Ric Flair: The Ultimate Collection.
Never has a DVD title been this deserving of it’s name. This collection showcases the career of the best wrestler in the business ever. My opinion. He is great as a face, or a heal, and he is great in the squared circle and on the mic. His interviews are energetic and he is the ultimate entertainer.
The wheelin, dealin, jet flyin, limousine ridin, profiling, kiss stealin, son of gun, Nature Boy Ric Flair, or Slick Ric. How do you like that for a name!
To tell you what is so great about this collection I have to tell you how it differs from others. The Hulk Hogan set, and Roddy Piper set are formatted like this. Disc 1 is a 2 hour documentary on the wrestler ,spanning his career, family, and professional and personal life. The other 2 discs are the great matches that the wrestler has had, and a few interviews and promos.
This set is different in the sense that I contains the entire feud. Like when Flair fought Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, and Harley Race. For example the Dusty Rhodes segment gives you Ric Flairs take on it (current take) and then you get the match AND all the promos and interviews leading up to the match and some of the stuff that takes place after. So you get the entire (or majority) of the feud leading up to the match. Most sets just give you the match itself and maybe an interview. But this one you even get Dusty Rhodes interviews too! You feel as though you are watching it live when it aired!
What a great collection and must have for all fans of wrestling and Ric Flair (and they should be one and the same). There is another collection – The Definitive one, that is similar to the Roddy Piper set. Its worth getting to for the documentary but you will have about 5 repeat matches on it, but its still worth it for that one too.
5/5 (for both collections)
J-Man.
The Great Debaters.
Denzel Washington directed this movie about the Wiley College Debate Team. They were a black school that got to debate Harvard. Really great performances – by all, especially Washington (great in front and behind the camera) and Forest Whitaker – who can just read the phonebook and make it good!
The movie actually has some great debates in it – I actually wanted more! But the final debate and how it’s won was great. You have to think the writers of the film have to come up with both sides of the debate and have a winner – but it cant be easy, so that means that they really had to think about the topic to make is believable for the viewer. And there wasn’t anything too fake either (it’s based on a true story) – like Denzel doesn’t come in for the win in the end or something stupid like that.
The debaters are actually people in the movie, with characters too! Its not just Washington running the show!
Good movie – wanna debate me?
3.5/5
J-Man.
Adam’s Rib.
Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn are a married couple who end up on opposite sides of a trial. Spence is prosecuting a woman who attempted to murder her husband when she found him cheating. Hepburn is her defence lawyer. So its man vs woman, AND husband vs wife in this one.
Hepburn believes women don’t get their fair share – equality (this is black and white btw, but some of it holds true today even!) and Tracy is saying that no one has the right to try to kill another.
I wont tell you who wins, but the fight is pretty good. They both use different techniques in the courtroom, which is cool, but I would’ve liked to hear more on the actual topic of men vs women. But, all in all it was a fun movie!
3.5/5
J-Man.
Jonah Hex.
Ok, before I start this I would like to point out that ever since my buddy Rene got me into Hex, back in the early/mid 90’s I have never stopped collecting him.
So yes, I love Jonah Hex. And for the most part we got Jonah Hex in the movie. His attitude is perfect, Josh Brolin is the real Hex. They gave him the power to talk to dead people – which I don’t think he had (or I have never seen in over 50 issues), but he did encounter a lot of supernatural stuff in the series, so I guess it’s not far fetched to give him powers, but kinda pointless since I like that he’s just a bad ass. Whatever.
This movie was 80 mins of pure fun and action. Fast paced and I really liked Brolin. Megan Fox was in this looking better than in TF2 – the less makeup is much better for her, although she is too tanned for the old west! Whatever, her character was fine and Jonah didn’t go with her in the end, which is good cause he should always be alone.
One of the problems was that they showed how he got the scar on his face. Not a fan of that. In fact, I am dropping a star on that one. His mystique is part of what made him great, no one ever knew his origin, only that he fought for the south, and that’s about it. He never has friends, or if he does, they don’t last long etc. He never really has a love interest, or if so, she doesn’t last long either. So giving him this vengeance tale is just hollywood’s form of cookie-cutter story.
But if you don’t read Jonah Hex, you probably wont care about that stuff – in any case, it was fun, and ill be buying it.
3.5/5
J-Man.
Robin Hood (BBC – 3 seasons)
My wife and I just finished watching the complete Robin Hood BBC series. The legend of Robin Hood has been around for a long long long time. There have been MANY adaptations, Errol Flynn’s Adventures of Robin Hood, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Disney’s Animated Robin Hood (Robin is a fox in that one) and the recent Russell Crowe movie, to name a few. But in 2006 we got what I consider to be the best Robin Hood adaptation of all time.
Starring Jonas Armstrong as Robin, he and his men, Much, Little Jon, Will Scarlett, Djaq, Allan A Dale, and Lady Marian fought against Sheriff of Nottingham and his right hand man, Guy of Gisborne in season 1. Season 2 continued with the same cast but had Allan (my personal fave character) turn heal, only to turn good again in the end to save his friends. Season 2 ended in tragedy with Marian, Djaq, and Will leaving the show, but we got Allan back and Brother Tuck joined the cast. Kate, and Isabella also joined here, and we got to see Prince John (who was a riot!). Towards the end Jonas Armstrong declared he would not return for a 4th season, so we were introduced to Archer, in the event the show continued, we had Archer to rely on in place of Robin, but I don’t think the show will be coming back.
With all these cast members leaving you’d think the show would suffer, but this compact 3 season series is more like a long Robin Hood movie. Characters die off as the series goes on, but we get a lot of dramatic punch from that!
The show balanced the serious aspects of Robin Hood, like no tights, and people actually dying, but kept the fun stuff too. Robin is charismatic and funny, Much is always nervous and bit clumsy, Allan is always looking for a scam, and Little John just wants to fight.
The characters for me were spot on to what I love about Robin Hood and I really loved this series. One character I must mention is Guy of Gisborne, never have a I seen a character whom I loved and hated at the same time. He is not a scoundrel, but he’s definitely not nice. But I felt every emotion of his and really felt bad for him. He truly loves Marian, but will never get her.
In the end he has the best and most developed character of the series. And his outcome is tragic and I truly felt sorrow for the man. This brings me to another point about the show. The characters and emotions.
Each character – good or bad, is given a reason and back story for why they are the way they are. Gisborne isn’t bad just cause the story needs him to be bad. He is a complex character and so are all the other characters, Robin, Marian and Allan all come to mind. When these characters make life changing decisions, it’s amazing. When Allan turned bad, it was totally justified and explained. And he never really turned bad, so we knew he would come back and when he did it was the most amazing part of the series for me! I have never been so pumped for a character to turn good. That feeling came again in season 3 when Gisborne finally took a stand against the Sheriff, who treated him like crap for 2 and half seasons!
Ever character has a moment like that in the series. With Tuck being a late edition you’d figure he wouldn’t have much to do, but right from his first appearance he is wicked! What a great cast for this amazing show. I will never look upon another Robin Hood in the same way again. These actors are the true representations of their characters, there will never be a better Robin Hood!
This series is one of the best TV shows I have ever seen in my life and I will cherish it always. Check it out.
5/5
J-Man.
The A-Team.
Well another tv show turned into a movie. This one, for the most part, was done pretty good.
The A-Team show was great fun, both now and when I was a kid. You may remember last year I did a post about Howlin’Mad Murdock – played by Dwight Schultz, who was my favourite character of the show and in the top 10 fave character of all time (tv shows that is) and here he is played by the guy from District 9 (Sharlto Copley). Again for me, he is the best character. He was spot on for me, and actually they all were! Liam, Bradley and Rampage were all great and I loved their characters here.
The story was good to. It showed the origin of the team, which I REALLY LIKED! How BA met Hannibal was really awesome for me. After that they do some missions and we get the team we know. They get screwed – no shock, it’s what happened in the show, and they escape and have to prove themselves innocent.
The show had violence and shooting, but no one died, well hardly anyone died. Here of course it’s different. People die, but only the bad guys and only if they have to. It’s not Punisher or anything. Which brings me to the action. Yes, its fast cut again. Damn it. Why do they do this??? I will say the final action sequence looks pretty darn cool – I wont give it away!
My only other problem – which is not so minor – is that the A-team van is destroyed in about 10-15 mins and never returns! I think they were planning on bringing it back for part 2 – the ending of the movie is the opening credits of the show. But destroying the van is pointless. The scene was funny though, but I thought they would bring it back, but no. That could be a deal breaker for some! But the characters were great and I really enjoyed the movie!
Oh and wait till the end credits for some cameos from original A-Team members!
Really great fun – and I hope part 2 comes about – even though it probably wont, since this isn’t doing as well.
4/5
J-Man.
Splice.
Take good actors, splice them with good story and excellent directing and you get Splice.
Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody star as Elsa and Clive (check Bride of Frankenstein on IMDB) two scientists screwing with nature. Damn you! Well they screw with it and create Dren – a realistic and disturbingly semi-attractive half breed girl. She has a tail complete with stinger, and kangaroo type legs and later grows wings!
Polley and Brody don’t have kids, but Brody wants to, and Polley doesn’t. But then they have Dren, who is kind of their kid and we get the big parenting drama. This movie is a scifi all the way. Not horror, as advertised. Its about creation, parenting, survival, nature, they even fit in some corporation bashing – which I believe happens. Anyway this is a great film and I highly recommend seeing it and buying it. Other than that I pretty much agree with all that my fellow blogger wrote.
I like Sarah Polley and didn’t know her big views on politics. In any case, her views are not on screen here, her acting is, and its good! Brody is really great too, and he is underrated for sure. Cant wait to get this one on dvd!
4.5/5
J-Man.
