New on Blu: SKYLINE, YOGI BEAR, and more
This week is all about releases that are fun to watch with groups of friends! It's not to say that SKYLINE and YOGI BEAR are bad movies, there could be an argument made that they are, but one thing you cannot say is that they don't have moments that make for good film watching, especially amongst friends.
This was reviewed by me a few months agoand I've since lightened my stance on this movie. Set on the first day of an alien invasion from the perspective of one trapped group of friends, SKYLINE is a crazy, balls to the wall action-filled sci-fi thriller that offers up plenty to have fun with. If nothing else, from a technical standpoint this movie is a marvel. It's riddled with cliches and bad character development. By no means is it a great film, but it's one that you could actually have a lot of fun with. Dare I say, I now kind of enjoy this film.
That being said, the disk should have have had more special features highlighting the effects and that process of making the film. Instead we get two commentaries, one from the directors (Colin Strause andGreg Strause) and one from the writers (Joshua Cordes and Liam O'Donnell) a slew of deleted, extended, and alternate scenes with optional commentary. A pre-visual visualizations featurette also with optional commentary, but only on two key scenes. Finally, the film's teaser and theatrical trailers and guess what? Also with optional commentary. It's all pretty standard stuff, but to include commentary on trailers is pretty interesting. On that they talk about how they were able to get Dan Rather to record a news blurb for an alien invasion for the film, but for the most part they don't reveal anything interesting, because it's a commentary on a trailer.
Whether you were highly anticipating this film or not, it happened, but you know what? This didn't turn out to be such a bad film. It may end up having more going for it for adults than it does kids, but for what could have easily been a disaster ended up being a good, lighthearted time at the theater. The movie follows the classic Hanna Barbera character as he and Ranger Smith have to band together to keep Jellystone from being sold. It's good enough for a few laughs and it's got a genuinely funny Anna Faris performance in it.
The disc isn't packed with a ton of extras, but it does have a DVD and a Digital Copy if you're into that sort of thing. Besides that, a bundle of mini featurettes is packaged in the disc under a "Spend the Day at Jellystone" featured extra that's mostly aimed for kids. In that extra you can click on any picnic baskets you may find, and treat yourself to a hefty amount of content spread across five locations (Redwood Valley, Jelly Jarring Rapids, Jellystone Lake, the Ranger Station and Lookout Mountain). Mostly aimed at kids, but there are nine production featurettes -- "Everyone Wants to Be Yogi," "Building Jellystone Park," "Frog-Mouthed Turtle," "Animated Bears," "The Rapids," "Stand-In Shenanigans," "Ranger Jones' Real Life Audition," "Baskit-Nabber 2000" and "Voicing Yogi & Boo" -- and five amusing character shorts -- "Vote for Mayor Brown," "Jellystone Park Jewel: Yogi's Secret Hiding Spot," "Sickness was Love: A Love Song for Rachel," "Jellystone Park Tourism" and "Jellystone Park Jewel: Litterbug." In addition to those features, there's a neat memory game that kids might find enjoyable and a really cool throwback style cartoon featuring Wile E. Coyote and that ever-elusive Roadrunner. All in all, if you've got kids and want them to learn about some of the cartoons that turned you into an adult fan of cartoons, this isn't a bad way to expose them to a classic cartoon character they could see more of on the Cartoon Network.
Also available:
 |
Commenting Rules: Comments are intended to open up the discussion to our readers about the topics at hand, and as such should be offered with a positive and constructive attitude. If your comment is not relative to the above post or is disrespectful to the authors and readers, we reserve the right to delete it. Continued abuse of our good nature will result in banishment of the offender. Additionally, if you have any burning issues to point out to the GATW crew - typos, corrections, suggestions, or straight-up criticism - please email us instead of commenting here.