Paul Reubens is an interesting creature. He’s famous for a mug shot taken after a sticky arrest and for playing, if not actually being, Pee-wee Herman. To be completely honest, I don’t care about the arrest. I never did. I’ve always, or at least since seeing Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, been a fan of Pee-wee. I watched Pee-Wee’s Playhouse religiously, vividly remember going to see Big Top Pee-Wee on opening day (which makes me personally responsible for half of the film’s box office take) and not walking away feeling like I’d been fleeced. So, it should be no surprise that watching the Blu-ray of the recent HBO special The Pee-wee Show on Broadway was something I was more than happy to do.

The show is a taped version (a mixture of a live performance and a closed set recording that allowed the cameras a bit more freedom) of Pee-wee’s newest show The Pee-Wee Herman Show: The Return. The script is a combination of old material from the original stage show from 1980, bits from the CBS series Pee-wee’s Playhouse as well as newly written material.

It’s an enjoyable nostalgic romp with a few new characters and modern twists to go along with the same Pee-wee Herman that many of us grew up on. Along with Reubens the cast also includes a trio of performers reprising their roles from the 1980 production: John Moody as Mailman Mike, John Paragon as Jambi and Lynne Stewart as Miss Yvonne. Unfortunately Laurence Fishburne doesn’t return as Cowboy Curtis but Phil LaMarr does a fine job with the role (which is essentially the role that Phil Hartman’s Captain Carl had in the original stage show). Some of the puppets included in the show show include Chairry, Magic Screen, Pterri, Mr. Window, Clocley, Globey and Conky. There are also a handful of new characters including an electrician named Sergio (Jesse Garcia), a firefighter (Josh Meyers) and a silent dancing bear (Drew Powell).

The puppet work is amazing and Reubens is still able to channel Pee-Wee’s school-boy behavior with gusto and the supporting cast does a good job keeping up with his pace. I wish I could have seen it live.

The Blu-ray release includes an insightful and occasionally hillarious audio commentary featuring the entire cast (minus the silent puppeteers). The show itself is kid-friendly. The audio commentary isn’t. It would have been nice if a backstage tour was included so that audiences could get a better idea of how all the puppets worked. Maybe they didn’t want to demystify the magic.

If you’ve ever loved Pee-wee you’ll most certainly love The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway.

Released in 1996 Scream not only resurrected Wes Craven’s career as a horror director it also launched the career of Kevin Williamson and revitalized the horror genre at mainstream cinemas. The film was essentially a celebration of clichés that had become the standard plot devices in horror films. It was self-aware, witty and more fun than it was mean spirited. Scream spawned a pair of successful, but increasingly watered-down, sequels before waltzing off into its blood-soaked skyline. The joke, despite all its initial originality, just wasn’t funny or necessary anymore.

In Scream’s wake audiences were offered a decade of Scary Movie, a host of re-makes and torture porn. A decade of nonsense that was ripe for dissection. So, Williamson and Craven, along with series regulars Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette, dusted off the Ghostface Killer for another round of murderous behavior.

The story finds Sidney (Campbell) finishing off a successful book tour in her hometown of Woodsboro. But Sidney isn’t the only person returning to Woodsboro. After an extended absence Ghostface returns to terrorize a new group of teenagers including Sidney’s cousin Jill (Emma Roberts).

A decade of silence did wonders for the franchise in terms of material but the film failed to recapture its box-office glory. Scream 4 came and went like a whimper (it did have a fairly impressive run internationally). A shame, considering the film was the second best entry in the series.

The Blu-ray release of Scream 4 is fairly impressive. The audio and video faithfully recreate the look and feel of the theatrical presentation. The supplement material is a bit on the fluffy side but offers a decent look behind the scenes. The best bonus being the collection of deleted and extended scenes (including an alternate opening and extended ending) with commentary from Craven. Here Craven gives some insight to the production process and how the film changed at the request of the film’s producers. Some of this material is also covered in the film’s audio commentary but in that commentary Craven tends to be pushed aside as stars Emma Roberts and Hayden Panettiere ramble on and on without ever actually saying anything. Neve Campbell does chime in from time to time but because she is on the phone, rather than actually being in the room with the others, she tends to be mute. There’s also a fairly decent making-of featurette.

If you missed Scream 4 in theaters (which most of you did) I’d highly recommend giving the film a chance this Halloween season. It’s far better than most of the schlock that I’ve been digging through the last few weeks.

Written and directed by Joshua Butler VLOG is an “extreme-horror film about a real-life webcam girl whose online murder is not what it seems.” The “real-life webcam girl” being Brooke Marks who, as advertised, has a real pay-to-view video blog. The film was originally released as a web series in 2008 and caused some sort of sensation as reality and fiction collided when it was reported that Brooke Marks had died and a vicious video of her murder was posted on the web. Of course this was all a publicity stunt. One that didn’t work too well since this is the first I’ve heard of it.

Following the live broadcast of Brooke’s murder the first half VLOG goes back in time to show a  series of vlog posts where Brooke attacks vlog culture, a boyfriend with telephone addiction, a boyfriend with a rubber ducky, morning breath, haters and a variety of other vapid subjects. The horror aspect of the film kicks in when the subjects of her various rants are killed off one by one and the killer, being the sharing type, is kind enough to send Brooke footage of the murders. These killings are extremely gory and leave nothing to the imagination. Throw in some incompetent policemen and a twist and you’ve got VLOG.

Gorehounds will probably get a kick out of the blood and guts aspect of the film but beyond the carnage there isn’t much to keep VLOG from drifting off into oblivion. If you want to see a terrifying film about the dangers of the internet you’d be better off watching Megan Is Missing or revisiting Hard Candy.

We are giving away 5 copies of Big Bang Theory Season 4 on DVD!

I’ll be honest, I haven’t seen this show and keep getting told it’s amazing by a diverse group of people. I’ll be cracking open season four and giving it a shot.

Here’s the description of this season from Amazon.

This season the Big Bang gang’s romantic universe expands. On the rebound from Penny, Leonard falls into the arms of Raj’s sister Priya. Sheldon gets a girlfriend, or rather a friend who is a girl: Amy, a dour neurobiologist who declares herself besties with Penny. Howard and Bernadette heat up. And so do Raj and Bernadette (at least in Raj’s Bollywood daydream). All in the furtherance of award-winning genius comedy.

This set is being released tomorrow and you can order it on Amazon.

The contest will be open until Friday, October 14th. Winners will be announced on Monday, October 17th.

To enter, all you need to do is shoot us an email at editor (at) bigshinyrobot.com. Make the subject “BAZINGA!” For an extra chance to win, you can go to our facebook page and invite all of your friends to like us. Or you can ask your followers on twitter to follow us @BigShinyRobot. Just be sure to mention in your email that you’ve done it.

And remember: There will be FIVE winners announced!

Good luck.

At its core Syfy’s Sanctuary is a reworking of the X-Men premise with elements of Monster Quest thrown in for a little variety. Dr. Helen Mangus (Amanda Tapping) has made it her life’s work to protect the human population as well as the Abnormals (more commonly known as monsters) that exist within and at the fringes of society. Some of these Abnormals work along with Mangus tracking down various feral creatures. The Abnormals that can be “domesticated” are allowed to stay with Mangus in an old church, those that cannot be controlled or pose a threat to society are locked away in a massive underground vault (imagine an Indiana Jones warehouse with the somewhat unstable security of a Ghostbuster’s containment unit). If it sounds a bit silly, that’s because it is. But, unlike some of Syfy’s original programming, Sanctuary is enjoyable because of and in spite of its occasional goofiness.

For me the series works best when it focuses on Mangus’ search to understand, if not actually find, her father. The side stories that tend to deal with the supporting characters tend to feel less vital and unfocused. Henry Foss, Kate Freelander and Bigfoot all have their moments but their struggles feel less immediate. Then again, having spent the last five or so years writing a book that is about me trying to understand who my father was, I might be a little biased.

Fortunately, at least for me, the bulk of Sanctuary’s third season deals with Mangus’ unraveling of a tail of clues left by her father leading her towards a unknown metropolis hidden away from the world’s view; a city where Mangus might find her father, or at least some answers to the endless questions.

The Blu-ray release of Sanctuary: The Complete Third Season is similar to the previous two sets as it includes numerous commentaries, numerous behind-the-scenes featurettes on subjects like the special effects and music and a collection of deleted scenes, outtakes and bloopers. Because this is a Syfy series it should go without saying that some of the CGI effects are a bit cheesy, particularly in the season’s opening episode, but there are also a handful of moments that are rather impressive.

If you haven’t watched the prior two seasons of Sanctuary you’d still be able to pick up the storyline rather quickly but I’d recommend starting at the beginning because there is a lot of subtext that you won’t be aware of.

Deep in the night in the small community of Prophet Hills Danny (Daniel Baldwin) watches in horror as his wife is murdered and his two children abducted by evil creatures. But they weren’t the first and they might not be the last if Danny can’t uncover the truth that the money-grabbing mayor (Brad Dourif) doesn’t want the outside world to know.

Where to begin? Let’s start with the positive. Born of Earth’s monster design and costumes is effective. They might just be people dressed up in rubber suits and heavy makeup but they work far better than any CGI monster would.

Everything else about this film screams B-movie. The performances are all over the place. It’s hard to tell if the actors are terrible, disinterested or if they simply can’t make screenwriter Joseph Thompson’s wooden dialogue sound remotely natural. I suspect it’s all of the above. The script is convoluted and vague on details as it moves its cardboard characters through the narrative. I don’t need a fully explained origin story but a better-defined history of Prophet Hill would have helped. There is a twist at the end, but even if you didn’t see it coming it hardly ranks as much of a surprise. In fact it has the emotional resonance of Soylent Green without the quotable dialogue.

Unless you’re collecting Baldwin brothers, adore Brad Dourif because he was in Lord of the Rings or want to check out the creature design I’d recommend avoiding Born of Earth.

Following the death of his mother T.J. (Devin Brochu) and his depressed pill-popping father (Rainn Wilson) move in with his absent-minded grandmother. To make matters worse T.J. has become the favorite target of school bully Dustin. To say T.J.’s life is heading in the wrong direction would be an understatement. Then T.J. meets Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Hesher is a vulgar vagabond with bad tattoos, a love for heavy metal and a habit of lighting things on fire. He’s a preacher of chaos and anarchy, a dirty old van plowing its way through life.

The appeal of Hesher is that its title character is so unappealing. He’s dirty in every sense of the word and yet he’s also Shakespeare’s wise fool. He sees the world exactly as it is and rejects it. He’s Guy Fawkes without a cause.

When I saw Hesher at the Sundance Film Festival two years ago I left the theater on an adrenaline high. Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s performance is mesmerizing from start to finish. But, even then, I had to admit that the film itself wasn’t nearly as well made as I would have liked as Hesher’s antics overshadow the heart of the narrative. Hesher is really meant to be about T,J. and his struggle to overcome the sad situation he finds himself in. The cast, which also includes Natalie Portman as quirky grocery store employee Nicole, is quite good but they can’t match the bravado of Gordon-Levitt’s Hesher. He’s so much larger than life that he blocks everyone else out of view. Still, Hesher is a hilarious way to spend 106 minutes even though it doesn’t entirely come together as it should.

Bonus features include a couple deleted scenes, a shockingly long selection of outtakes that give a glimpse into the jovial mood on the set and, to balance out the joy, a featurette on a particularly troublesome day where the proximity of an airport and a weed wacker made shooting a miserable experience.

In 1997 Guillermo Del Toro begrudgingly released his second feature film, Mimic. Inspired by a short story by Donald A, Wollheim the film was originally developed as a short that would have appeared in an anthology called Light Years. The film, along with an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s Impostor, were instead picked up as feature length films. During the pre-production process Del Toro watched his original concept for the story, which went through numerous drafts with a variety of writers working with Del Toro, as well as the design of the creatures in the film stray from his original vision. Studio interference continued throughout principle photography and while Del Toro remained in the director’s chair numerous scenes shot by the 2^nd unit (which apparently at one point included Robert Rodriguez) took the narrative off in directions that Del Toro disagreed with. Despite his objections these scenes made it into the theatrical release of the film.

Not that I knew any of this when I saw the film on DVD in 1998. At the time Del Toro had yet to establish himself as one of my favorite directors. I doubt I even made the connection between Cronos and Mimic until sometime after Blade 2. No, I bought Mimic based on my love for sci-fi horror films and Mira Sorvino.

Mimic offered more than the B-movie thrills I was expecting. It’s atmosphere was pervasive and brooding, the character design was brilliant and while the ending seemed a bit too rosy the script was far more intelligent than a traditional genre film, particularly on about giant cockroaches.

In Del Toro’s new director’s cut the story of the film remains pretty much the same. When a disease spread by cockroaches threatens to kill off the children of Manhattan Entomologist Susan Tyler (Sorvino) genetically engineers an insect called the Judas Breed to wipe out the cockroach population. The Judas Breed works famously but rather than dying off after one generation the insect continues to breed in the sewers of New York City. Just three years after their creation the Judas Breed have evolved in to an unimaginable threat.

What has changed is the subtext. The theatrical cut of Mimic never touched upon the philosophic and spiritual aspects of why the insects survived and evolved. The director’s cut reinstates scenes that hint at Del Toro’s original ideas that became more and more watered down with each revision of the script.

The new cut also removes all but one of the scenes shot by the 2^nd unit. The purpose of many of the exorcised scenes was to over explain aspects of the film that the producers thought audiences were too dumb to pick up on. The fact that the scenes can be removed entirely and not take away from the understanding of the film’s narrative speaks volumes.

Unlike many of the Miramax titles that are being released by Lionsgate, Mimic features new extras including a video prologue, an excellent featurette “Reclaiming Mimic” and an interesting audio commentary from Del Toro that not only talks about the making of the film, the various changes from the original storyline but also his approach to filmmaking and how Mimic forever changed the way he approached projects. Also included are featurettes on the creature design and shooting of the film as well as deleted scenes, storyboard animatics, a gag reel and the theatrical trailer.

On the surface Guillermo Del Toro’s director’s cut isn’t dramatically different from the theatrical version in that the story remains intact but the new cut is a better and more intelligent. It’s a shame that we’ll never get to see the film end in the way that Del Toro originally intended. That would have been something special. As it stands Mimic is still an excellent film that belongs in your Blu-ray collection.

Following the success of Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes) director Alejandro Amenábar turned his attention towards his English language debut The Others. Inspired by Henry James’ novella The Turn of the Screw, The Others is a psychological ghost story about Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman), a devote Catholic living alone with her two children in a remote house In Jersey, a British controlled island off the coast of Normandy, France. Her husband is away fighting in World War II, leaving Grace, aided by a trio of newly hired servants, to tend to the needs of her children who suffer from a rare disease that makes them allergic to sunlight.

Following the arrival of the new servants a series of strange events lead Grace to believe that there are others hiding in the house. Grace’s children talk of seeing a young boy named Victor and an old woman and while all evidence points to the supernatural Grace refuses to believe that the intruders are ghosts.

Reviews of The Others often feature comparisons to M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense. Like Shyamalan’s film, which was released two years earlier, The Others features a twist ending that completely changes the nature of the narrative. Still, despite sharing the subgenre of ghost stories, the films couldn’t feel more different in terms of setting and atmosphere. Where The Sixth Sense features a clever script set in a contemporary world Amenábar’s film features a classic gothic motif in its faux Victorian setting. It’s quite easy to forget that The Others, due to the house’s lack of electricity and constant use of oil lamps for lighting, is set during World War II and not somewhere in the late 19^th century. This is an interesting stylistic and thematic choice that connects the film with the literature that inspired it. It also helps to give the film a visual flare, captured gorgeously by cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe (The Road), that separates it from contemporary ghost stories.

Lionsgate’s Blu-ray release contains the same bonus features of the Miramax 2-Disc release (a pair of behind-the-scenes featurettes, the trailer and a short piece on Xeroderma Pigmentosum) from 2002 minus the superfluous stills gallery. The video quality sees a reasonable boost in clarity and color that trumps not only the DVD release but also the Canadian Blu-ray release from Alliance. Audio has also been upgraded to a lossless 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track that is reference quality.

In 2009 special makeup effects artist Robert Green Hall made his directorial debut with the film Laid to Rest. While the script was nothing too exciting gore fans were drawn to the film’s ample amount of blood and guts as well as the film’s killer Chrome Skull. Chrome Skull’s unique characteristics being his chrome-skull mask and the video camera mounted on his shoulder to document his recreational activities.

ChromeSkull picks up exactly where Laid to Rest ended. Chrome Skull, having just had his head bashed in, is rushed away to a medical facility in hopes of saving his life. It seems that Chrome Skull is a wealthy overlord with a loyal following of minions including Preston (Brian Austin Green), a psychopath in his own right, and personal assistant Spann (Danielle Harris). Spann spends her time trying to raise Chrome Skull’s spirits by enticing him with video footage of a possible new target. Meanwhile Preston, believing that Chrome Skull won’t recover, looks to establish himself as the new killer in town.

While I wasn’t nearly as taken with Chrome Skull as many horror fans were the last thing I wanted to learn was that he was a wealthy eccentric that gets away with his nasty habits simply because his money makes him untouchable. I suppose it’s a bit more realistic than the supernatural elements behind Freddy Kruger or Jason Voorhees but it’s hardly the sort of thing that enhances the mystic of a character.

Not that ChromeSkull is actually about Chrome Skull. It’s more about Preston running around in Chrome Skull’s chrome skull. This builds up to a final showdown that doesn’t make up for the general lack of tension that precedes it.

Hall is a talented makeup artist with a wild imagination when it comes to making a death scene but when it comes to writing a script or squeezing good performances out of his actors he comes up short. Yes, the film might be the crème de la crème when it comes to gore but if you want anything more engrossing than that you’ll have to look elsewhere.