The Avengers All-New Animated Series Now on DVD

The First 13 Episodes of Marvel’s All New Animated Series To Debut on DVD April 26, 2011

BURBANK, Calif., March 2, 2011 – When the forces of evil are so overwhelming that no single hero can save the world... the Avengers assemble! Featuring Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Hulk, fans can now own the first 13 episodes of The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! in two must-have, collectible DVD volumes, available April 26 by The Walt Disney Studios.

”the show unleashes enough action to be plenty mighty with boys” - Variety Magazine

The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! Volume 1 includes episodes 1-7 plus an exclusive look at the evolving characters and storyline of Season 2, and The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! Volume 2 includes episodes 8-13 plus another exclusive sneak peek at Season 2 that reveals what makes the Marvel Super Heroes and Villains so unique.

Featuring your favorite animated Super Heroes - Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and The Hulk - The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! sees planet Earth threatened by Super Villains, time traveling conquerors, alien invaders, mythical beasts and rampaging robots -- all bent on the total destruction of humanity. Unfortunately against these impossible odds, no individual hero has the power to save the world and just when all appears to be hopeless, the most skilled champions in the Marvel universe join forces to form the mightiest Super Hero team in history. The Avengers come to the rescue when the fate of the world rests on their shoulders.

“It's all about the action, and "The Avengers: World's Mightiest Heroes" delivers” ComicBookResources.com

The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! stars the well-known voice talents of Rick D. Wasserman (Planet Hulk, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, “House M.D.”) as Thor, Brian Bloom (The A Team, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2) as Captain America, Fred Tatasciore (Tron: Evolution, Hulk Vs., “Wolverine and the X-Men”) as The Hulk, Wally Wingert (“The Family Guy,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”) as Ant Man, and Phil Lamarr (“Mad TV,” “Futurama”) as Jarvis.

EPISODES:
Volume 1 Episodes:
1. Iron Man Is Born!
2. Thor The Mighty
3. Hulk Versus The World
4. Meet Captain America
5. The Man in the Ant Hill
6. Breakout: Part 1
7. Breakout: Part 2

Volume 2 Episodes:
8. Some Assembly Required
9. Living Legend
10. Everything Is Wonderful
11. Panther’s Quest
12. Gamma World: Part1
13. Gamma World: Part 2

DISC SPECIFICIATION:
Street Date: April 26, 2011
Suggested Retail Price:
Volume 1 - Single Disc DVD = $19.99 U.S.
Volume 2 - Single Disc DVD = $19.99 U.S.
Rated: TV-Y7 (*Bonus materials not rated)
Run Time:
Volume 1 - Approximately 154 minutes (seven 22-minute episodes)
Volume 2 - Approximately 132 minutes (six 22-minute episodes)
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 (16x9 widescreen)
Sound: Languages:
English 5.1 Dolby Digital Sound English & Spanish


ABOUT MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT, LLC
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world's most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of over 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media over seventy years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing and publishing. For more information visit http://www.marvel.com/.

ABOUT THE WALT DISNEY STUDIOS:
For more than 85 years, The Walt Disney Studios has been the foundation on which The Walt Disney Company (DIS: NYSE) was built. Today, the Studio brings quality movies, music and stage plays to consumers throughout the world. Feature films are released under four banners: Walt Disney Pictures, which includes Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios, Disneynature, Touchstone Pictures and Marvel. Through the Home Entertainment division, innovative distribution methods provide access to creative content across multiple platforms. Original music and motion picture soundtracks are produced under Walt Disney Records and Hollywood Records, while Disney Theatrical Group produces and licenses live events, including Broadway theatrical productions, Disney on Ice and Disney LIVE! For more information, please visit www.disney.com. These press materials are available in electronic form at http://www.wdshepublicity.com/.


Marvel The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Vol. 1

Review: Mediocre "The One" Has Lots of Good Jet Li (Happy 'B'day, Jet Li)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 10 (of 2001) by Leroy Douresseaux

The One (2001)
Running time: 87 minutes (1 hour, 27 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 intense action violence and some language
DIRECTOR: James Wong
WRITERS: Glen Morgan and James Wong
PRODUCERS: Steven Chasman, Glen Morgan, Charles Newirth, and James Wong
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert McLachlan
EDITOR: James Coblentz
COMPOSER: Trevor Rabin

SCI-FI/ACTION/MARTIAL ARTS

Starring: Jet Li, Carla Gugino, Delroy Lindo, Jason Statham, and James Morrison

Longtime television writer (“X-Files,” “Millennium,” “Space: Above and Beyond”), James Wong begins his sci-fi, action-adventure movie, The One on an alternate earth where Al Gore is President of the United States (which elicited some delighted clapping from the audience with whom I saw the film). Within minutes of that opening, an unbelievable fast and powerful villain has killed a convict who looks exactly like him. After a protracted chase, two armed men Roedecker (Delroy Lindo) and Funsch (Jason Stratham), apprehend the super criminal.

We then learn that he is Yulaw (Jet Li), a former cop like Roedecker and Funsch, who has been killing alternate versions of himself. The universe is actually a multiverse, several universes instead of one. Yulaw finds his other universe opposites and kills them, thereby absorbing some of their energies. When he kills the last one, number 124, he may become like a god.

Cut to “our” world, Yulaw’s earth-twin, number 124, is a sheriff’s deputy named Gabriel (Jet Li again) happily married to his soul mate T.K. (Carla Gugino). When Yulaw intrudes upon Gabriel’s world, he finds that Gabriel has also absorbed the power of the other 123 versions of himself that Yulaw killed. Confused and unsure of Funsch as an ally, Gabriel must stop Yulaw without killing him lest Gabriel himself become a god and endanger all of existence.

When one views a Jet Li movie, one hopes to see the man who moves like a dance artist; in his body, the martial arts are indeed a performance art, and gymnastics are a fatal, beautiful craft. Like Jackie Chan, his body bubbles with enthusiasm. Both their screen gifts are not in the craft of how an actor uses language, but in emotions, exaggerated facial expressions, and movement. They both recall the film greats from the silent era and the golden age of Hollywood, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. They do have a major difference.

Whereas Chan is a comedian, Li is hardcore action star. Imagine a pint sized Clint Eastwood who uses his hands and feet rather than a big, phallic pistol. Picture a Bruce Willis hero with the charmed nine lives of a cat that uses Far Eastern methods of self-defense over a pistol. Best of all, filmgoers get a fine heir to the Bruce Lee film hero.

Li, who was the wildcard in Lethal Weapon 4, doesn’t need a great script or director behind him; he is the movie. He gets neither in The One. Wong and Glen Morgan’s script is standard sci-fi claptrap, and Wong is a serviceable director who at least manages to capture dynamic movement of his star. Still, the story does occasionally get in the way of Li’s brilliance. Having to balance the nonsensical, fantastic elements draws the audience’s attention away from Li. Worm holes, black holes, and psuedo physics get in the way. We don’t need the science, but the fiction of this impossible superman played by a gifted screen actor is just what we want.

Delroy Lindo’s (Li’s co-star in Romeo Must Die) enormous talents are usually wasted or ignored in supporting roles, but it’s good to see him, even in a bad part. At least he got this job; it easily could have gone to a white actor. Stratham is an odd piece here as he was in John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars. So far he has only really seemed a good fit in Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, but like Lindo, it’s fun to watch him most anytime.

See The One for its star, and forget the phony plot and sci-fi trappings, watching Li is a privilege.

5 of 10
C+

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"East Fifth Bliss" Opens 12th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival

World Premiere of "EAST FIFTH BLISS" Starring Michael C. Hall, Lucy Liu and Peter Fonda to Kick Off 12th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The 2011 Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) proudly announces the World Premiere of EAST FIFTH BLISS as its Opening Night film. The Gala red carpet screening of EAST FIFTH BLISS will take place on Thursday, April 28th, 2011 at 7:30pm at Edwards Big Newport (300 Newport Center Drive), followed by a Q&A with the cast and crew. The Opening Night Gala reception will take place at Fashion Island (401 Newport Center Drive). The 12th annual NBFF will run from April 28th - May 5th, 2011.

EAST FIFTH BLISS stars Golden Globe® winner Michael C. Hall (Dexter), Lucy Liu (Charlie's Angels), Academy Award® nominee Peter Fonda (Easy Rider), Chris Messina (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Brie Larson (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World), Brad William Henke (Choke) and Sarah Shahi (Fairly Legal).

EAST FIFTH BLISS (2011, USA, 97 minutes) is a comedy / drama about 35 year-old Morris Bliss who is clamped in the jaws of New York City inertia: he wants to travel, but has no money; he needs a job, but has no prospects; he still shares an apartment with his widowed father; and perhaps worst of all, the premature death of his mother still lingers and has left him emotionally walled up. When he finds himself wrapped up in an awkward relationship with the sexually precocious daughter of a former high school classmate, Morris quickly discovers his static life comically unraveling and opening up in ways that are long overdue. (Not yet rated, but anticipated to be PG-13)

EAST FIFTH BLISS, filmmaker Michael Knowles's third narrative feature, is an adaptation of the novel of the same title by author Douglas Light. The book won the "Benjamin Franklin Popular Fiction" award in 2007. EAST FIFTH BLISS is co-written for the screen by Douglas Light and Michael Knowles, and produced by John Ramos and Michael Knowles of 7A Productions and John Will of Torn Sky Entertainment.

“I am thrilled Newport Beach Film Festival chose EAST FIFTH BLISS as the opening night film of this year’s festival. It feels good to have such a prestigious festival support and believe in our film. I'm looking forward to sitting in the amazing opening night theater and experiencing East Fifth Bliss with 1100 people, because for me, that's what it's all about,” stated director Michael Knowles.

Cast and crew from EAST FIFTH BLISS are scheduled to appear at the red carpet and screening. Press check in will be from 5:30pm - 6:30pm and red carpet arrivals will take place from 6:30pm - 7:30pm. The screening will commence at 7:30pm. All press must be credentialed prior to covering the Opening Night event. Press can register for credentials online at www.NewportBeachFilmFest.com.

Following the screening, the Festival, in partnership with Fashion Island and Esquire Magazine, will host an Opening Night Gala at Fashion Island. The Gala will feature culinary tastings from over twenty-five of Orange County’s premier restaurants, a runway fashion show spotlighting the latest looks from several of Fashion Island's top retailers including Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom and a hosted bar provided by Absolut Vodka, Stella Artois and Perrier.

Tickets to the Opening Night screening and Gala are $125 each and are now available at http://www.newportbeachfilmfest.com/. Patrons can also purchase tickets to the Opening Night Gala for $80 each. Dress is black tie optional. Guests must be at least 21 years old.

The Newport Beach Film Festival will showcase over 400 films from over 45 countries and host nightly special events, red carpet galas, compelling conversations with filmmakers, international spotlight events and seminars. The Festival offers filmgoers unique opportunities to mingle with celebrities, filmmakers from around the globe and film industry professionals in a beautiful seaside locale.

The NBFF is sponsored in part by Absolut Vodka, Fashion Island, Regal Entertainment Group, Newport Lexus, Los Angeles Times, Time Warner Cable, and the City of Newport Beach.

Passes and tickets for film screenings, galas and special events are currently on sale. To purchase tickets and for information about the Newport Beach Film Festival visit http://www.newportbeachfilmfest.com/.

About the Newport Beach Film Festival
Celebrated as one of the leading lifestyle film festivals in the United States, the Newport Beach Film Festival seeks to bring to Orange County the best of classic and contemporary filmmaking from around the world. Committed to enlightening the public with a first-class international film program, a forum for cultural understanding and enriching educational opportunities, the NBFF focuses on showcasing a diverse collection of studio and independent films from around the globe. The 12th annual Newport Beach Film Festival runs April 28th - May 5th and will spotlight over 350 films from around the world.

Review: "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" is Better Than the Original (Happy B'day, Renee Zellweger)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 237 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)
Running time: 108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes)
MPAA – R for some language and some sexual content
DIRECTOR: Beeban Kidron
WRITERS: Andrew Davies, Richard Curtis, Adam Brooks, and Helen Fielding (based upon the novel of the same title by Helen Fielding)
PRODUCERS: Tim Bevan, Jonathan Cavendish, and Eric Fellner
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Adrian Biddle and Doug Propp
EDITOR: Greg Hayden
Golden Globe nominee

COMEDY/ROMANCE with elements of drama

Starring: Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Gemma Jones, Jim Broadbent, and Jacinda Barrett

Bridget Jones’s Diary was a comic romance – a romantic film with a huge helping of humor. The 2004 sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, is a romantic comedy – a thoroughly comic film that deals with romance. Taking place several weeks after the end of the original film, The Edge of Reason should find Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) happy, right?

She found her Mr. Right in Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) by the end of Diary, but as Edge begins Bridget discovers that the couple has huge cultural, social, and personality conflicts. Mark is a conservative who has poor people-hating, rich Tory friends. Bridget is full of insecurities, although Mark is supportive and (almost) tolerant of Bridget’s tiny jealousies. However, the trouble comes to a head when Bridget meets Mark’s leggy new intern, Rebecca (Jacinda Barrett). Rebecca is thin, oh-so-young, drop-dead gorgeous, and she always says the right thing at the right time. Fed up with what she perceives as Mark’s cold lack of concern about their future together she dumps him. Just in time, her old flame, old boss, and eternal cad, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), sweeps in and to become Bridget’s new co-worker. Their television partnership eventually takes them to Thailand in what becomes the worst vacation Bridget ever had. Will Mark come to her rescue… and rescue of their relationship?

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is one of the funniest movies of the year, the funniest movie Ms. Zellweger has done to date, and funnier (though not as romantic) than the original. Ms. Zellweger gives one of the finest comic performances in recent years; it’s part slapstick and part physical comedy (lots of pratfalls). Not only did she have to give near perfect timing on the delivery of her dialogue, but also her facial ticks and mannerisms had to perfectly fit the moment, which they always do in this film.

Colin Firth didn’t bring anything new to the second film, but he didn’t need to change what he did in the original film. His film persona is endearing (even when he plays the bad guy, as he did in Shakespeare in Love); Firth makes Mark Darcy as he must be – perfectly so to explain Bridget’s craziness about their relationship. Hugh Grant is cut from the classic mold of old Hollywood. He’s a star known for “playing himself.” He is however, vastly underrated, because of his skill in slightly modifying the same character (he plays every time) to flawlessly fit each new film in which the character appears. Virtually every classic Hollywood film star from Humphrey Bogart to James Stewart did this, and Grant’s spin on his film persona is another reason Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is not only better than the original, but also a standout comedy.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2005 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Renée Zellweger)

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Review: "Bridget Jones's Diary" Has Fun with Words

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 236 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UK/France
Running time: 97 minutes (1 hour, 37 minutes)
MPAA – R for language and some strong sexuality
DIRECTOR: Sharon Maguire
WRITERS: Helen Fielding, Andrew Davies, and Richard Curtis (based upon the novel by Helen Fielding)
PRODUCERS: Tim Bevan, Jonathan Cavendish, and Eric Fellner
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Stuart Dryburgh
EDITOR: Martin Walsh
Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/ROMANCE with elements of drama

Starring: Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Gemma Jones, Celia Imrie, James Faulkner, Jim Broadbent, Felicity Montagu, Shirley Henderson, Sally Phillips, and James Callis, Salman Rushdie, Embeth Davidtz, and Honor Blackman with Julian Barnes

Renée Zellweger earned an Oscar® nomination in the category of “Best Actress in a Leading Role” for her performance in Bridget Jones’s Diary. Bridget Jones (Ms. Zellweger) is a 30-something, single British girl who decides to improve herself (i.e. lose weight) while seeking to find Mr. Right before she becomes an old maid (if she isn’t already that in her own estimation), so Bridget decides to keep a diary of her progress and her trials and travails. Her romantic endeavors eventually focuses on two men

There’s her boss, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), at a publishing firm, and Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), who was childhood neighbor. Cleaver is a cad who lays ‘em and leaves ‘em, and Darcy is a sharp-tongue, embittered divorcee, who claims to have bad memories of Bridget as a child. Who will finish the film as Bridget’s beau, and will she make an ass of herself before she finds her man?

Although the film story doesn’t amount to much, Bridget Jones’s Diary’s script is witty and bawdy enough to cause blushing. Ms. Zellweger expertly plays the fumbling Bridget Jones, who has a penchant for running off at the mouth and saying the worst things at the worst times. Like her co-stars (especially Grant and Firth), she makes the most of the film’s dialogue; ultimately, it’s what the actors say that defines their characters. If they’d delivered their lines badly, they would have ruined the film; luckily the cast verbally dances around each other like Olympic fencers.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2002 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Actress in a Leading Role” (Renée Zellweger)

2002 BAFTA Awards: 4 nominations: “Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film” (Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Jonathan Cavendish), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Colin Firth), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Renée Zellweger), “Best Screenplay – Adapted” (Helen Fielding, Andrew Davies, and Richard Curtis)

2002 Golden Globes: 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Renée Zellweger)

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Review: Intriguing "Color of the Cross" Lacks Passion

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 18 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Color of the Cross (2006)
Running time: 89 minutes (1 hour, 29 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Jean-Claude La Marre
PRODUCERS: Ken Halsband, Jessie Levostre, and Rev. Cecil L. Murray
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Paul Mayne
EDITOR: Darlene Huassmann

RELIGION

Starring: Jean-Claude La Marre, Johann John Jean, David Gianopoulos, Debi Morgan, Caspar Poyck, Micci Toliver, Marjan Faritous, and Mark Winn

In his film, Color of the Cross, writer/director Jean-Claude La Marre re-imagines Jesus Christ by positing that the founder of Christianity was a black man. Set in Arimathea circa 33 A.D., the film covers the final 48 hours of his life, beginning with Jesus, called Joshua (Jean-Claude La Marre), and his disciples preparing for Passover – what would become known as the Last Supper – and ending with Joshua’s crucifixion. The narrative also examines how Jesus’ Disciples and his family suffered during his last days. The film suggests that Joshua’s crucifixion was perhaps racially motivated because many Jews, including powerful members of the Sanhedrin (Jewish religious authority), would not accept that the Messiah or savior of the Jewish people could be a black Jew.

Jean-Claude La Marre’s Color of the Cross alternates between being profound and unintentionally hilarious. First, La Marre, who plays the lead, doesn’t make for an impressive nor imposing messiah, except for when he plays Joshua/Jesus as getting upset at his followers; then, La Marre quietly smolders with an intensity that might have the recipients of his stares heading for the hills. Other times, La Marre just looks like a doe-eyed kid.

The film finds itself on rare occasions being quiet moving and spiritual, and when Joshua speaks lines that are recognizable as Holy Bible scripture, the entire movie feels like a profound religious enterprise. In those moments when La Marre takes liberty or re-imagines players and Biblical moments, the film more likely than not falls flat on its face. In fact, while Color of the Cross brings up the idea of Christ being a black man (a dark-skinned black man) and also the notion that bigotry played a part in his crucifixion, it handles both matters in such a tepid fashion that any notion of racism playing a part in Joshua/Jesus’ troubles never sticks. It’s like taking the thesis and turning it into an afterthought. Because the whole Jesus-as-black-man is half-hearted, Color of the Cross withers on the vine.

Meanwhile, the solemnity of dealing with matters of Christ saves the film. Color of the Cross lacks the passion of Mel Gibson’s Jesus flick, and it mostly seems like a well-intentioned made for cable religious TV movie. None of the acting, directing, and production values ever stand out, but the score by La Marre and Flexx (Jean Simeus – a rapper, producer, and songwriter) is mostly very good, except for a wonky moment here and there.

Those who aren’t put off by the idea of a black Jesus Christ will find this odd little film ultimately to be an affirmation of Christ as “a uniter, not a divider.”

6 of 10
B

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

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Naruto Shippuden Box Set 6 Due Soon

VIZ MEDIA ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF THE LATEST NARUTO SHIPPUDEN ANIME DVD BOX SET

VIZ Media continues to expand its bestselling NARUTO anime franchise with the release of the latest NARUTO Shippuden Uncut DVD Set Volume 6 on April 26th. The 3-disc set contains episodes 66-77 of the original anime series in both subtitled and English dubbed options. Rated ‘T+’ for Older Teens, this box set will be available for the suggested retail price of $49.95 U.S./$71.99 Canada.

In the latest NARUTO adventures, the rogue ninja Furido attempts to use the Lightning Style jutsu of the Guardian Shinobi to rain destruction on the Leaf village. The ninja are running out of chakra. Does Naruto have enough power to save the village? Then, the Akatsuki are working their way form one tailed beast host to another, and it's only a matter of time until they get to Naruto!

Created by Masashi Kishimoto, NARUTO was first introduced in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in Japan in 1999 and quickly became that country’s most popular ninja manga targeting tweens and teens with more than 100 million copies in circulation to-date. The manga series (rated ‘T’ for Teens) and animated counterpart (NARUTO rated ‘T’ for Teens, and NARUTO SHIPPUDEN rated ‘T+’ for Older Teens) are among VIZ Media’s most successful properties and have captivated millions of fans across North America, Europe and South America.

For more information on NARUTO please visit the official website at http://www.naruto.com/.

Naruto Shippuden Box Set 6