Movies

Wondering if you should spend the $30 to get the Nightmare Before Christmas in High Definition Blu-ray format? If you are super fan of the movie, already own a Blu-ray player, and don't own the other previously released edition, then yes. The picture and sound is great. Amazing. In my opinion, the picture was great in the regular DVD, but you can notice slight upgrades in details and shadows. It makes the movie look more like claymation, which shows how much work went into making this film one frame at a time. The only thing that I am upset about is the special features. They are all the same as in the old edition. I didn't listen to the commentaries because I don't want to hear a bunch of talking over the movie. The newest feature, where you are given a tour of the Haunted Mansion ride at DisneyLand during Christmas time (when it was decorated with NBC stuff) was cheesy. It looks like a tourist took their camera and Disney got a copy and dubbed it.
Also, I was dissapointed by the new "introduction by Tim Burton" before the film. It lasted two seconds because he said "Here is NBC on Blu-ray. Enjoy". Seriously. He did mention before "Frankenwenie" that they are making it into a full-length stop-motion movie, which was cool, but that short film is available on the previous edition. As is "Vincent". So, was it worth it. No, I mean, sure it looks better and sounds better, but not so much. The special features were severely disappointing because they re-hashed old things and sold them as new. Overall, don't spend your money unless you don't already own the film.

-Starfire

Director: Tim Burton
Writer: John Logan, Stephen Sondheim
Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall
Genre: Musical, Thriller, Horror


I knew going into the theater that this was a musical and lets just say that being a Johnny Depp fan I was worried. After the movie got started I was able to tolerate the singing and I was glad that is wasn't like regular musicals where everyone on the street joins in and starts singing and dancing with those annoying jazz hands. It was almost like the characters sung a monologue instead of speaking it. I was a little disappointed that Depp sounded a lot like a sober Jack Sparrow. But hey, he's been stuck in that role for so long I bet its hard to shake off. Personally, I love movies that use a lot of dramatic costumes and sets and this movie has both. Overall, I liked the pace and characters in the movie and I thought the ending was fitting for such a dramatic story.
This movie fits in well with the other Burton/Depp films but I don't think that average movie goers will like the singing and all the blood. (The old lady sitting next to me in the theater was squirming in her seat the whole time.)

Special Features: I enjoyed all of the special features, especially the ones about the making of the movie, the costumes, and other technical aspects. Some of the interviews seemed repetitive because some of the questions asked were stupid and/or the same ones everyone else asked.
-StarFire (e-mail me)

Director: Shinji Aramaki
Writer: Masamune Shirow, Kiyoto Takeuchi
Genre: Anime, Action, Science-Fiction

Before watching this movie, we were skeptical. We never watched any other Appleseed movie or the anime so we didn't know what to expect. We knew there were robots and lazers so it sounded interesting... but we didn't know if we would be able to follow the story. Before watching the movie, we watched a short featurette about the history of Appleseed. It wasn't boring or just trying to make us buy the anime/mangas but it explained what was going on, who the characters were and the overall atmoshphere of the series. In brief the movie full of action and the voice acting was good, but towards the end it got a little bananas and over the top. The rest of the story was pretty believable (yes, robots and lazers...) but the end just was too crazy. This movie was made for Blu-ray, the visual effects and the animation was spectacular. From the point of view of novices about the Appleseed series, it was a pretty good film but overall it wasn't memorable.
-RedTinFox and StarFire (e-mail us)
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Director: Danny Boyle (28 Days Later)