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Captain America: The First Avenger on Blu-ray

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  • Title: Captain America: The First Avenger
  • IMDB: link

captain-america-first-avenger-blu-rayMarvel’s first big budget Captain America film gives us the origin of  Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) through he days in WWII and even his reappearance in present time. Evans is terrific in the role and Captain America: The First Avenger provides just the right mix of action, earnestness, and cheesy sentiment. For more the film itself check out my original review.

The film worked slightly better for me on Blu-ray. The CGI effect of skinny Steve Rogers was more believable and a couple of the sequences I had slight problems with felt more natural the second time around. I still have a few issues with the film including the awkward slow motion jumps Cap makes in front of explosions, the lack of Nazis, the clumsy sequence where our hero gets captured by the Red Skull‘s (Hugo Weaving) men, and the costume still has far too many unnecessary straps.

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Batman: Year One

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  • Title: Batman: Year One
  • IMDB: link

batman-year-one-dvdThe latest straight-to-DVD animated release from DC Comics and Warner Premiere is extremely faithful adaptation of Frank Miller‘s retelling of Batman’s origin and the early days in the careers of Batman (Ben McKenzie) and Jim Gordon (Bryan Cranston).

Batman: Year One is a good, not great, entry into the DC Animated universe. It isn’t a success in terms of Batman: Under the Red Hood or Justice League: The New Frontier. However, it works better than the Superman/Batman animated films or Wonder Woman. In terms of a mixed success I’d compare it to Green Lantern: First Flight, and Green Lantern: Emerald Knights.

The film does a good job and capturing the look of David Mazzucchelli‘s art from Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One, although it does have a decided Japanese animated look and feel. With a couple of exceptions, including the opening shot of Bruce Wayne returning to Gotham and Gordon unburdening himself to Essen in the diner, the film follows the comic nearly as closely as Sin City.

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Bad Movie

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  • Title: Bad Teacher
  • IMDB: link

bad-teacher-dvdI like Cameron Diaz. I enjoyed Bad Santa. Hell, I even like Summer School. However, I don’t like all those ingredients thrown into a blender with the barest attempt at originality and the lack of any real laughs.

If you take Billy Bob Thornton‘s character from Bad Santa and put him into Mark Harmon‘s role from Summer School, then make him an aging blonde hottie obsessed with getting a boob job and tricking some rich dullard into marriage you have the script for Bad Teacher, not just the premise mind you, the entire script.

Writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg (the comedic geniuses who are responsible for Year One) waste another talented cast by phoning in yet another suprisingly unfunny comedy. If you know how these guys continue to get work please let me know. (I’m guessing that must have some incriminating pictures of several studio heads.)

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A World of Pure Imagination

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  • Title: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
  • IMDb: link

Willy Wonka

Years ago Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder), the world’s foremost creator of chocolate treats, closed his factory to the public to prevent people from stealing the secrets of his candy making. Out of nowhere the reclusive inventor ships five hidden golden tickets hidden in Wonka bars. Whoever finds a ticket will be allowed to enter the Wonka factory.

The five children include Augustus Gloop (Michael Bollner) who never saw a snack he didn’t eat, Violet Beauregarde (Denise Nickerson), spoiled rich girl Veruca Salt (Julie Dawn Cole), and television obsessed Mike Teevee (Paris Themmen). The fifth ticket is found by Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) who lives in the slums just blocks away from the fatory with his mother (Diana Sowle) and his bedridden grandparents: Grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson), Grandma Georgina (Dora Altmann), Grandma Josephine (Franziska Liebing) and Grandpa George (Ernst Ziegler). Charlie and Grandpa Joe join the others for the tour of the factory led by Willy Wonka himself. Inside they find wonders that they could not even imagine.

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Chuck Versus The Fourth Season

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  • Title: Chuck – The Complete Fourth Season
  • tv.com: link

chuck-season-4-dvdChuck returns for a Fourth Season with Chuck (Zachary Levi) and Sarah’s (Yvonne Strahovski) relationship in full swing, a new girlfriend for Morgan, the birth of a new baby Awesome, and the return of Chuck’s mom (Linda Hamilton). More than previous seasons, Season Four is geared towards ongoing multiple episode arcs such as Chuck’s search for his mother and his battle against Alexi Volkoff (Timothy Dalton) and his a criminal empire, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of fun along the way.

The Fourth Season missions include a trip to Milan to take a sexy killer (Karolina Kurkova) during Fashion Week, to prevent a nuclear war Sarah and Chuck play marriage counselors to Costa Gravas’ Premier Alejandro Goya (Armand Assante) and his wife (Tia Texada), the team fakes Casey’s (Adam Baldwin) death, Chuck goes on a mission without the Intersect to retrieve a diamond in Switzerland, and for Halloween the team takes down a scientist (Robert Englund) with a weaponized fear toxin.

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