Friday 26 July 2013

Hulk Vs Wolverine DVD

Those of you who may be thinking that this is another live action feature length movie will be very disappointed. Hulk vs Wolverine is an animated movie and is not for children of a young age, the age rating of 12 should be enough to make you aware of that but for those who think it will be a cutesy film need to be made aware that this is Marvel at it's visceral best and featuring 2 of the worlds most recognisable anti-heroes.

Drawing from Wolverines back story the mysterious Canadian governments Department H has called Wolverine back into action to track down and kill if necessary somebody who destroyed a town that is on the US – Canadian border. After a few hours he comes upon a scrawny, semi clad man sitting on a log. Not knowing that the man is Bruce Banner Wolverine doesn't heed any warnings not to “Make me angry” and this queues an epic battle between Hulk and Wolverine.

Whilst they are keeping each other busy unbeknownst to them other members of Department H are closing in a ready to take both men alive and shoot them full of tranquillisers.

It is really nice to see some of the not quite so popular characters of the Marvel Universe being featured as members of Department H, Lady Deathstrike, Deadpool and Omega Red are featured along with the more familiar name of Sabre-tooth, and it is during this part of the film that Hulk stops being against Wolverine and both of them team up to try and escape the clutches of Department H (headed by Professor Thornton) as potentially deadly experiments are being planned for them so an ultimate weapon can be created. For risk of spoilers I wont go into who or which side are victorious but this animated feature is left on a cliffhanger.

From a technical viewpoint the animation really is amazing and if you are a fan of modern graphic novels or just the Marvel universe in general it will suit you down to the ground, as will the choreography of the spectacular set pieces. Voice actors have been well cast too especially Fred Tattasciore as the screaming rage machine that is Hulk and Steve Blum as the ever growling Wolverine.

Those who have only really experienced Marvel from the slew of recent live action movies along with those who have grown up loving Stan Lee's characters will love it in equal measures, however unfortunately I can see the former group looking over it while browsing the shelves at their local DVD retailer and dismissing it as just another childrens movie, they will do so at their loss as it really is a great film.

You can buy this DVD now in all good retailers.

Monday 8 July 2013

Shelby's Snack Shack Game


I was sent the Shelby's snack shack game to try out and review with my kids, When it arrived my first thought was that the box looked very old fashioned, But it really attracted my attention, I think if I saw this in a shop I would have to go and take a look at it,

The game comes with a game board (which is also the box) 1 shelby squeezer, 40 bones, 4 bowls and 1 double game spinner, The aim of the game is to get the most bones, This game really helps the younger players count as they spin the spinner and if they have to collect bones they have to spin a number to see how many they need to get, my 4 year old son managed to count out his bones really well and even went on to winning the game.


The only problem my kids had with this game was picking up the bones with the squeezer but after a while they soon got used to it and managed to do it fine, My kids really enjoyed playing this game together and wanted to play it again and again.

Wednesday 3 July 2013

NashVille Season 1 out on DVD 15th July


Being forced to listen to country music as I was growing up sort of put me off the genre for a good few years, however as I got older I found my tastes have changed and now for some reason I quite like it. Which is a good thing as I'm sure you have guessed by the title of the show Nashville is all about country music.


The main focus of the show is about 2 characters, Juliette Barnes (Hayden Paniterre), the new face and mega star of country music and Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton), former country queen whose fame and fortune are now on the decline.


After finding being told that her music is no longer selling as much as record executives would like former country music mega star Rayna Jaymes has been told that instead of headlining her own tour she must now support and open for the new, younger fresh face Juliette Barnes who instead of having a more traditional style of music records what Rayna Jaymes classes as bubble gum pop.


Seeing as there is quite the clash of characters Rayna dismisses a joint tour out of hand and has the idea of touring with just her lead guitarist and former love Deacon Clayborne (Charles Eston), which wouldn't be a problem if not for the desires of Juliette to have him joining her band and touring with her.


What isn't helping either ladies fortunes is Rayna's estranged, millionaire father pushing her husband to be mayor of Nashville for his own purposes and Juliette's drug addict mother reminding her of a past she has long tried to forget. At least all of this turmoil is giving both stars great writing material for new songs and for me the music is the real star of the show. The majority of the songs featured are stripped back to the bare bones of just honest to goodness lyrics and basic guitar accompaniment, especially those of aspiring and somewhat reluctant songwriter Scarlett O'Connor and her writing partner Gunnar Scott. If you are a fan of country music or not you cannot help but be moved by their words and voices.


I would highly recommend this series to anybody if they are fans of the musical genre or not as the side stories and characters are sometimes more interesting than those of the main characters and it is extremely refreshing to hear just music without any of the synthetic enhancements that seems to populate the charts these days.