BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD SEASON ONE PART ONE DVD Review

Today, at least in my area, comic book shops are gone. You also no longer see those spinning racks of comic books in drug stores, or comics on the magazine shelves. Graphic novels are out there, but are usually not for kids.

The last few BATMAN feature films have been geared to older audiences. They have been some of the most popular and acclaimed in the series, but are also not for the pre-schoolers.

Yet, my four year old nephew is a HUGE Batman fan. So much so that on a recent trip to Six Flags, all he cared about was getting to meet Batman again. He went to the park, wearing a Batman shirt, wanting to visit the Hall of Justice where Batman meets his fans. He cared more about Batman being there than any of the rides.

Unfortunately for him, Batman wasn't there that day. He was told that the Legion of Doom had taken over the Hall of Justice, and Batman was away. He was crushed by the news. But then he saw Tweety Bird and Marvin the Martian signing autographs, and he was a little better.

So, even though the Batman comics aren't being read and movies aren't being geared to the younger kids, he is still a very popular character with them.

BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD should be a popular title with this younger audience as well. It is somewhere in between the campy Batman of the Adam West days and the darker, more recent film versions.

Batman is voiced by Deidrich Bader (THE DREW CAREY SHOW). In each episode, Batman teams up with another DC superhero, such as PLASTIC MAN, AQUAMAN, or THE GREEN ARROW to fight evil.

Airing on the Cartoon Network beginning in 2008, the film has the look of other Cartoon Network series, with a lot of bright colors and thick characters outlines to the animation.

The two DVD set has thirteen first season episodes. The episodes are all in widescreen format.

There are no extras.

SHOULD I BUY IT?

BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD should please the character's fans, young or old.


BATMAN THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD is available now on Warner Home Video.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers In Concert in Hartford CT

Tom Petty has long been one of my favorite artists. He is one of the few musicians who has stuck around over the past thirty years, still putting out good music and touring.

In all these years of being a fan, I've never seen him live. That is, until last night. I saw him at the Comcast Arena in Hartford CT.

The opening act for this leg of the tour was a little trio by the name of Crosby Stills and Nash. That kind of sealed the deal making me realize this was the tour to finally see.

With Petty turning 60 this year, and with CSN as the opening act, the crowd was a bit older. Yet, there were plenty of younger fans to make you have some hope for the future of music. They aren't all Lady Gaga fans.

Crosby Stills and Nash took the stage exactly at 8:00, doing a set that went from CSN classics like "Wooden Ships", "Deja Vu", "Almost Cut My Hair" and "Our House", to a cover of "Ruby Tuesday" and an encore of Stills' Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth" (ASIDE: Am I the only one who immediately thinks of THE MUPPET SHOW every time I hear this song?). The group still sounds good. While Stills vocals may have been difficult at times, he more than made up for it with several blistering guitar solos.

But the highlight of the set, and possibly the entire show, was their performance of "Southern Cross", one of my All Time Top Ten Favorite Songs. The crowd sang along for the first of many times during the night.

After 75 minutes, they left. Many in the audience might have thought they got their money's worth from them, but Tom Petty was up next.

Or was he?

There was a 45 minute intermission while it appeared the techs were having trouble setting the stage for the next act. This might have been forgiven if not for the fact it was a weeknight show and, well, this is an old crowd that has to get up the next morning!

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers finally took the stage at 10:00, opening with "Listen To Her Heart". The great thing about Petty is that, he has been around so long, has so many songs, that it was essentially a greatest hits show. He played "I Won't Back Down", "Refugee", "Don't Come Around Here No More" (which may have been the set highlight), "Mary Jane's Last Dance", along with acoustic sing along versions of "Free Fallin" and "Learning to Fly". Sadly, he didn't perform "The Waiting", another song in my Top Ten.

The tour was in promotion of his new album MOJO (a download of which came with each ticket purchased). The new album is very good, a bit bluesier and mellower than his earlier work. In the middle of the show, he did a four song set of songs from the album. While the songs were good, he kind of lost the audience with this. I saw a lot of people updating their Facebook status on cellphones. It also didn't help that this was at around 11:00.

His encore was "Runnin Down A Dream" and "American Girl".

So, a great show.

Although, it got to be a bit depressing. Are there any artists today who will still be touring thirty or forty years from now? Is rock and roll dead?

And now some fun with YouTube, someone with a cellphone camera filmed a couple numbers last night. The audio isn't very good, but it will give you an idea of what it was like.



Crosby Stills and Nash sing "Southern Cross"



Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers sing "I Won't Back Down"

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA - Waited Too Long

Over the weekend, I finally started watching the new version of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

I was a fan of the original when it aired years ago. When the new version was announced, and I heard negative comments from some of the original cast members, I didn't tune in. By the time critics were raving about it, the series was too far along.

But I finally got the first disc of the first season from Netflix.

It was the miniseries that set up the series. I had intended to put it on and just watch the first part. Three hours later, I watched the entire thing.

I loved it.

After watching THE WIRE earlier this year, I had intended to start watching BSG, but then Katee Sackhoff was appearing on 24. Sackhoff is a fan favorite on BSG as Starbuck, but I hated her so much on 24, I wanted nothing to do with the series. After watching the miniseries, I think Sackhoff should sue the writers of 24 for misusing her so. She is fantastic here, as are the rest of the cast.

The one problem came this weekend.

After sending the disc back to Netflix, and not wanting to wait to see the next episode, I went online to Amazon to check on the complete series. Amazon had the 21 disc Blu-Ray set for $130. It is normally $250. Quite a deal. Since I had that in Amazon gift cards, I thought I would buy it. I waited, to think about it, but when I went online on Sunday to buy it, it was back up to $250!!! I missed the deal.

Oh well. I'll have to stick with Netflix.

ELVIS PRESLEY BLU-RAY COLLECTION

I love Elvis.

And I will admit, I love the movies. I’ve seen them all. While most aren’t great, Elvis had a presence that made them all watchable.

To celebrate what would have been his 75th birthday, Warner Home Video has released a three Blu-Ray set of three of his films. Two have previously been issued on Blu-Ray and the third (ELVIS ON TOUR) is new to the format. All are available individually.

The films in the set are:

JAILHOUSE ROCK (1957) - Considered by many critics to be Elvis’ best film (although maybe not my favorite), and contains one of his most popular theme songs, here Elvis is sent to prison and becomes a singer, performing the unforgettable title number.

The Blu-Ray contains a commentary by Steve Pond, author of ELVIS IN HOLLYWOOD. It also features a 2007 featurette, THE SCENE THAT STOLE JAILHOUSE ROCK (15:29) about Elvis and the making of the film.

Next up is:

VIVA LAS VEGAS (1964) - This is one of my favorite Elvis films. It features Elvis as a race car driver in Vegas with Ann-Margret. Another classic title song, but I always considered “The Lady Loves Me”, where Elvis sings to Ann-Margaret around a swimming pool, one of my favorite Elvis movie moments. And, watching it again, I loved “My Rival” as well.

On Blu-Ray, the film looks stunning. I had the film on letterboxed laserdisc and it never looked this good. The neon of Vegas, even Ann-Margret’s hair and lipstick, this is a great looking disc.

The Blu-Ray also has a commentary by Steve Pond, along with a featurette KINGDOM: ELVIS IN VEGAS (20:34) about the film and his time in Vegas.

New to Blu-Ray is

ELVIS ON TOUR (1972) - Here is Elvis in his later period, the jumpsuit days. The film follows him on a 15 day / 15 city concert tour. He talks about his life between cities and clips of memorable moments of his career are shown (in montages supervised by Martin Scorsese). When it comes to the music, he performs “Burning Love” for one of the first times (he even has to read the lyric sheet to remember the words). Among the other numbers, “See See Rider”, “Don’t Be Cruel”, “Teddy Bear”, “Love Me Tender”, “All Shook Up”, “Suspicious Minds”, “Heartbreak Hotel”, “Are You Lonesome Tonight”, and “Can’t Help Falling In Love With You”.

There are no extras on the Blu-Ray. In the version of the film sold individually, it includes a book of essays about the film. One disappointing thing about the disc, while there is a chapter selection, it doesn’t list what song is at what chapter. Only a photo of each chapter is shown. This is a bit of a disappointment as the ability to skip to each song would be a great option.

SHOULD I BUY THIS SET?

Diehard Elvis fans probably already have the Blu-Rays of two of the films. If so, they can pick up ELVIS ON TOUR individually. If not, or for the casual fan, this is a great representation of his work.