All posts by Todd

Film Pigs Double Feature Recommendation #1

If you happen to be suffering from a terrible summer cold and your family has (thankfully) left you alone for the afternoon, down a couple shots of Dayquil and throw these titles on your Netflix instant queue:

Capitalism: A Love Story and Manufacturing Dissent. Continue reading Film Pigs Double Feature Recommendation #1

Straight-to-DVD Corner with Tonn Slingdog: Superman Batman Public Enemies

Let me preface this by assuring you that while I am indeed a total nerd, I am not a comic book person. I never got into them as a kid, and I don’t look at them now (except for MAD, which I still enjoy glancing at from time to time.) I have never been much of a superhero guy either, and I only wind up at the blockbuster comic book movies because I like watching things get wrecked, even if it is clearly a cartoon. Now, my son is four and he loves Superman. My wife was at Target with him, and he found a couple of Superman DVD’s that were on sale. She neglected to check the rating, which was PG-13, assuming that because it was a cartoon it was meant for kids. But it wasn’t. My son found it too intense, and my wife was mortified…and I was in love. I immediately sent them out of the room and engulfed myself in the inappropriate magic! If the live-action stuff were this much fun, I’d be much happier at the multiplexes. Continue reading Straight-to-DVD Corner with Tonn Slingdog: Superman Batman Public Enemies

Rewriting DVD Marketing Blurbs #8: XXX

What it says on the box:

Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) is a notorious underground thrill-seeker who, until now, has been deemed untouchable by the law. But when crack NSA Agent Gibbons convinces Cage to infiltrate a ruthless Russian crime ring, this new breed of secret agent (code name: XXX) takes down the enemies of justice with a vengeance in this high-octane, turbo-charged thrill ride from the acclaimed director of The Fast and the Furious.

What it should say:

Xander Cage (Vin Diesel, a man named after an internal combustion engine) is notorious for referring to himself in the third-person in interviews, and here he plays a character who does the same thing. Continue reading Rewriting DVD Marketing Blurbs #8: XXX

Rewriting DVD Marketing Blurbs #7: Terminal Velocity

What the back of the DVD case says:

Dynamic Charlie Sheen (The Three Musketeers, Young Guns, TV’s Spin City) delivers fast-paced excitement to this high-flying action-adventure! Sheen stas as Ditch Brodie, a daredevil skydiving instructor who falls hard when a sexy, mysterious beauty (Nastassja Kinski) walks through his door looking for a lesson–and apparently plunges to her death during a parachute jump! Suddenly, Sheen finds himself hurled headlong into a nightmare world of intrigue and deceit–caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the Russian mafia! With pulse-pounding suspense and sensational skydiving, high-speed adventrue doesn’t move any faster than Terminal Velocity!

What it should say:

Charlie Sheen is crazy!