Shark Night (Blu-Ray)

I rarely make the whole family sit down and watch a movie but for Shark Night I made an exception. I know you must be thinking "B" why would you unleash that kind of torture upon your family? Because my family appreciates a good B-Horror flick and that’s why I love them. We try to watch serious films together but it really does not work (one of us always begins talking over the movie because we get impatient or hate the movie). A film like Shark Night breeds family discussion about jumping sharks, severed arms, and B-Horror film theory.

When 7 college friends pack their swim suits for a weekend of fun-in-the-sun activities at there friend Sara's lake house, they think it will be the perfect vacation. But the tables immediately turn when the lead football star, Malik, gets his arm ripped off during a water skiing accident. While the friends are to believe his wound was a freak accident, they soon come to discover that there was a primal attack involving a shark. Now while they think that one shark is no problem, they soon come to the realization that 15 species of sharks are lurking in the water, and with no form of boat or transportation, and no signals for phone's, the group of seven now face a fate they would never imagine. Being fed to these sharks by crooks for real life footage on an Internet website.

Is Shark Night a bad movie? It depends how you look at it. If you pick up a movie called Shark Night and expect an Oscar worthy picture, you must be slow. If you take Shark Night as it is (a hard pg-13, side boob loving, light on gore, midnight movie), you just may fall in love. I cheered for the one armed Malik as he punched a shark in the head. Yes the film is a bad combination of Jaws and teen slasher but that is also what it has going for it too. Also, Shark Night isn't just a man-versus nature monster movie; it's also a rednecksploitation horror tale. This film is pure film geek guilty pleasure from start to finish.

The video and audio quality of the Blu-Ray are kind of meh. The mix is all over the place and the clarity is all over the place. The special features are weak here as well:

• Shark Attack! Kill Machine! - All the kills from the movie strung together.
• Shark Night's Survival Guide - Trivia about shark attacks.
• Fake Sharks, Real Scares - A featurette about the film's sharks.
• Ellis' Island - A short making-of piece 
• Theatrical Trailer 
• Sneak Peeks 

Genre fans will wet their swim trunks during this one. I laughed and yelled at the screen a few times, I cheered for the sharks, and clapped during explosions. This was definitely a fun little genre film. But if you are not into that (if you know what a mega sharktopus is you will like Shark Night) skip this.

Sid & Nancy (Collector's Edition) (Blu-Ray)

It's almost impossible now to watch Oldman's Sid Vicious without some awareness of his resume, because all these characters have something in common: They're all extreme in some way, even if whatever's extreme about them is kept tightly coiled up inside. You don't cast Gary Oldman to play someone ordinary. You cast him when you want an actor who can reach places (or at least suggest them) where normal people don't go.

Some films tend to glorify rock and roll by showing off its glamorous side full of adventure and wonder. Sid and Nancy does no such thing. Instead it exposes the dirty, grimy, seedy underbelly of punk rock, which is full of violence and drugs. The film chronicles Sid Vicious’s life from when he meets his junky girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, to the tragic demise of that relationship. It is a loud, mean, ugly, and crass film that perfectly captures all that the Sex Pistols stood for... anarchy. Filled with all sorts of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, Sid and Nancy is a seriously wild ride.

Although Oldman and Webb are very good in their roles, ultimately the film suffers from the fact that neither Sid Vicious nor Nancy Spungen was especially sympathetic figures. Frankly, they were a pair of idiot junkies whom even their own entourage couldn't stand. There was nothing tragic about what happened to them; they simply self-destructed.

The real treat here is the director’s several brilliant sequences that any movie fan should appreciate. The first occurs halfway through the film and is based on Sid's video of the Sinatra classic "My Way". The audio and video quality really shines in places like this. Unfortunately this release lacks in the special feature department – 

• For the Love of Punk: Meh, a weak little feature.
• Junk Love: A little feature about the real Sid & Nancy’s relationship. It was actually quite interesting.
• Theatrical Trailer

The movie is entertaining, but in portraying the waste that was Sid and Nancy, but it can get boring in spots. Otherwise, for those of you that weren't there when the whole punk thing first hit, this movie gives some idea of what it was like, at least from a spectator viewpoint. The performances are great the movie kind of suffers from time to time in the pacing department. 

Archer Season 2 (Blu-Ray)

If you've ever wondered what would happen if Sir Ian Flemming, Larry Flynt and Mad Magazine decided to GET SMART and see if audiences would be shaken, and stirred after a half hour of laughing over entirely inappropriately placed mommy fetishes, violence, vapid vixens, a past love you can't forget, doggie-phobia, drinking, using people for your own narcissistic means, sex, torture, Tax dollars wasted on whore island. It's not a MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. If you're looking for intelligent, intellectual viewing try the history channel. This show is not for you. But I have to say it's been a long time since I've actually laughed out loud viewing a television show. In fact I don't watch television because of the lack of ethnic representation and the misrepresentation. But this show is obviously not meant to be sophisticated viewing. Even the off color racial and interracial jokes are not racist or disrespectful but in fact funny. This show kills me. I literally spend the entire run time belly laughing. That does not happen very often. 

Archer's first season took some time to find its stride, but season two starts strong and rarely lets up. In the premiere episode, "Swiss Miss," the ISIS crew is tasked with protecting a buxom, sixteen-going-on-seventeen German heiress and would-be Lolita. In rare form, the sex-obsessed Archer resists temptation, but his fellow field agents keep discovering him in compromising positions with the endangered underage maiden, who tantalizingly reminds him that in Germany, the age of consent is fourteen. "What is it," Archer replies, "the Alabama of Europe?" Just two episodes later, in "Blood Test," Archer's past sexual indiscretions come back to haunt him when his "favorite hooker" gives birth to a child--Wee Baby Seamus-- that she claims is his. 

Like the best office satires, Archer thrives on zingy workplace banter, ridiculous situations, and well-written characters, and it has all three in spades. The show is amazing including the visuals and the voice acting. Everything here is spot on. Unfortunately here the special features leave something to be desired.

• Archersaurus - Self Extinction
• Ask Archer
• Semper Fi
• L'espion Mal Fait
• SIS Infiltrates Comic-Con

Honestly, this may be my favorite comedy show currently running. If you have a sense of humor that is sick and twisted pick up a copy of the Blu- Ray now you will not be disappointed.