Pads & Panels

Title: John Carter

Format: Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Directed by: Andrew Stanton

Written by: Andrew Stanton, Mark Andrews, Michael Chabon

Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Willem Dafoe

Studio: Walt Disney Home Entertainment

Film Rating:

Blu-ray 3D Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

The Film

John Carter may be best known in retrospect as a bad business decision. One that saw a lot of money spent and not nearly as much made. And that comes, I think, primarily from its source material.

John Carter is the kind of fiction that has attained a certain cult status – an incredibly loyal contingent of followers staunchly stand by the Edgar Rice Burroughs sci-fi adventure – but may be entirely unfamiliar to general audiences. And ultimately what happened is a group of those loyal followers pushed to get this made, and the mass audiences just weren’t there.

But that doesn’t necessarily speak to the quality of the film. Financial success doesn’t always speak to quality, of course, but in this case there does seem to be a connection. What John Carter struggles with most is finding, or creating, an identity for itself. By the end of 132 minutes, we’ve all seen a lot of fantastic things but are left caring about very little of it. (more…)

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Product: Star Trek Enterprise Pizza Cutter

Company: ThinkGeek

Price: $29.99

Review by: Matt Peters

Getting this out of the way first — yes, it does cut pizza. In fact, the blade is fairly hefty, which may have been either good design (as we Star Trek fans consume larger pizzas), or simply a necessity of accurately portraying the scale. Either way, it really gets the job done and belongs with your other kitchen utensils. Speaking of accuracy, it’s definitely the order of the day, as even the famous Starship registry is etched onto the wheel. (more…)

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Title: Super 8

Directed by: J.J. Abrams

Written by: J.J. Abrams

Starring: Joel Courtney, Ryan Lee, Zach Mills, Riley Griffiths, Gabriel Basso, Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning

Studio: Paramount Pictures

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

When Steven Spielberg was in his absolute prime of blockbuster filmmaking, he took children in films like E.T. and Jurassic Park and put them in situations way over their heads, fantastic situations that played on our extraordinary imaginations as children, turning them into realities more bombastic than seemingly anyone else could have ever created.

Others followed suit with the likes of Goonies and Gremlins, creating the classics of a certain generation, movies that with seeming ease tapped into the very core of the childhood experience and turned it into something beyond our wildest dreams. Super 8 (produced by Spielberg), is for all intents and purposes J.J. Abrams’ (Lost, Star Trek) take on a Spielberg classic, and while it may not quite hit the mark, it’s damn entertaining in its attempt. (more…)

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Title: Surrogates

Format: Blu-ray

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Director: Jonathan Mostow

Writers: Michael Ferris, John D. Brancato

Producer: Touchstone Home Entertainment

Film Rating:

Blu-ray Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

The Film

Surrogates is based on the Top Shelf graphic novel created by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele. And for better or (mostly) worse, the film follows the general outline of the book’s plot pretty well. In the near future, people live their lives from the safety of their homes, instead plugging into surrogates, androids that look and act mostly like real people, and carry out the real tasks of life. While no damage should come to the pilots if their surrogates take damage, someone is finding a way to electrically blast the surrogates and kill the people behind them. (more…)

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