Category: Reviews

Every time a four-color property moves from print to other media, changes are made, mostly a result of the different medium being employed. Sometimes the changes stagger the imagination while others are subtle and acceptable. Warner Animation has more often than not been incredibly faithful to the source material, resulting in some of the most satisfying comics-to-screen adaptations.

As a result, the anticipation for a Blu-ray release of the excellent Justice League Unlimited has been high and finally, last week, Warner Archive released the show in a three-disc collection. The series, which ran July 31, 2004 – May 13, 2006, is the follow-up to the equally wonderful Justice League.

While the original series focused on the traditional original members of the JLA, the new series expanded its roster to just about every hero from the DC Universe. For many viewers, it was the first time they were exposed to many of these colorful characters. For we fanboys, it was a sheer thrill to see the obscure (Aztek) to the fan favorite (Doctor Fate) finally make it to television.

The episodes were entertaining and were largely standalone as we saw varying combinations of heroes go into action while the backgrounds were filled with cameos galore. The orbiting headquarters felt like a club for heroes, a chance for them to relax between fights. There was the occasional meta-arc such as the shadowy Project Cadmus (thank you Jack Kirby) and the how-could-they-not Secret Society of Super-Villains.

Thankfully, the series benefitted from a stellar array of voice actors who brought verve to the characters, anchored by Kevin Conroy’s Batman but scanning the credits its fun to see who was popular in geekdom when the shows were produced. Today we see Morena Baccarin on Gotham but back then the Firefly actress was also busy voicing Black Canary giving her deeper ties to DC Comics. And Adam Baldwin double-dipped in both well cast parts as Hal Jordan and Rick Flagg.

What we didn’t know was that this would be the final series set in the expanded, semi-interconnected animated universe and we can look back on those shows with great fondness and boy, do they hold up well. Credit for that starts with Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett, aided and abetted by an army of writers, artists, and animators. It helped tremendously that comic book veterans were recruited to pen episodes, so the adaptations were less jarring.

Some of the best loved comic stories made it to the screen, such as J.M. DeMatteis’ adaptation of Alan Moore’s “For the Man who has Everything”. And the animated series did not shy away from some mature themes, such as drumming Huntress out of the league for attempting to kill a man, regardless of her justification. Hawkgirl’s return, after betraying her teammates in the previous series, is back and has to deal with the repercussions of her actions. The stories span time and space, switching from action-packed to light-hearted to downright romantic. It also tied up loose ends from other series in the brilliant “Epilogue”, which closed out the second season, touching on Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, and the JLU.

The transfer to high definition is clean and crisp with excellent sound. The special features which appeared on the previous DVD releases are back here including creator’s commentary on the episodes “This Little Piggy” and “The Return”; “And Justice for All”: a featurette on the process of revamping the series with new characters and a new creative direction; “Cadmus Exposed”: Mark Hamill and series creative personnel discuss this popular series story arc; “Justice League Chronicles”: The series’ writers, producers and directors discuss their favorite moments among final season episodes.

If you haven’t experienced these you should. If you watched them previously, you want these.

Amy Schumer has become quite the comedienne, taking the stage, television, and now film by storm. Trainwreck, her starring vehicle for director Judd Apatow, was my first sustained exposure to her and thought the fresh eyes could glean what the fuss is all about. Still trying to figure it out.

The story is about a woman who is professional star and a personal wreck who meets and falls for a guy, only to screw it up at much the same time she screws up her relationship with her sister, and loses her job. That it is about a woman and not a man has garnered a lot of buzz but the overall story is tired and predictable.

Apatow’s previous films have offered up fresh takes on old themes along with sharply delineated characters that avoid the clichés and bring with them a tremendous amount of heart. In The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and This Is 40 were all written by him and perhaps he should have been allowed to give Schumer’s script a pass.

We’re told that Amy Townsend is the star writer for S’nuff, a magazine that makes Maxim and FHM seem tame. She is assigned to interview a sports doctor despite disliking athletics of all kinds. Her boss, Dianna (Tilda Swinton) holds out the Executive editor’s post as a carrot for taking on the work. Meantime, she is avoiding emotional entanglements, drinking, dancing, and having a series of one-night stands which seems to stem from words of advice given to her and her sister Kim (Brie Larson), by their crude father Gordon (Colin Quinn). On the other hand, she has a warm spot for dear old dad, now confined to a nursing home given his multiple sclerosis.

She finally seems to settling into a relationship with the musclebound and possibly closeted Steven (John Cena). Despite being rude and crude, he gets his heart broken when Steven discovers Amy has been sleeping around and tells her she’s not a nice person and honestly, she isn’t.

That starts to change when she beings to interview the near-perfect Aaron Conners (Bill Hader) and a softer side seems to emerge. Over a period of time, she falls for the doctor and they begin to date and she’s having her first genuine adult relationship. She doesn’t want to screw it up but of course does, triggered in part by her father’s sudden death. She spirals downward just as one would expect towards the end of Act Two.

Everything comes crashing down around her until she finally hits bottom and rebounds making amends first with Kim then with Aaron. Her final over-the-top act comes out of the blue and is intended to be a showstopper when it just stops. They still kiss and all will be well. Awww.

Amy and Aaron, though, are deeply under-developed characters and you are not emotionally invested in either nor is there real warmth and chemistry between the performers. In fact, Aaron seems more himself with his patients including LeBron James, who provides as adept with comedy as he is with a basketball, stealing every scene he’s in.

Schumer may be a gifted talent but it’s not on display her since Amy is unlikable, the humor is tame, and nothing feels new and different, just tired and by the numbers. None of the supporting characters feel fleshed out, spoiling a rich ensemble.

Universal Home Entertainment has released the film in a combo pack that includes Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD. Additionally, both discs come with the theatrical version and a four-minute longer unrated version. From what I can tell, there’s just more, nothing earth-shattering and special.

The film comes with a nice assortment of Special Features including additional Deleted and Extended Scenes; a two-part Gag Reel; Lin-o-Rama, where several actors are shown ad libbing for scenes; a traditional Behind-The-Scenes featurette; Directing Athletes: A Blood Sport , a more scripted than not look at working with James, Tony Romo, and Amar’e Stoudemire; The Dogwalker, the complete film-within-a-film starring Daniel Radcliffe and Marisa Tomei; and finally, from Comedy Central, the Trainwreck Comedy Tour Featurette.

There was a wonderful science fiction romance in James Cameron’s original 1984 film The Terminator. It had a touch of everything: time travel, killer androids, romance, and hints of a technology gone haywire. It was shot on a modest budget with a familiar but not star cast, anchored by the hulking presence of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Ever since, though, the sequels have tended to eschew the original themes in favor of retreading immortal lines of dialogue, action pieces, and the eternal struggle between man and machine. With the exception of the first sequel, which introduced the world to the joys of CGI, they have been a middling mess. Even Fox’s The Sarah Connor Chronicles had more to do with a terminator trying to kill Sarah and/or John Connor than the large themes of man versus technology.

Therefore, it was refreshing to get back to basics in this summer’s Terminator Genesys.  The property is now in the hands of Paramount Pictures that wanted to refresh and reinvigorate the franchise. The reboot, out Tuesday on disc from Paramount Home Entertainment, does not ignore what came before it, but does also carve out a reality of its own. Right there is one of the more confounding aspects of the premise, since it starts in a parallel timeline merely paying lip service to the prime timeline (a similar conceit occurred in 2009’s Star Trek, also from Paramount). By presupposing you know the core elements, it defeats the fresh start aspect, keeping new audiences from falling in love with the T-800, Sarah, John, and Kyle Reese.

The script from Patrick Lussier (Dracula 2000) and Laeta Kalogridis (Birds of Prey, Bionic Woman) requires a flow chart to determine which characters and elements belong to which timeline. We have a final showdown with Skynet in 2029, which has the human resistance accessing their time travel device. John Connor (Jason Clarke) sends his best friend Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back to 1984 in order to protect Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) from the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) he knows will be sent to kill her. However, Reese arrives to see a T-1000 (Lee Byung-hun) on the attack and the Sarah he meets already knows her future. And more, she’s protected by an aging T-800 she calls “Pops”.

The timelines are altered the moment Reese is sent back in time and he crosses paths with his younger self who passes on the message, “Genesys is Skynet”. He knows what he needs to do but it immediately puts him at odds with Sarah, who hates feeling trapped by fate, reminded regularly by Pops that she is destined to mate with Kyle in order to produce John. He convinces her to come with him to 2017 to prevent Genesys, the killer app that will totally connect everyone and every device (I guess Linux, iOS and Windows) in one massive network. It would also give rise to the artificial intelligence that becomes Skynet (and takes shapes as Matthew Smith) and will determine humanity must be eradicated.

Then things blow up a lot.

By the exhausting conclusion, people and things are put into place establishing a new status quo, a timeline not beholden to anything that came before. As a reboot, it’s fine. As a movie, it lacks some of the needed warmth and reason to exist. The post-credit scene hinting at a sequel was entirely superfluous and given the dismal box office, Paramount’s sequel plans are on indefinite hold. Producer Dana Goldberg admitted last month that they are taking time to find out what didn’t work for audiences so they can retool and try again. They’d better hurry since Arnold is already 67.

Emilia Clarke makes for a marvelous Daenerys on Game of Thrones but frequently lacks the steeliness we expect from Sarah, as previously depicted by Linda Hamilton and Lena Heady. On the other hand, she brings a warmth and humanity to Sarah not seen since the first film. Her chemistry with Schwarzenegger is strong, allowing us to enjoy his performance, which can border on self-mockery.

Courtney and Jason Clarke are far too earnest and saddled with stiff dialogue, robbing them of chances to be real people rather than archetypes.

Still, the scene stealer throughout the film is J.K. Simmons as a cop who witnessed the events in 1984 and is the only one to believe Sarah and Kyle in 2017.

Visually, Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World) does a nice job with the sets, special effects, and action sequences. He’s less successful with people which is odd considering he cut his teeth on the character-heavy series Homicide, Oz, The Sopranos, and even Thrones.

The movie looks terrific on screen with a nice high definition transfer.  The Dolby Atmos sound track is even better so the hoe viewing experience is a strong one.

There are various versions to pick from including the standard Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD combo which was reviewed. The Blu-ray comes with just three bonus features: Family Dynamics, a look at the casting process as the crew extolls their various virtues; Infiltration and Termination, which explores the location shooting in San Francisco and New Orleans; and Upgrades: VFX of Terminator Genesis. No deleted scenes, commentary, or even gag reel.