Blu-Ray Review: Armored

Heist films. They go all the way back to The Godfather. And this 'un is an interesting film and an exciting one to boot.

In this film, Ty is running low on cash and needs some money to keep his younger brother Jimmy from being take to a foster home. He relunctacly agrees to go on a heist mission to steal money. However, after the murder of a homeless man, Ty has second thoughts and soon things spiral out of control.

A good heist film has to have suspense and this one has some great moments of genuine terror. There's great moments of "Who-Will-Make-It?" making it a thrilling adventure. The cinematography is astounding, really feeling like your in the armored car or running with the thieves. This is a fun and thrilling adventure.

Rating: 7.6 out of 10 or B+

SYS

Avatar: Champ of The Blu-Ray

Leave it to Avatar to blast through Blu-Ray records like nobody's buisness. They sold 2.7 million Blu-Rays in it's first week. The Dark Knight still hasn't even sold that much in it's 16 month life-time. Good job on James Cameron and co.!

SYS

A Galaxy Far Far Away...In Blu

Well it's official. Star Wars si certainly coming to Blu-Ray. There may not be a date, but I see a October 2011 date...to accomadate a 2012 3D re-release to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of Star Wars itself, perhaps? Those are just my predictions and I certainly see them as a possibility. Nonetheless, I'll be excited to get more news on the Blu-Ray versions of Star Wars.

The glaxy is coming.

SYS

Blu-Ray Review: Where The Wild Things Are

Book adaptations are as fickle as they come. Some are great (How To Train Your Dragon, Fantastic Mr. Fox) others fail miserably (The Golden Compass, The Lightning Thief). Where does The Wild Things adaptation fall? In the great category.

Max has a rough sister and is doing badly in school. One night, when his Mom's boyfriend comes over, he makes a scene and bites his Mom. After being called a wild thing, he runs off and finds a boat that takes him to a dangerous land. Full of dnagerous inhabitants.

The film impresses thanks to it's "Who Needs Kids?" approach. The film is dark, very dark. But so was the book. In fact, the film takes the books spirit and stretches it to a wonderful 100 minutes that will make you realize something: being a kid is heck. Horrible in other words. Other films would make childhood like like heaven. This says kids are given the worst in life and have to deal with more problems than adults can dream of.

The wild things home is an impressive visual experience. The animatronics/CGI approach gives realism and depth to the creaters. They seem to be exactly as a child might imagine. It's really beautiful. This film may have been snubbed in the Best Picture category, but here at Doug's Domain, it gets an A+!!

Rating: 9.1 out of 10 or A

SYS

One Wild Blu-Ray

Sort of a slow news day and I'm not QUITE ready to post my 2 reviews. So I'm going to give you big news to me! The Blu-Ray cover for Where The Wild Things Are. Enjoy!

SYS

The Princess and The Blu-Ray

Well that was fast. The Princess and the Frog is coming to DVD and Blu-Ray March 16th. With a ton of featurettes and Deleted Scenes, this could be one of the few Blu-Rays I might have to pick up.

SYS

Blu-Ray Review: The Simpsons The Complete 20th Season

The Simpsons have been on so long... well it's kind of amazing. The fact that a show of any kind, even a reality show, hits 20 years is amazing. But an animated one? It seems impossble. As an extra gift to us, The Simpsons have churned out one of he finest seasons in a long time.

At the beggining of the season, it seemed like buisness as usual, with duds like Lost Verizon and Dangerous Curves. After that, it was a bunch of classics like Eeny Teeny Maya Moe and Take My Life Please. Episode wise, this was a classic season.

Bonus Feature wise, this set is an abomination. There's a 3-Minute clip to the Simpsons Documentary, but we all already saw it. The previous Season Sets had Audio Commentaries and Deleted Scenes.

Still, it's a good season and it IS nice to see the Simpsons Blu-Ray, the format of the future. If only the bonus's were as good as the episodes.

SYS

Blu-Ray Review: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Sony Animation has created 4 films now and are starting to become a competitive force in the animation world. Their latest, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, is a fine film, though just barely able to stand out of the gigantic animation film crowd.

Flint Lockwood is an inventor. However, he can't make a good machine. That all changes when he makes a machine that converts water into food. However, too much food starts falling and a disaster of giant portions...er, proportions, begins...

The film has many humorous moments and I really liked the monkey. He's voiced by master of Awards Shows Neil Patrick Harris, but it still feels funny. James Caan and Bill Hader are also nice and it's brilliant to see Bruce Campbell again, though like David Cross in Alvin and The Chipmunks 2, you wish he'd do better stuff.

The animation is also nice. The main flaw of the film is it's just a bit too short and breezy to be really grand. Also, emotion just dosen't come through as well as even in 9. Still, the film does have many funny moments, some hillarious, but it's good for the kids and enjoyable enough for everyone else.

SYS

2 Pieces of Cover Art

Companies are starting to release their fall films to DVD and Blu-Ray. I've been able to get these 2 movies cover art. Enjoy!




SYS

Blu-Ray Review: The Polar Express 3D

The Polar Express is the scariest film I have ever seen. The characters delve into the Uncanny Valley so much, you wonder why Mo-Cap is even being used. Thankfully, Avatar and A Christmas Carol have improved the technology vastly, but this film remains a sore spot for all fans of animation.

In this film, a young boy learns to believe again, thanks to a magic train that takes him and other children to the North Pole.

This film really has too much padding in it to relaly be called a full motion picture and probably works better on TV where it should be. Tom Hanks is a great man, but he's stiff in his film despite haveing 5 roles. The whole film feels like it's some wasted oppurtunity of both acting and visuals. This film could've been the pinnacle of Christmas films like Miracle on 34th Street...instead it's as flat as a stale Christmas cookie.

Rating: 4.8 out of 10 or D+

SYS

Lord of The Blu

The 4 Lord of The Rings films are coming to Blu-Ray Apri 6 2010. Wow!! They are all coming a 9 Disc Set only on Blu-Ray. These versions are not the Extended Editions. Those will be avilable later, probably when The Hobbit comes out. The 1978 Ralph Bashki Lord of The Rings film will be out on Blu-Ray will be released the same day.

SYS

Toy Stories In HD

Toy Story 1 & 2 will be soon avilable in Blu-Ray on March 23rd 2010. Sorry if your on DVD, that version will come out on May 18th 2010. Some great stuff are on these discs, including two seperate Sneak Peeks at Toy Story 3, including the story and characters.



This sounds awesome. Can't wait to own these two films. (Apologies to Ultimate Disney for the images)

SYS

Blu-Ray Review: How The Grinch Stole Christmas Deluxe Edition

The Grinch is one of the many staples of the holiday season. Of course, Dr. Seuss couldn't have predicted that it would be so famous. And yet, today it is still one of the most watched Christmas specials in America, getting 10 million viewers last Monday.

In this classic, The Grinch hates all the Who's down in Who-Ville because of all of the commotion and noise that CHristmas brings. So, he sets out to steal it all only to learn that Christmas may be just a little bit more.

The Grinch's popularity can be traced mainly to Chuck Jones, who directs the outing. His animation department certainly evokes the original books drawings nicely and yet gives them Chuck's flavor. It looks nice and feels good as well. Of course, the solitary song in it (Your A Mean One [Mr. Grinch]) is a delightful tune and one that has remained a song that is impossible not to remember and has a nice rhyming pattern to go with it to boot.

The Grinch really does a splendid job and holds much better than you might think. If there is a defenition of a classic, The Grinch is one of them!!

Rating: 9.3 out of 10 or A

SYS

Deathly Good Image

Above is th 1st image from Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 1. Some footage will be avilable on the DVD/Blu-Ray Tuesday.

Also, Harry Potter will be naked in the film. And in unrelated news, the first part will be R. Wonder why?

SYS

The Sound of The South

It has become a fable to Disney fans. That fable is The Song of The South. This film is the only Walt Disney movie to not be on home video. The only one. Due to possible racial problems, the film has never seen the light of day.

It bears mentioning that some rumours have popped up, saying in 2010 a 65th Anniversary Edition may be part of the Walt Disney Treasure Line...on Blu-Ray!!

I'll keep watch for this exciting news piece.

SYS

Blu-Ray Review: Miracle on 34th Street

Christmas brings out the best in people. Grandmothers cook more treats and people are all around more giving. The Christmas spirit isn't lost on movie directors, though. Dispite the film coming out in May 1947, this fiom is as Christmasy as they come and I enjoyed it very much, though I feel it isn't QUITE as amazing as people think.

An old man named Kris Kringle tells people he is the real deal..he is Santa Clause. He also starts to give away competiiton promotion leading to anger from Macy's, the company that he works for. Although people deem him insane, a lawayer decides to prove he's the real McCoy, despite a man named Sawyer saying Kris

This is a fine film, but I think it deserves notice for a major flaw. It really feels like what Kris has done is never dealt with. He hurts Saeyer, yes, but it's only mentioned in passing. They mainly deal with Kris think he's Santa. It feels like they just missed something good.

A few other things come in question (Is he Santa? Is he not?), but overall it's grand. There wonderful acting and it really feels like a nice Christmas tradition. With such a nice ending, I could probably watch it again without hesitation.

There may be a plto hole, but don't let that stop you from seeing Miracle. It's overall a terrific flick.

Rating: B+ or 8.1 out of 10


SYS

P.S. This is our 25th review!! Awesomenes!

Blu-Ray Review: A Charlie Brown Christmas

There are many great ways to spend 32 minutes this holiday season. One way is to bake cookies. Another is to trim the tree. The best, however, is to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas, by far the best 30 minutes ever on television.

Charlie Brown has to help put together a school play in this one. Lucy tells him a tree is just what the new play needs, so Charlie Brown runs off to get one. However, he gets the scrawniest tree of the whole bunch. Dispite all the kids laughter at Charlie, Linus makes sure Charlie Brown knows the true meaning of Christmas.

This special is one that can never get old. I don't know why, it seems to be a fact of life. You just can't tire of the film. Each year, laughs come steady and the lines come flowing through your mouth as though you've heard them for the first time.

These days, stores tend to not even say Christmas in their store sales, yet here we have Linus himself stating a large expert from the Bible. It dosen't feel too mucky though. In fact, it feels like part of why you love the show. I can think of no other show that would dare to push boundaries like so.



Christmas comes once a year, bu don't just watch Charlie Brown Christmas once. Watch it over and over again. Perfection.

Rating: A+ 10 out of 10

SYS

Psssst...We Hit 50 posts!!!

ALRIGHT!!! WE JUST HIT 50 POSTS!!!! This is very exciting and I bet we're the fastest to that record. We hit 50 posts in 8 days. I'm very happy. But we're not slowing down at all! In fact, Friday we'll have a new column called The Y Bomb. Come back Friday for full details.

Of course, read our 18 reviews for comprehensive coverage on the latest DVD's, Blu-Ray's, films and TV. Thanks y'all.

SYS

George and A.J.

George and A.J., two small characters from Up, have their own short film! It's in storyboard, so there is no complete CGI like Up. However, it's still clever. Wish it could've been on the Blu-Ray.

Watch it while you can. Might leave the internet soon.

SYS

Film Review: Gone With The Wind

Gone With The Wind is a film I love with all my soul. You already know the grand plot of the War and the down home country, so let me just get to this point:

* The sets pieces are great. They don't make things that great anymore.

* Acting is splendid, ten-fold. The greatest actors alive today could learn many things from these people.

* Greatest line in history: "Rhett, Rhett, Whatever shall I Do, Wherever Shall I Go" and "Frankly My Dear, I Don't Give A Dang"

If you don't have this in your collection by the end of this year (thanks to Blu-Ray), then I'm sorry, your not a film fan. Your nothing!!

Rating: A+ or 10.2 out of 10

SYS