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Justice League: War

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Justice League: War
  • IMDB: link

Justice League: WarBased on DC Comics’ New 52 reboot and the first arc of the current Justice League series by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee, Justice League: War isn’t as awful as I suspected. It’s not actually a good movie, but most of the issues here have to do with the source material itself rather than any mistakes in the adaptation into the film.

Replacing the missing Aquaman with Captain Marvel (Sean Astin), who I still refuse to call him Shazam, the storyline is basically intact as the various heroes of the Justice League come together to defeat Darkseid (Steve Blum) and the invading armies of Apokolips. As with Lee’s original designs, everything looks and feels too muted including the super-hero costumes, particularly those of Superman (Alan Tudyk) and Wonder Woman (Michelle Monaghan), that lack any pop. And although (thankfully) the film chooses to stay away from that awful yellow piping on the Flash‘s (Christopher Gorham) costume we saw at the end of The Flashpoint Paradox, Green Lantern (Justin Kirk) is still stuck with the unnecessary light-up pieces of his costume.

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Atlantis – Season One

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  • Title: Atlantis – Season One
  • wiki: link

Atlantis - Season OneThe BBC version of Atlantis comes to DVD and Blu-ray in this collection of the show’s First Season. Featuring the misadventures of lost wanderer Jason (Jack Donnelly) along with his new-found Atlantian friends Pythagoras (Robert Emms) and Hercules (Mark Addy), most of the show’s initial season sets up the workings of the world and various supporting characters including an Oracle (Juliet Stevenson) who knows far more about Jason’s destiny than she’s willing to share, the standoffish King Minos (Alexander Siddig) and his evil wife Pasiphae (Sarah Parish), and the beautiful Princess Ariadne (Aiysha Hart) who captures the hero’s heart.

Among the uneven First Season’s highlights are the opening episode involving Jason fighting The Minotaur, a goofy episode involving Jason being cursed by the goddess Hectate, Jason entering a hero’s tournament to prove himself to Ariadne, Hercules’ attempt to sacrifice himself for the woman he loves, and the two-part season finale which finally reveals Jason’s true parentage.

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Legends of Aweomeness – The Kung Fu Stranger

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  • Title: Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness
  • wiki: link

Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Aweomeness - The Kung Fu StrangerCollecting seven more episodes of Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Aweomeness, the third DVD release is named for Po‘s (Mick Wingert) adventures as a masked vigilante who continues to fight crime after Kung Fu is outlawed. My favorite episode of the collection involves Shifu‘s (Fred Tatasciore) back injury and new bureacracy preventing the Furious Five to use Kung Fu to stop crime which forces Po to impersonate his master while strapping an over-medicated Shifu to his stomach.

Also included on the set are Fung (John DiMaggio) bringing Terra Cotta warriors to life, Po’s mistake which threatens to prolong a war between two gorilla armies, the unexpected difficulties which arise when Mr. Ping (James Hong) temporarily moves into the Jade Palace, the side effects of Mantis (Max Koch) choosing to drink a growth potion, and Po’s prank on Monkey (James Sie) blowing up in his face.

[20th Century Fox, $14.98]

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2004 – Spartan

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  • Title: Spartan
  • IMDb: link

“Where’s the girl?”

Spartan

Ten years ago today David Mamet‘s thriller Spartan opened in theaters starring Val Kilmer (in one of his best roles) and a relatively unknown actress (Kristen Bell) only months away from her career breakthrough as a spunky teen detective. Although my favorite Mamet scripts are his satires (State and Main, Wag the Dog), Spartan is an underrated gem that received neither the box office nor critical success it deserved.

Kilmer stars as a member of Delta Force tasked with finding the President’s daughter (Bell) before anyone realizes the young woman is missing. As with other Mamet thrillers, the plot offers twists and turns in a slowly unraveling mystery involving white slavery, kidnapping, family secrets, and questionable orders that costs several good people their lives and careers.

As you would expect from a Mamet film, the supporting cast is top-notch including Derek Luke as Kilmer’s junior partner, Clark Gregg, William H. Macy, Tia Texada, and Ed O’Neill.

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1994 – The Chase

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  • Title: The Chase
  • IMDB: link

The ChaseReleased on or around this date 20 years ago, The Chase is by no definition a good movie. However, despite its many faults the absurd road chase of falsely convicted Jack Hammond (Charlie Sheen), his rich-bitch hostage (Kristy Swanson), and the various cops, rednecks, and documentary crew following them to the Mexican border does provide some dumb-fun moments (along with one of the most preposterous sex scenes ever filmed).

Other than The Phantom, The Chase is arguably Swanson’s best movie role (especially for those of us who far prefer Sarah Michelle Gellar in the role of cheerleader turned vampire hunter Buffy Summers). At its best The Chase is a guilty pleasure fans of Sheen and Swanson can enjoy without using any more brain power than those who put the film together in the first place.

Available on DVD (but not Blu-ray), the only feature the home video version includes is the ability to watch the film in either Full Screen or Widescreen.

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