DVD Collectors Online

Wonder Woman, a review by Tom

Title: Wonder Woman
Year: 2009
Director: Lauren Montgomery
Rating: PG-13
Length: 74 Min.
Video: Widescreen 1.85
Audio: English: Dolby Digital TrueHD, English: Dolby Digital 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: English, French

Stars:
Keri Russell
Nathan Fillion
Alfred Molina
Rosario Dawson
Marg Helgenberger

Plot:
On the mystical island of Themyscira, a proud, strong warrior race of Amazon women lives in a utopian civilization shielded from the corrupt world of man. But a betrayal within the Amazon sisterhood leads to the escape of Ares, the God of War, and Amazon Princess Diana must capture him before he unleashes global chaos and destruction. With the aid of cocky fighter pilot Steve Trevor, Diana tracks Ares to the United States for a battle unlike any humankind has ever faced in this epic tale of the princess who becomes the World's Greatest Super Heroine.

Extras:
Bonus Episodes
Commentary
Featurettes

A fun movie. The only real contact I have with Wonder Woman is the 70s series with Lynda Carter. I have been waiting for a modern movie version for awhile. The live-action version seems to stuck in development hell. A animated movie is the next best thing.
We have here the origin story of Wonder Woman. The beginning is quite similar to the pilot of the old series. The main difference here is, that they didn't wipe Steve Trevor's memory when returning him to the outside world. So he is very much aware of who Wonder Woman is and where she comes from. And this movie is much more violent than the TV series ever was.
The character of Artemis reminded me very much of Teela from the rebooted "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe".
My complaint about this movie is the short runtime of 73 minutes. They did tell the story they wanted to. But Wonder Woman's alter ego Diana Prince only appears in the last minute. I would have liked her to have a longer part. The dual life as everyday people of superheroes is what I like best about the genre. Not the big fights with powerful enemies.
So all in all this movie serves well as a introduction, but it would have been nice to have more of Diana Prince in it.

The Blu-ray also contains two selected Justice League and two Justice League Unlimited episodes which have Wonder Woman in the center of the story.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on June 6th, 2009)

Mars Attacks!, a review by Jon

Mars Attacks!
3 out of 5

In a parody of classic 50s sci-fi, Tim Burton directs a stellar cast in a cartoony story of invaders from Mars.

Somewhere in the middle of this eccentric, wonderful mess from the back-to-front imagination of Tim Burton, there is Jack Nicholson giving a performance I think better than his Joker. No-one ever says so of course because it doesn't matter how brilliant someone is if it's lost in noise. And this film is noisy, incoherent, and yet, strangely flat. Still it holds together well enough to give us some outstanding moments and the storyline is as wacky as you could hope it to be. I love his martians!

The cast is huge and maybe that's one of the problems. Too many recognisable faces. I can't think of anyone letting the side down, but none of them have enough time to make a real mark. Alongside Nicholson, Rod Steiger, Annette Bening and Glenn Close are fantastic, while the kids (Lukas Haas and Natalie Portman) do fine with the most normal characters (and therefore the weakest).

Holds up just as well as Independence Day which came out the same year, simply because it knows how daft it is from the outset. The resolution actually makes more sense than Emmerich's all too serious version.

(From Jon's Random Reviews on January 30th, 2009)

Tom's Glee Marathon, a review by Tom

Glee
Season 1.09 Wheels
Writer: Ryan Murphy (Created By), Brad Falchuk (Created By), Ian Brennan (Created By), Ryan Murphy (Writer)
Director: Paris Barclay
Cast: Dianna Agron (Quinn Fabray), Chris Colfer (Kurt Hummel), Jessalyn Gilsig (Terri Schuester), Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester), Jayma Mays (Emma Pillsbury), Kevin McHale (Arty Abrams), Lea Michele (Rachel Berry), Cory Monteith (Finn Hudson), Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester), Amber Riley (Mercedes Jones), Mark Salling (Noah "Puck" Puckerman), Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina Cohen-Chang), Stephen Tobolowsky (Sandy Ryerson), Iqbal Theba (Principal Figgins), Mike O'Malley (Burt Hummel), Naya Rivera (Santana Lopez), Heather Morris (Brittany Pierce), Harry Shum, Jr. (Mike Chang), Dijon Talton (Matt Rutherford), Josh Sussman (Jacob Ben Israel), Cheryl Francis Harrington (Nurse), Aaron Fotheringham (Artie's Wheel Chair Double), Jeff Lewis (Manager), Lauren Potter (Becky Jackson), Robin Trocki (Jean)

A great episode. The first time there is any focus on Artie, the kid in the wheelchair. This episode also has some great moments between Kurt and his father.
This episode also shows the human side of Sue Sylvester, the cheerleader coach and the rival of the Glee club. Will thinks she is up to something when she allows Becky, a girl with Down Syndrome, to be on the cheerleading team. But it turns out, that she does so, because her older sister has also Down. There is a nice scene at the end with Sue and her sister.

Tina-Watch:
This episode is the start of Tina's doom as a character. Her only character trademark they had introduced so far was, that she studders. But in this episode she admits that she was faking it. It's like the producers realized that it was not a good idea and now they do not have any idea what to do with her character.

Notable music:
There is a great diva-off between Rachel and Kurt where they compete/audition to sing the song "Defying Gravity" from the musical Wicked:

Kurt is throwing the note at the end on purpose. It has something to do with his storyline with his father.
This episode also has the first solo of Artie. He sings a cover of Billy Idol's "Dancing With Myself". I really liked it.



Rating:

(From Tom's Glee Marathon on August 27th, 2012)