DVD Collectors Online

Kung Fu Panda, a review by Tom

Title: Kung Fu Panda
Year: 2008
Director: John Stevenson, Mark Osborne
Rating: PG
Length: 92 Min.
Video: Widescreen 2.35
Audio: English: Dolby Digital TrueHD, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo, Commentary: Dolby Digital Plus, German: Dolby Digital 5.1, Turkish: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dutch: Dolby Digital 5.1, Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish

Stars:
Jack Black
Dustin Hoffman
Angelina Jolie
Ian McShane
Jackie Chan

Plot:
From the Creators of Shrek and Madagascar comes the funniest movie of the year! Prepare for awesomeness with DreamWorks Animation's KUNG FU PANDA. Jack Black is perfect as the voice of Po, a noodle slurping dreamer who must embrace his true self - fuzzy flaws and all - in order to become the legendary Dragon Warrior. With high-kicking humour, tons of kung fu action, and groundbreaking animation, KUNG FU PANDA is a heart-warming story of courage for the whole family!

Extras:
Commentary
Featurettes
Interactive Game
Video Jukebox

A fun kung fu movie. I think the fight are animated well. Jack Black is perfect for the role of the Panda, who likes to be a Kung Fu fighter.
The animation is great, though still behind Pixar. But classes better than Madagascar (I don't like the character design in that one).
To compensate their disadvantage in animation to Pixar, DreamWorks has as always "big" names in their cast list for promoting the movie. Besides Jack Black, there is Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan and others. Though most of them have only a few lines.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on January 8th, 2009)

Gantz, a review by dfmorgan

Gantz

Year: 2010
Director: Shinsuke Sato
Cast: Kazunari Ninomiya, Kenichi Matsuyama, Natsuna
Overview: Gantz is based on a hit manga series created by Hiroya Oku and stars leading Japanese actors Kazunari Ninomiya (Letters from Iwo Jima) and Kenichi Matsuyama (Death Note, Detroit Metal City).

After an accident on the train platform, recently deceased childhood friends Kei and Kato find themselves transported to an empty apartment populated by other confused strangers and a mysterious black ball known only as Gantz, which issues them a set of strange suits and alien weapons, instructing them that their lives are forfeit and now they must exterminate "dangerous aliens" from Earth in a series of games.

Watched: 14th. Oct 2011
My Thoughts: I really enjoyed this film. An interesting concept of bringing people back to life to fight aliens. Looking forward to part 2 when it comes out next year.

My Rating: A really enjoyable 4



(From Dave's DVD/Blu-ray Reviews on October 15th, 2011)

"Friends" Marathon, a review by Rogmeister

Friends: The Complete Second Season continues the zany adventures of Monica, Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey and Chandler.

The One With Ross's New Girlfriend--Rachel is dismayed to find Ross bringing a new girlfriend when he returns from a trip to China (and we never did find out if he got that bone    Meanwhile, after Phoebe gives striking new haircuts to Joey and Chandler, Monica convinces Phoebe to give her a haircut as well...too bad Phoebe doesn't know the difference between who Demi Moore is...and who Dudley Moore is!  A fun episode.

The One With The Breast Milk--Monica agrees to go shopping with Julie (Ross's new girlfriend) at Bloomingdale's...which angers Rachel when she finds out.  And Joey dresses up like a cowboy when another such aftershave salesman does well with it at a store Joey works at.  And Ross is repulsed when people taste Carol's breast milk she had left for Ben.

The One Where Heckles DiesThe friends are shocked when eccentric Mr. Heckles ("I could have birds") passes away and leaves all his belongings to Rachel and Monica who lived in the apartment above him.  We get some extra laughs in this when Phoebe and Ross get into it over the belief in evolution.  Chandler winds up getting all worked up over the fact he and Mr. Heckles had so much in common.  Janice puts in another appearance but now she's married and pregnant.  "Oh...my...God..."

The One With Phoebe's Husband--Phoebe's gay husband shows up wanting a divorce.  In a moment where the friends blab some secrets about each other we find that Joey was in a porno movie (but he didn't get naked) and that Chandler has a 3rd nipple.  "Whip it out, whip it out!"  At the end of the episode, we learn that Ross has had sex with Julie (his first since he broke up with his wife" and he celebrates by dancing in the streets to the tune of "Singing in the Rain". 

The One With Five Steaks and an Eggplant--The friends are divided when three of them are put off by the fact that getting together often costs them money they can't afford.  As a result, the three who have money go to a concert while the others play bargain basement games at home.  Monica gets fired at the end of this episode due to accidentally accepting some steaks her employers claim was a kickback.

The One With The Baby On The Bus--This may be may favorite episode of seaso 2 so far.  Ross gets food poisoning from Monica's pie.  "I thought you said this was a key lime pie?"  "No, it's a kiwi lime pie.  That's what makes it so special."  "That's what's going to kill me!  I'm allergic to kiwi..."  While he and Monica go to the hospital, Chandler and Joey take Ross' son Ben out for awhile...and accidentally leave him on the bus.  When they go to reclaim him, there are 3 toddlers at the bus depot.  They decide to flip a coin but what is assigned heads?  Joey says "Heads are for ducks...because ducks have heads" to which Chandler responds "What kind of scary ass clowns came to your birthday?"  At the end, Ross discovers the truth but Chandler grabs the pie and exclaims "Get back, I've got kiwi!  Run, Joey, Run!"  Meanwhile Chryssie Hynde guests as a professional singer hired at Central Perk to replace Phoebe.  This is one of only a few episodes where we see the owner (named Terry, played by Max Wright) of the coffee shop.

 

(From "Friends" Marathon on July 22nd, 2009)