Author: Robert Greenberger

There is no creative reason Batman Unlimited: Mechs vs. Mutants exists. It is merely a vehicle to promote toys for the younger segment of fan. Essentially, if you have enjoyed any of the previous Batman Unlimited offerings – Batman Unlimited: Animal Instincts and Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem — this will be equally entertaining.

In this relatively thin screenplay from Kevin Burke & Chris “Doc” Wyatt, to Batman (Roger Craig Smith) and Green Arrow (Chris Diamantopolous), resort to wearing mech suits to sop the latest wave of terror in Gotham City courtesy of Mister Freeze (Oded Fehr) and Penguin (Dana Snyder). This time they have turned Bane (Carlos Alazraqui) and Killer Croc (John DiMaggio) into oversized monsters, necessitating the heroes suit up. And to help even the odds, they recruit Robin (Lucien Dodge), Nightwing (Will Friedle), and The Flash (Charles Schlatter).

The mayhem moves at a reasonable pace thanks to the steady direction of Curt Geda but there’s little in the way of character or consequence to the total event. It looks fine on this original made-for-video offering.

The sole bonus feature is the far superior “Night of the Batmen” episode from the missed Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Unlike the previous two, this comes as a straight single-disc DVD with no bonus toy.

The 1980s was perhaps the first decade where sequels were crowding the theater screens and most were justifiably vilified by critics and fans alike for being little more than a retread of the original. That changed when director James Cameron, fresh off a little indie production The Terminator, was tasked with a sequel to 1979’s surprise hit, Alien.

The Hollywood executive merry-go-round delayed the sequel by several years, although that allowed Cameron to hone his ideas with producer/wife Gale Anne Hurd. He envisioned a story where the humans were akin to the Americans during Viet Nam, strangers seriously outnumbered in a strange land. After insisting the film star Sigourney Weaver, who was in a contract dispute with 20^th Century-Fox, all the pieces came together.

When the movie opened in 1986, it set a new higher standard for what a sequel should be, which was expanding upon the characters and universe seen in the first film. At the same time, it also was one of the first films of the modern era to hang so much of the film on a female protagonist. As a result, it was the right film at the right time, in the hands of a rising director who it box office gold.

20^th Century Home Entertainment is celebrating this achievement with a handsome Aliens: 30^th Anniversary Edition. The box set comes with a digital HD code and a booklet featuring art culled from Dark Hose Comics’ assortment of Aliens-related comic covers plus a handful of art cards.

Weaver’s Ripley, sole survivor of the Nostromo, awakens 57 years later and winds up leading an expedition back to LV-426 and the malevolent lifeform awaiting them. The film continues to be a thrilling adventure thanks to Weaver, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, and Bill Paxton. Not only is it an action-adventure thriller, but it deepens Ripley by her protecting Newt (Carrie Henn), the young survivor of the human colony. All of which results in the now-famous but then-explosive climax as Ripley, in armor, confronts the Alien Queen.

The Blu-ray transfer is excellent (same one from the Aliens Anthology) and the sound superb, making for a good home viewing experience. You can choose the theatrical or 17-minute longer extended edition, which is nice to have. All the old special features are reprised here along with. The Inspiration and Design of Aliens featurette. However, you can only access the new feature through HD streaming and only 10 times between now until 2019 when it presumably vanishes.

Despite that flaw, this is one of the strongest anniversary editions of a film to come out in a long time and is recommended.

It used to be, movies surprised us when we took our seats. We didn’t have so many sources for news and trailers a decade or so back. On Tuesdays, Warner Bros screened new films after hours and one night, the DC Comics crew filed in to see an animated feature called The Iron Giant. We didn’t know much about it or Brad Bird, the man behind it.

We were utterly charmed. None of us knew Ted Hughes’ The Iron Man book it was based on but found the 1950s setting perfect, and the old style animation well-done. Best, it had heart and soul and humor and a robot who wants to be Superman. What’s not to love?

Warner moved the release date so late in the process that tie-ins missed the opening and the marketing wasn’t what it should have been. As a result, this modern day classic withered and vanished. Bird, of course, went on to make The Incredibles for Pixar and then direct a Mission: Impossible film so he did pretty well.

The Iron Giant, though, faded from memory. That is until 2014 when Bird and Warner agreed to spruce it up and rerelease it. With fresh cash, they went on to complete scenes that couldn’t be done for budgetary reasons and the revised film came out in 2015. Finally, the original version and Signature Edition of the film have made their Blu-ray debut in a nice edition from Warner Home Entertainment.

Bird and screenwriter Tim McCanlies made this a thoroughly American film, shifting the time to the post-Sputnik period of the Cold War and dealing with America’s paranoia. When something crashes in Rockwell, Maine (get it?) and people think they’ve seen a monster, a jaded government agent, Kent Manley (Christopher McDonald), comes to investigate. The something turns out to be an alien construction, a war machine that is human in shape and has suffered system failures. While he self-repairs, he (Vin Diesel) is learning from Hogarth (Eli Marienthal), the young boy who discovered him. He’s lonely since his single mother Annie (Jennifer Aniston) works too many hours at the local diner and he’s filled with the era’s pop culture – alien invaders and super-heroes.

The lessons Hogarth imparts are subtly contrasted with the single-minded fear of the unknown represented by Manley, who grows increasingly unhinged as events unfold. The only ally Hogarth has is the town beatnik Dean McCoppin (Harry Connick Jr.), who runs the scrap yard and makes art with the junk.

There is gentle humor and some thrills and yes, parts can be predictable but overall, it has a gentle way about it that too few modern animated films possess. It has an old fashioned feel, with pacing that lets events unfurl without rushing or smash cuts to jar the senses.

The high def transfers are sharp and clear, the colors popping as they should. The two films co-exist on a single disc. There are two new scenes added to the original: Dean and Annie have a conversation in the diner and the Iron Giant has flashbacks to his life as a soldier in a mechanized army. Additionally, an ad for Maypo was replaced with what Bird originally wanted, one for Tomorrowland (working for the Mouse helps get you clearances). The lossless DTS-HD MA audio is a fine match and makes for fine viewing.

The majority of the special features from the 2004 DVD have been included here (well worth a look) along with The Giant’s Dream (55:47), which covers Bird’s career and how he wound up making The Iron Giant. It’s important to watch to better understand the filmmaking process along with the dues one must pay before being given a chance at something so personal. The Warner marketing errors are also included in conversation, which is rare honesty.  There’s also a Commentary with Bird, Head of Animation Tony Fucile, Story Department Head Jeff Lynch and Animation Supervisor Steven Markowski, which was previously used on the 2004 “Special Edition” DVD.  New, though, are fresh comments from Bird on the Signature Edition during the new sequences.

Ghosts
By Raina Telgemeier
Scholastic Graphix, 240 pages, $10.99/$24.99

Raina Telgemeier has built a fine career for herself as a graphic novelist, she cut her teeth on adapting four of the Babysitter’s Club novels before creating her own original works, beginning with Smile. Now, with her fourth offering, she is an acclaimed New York Times Best Seller and this work is receiving a 500,000 copy first printing.

The secret to her justified success is that her work is accessible and identifiable. She takes the basic elements of teen life, such as receiving braces or dealing with siblings, and turns them into refreshing stories that can ease discomfort or bring simple entertainment. Her fluid, cartoon-style also make the characters fun and easily identifiable, her worlds recognizable, and her pages flow easily from one to the next, never losing the narrative thread.

This time around, she uses inspiration from the time she lived in Northern California and her fascination with the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration to create an original story about, once more, sisters. The family has relocated up the coast to Bahía de la Luna in the hopes the foggy, cooler climate will help Maya, the younger of the two, breathe easier. Born with cystic fibrosis, she has not had an easy time of it, although her unbridled zest for life, has not slowed her down too much. The story, though, is narrated by older sister Catrina, a teenager who loves her sister and still feels weighed down by her.

The relationship between the siblings forms the core of the novel as both are plunged into this new town and its largely Hispanic populace, which honors their ancestors with shrines and happily anticipates seeing them each Halloween at the Day of the Dead party.  This is a world that accepts the supernatural and people interact with ghosts without fear, something the girls both need to learn. Their guide in this is Carlos, their neighbor and Ghost Tour guide, who is friendly to both but definitely finds a spark in Catrina, something she is slow to recognize or embrace.

While Maya readily accepts the spirits, her body weakens and her struggles impact Cat’s outlook on the town and their spectral residents. Her conflicted nature towards Maya feels real and Telgemeier mines this incredibly well.

Interestingly, she includes sketches from 2008 when she first began thinking about this story. There’s recognizable linework but her work has simplified and evolved since then. Her work is strong, aided by colorist Braden Lamb, resulting in a very satisfying and emotionally uplifting story that should entertain readers of all ages.

Last year, Gotham debuted on Fox amidst a lot of hoopla and generally positive notices. I, however, found the series woefully inept with ham-fisted dialogue and implausible plotting, while ignoring the source material to the point of being unrecognizable. I apparently was in the minority since the ratings were strong and it got a renewal.

Gotham: The Complete Second Season is out now on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Home Entertainment and while it is markedly improved, it apparently has decided to embrace bad writing and worse plotting since people seemed to like it.

With the core players established, the second season decided to offer up two long arcs, with the winter hiatus separating them. In the first arc, we have the arrival of Theo Galavan (James Frain) and his sister Tabitha (Jessica Lucas), arrive in Gotham and we learn he’s here to settle old family scores as we learn of the intertwined relationships between the Waynes, Galavans, and Dumas. To accomplish this, Theo orchestrates events so he’s seen as a hero and rides his popularity to become Mayor.

He’s secretly working with the Order of St. Dumas which has arrived in Gotham and activates Theo as their Azrael, wasting Ron Rifkin as the organization’s leader.

James Gordon (Ben McKenzie), on the force, off the force, suspected of criminal mischief, and more, seems to be the only one to see through the nonsense (let alone the series ignoring how one registers to run and runs for an office, totally skipped over). Theo grabs the psychotic Barnaba (Erin Richards) and uses her as a weapon against Gordon. That doesn’t work and Gordon seemingly kills Galavan, ending a threat to the city. Gordon continues to have a prickly relationship with new commissioner Nathaniel Barnes (Michael Chiklis), who can’t seem to make up his mind whether Gordon is straight or crooked or just nuts.

During all this noise, Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) has chosen to live on the streets and allies himself with Selina Kyle (Carmen Bicondova) and they get caught up in the Galvan silliness and Bruce does something fairly cold, worrying Selina his PTSD is getting worse.

The second half of the season brings us to Arkham Asylum and Prof. Hugo Strange (B.D. Wong), who is working for the Court of Owls to make monsters out of humans for reasons unknown. Selina gets trapped in the Asylum as does an undercover Gordon. Bruce, meanwhile, finally figures out who shot his parents (it is not Joe Chill on orders from Lew Moxon) and tracks him down. In theory, by figuring this out at age 11 or 12, he gets the justice he craves and never becomes Batman but that’s entirely ignored.

Meanwhile, poor Oswald Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor) hangs out with Edward Nygma (Cory Michael Smith), no fully schizophrenic and murderous on his own. Then he finds his birth father (Paul Ruebens) and gets a new home only to find it filled with vicious family who do not like to share, once more wrecking Oswald’s fragile psyche.

Back art Arkham, Strange trains Basil Karlo (Brian McManamon) to impersonate Gordon, and does a lousy job, but no one seems to notice because everyone on this series is apparently clueless. The season ends with Strange exposed, the Court ready to take action, Gordon on the run in search of pregnant Lee (Morena Baccarin) and monsters wandering the city.

The writing continues to lack subtlety and none of the character arcs make a lick of sense. And yet, this mess of a show remains compelling viewing and it has its adherents.

All 22 noisy, mindless episodes are contained in the combo pack along with Digital HD. There are a nice assortment of extras to round out the package including the requisite Gotham: 2015 Comic Con Panel; Gotham by Noir Light, a look at the show’s use of light and shadow; Alfred: Batman’s Greatest Ally, regardless of how ill-used Alfred (Sean Pertwee) was used this season; Cold Hearted – The Tale of Victor Fries; and some character featurettes.

Fairy Tales are also cautionary tales, a way to teach morals and values to children at a time when the majority of the populace couldn’t read or write. It wasn’t until the last four centuries or so when we began writing it all down and solidifying the variations. Even today, people take the classics and reinterpret them for new generations, bringing in modern themes and issues, making them more relevant.

The cautionary tale to take from The Huntsman: Winter’s War is that you have to have something interesting to say. The preceding film, Snow White and the Huntsman, gave us a revisionist Snow White in the form of plucky Kristen Stewart, a modern day action heroine that made her a proactive player in the classic German tale.

Given behind the scenes shenanigans, Stewart was out of the proposed sequel with the emphasis shifting to the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) and giving him a new romantic interest and a cool threat in the Snow Queen, loosely taken from Hans Christian Anderson’s story. By making Freya (Emily Blunt) the wicked Queen Ravenna’s (Charlize Theron) younger sister, we now have an interesting dynamic to play with.

Craig Mazin and Evan Spiliotopoulos’s screenplay gives us a lengthy prologue set before the first film and setting Freya has had an affair with a nobleman and given birth to a love child although Andrew (Colin Morgan) has inexplicably killed the child and something goes eerily cold within Freya. We’re told she leaves the kingdom to go find her own castle and land to rule with an icy heart and matching powers (shades of Elsa). Lacking her own child, she orders the land’s children taken from their loving homes and brought to the castle to be trained.

Her two best grow up to become Eric (Hemsworth) and Sara (Jessica Chastain) and of course they have a forbidden romance, which Freya somehow learns about minutes after they consummate their bond. She uses her powers to make each think the other is gone and goes about conquering other lands.

Pause to insert the first film. Now, Freya wants her sister’s enchanted mirror and sends her army out to find it, which Eric has come to protect, aided by the comic relief duo of dwarf ally Nion (Nick Frost) and his half-brother Gryff (Rob Brydon).  When Sara finds them, misunderstandings and hard feelings take time to, ahem, thaw but they realize keeping Freya from the mirror comes first. Along the way, they collect female dwarves Bromwyn (Sheridan Smith) and Doreena (Alexandra Roach) so the comic relief can have some romance.

Ravenna is resurrected, the sisters bicker and play chess, and the good guys arrive to prevail.

Ho hum. All the potential for interesting characters, interesting dialogue and a riveting story was avoided in the favor of boring action sequences, a phoned in score from James Newton Howard, and perfunctory direction from special effects guru Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, making his debut.

There is literally nothing to recommend this dreary tale, out now from Universal Home Entertainment. The high definition transfer is fine, capturing the crystal blues to the deep shadows and the audio track is its match. The Blu-ray combo set comes with a Digital HD copy and arrives in the theatrical and extended version, the latter containing about six more minutes of tedium.

Bonus features include Two Queens and Two Warriors as the female stars talk about the project’s allure; Meet the Dwarfs; Magic All Around, a making of featurette; Deleted Scenes with Commentary (several of which should have made the final cut); Gag Reel; Dressed To Kill with Academy Award®-winning costumer Colleen Atwood discussing the lush outfits worn; Love Conquers All; and a Feature Commentary by director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan I couldn’t bring myself to endure.

Based on the reviews, I knew I wanted to read 11.22.63 but its sheer size was, for some reason daunting. I figured maybe I’d just listen to it as an audiobook but those 30 hours sit waiting for me. Then, Hulu did me the favor of condensing it down to an eight-hour miniseries, which they released on DVD last week. I still will listen to the original, but this will do for now.

The idea of being able to go back in time and alter a key historic moment is always ripe for a good yarn. Heck, my Crazy 8 Press compatriots and I just did a book of alternate histories with Altered States of the Union. One of those moments that has tempted storytellers from Gene Roddenberry to King has been the untimely death of President John F. Kennedy.

Here, the master of the macabre sends an unprepared guy, Jake Epping (James Franco), back to Oct. 21, 1960 (Sept. 9,1958 in the book) and slowly, he realizes he’s the right guy to make a major difference. The local diner run by his friend Al (Chris Cooper) has a secret: there’s a door leading to the past. Sort of like SF Realism as opposed to Magical Realism. Anyway, Al’s been through the door and has been meticulously been figuring out how to stop Lee Harvey Oswald (Daniel Webber) from firing on the presidential motorcade. The problem is that Al is dying from cancer so convinces Jake to finish the plan.

Events conspire to turn the actual deed over to Jake and the miniseries follows his efforts. Complicating his altruistic missions is that time itself doesn’t want to be changed. That’s an interesting obstacle to be overcome.

A more mundane problem is that Jake needs cash to operate with and uses his future knowledge to lay down bets and win via gambling. A tried and true notion but belabored here and eventually, we find this English teacher isn’t as much the Everyman we’re initially led to believe he is. In some ways, Franco is the wrong guy for the part despite his appeal and acting chops.

Other problems include his falling for Sadie (Sarah Gadon), who teaches at the school he will one day be working at. Jake befriends Bill (George McKay), but how much should he know about the future? And there’s the CIA, of course. We toy with the question whether or not Oswald worked alone and the role his mother and wife played in his choices.

The middle chapters meander but the final two make up for it, nicely ratcheting up the tension until the climax and conclusion (not spoiled here). Writer Bridget Carpenter (who tossed in some lovely King Easter eggs) and director Kevin Macdonald do an overall nice job and Hulu gets credit for tackling this as one of the earliest original productions.

The eight-part production, overseen by J.J. Abrams and the Bad Robot team, looks authentic and the overall package is just swell. The DVD transfer is crisp, both looking and sounding strong. The Blu-ray edition contains the exclusive 15 minute featurette “When the Future Fights Back” with the crew talking about the book and mounting the adaptation.