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Begin Again

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  • Title: Begin Again
  • IMDb: link

Begin Again

Released this week on Blu-ray and DVD, writer/director John Carney‘s tale of the unexpected friendship between a down-on-his luck record label exec (Mark Ruffalo) and a heartbroken singer-songwriter (Keira Knightley) ranked at the top of my favorite films from the first-half of 2014. My opinion hasn’t changed.

With a pair of terrific leads and a talented support cast that includes Hailee Steinfeld, Catherine Keener, Adam Levine, Mos Def, and James Corden, the movie works as well on home video as it did in theaters as the mismatched pair of attempt to record an album on the fly around New York City in an enterprise that is at least as much about getting over life’s recent hurdles as the finished project. For more, read my original review.

The Blu-ray includes music videos for the movie’s big numbers and a single behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of the film.

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Arrow – The Complete Second Season

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  • Title: Arrow – Season Two
  • wiki: link

Arrow - The Complete Second SeasonPast mistakes loom large in Season Two of Arrow as old friends and enemies make their way to Starling City and Oliver Queen‘s (Stephen Amell) journey from killer to vigilante to hero continues. Split between flashbacks from the island and his time in Starling City following the Undertaking, the show’s Second Season forces the Queen family to deal with ghosts from their past and the arrival of another madman who has plans to burn the city to the ground.

Much of the season revolves around Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) and Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) who returns home, much like Oliver, changed by her experiences following the shipwreck. Flashbacks deal with Slade’s exposure to the super-serum that makes him a mentally-unstable but nearly unbeatable warrior and the end of his friendship with Oliver. Slade’s arrival in Starling is slow to unfold, choosing to work through subordinates such as Brother Blood (Kevin Alejandro) to build an army of warriors and destroy the city Oliver swore to protect.

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Less Than Heavenly

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  • Title: Kingdom of Heaven
  • IMDb: link

Kingdom of HeavenOrlando Bloom as a blacksmith turned soldier defending a stone fortress against a vast army, or a man who falls in love with a married queen from across the ocean? Liam Neeson as a dying knight with an apprentice? Haven’t I already seen this before?

Kingdom of Heaven features a fine cast and some good visuals, but I think you will find, as I did, that much of the story is a little too familiar, much too preachy, and more than a little dumb.

Okay, so Godfrey (Neeson) is a crusader except he’s about as pleasant and courteous one as you could ever expect to find.  He doesn’t rape and pillage but just kills people to keep the peace. On a short vacation he takes a horse ride up from Jerusalem to France to find his son (the result of the raping a pillaging he did before he grew one with the Force, um, I mean matured) who is the blacksmith from Pirates of the Caribbean (Bloom) whose name is now Balian.

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Percy Jackson (Double Feature)

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  • Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief / Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
  • IMDb: link

Percy Jackson (Double Feature)Based on the young adult novels of Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and its sequel Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters come off as Harry Potter-lite with a Clash of the Titans-level understanding and use of various mythological elements.

Centered around Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) – the son of Poseidon (Kevin McKidd), and his fellow demi-gods Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario) and Grover (Brandon T. Jackson), both films feature the threesome embarking on some kind of quest to both learn about themselves and retrieve a powerful mythological weapon which has been stolen.

In Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (read the full review) Percy learns of his true parentage and sets with his two new friends to retrieve the stolen lightning bolt of Zeus (Sean Bean). In the second movie (read the full review) the group must retrieve the Golden Fleece and stop the resurrection of Kronos (Robert Knepper) and the Titans.

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Once Upon a Dream

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  • Title: Sleeping Beauty
  • IMDb: link

“Not in death, but just in sleep, this fateful prophecy you’ll keep.  And from this slumber you shall wake, when true love’s kiss the spell shall break.”
 

Sleeping BeautyThe classic tale of a princess cursed by witch who falls into deep slumber on the night of her 16th birthday only to be awakened by love’s first kiss is, in many ways, one of Walt Disney‘s most amazing accomplishments. However, most people don’t remember that initially Sleeping Beauty was a box office disappointment. The film which took six years and cost $6,000,000 wasn’t an immediate hit in theaters and the overruns had even Walt Disney wondering if feature animation would continue to be a profitable enterprise.

Using new sound and visual technology, the film was the first Disney film to be created in Super Technirama 70 increasing the size and scope of the negative which called for more detailed backgrounds and artwork than ever before.  It’s also the first of the Disney films to put everything on screen in focus allowing the viewer’s eye to move freely between the lush sets and brightly colored characters.

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