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Avengers Age of Ultron Invades Homes via Digital HD & Disc

marvelsavengersageofultronbluray-e1437833408298-1865092Marvel Studios reunites Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in the unprecedented movie event, Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron.  Iconic heroes are forced to reassemble and face their most intimidating enemy yet – ULTRON.  Pushed to the brink of their physical and emotional limits, the team must recruit both new heroes and familiar allies to face an escalating danger that threatens the entire planet.

SYNOPSIS:                 Marvel Studios unleashes the next global phenomenon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. Good intentions wreak havoc when Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) unwittingly creates Ultron (James Spader), a terrifying A.I. monster who vows to achieve “world peace” via mass extinction. Now, Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo)—alongside Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) —must reassemble to defeat Ultron and save mankind… if they can! This action-packed adventure is a must-own, mind-blowing blast!

CAST:                            Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man (Marvel’s The Avengers, Marvel’s Iron Man), Chris Hemsworth as Thor (Marvel’s Thor, Marvel’s The Avengers), Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk (Marvel’s The Avengers, Shutter Island), Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America (Marvel’s The Avengers, Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger),Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Lost in Translation, Marvel’s The Avengers),
Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye (The Hurt Locker, Marvel’s The Avengers), James Spader as Ultron (TV’s The Blacklist, Lincoln), Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained) as Nick Fury

PRODUCER: Kevin Feige, p.g.a. (Marvel’s The Avengers, Marvel’s Iron Man)

WRITER / DIRECTOR: Joss Whedon (Marvel’s The Avengers, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D)

COMPOSERS: Danny Elfman (The Simpsons, Corpse Bride), Brian Tyler (Marvel’s Iron Man 3, Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World)

RELEASE DATES:          September 8, 2015 for Digital 3D and Digital HD

October 2, 2015 for Digital SD, 3D Blu-ray Combo Pack (3D Blu-ray+Single Disc Blu-ray+Digital Copy), Blu-ray, DVD and On-Demand

PRODUCTS:                     Digital HD/SD, Disney Movies Anywhere (DMA), 3D Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray, DVD and On-Demand

BONUS:                             Digital HD*, Disney Movies Anywhere (DMA), 3D Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray

  • Never-Before-Seen Deleted Scenes
  • Making-of Featurettes
  • Gag Reel
  • Audio Commentary

*Digital bonus offerings may vary by retailer                

DVD:

  • Making-of Featurette

FEATURE RUN TIME:   Approximately 141 min.

RATINGS:                          PG-13 in U.S.; PG in CE; G in CF

ASPECT RATIO:              Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray & DVD = 1080p High Definition / 2.40:1

AUDIO:                       Blu-ray 3D & Blu-ray 2D = English 7.1 DTS-HDMA, French-Canadian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Latin Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, English DVS 2.0 Dolby Digital

DVD = English/Latin Spanish/French Canadian 5.1 Dolby Digital, English DVS 2.0 Dolby Digital

LANGUAGES:                 U.S.: English & Spanish

Canada: English, French

SUBTITLES:                  English, French & Spanish

YouTube                https://www.youtube.com/user/MARVEL

The Point Radio: Nothing Complicated With Jessica Szohr

Actress Jessica Szohr has landed on the hit USA series, COMPLICATIONS. She fills us in on all the action, why you should be watching and talks about her upcoming roles, too. Plus we look at what may TV’s most unique concept, Comedy Central’s DRUNK HISTORY. How do they do that?

In a few days, Denis Leary joins us to talk about SEX, DRUGS and ROCK AND ROLL,  Be sure and follow us on Twitter now here.

Marc Alan Fishman: Marvel – Make Em’ Laugh. Make Em’ Laugh!

ant-man-5773007

Howdy ya’ll. I’m back from Nashville. And you know what they say about Music City: What happens in Music City, stays in Music Ci… wait, no, they don’t say that. Feh!

It was a day-job convention. It was exhausting. It was very much not about comics, pop culture, or anything fun. But since ya’ll wanted to know, I saw Barbara Mandrell’s mansion and it was everything I expected it to be. Isn’t this cool, kiddos? I’m not even one paragraph in, and I already need to utter ComicMix’s favorite catchphrase, stolen directly from Peter David… But I digress.

So this past weekend I was able to enjoy Marvel’s latest movie, Ant-Man. And I emphasize how much I enjoyed it. Amidst a well-balanced story that juggled the motifs of loss, fathers and daughters, mentorship, and morality, there was an underlying current of pure joy that rooted the near-two hour run time with positivity. This spat in the face of the pre-movie trailer roll, which included Fantastic Four, as well as both the teaser and full trailer Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice: Brow Furrowing: I Hope You Bleed: Don’t You See How Much I Care? It leaves me dumbfounded and baffled to ask this – have Warner Bros and Fox simply not paid any attention to Marvel Studios for the past seven years?

Ant-Man, much akin to nearly every other movie in the Marvel Movieverse, ensured that laughter permeated the periphery of nearly every scene. When wonderful things happened, a quip wasn’t far behind. When things got awkward, Paul Rudd’s Paul-Ruddyness broke the tension. And when the world needed to be saved, grimaces were grimaced, long enough to solve the problem. And then, on with the yuck-yucks. This is as it was in Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Avengers (1 more than 2). By the time Thomas the Tank Engine was ramrodding YellowJacket in the mush, I’d realized I’d not frowned once. My usual resting bitch face ached from the corners of an upturned mouth – a feat only last realized when Captain America: Winter Soldier was on free cable while I was in Nashville.

It begs me to ask: who here caught themselves smiling during Man of Steel? Who caught those sneak peaks of Batman v. Superman or Suicide Squad, and rocked back and forth in their chair with glee (save perhaps for our own John Ostrander, who is given a pass while The Wall is given quality screen time and played by a wonderful actress)? The only time we may have had the slightest guffaw might have been when Lex “Not the Facebook Guy” Luthor cackled that “the red capes are coming.” Suicide Squad‘s trailer did elicit a chuckle from me – but only when I was snarkily grimmacing at Will Smith’s Men In Wild Wild West Robot Independence Day impression of himself. And the less I say about the dark nightmare that Fantastic Four is to be the better.

In all of these cases I simply can’t understand the logic, or the lack there of. Marvel has been killing the box office with each outing. Paired with a ton of licensing deals for merch, streaming contracts, and cable air-play, it’s literally the cash cow they can’t stop milking. Every new movie could spin-off a trilogy. And with Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter making dub-smash videos showcasing that even on TV Marvel can’t stop having fun… it’s starting to become ludicrous to me that the others in the same space seem to think that the polar opposite must be the key to hidden treasure.

Forgive me if I get a bit philosophical before I wrap this up. More often than not, we turned to the funny books with the capes and cowls because they were fun. And while the industry at large grew darker over time – at the core, the fun remained.

And now, even amidst massive hits like the Walking Dead or Crossed (which is about as bleak as they can get), you can’t shake a stick without hitting brilliant explorations of innocence and joy. Beneath any layers of dread, angst, or fear, our pulp roots cling hard to the light in the world. Superman is, was, and will always be a symbol of hope. To yoke that with the sadness and pain of reality – and then double down with a dour and fighty Batman – is to celebrate those things that simply get in the way of how we want to feel when our heroes are given the opportunity to become that much more real.

If DC (and Fox) can’t see the forest for the trees… all they have to do is lighten up. Forgive me: Someone get those Pepsi-drinkers a god-damned Coke, and let them really taste the difference. There’s a reason why 7-Up ain’t even in third place, kiddos.

 

Would you Believe Get Smart is Turning 50?

get_smart-tv-e1437705682445-7221326New York, N.Y., July 23, 2015 – When it originally debuted in September of 1965, Get Smart, the multiple Emmy®winning classic spy-spoof comedy series from comic geniuses Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, generated countless catchphrases like “Would you believe?” and “Missed it by that much.” This fall, to mark the 50th anniversary of the legendary series, HBO Home Entertainment® is bringing those catchphrases to a new generation when all five seasons of Get Smart are made available for digital download for the very first time. With the digital release, longtime fans will have a chance to watch the series in an exciting new format, while new fans will be introduced to the antics of Maxwell Smart for the first time.  Get Smart will be available as a digital download August 10, 2015 across all major retailers. Suggested retail price is $1.99 for each SD episode and $19.99 for each SD season.

“You lucky dogs. You’re gonna get to see Don Adams talking on his shoe telephone and watch the unbelievable antics of Maxwell Smart and The Chief trying to hear each other under The Cone of Silence,” said Mel Brooks. “Can’t wait to see it myself!”

Full of bumbling spies, gadgets and gags, Get Smart features the beloved characters Maxwell Smart/Agent 86 (Don Adams), Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon), and the Chief (Edward Platt) – members of a top secret U.S. government agency called CONTROL, who battle the forces of their nemesis KAOS, an equally inept foreign spy agency. The series was ahead of its time in the way that it created a vast, complicated mythology and mastered the art of self-referential comedy to reward its loyal audience for tuning in week after week. The series originally debuted on NBC in 1965 and enjoyed popularity and a cult following before moving to CBS for its final season. Since ending, it has inspired numerous spinoffs, sequels and remakes, including a 2008 summer box office hit starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway.

The Law Is A Ass

Bob Ingersoll: The Law Is A Ass #366: ROUND UP THE USUAL SUSPICIONS

lawass-550x275-2536619Okay, a show of hands, who’s ever heard them say this one on a TV show? POLICE: “You’re under arrest.” SUSPECT: “On what charge?” POLICE: “Suspicion of murder.”

Why did I think a show of hands would work in a written medium?

Here’s a little tip for the next time any of you might be writing dialog for a police procedural; unless you’ve got Joan Fontaine married to Cary Grant in a Hitchcock movie, there’s no such thing as suspicion of murder. Or suspicion of anything, for that matter.

In our criminal justice system, all crimes are statutory. That means laws were written which created the crimes and defined the crimes’ elements. Let’s take murder, for example, because that’s the crime people are arrested for “suspicion of” committing on TV. The elements of murder are, most commonly, that the actor 1) purposely, 2) caused the death, 3) of another person. So if Cain shoots Abel with a gun and Abel dies we have a crime of biblical proportions. We also have all the elements of murder. But if even one element is missing, we don’t have murder. We may have some crime, but it’s not murder.

Say Cain didn’t know the gun was loaded then shot Abel and Abel died. Then Cain wouldn’t be guilty of murder, because Cain didn’t kill Abel on purpose. It would be some form of a negligent homicide, but not a murder.

Or if Cain shot Abel and Abel didn’t die, you wouldn’t have a murder. You’d have an assault of some sort, but not a murder, because no one died.

Finally, if Cain killed Abel, but Abel was a dog you wouldn’t have murder, because no person died. You’d have some form of animal abuse, but not a murder. (And calm down, PETA, no animals were harmed in the writing of this hypothetical.)

Suspicion is not a crime whose elements are defined in a statute. At least, I’ve never seen any statute which created a crime called suspicion and I’ve looked at the statutes of a lot of states. If your jurisdiction has a crime called suspicion on its books, let me know. I’d love to find out what it’s elements are. (I’m guessing oxygen, because it would be a lot of hot air.) However, because there’s not crime called suspicion on the books, the police can’t arrest someone for suspicion.

In the same way that the police can’t arrest you for suspicion, because it’s not a crime, they also can’t arrest you simply because they suspect you committed a crime. An arrest has to be based on probable cause not suspicion.

To have probable cause, the police have to be able to establish that it’s more probable than not that every element of the crime exists. (You do remember the elements of the crime, don’t you? We’ve talked about them periodically today.) The police also have to be able to establish that it’s more probable than not that the person they suspect of committing the crime, performed the acts which violated the statute. If they merely suspect someone, but don’t have probable cause, they can’t legally arrest that person.

In Terry v. Ohio, the Supreme Court ruled that the police may temporarily stop someone if they reasonably suspect that the person may be about to commit a crime. If the police see someone who looks like he’s casing a store he intends to rob later, the police may reasonably suspect he’s going to commit a robbery. In that case, the police may stop that person and ask him questions find out what he’s up to. Once the police have done that, they have to let the person go. The bad news is they can’t arrest him. The good news is, as the person knows the police are on to him, he’ll probably abandon his plans to rob the store.

If the police happen upon a crime – say someone has just been murdered in an alley – and the police see somebody lurking around, they may reasonably suspect that somebody met the body while the body was still alive and killed him. Under the Terry rule, the police may approach that person and ask him some questions. But they may not arrest him no matter how reasonable their suspicion may be.

Sometimes while questioning the person they suspect, the police get some actual information which gives them probable cause. A witness might come up and say he saw that person commit the murder. Or the suspect might make the classic Murder, She Wrote http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086765/combined mistake and says something about the corpse that only the murderer could know. Once something like that happens and the police get probable cause, then they can arrest the person. But not before. Not when they only suspect him.

So, if the police can’t arrest someone for suspicion of committing a crime, how did that whole cliché start? Here’s my theory.

Last week, I talked about another common, but illegal, police practice: the investigatory hold. That’s when the police put someone they suspect of committing a crime into custody so that they can investigate the matter further. If the police get enough information to charge the person, they will present the case to the district attorney for formal charging. If they don’t they’ll release the person. I suspect arresting “on suspicion” was simply another way of saying performing an investigatory hold that the police started using because it sounds cleaner. It sounds more like the person being detained actually did something wrong – after all, he’s suspected of something rather than being investigated.

Well, police in movies and on TV, anyway. Did the police in the real world ever actually say that? I don’t know. But I have my suspicions.

REVIEW: Silicon Valley the Complete Second Season

silicon-valley-11-203-no-copy-smiling-e1437705433873-5530850It’s a challenge to begin watching a show during its second season. After all, the characters have been introduced, the dynamics established and the backstory in place. Season twos tend to show evolution as the cast and crew all find their rhythm but don’t always remember to reintroduce themselves in case newcomers have wandered by.

I had been hesitant to try Silicon Valley, the Mike Judge-created series on HBO, largely because we sat through the wildly uneven first season of AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire and felt that was our technology quota of television. So, when HBO invited me to review Silicon Valley the Complete Second Season, I decided to take the plunge. First, there was watching it video Digital HD, not disc, and there was exploring something new.

The show is funny and engaging, as much an office workplace dramedy as it is a commentary on our growing connection virtually, and less so as human beings. These ten episodes were filled with characters, mostly well realized, all well-acted.

Silicon Valley S2This band of misfits run Pied Piper, a music app, and the season opened with back and forth over ownership issues, an all-too-common problem with intellectual property these days. Apparently PP was created while members of the team worked for Hooli and their CEO Gavin Belson (Matt Ross) wants it, meaning its valuable, a plus to the team. Of course litigation tends to scare people off and sure enough this complicates locating investors willing to weather the storm.

As a result, they accept the offer from the eccentric Russ Hanneman (Chris Diamantopoulos), whose actions take the PP team into uncomfortable territory. What could have been an interesting breakout character felt like a retread of the dude who took over ACN on HBO’s sister program The Newsroom. Opposing him and acting as the moral voice at times was Richard (Thomas Middleditch), who seems to grow stronger as a leader throughout the season. Of course, there sometimes comes a price to be paid which happens in the season finale. The app gets a real world test so we build up to that moment and deal with the aftermath along with the percolating court case.

There’s some nice chemistry with Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani) and Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) as they prank one another that allows the series to veer into other tech realms such as Kickstarter.  Then there’s Jared who is the team optimistic and perhaps its quirkiest member.

For a 30 minute series, it has a large sprawling cast, made larger by many new additions notably Laurie (Suzanne Cryer), the new CEO at Raviga Capital. The arrival of so many new faces, including Carla (Alice Wetterlund) at the Hacker Hostel, also meant others got diminished screen time and overall, it’s hard to provide more than a handful of characters any depth.

The storylines drew tighter by the ninth episode and the tenth and “Two Days of the Condor,” the final episode proved the most satisfying with moving storylines along and making a marked social commentary with a human life at stake. Things came to a climax and reset the status quo as things settle down but Raviga, the new investors in Pied Piper want Richard out and he’s fired. From what I saw this season, it was totally justified.

Overall, the series is funny and often wildly so, but it also presents a skewed view of software engineers (I know, I’m married to one) as well as corporate shenanigans. Judge, who did give us the brilliant Office Space, seems to be stretching credulity now and then in the interests of being quirky. Props, though to the real tech, tech theory, and law that was infused throughout the season, grounding it when it could otherwise floated away as a lightweight series.

The show is definitely entertaining and easy to binge so here’s a chance to catch up. The Digital HD release is as pristine as the cable broadcast and streams cleanly with good picture and audio. Will I be around for season three? Probably, there’s enough here to like and the 30 minute slices are good so it doesn’t wear out its welcome.

 

Martha Thomases: Bill Cosby Remembered

Bill Cosby Snow White

Hello, everybody! This might be another column in which I am wrong.

Well, not entirely wrong. We’re talking about my personal opinions and tastes, and while you might not like them, you can’t exactly say I don’t have those particular feelings.

So, here it is: I think Bill Cosby is really funny.

I don’t think he’s a good person. I don’t think he’s the same person as Dr. Huxtable or Alexander Scott, because those are fictional characters with writers putting together the words they speak.

But I think his stand-up is, for the most part, really funny.

By his stand-up, I mean his stories and his jokes, the ones he tells about racing with his friends when he was a kid, or going out to dinner with his wife. I most definitely do not mean his lectures to the African-American community about pulling up their pants or not cussing.

Those jokes, the ones that I like, are something I’ve shared with my friends since high school. We could convulse each other by repeating them, no matter how many times we had laughed at them before. Those remain some of my fondest memories of bonding with the women who remain an amusing part of my life.

Is it possible to separate the work from the man? Can I ever watch The Cosby Show again and laugh?

I would like to. And I would like that choice.

In the wake of all the terrible allegations (and disclosures!) about the real human being, Bill Cosby, a large number of media outlets have stopped running his programs. And I understand that, because these media companies need to be conscious of their bottom line, and they can’t seem to supporting a serial rapist.

Because, apparently, a lot of people can’t tell the difference between Dr. Huxtable and Bill Cosby.

Nothing I’m saying should be interpreted as a defense of Cosby. I’m not saying that the crimes he is said to have committed are less important than my need to be entertained.

I’m saying that The Cosby Show didn’t commit any crimes. The work is separate from the star, even when that star is the creator and producer.

There are people working in comics who, in their personal lives, act abominably. I’m not going to call out any one in particular, because none of these people is a public figure and I’m not talking about criminal actions, but I tend not to support their work with my entertainment dollars. I won’t stop you from doing so, if you enjoy the work.

I’m much more likely to noisily air my displeasure when the work itself is repulsive to me, either personally or politically. For example, I’m certainly not going to watch this new Adam Sandler movie when it comes out, unless reviewers tell me the depiction of Native Americans is the exact opposite of what the link describes. And I’m going to have trouble with Mr. Sandler’s work in general, because of this story told by Rose McGowan and others.

Is Adam Sandler the only person in Hollywood with offensive politics? No, of course not. Do I sometimes find myself at a movie that I wouldn’t want to support? Yeah, it happens. I’m not consistent. I contain multitudes.

In the meantime, can someone bring back Barney Miller? That was really funny and, in my memory, was remarkable inclusive and understanding for its time.

Mad Max: Fury Road Roars Home on September 1

Mad Max Fury Road 3D Box Art_3DBurbank, CA, July 21, 2015 – In the end, only the mad will survive when Mad Max: Fury Road arrives onto Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack, Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD on September 1 from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Directed by Oscar®-winning filmmaker George Miller (“Happy Feet”) and starring Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises) in the title role and Oscar® winner Charlize Theron (Monster, Prometheus) as Imperator Furiosa, Mad Max: Fury Road is the fourth film in the franchise’s epic history. The film will available early on Digital HD starting on August 11.

Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Village Roadshow Pictures’ Mad Max: Fury Road also stars Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: Days of Future Past) as Nux; Hugh Keays-Byrne (Mad Max, Sleeping Beauty) as Immortan Joe; and Nathan Jones (Conan the Barbarian) as Rictus Erectus. Collectively known as The Wives, Zoë Kravitz (Divergent) plays Toast; Riley Keough (Magic Mike) is Capable; Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (Transformers: Dark of the Moon) is Splendid; supermodel Abbey Lee is The Dag; and Courtney Eaton is Fragile. Also featured in the movie are Josh Helman as Slit, Jennifer Hagan as Miss Giddy, and singer/songwriter/performer iOTA as Coma-Doof Warrior. The cast is rounded out by well-known Australian actors John Howard and Richard Carter, supermodel Megan Gale, Angus Sampson, Joy Smithers, Gillian Jones, Melissa Jaffer and Melita Jurisic.

Miller directed “Mad Max: Fury Road” from a screenplay he wrote with Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris. Miller also produced the film with longtime producing partner and Oscar nominee Doug Mitchell alongside executive producers P.J. Voeten, Iain Smith, Graham Burke and Bruce Berman.

Mad Max: Fury Road will be available on Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack for $44.95, Blu-ray Combo Pack for $35.99 and 2-disc DVD for $28.98. The Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack features the theatrical version of the film in 3D hi-definition, hi-definition and standard definition; the Blu-ray Combo Pack features the theatrical version of the film in hi-definition on Blu-ray; and the DVD features the theatrical version in standard definition. Blu-ray 3D Combo and Blu-ray Combo Pack include Digital HD with UltraViolet. Fans can also own “Mad Max: Fury Road” on Digital HD via purchase from digital retailers.

Also available on September 1 will be the Mad Max 4-Film Blu-ray Anthology. The anthology includes Mad Max (1979), The Road Warrior (1981), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) and Mad Max: Fury Road on Blu-ray disc. The anthology also includes the documentary “Madness of Max” on DVD along with “Mad Max Anthology” trading cards and will be available for $89.98.

SYNOPSIS

Haunted by his turbulent past, Mad Max believes the best way to survive is to wander alone. Nevertheless, he becomes swept up with a group fleeing across the Wasteland in a War Rig driven by an elite Imperator, Furiosa. They are escaping a Citadel tyrannized by the Immortan Joe, from whom something irreplaceable has been taken. Enraged, the Warlord marshals all his gangs and pursues the rebels ruthlessly in the high-octane Road War that follows.

BLU-RAY AND DVD ELEMENTS

“Mad Max: Fury Road” Blu-ray Combo Pack and Standard Definition 2-Disc DVD contain the following special features:

  • Maximum Fury: Filming Fury Road
  • Mad Max: Fury on Four Wheels
  • The Road Warriors: Max and Furiosa
  • The Tools of the Wasteland
  • The Five Wives: So Shiny, So Chrome
  • Fury Road: Crash & Smash
  • Deleted Scenes

DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION ELEMENTS

On August 11, “Mad Max: Fury Road” will be available to own via streaming and for download in high definition and standard definition from select digital retailers including Amazon, CinemaNow, Flixster, Google Play, iTunes, PlayStation, Vudu, Xbox and others. Mad Max: Fury Road will be available to rent digitally via Video On Demand services from cable and satellite providers, and other digital retailers beginning September 1.

ABOUT DIGITAL HD WITH ULTRAVIOLET

*Digital HD with UltraViolet allows fans to watch a digital version of their movie or TV show anywhere, on their favorite devices. Digital HD with UltraViolet is included with the purchase of specially marked Blu-ray discs. Digital HD with UltraViolet allows consumers to instantly stream and download movies and TV shows to TVs, computers, tablets and smartphones through UltraViolet retail services like CinemaNow, Flixster, VUDU and more. For more information on compatible devices go to wb.com/ultravioletdevices. Consult an UltraViolet Retailer for details and requirements and for a list of HD-compatible devices.

BASICS

PRODUCT                                                                            SRP

Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack                                                         $44.95
Blu-ray Combo Pack                                                               $35.99
DVD Amaray (WS)                                                                $28.98
Blu-ray Anthology                                                                  $89.98

Standard Street Date: September 1, 2015
DVD Languages: English, Latin Spanish, Canadian French
BD Languages: English, Latin Spanish, Canadian French, Brazilian Portuguese
3D BD Languages: English, Latin Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Parisian French, Thai
DVD Subtitles: English SDH, Latin Spanish, Parisian French
BD Subtitles: English, Latin Spanish, Canadian French, Brazilian Portuguese
3D BD Subtitles: English SDH, Latin Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Parisian French, Thai, Chinese, Korean
Running Time: 120 minutes
Rating: R for intense sequences of violence throughout, and for disturbing images
DOLBY ATMOS    DOLBY AUDIO   [CC]

REVIEW: Batman Unlimited: Animal Instincts

Thanbatman-unlimited-animal-instincts-e1423777012811-5504814kfully, today you are offered a larger variety of Batman flavors so in theory you should find one interpretation that appeals to you. Prefer mindless action, there’s the Arkham video games. Like driven dramas, there’s the Batman monthly from Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. Prefer your Batman with a bit of a character and a soul, there’re dozens of graphic novels to pick from.

The same holds true for the direct-to-video films from Warner Animation. For the slightly older audience there are the darker films, the most recent was Batman versus Robin and next is the long-awaited adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns. But Warner has wisely come up with a more all-ages version as seen in the recently released Batman: Unlimited – Animal Instincts. The new film runs the same length as the others, 77 minutes, and does not skimp on colorful action.

Admittedly, this story is actually more about Batman (Roger Craig Smith) and his team plus their friends so you get your pick of champions to cheer for. In addition to the caped crusader, you have Nightwing (Will Friedle), Red Robin (Yuri Lowenthal), Flash (Charlie Schlatter), and Green Arrow (Chris Diamantopolous). On the side of evil, you can hiss at Killer Croc (John DiMaggio), Penguin (Dana Snyder), Cheetah (Laura Bailey), Man-Bat (Phil LaMarr), or (Silverback (Keith Szarabajka).

Including the Emerald Archer and Scarlet Speedster are definitely there as product placement for their respective CW series, but it’s nice to see them anyway. Collectively, it’s also a tie-in to the Mattel-branded toy line and this box set does come with a Man-Bat so there’s that.

As for the story, the Penguin has recruited the animalistic rogues Silverback, Cheetah, and Man-Bat.  Why? Well, that’s the mystery that keeps the audience guessing until late, so the plotting is well done. Each hero and villain is individually introduced through action, each laying out clues to follow.

The heroes are clear cut, as are the villains, which is appropriate for the younger viewers this is primarily aimed at. There are some shadings to the motivations and you can’t help feel sorry for some of the characters who are victims of circumstance.

I’m also impressed that the script from Heath Corson, whose earlier efforts left me bothered, does a nice job of differentiating the characters, notably the byplay between straight-laced Barry Allen and the more fun-loving Dick Grayson. Here, they’re treated as being roughly the same age as opposed to the source material that matches Allen with Bruce Wayne.

There’s plenty of action to enjoy from speed to trick arrows to fisticuffs. Credit to director Butch Lukic for giving the film a distinct look and for keeping the action flowing without feeling as gratuitous as some of the other offerings.

If you like this, next month comes Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem with the promise of 22 animated shorts for later this ye

Dennis O’Neil: Science Says You’re Wrong If You Believe…

Pluto

Now I know that some of you are huge – huge! – science fans while others… well, you might prefer to get your science from old Julius Schwartz comic books. (Remember those old filler features that Julie ran? “Science Says You’re Wrong If You Believe…”) You guys – you Juliers – can consider your class dismissed until next week. You others?

Let us consider Pluto. No, not the Roman god of the underworld, or Disney’s canine, and certainly not Popeye’s archenemy – that was Bluto-with-a-B. We mean the planet. Pluto-the-planet has been much in the news this past week because we put a spacecraft within about 7000 miles of the planet’s surface which, in astronomical terms, is the back yard, and it sent back a lot of data and will continue downloading information for months. So, at the end of the process, we’ll know a lot about Pluto and maybe have some of the Big Questions answered, stuff like why/how are planets and solar systems formed and what the heck are we doing here, anyway.

Oh, and you fussers out there – I know that poor Pluto is no longer considered a full-blown planet. A few years back the people whose job it is to do things like decide on the classification of astral bodies, folks like Neil deGrasse Tyson, decided Pluto was too small to qualify as a planet and so they renamed it a dwarf planet and dwarf-schmarf, say I. The naming business is all arbitrary anyway. The universe doesn’t classify. We do. As human activities go, this one is pretty harmless and if you want to use the “dwarf” label, be my guest. But I’ll stick to calling that orb at the edge of our solar system a plain old “planet,” thank you very much.

Did I mention that I’m fond of (planet) Pluto? A decade ago I made it a character – well, an object, really – in a novel. I’m not sure why. I guess I thought my plot needed something at the far reaches of the solar system and Pluto, 4.67 billion-with-a-B miles away, certainly qualifies.

I got all the information I needed about it from a book I can recommend Don’t Know Much About The Universe, by Kenneth C. Davis. It’ll also tell you about the other planets and the sun and like that. Readable and informative.

Why bother to do this (very minor) bit of research? Maybe it’s my journalism background or maybe I just need a good laxative, but I think we writers, even we fiction writers, have an obligation to society not to spread misinformation. That’s the politicians’ job. If you’re equipping your hero with a Whoseatronic Ray Blaster, you can make it be or do whatever you like. You’ve just made it up, after all. But if you use something that’s real, be accurate. There’s already enough bad info out there.

And by the way…Science Says You’re Wrong If You Believe That Pluto Is that damn dog.

 

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