Available from Amazon.com

Long Way Round
••••• (4 of 5 Red Planets)

Long Way Round covers the amazing 115 day motorcycle journey by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. Their 20,000 mile journey starts in London and covers twelve countries: Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Canada, and the US, ending at New York City. The DVD covers their progress across 7 episodes and includes some extra material, a post trip interview, and photo gallery.

First broadcast in the US on Bravo, I wanted to see this extraordinary trip but since Bravo was not part of my basic cable package (curse you Comcast!), I missed it. But now it�s on DVD and it was well worth the wait.

While McGregor and Boorman are trailed by a cameraman and 2 support SUVs, they make the journey with little external assistance. But along the way, they do need native help when confronting broken bike frames, repairs, and impassable rivers. McGregor & Boorman�s cross-cultural encounters along the way are always bemusing and sobering at the same time, showing the extreme contrast in lifestyles between those in the developed and not-so-developed parts of the world.

I have only two complaints about Long Way Round. First, the language used by McGregor and Boorman gets unnecessarily raw and so the series is NOT family friendly fare. My second and much lesser issue is that the 7 hour series reflects only less than 1% of the 800+ hours of footage from the journey, so areas of personal interest such as Ukraine & Russia are given scant coverage, making the series seem all too short. A 10 episode Canadian DVD is out, but the extended material covers pre-trip preparations, more of their trek across the US which was given short shrift in the final episode, and additional interviews with their wives and support crew.

Whether one is a fan of Ewan McGregor, motorcycles, or world travel this series will not disappoint.

Available from Amazon.com

Airwolf (Season 1)
••••• (3 of 5 Red Planets)

Fans of the television show Airwolf were given a pleasant surprise this spring with the DVD release of one of the best action-adventure television series from the 80's.

For those unfamiliar with the basic premise of the show, a brief synopsis: In the two-hour pilot, a top secret attack helicopter code-name "Airwolf" was stolen by its designer. Crack pilot Stringfellow Hawke (Jan-Michael Vincent) and his friend Dominic Santini (Ernest Borgnine) are recruited by a US government intelligence division's chief, codename Archangel (Alex Cord) to retrieve the stolen chopper. They succeed in their mission, but Hawke keeps and hides Airwolf to use as leverage for the government to find his MIA brother. Hawke and Santini take various missions at the behest of Archangel, taking on international spies and criminals. The series ran four seasons from 1984-1988, although the final season saw a major change in casting and severe decline in the production budget after the USA Network took over the series.

The DVD set includes the 2-hour pilot as well as the other 10 episodes of the first season. Unfortunately the set seems rather slapdash, as there are none of the usual DVD extras. Even the photos on the back of the cardboard package sleeve are from the fourth season. The quality of the transfer to DVD is so-so, with many scenes being rather grainy and weak color saturation. The audio is only 2.0 mono, so don't expect great sound either.

Packaging issues aside, the story quality of the series is very good. The only complaint about the series is its episodic nature, with no story arc to hold the episodes together. However, this was fairly common in television at the time, so I won't fault the writers too much for this.

Available from Amazon.com
(if you really want it)

The Core
••••• (2 of 5 Red Planets)

Every now and then, it's good to expose oneself to a real turkey of a movie just to gain greater appreciation of quality cinema. If this movie's special effects were just as cheesy as the rest of the movie, it would have rated a 1 Red Planet (at most).

In defense of the movie, it is reminiscent of the schlocky 50's & 60's "sci-fi" (I use the term loosely) movies such as Fantastic Voyage and When Worlds Collide, so maybe that was the aim of the story. In that regard, it was a success. The movies's cast of characters are all cardboard stereotypes: the tight-lipped military man, the overconfident pilot, the lunatic fringe scientists, the cyber-geek, etc. All the characters are pulled together to save the world from certain doom as the planet's magenetic field is collapsing because the core's rotation has changed (yes, the movie's science is just as bad as its plot and characters).

Story aside, the DVD production values are quite good. The DVD includes a "making of" documentary, audio commentary by director Jon Amiel, deconstruction of special effects, plus some missing and extended scenes. The only thing missing that I expected was the usual bonus movie trailer. Oh well.

If you're one that enjoys light entertainment and don't mind wading neck deep in schlock and cheesiness, then this movie won't disappoint. If you want entertainment with more substance, then you will probably think a more apt title would be The Bore.

Available from Amazon.com

Babylon 5 (Season 4): No Surrender, No Retreat
••••• (4 of 5 Red Planets)

Four of Babylon 5's five seasons have now been put out on DVD, and this 6 disc set is certainly the best to date.

Picking up after the cliff-hanger ending of season 3, this season resolves the two major plot threads that have driven the series (the Shadow War and the break with Earth). Few science fiction television series have exhibited this degree of character depth and development. From Captain Sheridan to Zack Allen, all the characters are genuinely interesting and have their own unique personalities, not conforming to the usual canned character types lesser writers resort to employing in their stories. Of the major science fiction television series in the 1990's, B5 was certainly the very best.

The set includes original broadcast previews of episodes, audio commentaries by the cast and writer/producer, background information about the B5 universe, and the superb No Surrender, No Retreat DVD Suite (a montage of Season 4 scenes done to a beautiful score by Christopher Franke). The widescreen transfer and remixed 5.1 soundtrack also raises the quality higher than its original broadcast incarnation.

My only complaint about this DVD set is the price. I realize that Babylon 5 is a niche title and so the number of copies produced is far less than that for a new blockbuster DVD release. But I have seen other 6 disc sets that sell for half the price, so I am disappointed. But, given the quality of the series, is it worth it? Absolutely.

More reviews to come...