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												                        <li><a href="#632">632</a></li>
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														                            <li id="632">
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																	<h3><a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/632" rel="bookmark">Transmission 007 &#8211; All-Star Podcasting</a></h3>

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																	<p>This instalment of the show features an in depth discussion with one of favorite guests, Frank Ramblings, about DC Animations latest and greatest offering All-Star Superman!</p>
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                                                        <li id="481">
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																	<h3><a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/481" rel="bookmark">Transmission 006 &#8211; New Year/New Beginning (with Lee &#038; Tanner)</a></h3>

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																	<p>Just like a good idea, Denis can&#8217;t be destroyed! Join our host as he welomes back Lee (aka &#8220;Trip Breaker&#8221;) and Tanner to the inaugural show of 2011.</p>
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                                                        <li id="339">
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																	<h3><a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/339" rel="bookmark">Transmission 005 &#8211; Here there be Madness! (with Hunter and Frank)</a></h3>

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																	<p>Denis is joined once more by Hunter and Frank as they attempt to take a look at the Fall TV Lineup and fail miserably. Listen in as the trio descends into insanity&#8230;</p>
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											<div class="post" id="post-911">
                    	<div class="date">
													 <small>February</small>
													 <div class="day">20</div>
													 <small>2012</small>
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											<h1><a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/911" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Inspector Spacetime getting his own web-series!">Inspector Spacetime getting his own web-series!</a></h1>
											Posted by <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/author/denis/" title="Posts by Denis">Denis</a>											
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											<p><img class="aligncenter" src="http://www.soundonsight.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/InspectorSpacetime.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="700" /></p>
<p>Word out of the Gallifrey One <em>Doctor Who </em>convention is that there is going to be a web series of <em>Community</em>&#8216;s <em>Who </em>parody show <em>Inspector Spacetime</em>. It won&#8217;t be Donald Glover and Danny Pudi in the starring roles, however. Travis Richey, who plays the Inspector on the show within a show will be producing six episodes.</p>
<p>There was a dramatic reading of the first webisode, in which the Inspector and Constable Reginald visit the planet New Seventh Earth Two, where they meet the Blogons, vanquish them with the Inspector&#8217;s &#8220;optic penknife,&#8221; and then run into a deserted warehouse where they get trapped. Apparently, later in the episode we&#8217;ll get to meet the Inspector&#8217;s arch-nemesis. The panel also included a slideshow explaining the long line of actors who played the Inspector: Christopher Lee in the 1960s, Stephen Fry in the 1980s, and Steve Carell in the 1990s TV movie.</p>
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											<p class="postmetadata">Tags: <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/community" rel="tag">Community</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/doctor-who" rel="tag">Doctor Who</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/inspector-spacetime" rel="tag">Inspector Spacetime</a><br /> Posted in <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/category/news" title="View all posts in News" rel="category tag">News</a> |   <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/911#respond" title="Comment on Inspector Spacetime getting his own web-series!">No Comments &#187;</a></p>
													
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											<div class="post" id="post-908">
                    	<div class="date">
													 <small>February</small>
													 <div class="day">14</div>
													 <small>2012</small>
											</div>
											<h1><a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/908" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter has a trailer&#8230;">Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter has a trailer&#8230;</a></h1>
											Posted by <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/author/denis/" title="Posts by Denis">Denis</a>											
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											<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/34x6m-ahGIo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><em>Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter</em> is a pretty straight forward story about the 16th President of the United States of America, who was fueled by rage and used his super strength and an axe to hunt down vampires after they killed his mom, but as you can see in this new trailer, it does show things like the expansion to the Capitol in progress (even though that didn’t begin until one year after Lincoln was shot in 1850) so be warned that they did take a few liberties with the facts.</p>
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											<p class="postmetadata">Tags: <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/movies" rel="tag">Movies</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/preview" rel="tag">Preview</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/trailer" rel="tag">Trailer</a><br /> Posted in <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/category/news" title="View all posts in News" rel="category tag">News</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/category/previews" title="View all posts in Previews" rel="category tag">Previews</a> |   <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/908#respond" title="Comment on Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter has a trailer&#8230;">No Comments &#187;</a></p>
													
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											<div class="post" id="post-903">
                    	<div class="date">
													 <small>February</small>
													 <div class="day">10</div>
													 <small>2012</small>
											</div>
											<h1><a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/903" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to The Review Board: Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace 3D">The Review Board: Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace 3D</a></h1>
											Posted by <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/author/denis/" title="Posts by Denis">Denis</a>											
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											<p><img class="aligncenter" src="http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/thegeekfiles/Star%20Wars%203D%20quadposter.jpg" alt="" width="1440" height="1080" /></p>
<p>Writing anything about the <em>Star Wars</em> prequels is a dangerous pursuit. I’m convinced there are people who live only for the opportunity to disparage George Lucas online, leaving any type of discussion or opinion about these now-controversial pictures an open invitation for geek savagery, and I can’t imagine I’m the only one tired of it. Nevertheless, just when everyone thought it was safe to put the <em>Star Wars</em> saga back on the shelf, Lucas has ordered up a 3D makeover for his most polarizing work, 1999’s <em>The Phantom Menace</em>. That’s right, kids, it’s now possible to have Jar Jar Binks fumble and bumble right at the tip of your nose. Granted, it’s not the ideal way to commence a planned series of 3D reissues, but the film does lend itself to the format. And, to be perfectly honest, despite its obvious faults and unnecessary pandering to children, <em>The Phantom Menace</em> is… you know… kinda…sorta… <em>fun</em>.</p>
<p>1999 seems like such a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Greeted with ravenous expectations from a global fanbase, <em>The Phantom Menace</em> debuted to monster box office and generally positive response, with audiences taking years to come down from their <em>Star Wars</em> high to reassess the picture, using DVD and now Blu-ray releases to pull the blockbuster effort apart frame-by-frame, challenging Lucas on every single element of production. I find that mindset terribly misguided, preferring to digest <em>The Phantom Menace</em> as superb widescreen escapism, much like the rest of the saga. Not that Lucas is above criticism (we’ll get to that in a moment), but to manically eviscerate the feature is a job best left to those with incredible patience. Rewatching the film, I didn’t find myself in cold sweats, rabidly taking note of every incorrect blink and breath. Instead, I was swept up in a grand serialized space opera as intended, filled with distinct heroes and villains, awful comedic sidekicks, and some marvelous CGI mastery that, while dated in spots, has lost little of its shiny hustle.</p>
<p><em>The Phantom Menace</em> is far from a perfect film, perhaps the least effective of the entire <em>Star Wars</em> saga, in this reviewer&#8217;s humble opinion. Yet, there are big screen highlights that carry the experience wonderfully. The mid-movie pod race is a special pleasure, playing up Lucas’s need for speed with slick visual effects and a spellbinding pace, finding young Anakin Skywalker’s Jedi gifts tested on the Tatooine track (the franchise cameos peppered around the sequence remain a delight), squaring off against the despicable Sebulba. The extended “Dual of the Fates” climax is also a propulsive collection of terrific battle footage, scored gorgeously by John Williams as the characters race off in opposite directions to save the day, engaging in heated blaster contests, space dogfights, and furious lightsaber clashes. The villainous Sith Lord Darth Maul continues to be a striking figure of intimidation in the picture, even with such little screentime to feel out the boundaries of his evil. Costuming, set and sound design, and the aforementioned CGI work are all exemplary, generating the sensation of an unfolding epic. It’s a spectacle certainly populated with cartoon asides, but nothing that demands an immediate regurgitation of popcorn. In 2012, <em>The Phantom Menace</em> plays confidently, and while it occasionally lacks good taste and inspired dialogue, there’s a cracking pace to keep the fantasy surging along, mirroring the original trilogy.</p>
<p>Obviously, there are a few negative influences prominently featured in the picture, Jar Jar Binks being an obvious but potent reminder of Lucas’s intent to rework <em>Star Wars</em> for a younger generation. A tongue-tied Gungan clown sent in to distract while the script dwells on trade federations and the occasional senate hearing, Jar Jar is screen death, no doubt about it. He’s harmless but woefully unfunny, bringing bathroom humor to a series that doesn’t need moronic gross-outs. Also cringe-worthy is the wooden performance from young Jake Lloyd as Anakin, turning the introduction of an iconic character and future killer of younglings into a Nickelodeon Jr. personality. Complaints about a <em>Star Wars</em> prequel? They’ve all been heard. Still, seeing the film again with a more mature perspective tends to emphasize the rough transitions between thoughtless indulgence and measured, adult plotting.</p>
<p>Of course, 3D is the name of the game with reissue of <em>The Phantom Menace</em>, and it’s somewhat of a relief to report how well the picture takes to the difficult post-conversion process. Absent any truly astonishing effects, the feature sustains a subtle look that brings out depth to gorgeous planets such as Naboo, while placing the viewer in the front seat for flying sequences and the pod race showdown. Unlike recent Disney 3D releases that encountered difficulty locating screen elements to massage, <em>The Phantom Menace</em> offers plenty of modest spots to expand, with star fields and the opening titles additional examples of beguiling 3D. Just don’t expect anything radical and expectations should be met.</p>
<p>In my estimation, it’s always a treat to have <em>Star Wars</em> back on the big screen where it belongs. 3D isn’t a necessary process to enhance the saga experience, but it’s done tastefully on this origin story, giving <em>The Phantom Menace</em>&#8216;s added expanse. Naturally, if you already despise everything George Lucas touches, well, these aren’t the droids you’re looking for. It’s more of a 3D party for fans and admirers, playing to the convinced with a conversion.</p>
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											<p class="postmetadata">Tags: <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/george-lucas" rel="tag">George Lucas</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/movies" rel="tag">Movies</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/reviews" rel="tag">Reviews</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/star-wars" rel="tag">Star Wars</a><br /> Posted in <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/category/reviews" title="View all posts in Reviews" rel="category tag">Reviews</a> |   <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/903#respond" title="Comment on The Review Board: Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace 3D">No Comments &#187;</a></p>
													
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											<div class="post" id="post-900">
                    	<div class="date">
													 <small>January</small>
													 <div class="day">26</div>
													 <small>2012</small>
											</div>
											<h1><a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/900" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Ferris Bueller Super Bowl Tease!">Ferris Bueller Super Bowl Tease!</a></h1>
											Posted by <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/author/denis/" title="Posts by Denis">Denis</a>											
											<div class="post-content">
											<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SuHmEo0Bx7Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>We haven’t heard much from Ferris Bueller since 1986, but apparently he’s taken some time off to do a Super Bowl ad.</p>
<p>This 10-second teaser shows Bueller star Matthew Broderick asking “How can I handle work on a day like today?” and then cues a snippet of “Oh Yeah,” the song from the movie. What the video doesn’t reveal is the sponsor. Instead there’s just the message “2.5.12? — a.k.a. Super Sunday.</p>
<p>Don’t bother investigating the YouTube account, either. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/chuckachucka2012" target="_blank">Chuckachucka2012</a> reveals little about himself except that he’s a big fan of that movie. He also only joined on Thursday.</p>
<p>Hmm. Rack your brains, everyone. What was one of the big plot points of <em>Ferris Bueller’s Day Off</em>? Wasn’t there something in there about a car?</p>
											</div>
											
											<p class="postmetadata">Tags: <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/ferris-bueller" rel="tag">Ferris Bueller</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/trailer" rel="tag">Trailer</a><br /> Posted in <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/category/news" title="View all posts in News" rel="category tag">News</a> |   <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/900#respond" title="Comment on Ferris Bueller Super Bowl Tease!">No Comments &#187;</a></p>
													
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											<div class="post" id="post-896">
                    	<div class="date">
													 <small>December</small>
													 <div class="day">14</div>
													 <small>2011</small>
											</div>
											<h1><a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/896" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Louie CK’s web-only special makes $500K in 4 days">Louie CK’s web-only special makes $500K in 4 days</a></h1>
											Posted by <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/author/denis/" title="Posts by Denis">Denis</a>											
											<div class="post-content">
											<p>Comedian Louie CK has divulged the results of his $5 web special experiment, and the numbers <em>look good</em>.</p>
<p>In just four days, the special has sold over 110,000 copies making over $500,000, CK <a href="https://buy.louisck.net/statement" target="_blank">said in a statement today</a>. He made a profit of over $200,000 so far, after spending $170,000 on the production of the video, and around $32,000 on a website able to withstand his throng of fans.</p>
<p>“This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video,” he wrote. “They would have given you an encrypted and regionally restricted video of limited value, and they would have owned your private information for their own use. They would have withheld international availability indefinitely.”</p>
<p>Many had expected CK’s web special — which was notable for its lack of digital rights management restrictions, or DRM — to be a smashing success. After all, he’s a popular comedian with a loyal fan base. But the numbers are still a good sign for CK, and for web distribution in general. The special will likely rake in $1 million within the next week, which could certainly convince other entertainers to take distribution into their own hands.</p>
<p>As for the production itself, CK said it was shot with six cameras over two performances at the Beacon Theater in New York City. He directed the special himself (he also directs his self-titled TV series), which was definitely another useful cost-saving measure. CK also revealed that the special sold 50,000 copies in its first 12 hours available, making over $250,000.</p>
<p>CK gave some further insight into the project yesterday in <a href="http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/12/louis-ck-reddit-ama/">a thread on the social news site Reddit</a>.</p>
<p>He also didn’t seem to be too concerned about the few people pirating the special: “If anybody stole it, it wasn’t many of you. Pretty much everybody bought it. And so now we all get to know that about people and stuff.”</p>
											</div>
											
											<p class="postmetadata">Tags: <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/comedy" rel="tag">Comedy</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/internet" rel="tag">Internet</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/louie-c-k" rel="tag">Louie C.K.</a><br /> Posted in <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/category/news" title="View all posts in News" rel="category tag">News</a> |   <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/896#respond" title="Comment on Louie CK’s web-only special makes $500K in 4 days">No Comments &#187;</a></p>
													
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											<div class="post" id="post-892">
                    	<div class="date">
													 <small>December</small>
													 <div class="day">10</div>
													 <small>2011</small>
											</div>
											<h1><a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/892" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Mythbuster&#8217;s Cannonball Run">Mythbuster&#8217;s Cannonball Run</a></h1>
											Posted by <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/author/denis/" title="Posts by Denis">Denis</a>											
											<div class="post-content">
											<p>One of the zany experiments staged by the &#8220;Mythbusters&#8221; television show nearly turned into a suburban tragedy Tuesday afternoon in Dublin when the crew fired a homemade cannon toward huge containers of water at the Alameda County Sheriff&#8217;s Department bomb disposal range.</p>
<p>The cantaloupe-sized cannonball missed the water, tore through a cinder-block wall, skipped off a hillside and flew some 700 yards east, right into the Tassajara Creek neighborhood, where children were returning home from school at 4:15 p.m., authorities said.</p>
<p>There, the 6-inch projectile bounced in front of a home on quiet Cassata Place, ripped through the front door, raced up the stairs and blasted through a bedroom, where a man, woman and child slept through it all &#8211; only awakening because of plaster dust.</p>
<p>The ball wasn&#8217;t done bouncing.</p>
<p>It exited the house, leaving a perfectly round hole in the stucco, crossed six-lane Tassajara Road, took out several tiles from the roof of a home on Bellevue Circle and finally slammed into the Gill family&#8217;s beige Toyota Sienna minivan in a driveway on Springvale Drive.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s where Jasbir Gill, 42, who had pulled up 10 minutes earlier with his 13-year-old son, Manvir, found the ball on the floorboards, with glass everywhere and an obliterated dashboard.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s shocking &#8211; anything could have happened,&#8221; Gill said after the van had been taken away as evidence, along with the cannonball.</p>
<p>&#8220;Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy,&#8221; said Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff&#8217;s Department. &#8220;You wouldn&#8217;t think it was possible.&#8221;</p>
<p>He said the television crew was incredibly unlucky that the cannonball flew through Dublin, but &#8220;tremendously lucky that it didn&#8217;t seriously injure or kill somebody.&#8221;</p>
<p>Nelson said &#8220;Mythbusters,&#8221; a show on the Discovery Channel, had used the bomb disposal range without incident while shooting portions of more than 50 episodes over the past seven or eight years. The show does not pay a set fee but has donated to the department and given it exposure.</p>
<p>One of the terms of the deal, Nelson said, was that the show take out insurance in case of a mishap.</p>
<p>The show is based in San Francisco. Hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman use science experiments to confirm or debunk rumors or myths. Reached Tuesday evening, Savage said, &#8220;I can&#8217;t talk right now,&#8221; before hanging up.</p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time projectiles in the area have hit homes. In 2007, a stray .223-caliber bullet, apparently fired during a training exercise at Camp Parks Army base in Dublin, shattered the bedroom window of a San Ramon home.<img class="aligncenter" title="Mythbusters Cannonball" src="http://c417842.r42.cf2.rackcdn.com/mythbusters-cannonball-map_perceptionbuilder-com.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="767" /></p>
											</div>
											
											<p class="postmetadata">Tags: <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/mythbusters" rel="tag">Mythbusters</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/news" rel="tag">News</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/television" rel="tag">Television</a><br /> Posted in <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/category/news" title="View all posts in News" rel="category tag">News</a> |   <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/892#respond" title="Comment on Mythbuster&#8217;s Cannonball Run">No Comments &#187;</a></p>
													
      									</div>
                								
											<div class="post" id="post-890">
                    	<div class="date">
													 <small>December</small>
													 <div class="day">9</div>
													 <small>2011</small>
											</div>
											<h1><a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/890" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to The Review Board: Smallville The Complete Tenth Season">The Review Board: Smallville The Complete Tenth Season</a></h1>
											Posted by <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/author/denis/" title="Posts by Denis">Denis</a>											
											<div class="post-content">
											<p><img class="aligncenter" title="Smallville Season 10" src="http://www.kryptonsite.com/s10poster3b.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1408" /></p>
<p><em>Smallville</em> has been patiently biding its time, banking on its finale for ten years now. Brazenly (some might say stubbornly) saving up the best for last: the glasses, the alter ego, the iconic red cape, the &#8220;up in the sky&#8221; in &#8220;Look, up in the sky! It&#8217;s a bird, it&#8217;s a plane, it&#8217;s Superman!&#8221; And here it is, after ten seasons, the final hurrah of the unsure, insecure Clark Kent and the rise of the Man of Steel. So why does it feel like just another season? A strong season, I&#8217;ll admit, but up until its grand finale (and, to an extent, even then), <em>Smallville</em> seems content on going out with a wink, a grin and a lingering sense that very little actually happened over the course of its twenty-two episode end run. Darkseid is a tease. Oliver Queen is wasted. Chloe disappears for half the season. None of Superman&#8217;s foes manage to out-muscle Season Nine&#8217;s Zod (except Zod himself, who returns for a single episode). Lex&#8217;s absence remains now, more than ever, a devastating blow to the series. Villain-of-the-week misfires still fizzle. And the DC cameo of the season award goes to&#8230; Booster Gold? Yep, Gotham&#8217;s billionaire vigilante and Themyscira&#8217;s feisty Amazon barely earn a passing mention, and the Lantern Corps&#8217; hotshot pilot doesn&#8217;t even get that. (Unless I missed an offhand quip somewhere along the way.) Don&#8217;t get me wrong, there&#8217;s still plenty of meaty comic book goodness (and goofiness) for fans to feast on. It&#8217;s just not very filling.</p>
<p>Clark Kent (Tom Welling) has come a long way since high school. The quaint, meteor-peppered days of his small town adolescence seem like distant memories and the bustling metropolis of DC Comics&#8217; glistening Metropolis has become his home. His powers have almost fully been realized, his purpose almost entirely defined, and his love for Lois Lane (Erica Durance) almost completely sealed. But even after nine seasons of slow, steady affirmations, Clark has yet to embrace his fate, doesn&#8217;t seem sure of anything, and has developed a mean streak of Skywalker self-pity. It&#8217;s hard not to complain too, especially when the Boy in Blue retreats, again and again and again, from the prospect of being the true hero he&#8217;s obviously destined to be. The uncertainty schtick has certainly run its course; to the point where it&#8217;s grown stale for this avid viewer. Season Ten, to its detriment, doesn&#8217;t deal with any of it head on either. Instead, its showrunners wait until the finale and cram everything they can into <em>Smallville</em>&#8216;s two-part endgame. Before that, it&#8217;s business as usual. Darkseid&#8217;s presence is spotty at best and the Big Bad himself doesn&#8217;t show up until the sun is setting on the series. Militaristic zealots and possessed minions chew scenery but don&#8217;t really register. And dear, dear Clark is reluctant, racked with double-daddy issues, and hesitant to step into the public spotlight. <em>Smallville</em> goes out with a bang when it could have opened with one&#8230; followed by twenty-one more.</p>
<p>Even at its worst, though, the tenth season is merely uneven. It rarely fails or falters outright; in fact, it stands as one of the more solid seasons of the show. It delivers &#8212; several times &#8212; it just delivers in single-serving doses. Clark and Lois return to Smallville for Kent&#8217;s high school reunion, only to have a reunion with Brainiac (James Marsters) instead. Oliver (Justin Hartley) comes out of the superhero closet, a decision that leads to more trouble than he initially anticipated. Clark tries to impress Lois&#8217; father (Michael Ironside), but finds it difficult to deal with the general&#8217;s anti-vigilante stance. Tess (Cassidy Freeman) learns more about her Luthor heritage and her connection to a mysterious woman known as Granny Goodness (Christine Willes), a herald of Darkseid. Aquaman (Alan Ritchson) is front and center in a surprisingly entertaining episode. Lex Luthor&#8217;s clone, Alexander (Lucas Grabeel), drives the season&#8217;s more questionable arcs (complete with a twist everyone who&#8217;s ever picked up a DC Comic should have seen coming but didn&#8217;t). Clark and Lois try to tie the knot (to disastrous results) and Oliver and Chloe (Allison Mack, sadly in a reduced role) struggle to come to terms with one another. Meanwhile, Booster Gold (Eric Martsolf) and Blue Beetle (Jaren Brandt Bartlett) blast it out, Zod (Callum Blue) makes a (much-too-brief) reappearance, and an alternate-universe Lionel Luther (John Glover) takes up residence in Clark&#8217;s reality. And Lex (Michael Rosenbaum)? Well, you&#8217;ll just have to watch Season Ten to see if Rosenbaum mans up and slips on a bald cap for old time&#8217;s sake.</p>
<p>That said, the misses of the hit-or-miss tenth season miss as notably (albeit less frequently) as its hits connect. Entire episodes are squandered &#8212; Lois&#8217; body is commandeered by a vengeful Egyptian goddess in &#8220;Isis,&#8221; Clark and Lois face off against radiated townsfolk in &#8220;Harvest,&#8221; another <em>Smallville </em>serial killer is on the loose in &#8220;Masquerade,&#8221; an enchanted gift from Zatanna transforms the series into a PG-rated version of <em>The Hangover</em>, and Lois and Clark swap powers and non-powers for a day in &#8220;Fortune&#8221; &#8212; and the larger DC universe is set aside to make room for quick-hit easter eggs, character cameos and references that will soar over the heads of all but the most diligent DC Comics readers. It doesn&#8217;t help that the show&#8217;s best actors &#8212; Durance, Mack, Hartley, Blue, Freeman, Glover, John Schneider, Alessandro Juliani and others &#8212; are often flanked by overreaching bit players and typecast guest stars. To his credit, Welling holds his own&#8230; one-note as the bounding boyscout in blue sometimes is, overshadowed as the leading man tends to be, and outshined by his castmates as he typically is. <em>Smallville</em>&#8216;s Clark Kent, clumsy or extraordinary, is still a touch too flat and two-dimensional for my tastes, but those who&#8217;ve professed their love from the beginning will be moved to tears by the culmination of Clark&#8217;s ten-season arc, Welling&#8217;s seasoned performance, and the consummation of <em>Smallville</em>&#8216;s long-brewing themes. (Particularly when Clark confronts not one but three different fathers in an emotional finale that&#8217;s almost worthy of Superman&#8217;s legacy.) As always, the show&#8217;s sub-modest budget is the Man of Steel&#8217;s greatest enemy; its recurring characters and cast members are the series&#8217; greatest assets.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re a longtime <em>Smallville</em> fan, though, you&#8217;re accustomed to overlooking the occasional TV-tainted hitch. After all, these same hitches have been cramping Clark&#8217;s style for ten years now. (Far more than that if you lump in <em>Lois &amp; Clark </em>and some of Superman&#8217;s other less-than-ideal small-screen superheroics.) Aimless episodes and pudgy FX come and go. It&#8217;s the storytelling that matters, and the <em>Smallville </em>showrunners and writers have continued to churn out a stream of comic book clashes, superpowered histrionics, sneering intergalactic sadists, and flashy end-of-the-world near-misses, most of which aim for conflict over camp. Season Ten disappoints now and again, but it brings Clark&#8217;s story to a fitting close and ties in nicely to everything from Richard Donner&#8217;s <em>Superman: The Movie</em> to the comics, new and old, than inspired the show. If nothing else, the tenth season will leave fans wishing there were more episodes to be had, more tall buildings to be leapt in a single bound, more villains to be fought, more heroes to be met, more evil plots to be thwarted, and more lives to be saved. More, more, more.</p>
<p><strong>Video Quality</strong></p>
<p>If you can look past the presentation&#8217;s inherent issues &#8212; the errant inconsistencies and occasional anomalies that beat and batter some of Season Ten&#8217;s visual effects sequences into submission &#8212; Warner&#8217;s 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer bests its <em>Smallville</em> predecessors and looks every bit as good as it should. The tenth season may be darker and starker than previous seasons, but colors remain bright and bold, primaries hit with tremendous force, black levels are deep and ominous, and contrast never disappoints. There are a few soft shots lying in wait for our hero, but none that should be attributed to a faulty encode. Detail is nothing less than striking, with plenty of razor-sharp textures, refined closeups, crisply defined edges, and well-delineated shadows to be had. &#8220;Dominion&#8221; is particularly stunning, and solidifies the tenth season Blu-Ray&#8217;s place at the head of the high definition <em>Smallville </em>table. I noticed a few seemingly random bursts of artifacting and banding over the course of its four discs and twenty-two episodes, but none of it is especially significant or troubling. And nothing else comes close to nicking the presentation. Aliasing, noise, crush and other mishaps don&#8217;t pop up, and <em>The Complete Tenth Season</em> ends as strongly as it begins. Fans will be more than pleased with the results.</p>
<p><strong>Audio Quality</strong></p>
<p>Warner&#8217;s <em>Tenth Season</em> Blu-Ray release marks the series&#8217; first foray into lossless audio, and it&#8217;s a spectacular one. Relatively speaking anyway. <em>Smallville</em> is the same modestly budgeted superhero show it&#8217;s always been and its sound design follows suit, although I will say the series doesn&#8217;t sound as if it&#8217;s been generated on a dime and a prayer. Its DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track hits, hits hard and takes full advantage of every shot it gets. Dialogue is clean and clear, without any lines being sacrificed to the LFE-primed superheroics and enveloping soundfield. The LFE channel throws its weight behind every blow, explosion, roaring energy blast and rapidly approaching fire planet, and the rear speakers turn everything from the Fortress of Solitude caverns to the Daily Planet offices, the Smallville wheat fields, and the desolate wastelands of the Phantom Zone into (reasonably) convincing environments. Effects are a bit punchy by design and dynamics are a tad temperamental (almost by default), but directionality is impressive, pans are faster than a speeding bullet, and the entire experience infuses some welcome <em>oomph</em> into every clash of the titans at Season Ten&#8217;s disposal. It not only represents <em>Smallville</em>&#8216;s best audio offering to date, it soars. Up, up and away.</p>
<p><strong>Special Features &amp; Extras</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Audio Commentaries: </strong>Two commentaries barely scratch the twenty-two episode surface of <em>Smallville</em>&#8216;s tenth and final season. Casual fans will appreciate what little they&#8217;re given, but diehards will feel overlooked and underwhelmed. Commentaries include &#8220;Lazarus&#8221; with writer/producers Holly Henderson and Don Whitehead and actors Allison Mack and Cassidy Freeman, and &#8220;Dominion&#8221; with executive producers Brian Peterson and Kelly Souders, actor/episode director Justin Hartley and actor Callum Blue. For whatever reason, though, the series finale is untouched and unexplored.</li>
<li><strong>Back in the Jacket: A Smallville Homecoming </strong>(HD, 20 minutes): Clark returns to Smallville (with <em>Smallville</em> in tow) as the cast and crew discuss the series, its themes, its larger story arc, its characters and, above all, &#8220;Reunion,&#8221; the tenth season high school reunion episode that delves into each one.</li>
<li><strong>The Son Becomes the Father </strong>(HD, 17 minutes): A look at <em>Smallville</em>&#8216;s father/son relationships &#8212; Kal-El and Jor-El, Clark and Jonathan Kent, and Lex and Lionel Luther &#8212; and their evolution over the course of the show&#8217;s 200-plus episodes. It&#8217;s the best feature on the disc but, once again, the finale and the season&#8217;s status as the series&#8217; last aren&#8217;t given the attention or the coverage both deserve.</li>
<li><strong>Deleted Scenes </strong>(SD, 4 minutes): A short, undeniably disappointing collection of brief blips, smart cuts and deleted trivialities. Scenes are available for &#8220;Shield,&#8221; &#8220;Supergirl,&#8221; &#8220;Abandoned,&#8221; &#8220;Beacon&#8221; and &#8220;Scion.&#8221;</li>
<li><strong>Music Video </strong>(SD, 4 minutes): Swank&#8217;s &#8220;How Do We Do&#8221; via actors Cassidy Freeman and Alessandro Juliani.</li>
<li><strong>BD-Live Functionality</strong></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Final Grade</strong></p>
<p><em>Smallville</em>&#8216;s tenth season doesn&#8217;t land every punch and doesn&#8217;t save every day, but as endgame&#8217;s go, it brings the series&#8217; take on the Superman mythos to a satisfying close and gives fans a strong finale worthy of their ten-year investment. Warner&#8217;s 4-disc Blu-ray release is even better, though. Its special features don&#8217;t amount to much, but its video presentation and lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track leave nothing to chance, and shouldn&#8217;t leave any fan wanting. The Blu-Ray edition of <em>The Complete Tenth Season </em>isn&#8217;t<em> The Complete Series </em>box set some have been dreaming of (Editor&#8217;s Note: expect as review of that as soon as I get my hands on it), but it stands as the best high definition <em>Smallville</em> release on the market. If you already own the first nine seasons of the series, purchasing this 4-disc set is the easiest decision you&#8217;ll make all week.</p>
											</div>
											
											<p class="postmetadata">Tags: <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/blu-ray" rel="tag">Blu-Ray</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/comics" rel="tag">Comics</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/dc" rel="tag">DC</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/reviews" rel="tag">Reviews</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/smallville" rel="tag">Smallville</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/superman" rel="tag">Superman</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/television" rel="tag">Television</a><br /> Posted in <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/category/reviews" title="View all posts in Reviews" rel="category tag">Reviews</a> |   <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/890#respond" title="Comment on The Review Board: Smallville The Complete Tenth Season">No Comments &#187;</a></p>
													
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											<div class="post" id="post-886">
                    	<div class="date">
													 <small>November</small>
													 <div class="day">16</div>
													 <small>2011</small>
											</div>
											<h1><a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/886" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to David Yates to direct Doctor Who movie!">David Yates to direct Doctor Who movie!</a></h1>
											Posted by <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/author/denis/" title="Posts by Denis">Denis</a>											
											<div class="post-content">
											<p><em>Harry Potter</em> director David Yates is teaming up with the BBC to turn its iconic sci-fi TV series <em>Doctor Who</em> into a big screen franchise.</p>
<p>Yates, who directed the last four Potter films, told Daily Variety that he is about to start work on developing a <em>Doctor Who</em> movie with Jane Tranter, head of L.A.-based BBC Worldwide Prods. &#8221;We&#8217;re looking at writers now. We&#8217;re going to spend two to three years to get it right,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena.&#8221; <em>(Editor&#8217;s Note: Blasphemy!)</em></p>
<p><em>Doctor Who</em> follows the adventures across space and time of a super-intelligent alien in human form, who battles a variety of cosmic bad guys aided by plucky human companions.</p>
<p>&#8220;The notion of the time-travelling Time Lord is such a strong one, because you can express story and drama in any dimension or time,&#8221; Yates said.</p>
<p>The series ran from 1963 to 1989, and then was successfully rebooted in 2005 by writer Russell T. Davies and subsequently by Steven Moffat (most recently involved with<em> The Adventures of Tintin</em> movie). Tranter oversaw the revival when she was the BBC&#8217;s drama topper in London. <em>Doctor Who</em>, starring Matt Smith as the 11th incarnation of the Doctor, is now one of the pubcaster&#8217;s most lucrative global TV franchises. The series airs Stateside on BBC America.</p>
<p>Yates made clear that his movie adaptation would not follow on from the current TV series, but would take a completely fresh approach to the material. <em>(Editor&#8217;s Note: Double Blasphemy!)</em></p>
<p><em> </em>&#8220;Russell T. Davies and then Steven Moffat have done their own transformations, which were fantastic, but we have to put that aside and start from scratch,&#8221; he said. <em>(Editor&#8217;s Note: TRIPLE Blasphemy!)</em></p>
<p>Yates and Tranter are looking for writers on both sides of the Atlantic. &#8221;We want a British sensibility, but having said that, Steve Kloves wrote the Potter films and captured that British sensibility perfectly, so we are looking at American writers too,&#8221; he explained.</p>
<p>There are two previous films, based on the TV series: <em>Doctor Who and the Daleks</em> (1965) and <em>Doctor Who: Daleks&#8217; Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.</em> (1966), both starring Peter Cushing. The BBC has since made a few unsuccessful attempts to develop a &#8220;Doctor Who&#8221; feature, and shot a one-off telepic in 1996 at a time when the TV series was dormant. But the combination of Yates and Tranter means this is the most high-powered effort to date to launch &#8220;Doctor Who&#8221; onto the bigscreen.</p>
											</div>
											
											<p class="postmetadata">Tags: <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/bbc" rel="tag">BBC</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/doctor-who" rel="tag">Doctor Who</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/movies" rel="tag">Movies</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/news" rel="tag">News</a><br /> Posted in <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/category/news" title="View all posts in News" rel="category tag">News</a> |   <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/886#respond" title="Comment on David Yates to direct Doctor Who movie!">No Comments &#187;</a></p>
													
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											<div class="post" id="post-882">
                    	<div class="date">
													 <small>November</small>
													 <div class="day">3</div>
													 <small>2011</small>
											</div>
											<h1><a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/882" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to The Review Board: WWE Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart (Blu-Ray)">The Review Board: WWE Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart (Blu-Ray)</a></h1>
											Posted by <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/author/denis/" title="Posts by Denis">Denis</a>											
											<div class="post-content">
											<div id="movie_review_intro">Hey everyone! It&#8217;s been a long while since I&#8217;ve updated the website (partially due to having gone on a much needed vacation) and I&#8217;ve decided to get right back into the swing of things with a review of the most recent WWE Home Video release&#8230; WWE: Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart.</div>
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 389px"><img src="http://whatculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/51NqQMeqJ-L.jpg" alt="" width="379" height="500" /><p class="wp-caption-text">WWE: Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart</p></div>
<div>There are great wrestlers, fan favorite wrestlers, talented wrestlers, entertainment-oriented showman wrestlers, big wrestlers, small wrestlers, flashy wrestlers, and movie star wrestlers. Then there are <em>wrestlers</em>, the few legendary combatants who make an immediate impact and leave an indelible mark on the world of professional wrestling, true superstars who embody every aspect of sports entertainment, who have it all &#8212; the raw skill, the look, the attitude, the showmanship, the personal appeal, the longevity &#8212; and become the best of the best, the sport&#8217;s most widely-recognized and cherished athletes who absolutely define the art of professional wrestling. Names like Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Steve Austin, and John Cena fall into the category as do longtime friends and rivals Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, two A-list superstars who dominated an era and whose off-the-mat squabbles turned a fascinating rivalry into something more, a deeply personal and hurtful feud that would last until the men each met halfway, changed their personal lives, and rocked the landscape of professional wrestling with a reconciliation years after the fact that remains one of wrestling&#8217;s most incredible moments. Fueled by a passion for the sport, an eagerness to succeed, a drive to reach the top, and a mix of similarities and differences that would bring them together before tearing them apart, it&#8217;s easy to see why Michaels and Hart dominated the world of professional wrestling before experiencing a legendary falling out that would leave the sport shaken to its core both during their reign at the top and long after they gave way to the next generation of stars. <em>WWE: Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart</em> is their story, retrospectively told as they recount their careers, their feud, and their reconciliation in a two-hour program sure to enthrall the most dedicated WWE fan and the greenest newcomer alike.</div>
<div>They were two men, with diverse histories and backgrounds, on a professional collision course that would make them &#8212; their story, their rivalry, their fallout, their reconciliation &#8212; the stuff of professional wrestling legend. Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, once close friends and great admirers of one another&#8217;s skills in the ring, fell apart when professional success slowly dissolved their personal relationship which served only to intensify their growing wrestling rivalry.</div>
<div>
<p>Their story begins with Shawn&#8217;s tag team success alongside fellow superstar Marty Jannetty in their collaboration known as &#8220;The Rockers&#8221; and their controversial title match against Bret Hart&#8217;s &#8220;Hart Machine&#8221; tandem with fellow star Jim Neidhart, a match that was to give the Rockers the tag team championship belt, a match that was never aired when contract negotiations resulted in Hart&#8217;s and Neidhart&#8217;s retaining of the belt (remember, it&#8217;s all scripted and staged; &#8220;winners&#8221; and &#8220;losers&#8221; are determined ahead of time in the name not of competition but of ratings and revenue). Their story continues through the 1990s, including Hart&#8217;s and Michaels&#8217; legendary 60-minute iron man match at WrestleMania XII, which only increased their stature and stardom, only to see it all unravel a year later with the infamous Hart-Michaels-McMahon debacle (<em>Editor&#8217;s Note:</em> this event is better known as the &#8220;Montreal Screw-Job&#8221;, which this reviewer was witness to live) when the WWE boss refused to give ground in his insistence that Hart be stripped of his title in favor of Michaels, who won the title match despite Hart&#8217;s objections both in and out of the ring. It was a moment forever frozen in time, a moment that forever altered the careers of two of wrestling&#8217;s most popular figures and that, indeed, would have a trickle-down effect on the sport for many years after the fact.</p>
<p>In <em>WWE: Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart</em>, the two former superstars recount their professional careers in a calm, informative, and mature dual interview moderated by longtime WWE commentator Jim Ross. The men speak candidly throughout the interview, whether recounting their early days in professional wrestling or the most difficult stretches of their well-publicized personal feud. They both delve deeply and openly into the complicated politics of WWE wrestling, politics that perhaps even the most dedicated fan might not truly understand, politics that drastically shape careers and the entire direction of the world of professional wrestling. The film plays in a rather visually bland point-and-shoot style, but content is king, and the story of Shawn Michaels versus Bret Hart proves infinitely more interesting than any camera tricks, fast-moving action, or cool angular shots. It&#8217;s a vastly different experience than, say, the recent Randy Orton release, but the nature of the narrative almost demands something more streamlined. The interview is intercut with clips of the two in action at various WWE events, but the bulk of the material is told through monologue and dialogue, with the necessary nudging and direction-setting by Jim Ross, who&#8217;s as capable an interviewer as he is a wrestling commentator. Michaels and Hart are well-spoken and the dialogue is always amiable and, more importantly, respectful. The level of detail into the history of the WWE is incredible, and though it lacks much in terms of pure wrestling action, the main program may very well be a fine starting point for newcomers who want to absorb as much information as they can about one of wrestling&#8217;s most pivotal eras and two of its most important figures.</p>
<p><em><strong>Video Quality</strong></em></p>
<p><em> </em><em>WWE: Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart</em> arrives on Blu-ray with a quality 1080i, 1.78:1- and 1.33:1-framed transfer. The image is split into two categories: standard definition archival footage and high definition interview footage. The former is sometimes presented in a 1.78:1 ratio, but never appears unnaturally stretched. Of course, it lacks the detail, color clarity, and stability of the HD footage, but fans might be surprised at how well it translates to larger displays, anyway. It definitely won&#8217;t be mistaken for HD material, but it&#8217;s a safe bet that most of this material has never looked better. The HD interview clips &#8212; which comprise the bulk of the program &#8212; do look quite good. Clarity is superb, and detailing is strong, even if all there really is to see are facial and clothing close-ups. Colors are fine, whether Michaels&#8217; denim jeans or Ross&#8217; black suit and hat. Shadow detail is strong, and the image yields little in the way of blocking and banding. It&#8217;s not challenging material, and WWE&#8217;s Blu-ray handles it about as well as can be expected. Note that the standard definition clips do not factor into the final video score.</p>
</div>
<div id="movie_review_video">
<div><em><strong>Audio Quality</strong></em></div>
<div><em><br />
</em></div>
<div><em>WWE: Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart</em> features a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. No lossless option is included, and frankly the material doesn&#8217;t need it (and it probably doesn&#8217;t need the 5.1 mix, either). This is primarily a back-and-forth interview piece. Dialogue is king, and it&#8217;s handled expertly by the center channel. General music can be a bit crunchy, and older archival footage sounds front-heavy and shallow. Musical interludes do deliver fair clarity, good spacing, and a fairly heavy low end accompaniment. There&#8217;s really nothing else to this one. It could have easily gotten by with a two-channel presentation &#8212; only music occasionally makes use of the surrounds &#8212; but at least the 5.1 track adequately conveys all that&#8217;s required of it with relative ease.</div>
<div></div>
<div><strong><em>Special Features and Extras</em></strong></div>
</div>
<div id="movie_review_extras">
<p><em>WWE: Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart</em> contains plenty of extras, chief among them a large number of full length Shawn Michaels/Bret Hart wrestling matches.</p>
<p><strong>Disc One:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>The Rockers vs. The Hart Foundation</strong> (1080i, 4:3, 0:00:00-24:43): Madison Square Garden &#8212; November 25, 1989.</li>
<li><strong>Brett Hart vs. Shawn Michaels</strong> (1080i, 4:3, 24:43-30:56): Wrestling Challenge &#8212; February 10, 1990.</li>
<li><strong>The Rockers vs. The Hart Foundation</strong> (1080i, 4:3, 30:56-48:15): Tokyo Dome &#8212; March 30, 1991.</li>
<li><strong>Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels</strong> (1080i, 4:3, 48:15-1:05:16): Ladder Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Portland, ME &#8211; - July 21, 1992.</li>
<li><strong>Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels</strong> (1080i, 4:3, 1:05:16-1:17:34): Intercontinental Championship Match. Syracuse, NY &#8212; April 29, 1992.</li>
<li><strong>Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels</strong> (1080i, 4:3, 1:17:34-1:52:34): WWE Championship Match. Survivor Series &#8212; November 25, 1992.</li>
<li><strong>Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels</strong> (1080i, 4:3, 1:52:34-2:04:52): Steel Cage Match. Utica, NY &#8212; December 1, 1993.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Disc Two:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels</strong> (1080i, 4:3, 0:00:00-1:17:15): Iron Man Match for the WWE Championship. WrestleMania XII &#8212; March 31, 1996.</li>
<li><strong>Bret Hart&#8217;s Induction</strong> (1080i, 4:3, 1:17:15-1:56:53): WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Chicago, IL &#8212; April 1, 2006.</li>
<li><strong>Bret Hart Returns to Raw</strong> (1080i, 1.78:1, 1:56:53-2:09:47): Raw &#8212; January 4, 2010.</li>
<li><strong>Shawn Michaels&#8217; Induction</strong> (1080i, 1.78:1, 2:09:47-2:52:23): WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Atlanta, GA &#8212; April 2, 2011.</li>
</ul>
<p>Disc two also contains the following <strong>Blu-ray exclusive moments</strong>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Vince McMahon Interviews Shawn Michaels &amp; Bret Hart</strong> (1080i, 4:3, 0:00:00-10:19): RAW &#8212; February 3, 1997.</li>
<li><strong>Bret Hart Promo in Ring</strong> (1080i, 4:3, 10:19-21:34): RAW &#8212; May 12, 1997.</li>
<li><strong>Hart Foundation Promo in Ring</strong> (1080i, 4:3, 21:34-31:29): RAW &#8212; May 19, 1997.</li>
<li><strong>WWE Championship Match</strong> (1080i, 4:3, 31:29-1:00:05): Survivor Series &#8212; November 9, 1997.</li>
</ul>
<p>Disc two also contains the following <strong>Blu-ray exclusive features</strong>, which are more or less deleted scenes and, in the case of the final feature, outtakes from the primary feature.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>The First WWE Ladder Match</strong> (1080i, 1.78:1, 1:00:05-1:05:22).</li>
<li><strong>Summerslam 1992</strong> (1080i, 1.78:1, 1:05:22-1:09:28).</li>
<li><strong>Winning the WWE Championship for the First Time</strong> (1080i, 1.78:1, 1:09:28-1:11:29).</li>
<li><strong>Bret&#8217;s WCW Regrets</strong> (1080i, 1.78:1, 1:11:29-1:13:41).</li>
<li><strong>Cameras Rolling Between Takes</strong> (1080i, 1.78:1, 1:13:41-1:20:06).</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div id="movie_review_overall">
<h3 id="movie_review_finalwords_heading"><em>Final Grade</em></h3>
<p><em>WWE: Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart</em> is a quality release that chronicles the in-the-ring and real-life feud between two of the sport&#8217;s most famous personalities, Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. Though the program lacks much in terms of raw wrestling action, the narrative provides an invaluable insight into the world of professional wrestling that delves deeply into its politics and business and the affect both have on its stars both in the ring and out of it. Michaels and Hart are well-spoken, knowledgable, and willing to share all in what is a must-see for any dedicated WWE fan, and it makes a strong starting point for newcomers, too, if only for the breadth of modern wrestling history it conveys. WWE&#8217;s Blu-Ray release of <em>Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart</em>, like most WWE releases, features fair video and audio to go along with hours of full-length matches billed a supplements. Fans will get their money&#8217;s worth, and then some. I&#8217;m anxiously awaiting to see what rivalry the WWE plans to highlight next. Recommended.</p>
</div>
											</div>
											
											<p class="postmetadata">Tags: <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/blu-ray" rel="tag">Blu-Ray</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/reviews" rel="tag">Reviews</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/television" rel="tag">Television</a>, <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/tag/wwe" rel="tag">WWE</a><br /> Posted in <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/category/reviews" title="View all posts in Reviews" rel="category tag">Reviews</a> |   <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/882#respond" title="Comment on The Review Board: WWE Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart (Blu-Ray)">No Comments &#187;</a></p>
													
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											<div class="post" id="post-879">
                    	<div class="date">
													 <small>October</small>
													 <div class="day">12</div>
													 <small>2011</small>
											</div>
											<h1><a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/879" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to The Review Board: Batman: Year One (Blu-Ray)">The Review Board: Batman: Year One (Blu-Ray)</a></h1>
											Posted by <a href="http://satellitefeedpodcast.com/archives/author/denis/" title="Posts by Denis">Denis</a>											
											<div class="post-content">
											<p><img src="http://www.bigshinyrobot.com/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/wallpaper-batman-year-one-dvd-movie.jpg" alt="Batman: Year One" /></p>
<p>There are countless Batman tales and many more to be told, but only a select few have stepped out of the shadows, struck a nerve and left a lasting impact. Typically, a comic writer is lucky to have even one such success with the Bat, but every now and then, lightning strikes twice. The man responsible for two of Batman&#8217;s most seminal stories? Frank Miller, whose <em>Batman: The Dark Knight Returns</em> remains one of, if not <em>the</em>, greatest, most gripping Batman story ever told (even if it technically falls under the non-canon Elseworlds umbrella), and whose <em>Batman: Year One</em>, a canonized exploration of the Dark Knight&#8217;s first year beneath the cowl, is a simmering, disarmingly realistic portrait of the humanity and integrity of Gotham&#8217;s heroes and the seemingly insurmountable odds they face in cleaning up the city. When it was announced that the latter would be adapted as the 12th DC Universe animated original movie, I was ecstatic. Miller&#8217;s <em>Year One</em> has long been a personal favorite and the prospect of an animated adaptation was an exciting one. But that excitement was soon tempered by doubt. Not every Batman tale is created equal, and not every DCU Animation production is either. How would <em>Year One</em> fare? How faithful would co-directors Sam Liu and Lauren Montgomery and screenwriter Tab Murphy be to Miller and illustrator David Mazzucchelli&#8217;s original vision of Gotham and its denizens? How much would be lost? Would anything be gained? Fortunately, Liu, Montgomery and Murphy are exceedingly faithful to Miller&#8217;s words and Mazzucchelli&#8217;s pens and pencils. Unfortunately, there&#8217;s still a little bit lost in translation.</p>
<p>To understand this story completely, one must first understand Frank Miller&#8217;s Batman. &#8220;For me, Batman was never funny. I was eight years old when I picked up an 80-page annual from the shelf of a local supermarket. Gotham City was cold shafts of concrete lit by cold moonlight, windswept and bottomless, fading to a cloud bank of city lights, a wet, white mist, miles below me. The street sounds were a soft, sad roar, unbroken and unchanging. Then somewhere, somewhere in the stone rat&#8217;s maze down there, tiny but unmuffled, a pane-glass window shattered. The sound was almost pretty, like chimes. The chimes became a single ringing bell, a burglar alarm, the old kind. A Thompson machine gun spat at the bell. A madman laughed wildly, maliciously. The laughter echoed forever. A shadow fell across me, from above. Wings flapped, close by and almost silent. Glistening wet, black against the blackened sky, a monster, a giant, winged gargoyle, hunched forward, pausing at a building&#8217;s ledge, and cocked its head, following the laugh&#8217;s last seconds. Moonlight glanced across its back, across its massive shoulders, down its craned, cabled neck, across its skull, striking a triangle at one pointed bat&#8217;s ear. It rose into space, its wings spread wide, then fell, its wings now a fluttering cape wrapped tight about the body of a man. It fell past me, its shadow sliding across walls, growing to swallow whole buildings, lit by the clouds below. The shadow faded into the clouds. It was gone. The 80-page giant comic cost 25 cents, but I bought it anyway.&#8221;</p>
<p>To that end, Miller and &#8212; almost twenty-five years after the four-issue story&#8217;s initial publication &#8212; the <em>Batman: Year One </em>creative team tap the imagery, the fear, the grandeur, the city, the tone and the noir-tinted grit-n-grime realism of the Dark Knight&#8217;s first year on the streets. (Realism being a relative term. In the comic, Wayne snaps handcuffs in two, a rather superhuman thing to do. In the movie, he doesn&#8217;t snap handcuffs, but he does chase a fleeing vehicle on foot near the end of the film and manages to keep pace. <em>Year One</em> is, first and foremost, a dual character study that focuses on two men of action and principle: Bruce Wayne (voiced by Benjamin McKenzie), returning to Gotham after extensive training overseas and putting his newly acquired skills to the test, and Lieutenant James Gordon (Bryan Cranston), struggling to get a handle on his career and personal life while battling crime on the streets, working to bring a certain nocturnal vigilante to justice, and rooting out corruption within his department. And each extraordinarily ordinary hero is forced to overcome a series of hurdles. Wayne has to keep his extracurricular activities secret, learn through trial and rather deadly error, and gain a foothold in Gotham&#8217;s underworld, specifically in the corner of the city mafioso Carmine Falcone (Alex Rocco) has claimed as his own. Gordon, meanwhile, has to contend with mixed feelings about his wife&#8217;s pregnancy, the city&#8217;s crooked police commissioner (Jon Polito), an unhealthy attraction to one of his female detectives (Katee Sackhoff), and the emergence of a second masked menace, Selina Kyle aka Catwoman (Eliza Dushku).</p>
<p>But something is amiss. A few things actually. Comic readers are savvy to reading between the panels. And while the pacing of Miller&#8217;s <em>Year One</em> comics works wonderfully, the pacing of Liu and Montgomery&#8217;s <em>Year One</em> animated feature lags and lurches ever so slightly, even though it&#8217;s almost a panel for panel, page for page recreation. Likewise, Mazzucchelli&#8217;s artwork boasts a flow and hard-boiled fluidity, despite its static nature; the DCU Animation approximates his illustrations nicely, but also exhibit a uncharacteristic emptiness and woodenness from time to time, especially when it comes to the film&#8217;s climactic car chase. (<em>Year One</em>&#8216;s fist fights and armed battles are far more impressive.) Then there&#8217;s the use of dates and narration; a technique that lends what could have been a scattershot comic run context and direction but, in the film, sometimes knocks the narrative off-balance, strengthening less involved sequences and weakening others with redundancy. It&#8217;s a small nitpick, I&#8217;ll admit, but what works in comics doesn&#8217;t always work on the screen. It doesn&#8217;t help that McKenzie is miscast as Batman, at least when it comes to Wayne&#8217;s narration. The result? Miller&#8217;s comic reads as two equally important, ever-converging stories: one featuring Bruce Wayne and the other featuring Jim Gordon. But McKenzie&#8217;s performance is so indifferent and innocuous at its lowest points that it, every so often, makes <em>Batman: Year One</em> a more lopsided adaptation. I almost felt that it should be titled <em>The Life and Times of Lieutenant James Gordon</em> instead. Where&#8217;s fan-favorite Kevin Conroy? Or Bruce Greenwood (<em>Batman: Under the Red Hood</em>)? In McKenzie&#8217;s defense, though, his ineffectiveness only extends to the film&#8217;s narration; when Bats hits the streets or when Wayne invites Gordon to his home, McKenzie handily bests William Baldwin (<em>Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths</em>) and Jeremy Sisto (<em>Justice League: The New Frontier</em>).</p>
<p>All that being said, <em>Year One</em> still gets a lot of things right. Bryan Cranston is outstanding as Gordon, tapping into the meat and muck of the lieutenant&#8217;s inner thoughts without hamming up a single line or overreaching a single time. Gordon&#8217;s character animation helps, and there are even moments that are elevated above their comicbook counterparts thanks to small touches like a downcast glance, a furrowed brow, a faint smile, a pause, a brief twitch of fear, a haunted stillness, an explosive attack, reason mixed with emotion, or a face of firm determination. Combined with Cranston&#8217;s voice performance, Gordon comes to animated life, wades through his troubles, suffers for his mistakes, and punishes himself for his failings. It&#8217;s just that convincing. In fact, if it weren&#8217;t for the mishandling of Batman, <em>Year One</em> might be one of DCU Animation&#8217;s finest. The rest of the voice cast does their part too, as do many of the less flashy stretches of animation. There&#8217;s a real cinematic quality to the production (credit there goes primarily to Miller and Mazzucchelli, of course, as their four issues were practically storyboards in the hands of the creative team) and many a scene resonates. Yes, Miller&#8217;s climactic bridge showdown is better on the page than on the screen, but it still packs a wallop. Yes, there are several brief beats from the comic that have been removed entirely (&#8220;September 7&#8243; is gone, and Gordon and Sarah Essen&#8217;s affair ends earlier and differently). And yes, you can expect the sort of tweaking and shuffling that comes with adapting any graphic novel or miniseries. But <em>Batman: Year One</em> is far more faithful than most. I suspect some will embrace it more than I have and others will feel it isn&#8217;t as evocative of the original as it should be. Either way, <em>Batman: Year One</em> is worth a blind buy in my humble opinion, if for no other reason than to turn you on to Miller and Mazzucchelli&#8217;s four-issue classic.</p>
<p><strong>Video Quality</strong></p>
<p>Banding rears its head on more than one occasion (especially in the skies and around bright light sources framed by darkness), but it isn&#8217;t as distracting or debilitating as it has been in other, more problematic DCU Animation presentations. Warner&#8217;s 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is quite good, truth be told, reveling in rich blues and purples, somber yellows and browns, grimy grays and greens, and seemingly bottomless blacks. Contrast and clarity are strong, and detail is spot on as well, with crisp lines, sharply rendered hand-drawn characters and backgrounds, and well-resolved computer-animated elements. Problems arise, though. Artifacting, macroblocking and digital noise, minor as they are, make a few appearances, and slight aliasing and faint pixelation are rather common. While I didn&#8217;t run into any scenes that were crippled by encoding or source inadequacies, the closer I looked, the more I noticed. Be that as it may, it&#8217;s becoming more and more clear that the issues that plague the DCU Animation transfers trace back to shortcomings in the productions. Ultimately, <em>Year One</em>&#8216;s presentation isn&#8217;t as striking as I had hoped, but it isn&#8217;t nearly as bad as I feared.</p>
<p><strong>Audio Quality</strong></p>
<p>Warner&#8217;s DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track hits harder and pushes <em>Year One</em> to new heights. It isn&#8217;t quite as immersive as the crime-ridden city herself, but the original sound design isn&#8217;t always as cinematic as the visuals it accompanies. Even so, the rear speakers are certainly up to the task, grabbing hold of every rickety monorail car, inner-city terminal, distant police siren, throaty car engine, downpour, street noise, shattering window, and swarming bat that graces the soundscape. Ambience is persistent and effective, interior acoustics are impressive (especially for a direct-to-video animation production), and bursts of absorbing directionality deliver some great movement. Low-end output struck me as tad hollow in some (limited) regards as the movie gained momentum &#8212; Gunshots, car wrecks and explosions sound fantastic. The bass in the movie&#8217;s music score? Not so much &#8212; but, by and large, the LFE channel doesn&#8217;t disappoint and keeps things pounding along. To top it all off, dialogue and narration are clean, clear and distinct throughout, with nary a muffled or mangled line to complain about. As it stands, <em>Batman</em>&#8216;s lossless mix is the highlight of the disc.</p>
<p><strong>Special Features &amp; Extras</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Audio Commentary</strong>: Voice director Andrea Romano, creative director of animation for DC Entertainment Mike Carlin, co-producer Alan Burnett and co-director Sam Liu sit down for a thoughtful, informative and rather engrossing commentary that covers almost every aspect of the production, the adaptation, the performances, the animation, the characters and interpretations of key events, and the end result. They&#8217;re refreshingly honest as well, addressing potentially troubling aspects of the film (its runtime for starters, a product of being so faithful to Frank Miller&#8217;s four-issue story) and approaching each scene with measured compliments and a number of insights.</li>
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<li><strong>Heart of Vengeance: Returning Batman to His Roots</strong> (HD, 23 minutes): Burnett, Carlin, former DC Comics editor Denny O&#8217;Neil, <em>Dark Knight Rises</em> producer Michael Uslan, writer and former DC editor Len Wein and others discuss Batman&#8217;s origins as a comicbook, the title&#8217;s early Silver Age neutering (Approved by the Comics Code Authority!), the demise of the campy Batman TV series, the Dark Knight&#8217;s dark rebirth, the introduction of realism into Batman&#8217;s storylines, Frank Miller&#8217;s inspirations and approach to the character, <em>The Dark Knight Returns</em> and <em>Batman: Year One</em>, the critically acclaimed stories&#8217; impact on comics and culture, Gotham&#8217;s evolution and much, much more. The documentaries featured on each passing DC Animation release are, hands down, some of the best comicbook retrospectives, superhero and mythos dissections, and comic industry histories in existence, and &#8220;Heart of Vengeance&#8221; is no different.</li>
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<li><strong>Conversations with DC Comics: Featuring the 2011 Batman Creative Team</strong> (HD, 39 minutes): &#8220;Conversations with DC Comics&#8221; is actually a bull session of sorts with O&#8217;Neil, Uslan, DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio and DC Comics writer Scott Snyder. In it, the four men chat candidly about Frank Miller, <em>The Dark Knight Returns</em>, <em>Batman: Year One</em>, its animated adaptation, generational impressions of the comic and character, Batman&#8217;s influence on popular culture, Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan&#8217;s films, Gotham&#8217;s role in the Batman universe, and other hot Bat topics.</li>
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<li><strong>DC Showcase: <em>Catwoman</em></strong> (HD, 15 minutes): The latest DC Showcase animated short abandons the comicshop intro of previous shorts (which I kind of dug) and goes dark and dirty, tying in with <em>Batman: Year One</em> reasonably well. (There&#8217;s even a surprise cameo near the end.) Written by Dan DiDio, <em>Catwoman</em> is light on story and heavy on action, with anime-inspired animation that, once again, is more cinematic than the feature film it accompanies. Not that I&#8217;m complaining. It&#8217;s perfect for a Showcase short. The story stalls a bit at the outset, though, with two-and-a-half minutes of pole dancing &#8212; yep, two minutes of pole dancing; first with some random stripper, then with the Cat herself &#8212; a rather extraneous and gratuitous stretch of T&amp;A that subsequently makes this short a decidedly Mature Audiences addition to the DC Showcase family.</li>
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<li><strong>Batman: Year One, Chapter One Digital Comic</strong> (HD): Read the first issue of Miller and illustrator David Mazzucchelli&#8217;s <em>Batman: Year One</em> in English, French, German or Spanish.</li>
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<li><strong>Sneak Peeks</strong> (HD, 33 minutes): Extended Sneak Peaks are available for <em>Justice League: Doom</em> (due in 2012), <em>All-Star Superman</em> and <em>Green Lantern: Emerald Knights</em> (both of which arrived earlier this year). <em>Doom </em>looks intriguing and boasts a fantastic voice cast teeming with old fan-favorites, but combining two potentially disparate stories into one presumably 70 to 80-minute animated movie is cause for some concern. Hopefully, Timm and his team will strike a nice balance.</li>
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<li><strong>Bruce Timm Top Picks: Classic <em>Batman</em> Episodes</strong> (SD, 43 minutes): &#8220;Catwalk&#8221; from <em>Batman: The Animated Series</em> and &#8220;Cult of the Cat&#8221; from <em>The New Batman Adventures</em>.</li>
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<li><strong>Trailers</strong> (HD/SD, 3 minutes): Previews and promos for the new <em>Thundercats</em> television series featuring the voice talent of Will Friedel (who voiced future Batman Terry McGinnis in <em>Batman: Beyond</em>), <em>Mad</em>, <em>Young Justice</em> and the DCU Digital Comics app and service.</li>
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<p><strong>Final Grade</strong></p>
<p><em>Batman: Year One</em> doesn&#8217;t always soar, but when it does, it makes for a memorable sight. More faithful than most DCU animated adaptations, and more cinematic to boot, it preserves much of what Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli accomplished and only loses its way here and there (mainly due to McKenzie&#8217;s weak, lockjaw narration). Warner&#8217;s Blu-Ray release is even better. Its video transfer looks great (despite stumbling on occasion), its DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is excellent and its supplemental package is quite generous. Recommended.</p>
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