Over the the last twenty-five years The Terminator franchise has set the standard for science fiction films - smart, action packed and filled with ground breaking special effects. The (first two) films are iconic and idolized by millions around the world. So when it was announced that the franchise would have a television spin-off many fans were unhappy, (myself included,) as it would not star Arnold Schwarzenegger (for obvious political reasons.) We feared that a TV series, sans Schwarzenegger, would cheapen the previous entries that had gone before it.

However, there is no need to fear Ye Terminator faithful: although the series does not equal the greatness of T1 and T2, it does expand on the characters, adding new twists, as well as some key references to the films.

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Are you looking forward to the new X-Files film? Are you an old fan of the series who hasn’t seen the iconic show since it was first aired? How about a first-timer who thinks that the trailer for the movie - The X-Files: I Want To Believe looks interesting? What about an obsessive fan that can’t get enough of Mulder and Scully?

If you are any of the above, then The X-Files - Essentials/ Revelations is for you.

First up, let me help you out over the confusing title. In the UK (where I am now writing this) the two disc over view of The X-Files is called The X-Files - Essentials, while in the US (where some of you are reading this) the disc is titled The X-Files - Revelations.

Confusing?

Yes, but the disc is also worth your time and hard earned cash.

Superman: Doomsday is NOT a Superman cartoon for the kiddies. On the contrary, this straight-to-DVD feature is pretty adult, a fact quickly established in the first ten minutes when Doomsday, the unstoppable devastator from the early 90’s “Death Of Superman” story-arc, brutally murders a team of Lexcorp researchers who unwittingly unearth him, while Lex Luthor himself puts a pistol to the head of a female assistant and blows her brains out.

Batman: Gotham Knight is an “homage” (a more accurate phrase would be “rip-off”) to the fabulous Animatrix collection that was released alongside the final two films in the Matrix trilogy. Since the unfolding Batman Begins trilogy releases its second installment, The Dark Knight, on July 18, studio Warner Bros. (never one to reinvent the wheel,) is attempting to $queeze some extra profit out of its expanding franchise by giving the Dark Knight his own collection of anime shorts, which chronicle events between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, summating in a hit-and-miss sequence of stories that just barley make the collection as a whole worth checking out. [SPOILER-FREE REVIEW INSIDE]

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: A fantastic send-up of loner cop action hero movies, with a final half hour that makes it the funniest thing I’ve seen this year.

Hot Fuzz is the funniest movie that most people haven’t seen this year. Sure, everyone is fawning over Superbad, which was OK, but if you’re an action movie fan, especially of stuff along the lines of Die Hard or Lethal Weapon you really need to see this movie.

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: A self-promoting, off-beat quasi-documentary that people in the lower ranks of the Hollywood movie machine will appreciate more than most of us.

I thought that with all the press surrounding Michael Moore and his latest film Sicko, it might be fun to review a (semi-)documentary about Michael Moore. Well, at least partially about him.

First off, you need to know that despite the promotional material and the title, Michael & Me is not really about Michael Moore, bashing or otherwise - so for both Moore haters and defenders there’s not really much to get bent out of shape over with this flick.

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: A great goodbye to Rocky that will remind you of the original.

Oh no, not a SIXTH “Rocky” movie?!

That was my reaction when I first heard about this project, but guess what? Rocky Balboa really works. I’m glad Stallone revisted the character that put him on the map because he did a heck of a job with this film. Instead of suffering from “sequel-itis” it feels like the closing chapter of a great story.

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: A low budget, yet beautifully shot and extremely moving film with an underlying core that may be too subtle for Christians’ tastes yet too strong for others.

Initially I wasn’t going to watch End of the Spear.

However, my wife tends to have a good eye when it comes to determining what films I’ll like outside of my typical genres of action, sci fi, and occaisonally, horror. It’s usually something that she’s seen without me and on which she then gives me her micro-review: “You’ll like it”. So far I think she’s never missed.
End of the Spear is basically a story about Christian missionaries in the Amazon jungle who are trying to end the cycle of violence among factions of the Waodani tribe. For centuries they have been murdering each other using their weapon of choice (spears, of course) and the byproduct of this fact is that they are on the edge of extinction. If they do not kill each other off, the government will soon be stepping in to hunt them down due to their attacks on the regular folks who live nearby. The tribe members believe that the “outsiders” are cannibals.

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: This is the Superman sequel that should have been, VASTLY superior to the ridiculous theatrical release.

I won’t be getting into much detail about the story which should be well known in a 20+ year old film, but instead will concentrate on what makes this new version so much better than the original.

If you’re not familiar with the story behind the story, it’s really quite fascinating. Originally Richard Donner was hired to film both Superman and Superman II simultaneously, after which the footage would be edited into two separate movies. Unfortunately, what happened during the course of filming was that many differences began to manifest themselves between Donner and the producers, the Salkinds.

The culmination of this conflict was that although Richard Donner had filmed probably more than 80% of the footage for Superman II, the Salkinds decided to pretty much fire him before completion of the sequel and brought Richard Lester to film additional footage and make the film “his”.

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: Although you might expect that people in their forties would find this funny, it will probably be funnier to folks in their twenties to whom forty seems infinitely far away.

Now I’m sure I haven’t lost my sense of humor because I just watched a comedian parody President Bush and although I voted for him I found it laugh-out-loud funny.

This DVD, not so much.

“But why are you rating it 2.5 stars?” you may ask… Basically because upon a second viewing it did elicit a few chuckles and when I step back and look at it, I imagine that if I was in my early to mid 20’s I might actually find his routine a lot funnier.