What better way to commemorate the 36th anniversary of the King of Rock and Roll’s passing (August 16, 1977) than losing oneself in RCA/Legacy’s new Elvis at Stax deluxe box set? This remarkable release chronicles the dozen recording sessions Presley undertook at the legendary Memphis recording studio Stax, in 1973. While the material has all...
Author: Chaz Lipp
Blu-ray Review: Tom and Jerry’s Giant Adventure
The Tom and Jerry brand continues to be a lucrative franchise for Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Whether made up of new or repackaged material, the titles keep on coming. Falling into the former category is the all-new Tom and Jerry’s Giant Adventure, available on Blu-ray and DVD (or both formats together, along with a code...
Blu-ray Review: Oblivion (2013)
Some movies are best approached with as little prior knowledge as possible. For anyone partial to either ponderous sci-fi or anything starring Tom Cruise, all you need to know in advance is that Oblivion falls into both those categories. It’s not action-oriented sci-fi, understand that before going in. Oblivion aspires to be more along the...
Blu-ray Review: Stoker
The creepy thriller Stoker, now on Blu-ray, was the final film produced by the late Tony Scott. It’s also the first English-language production directed by acclaimed South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook. Aside from those two distinctions, the more likely hook for curious potential viewers is the cast, which includes Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska, and Dermot...
Music DVD Review: Destiny’s Child – The Video Anthology
For whatever reason, Legacy decided to shortchange Destiny’s Child fans with an incomplete collection of music videos on the new DVD The Video Anthology. As it is, there are 15 videos included and eight missing in action. While I love Beyoncé’s voice, as well as the harmonies of the classic lineup that included Kelly Rowland...
Book Review: The Godfather: The Official Motion Picture Archives by Peter Cowie
Anyone with even a passing interest in Francis Ford Coppola’s famed trilogy of Mafia films would do well to check out Peter Cowie’s The Godfather: The Official Motion Picture Archives. Not only does the book detail the making of the films (with a primary focus on the 1972 original) via text and photos, there are...
Blu-ray Review: The Grifters
Twenty-three years after its original theatrical release, Stephen Frears’ The Grifters still holds up as a chilling portrait of utterly unscrupulous characters engaged in the seedy underworld of con artists. Finally available on Blu-ray, the hard-boiled, neo-noir thriller is bolstered by the performances of John Cusack, Anjelica Huston, and Annette Bening. The latter two were...
DVD Review: Koala Kid
Here’s a rather curious computer-animated import from South Korea. Originally titled The Outback, the 2012 feature film has been rechristened Koala Kid and is now available on DVD in the U.S. exclusively at Walmart and Sam’s Club. Directed by Kyung Ho Lee (co-director of 2007’s Garfield Gets Real), it’s the story of an all-white koala...
DVD Review: LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out
For the lighter side of the Star Wars universe, LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out offers up an animated combination of characters from the original and prequel trilogies. Inspired by the popular video game series, The Empire Strikes Out is a 22-minute special that originally aired in September, 2012 on Cartoon Network. Just as...
Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: Enterprise – Season One
Star Trek: Enterprise – Season One arrives on Blu-ray, a six-disc set housed in a standard case with slipcover (just like the Next Generation Blu-rays so far), carrying a fair amount of baggage. To date, Enterprise is the final Trek television series. After seven seasons each of Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, the...