CliqueClack

The Middle, Honey Boo Boo and Mama’s Family come to home video

Middle and rural America is well-represented on home video this week with the release of the fourth season of The Middle, the first season of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, the third season of Mama’s Family and the first and second seasons of The Waltons. For fans of thrills and chills, we’ve got season five of Ghost Adventures and the complete series of the classic Monsters. Fans of legal dramas can enjoy the first season of L.A. Law and the fourteenth season of the original Law & Order. These titles and more are available on home video February 25, and you can see all the highlights in our handy shopper’s guide. Click on a link to get more information or to make a purchase. Any purchase made through our Amazon links helps support our efforts here at CliqueClack, and for that we thank you!

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Oscar nominees Gravity, Nebraska and Frozen come to home video

It’s almost Oscar night and a collection of award hopefuls have hit home video this week including Gravity, Nebraska, and Frozen. Another big title to come out this week is Thor: The Dark World. With all of these major titles hitting the week of February 25, some smaller films may get lost in the shuffle like Muscle Shoals, Bullet, and Blue is the Warmest Color. But you can check them out now on video! Some older films are also getting spiffed up with new DVD and Blu-ray releases including The Shadow, Tess and Breathless. You can see all of the week’s highlights in our shopper’s guide, and you can click on a link to get more information or to make a purchase. Any purchase made at Amazon through these links helps support our efforts here at CliqueClack, and for that we thank you!

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See NBC’s Crisis in Baltimore or DC before it airs

All passes for this event have been claimed. Please follow @CliqueClack on Twitter for contest alerts, news and reviews.

CliqueClack has partnered with NBC and Allied Integrated Marketing to offer readers in the Baltimore and DC areas an opportunity to attend an advance screening of the new TV series Crisis starring Gillian Anderson and Dermot Mulroney. How far would you go to protect the ones you love? When a group of D.C. high-school students is kidnapped during a field trip, their mothers and fathers, some of country’s biggest power players, are forced to do unthinkable things — like jeopardize national security — to ensure their kids’ safety.

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Non-Stop is a fun, but ultimately silly, thriller

I hate flying. Well, not so much the flying but the taking off and landing. So I have something in common with Liam Neeson’s character in the new thriller Non-Stop. In the film, Neeson plays Bill Marks, an alcoholic, depressed air marshall who may or may not be having a beef with his employer. The similarities between the character and myself ended at “afraid to fly.” Of course, that fear of flying makes air marshall not such a good career choice and Marks seems to be at the end of his rope when he’s about to board another flight.

Marks sits next to Jen Summers (Julianne Moore), a seasoned flyer who helps put him at ease during takeoff, and when they’re safely in the air Marks starts getting texts on his secure line with threats to start killing passengers every twenty minutes unless $150 million is wired to a specific account. Turns out the account is in Marks’ name, and he suddenly becomes the prime suspect in the eyes of the feds. Could Marks really be the culprit? Could it be Jen, or the flight attendant Marks is friendly with, or perhaps one of the other red herrings we’re introduced to at the beginning of the film?

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The Gravity Blu-ray delivers the goods

When Gravity first hit cinema screens, it was arguably the best movie of the year, a film that seemed to be a sure bet for Oscar glory for Best Picture as well as Sandra Bullocks bravura performance as an astronaut stranded alone in space, trying to find a way back to earth, and learning more about herself than she ever knew before in the process.

Since then, many more excellent films have emerged as Oscar Best Picture front runners with 12 Years a Slave or American Hustle most likely the film to take home the gold, and Cate Blanchett an almost sure thing to overtake Sandy as Best Actress for her brilliant performance in Blue Jasmine. Looking at Gravity again on Blu-ray, it still holds up as a pretty exciting thrill ride, but even considering it as Best Picture material seems a bit of a stretch (and who knows, if the two front runners split the vote, Gravity could end up winning).

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There’s more to Legendary’s new Godzilla trailer than meets the eye

When I was a kid, Saturday nights were about the horror movies, the monster movies.

Big tub o’ popcorn, chocolate milk, pound of Jujubes or your candy of choice and look out — it was CreepFest time.

All through the week, we’d wonder what was in store for the following Saturday. You see … in the dinosaur era of television (again, in my youth) you went grocery shopping with your mom. It wasn’t a chore to do so, either. Why? Because you got the opportunity to snag the latest issue of TV Guide and see what monster flick was expected on the boob tube. Any subversive movie would do, but Godzilla flicks were the preferred. Not that we had a choice, you understand. (Note: Little freaks and weirdos that we were, we used to collect magazines, comics, etc. that came out and we’d clip all monster images we spied. We’d share them amongst each other with the best, most unique or different photos garnering bragging rights for the month.)

My friends and I knew all the names of the kaiju in Godzilla’s crew: King Ghidorah, Minilla (not “Baby Godzilla” … Minilla … !!!), Mothra, Baragon, Hedorah (The Smog Monster), Anguirus, Rodan, Manda, Kumonga and the rest. We were giant monster crazy … something that still persists today. (Yeah … I dog-dug Pacific Rim that came out last summer.) Continue reading 'There’s more to Legendary’s new Godzilla trailer than meets the eye' »

Win passes to see 300: Rise of an Empire in Baltimore or DC

All passes have been claimed. Please follow @CliqueClack on Twitter for contest alerts, news and reviews.

CliqueClack has partnered with Warner Brothers Pictures and Allied Integrated Marketing to offer readers in the Baltimore and DC areas an opportunity to attend an advance screening of the new movie 300:Rise of an Empire starring Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Lena Headey, Hans Matheson, Rodrigo Santoro, Callan Mulvey, David Wenham, Jack O’Connell, Andrew Tiernan, Igal Naor and Andrew Pleavin.

Based on Frank Miller’s latest graphic novel Xerxes and told in the breathtaking visual style of the blockbuster 300, this new chapter of the epic saga takes the action to a fresh battlefield — on the sea — as Greek general Themistokles (Stapleton) attempts to unite all of Greece by leading the charge that will change the course of the war. 300: Rise of an Empire pits Themistokles against the massive invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes (Santoro), and Artemisia (Green), vengeful commander of the Persian navy.

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See you on the other side, Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis)

It’s been over 24 hours since I first heard the sad news that Harold Ramis had passed away due to an illness, but that doesn’t make the bitter realization that another beloved piece of my childhood has died any easier to swallow. As I read all the celebrity Tweets and watched the tremendous outpouring of love and respect from Ramis fans all over the world on my Facebook feed, the sting of his death really hit home for me. A celebrity death hasn’t affected me so deeply since the passing of another ‘80s icon – director/writer John Hughes in 2009.

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Colossus: The Forbin Project is one crafty science fiction thriller

Fact: You can’t see everything, you can’t get to everything, you can’t know everything. That’s precisely why things have the tendency to slip through the cracks.

Take Colossus: The Forbin Project for example.

How did I miss this film? It wasn’t for lack of trying (I wasn’t!) or knowing it was out there. (I didn’t know!) If films like this have buzzed under my radar, I’m certain there are others awaiting my discovery.

I was introduced to Colossus by a brother from another mother, a relative-in-law who shares not only the same humor I do but a lot of my same interests. In this case he shared a heretofore unknown film.

Released at the beginning of the 70s, Colossus is a smart science fiction thriller based on the titular novel by Dennis Feltham Jones. It tells the story of a government defense computer which not only becomes smarter (in leaps and bounds) than its creators but ends up acting on its own delusions of grandeur with cold and exacting efficiency. Dr. Charles Forbin (Eric Braeden) has birthed Colossus, a supercomputer created to maintain control of the United States’ nuclear weapons systems and would, in turn, push toward world peace. The computer is designed not only with its own defense system (rendering it impervious to physical attack) but with a self-sustaining nuclear reactor. (Yep. I smelled trouble right there.) During a national press conference, the President of the United States (with Forbin in tow) announces Colossus’ activation as the perfect defense system. (That “trouble” feeling? About to become a reality. And sure enough …) Shortly after Colossus’ switch is flipped, it cryptically informs the conference “there is another system” which causes the room to buzz. Immediately, there is a call from the ambassador of the Soviet Union who announces they have supercomputer version of Colossus dubbed “Guardian.” And the film is really off and running … Continue reading 'Colossus: The Forbin Project is one crafty science fiction thriller' »

Game of Thrones season three prize pack giveaway

Game of Thrones’ third seasons broke records and broke hearts … and fans experiencing the Red Wedding for the first time might have broken a couple of televisions with flying remote controls. It takes a little time for new fans of author George R. R. Martin’s series to truly understand exactly what A Song of Ice and Fire – and HBO’s adapted series – is all about. Ned Starks’ death in the first season may have been a signpost, but its only when the Rains of Castamere start playing at Edmure Tully’s wedding does it really hit home.

Earlier this week, HBO released the DVDs and Blu-Ray set of the third season, so many fans across the world are getting the opportunity to relive their “favorite” moments from last year, from the Bear and the Maiden Fair to both weddings. If you haven’t grabbed your copy yet, we’ve joined with HBO to offer you one heck of a package: Continue reading 'Game of Thrones season three prize pack giveaway' »