This is a DVD & movie review of the 2011 movie, Martha Marcy May Marlene.
Martha Marcy May Marlene comes from Fox Searchlight Pictures and runs 102 minutes, and is rated R, and yes, it’s a heck of a title to try and remember!
It’s written and directed by Sean Dunkin (Afterschool) and stars Elizabeth Olsen (Silent House) as Martha, Sarah Paulson (The Spirit, Joss Whedon’s Serenity; on TV: Deadwood) as Martha’s sister, Lucy; Hugh Dancy (Confessions of a Shopaholic, Our Idiot Brother) as Lucy’s significant other, Ted & John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone; Eastbound & Down (TV series)) as cult leader Patrick.
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Martha Marcy May Marlene is a surprisingly dark and captivating drama that focuses on a young girl named Martha (Olsen), who escapes from a cult and goes to live with her sister, Lucy (Paulson) and husband Ted (Dancy). The trailers I’ve seen don’t quite do this dramatic piece justice, while the movie oozes this quiet, low-key tone of desperation for Martha.
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This is a DVD movie review of In Time, starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried.
If you like the premise of a futuristic or new take on the tale of Robin Hood (Steal from the the rich, give to the poor) or the gutsy action of Bonnie and Clyde, then I think you will absolutely love In Time. Especially if you love watching the eye candy that is Timberlake or Seyfried.
In Time runs 109 minutes, is rated PG-13 and is written, directed & co-produced by Andrew Niccol, whose resume includes movies such as Lord of War, The Truman Show, and Gattaca.
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In Time is about a man named Will Salas (Timberlake) who lives in a world where the rich get richer and the poor get manipulated by a system designed to not be beatable. And Salas doesn’t like it. But in this futuristic world, everyone is genetically engineered to live to the age of 25. Once you hit 25, your body clock starts up with exactly one more year to live before it counts down to zero and then you drop dead… you die. It’s up to that individual what they do to either let their clock tick out, or figure out how to get more time.
In this world, it’s possible for the rich to be able to live forever. In fact, the balance of this world is predicated on the very system of the people scrambling through their day-to-day routines doing things to get more time. People beg for time, pay for their goods with time, get jobs that give them time, but barely enough time to survive, as we watch Salas working to provide for his mother, played by Olivia Wilde (House, Tron:Legacy), and himself.
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This is a DVD review of Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
The DVD packaging for Rise of the Planet of the Apes may by light on the extras, but the extras that are there, make up for it with the quality of the content.
Obviously when you get a DVD in my hands, I’m watching the movie again, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes starring James Franco and Andy Serkis, and directed by Rupert Wyatt, is incredibly rewatchable. (Is that even a word?) And watching it again I started noticing more Easter Eggs within the movie than the first time at the theater.
Caesar playing with the top half of a toy of the Statue of Liberty; The launching of the Icarus to Mars, and getting lost in space; The names of the apes and such; A quick blurb of a scene on a TV in the background with Charlton Heston in it. And what not.
Also, coming into this movie a second time, though he blew me away the first time, I could concentrate more on what Andy Serkis delivered in his motion-captured performance of Caesar. And it doesn’t disappoint.
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This is a DVD review of the Vegan documentary, Vegucated.
I was presented with the opportunity to review the documentary DVD called Vegucated. Vegucated is a film where three New Yorkers voluntarily attempt to take the journey of being a vegan for a mere six weeks.
Why did I tackle this DVD review? My wife became a vegetarian in 1999 after attending an animal husbandry field trip to a dairy farm for a Vet Tech class. From that day on, she never ate meat again. Because of her lifestyle, I might be about 50% vegetarian as I eat a lot of salads and soy-based products during the week.
Because of this aspect, when I was presented with the opportunity to review this DVD, I thought I would have an interesting perspective on the subject matter in this documentary. And it’s moments like this, that I appreciate the opportunity to talk about something more than fictional entertainment, but rather, something real and educational. Something that can lead to a healthier and greener lifestyle! If you want. It’s your call!
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Vegucated is written, directed and hosted/narrated by Marisa Miller Wolfson, as we watch three meat and cheese lovers voluntarily attempt to be vegans for six weeks.
In the process of reviewing my screener, I came away learning a lot about what it means to be vegan. My generic impression prior to watching Vegucated was sort of correct, but I didn’t realize the additional steps they took to not eat animal related products. What I learned was that the practice of being a vegan is not only about what you eat (or don’t eat) but also what you buy for clothes, shoes, products you eat, etc.. Being a vegan is about a lifestyle of non-violence towards animals! And surprisingly, a lifestyle that helps humanity live greener and decrease people’s impact on the environment.
Yea, there’s more to this vegan practice than meets the eye!
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In this newest chapter of Cinematic Titanic destruction, they’ve chosen the 1968 movie, War of the Insects to riff on, live. (War of the Insects AKA, Genocide. On IMDb, it got a 4 rating. That IS bad! Wow!) This live performance was shot in front of a live audience at Pepito’s Parkway Theater in Minneapolis, MN. And this is my DVD review, from Cinema Static on Brusimm.com.
As the Cinematic Titanic DVD starts, we see the introduction of the riffing squad to the theater audience: Trace Beaulieu, J. Elvis Weinstein, Mary Jo Pehl, Frank Conniff & Joel Hodgson. (Yes, the old MST3K gang!)
Cinematic Titanic, Live, and the countdown and theme commenced… to Genocide… mental genocide that is!
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The bugs shall inherit the earth!
Or so says Annabelle, the hottest, the sexiest, and by far the craziest psycho blonde chick to hit Japan since WWII. Deeply embittered about the whole man’s-inhumanity-to-man thing, she enacts a diabolical plot to unleash a swarm of mutant insects on the world that will destroy all living creatures except creepy crawlers.
Ensnared in all this madness is a philandering island-hopping bug collector and his compliant and slightly pregnant wife, a humorless doctor from the mainland, and a United States airman named Charlie, whose way of starting a conversation is to hysterically scream “Genocide!” and then go off his rocker like the dedicated military professional he is.
If you want to watch a story where everybody gets their nuclear holocaust on in the grand tradition of radioactive Japanese monster movies, this is the film for you!
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The movie opens to a rising cloud from an atomic bomb explosion and the gang chimes in: {Michele Bachmann’s first day as president.} That got a big laugh from the audience.
A scene that’s showing the bottom of a surf pounded cliff, {As you can see, anywhere you want to jump will do the trick.}
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DVD Review: Imagine It is a documentary on bringing together science, engineering and education. It’s about creating a better life for the future of our kids. And by doing so by engaging and getting kids interested in the sciences.
The primary message that I took away from the DVD is that change is coming to our planet, and what can be done by engaging change rather than letting it happen. In other words, controlling it. Taking control is what will engage the future of our species and Imagine It looks at how to engage the younger generation in the premise of science and engineering aspects of life. Things that can help control our planet’s future.
Once that premise got in my head, that’s how I saw this documentary from that point on. So I sort of apologize ahead of time for that bias.
Imagine It is an informative and quick DVD that can be an incredible interactive experience, a conversation starter, that a family can watch together. The conversation has to start somewhere, right?
But more importantly, aside from my focus on the planet, the important thing to take away from this DVD is addressing the global challenge of how we can bring science to the young masses.
The DVD had me wondering… Leaving a family legacy is one thing, but leaving a planet’s legacy for those future legacies seems to make a lot of sense. Doesn’t it? Otherwise, what’s the point?
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Our host for this documentary is Iliza Shlesinger. She connects/introduces the different sections of the documentary.
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UPDATE: The Winner of ‘The Captains’ was Ronald O. I’ll be in touch! Thanks for coming by!
- The Captains is a documentary movie written, directed and narrated by William Shatner, the Captain Kirk from the 1960′s Star Trek series. The documentary involves William Shatner locating and interviewing the various actors that have played the captains in the various Star Trek franchise TV shows or movies.
The personalities we spend the most time with in The Captains are Sir Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Avery Brooks (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Kate Mulgrew (Star Trek: Voyager), Scott Bakula (Star Trek: Enterprise) & Chris Pine (The new James Kirk in J.J. Abrams‘ Star Trek movie.)
At the front half of the documentary, the introductory or opening interviews are quick and to the point, as they bounce around from one to the other. They’re quick intros where Shatner asks the actor how they got involved in acting. It gives the viewer a quick feel for how each session will be like.
During the interviews, we don’t just get to become familiar with the different actors, we also get insights from William Shatner himself as he takes moments to interject his own experiences from his life, both Star Trek and non Star Trek related in either the interviews or spots between the interviews.
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This is a DVD review of Zorro The Complete Series is a 15-DVD set of the 1990 TV series. It was released by A&E Home Video. They were gracious enough to provide a copy of the DVD collection to Cinema Static on Brusimm sometime back and I finally found the time to spend some quality time with the package and spent an evening checking it out.
The series stars Duncan Regehr as Don Deigo/Zorro, Patrice Martinez, James Victor and a few others throughout the entire run of Zorro. In the first season, the foil for Zorro is played by Michael Tylo, and Don Diego’s father was played by Efrem Zimbalist Jr..
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In this first episode, it would seem that Seniorita Escalante is set up for murder, to lure in Zorro into a trap.
In the 2nd episode Zorro protects his father from a scheming woman and her lover!
The 3rd, he protects the water rights of the people from the ever-always scheming Alcalde Ramone.
It’s the 9th episode of the the first season (disc 2), titled “The Legend Begins: Part 1,” that we are to learn of he chose to become Zorro. He is shot and falls into a canyon. While laying here wounded, he reminisces on his origin as a flashback.
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DVD Review of X-Men: First Class
As you all may or may not know, in my movie review of X-Men: First Class, generally speaking, I said the following bits about the movie:
X-Men: First Class takes the genre and steps it up a notch. I was impressed with how they took the ensemble of characters and injected them into real-world events that pulled you away from the idea that these were comic book characters and made them feel like they had more context behind the people themselves.
First Class is in reference to the first group of heroes, or X-Men, in their early days as they were pulled together by Charles Xavier, played by James McAvoy. Along with the formation of the team, we get to explore the early relationship between Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr, aka the soon to be Magneto (Played by Michael Fassbender).
Of special note is the portrayal of Sebastian Shaw by Kevin Bacon. A rather sublime and sinister effort on Bacon’s part.
I gave X-Men: First Class a 10 on my popcorn scale for being one of the most outstanding genre films to come along in quite a while. I think it’s a fun movie for both fans of the franchise and for folks who aren’t.
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With that said, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment provided Brusimm.com the single-disc DVD of the movie for review. (That was at my request.)
The X-Men: First Class DVD & Blu-ray release comes out on September 9th, 2011.
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The following is a DVD review of the animated series, Wolverine and the X-Men, plus, as provided, a quick take on the series on DVD. In a word or two, if you’re even a partial fan, I thin you can’t go wrong with the series released on DVD/Blu-ray.
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Wolverine and the X-Men DVD series starts out with Logan/Wolverine leaving Xavier’s mansion. At least that was the plan. Then something happens and a mysterious explosion rocks the mansion in Westchester. In the ensuing disaster Professor X and Jean Grey disappear. After the event, The Brotherhood seizes the opportunity and try to assert control over mankind. This in turn strengthens the cause for humanity to embrace the Mutant Response Division (MRD) and the MRD, along with The Brotherhood, spiral out of control. Mutant registration becomes mainstream and humanity looks down upon them.
Wolverine returns to the wrecked mansion to find The Beast/Hank and together they start to locate the members of the X-Men and reform the team. Through it all, Logan is in communication with Xavier from the future, who tries to help guide Logan to prevent the terrible future Xavier finds himself in now… or, then I mean.
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This is the start of the series and though it is an animated series, it is geared for both kids and adults alike. In fact, anyone who has seen X-Men: The Last Stand, will feel a familiar air to the story, while still having a TV-Y rating. The two schemes are blended well and no one will be disappointed.
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