Once Upon a Time In Wonderland was an intriguing concept. Where most TV spinoffs usually feel forced, like an attempt to simply cash in on the success of the parent show, Wonderland at least had potential. The world of Once Upon a Time is so vast, and we’ve only scratched the surface of the many worlds and realms that have been seen and mentioned on the show, that it seemed like the perfect setup for a spinoff. We’d gotten a few glimpses at Wonderland, either dealing with Jefferson/the Mad Hatter or Cora/the Queen of Hearts, but the potential was there just waiting to be tapped. Unfortunately, the end result didn’t exactly live up to that potential, but it was still an experiment worth trying and provided us with some memorable characters.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably bought many DVDs and Blu-rays over the years that have come with “digital copies,” which you proceeded to ignore. Until recently, I had no interest in digital versions of my movie collection. I had no interest in watching movies on my computer when my TV is just one room away, I didn’t want my hard drive filled up with movies I would never watch, and I didn’t own a portable device capable of playing a digital copy. However, for the past couple weeks I’ve been in the process of going through my many boxes of empty DVD cases (I keep all of my DVDs in sleeves/booklets) and while removing the paperwork from the cases I ended up with a stack of redemption codes for digital movies. When I combined that stack with a newly purchased computer and my iPhone, I started to reconsider digital copies. In the process of sorting through these movies and codes I learned a few things that might be of interest to anyone else out there like me, who has these codes but doesn’t know what’s involved in obtaining a digital copy or why such a thing would be appealing. I would imagine at this point most average consumers still don’t care much about owning digital copies of movies (and this is without getting into the whole Digital Rights Management debate, which is a topic for another time), and are content with their physical copies or streaming services like Netflix. However, I would bet the average movie watcher owns at least a few “combo packs” that came with a digital copy, and might be curious about it. So here are some things that you might find it useful to know. Continue reading
2011’s The Muppets was hilarious, heartfelt, emotional, nostalgic, zany and inventive, and it brought the Muppets back to the level of success and relevance they deserve. Muppets Most Wanted is all of those things as well, but to a somewhat lesser degree. The Muppets was such a revelation and a revitalization that it would be impossible for Muppets Most Wanted to match, but this new film wisely strikes out on its own path, taking things on the road and steering well clear of recycling the story from the last movie. And in the end, no matter how the rest of the film plays out, it’s always good to see the Muppets together again.
Muppets Most Wanted picks up literally right where The Muppets left off, replicating the final shot of that film. Continue reading
The Love Pirate 