complete Third SeasonBuilding on the groundwork laid in Season Two, the Third Season of Person of Interest brought big changes to the show including the building of a second Machine, the involvement of a terrorist group intent on destroying the Machine, bringing back Shaw (Sarah Shahi) and Root (Amy Acker) – this time as series regulars, and, in a pivotal episode of the season, featuring the death of an important member of the original cast which would leave the team reeling.

Highlights of the season include Reese (Jim Caviezel) and Finch (Michael Emerson) forced to choose between The Machine and the life of a Senator (John Doman), Root’s investigations into Decima Technologies, Shaw and Root’s first partnership, the return of Finch’s fiance (Carrie Preston), a high school reunion, a flashback episode before Finch and Reese met, a two-part episode involving Finch’s old friend old friend (Saul Rubinek) and Control’s (Camryn Manheim) attempt to create her own Machine, the final battle with HR, a girls night out, and death at 40,000 feet.

…

Person of Interest – The Complete Third SeasonRead More »

Person of Interest – The Complete Third Season Read More »

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
  • IMDb: link

Captain America: The Winter SoldierSeeing Captain America: The Winter Soldier in the theaters my initial reaction was that the Captain America: The First Avenger sequel was an improvement over the first film and one of Marvel Studio’s best efforts. I’m happy to say the movie holds up on Blu-ray. I actually enjoyed it a little more the second time around.

The wide sweeping conspiracy of Hyrda begins sweeping changes in the overall Marvel Universe, immediately effecting Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (leading to the TV show’s strongest episodes), but more than that The Winter Soldier is a good Captain America story full of strong performances (making great use of Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow) along with plenty of intrigue and action. Sure the movie wastes Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) and the final battle feels a bit too much like a video game with infiltrating and swapping out the chips in hovercrafts of death, but those don’t detract from a strong storyline filled with plenty of comic book goodness. For more on the movie read my original review.

…

Captain America: The Winter SoldierRead More »

Captain America: The Winter Soldier Read More »