Category: Home Video

Batman: Year One is the animated version of the classic Frank Miller graphic novel following the Dark Knight through his first year.  Does the animated version hold up to the book? Not quite, but it is still pretty good.

The movie starts off with Bruce Wayne flying back in to the city, and Jim Gordon starting his new job as a lieutenant for the Gotham City Police Department, and then follows how the two start fighting crime.  Bruce becomes a vigilantly, and Jim starts to deal with the corruption in the police department.  This film also chronicles the start of Selina Kyle aka Catwoman.

It is great that this movie is as much about Jim Gordon as it is Bruce Wayne because in the end he really is the one with the most to loose: wife, child, job, and the stability of the entire city, and he chooses to do right thing anyway.  Bruce on the other hand has already lost it all.  The Catwoman parts were interesting, but I think due to the restricted time of the film they could have left her out, but she is a good counter point to Batman, and what could have happened to Bruce had he grown up in the same slums that she did.

I think the actors were trying the channel the dark mood of the movie to much and kind of came off deadpan.  Proving it is hard to replace Kevin Conroy, longtime voice of Batman.

It is a good movie and DC Universe, the animation studio in charge of the DC properties, continues to put out quality films.  Someone at Warner Brothers should think about giving these guys a shot at some of the live action films

Dumbo, as I am sure you all know, is an animated film from Disney.  It is also one of Disney’s more controversial films, as many consider it to be racist.

The plot is simple, due to an unfortunate accident involving a young boy making fun of Dumbo’s large ears, and his mother defending him so she gets locked up.  His friend, a mouse, helps Dumbo out, and with the help of a few crows, teaches him to fly.

It is simple and it works, and the animation is great, but some people like to point to the faceless roustabouts and the crows as racist, but I think they are missing the bigger picture.  As to why the roustabouts are faceless, I think Disney was trying to point out all the work they do, but no one knows who they are or all the hard work they put in, plus all other African Americans in the film have faces.  The crows on the other hand seem harder to defend with their getups an mannerisms, but they also prove to be caring and smart, by crying when they realize their jokes have gone to far, and using psychology to get Dumbo to fly with the magic feather.

This movie is one Disney’s classics, and to have it streaming on Netflix is great.  If you haven’t seen it, you should.  Disney maybe should have been a little more careful with caricatures of the crows, but they prove to be heroes in this film.  It is good to see an elephant fly.

Something wonderful has happened! MST3K after being dropped off Netflix streaming, is now on Amazon Prime!  And there are some episodes that I haven’t seen before, so I watched Crash of the Moons.  It is the sequel to the great Manhunt in Space, but is it just as funny?  Yes it is.

The plot is that Rocky Jones has to evacuate two moons before they crash, but some of the people take some convincing, and as an added bonus there is a General Hospital short before the flick which is pretty awesome.  But plot is not what MST3K is about, it is whether the movie is bad enough to make fun of, but still watchable enough not to get bored, and much like Manhunt in Space, this is one of their better episodes.

The Robots and Joel are in rare form in this movie, almost never letting up with the jokes, and most of them land.  And the fact the John Banner is in it, of Hogen’s Heroes fame, gives them tons of extra material.

MST3K is as always a fun diversion and having them on a streaming service again is great, and Crash of the Moons is a excellent way to spend 90 minutes.

Every now and then I get a hankering to watch old 80’s movies, so I decided to watch Adventures in Babysitting from 1987, and it also happens to be the directorial debut of Chris Columbus who has gone on to be one of the more successful directors of our time directing, Home Alone, a few Harry Potters, The Help, and many more.  Was his first film a success as well?

The story begins as Chris (Elizabeth Shue) is stood up on her one year anniversary by her long time boyfriend Mike (Bradley Whitford).  This frees her up to babysit the Andersons’ kids.  While there her friend calls from the city bus depot, where she has run away too, and begs to be picked up because of all the strange people there.  So she and the kids run off to Chicago and promptly get a flat tire, and then series of unfortunate events befall them.

Everything about this movie screams the 80’s: the hair, the clothes, the actors, and story line.  This movie seemed like Chris Columbus was trying to smash John Hughes and Steven Spielberg together to make a children’s adventure that also had witty interpersonal dialog.  It never quit worked as well those directors’ movies but it is still fun, and Columbus’ talent shines through.

I think I remember this movie being better then it was, but it was still fun, and it makes me kind of sad that they don’t make these kinds of adventure movies for kids as much anymore.  The last one I can remember is Super 8.  Maybe with the success of that film it will inspire more film makers to take a shot at the genre, but until that happens at least we can pop in movies like Adventures in Babysitting and remember the glory days.