A regular conversation that occurs between me and my blog buddies is how Martin Campbell, the director of The Green Lantern, plans to tackle the production of one of the most unique comic book adaptations ever. For those who are unaware the look and style of GL is that of Iron Man meets Star Trek in terms of tone and action (it spends time between space and Earth) but there is the fantasy elements that put it as sort of a Lord of the Rings in space thus giving it that uniqueness that most other comic book adaptation don’t have.

Even though Martin Campbell is the director he has to rely on very talented members of the production to create and design these worlds. Well now Superhero Hype is reporting that many of the key crew members that are already on board, and there’s no lack of Oscars among them.

The DP (Director of Photography) is Dion Beebe, who won a statue for his work with Rob Marshall on Memoirs of a Geisha. Grant Major, a production designer and costume designer Ngila Dickson were both winners for Return of the King, which certainly bodes well for the fantasy element we mentioned (Lord of the Rings in space). Both are great visual films and both these guys have to be in charge of really setting the imagery and visual theme and style.

The other crew member signed up for the production is perhaps the most exciting crew member, though, is the only one who hasn’t won an Oscar, Francois Audouy. He just finished doing concept art for Avatar and was also the art director for Watchmen and Transformers which may have their flaws but look great throughout.

Now everything is cohesive and though all the crew talent isn’t a guarantee for a perfect film but it does poise it to be set in the right direction. You can see the intended level of quality for The Green Lantern, which is certainly promising for the conundrum we mentioned earlier.

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Surprise, surprise, another little-known horror comic may be headed to film.  Publisher Studio 407’s Night and Fog has been optioned by producers   Gil Adler and Shane McCarthy.   Comics and horror are familiar teritory for Adler, who has previously produced Constantine and the Tales From the Crypt series. Studio 407’s Alex Leung will also serve as a producer on Night and Fog.

Night and Fog is a  WWII-era story about an infectious mist released on a military base that transforms its victims into creatures of the night. The human survivors attempt  to destroy the creatures, but they adapt and  transform again, becoming even more horrific and unstoppable.

I really don’t know what to make of this film because so many little-known horror comics are being optioned these days.  The concept is interesting, so this one may have a chance of escaping the dreaded develoment hell of the movie business.

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Our top show of 2009 has just released its first 13 episodes on DVD today and we are excited to talk about it, you may say that we are full of Glee. Okay serious pun there but you get the picture. A truly unique vision, Glee, takes us into the lives of High School Glee club that was once filled with pride only to be forgotten. Former Glee star now Spanish teacher Will Schuester(Matthew Morrison), takes it upon himself to resurrect the program and bring Glee back. This is a well to do metaphor the show brings showing that you can take some of those beloved things in your life and the things that make you happy and bring them back instead of meandering through your existence bored and depressed.

In the high school Schuester encounters problems relating to lack of interest in the club to his nagging wife. Perhaps the best obstacle is in the form of Sue Sylvester, an intense and arrogant celebrity status Cheerleading coach with boosters and school funding all to her disposal. Sylvester is played brilliantly by Jane Lynch, who provides a raw humor that you just love when seeing someone who is evil and doesn’t hide it.

Glee is one of those shows that comes along and just surprises you. I have been fortunate enough to watch all the episodes thus far and can say that it has the best mix of drama and comedy and you just can’t help but smile when the music begins to play. All the characters as well bring something unique to the table ranging from the pretty boy football player Finn to dumb “Cheerio” Brittany, who cheats off of mental handicap children. Other characters bring memorable music solos to the table such as Lea Michele who plays series star, Rachel Berry, Amber Riley is another notable as the character Mercedes, she has that diva range that no one on the show can touch.

The show has such a wide audience appeal and there is something in there for everyone ranging from the baby daddy drama to just plane old high school popularity issues. The show is so imaginative and witty its hard not to love it. Perhaps the one big flaw in the production is the use of autotune for the music as it just doesn’t fit, secondly it really hurts some of the vocal range and talent that some of the cast has, naturally it is probably needed as way to ensure pure performance from the complete cast.

The Road to Sectionals Volume 1 DVD is perfect for anyone who has missed the series and wants to find out what the most Twittered about show is about. As the show is delivered in anamorphic widescreen it looks great in the digital transfer as well without any dust, particles, or blemishes of any kind. Of course, it doesn’t look as good as Blu-ray, but it still is crisp and clean.

For a half-season dvd it is amazing all of the special features amassed on this DVD.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

- Welcome to McKinley! – A video of Principal Figgins introducing 8th graders to his office before they go to McKinley High School.  A hilarious featurette.

- Glee Music Video – A music video for “Somebody to Love”.

- Full Length Audition Pieces – Featuring the full-length audition pieces of Rachel performing “On My Own” and Mercedes performing “Respect”.

- Fox Movie Channel Presents Casting Session –  The creators of “Glee” talk about how it was important to have a cast that can sing and dance.  The creators and FOX execs also discuss how “Glee” became a television show.

- Deconstructing Glee with Ryan Murphy –  Ryan Murphy talks about “Glee” and how it’s different from other musicals.  Classic songs being performed on the show and more.

- Dance Boot Camp –  Interview with choreographer Zach Woodlee about training the cast to learn their dance routines.

- Jane Lynch A to Glee –Jane Lynch talks about what the vowel “A” means to her.

- Meet Jane Lynch –  Jane Lynch talks about her character Sue.

- 5 Things you don’t know about Jayma –  Know more about Jayma Mays.
- 7 Things you don’t know about Cory – Know more about Cory Monteith.
- 6 Things you don’t know about Amber – Know more about Amber Riley.
- 7 Things you don’t know about Chris – Know more about Chris Colfer.

- Video Diaries – Video diaries for Jane Lynch, Lea Michele, Matthew Morrison, Cory Monteith, Kevin McHale, Amber Riley, Chris Colfer and Dianna Agron.  The video diaries which last about 2-3 minutes long features each talent going to New York City and back to Los Angeles to promote the show.

Ultimately, we can’t recommend this dvd any more other than to tell you to buy and watch it with everyone in the family. Dance around the living room or hum the tunes at work its all good because Glee is a great show with great moments. Buy this and catch up on the first 13 episodes of Season 1 before the show returns this spring.

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The long awaited sequel to Family Guy’s first Star Wars parody, Blue Harvest, has finally arrived on DVD and Blu-ray. Something, Something Dark Side, is the crew’s hilarious redux of Empire Strikes Back. First off I must point out the show wastes no time in giving some kind of pop culture reference to insult or make you smile. While watching Aaron Sorkin’s new show “The Kitchen” featuring people walking and talking intelligently throughout a kitchen, The Griffin’s are struck with another power outage leaving Peter with one thing to do, tell the next story in the original Star Wars trilogy.

Assuming that the viewer is already familiar with the film’s plot, the opening crawl instead goes into detail about how 20th Century Fox made Star Wars unprofitable (foreseeing it a failure) to other companies by letting George Lucas keep all merchandising rights to it and purposefully wastes $58,000 on animating a computer-generated cartoon elephant, which dances across the screen mid-text.

The parody really accurately portrays the story of Empire very well using a lot of the familiar ship shots, camera angles and other areas of notability. The spoofs are a lot funnier and no joke is recycled from the previous version. Whats tragic about the movie is that it points out and sort of skewars the original film’s “greatness” with lots of pointed out flaws and other issues it contained. I love one of the jokes pointed out such as there are infinite directions they could head when fleeing Hoth, but the rebels head right for the Imperial fleet. I also love the playful shots at Seth Green, who once again points out (as Chris Griffin) that his Robot Chicken has done a parody already. Lastly, the continuous abuse of Meg showing up in the stories as creatures from the film are just laugh out loud funny.

As I mentioned earlier the ships, planets and some of the other fantastic elements were all digitally created and based on the original models making you wonder if the Lucas camp was involved in some way. The results are pretty impressive, you notice the depth and definition right away. As for the hand-drawn animation, it’s smooth, crisp and very colorful.

Extras and Packaging

This two-disc set includes a digital copy of the film for downloading to a media player. The other disc includes the film and all of the special features. The full list of extras includes:

- Commentary by Executive Producers Seth MacFarlane, Mark Hentemann and David A. Goodman, Writer Kirker Butler, Director Dominic Polcino and Actor Seth Green

- Family Guy Fact-Ups

- The Dark Side of Poster Art

- Animatic Scene-to-Sceen with Commentary by Director Dominic Polcino

- Family Guy: Something, Something, Something Dark Side Table Read

- Sneak Peek of Family Guy — Episode VI: We Have a Bad Feeling About This Table Read

To Conclude, Family Guy has a great fan following and many of them happen to also be fans of the original Star Wars trilogy (like myself). This film was made for people like us and MacFarlane and co show they are true fans as well. If you already have Blue Harvest, then you should definitely consider adding this worthy follow-up to your collection.

Buy!

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500 Days of Summer shines on Blu-ray and after a week on the shelves I have finally found time to get my review up on the site. Thank you to those nice folks at Fox for passing it too me; I now honor you with my positive words of reflection on one of my favorite films of the year on glorious HD.

With its touted 2.40:1 framed, 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer (I read that on the package), it’s impossible not to fall for the beautiful cuteness of the film’s star Zoe Deschanel. Marc Webb’s gorgeously shot film has a vibrant color palette that captures that indie style but with a scope and intrigue usually reserved for something with a larger budget. Finally the boasted 50GB dual-layer disc has no noticeable compression issues or other anomalies to ruin the mood and tone of the film.

The movie is a stylish comedy that bends itself out of the cliche love story amidst impossible odds and merely packages this quirky aftermath of love with style, fashion and great music. Quirky, cute and a soundtrack that is sure to be one of the most downloaded this year, 500 Days of Summer, has one of the best scenes of the year with very gleefully sweet moment. When Tom Haden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) greets the morning after his first “night” with Summer (Zoe Deschanel); his reflection in a car window is transformed into a winking Han Solo, passing pedestrians shoot him smiles and high-fives, and the world momentarily turns into a musical set to rival Rogers and Hammerstein productions with Hall & Oates’ “You Make My Dreams,” as the soundtrack, we are complete with a marching band and an animated bluebird on Tom’s shoulder. It’s probably the unexpected thing I’ve seen in a film all year, and it completely sells Tom’s heightened happiness.

This is just one shining example of Marc Webb’s non-linear, non-traditional rom-com. Its about survival and anyone who has ever sat back to review their pining adventure in romance with a former flame will relate to this movie whole heartedly because its the boy-meets- girl, boy-loses-girl story. The movie differentiates itself with an effectively non- linear narrative, making the film the chronicle of a breakup foretold, a book of unrequited love where the last page is read first.

Blu-ray Extras and Special Features

In Movie Commentary with Director Marc Webb, Writers – Michael Weber, Scott Neustadter- and Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt – A great insightful audio track all three participants keep it loose with constant enthusiasm about the project. If you like commentaries and you will like 500 Days of Summer.

Last Days of Summer: Deleted and Extended Scenes  - nine new scenes are included here, one of interest is the one that shows Tom’s worst morning ever. As always they are available with optional commentary by Director Marc webb, writer Michael Weber, writer Scott Neustadter and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Not a Love Story: Making 500 Days of Summer – Exclusive documentary just for the Blu-ray this is a comprehensive look at the film’s production, with a special emphasis on the thought that went into the cinematography, costuming, and set design. Features interviews with director Marc Webb, writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber and many others.

Summer at Sundance – In case you weren’t able to go to Park City, Utah this feature allows you to follow director Marc Webb around Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival and eventually to 500 Days of Summer’s premiere, where it received a standing ovation.

Audition Tapes – Includes brief tapes for Geoffrey Arend (4:23) and Matthew Gray Gubler (2:38), with optional commentary by director Marc Webb.

Summer Storyboards – Two storyboard sequences are included here, Summer Effect (1:36) and Reality/Expectations(1:55). By pressing the “angle” button on your remote you can switch between storyboards and a storyboard to film comparison. Available with optional commentary by director Marc Webb.

Bank Dance Directed by Marc Webb – A music video for one of Zooey D’s songs, shot inside one of the banks that was robbed in Set It Off.

Mean’s Cinemash: “Sid and Nancy / 500 Days of Summer”  - Playing off the Sid and Nancy reference in the film, director Marc Webb put together this little mash-up, which features Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing Nancy, in a bad wig, and Zooey Deschanel as Sid, with a not-so-bad Cockney accent.

Music Video: “Sweet Disposition” by The Temper Trap – All I have to say is this music video is so weird it kind of freaked me out.

Conversations with Zooey and Joseph – In these brief conversational promos, Zooey and Joseph talk about acting versus reality, the creative process, their favorite spots in L.A., karaoke, and music.

Filmmaking Specials - Four brief 500 Days of Summer featurettes, in which director Marc Webb talks about casting Zooey and Joe, the “Summer Effect”, the French film references and the intentional color palette. Next, we have two segments of Fox Movie Channel Presents, In Character with Zooey Deschanel and In Character with Joseph Gordon-Levitt .

Trailers – Includes high definition trailers for Amelia, Fame, and Adam.

Ultimately we highly recommend this movie has a Buy, because if your were not lucky enough to see it in theaters or at the film festivals then buy it because we know you’ll love it!

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