Skip to Content

Try your hand at the Spore Creature Creator and win free stuff from Big Download!

Posts with tag dvds

Cinematical Seven: DVDs for Santa to Put in Your Kids' Christmas Stockings

Filed under: Home Entertainment », Cinematical Seven », Harry Potter », Lists », 12 Days of Cinematicalmas »



Just a few more shopping days left until Christmas, and I'm just about done. We always get a couple DVDs for the kids stockings. When the sugar high from all the cookies and candy has worn off, there's nothing better than a new DVD (or two) to settle the kids down and give the grown-ups a little much-needed quiet time (or time to watch those movies Santa left in our own Christmas stockings ...). If you're looking for a few things to round out your own shopping, here are seven sure-to-please DVDs for kids of various ages:

High School Musical/High School Musical 2
-- If you have a tween girl in your house, all things High School Musical are likely at or near the top of your list. Disney knocked the ball out of the park with the resounding success of this musical for kids last year, and followed it up with High School Musical 2 (I liked the first one better, but my kids like them both). While the High School Musical films may not be that well-reviewed critically, these DVDs (trust me on this) top the Christmas lists of tweens and teens everywhere. Just be prepared to watch them over and over again, until the song "We're All in This Together" is permanently embedded in your brain and you want to claw your eyes out find yourself singing it in the shower while you practice your cool dance moves. Psst ... I hear Erik Davis knows all the lyrics and dance steps by heart, and he doesn't even have kids.


DVD Review: Shrek the Third

Filed under: Animation », DVD Reviews », New on DVD », Family Films », Dreamworks », Home Entertainment »

If you wondered when it came out if there needed to be a third Shrek film, all you need to do is ask the kids. Adults may be growing tired of the clever plays on modernity -- mascot contests, bubblegum-blowing teeny-boppers, endless takes on modern store names made to sound "fairy-taleish" -- but kids never seem to tire of the toilet humor that permeates the Shrek series.

The advantage of making a film with ogres and a donkey at the center is that you can acutally (kind of) justify the endless stream of projectile vomiting and fart jokes, and my own kids, at least, never seem to tire of them. And when you have the film on DVD, well, they can rewind to watch the baby spewing green-pea vomit out of the baby carriage over, and over, and over again. So, rejoice, parents, Shrek the Third is here.

Actually, for a third film in a series, Shrek the Third isn't a terrible effort. While it's not as strong as the first two films (the second was surprisingly good for a sequel) and at times it feels that the filmmakers are really reaching by stretching the franchise to support a third film, if you compare it to, say, the dreadful Happily N'Ever After, it's pretty tolerable. Any time you can find a kids' film that the adults in the household can stomach watching multiple times, that's a good thing -- but you might want to make sure to have Shrek and Shrek 2 on hand as well.

Triple Flick Discs!

Filed under: New Line », Warner Brothers », New on DVD », Home Entertainment »

In a move that redefines the phrase "2 outta 3 ain't bad," Warner Bros. Home Video announces the arrival of a whole bunch of pretty cool-looking Triple Feature DVD releases, budget-priced tri-flick platters that are handily connected by theme, star or general schlockiness. And hey, there's a few that I'll definitely be picking up. You'll be able to snag the following discs for about 10 bucks a pop.

(I'll be picking up the Lethal Weapon and It's Alive discs, but that's about it. Any of these interest you?)

[Thanks to DVDActive.com for the info.]

Warner Bros to Pull All Potter DVDs

Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Disney », Warner Brothers », Fandom », Family Films », DIY/Filmmaking », Home Entertainment », Harry Potter », Remakes and Sequels »

Are you one of those people who chose to rent the first four Harry Potter films on DVD, thinking somewhere down the line you would purchase them either as a gift or to include in your fabulous Harry Potter archive? Well, I'd break open that piggy bank if I were you because Warner Brothers plan to pull the first four Potter films off shelves, beginning this December 29 when it yanks Sorcerer's Stone, Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban. Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire will follow, vanishing into thin air on February 9, 2007.

Why are they doing this? I imagine they want little Harry all to themselves, kept under lock and key, only to be brought out for super-special occasions. Actually, it's a fairly common move (Disney does it all the time), and seeing as this is a non-Potter holiday season, Warners wants to beef up sales and, potentially, start building hype for what's sure to be a plethora of special edition, HD or Blue-Ray DVDs to follow. Currently no re-release plans are set, though, so get em' while they're hot folks!

[via JoBlo]

Mark Beall's Geek Beat: It's Not a Special Edition Unless It's In a Fancy Box

Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », DIY/Filmmaking », Home Entertainment », Movie Marketing », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Games and Game Movies »



I was recently perusing a local movie shop -- you know, one of those outrageous places which still tries to charge $30 for a new DVD -- and while scanning idly across the film titles I came to a conclusion. A new rule, if you will, which will now enter the hard and fast code which governs my life; although to be fair, it's a rule which has been passively influencing me for quite some time. This particular visit simply provided the occasion for me to identify and solidify the thought.

Here is my rule, which sprang to mind after seeing one particular movie with at least four different covers: If You Are Going to Call it A Special Edition, It Had Darn Well Better Be Special. This rule breaks down into several smaller elements -- call them corollaries or clarifications or addendums, whatever you prefer. And so without further ado, the Geek Beat presents The Special Edition Doctrine:

Bad Trailers And Bad Women: Entertainment Weekly In 60 Seconds

Filed under: New Releases », Entertainment Weekly in 60 Seconds », Newsstand », Home Entertainment », Movie Marketing », Lists »

  • Sharon StoneLisa Schwarzbaum discusses the really misleading trailer for ATL. It's a roller skating movie!
  • In honor of Sharon Stone's return as Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct 2, EW lists 10 femmes fatale. Some great choices, but do Renee Zellweger and Nicole Kidman really deserve to be in the top 10 of all-time? Who's missing from this list?
  • Is American Beauty really the worst film ever to win the Best Picture Oscar?
  • New movies: they give Basic Instinct 2 a B-, Ice Age 2: The Meltdown a B , and Slither a B .
  • New on DVD (not online, for some reason): they give a B- to The Mel Brooks Collection, a B to The Billy Wilder Collection, an A to 9 to 5, and a B to the Director's Cut of Crash.

Gotta love those alternate endings

Filed under: Universal », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand », Home Entertainment », Movie Marketing »

Based on a survey given by Universal Studios Home Entertainment, consumers rank alternate endings and beginnings as their favorite DVD extra. Finishing ahead of other been-around-for-awhile features like commentaries, deleted scenes and "making of" documentaries, the alternate ending excites people because it helps provide them with "an inside look at how studios test movies." Actually, if you really want to see how they test movies, someone should place a tape recorder inside an executives office once all those surveys come back smeared with phrases like, "this is the worst movie I have ever seen - please try again."

DVDs for films like, The Interpreter, Titanic, Fever Pitch (only alternate ending I would like is if the Red Sox lost to the Yanks) and The Outsiders have all included some sort of alternate ending or beginning within its special features this year. With all this praise, I'd imagine we're going to see a ton more "alternate whatever" showing up in our DVDs real soon. Hmm, maybe they could release an alternate version of the entire Dukes of Hazzard movie called, "The One That Doesn't Suck."

Personally (and I agree with the folks over on the Movie Blog), I'm more of a fan of the cast and crew commentaries than I am of alternate endings. These are what really give you an inside look at the movie-making process - if that's what you're into. Tell me consumer: What's your favorite DVD extra?

[via Movie Blog]

Post our RSS feeder to your own Web site!

Sponsored Links

Weblogs, Inc. Network