Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Frigid Hare (1949)

Frigid Hare (1949)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Written by Michael Maltese
Animation by Phil Monroe
Music by Carl Stalling

I think “Frigid Hare” is the point in Bugs Bunny’s career when he stopped being a mere foil or protagonist and started being something of a hero. When he finally steps up to defend a small penguin named “Playboy,” who–a very small cute penguin… from the wrath of an inuit. That’s the exact time Bugs started becoming something of a hero for the little guy. All of the other scenarios of Bugs giving in to his baser urges to be egomaniacal, or just plain antagonistic are a bar he’s just toppled. With “Frigid Hare” the animators and writers set a high bar with a short where we’d see him defending and fighting for other smaller animals in the near future.

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Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) [Blu-Ray/Digital HD]

Now Available from Warner Home Entertainment.

After two whole months “Godzilla x Kong” is now available on physical media. Two whole months. Sixty days. 1,460 hours. I’m old enough to remember when it usually took eleven months for movies to be put on home video, but I digress. If you missed “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” after its theatrical run, it’s still a humdinger of a monster movie that is sadly Adam Wingard’s last outing in this monsterverse. It’s a fun note to exit on as I’m sure Warner and co. are planning to take the inevitable next chapter and use it as a chance for a soft reboot with Godzilla or Kong finding new challenges. Until then, there’s “The New Empire.”

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Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024)

Now Exclusively in Theaters.

I’ve had my problems with the “Bad Boys” series in the past, but unlike the “Fast and the Furious” franchise, it’s been one of the most consistent series of action films ever released. The vision for “Bad Boys” has remained very precise and direct without adding too much or taking too much away. The stakes get higher with every film, and through it all we’ve stayed with Marcus and Mike only without adding on so much excess characters like “Lethal Weapon” fell victim to. “Bad Boys” has mainly been a vehicle for Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, sure, but at least it knows what it is and tries to deliver on more complex ideas and bigger stakes.

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You Have to See This! No Contest (1995)

Now Streaming on: Amazon Prime Video, The Roku Channel

The nineties were an interesting time for action movies. You had your A tier action flicks hitting the box office, and then you had your C and D tier on home video filling shelves. Among them there was “No Contest.” If you were a premium cable subscriber in the nineties, you probably know what “No Contest” is. This movie fulfilled two big purposes in that it gave the studio their very own “Die Hard” wannabe, and it pushed their star Shannon Tweed to the forefront in her long effort to become a mainstream movie star.

Shannon Tweed was a gorgeous and sexy woman and former Playboy model in the eighties who got in to feature films in the nineties and worked hard to become a big screen actress.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: The Windblown Hare (1949)

The Windblown Hare (1949)
Directed by Bob McKimson
Written by Warren Foster
Animation by John Carey
Music by Carl Stalling

I am one that was never much of a fan of cartoons like “Rocky and Bullwinkle” or “George of the Jungle.” I always found those series to feel cheap and kind of dull so I was never a fan of their fractured fairy tales. Besides, Warner bros. always set the bar high when it came to taking fairy tales and distorting them for their own twisted purposes. “The Windblown Hare” is a hilarious take on the Three Pigs and Red Riding Hood, the first confrontation with the three pigs for Bugs and his second confrontation of Red Riding Hood’s universe. While not as funny as “Red Riding Rabbit,” this visitation to the latter’s world is small but hysterical as the writers take this whole dynamic and twist it up for some prime comedic material.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: The Grey Hounded Hare (1949)

The Grey Hounded Hare (1949)
Directed by Bob McKimson
Written by Warren Foster
Animation by John Carey
Music by Carl Stalling

“The Grey Hounded Hare” is one of those shorts that always played in the very middle of marathons on cable TV and it almost always made great background noise. That’s mainly because “The Grey Hounded Hare” isn’t really anything to write home about. When it comes to Bugs Bunny he’s done better, and the writers have found better ways to utilize his ongoing feud with dogs. The short by Bob McKimson is pretty much the repetition that these shorts are known for but without not too many laughs. Sure it’s clever and it’s high energy, which is always a plus. But the whole concept just kind of feels stale and forced. That’s punctuated by the fact that the short has no real foil for Bugs Bunny.

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Dune: Part Two (2024) [4K UHD/Digital]

Now Available from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

“Dune Part Two” is an infinitely superior film to the 2021 installment of “Dune” which, when all was said and done, felt more like a prologue than an actual narrative. While “Dune” was good, the second chapter to Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation feels so much more cohesive. Not to mention a lot of the concepts and ideas and so much less abstract and much easier to comprehend. There’s just so much more focus and laser beam direction this time out. While, again, “Dune” was good in its own right, I just had a much better time in how Villeneuve adopts the whole concept of “Dune” in the vein of “The Empire Strikes Back.”

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