For Your Home Viewing Pleasure: October 8th, 2013

We can’t speak to the quality of the Will and Jaden Smith father and son sci-fi flick After Earth, but we can say it’s out now on Blu-ray, DVD and the like.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Deluxe Edition gives Batman fans what they really wanted from this adaptation of the seminal Frank Miller Batman series: everything on one three disc set.

It’s funny when you think back to the days when, first, Lucasfilm didn’t want to put the Star Wars out as a set on DVD and then it took a while to get them on Blu-ray. Now in the past few years we’ve had a number of different sets. There’s two more now, Star Wars Trilogy Episodes IV-VI and Star Wars Trilogy Episodes I-III that include both DVD and Blu-ray versions of the films.

Hasbro’s latest home video offering Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters – Predacons Rising looks great on Blu-ray and features a pretty fun story even if you’re not steeped in the lore. Don’t believe us? Check it out!

In other TV-related news, A&E Home Video has a collection of The Avengers episodes featuring none other than that iconic super spy herself: Emma Peel. Dubbed The Avengers: The Complete Emma Peel Megaset the set contains all 51 of Diana Rigg’s episodes as the character on the three discs.

Finally, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life is now available on Blu-ray, so that’s a thing.

For Your Home Viewing Pleasure: October 1st, 2013

This week has a lot in the way of older movies presented in new and different ways, but not a lot of brand new action films. Still, there’s some pretty interesting offerings, so let’s jump in.

The biggest new release in our arena is the disaster comedy This Is The End which finds hyper-real versions of Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Craig Robinson, Danny McBride, James Franco and Jonah Hill surviving the apocalypse.

John Cusack has been kind of slowly turning into Nicholas Cage over the past few years (see: The Raven), so it only makes sense that they’d appear in a movie together. In the thriller The Frozen Ground, Cusack’s a serial killer and Cage is trying to stop him. What more do you need to know?

Jean-Claude Van Damme fans will be happy to discover that two of his films are making their way to Blu-ray on the same set. Thanks to the Jean-Claude Van Damme Double Feature: The Order / Nowhere to Run you can watch both movies back to back without getting up from the couch.

We here at Explosions Are Rad hadn’t heard of the Chinese crime thriller Cold War before seeing it on Amazon this morning. But after seeing the trailer above, it’s certainly one we’re going to check out.

A pair of very different director’s cuts made their debut this week. Troy Duffy’s cut of The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day and Luc Besson’s The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec [Director’s Cut] now offer their more complete visions for their films.

1997 was a big year for fire-coming-out-of-the-ground movies. You had your Dante’s Peak and your Volcano. Whose side were you on? Well, either way, the Tommy Lee Jones starring Volcano is now available on Blu-ray.

We’ve only seen a handful of episodes of the current Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show on Nickelodoen, but it’s pretty darn cool. We’re thinking of catching up more with the latest DVD release Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Ultimate Showdown.

If you’re looking to relive Tom Selleck’s 80s hey day all in one convenient box set then Magnum P.I.: The Complete Series might be right up your alley. The series lasted from 1980-1988 and consists of 42 discs.

Finally, Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel was pretty hilarious and you should watch it.

Trailer Time: Snowpiercer, Vikingdom, Transformers Prime Predacons Rising & The Tiger Mask

Norse mythology and star Dominic Purcell take center stage in this spot from Epic Pictures Releasing’s Vikingdom which hits theaters and VOD on October 4th.

The word is still out on whether the Weinsteins want to cut 20 minutes from Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer starring Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, Octavia Spencer, Kang-ho Song, Ed Harris and Jamie Bell or not. But you can still check out this mostly-in-English French trailer for the all-of-humanity-on-a-train revolution film which hits August 1st in the States.

The Last Days On Mars is probably more of a space-adventure-horror film, but this trailer from Magnet featuring Liev Shrieber, Olivia Williams and Elias Koteas is pretty intense. The film opens on December 6th.

If you’re a fan of The Hub’s Transformers: Prime or just morphing robots in general, you might want to check out the original home video presentation of Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising on October 8th.

Finally, this trailer for The Tiger Mask is like one big “getting ready for something awesome” scene without the actual “something awesome.” Still, the movie as described by Asian Movie Pulse sounds pretty rad.

Bullet Points: Hot Rounds Of Information Goodness

Kurt Russell’s in talks to join Fast & Furious 7. That’s all the information we have, but we’re stoked! [via Deadline]

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire takes the premise of the first film — children killing each other for the entertainment of a dystopian future society — and adds an all new element: old people! Check some of them out in this latest poster. [via Collider]

Mattel’s Max Steel property is back in development with a script by comic book and screenwriter Christopher Yost (Thor: The Dark World) and Halo: Forward Unto Dawn director Stewart Hendler. Before the property got a recent toy and cartoon reboot, Taylor Lautner was previously attached to star in a film starring the action character. [via Variety]

In other Max movie news, it turns out that the long-delayed Mad Max: Fury Road will head to Sydney for three more weeks of shooting. In the time it’s taken to make this film, old school Australian directors could have made 17 movies.  [via IF]

We hope someone behind the scenes on Brett Ratner’s Hercules: The Thracian War is paying Dwayne Johnson for getting people to talk about this movie. As he has plenty of times in the past, the actor Tweeted out a picture of himself getting scarred-up for the film. [via @TheRock]

Last week we found out that Amanda Waller will appear in the upcoming season of Arrow and now we know that Spartacus: War Of The Damned star Cynthia Addai-Robinson will play her.  [via TV Guide]

Finally, enjoy the above snippet from the Roger Corman-produced martial arts film Fist Of The Dragon. [via Asian Movie Pulse]

Never Forget: Wonder Woman Is Awesome

Guys, Wonder Woman is awesome. She’s been holding her own in the DC Universe for decades alongside the likes of Superman, Batman and Green Lantern and even become one of the more iconic heroes of the 70s thanks to her TV series. Unfortunately, aside from some brief (but rad) appearances in Justice League, JLU and the Wonder Woman straight-to-DVD animated feature, she’s been out of the public eye for a while. People all over the internet have been calling for Warner Bros. to get off their butts and bring Princess Diana to the big screen.

We here at Explosions Are Rad fully support the idea as does Fast & Furious 6 and Haywire star Gina Carano. It’s a subject the real life fighter-turned-actress recently talked to ComingSoon.net about:

That’s the ultimate superhero for a woman. No matter what, no matter who ends up being Wonder Woman someday, I just hope it’s something that is done correctly. I know it’s there and that it could definitely be done correctly. It’s just a matter of getting the right people and having the right vision come together. A director and producer and writer have to see the beauty in it and make it real.

For what it’s worth, we fully support the idea of Carano playing Wonder Woman. Someone needs to make that happen.

Meanwhile, for a cool, but different look at the character, check out the three shorts created by Robert Valley (Aeon Flux) for Cartoon Network’s comic-centric DC Nation block of programming.

Finally, if you’re interested in hearing what Grant Morrison has planned for the Amazon in his Earth One graphic novel with Yanick Paquette, download Kevin Smith’s Fat Man On Batman Episode #44 and give it a listen. Sounds like he’s got a great handle on the character, one that might translate well to the big screen, even.

[Via The Mary Sue & The Mary Sue]

Is Akira Rolling Right Along With Jaume Collet-Serra?

Warner Bros. apparently isn’t giving up on the idea of turning beloved Manga-turned-Anime Akira into a big time Hollywood movie. Variety reports that Jaume Collet-Serra (Unknown, Orphan) is talking to the studio about returning as the director of the adaptation. Collet-Serra was previously attached to the project but bailed last year after production delays.

Between leaving and getting back into talks with WB, Collett-Serra re-teamed with Unknown star Liam Neeson on two more projects,  one called Non-Stop that will be out on February 28th, 2014 and another titled Run All Night.

Collett-Serra must have a pretty solid vision for the film if Warners is looking to work with him again after all this time. Variety went on to say that the studio paid somewhere in the millions for the rights to make the film which many fans think can’t be done or done well, at least.

Bullet Points: Hot Rounds Of Information Goodness

We’re probably not going to get into too much comic book movie news here on Explosions Are Rad because they’re covered really well on other sites, but it’s pretty cool that an action-packed flick like The Wolverine took the box office and made $86 million worldwide according to Variety.

We’re also not looking to delve too much into horror movie news for similar reasons, but Syfy’s Sharknado had enough (terrible) action scenes and explosions to qualify for a quick bullet point. TheWrap reported that the film will hit Regal, UA and Edwards Cinemas for a Friday, Aug. 2 midnight showing. It will be interesting to see if the so-bad-it’s-good phenomenon will transfer over to make actual money after being offered so often for free.

The Mary Sue recently posted an interesting story about a new Pakistani animated series called Burka Avenger that stars a female superhero who spends her days as a teacher. It definitely sounds like kid stuff, but the concept of a strong woman using her brains to fight crime is aces in our book.

Collider did an interview with Jon M. Chu about this week’s G.I. Joe: Retaliation DVD and Blu-ray release and also talked a bit about the third film which he’s signed up for. Briefly, he said that Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis are returning, they’re looking for a writer now and also to “double down on the adventure part of the movie” while also looking to possibly bring in more Joes.

Speaking of Dwayne Johnson, the man known as The Rock, Tweeted out an image from the set of Brett Ratner’s Hercules with the message: “Let it be to death or victory” THANK U my ‘Thracian soldiers’. Intensity & energy.”

There’s a flick in the works called Black Friday that revolves around a man trying to get his wife back after she’s kidnapped inside a giant mall. He’s got to perform crazy tasks to get her back. Sounds silly, but I spent enough time in the Palisades Mall to give this a look on Netflix. John Sullivan wrote a script that Darin Beckstead’s attached to helm. (via Deadlline)

World War Z fans can look forward to checking out the big budget zombie flick starring Brad Pitt in IMAX 3D for a week kicking off on Aug. 2. (via Deadline)