The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle & Friends ~ Fractured Fairy
- Limited edition!
- Very collectable!
- Born April 9, 2000
- Surface washable
- Retired!
Meet Emily and Paul: The parents of two young children, Emily is the newly promoted VP of marketing at a large corporation while Paul works from home or from clients' offices as an independent IT consultant. Their lives, like all of ours, are filled with a bewildering blizzard of emails, phone calls, yet more emails, meetings, projects, proposals, and plans. Just staying ahead of the storm has become a seemingly insurmountable task.
In this book, we travel inside Emily and Paul's brains as they attempt to sort the vast quantities of information they're presented with, figure out how to prioritize it, organize it and act on it. Fortunately for Emily and Paul, they're in good hands: David Rock knows how the brain works-and more specifically, how it works in a work setting. Rock shows how it's possible for Emily and Paul, and thus the r! eader, not only to survive in today's overwhelming work enviro! nment bu t succeed in it-and still feel energized and accomplished at the end of the day.
YOUR BRAIN AT WORK explores issues such as:
- why our brains feel so taxed, and how to maximize our mental resources
- why it's so hard to focus, and how to better manage distractions
- how to maximize your chance of finding insights that can solve seemingly insurmountable problems
- how to keep your cool in any situation, so that you can make the best decisions possible
- how to collaborate more effectively with others
- why providing feedback is so difficult, and how to make it easier
- how to be more effective at changing other people's behavior
The author writes, "At the heart of this simple book lies the key to many of the struggles we face these days, from being productive and achieving our goals, to getting healthy and fit in the face of fast food and inactivity, to finding simplicity and peace amidst chaos and confusion.! That key is itself simple: focus. Our ability to focus will allow us to create in ways that perhaps we haven't in years. It'll allow us to slow down and find peace of mind. It'll allow us to simplify and focus on less-on the essential things, the things that matter most.With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man -- also named Jonathan Safran Foer -- sets out to find the woman who may or may not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war; an amorous dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior; and the unforgettable Alex, a young Ukrainian translator who speaks in a sublimely butchered English, Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past.
The simplest thing would be to describe Everything Is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer's accomplished debut, as a novel about the Holocaust. It is, but that really fails to do justice to the sheer ambition of ! this book. The main story is a grimly familiar one. A young Jewish American--who just happens to be called Jonathan Safran Foer--travels to the Ukraine in the hope of finding the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. He is aided in his search by Alex Perchov, a naïve Ukrainian translator, Alex's grandfather (also called Alex), and a flatulent mongrel dog named Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. On their journey through Eastern Europe's obliterated landscape they unearth facts about the Nazi atrocities and the extent of Ukrainian complicity that have implications for Perchov as well as Safran Foer. This narrative is not, however, recounted from (the character) Jonathan Safran Foer's perspective. It is relayed through a series of letters that Alex sends to Foer. These are written in the kind of broken Russo-English normally reserved for Bond villains or Latka from Taxi. Interspersed between these letters are fragments of a novel by Safran Foer--a wonderfully imagined, almo! st magical realist, account of life in the shtetl before the N! azis des troyed it. These are in turn commented on by Alex, creating an additional metafictional angle to the tale. If all this sounds a little daunting, don't be put off; Safran Foer is an extremely funny as well as intelligent writer who combines some of the best Jewish folk yarns since Isaac Bashevis Singer with a quite heartbreaking meditation on love, friendship, and loss. --Travis Elborough, Amazon.co.uk
DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Music Only Track
Photo gallery
Theatrical Trailer
Time-travel stories have always been problematic, demanding either an extra degree of credulity on the part of the audience or an extra level of explanation on the part of storytellers, which is invariably cumbersome. Frequency handles the troublesome time parado! xes by having John explain how, having altered his past, he no! w experi ences both timelines, as if he's had two pasts that converge in his present. And as changes continue to be wrought in John's past, we see him becoming more and more confused. No doubt the audience can sympathize, at least those of us who try to follow the ramifications of the rapidly accruing time fractures. Luckily, the bond between father and son is so strongly realized in the deeply felt performances of both Caviezel and Quaid that you don't even need to consider the science fiction elements in order to enjoy the film. But if you can suspend your disbelief long enough to allow for the possibility of time shifts, you'll have a far richer experience. --Jim GayIn this fantasy thriller, a man is given an unusual opportunity to change the past and alter his future. A man whose father died 30 years ago when he was just a boy, makes a startling discovery when working with his ham radio one night: he can speak with his late father over the radio. Having inadvertently found a way to reach into the past, the man desperately struggles to warn his father of the dangers that will come his way, in hopes of changing his tragic fate.Because we see the world from a physical perspective, we often don't notice what's right in front of us â" that our spirit, thoughts, emotions, and body are all made of energy. Inside us and everywhere around us, life is vibrating. In fact, each of us has a personal vibration that accurately communicates who we are to the world and helps shape our reality. Frequency shows readers how to feel their personal vibration, improve it, and use it to shift their life from ordinary to extraordinary. A simple shift in frequency can change depression to peace, anger to stillness, and fear to enthusiasm.
Weaving together basic ideas from quantum physics with proven intuition development techniques, Frequency takes readers into deeper concepts only hinted at in recent popular books and DVD's featuring the Law of Attraction. By learning to refine the "conscious sensitivity" of their body, readers can improve relationships, find upscale solutions to probl! ems, and materialize a life that contains everything they want and need to live their destiny.
Frequency gives readers a reassuring, step-by-step roadmap into a positive state of awareness that Peirce calls The Intuition Age. By learning to use "frequency principles" â" methods based on the way energy actually functions â" readers can keep their energy level high and productive, receive subtle information directly from the environment via "empathic resonance," and quickly free themselves from negative or low "vibrations."DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Biographies
Documentaries
Interviews
Photo gallery
A renowned intuitive and visionary shows you how to know what you need to know just when you need to know it.
Intuition is not a rare gift that only a gifted few possess but an innate human capacity that can be enhanced and developed. Synthesizing insights from psychology, East- West philosop! hy, religion, metaphysics, and business, this hands-on workboo! k in the tradition of Julia Cameronâs The Artistâs Way, can teach anyone to achieve a heightened state of perceptual vitality and integrate it into daily life. Intuition, writes Penney Peirce, is ânot the opposite of logic,â but rather âa comprehensive way of knowing life that includes both left-brain analytical thinking and right-brain communication states.â On a practical level, intuition enables us to learn faster and make quicker, more inspired decisions. On a deeper level, it âis a powerful tool that can heal the painful split we all feel between our earthly, mundane selves and our divine, eternal selves.â Widely praised in its earlier editions, this new edition of The Intuitive Way, with a Foreword by Carol Adrienne, will introduce Penney Peirceâs pioneering work to a whole new readership.Frequency is really two different--though inextricably linked--movies. First, the emotional drama of a father and son reunited after 30 years of separation. Then ther! e's a science fiction thriller, in which a couple of chance solar storms, occurring exactly 30 years apart, can provide the agency through which the father and son can communicate using the very same ham radio in parallel time frames of 1969 and 1999. The son is John Sullivan (Jim Caviezel), a cop, and his father is Frank (Dennis Quaid), a firefighter who died on the job when John was 6, which just happens to be tomorrow for Frank when he and his now-adult son begin talking across time. This is great for John, because now he can warn his dad about the upcoming fire and avert the catastrophe that left him fatherless for most of his life. Accomplishing this gives John new memories of his life with Dad, but unfortunately alters the course of a serial killer, with tragic effect on John's family history. Since John's a cop, and the case he's working on turns out to be the same unsolved case from 30 years before, he and his father work together over the ham radio to solve the ! case and hopefully avert the tragedy that befell their family! .
Tim e-travel stories have always been problematic, demanding either an extra degree of credulity on the part of the audience or an extra level of explanation on the part of storytellers, which is invariably cumbersome. Frequency handles the troublesome time paradoxes by having John explain how, having altered his past, he now experiences both timelines, as if he's had two pasts that converge in his present. And as changes continue to be wrought in John's past, we see him becoming more and more confused. No doubt the audience can sympathize, at least those of us who try to follow the ramifications of the rapidly accruing time fractures. Luckily, the bond between father and son is so strongly realized in the deeply felt performances of both Caviezel and Quaid that you don't even need to consider the science fiction elements in order to enjoy the film. But if you can suspend your disbelief long enough to allow for the possibility of time shifts, you'll have a far rich! er experience. --Jim GayDVD
EPISODES INCLUDE
There are Monsters Among Us
Marcus' Inner Strenght
The Return of Thomas
The New Team of Marcus and Thomas
Digital World, Here We Come
The Ultimate Team No More
A Birthday Kristy Will Never Forget
The Singer's Secret
Never Meet Your Heroes
Curse This Curse-Marcus' Bad Day
The Vile Of Vilemon
The Digi-egg That Fell To Earth
The Rise of Greymon
After exposure to cosmic radiation, four astronauts become the most remarkable, if dysfunctional, superheroes of all time. Unfortunately, the mission's sponsor has also been transformed ? into the world's most lethal supervillain ? setting the stage for a confrontation of epic proportions. Pack! ed with nonstop action, big laughs and awesome special effects, Fantastic 4 is "powerful fun" (The Baltimore Sun) from start to finish!Marvel Comics' first family of superherodom, the Fantastic Four, hits the big screen in a light-hearted and funny adventure. It begins when down-on-his-luck genius Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd, Horatio Hornblower) has to enlist the financial and intellectual help from former schoolmate and rival Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon, Nip/Tuck) in order to pursue outer-space research into human DNA. Also on the trip are Reed's best friend, Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis, The Shield); his former lover, Sue Storm (Jessica Alba, Dark Angel, Sin City), who's now Doom's employee and love interest; and her hotshot-pilot brother, Johnny Storm (Chris Evans, Cellular). Things don't go as planned, of course, and the quartet becomes blessed--or is it cursed?--with superhuman powers: flexibility, brute strength, invisib! ility and projecting force fields, and bursting into flame. M! eanwhile , Doom himself is undergoing a transformation.
Among the many entries in the comic-book-movie frenzy, Fantastic Four is refreshing because it doesn't take itself too seriously. Characterization isn't too deep, and the action is a bit sparse until the final reel (like most "first" superhero movies, it has to go through the "how did we get these powers and what we will do with them" churn). But it's a good-looking cast, and original comic-book cocreator Stan Lee makes his most significant Marvel-movie cameo yet, in a speaking role as the FF's steadfast postal carrier, Willie Lumpkin. Newcomers to superhero movies might find the idea of a family with flexibility, strength, invisibility, and force fields a retread of The Incredibles, but Pixar's animated film was very much a tribute to the FF and other heroes of the last 40 years. The irony is that while Fantastic Four is an enjoyable B-grade movie, it's the tribute, The Incredibles, that turne! d out to be a film for the ages. --David Horiuchi
On the DVD
The principal extra on the DVD is a spirited commentary track by Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, and Ioan Gruffud. Self-avowed FF fan Chiklis explains why the Thing doesn't have a craggy brow, Alba recalls which things were "cool," and they talk about looking forward to the sequel. There are three short deleted scenes (including a goofy Wolverine reference), 20 minutes of barely watchable hand-held video footage from the press tour, music videos, and some short featurettes including an appearance by FF creator Stan Lee. --David Horiuchi
The Fantastic Four at Amazon.com
| Comics and Graphic Novels | ! Disney animated series | The classic comic book |
| Movie tie-in graphic novel | The Xbox game | Fantastic Four Soundtrack |
The Fantastic Cast
Jessica Alb! a as Sue Storm | Michael Chiklis as The Thing |
Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards | Chris Evans as Johnny Storm |
Stills from Fantastic Four (click for larger images)
| ! |
Catch a wave of "terrific adventure" and "non-stop action" (CBS-TV) in this fun and fantastically entertaining smash-hit! "Invisible Woman: Sue Storm and "Mr. Fantastic" Dr. Reed Richards are about to be married when a mysterious alien... the Silver Surfer... crashes the proceedings and heralds Earth's impending destruction. With time running out, the Fantastic Four reluctantly teams up with the nefarious Dr. Doom in a thrilling effort to save our planet!Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is another entertaining romp for the Marvel-superhero franchise. Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd), is treading on thin ice when his fiancée, Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba), thinks he's more interested in a series of cosmic phenomena occurring around the earth than in the preparations for their upcoming wedding. Sorry, ladies, but Reed is right. The disturbances are caused by a surge of cosmic p! ower from a mysterious being called the Silver Surfer (an all-CGI creation, modeled by Doug Jones and voiced by Laurence Fishburne), who not only zooms around the skies on his board, but also has enough power to fight the FF, sometimes by turning their own power against them, not only mixing up Sue and Reed, but also Johnny Storm, the Human Torch (Chris Evans), and Ben Grimm, the Thing (Michael Chiklis). But that's not the worst of it. The Surfer is only an opening act, a herald looking for planets that his master, Galactus, can consume for his sustenance.
With its initial installment, Fantastic Four established itself as the superhero franchise that didn't take itself too seriously, and that continues here. There are numerous moments of laugh-out-loud humor, and the most angst they suffer is whether Sue and Reed will ever be able to live a normal family life. (That, and whether they'll ever really get married, of course.) If Fantastic Four were a normal s! uperhero franchise, the ending would be a knock-down drag-out ! war with Galactus, featuring the FF in a colossal battle for the planet Earth and the lives of everyone on it. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer just doesn't do that, and we don't quite get the payoff we expected. Effects are dazzling, but the Surfer looks too metallic, more like a skyriding T-1000 robot. --David Horiuchi
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Extras
View exclusive clips (including interviews with Fantastic Four Creator Stan Lee and Screenwriter Don Payne), download AIM icons and wallpapers and browse the extensive photo gallery at our Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer minisite.
| Fantastic Four Toys & Games | Fantastic Four Paperback Series | Fantastic Four Comics & Graphic Novels | Fantastic Four Video Games | Fantastic Four Posters, Stickers and More | Fantastic Four Apparel |
| Fantastic Four Extended Cut | The Fantastic Four Animated Series | Fantastic Four on Blu-Ray |
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Afte! r exposure to cosmic radiation, four astronauts become the mos! t remark able, if dysfunctional, superheroes of all time. Unfortunately, the mission's sponsor has also been transformed ? into the world's most lethal supervillain ? setting the stage for a confrontation of epic proportions. Packed with nonstop action, big laughs and awesome special effects, Fantastic 4 is "powerful fun" (The Baltimore Sun) from start to finish!Marvel Comics' first family of superherodom, the Fantastic Four, hits the big screen in a light-hearted and funny adventure. It begins when down-on-his-luck genius Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd, Horatio Hornblower) has to enlist the financial and intellectual help from former schoolmate and rival Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon, Nip/Tuck) in order to pursue outer-space research into human DNA. Also on the trip are Reed's best friend, Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis, The Shield); his former lover, Sue Storm (Jessica Alba, Dark Angel, Sin City), who's now Doom's employee and love interest; and her! hotshot-pilot brother, Johnny Storm (Chris Evans, Cellular). Things don't go as planned, of course, and the quartet becomes blessed--or is it cursed?--with superhuman powers: flexibility, brute strength, invisibility and projecting force fields, and bursting into flame. Meanwhile, Doom himself is undergoing a transformation.
Among the many entries in the comic-book-movie frenzy, Fantastic Four is refreshing because it doesn't take itself too seriously. Characterization isn't too deep, and the action is a bit sparse until the final reel (like most "first" superhero movies, it has to go through the "how did we get these powers and what we will do with them" churn). But it's a good-looking cast, and original comic-book cocreator Stan Lee makes his most significant Marvel-movie cameo yet, in a speaking role as the FF's steadfast postal carrier, Willie Lumpkin. Newcomers to superhero movies might find the idea of a family with flexibility, strength, invis! ibility, and force fields a retread of The Incredibles,! but Pix ar's animated film was very much a tribute to the FF and other heroes of the last 40 years. The irony is that while Fantastic Four is an enjoyable B-grade movie, it's the tribute, The Incredibles, that turned out to be a film for the ages. --David Horiuchi
The Fantastic Four at Amazon.com
| Comics and Graphic Novels | Disney animated series | The classic comic book |
| Movie tie-in graphic novel | The Xbox game | Fantastic Four Soundtrack |
The Fantastic Cast
Jessica Alba as Sue Storm | Michael Chiklis as The Thing |
Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards! | Chris Evans as Johnny Storm |
Stills from Fantastic Four (click for larger images)
Catch a wave of "terrific adventure" and "non-stop action" (CBS-TV) in this fun and fantastically entertaining smash-hit! "Invisible Woman: Sue Storm and "Mr. Fantastic" Dr. Reed Richards are about to be married when a mysterious ali! en... the Silver Surfer... crashes the proceedings and heralds Earth's impending destruction. With time running out, the Fantastic Four reluctantly teams up with the nefarious Dr. Doom in a thrilling effort to save our planet!Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is another entertaining romp for the Marvel-superhero franchise. Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd), is treading on thin ice when his fiancée, Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba), thinks he's more interested in a series of cosmic phenomena occurring around the earth than in the preparations for their upcoming wedding. Sorry, ladies, but Reed is right. The disturbances are caused by a surge of cosmic power from a mysterious being called the Silver Surfer (an all-CGI creation, modeled by Doug Jones and voiced by Laurence Fishburne), who not only zooms around the skies on his board, but also has enough power to fight the FF, sometimes by turning their own power against them, not only! mixing up Sue and Reed, but also Johnny Storm, the Human Torc! h (Chris Evans), and Ben Grimm, the Thing (Michael Chiklis). But that's not the worst of it. The Surfer is only an opening act, a herald looking for planets that his master, Galactus, can consume for his sustenance.
With its initial installment, Fantastic Four established itself as the superhero franchise that didn't take itself too seriously, and that continues here. There are numerous moments of laugh-out-loud humor, and the most angst they suffer is whether Sue and Reed will ever be able to live a normal family life. (That, and whether they'll ever really get married, of course.) If Fantastic Four were a normal superhero franchise, the ending would be a knock-down drag-out war with Galactus, featuring the FF in a colossal battle for the planet Earth and the lives of everyone on it. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer⦠just doesn't do that, and we don't quite get the payoff we expected. Effects are dazzling, but the Surfer looks too metall! ic, more like a skyriding T-1000 robot. --David Horiuchi
View Stills from the Blu-Ray's Exclusive Games (Click for larger image):
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Galactus is ready to feast, and only Reed Richards can save the inhabitants of Nu-World. Sue Richards is mediator between the long-lost tribe of Old ! Atlantis and Prince Namor, who is itching to mete out ages-old! vengean ce. Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm are the last line of defense against the coming of a new Annihilation Wave through the
Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis head a sexy, star-powered cast in this explosive adventure about a quartet of flawed, ordinary human beings who suddenly find themselves with extraordinary abilities.
After exposure to cosmic radiation, four astronauts become the most remarkable, if dysfunctional, superheroes of all time. Unfortunately, the mission's sponsor has also been transformed ? into the world's most lethal supervillain ? setting the stage for a confrontation of epic proportions. Packed with nonstop action, big laughs and awesome special effects, Fantastic 4 is ! "powerful fun" (The Baltimore Sun) from start to finish!Â
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Catch a wave of "terrific adventure" and "non-stop action" (CBS-TV) in this fun and fantastically entertaining smash-hit! "Invisible Woman: Sue Storm and "Mr. Fantastic" Dr. Reed Richards are about to be married when a mysterious alien... the Silver Surfer... crashes the proceedings and heralds Earth's impending destruction. With time running out, the Fantastic Four reluctantly teams up with the nefarious Dr. Doom in a thrilling effort to save our planet!
Daredevil
For Daredevil, justice is blind, and for the guilty?there's hell to pay! Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner ignite dangerous sparks and nonstop thrills in this "dazzling action-adventure" (The Film Journal) about the newest breed of superhero. By day, blind attorney Matt Murdock (Affleck) toils for justice in Hell's K! itchen. By night, he's Daredevil, The Man Without Fear - a po! werful, masked vigilante stalking the dark streets with an uncanny "radar sense" that allows him to "see" with superhuman capabilities. But when the love of his life, fiery Elektra Natchios (Garner), is targeted by New York City's ruthless Kingpin of crime (Michael Clarke Duncan) and his deadly assassin Bullseye (Colin Farrell), Daredevil may be about to meet his match.
Among the many entries in the comic-book-movie frenzy, Fantastic Four is refreshing because it doesn't take itself too seriously. Characterization isn't too deep, and the action is a bit sparse until the final reel (like most "first" superhero movies, it has to go through the "how did we get these powers and what we will do with them" churn). But it's a good-looking cast, and original comic-book cocreator Stan Lee makes his most significant Marvel-movie cameo yet, in a speaking role as the FF's steadfast postal carrier, Willi! e Lumpkin. Newcomers to superhero movies might find the idea ! of a fam ily with flexibility, strength, invisibility, and force fields a retread of The Incredibles, but Pixar's animated film was very much a tribute to the FF and other heroes of the last 40 years. The irony is that while Fantastic Four is an enjoyable B-grade movie, it's the tribute, The Incredibles, that turned out to be a film for the ages. --David Horiuchi
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is another entertaining romp for the Marvel-superhero franchise. Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd), is treading on thin ice when his fiancée, Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba), thinks he's more interested in a series of cosmic phenomena occurring around the earth than in the preparations for their upcoming wedding. Sorry, ladies, but Reed is right. The disturbances are caused by a surge of cosmic power from a mysterious being c! alled the Silver Surfer (an all-CGI creation, modeled by Doug Jones and voiced by Laurence Fishburne), who not only zooms around the skies on his board, but also has enough power to fight the FF, sometimes by turning their own power against them, not only mixing up Sue and Reed, but also Johnny Storm, the Human Torch (Chris Evans), and Ben Grimm, the Thing (Michael Chiklis). But that's not the worst of it. The Surfer is only an opening act, a herald looking for planets that his master, Galactus, can consume for his sustenance.
With its initial installment, Fantastic Four established itself as the superhero franchise that didn't take itself too seriously, and that continues here. There are numerous moments of laugh-out-loud humor, and the most angst they suffer is whether Sue and Reed will ever be able to live a normal family life. (That, and whether they'll ever really get married, of course.) If Fantastic Four were a normal superhero fra! nchise, the ending would be a knock-down drag-out war with Ga! lactus, featuring the FF in a colossal battle for the planet Earth and the lives of everyone on it. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer just doesn't do that, and we don't quite get the payoff we expected. Effects are dazzling, but the Surfer looks too metallic, more like a skyriding T-1000 robot. --David Horiuchi
Daredevil
Darker than its popular comic-book predecessor Spider-Man, the $80 million extravaganza Daredevil was packaged for maximum global appeal, its juvenile plot beginning when 12-year-old Matt Murdock is accidentally blinded shortly before his father is murdered. Later an adult attorney in New York's Hell's Kitchen, Murdock (Ben Affleck) uses his remaining, superenhanced senses to battle crime as Daredevil, the masked and vengeful "man without fear," pitted against dominant criminal Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan) and the psychotic Bullseye (Colin Farrell), who can turn almost an! ything into a deadly projectile. Daredevil is well matched with the dynamic Elektra (Jennifer Garner), but their teaming is as shallow as the movie itself, which is peppered with Marvel trivia and cameo appearances (creator Stan Lee, Clerks director and Daredevil devotee Kevin Smith) and enough computer-assisted stuntwork to give Spidey a run for his money. This is Hollywood product at its most lavishly vacuous; die-hard fans will argue its merits while its red-leathered hero swoops and zooms toward a sequel. --Jeff Shannon
It's here--the longest-running Marvel series in history arrives for the first time on DVD in this spectacular four-disc set, featuring all 26 episodes of the heralded 1990's animated series. Learn the origin of the Fantastic Four, and be there as Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing save the world from the dastardly Doctor Doom and his legion of villains. Now you can relive every action-pack! ed episode, complete with exclusive introductions by Stan Lee.! It's a fantastic DVD collection you'll want to experience over and over again.Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four animated series (1994-95)--depicting the first family of superheroes--got significantly better as it went along. The series always had good intentions, borrowing plots, concepts, characters, and even lines of dialogue from the classic Stan Lee-Jack Kirby comic books that kicked off the Marvel age of comics. And it was willing to spend two or even three episodes on a single story line. The early episodes, however, had serious drawbacks, such as a clumsy animation style (the Silver Surfer never looked less noble), weak humor (the origin episode created a framing sequence in which the FF appears on the Dick Cavett Show), and an awful theme song by Giorgio Moroder (Flashdance, Top Gun). Fortunately, the animation improved in the second season, and instrumental theme music replaced the song. Memorable moments from the series include the monumental ! Frightful Four-Inhumans tie-in and Galactus's search for a new herald. Memorable characters include villains Doctor Doom, the Skrulls, the Mole Man, and the Puppet Master, and heroes Daredevil, the Black Panther, Thor, and the Hulk. Guest voices include Ron Perlman, Michael Dorn, Kathy Ireland, Mark Hamill, and John Rhys-Davies. It's worth a look for FF fans, especially in the complete four-disc set that contains all 29 episodes, a welcome change from Disney's single-disc compilations of the Spider-Man series from the same time period. (Ages 8 and older: cartoon action, threatening situations, some mature concepts) --David Horiuchi