“Adventures in Babysitting” was a highly talked about remake being developed over the course of half a decade, as there were talks of a big screen release with Raven-Symone starring, then Miley Cyrus perhaps taking on the lead. After years in gestation, it was finally dropped on to the Disney Channel as their 100th Original movie. Sure enough, now that Symone is a self-parody, and Cyrus is doing her own adult things, Disney hands the notable remake over to two of the current Disney stars Sabrina Carpenter, and Sofia Carson. Disney has been very good about casting their films for the last decade, so Carson and Carpenter aren’t just talented, charismatic actresses, but also attract their own loyal fan base.
Tag Archives: TV Movie
Roots: The Complete Original Series [Blu-Ray]
Alex Haley’s epic television miniseries is one of the many television epics I always meant to watch over the years, but never had the chance to. Finally being given the proper window by Warner, I was not surprised that “Roots” ended up being a very good epic drama about slavery, and the struggle for freedom. “Roots” is one of those great cinematic success stories, where in 1977, network ABC in America didn’t expect the mini-series to do very well. Due to its predominantly African American cast, and very strong content, the network pretty much dumped every episode over the course of eight nights, rather than spacing it out to create an audience.
You’ll Like My Mother (1972) [Blu-Ray]
Though director Lamont Johnson’s “You’ll Like My Mother” is generally well received, I found it to be a mostly flat thriller with a lot of the attempted suspense lost in translation. “You’ll Like My Mother” is a mix of “Misery” and “Flowers in the Attic,” in where a young woman tries to reconcile with her dead husband’s family and gets much more than she bargained for. The late Patty Duke plays Fran, a very pregnant young woman who ventures in to Minnesota in the dead of winter to visit her husband’s family and perhaps make peace with them.
The Batman Superman Movie: World’s Finest (1997)
In 1997, Batman the animated Series moved over from FOX to the Warner Bros. Channel Kids WB and the two superheroes Batman and Superman were unofficially together. To maximize ratings, Warner teamed the pairing of DC Comics titans for “Batman/Superman” which involved new episodes of both shows on alternating weeks. They would also eventually cross over in to one anothers’ universe. Taking off from the successful series of crossovers, Warner launched the TV movie “World’s Finest,” and it’s a bang up success all things considered. “World’s Finest” manages to take what we love most about both series, and plays Superman and Batman off of one another beautifully.
Species III (2004)/Species: The Awakening (2007) [Blu-Ray]
For the small fanbase that loves the “Species” series, they’ll be interested to see where the studio takes the original 1995 hyper sexual science fiction thriller. Set directly after “Species II,” Brad Turner attempts to connect the dots and further the mythos of the alien clone Sil. After her experience with her male alien counterpart and dying at his hands in an awfully weird manner in the ein of hentai, she is revealed to be pregnant. What happened to his millions of offspring, one only knows, but this time as Sil is being transported, she produces two female offspring of her own.
The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar (DVD)
If you’re like me, you’re a hardcore fan of “The Lion King” and didn’t mind extensions of the mythology. Sadly the follow ups were all sub-par, and “The Lion Guard” muddies up the mythos even further. Granted, “The Lion Guard” is a perfectly fine animated movie, and you’ll likely say “Felix, this series isn’t meant for you,” but even kids will have a difficult time figuring out the time line if they decide to do the math. “The Lion Guard” is set immediately after part one and before part two. So that means everything after “The Lion Guard” doesn’t matter, and the central focus of the series is back on a young lion cub rather than the lioness Kiara, originally Simba’s spunky daughter. “The Lion Guard” works on actively erasing the latter story line by reworking the entirety of future story lines, which include Skar’s children, his wife, and the lack of a mention of the plot elements in the sequels.
The Vincent Price Collection III [Blu-Ray]
Scream Factory is back with another in the collection of growing Vincent Price movies. Offering part three in the series, there’s “Master of the World,” a movie based on the Jules Verne novels. It’s a science fiction drama that follows Price as Captain Robur, a mad inventor who kidnaps a team on a government expedition to investigate a crater in Pennsylvania. Robur’s focus is to build a massive war weapon and rule the world, and experiences obstacles along the way. This arouses some conflict about morality and power. Starring a young Charles Bronson this is an interesting film as written by Richard Matheson.