Dragons: Riders of Berk - Part 1

Short and Sweet
We received "Dragons: Riders of Berk" today. It is just 4 episodes, but only 10 episodes have actually aired to date. It's still 88 minutes of awesomeness. We had watched a few of these on Cartoon Network and found that it was impressive for a TV series.

Episodes on this DVD:

How to Start a Dragon Academy

Viking for Hire

Animal House

The Terrible Twos

This DVD came with 5 trading cards with the main dragons featured and included fun facts about them. Those were a big hit with my child who is crazy about dragons. You can, also, use the Dream Works APP on them where it "brings the dragon cards to life" which I have yet to do.

Bottom line: If your child is a How to Train Your Dragon Fan and/or you're looking for a little side gift for the holiday season then this is a winner (if you can get it for the $9.99 price).

The Dragons of Berk Are Back!
Dragons: Riders of Berk Part 1 picks up following the events of the feature film How to Train Your Dragon (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Dragon Double Pack) [Blu-ray] and the holiday special DreamWorks Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury / Book of Dragons Double Pack (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Online Video Game). Luckily many of the original voice cast from the feature film return to voice their characters in this Cartoon Network TV Series. The few voices that had to be recast are masterfully done to where they sound very much like their feature film counterparts. Beyond the voice acting, the stories & animation present in this 1st season are top-notch and are a great way to pass the time until the 2nd feature film due out in 2014. One touch I like is how Hiccup narrates the beginning & end of the episodes as he did in the original...

A Great Series/DVD!
If you enjoyed the fist movie in this series, How To Train Your Dragon, or have been reading the book series by the same name, you will love this new addition to the mix. This DVD has some great episodes filled with both adventure and fun. I have to say that I was not even aware that they had made this into a series until I was able to review this DVD, and after seeing it, I wish I had knows, as the episodes were great(and so funny).

You also have the opportunity to see and interact with some amazing new dragons that were not in the movie, which was a lot of fun as I am always impressed with the characteristics and personalities that the artists at Dreamworks have come up with, as they are all so unique which make watching this series and the original movie so much fun to watch.

Overall though this DVD is worth watching, as it adds much to the overall How To Train Your Dragon series, and I, for one, hope that they will continue this series in the future!

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The Americans: Season One

Everyone Involved in This, Take a Bow
Were it not for the fact that this astonishingly good series was unaccountably first broadcast on the UK's most rubbish television channel, and with each episode shredded to smithereens by commercial breaks, many people would now be talking about The Americans in the same paragraph, if not in the same sentence as, The Sopranos. Never has there been a stronger case, then, for putting one's name down for a box set many months before it's finally released.

Astutely written, immaculately cast from top to bottom and always directed with the utmost flair it's impossible not to marvel at the sheer cleverness of the whole enterprise. A cynic might proclaim how unbelievable is its premise but to them I would simply say, go look at the credentials of its executive producer (a former CIA officer) or do some rudimentary research into real-life spy Anna Chapman. If you still feel you can't suspend your disbelief, d'you know what? It simply doesn't matter (because you soon will.) The...

The Spies Among Us: FX Scores With This Taut Cold War Thriller
With the debut of the original FX television drama "The Americans," the network seemed to be inspired by the success of Showtime's EMMY winning "Homeland" which also addresses covert action on domestic soil. The FX channel, to me, has long been a leader in adult and challenging programs. In fact, they virtually changed the landscape of basic cable original programming with two of my all time favorite shows in "The Shield" and "Damages" and provocative button-pushers like "Nip/Tuck" and "Rescue Me." If not for the adventurous FX (which continues to churn out some of TV's best shows), I don't think other networks (especially AMC with hits like Mad Men and The Walking Dead) would have been as likely to develop original programming. So thank you FX! Not all of the great shows should be on premium cable! "The Americans" fits comfortably into the niche of quality entertainment made for audiences looking for great storytelling. It has a nifty premise, to be sure, and its introductory...

Huge points for original premise!
Okay. From the very first time I saw an advert for this show, I was intrigued. Finally, a new show with a unique premise - I just had to watch it, if only to get away from the 10th reincarnation of one of those once-successful cop shows.

And what an ambitious premise it is: Set in 1980's Washington D.C., the "Americans" in question are in fact not Americans at all, but Russian sleeper-spies, sent to the U.S. in the 1960's but only being activated (at least for the more dangerous capers) in the 1980's time-frame.

Of course, the first question I asked myself was if they would be able to pull off the 1980's Cold War 'feel'. Personally, I think they were successful at this - the show definitely has that 80's aura, and the period clothing, technology, and mind-sets of the characters is spot-on.

I also really love the way these "Americans" have their own struggles, in addition to the work itself. The characters deal with such issues as their true...

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Family Guy, Volume Ten

Its the remaining episodes from Season 9.
Just to be clear to everyone, this is NOT SEASON 10. This is the remaining episodes from season 9.
The product description does not even state it as such either. Every place I have looked up shows season 10 with this cover but this is not the case. I rate this 3 stars due to this set not even mentioning air dates or any mention of it being season 9 episodes, not to mention how much space is filled with "junk" bonus material.

Here's what this set has:
DISK ONE
"Halloween on Spooner Street"
"Baby, you knock me out"
"Brian writes a best seller"
"Road to the north pole"
"New kindey in town"
SPECIAL FEATURES
-Deleted scenes
-Select Scene animatic for Baby you knock me out
-All I really want for xmas: music of road to north pole
-Audio commentary on select episodes

DISK TWO
"And I'm Joyce Kinney"
"Friends of Peter G"
"German Guy"
"The hand that rocks the wheelchair"
"Trading...

wait for the price drop
I have been a huge fan of family guy since it came on. I make sure to buy next volume whenever its released on DVD so I can have all the episodes available to me. It's always great to have episodes nobody has seen before so you can watch them together.
Every year it seems like they put less episodes on the DVD release, and now are behind putting volumes out. (We all know that they are)
They do it on purpose. instead of putting episodes on the volume, they pack it full of unnecessary bonus features nobody (Even die hard fans) care to watch, put 3 episodes on each disc to make the box bigger, and they jack up the price and expect you to pay more for it.
They stopped caring about making people laugh, and decided to get greedy.
I'm getting tired of spending the extra money for old episodes left over from 2 seasons ago. Dont waste your money, wait for the price to drop, or buy it used.
I'm not a very big Family guy fan anymore. It's not even anywhere near as funny...

Just one issue here
I love family guy and have just about all of it on DVD.
I have just one issue with this particular purchase. The cover image shown (blue) on the item purchase page is supposedly the hard paper sleeve that the plastic DVD case comes in.
In the one I received had no such sleeve, it was just the plastic case (very thin plastic) and the paper cover inside (the one with the flames)
Had the hard paper sleeve been included, as i assume its part of the packaging (an unboxing video on youtube showed the hard paper sleeve) perhaps the plastic case would not have been damaged in shipping.
An object of some sort punctured the back, It was bad enough to tear the inside paper but the disc itself was not damaged.
So I'll let it slide and keep it.
It's just that what I receive should be what is pictured

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Home Alone (Family Fun Edition) [Blu-ray]

Home Alone - Family Fun Edition
On November 21st, 2006, 20th Century Fox released Home Alone - Family Fun Edition. This DVD edition is the long awaited special edition to one of cinemas most adored Christmas films. This edition offers a hefty amount of extra goodies...such as over 30 minutes of deleted scenes, on the set featurettes, new interviews, and a brand new commentary track featuring director Chris Columbus & Macaulay Culkin. I have to say unlike most commentary tracks, this one is actully very informative and very fun. Macaulay and Chris seem to have so much fun watching the film. This edition like the first one is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. I read somewhere that the video and audio is updated too, I cannot confirm if it is or not but I read that. If you own the previous edition of this film, it is definately worth your money to update to this. The special features alone warrant a double dip. Also for the hold outs not wanting to buy the film til it got a special edition,...

AT LAST!
Finally Fox studios came to their senses to re-release a childhood classic. Now this re-release does have a substanial amount of bonus features including 4 behind the scenes feature, deleted scenes, 3 trailers, and some trivia games but the icing on the cake is the Christopher Columbus and Macaulay Culkin Commentary. Its good to know that Macaulay Culkin being the highest paid child star back then in the early 90's and still to this date, he is humble enough to go back to his childhood memories. Deff worth the upgrade if you own the previous release..a true classic...

It Will Never Wear Out It's Welcome!
This movie was a favorite amongst many when it first came out in 1990, and more than a decade later, this movie *still* remains a classic, and will continue to be a classic for many more years to come.

The story is simple, really: young Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) is the underdog of the family; always getting picked on by his older siblings, and feeling like an outcast. One day, he gets into it with his older brother, and Kevin ends up being punished. During his punishment, he wishes that he could spend a christmas by himself without any of his family members. Wouldn't you know it - due to his family's carelessness, they accidently leave Kevin home on their way to the airport (to fly to Paris for Christmas vacation.)

And from there, the fun begins. While Kevin is home by himself, two bumbling, nincompoop burglars (played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) known as the "Wet Bandits," set their sites on Kevin's house. When Kevin figures this out, he sets the house up with...

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Predator [Blu-ray]

Fox blows it on Blu-Ray again
My 1-star review is not for the movie, Predator, which I love. I bought it twice on DVD: the first single-disc release with no extras, and then the excellent 2-disc special edition. I am not going to be buying on Blu-Ray, however, until the chowder-heads over at Fox start including all of the ALREADY PRODUCED extras on their Blu-Ray discs. Case in point: Predator.

Predator on Blu-Ray features a higher definition transfer (though on a single layer disc), but carries over none of the special features from the 2-disc DVD. How hard would this have been? Make it a dual layer Blu-Ray, and just throw them all on there in standard definition. That would have guaranteed and instant buy for me. But this habit of dumping the film bare-bones onto Blu-Ray is reminiscent of the early days of DVD, and I thought we were past that. Other studios are doing a fine job of including all the special features, so why is Fox being dumb? And why are they slapping a $40 MSRP on a bare-bones...

Shameful Quality Blu-Ray
This is the worst quality Blu-Ray I have come across so far. $26.95 is outrageous for a DVD to Blu-Ray dub. Your probably better off getting the widescreen DVD than the Blu-Ray and playing the movie on upscaling DVD player, you will get the same quality. The movie is classic, just don't buy the Blu-Ray version unless you find it in a bargin bin somewhere.

Predator 3D Predator UHE and 2008 blu-rays
(EDIT) 12/19/2013. Now that Predator 3D has been released, I thought a brief update to this review might be useful.

I was surprised at the quality of the 3D conversion, given that it used the automated JVC Fox workstation that was used for Jumper 3D and I, Robot 3D. The process costs about a third of what a typical catalog 3D conversion costs and can be done with about 3 people in 3 months. In contrast, Titanic took hundreds of people over a year to convert.

The slow rate of adoption of 3D has been attributed, in part, to the lack of available content. Fox Home Entertainment with JVC developed a business model using automated equipment that allowed the 3D conversion of catalog movies profitably.
I was doubtful that they would be successful in this after watching 3D clips of I, Robot shortly after it was released. I changed my mind after purchasing and watching Predator 3D.

The only caveat is that the extras are provided via a Disk two DVD. (Disk...

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