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Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole

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  • Title: Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole
  • IMDB: link

Based on the fantasy series by Kathryn Lasky, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole is something of a mess. To be fair, it’s a beautifully rendered mess, but a mess nonetheless.

The film follows the adventure of Soren (Jim Sturgess), a young owl abducted with his brother (Ryan Kwanten) by owls known as “Pure Ones” led by the evil Metalbeak (Joel Edgerton) and his mate Nyra (Helen Mirren). How exactly these other owls are pure, or what makes them pure, is just one of the scripts many unanswered questions.

Soren escapes, and with his new friends Gylfie (Emily Barclay), Twilight (Anthony LaPaglia) and Digger (David Wenham), travels to find the legendary Guardians to help stop the “Pure Ones” from kidnapping young owls in order to bolster their army and take over the world.

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Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole Read More »

Inception still dreamy on DVD

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  • Title: Inception
  • IMDB: link

“All that we see or seem,
Is but a dream within a dream.”
–Edgar Allen Poe

I thoroughly enjoyed Christopher Nolan‘s Inception in theaters earlier this year (read the review). His exploration of dreams within dreams and a journey of one tortured soul (Leonardo DiCaprio) to make his way home by implanting a single idea into the dream of a stranger (Cillian Murphy) resonates as well on DVD as it did on the big screen. Out next week on DVD and Blu-ray it’s a great addition to your library.

The one-disc DVD is a little scant on extras (to put it midly). It does contain four short featurettes (averaging three minutes a piece) which include snippets from Nolan, DiCaprio, production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas, editor Lee Smith, cinamatopraher Wally Pfister, and stunt coordinator Tom Struthers, examining the aspect of dreams and the possibilities of the human mind, the japanese castle sequence, the paradoxical pemrose stairs, and the freight train barreling down the the middle of a busy street. Each of these is quite good but not quite enough to satisfy.

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Inception still dreamy on DVD Read More »

Luther

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  • Title: Luther – The Complete First Series
  • tv.com: link

DCI John Luther (Idris Elba) is a brilliant detective but a flawed man. As the series begins Luther allows a child killer (Anton Saunders) to fall to his death rather than save him. The killer survives in a coma, and after a lengthy suspension and investigation Luther is allowed back on the force.

While working a different case every week Luther must also deal with his estranged wife Zoe (Indira Varma) and her boyfriend (Paul McGann), and the attentions of psychopath Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson) who takes a shine to him after he is unable to prove she killed her parents.

Created by Neil Cross Luther is a character driven procedural drama that works because of the flaws of our main character. He’s intelligent, driven, but also moody, reckless, and far too likely to put himself in the line of fire by offering himself as a target (a decision which triggers his unusual relationship with Alice). The final two episodes take a dark turn involving his close friend (Steven Mackintosh) and the fallout over a robbery and kidnapping gone horribly wrong.

The two-disc set includes all six episodes of the first season but not much in the way of extras. Still, for those who like cop dramas with a twist, and a fair share of strong performances, Luther is worth a look.

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Doctor Who – The Complete Fifth Series

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  • Title: Doctor Who – The Complete Fifth Series
  • tv.com: link

With the departure of David Tennant in “The End of Time Part 2” a new Doctor (Matt Smith) takes control of the series.

The season starts strong with “Eleventh Hour” which introduces us to the Doctor’s new companion Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), and ends with a great two-parter (“The Pandorica Opens” and “The Big Bang“) involving the end of the universe, but it does have some ups (“Amy’s Choice,” “Vincent and the Doctor“) and downs (“Victory of the Daleks“) over the course of the season. I also thought the other two-parters from this season (apart from the finale) with the Silurians and the return of the Weeping Angels weren’t as strong as the episodes which introduced the characters.

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Pirates, Vegans, and Lesbians. Oh, my!

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  • Title: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
  • IMDb: link

Based on the comic series of the same name young Canadian slacker Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) meets the girl of his dreams (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) only to learn he must face-off against, and defeat, all seven of her evil ex’s (Jason Schwartzman, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, Satya Bhabha, Mae Whitman, Keita Saitou, Shota Saito). Director Edgar Wright‘s take on the comic is an awful lot of fun and holds up well to multiple viewings. For more check out my original review of the film.

The Blu-ray version of the movie is loaded with extras including multiple audio commentary tracks, featurettes on the making of the film as well as its look and sound, alternative footage, deleted scenes (with director commentary), bloopers, along with standard BD Live extras, a copy of the film on DVD, and the ability to stream either Pitch Black or Tremors for free.

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Pirates, Vegans, and Lesbians. Oh, my! Read More »