Mike's Musings

- Commentary by Mike Spring

A (Sick) Day (More Like A Week) In The Life Of A DVD Website Editor

Thanks to a recent bout of the infamous swine flu which had me laid out for about a week straight, I got to catch up on watching a lot of movies. Unfortunately, reviewing them all has proven a bit of a challenge, as I'm so far behind that I've been doing nothing but playing catch-up for the past week.

A few months back, I presented a Mike's Musings column called "A Day In The Life Of A DVD Website Editor." This column is a sequel of sorts to that piece, in which I reviewed about a dozen movies over a 24-hour period. Here, I'm going to take you through every movie I watched over the week or so that I was sick. I'm not going to break it down into hours and minutes like I did last time, because this was a much less regimented schedule, but I will take you through a wide variety of genres and styles of movies on DVD and Blu-ray. And because the week was kind of a blur, I'm just going to review them in alphabetical order.

Aliens In The Attic - Easily one of the most surprising movies I watched the entire week, this family adventure is actually quite a lot of fun. Yes, it stars Ashley Tisdale from the High School Musical movies, but the real star of the film is Carter Jenkins, a surprisingly talented teenage actor, along with some convincingly realistic aliens. The film is humorous and has some great action sequences, and even though it's aimed at the tween set, it's really pretty enjoyable. I have to say, I was glued to the set with this one a lot more than I thought I would be.

The Blu-ray edition is pretty cool, too. Picture quality is what you'd expect, with superior clarity and bright, vibrant colors, and the action scenes really allow the DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround Soundtrack to shine.

Extra features are pretty generous, including:

• Introduction To The Film And Special Features With Ashley Tisdale
• Alternate Ending
• Deleted Scenes
• Gag Reel
• Animated Short: Behind the Zirkonians
• Meet the Zirkonians
• Lights, Camera, Aliens!
• Kung Fu Grandma
• Brian Anthony "Electricity" Music Video
• Fox Movie Channel Presents Life After Film School with Barry Josephson
• Digital Copy Of Aliens In The Attic For Portable Media Players

Gotta Catch Santa Claus - Another somewhat surprising film, Gotta Catch Santa Claus is an extremely fun CGI Christmas adventure. Parents should be aware that the story gets started because one of the child characters doesn't believe in Santa Claus, but since we all know he really exists, the other kids in the movie set out to capture him to prove that he's real.

The movie is helped by William Shatner's fantastic voice acting as Santa Claus and a few really cute musical numbers. This isn't a movie that really qualifies as a musical; the characters don't break into song at the drop of a hat, but there are a couple of musical numbers sprinkled throughout the film that feel quite organic.

There are only a few extra features on the DVD, but they give you:

• Deleted Scenes
• Santa Behind The Scenes Footage
• 2 Sing-Alongs

RECOMMENDED!

The Guardian: The First Season - I find it funny that even though The Guardian was a pretty popular show in its own right, it took until Simon baker had a hit series with The Mentalist before this one saw the light of day on DVD.

I never watched The Guardian when it was on TV, but I've always liked Simon Baker, so I thought I'd check this show out. It's a pretty enjoyable legal show, set apart from the mainstream by the fact that the main character of the show represents children, and somewhat reluctantly at that. Baker is backed up by an able supporting cast, including a serious Dabney Coleman, as well as Erica Leersehn, Charles Malik Whitfield, and Raphael Sbarge.

Unfortunately, the only extra features are original episode promos (read: commercials), but you do get the entire first season on six discs, so it's hard to complain too much.

The Haunted Airman - The most notable thing about this movie is that it stars Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson as a crippled World War II airman. Twilight fans will probably snatch it up just to see their beloved Rob Pattz in a role other than Edward to hold them over until New Moon comes out, but many of them will be disappointed. This suspenseful quasi-thriller (but more of a drama) isn't actually all bad, but it's an extremely slow, deliberately paced film. It's based on a novel called The Haunting Of Toby Jugg by Dennis Wheatley, and at barely over an hour long, it still manages to kind of drag a bit. What it really reminded me of more than anything was those films you used to see in middle school and high school. You know, those extremely low-budget, half-hour adaptations of the stories you were reading in class? That's what this plays out as. It would feel right at home in a high school English classroom.

There are no extra features on the disc, much to Rob Pattz's fans chagrin, I'm sure.

Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs - I'm a huge fan of the original Ice Age film, but I found that the second film lost a lot of the charm of the original. So goes the third installment of the series, which also lacks any real sense of character or humor. There is a pretty spectacular 10 minutes or so towards the climax of the film which is as close to an all-out action sequence as these kinds of movies present, but the film overall sort of lacks heart. Of course, with the antics of Sid the Sloth taking center stage and a healthy dose of dinosaurs (both funny and scary) kids will eat it right up. Parents may not be as enthralled, but the kidlets will love it.

The DVD edition of the film looks and sounds pretty good, but the Blu-ray version really shines. The digital-to-digital high definition transfer looks, like most CGI animated films on Blu-ray, absolutely gorgeous. Colors are outstanding, clarity is impeccable, and the print is completely free of any blemishes. The DTS HD-MA 7.1 surround soundtrack is also pretty amazing, giving all your speakers a heck of a workout. This is the kind of movie Blu-ray was made for, even if the movie itself isn't all that spectacular.

Extra features include:

• Filmmaker's Commentary
• Ice Age Storybook Maker
• Evolution Expedition
• Buck...Easel to Weasel
• Unearthing the Lost World
• Unfinished Deleted Scenes
• "Walk with the Dinosaur" Music Video
• Fox Movie Channel presents Making A Scene
• Fox Movie Channel presents Making a Scene (Ice Age: The Meltdown)
• Fox Movie Channel presents In Character with John Leguizamo
• Fox Movie Channel presents in Character with Ray Romano
• Fox Movie Channel presents in Character with Queen Latifah
• BD-Live: Live Look up
• Scrat Pack: Scrat Shorts
• Digital Copy Of Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs For Portable Medial Players

I Love You Beth Cooper - I really wanted to like this modern update on the '80s formula geek-gets-the-girl romantic comedy, but it's just not that great. It's not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but mostly it's just an excuse to stare at Hayden Panattiere. Now, that's not a bad thing at all, but it does not a great movie make.

Part of the problem lies in the fact that the two lead guy characters are so authentically geeky that they're painful. I mean, really painful. So instead of laughing with them and hoping they get the girls, you kind of just pity them. That's not a great way to endear your audience to your main characters. That being said, the ending of the film manages to be both sweet and realistic, so there is some redemption there.

I Love You Beth Cooper is pretty much your standard rom-com Blu-ray presentation, offering up slight technical upgrades (improved image clarity and color saturation and mildly improved surround sound), but like with most romantic comedies in high def, this is far from a reference quality disc.

Extra features include:

• Alternate Ending
• Deleted Scenes
• More Laughs With The Cast

Logan's Run [Blu-ray] - Another movie I can finally cross off my "Always Wanted To See It But Haven't" list, the original Logan's Run is a lot of fun. I mean, it's ridiculously cheesy and wild in tone, veering from disco-sex-sci-fi to post-apocalyptic drama, and stopping off everywhere in between, but for people like me who love post-apocalyptic stories and cheesy sci-fi, it's like a little slice of low-grade heaven. Micahel York is... interesting in the lead role (let's just say that his sexuality is questionable, even though he gets the girl in the end), but An American Werewolf in London's Jenny Agutter is pretty fun to watch here, mostly because she's kind of hot and wears little clothing throughout the film. Then there's Peter Ustinov, the respected thespian whose performance is the one really painful spot in the film. I'm not sure what he was going for here, but it doesn't really work.

The Blu-ray suffers from the age of the film. Picture quality is certainly improved over previous DVD editions of the film, but there's no mistaking the fact that there are moments of excessive grain, blemishes on the print, occasional softness and inconsistent colors. The surround soundtrack offers up some moments of solid fidelity and surround activity, but again, the age of the film comes into play here.

Extra features include:

• Commentary by Michael York, Director Michael Anderson and Costume Designer Bill Thomas
• Vintage Featurette A Look into the 23rd Century
• Theatrical Trailer

An odd film to be sure, Logan's Run is still a lot of fun. It will likely appeal mostly to a certain kind of movie fan, but I think I'm one of them, so...

RECOMMENDED!

Night of the Creeps - I'll be honest, I had never even heard of night of the creeps until the opportunity to interview director Fred Dekker came my way. And since he directed one of my favorite movies ever, The Monster Squad, I took the offer, had a great conversation with him, and ultimately came to review Night of the Creeps, which makes its debut on DVD and Blu-ray.

What a great movie this is! Stocked with unknown actors, Night of the Creeps is a college horror comedy populated with aliens, slugs, and zombies. Like The Monster Squad, the film deftly balances the horror and the comedy, and the cast is surprisingly good for unknown actors. Credit director Dekker who, despite this being his first film, crafted a truly fun and original movie.

The Blu-ray is pretty amazing. Despite the film being 25 years old and pretty low-budget, the transfer is simply amazing. If it weren't for the clothes and the hairstyles, you could easily convince most viewers that the movie was made in the past fewyears. Image clarity is terrific, color saturation is spot-on, and the print is largely clean of any dirt or debris. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround soundtrack is also pretty effective, even if it isn't quite as impressive as the transfer is.

The generous extra feature selection gives us:

• Commentary with Writer/ Director Fred Dekker
• Cast Commentary
• Original Theatrical Ending
• Deleted Scenes
• Birth of the Creeps
• Cast of the Creeps
• Creating the Creeps
• Escape of the Creeps
• Legend of the Creeps
• Tom Atkins: Man of Action
• Trivia Track
• Original Theatrical Trailer

• Audio Commentary With Co-Writer/Producer/Director Dror Soref and Co-Writer/Associate Producer Tomas Romero
• Behind The Scenes
• Trailer

Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning - This Finnish Star Trek spoof (yes, you read that correctly) took seven years to make and was written, directed, and produced by fans. Despite some impressive CGI special effects for what is essentially a full-length fan film, Star Wreck suffer because A) it's almosty two hours long, and man does it drag; and B) It's in Finnish. Yes, satire doesn't always translate from other languages, especially when it's created by amateurs, and ultimately, I didn't laugh once. Despite some welcome appearances by spoof versions of Babylon 5 characters as well as Star Trek characters from the various different series, I couldn't get into this film at all. And I say that as a die-hard Star Trek and Babylon 5 fan. That's not a great sign.

The 2-Disc DVD does come loaded with extra features, however:

• Spirit of Star Wreck
• Commentary track by Samuli, Atte and Timo.
• Definitive Insideout
• Birth of the Imperial Edition
• Towards the Iron Sky
• Deleted and Extended Scenes
• Alternative Beginning and Ending
• Bloopers
• Image Gallery

Tinker Bell And The Lost Treasure - I really wish I could enjoy these Tinker Bell movies more. I mean, look, I get that I'm not the target audience for these films, but they are a pretty high quality product in terms of the work that goes into them. The artistry at work and the production design are terrific, and the CGI in the films is beautiful, but I find the movies kind of dull. I didn't really like the first movie all that much, and this new movie didn't do a whole lot for me either.

I'm not sure what it is; I think what keeps me from embracing the films more is that the characters are paper thin. This new sequel is slightly more interesting than the first film, and I know that kids (especially girls) will probably enjoy it, but I think most parents will find themselves bored pretty quickly. Ultimately, though, I guess its more important that the kids like it, and in that I'm pretty sure they will.

As with Ice Age 3 above, the transfer here is as good as it gets. CGI almost always looks gorgeous on Blu-ray, and this title is no exception. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround soundtrack is also excellent, recreating all of the sounds of the film and building an immersive experience for viewers.

Extra features include:

• Magical Guide To Pixie Hollow
• Pixie Hollow Comes To Walt Disney World
• Scenes You Never Saw
• All-New Music Video

UFC 100- Wrapping things up, we have UFC 100, the big anniversary Ultimate Fighting Championship event. Now, I don't usually watch UFC stuff, but I was home sick, I was bored, and I had a deadline, so I decided to pop it in the player.

Here's what I'm gonna do. First, I'll tell you what the packaging says: "It's the biggest event in Ultimate Fighting Championship history, and all the superstars are here for UFC 100 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir meet in the most highly-anticipated heavyweight rematch ever, welterweight superstar Georges St-Pierre defends his title against number one contender Thiago Alves, and The Ultimate Fighter coaches Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping finally meet in a fight you won't soon forget."

Now, me, what I got was a bunch of really mean looking dudes beating the utter crap out of each other. But, hey, if you're a UFC fan, I bet there were match-ups and rivalries that just exploded here. The problem for me is that, aside from Brock Lesnar, I had no idea who any of these guys were, so I wasn't really invested in the fights. Plus, they're a little brutal for my tastes.

I was a little surprised that for such a high-profile release, the only extra feature is a behind-the-scenes feature, but I guess the fights are the main attraction here.

So there you have it: one man's journey into the land of swine flu and movie reviews. Hopefully, it won't take getting sick like I was to be able to get caught up on this many movies again.