Beware the Batman

No longer just a channel that plays cartoons non-stop, the Cartoon Network here in America now only really airs series that make returns on their investments. When not buying cheap animated shows from Canada, the Cartoon Network looks for shows that will garner profits from merchandise only. After their entertaining “Green Lantern” series and the critically acclaimed “Young Justice” failed to show a profit, the Network cancelled both series and replaced them with two substitutes guaranteed to make money. The first was a watered down version of their aught hit “Teen Titans,” and the next is yet another animated series starring Batman.

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Night of the Comet (1984)

I’m often surprised at how great “Night of the Comet” holds up. Watching it years after I saw it back in the mid-nineties, I was pleasantly entertained by it, and how it unfolded as that perfect post-apocalyptic tale. It garnered comedy, horror, suspense, and valid villains, all the while reveling in its eighties kitsch. “Night of the Comet” remains an influential apocalyptic horror film, and for good reason. It manages to touch upon the doldrums of the apocalypse while also setting down on some truly entertaining characters.

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Pulse-Pounding Flicks – 8 Intense Features (DVD)

The Pulse Pounding Features from Mill Creek Entertainment offers up an eight movie set for the respective action buff looking to save a few bucks. This set features the extended cut of “The Replacement Killers” starring Mira Sorvnio and Chow Yun Fat as a retired hitman looking to flee to his home in China who is then hunted by other assassins.

“Truth or Consequences N.M.” stars Keifer Sutherland as a hostage kidnapped by four drug dealers who gains a fascination for their crime spree and begins putting his family in danger. “Love Lies Bleeding” centers on a down on their luck couple that stumble upon a load of cash after a violent shoot out in their building. When they flee with the money, they’re hunted by a crooked DEA Agent, and a detective intent on seizing the money for authorities.

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Top Action Stars – 8 Movie Collection (DVD)

For the hardcore action buffs, Mill Creek Entertainment offers up an eight pack from fans of Jean Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, and Dolph Lundgren. While a few of the titles are from their days of box office domination, the rest of the films are their more recent action adventures with one word titles to present a vague idea of what the movie entails.

Van Damme stars in “Universal Soldier: The Return,” the 1999 sequel to the classic action film where Van Damme must fight new soldiers in the form of Michael Jai White and wrestler Bill Goldberg. Though not as beloved as the original, it’s still a pretty decent follow-up. “Knock Off” stars Van Damme as a fashion designer who has to team up with Rob Schneider to uncover an illegal crime ring in the fashion world.

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Combat! The Complete Fourth Season (DVD)

Image Entertainment releases season four of one of the most complex and interesting war time dramas I’ve ever seen. With a wonderful opening sequence reliant on heavy symbolism involving a soldier’s helmet, and a great cast, “Combat!” is a lot like “Saving Private Ryan.” But if their journey was five seasons long.

And we followed two separate platoons on the field. “Combat!” takes a more subtle approach to the war, with star Vic Morrow and Rick Jason leading their own platoons through the battlefield with episodes that varied between characters. Season four on DVD features all 31 episodes of the fourth season as well as bloopers, audio commentary, and behind the scenes.

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World War Z (2013)

WorldWarZ-PosterWe live in an age of pop culture, where today’s horror fan didn’t so much cut their teeth on horror movies, as they did horror video games. Where older horror fans were exposed to “Dead Alive” or “Cemetery Man,” young horror fans spent their days in the world of “Left for Dead” and “Dead Island.” It’s an age where horror environments are fast moving, stories are simplistic and unchallenging, and monsters are now computer animated polygonal blobs running at us from all corners.

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Independence Day (1996)

Independence_Day

Roland Emmerich’s “Independence Day” is one quarter of a very decent albeit cliche alien invasion film, and three quarters an unwatchable adventure film. What opens with looming shadows and hovering space ships devolves in to a buddy comedy with catchy one-liners and plot twists much too convenient to buy. Even for a science fiction film about huge alien space ships. Apparently the government can see asteroids coming from miles away and predict when one will pass, but they can’t see space ships the size of two continents enter the atmosphere.

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