After many years of waiting, fans of “Dennis the Menace” finally have their precocious trouble maker on DVD thanks to Mill Creek Entertainment. In 1986, Hank Ketcham’s hit newspaper comic strip was adapted once again in to an animated series that played on Saturday mornings. I watched “Dennis the Menace” a lot as a child as the networks played the series through syndication allowing me to see the show every single day. “Dennis the Menace” is a fun and pleasant animated series that channels the antics of Dennis the Menace, along with the colorful characters and unique world that comes with the territory.
Category Archives: Collector’s Den
Tales of Halloween (2015) [Blu-Ray/2-DVD/CD]
Just in time for Halloween 2016 comes one of the best horror indie anthologies of the last six years. “Tales of Halloween” is a sick, demented, and fun ode to the thrill of Halloween and its mythology and brings together up and comers and veterans of the horror film world to spin their own twisted yarns concerning the holiday many horror buffs hold so dearly to them. Epic Pictures grants fans a wonderful box set edition that holds all sorts of goodies for them. The best prize of all is “Tales of Halloween,” a movie that pays tribute to everything fun and horrifying about the holiday with ten short tales starring folks like Lin Shaye, and Adrienne Barbeau who unofficially reprises her role of Stevie Wayne as the film’s Halloween DJ who narrates every story. The neat touch to the movie is that every story unfolds within the vicinity of a normal suburban neighborhood on Halloween night.
High Noon (1952): Olive Signature [Blu-Ray]
Fred Zinnemann’s classic Western is an absolute masterpiece that continues to hold its place as my favorite Western of all time. It’s a marvel of cinema, and a wonderful dramatic thriller set in the old West and ponders on the question of what happens when the helpers need help. It’s also a stunning albeit cynical glimpse at the ultimate summary of a hero and how they can sometimes be cast aside by those that they’ve protected for so many years. Gary Cooper’s role as Will Kane is absolutely pitch perfect, especially when it pertains to his role as a man desperately seeking help in staring down imminent death and settling score that will meet him at the end of his day, no matter what he does.
Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe (1955) [Blu-ray]
The way these serials kept people coming back to theaters to see them were by repetition and a steady stream of it. If you can appreciate the kitsch value and camp behind “Commander Cody” you could probably ignore the inherent repetitive storylines that follow it. Commander Cody is doing something top secret. There’s a villain who is spying on him. Commander Cody is also spying on them, oddly enough. The villain’s gun wielding henchmen take Commander Cody’s sidekick, the spunky Joan, hostage. Cody then has to go and save her, and wins the day. These serials deliver what the audience wants, even if it can get kind of tedious; especially since the compilation of “Sky Marshal of the Universe” episodes amount to almost four hundred minutes total.
Beauty and the Beast (1991): 25th Anniversary Signature Edition [Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital]
I can’t believe it’s actually been twenty five years since “Beauty and the Beast” actually came to theaters. It’s one of the many Disney films I went to see as a child, and loved it for its amazing animation and fantastic tale. Disney offered up their own twist on the fairy tale many read as children, and it’s a unique iteration that managed to be a huge hit in the 90’s. It is also the last animated movie to be a serious Oscar contender before the Oscars stuffed animation in to their own category away from live action fare. “Beauty and the Beast” thankfully still holds up as a moving and charming tale that takes a very epic tone toward the classic fairy tale.
Little House on the Prairie: Legacy Movie Collection (DVD/Digital)
When I was a kid, “Little House on the Prairie” was one of my favorite shows and I saw it all the way through the end. It was the drama that always kept me interested and engrossed, as Michael Landon was a favorite of my household. For fans of the series, the “Legacy Movie Collection” comes to DVD with three movies that close the series and resolve the entire saga of the Ingalls once and for all. The famed TV show starring Michael Landon and Victor French, and loosely based on the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, followed the Ingall family as they dealt with the hardships of living in the late 1800’s America, and how they fared against various obstacles in their lives. The series was a compelling drama that ended in 1983, and gained another life among a new generation that followed the series when it went to syndication.
Captain America Civil War (2016) [Blu-Ray/Digital]
It’s amazing what kind of feat the Russo Brothers have pulled off. Not only do they offer up a pseudo-sequel to the continuing saga of “The Avengers” but they also manage to squeeze in a superhero epic, and revenge saga that stretches out over the Marvel Cinematic Universe without ever missing a single beat. “Captain America: Civil War” finally brings the Marvel Universe full circle creating something of a wider scope now that Marvel has been able to acquire and introduce superheroes and characters that were long thought to be incapable of appearing. In just a two and a half hour movie, we’re able to watch a full fledged tale of friendship unfold in the face of a revenge plot, while being given marvelous and overdue introductions to iconic Avenger The Black Panther, and Marvel’s long awaited iteration of their iconic superhero Spider-Man.