Family Guy is a popular show. It has legions of fans who have made it an institution. Once it gets dark outside you can almost certainly find an episode on TV somewhere, and it’s popularity doesn’t seem to be waning. I personally feel it’s hit and miss style of throwing everything on the wall and seeing what sticks makes for an inconsistent show. But credit where credit is due I watch the show all the time, and digging into this set was a generally very pleasant experience.

The show continues on in this ninth volume, which is anchored by one of the better episodes Family Guy has ever produced. ‘And Then There Were Fewer’ is clearly the gem of this collection as it is the inspiration for the box art and menu screens. The set also has some pretty solid special features and, annoyingly, an episode from The Cleveland Show.

Interestingly though this set doesn’t follow along with any typical season order. It includes the end of the eighth season and the beginning of the ninth. I am not sure when the show jumped off of season based sets, but this odd organizational decision makes for a rather frustrating time when looking for specific episodes from specific seasons.

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It’s been said that if you screw up once, it’s a mistake, but if you do it three times it’s a style.

Don’t get me wrong, Submarine is a good film with a strong voice, but that’s not to say it’s not without pros and cons.  With a unique tone, interesting characters, and distinctive editing, director Richard Ayoade obviously had a strong vision for this film from the beginning.  The only problem was with the main character, Oliver Tate, who was written as such an offbeat character that there were times at which he was hard to relate to.

Submarine is a film full of feature film newcomers.  Ayoade makes his narrative feature debut as writer/director, a departure from his career as a TV actor and director.  Both of the young actors, as well, come fresh to the big screen.  Craig Roberts, playing Oliver Tate, takes on his first feature lead in this film (he has since starred in Jane Eyre), and Yasmin Paige, coming only from small parts in obscure films, gives a surprisingly beautiful performance as his love interest, Jordana Bevan.

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Alberto Iglesias is a fantastic composer. He has two Oscar nominations under his belt, and now that he is getting higher profile work it wont be long before this Spanish composer gets a win. His most recent score is for the spy drama Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy, starring a who’s who of the best British actors working today.

The music for a thriller like this is essential in selling the mood and tension. A great score can be all the difference a movie like this needs to really breakout. So it is with great excitement that I take a listen to the Iglesias’ music, knowing that if he nails it this could be one of the best scores of the year.

My first reaction to this score is that it’s simple, piano heavy tones are perfect for a hard boiled spy thriller. I appreciate the minimalist approach which really heightens the moments of suspense in the score. The music is also not afraid to get big and exciting, most notably on the titular final track. There is a great since of intrigue in this music, really capturing the vibe you what to hear in a movie such as this.

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Capcom are the kings of frenetic, carpel-tunnel inducing fighting games. They are also the kings of selling you those games multiple times. Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 is a super-sized revision of one of the best fighting games of the last few years. The original Marvel vs Capcom 3 came out earlier this year, but that proximity doesn’t do anything to lessen the impact of its brand new counterpart.

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 brings a dozen new characters to the fun, as well as opening up several new levels to fight on and addresses a whole mess of balancing issues. The whole package is available for the lower price of forty bucks, and offers the most complete version of the game possible.

This sort of re-release might seem odd in the age of the DLC, but the additions to the game and the refinement of its engine are so robust that they needed to send the game back out as a new disc. Thankfully, Capcom had mercy on us by giving the game a budget rate, but the lowered retail price is only one of the game’s many high points. All twelve of the new characters offer some sort of exciting game play gimmick or interesting in-game look, with Rocket Raccoon being one of the most oddball and Hawkeye providing the most fun.

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Never underestimate the power of experience.  Fresh off directing a couple episodes of King of Queens, Michael J. Weithorn make his feature film debut with A Little Help. I’m all for new talented writer/directors (Mark Webb), but unfortunately, while I do see potential for some creative ideas in this film, he probably should have tried out a few shorts before diving head first into a feature.

It felt like highly produced sit-coms episodes strung together.

In the film, Jenna Fischer plays Pam…. sorry, Laura, a dental hygienist who must deal with the aftermath of the sudden death of her unfaithful husband.  With her family almost forcing comfort and support down her throat, she soon discovers that her son has been lying about his father’s death to his friends at school to make him sound cooler.  The film has all the elements in place, a solid story with good casting, but ultimately fails to come together as a cohesive unit that keeps the audience engaged the whole time.

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This past weekend Cartoon Network aired a one-hour special showcasing their next DC animated series, Green Lantern. Cartoon Network has a long history of eclectic and generally fantastic shows based on DC characters, and 2012 looks to be a banner year for Warner’s Super Hero stable.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series begins with this new special, setting up a  plot that sees Hal and Kilowog in deep “frontier space” fighting against the Red Lanterns. The show itself will air regularly in 2012 as a marquee show in Carton Network’s new DC Nation programming. It joins Young Justice and a slew of shorts, news and other fun DC tidbits next year.

The most interesting thing about this series is that for the first time ever a Bruce Timm produced show is animated in full CG. Timm’s artistic style is clearly the inspiration for the designs and despite the full CG animation there is clearly an effort to make this show fit alongside the others in the pantheon of Timm-verse shows.

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Often times a filmmaker and a composer find a shared voice, a common approach that allows both to make the project they share truly remarkable. One of the highest profile partnerships is that of Steven Spielberg and John Williams, arguably the two greatest artist in their chosen fields. This winter brings us not one, but two brand new collaborations between these two heavyweights, and today we are going to dig into the first of the two, War Horse.

I was extremely excited when I began listening to this music, every time Williams composes music for a Spielberg film there is a good chance he is crafting something remarkable. The first 25 seconds of the War Horse score immediately let me know this music would be no exception. The score is classic Williams, with a somberness that is just subtle enough to be noticed, but not get in the way of the idealistic sheen that Williams uses so well.

The main theme of War Horse is beautiful, Williams is the greatest theme writer in the history of ever and some how he manages to still do it to this day. The theme is simple, but evocative of early 20th century hopes and dreams as well as the nobility of the soliders fighting in the first two world wars. Which makes sense due to the fact that the film is about the incredible journey of a boy, too young to enlist going to the war torn trenches in France to save his friend, the titular horse. 

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Craig Armstrong is one of those interesting composers that I have always really liked. He made a big splash in the late 90s with Romeo + Juliet, and has since been consistently solid in a long line of work. I have been longing for him to venture back into the action/suspense movie scoring business for a few years now. So it is with great excitement I get to review his latest release, the score for In Time.

Early in the process of composing this music Armstrong had conversations with the film’s director, Andrew Niccol, that gave direction to the music. They wanted to think of the kind of music people would be listening to in the “not to distant future”, deciding that there would be a fusion of types. This lead to the decision to merge classical, electronic and eastern influences together to give the film it’s sound.

It is very clear from the first track on where this music was inspired from, and I venture to guess that was exactly the point. The music doesn’t shy away from it’s parts, it is not trying to be subtle it is trying to be good, and for the most part I think it generally succeeds. Craig Armstrong’s style fits perfectly for a serious film score that fuses together different elements and makes something completely original from it.

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The Transformers trilogy is an interesting beast. The first film was a surprisingly great sci-fi action film, the second was one of the worst pieces of junk I have ever sat through and the third comes somewhere in the middle. Despite the inconsistency in quality from film to film the one thing that remained steady in it’s excellence was Steve Jablonsky’s scores.

Jablonsky comes from the Hans Zimmer cadre of film composers who have dominated the movie score scene over the last decade. Like Klaus Badelt and Harry Gregson-Williams before him, Jablonsky made a significant impact in his career collaborating with a prolific filmmaker, Michael Bay. He had several good scores prior to Transformers, particularly The Island, but it wasn’t until he scored the giant talking robot opus that you knew you were listening to a real talent who has limitless potential.

Now at the end of the Transformers saga Silva Screen Records has put together a collection of the music from the entire trilogy, celebrating some of the best action sci-fi music ever written. The music is performed by London Music Works and does a really incredible job of capturing the essence of what the music is. This is especially great considering that at times the music actually sounds quite different.

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Last week we looked at a new arrangement for a classic score, this week we are again taking a look at another new take on some familiar tunes. Unlike The Lord of the Rings Symphony, which was basically an awesome mix-tape of Shore’s scores, The Music of Battlestar Galactica for Solo Piano is a complete re-imagining of the music from the series.

The tracks on this 2-disc set are all arranged by McCreary and performed by talented Korean pianist Joohyun Park, who brings a new perspective to the music. The songs were all originally written for large orchestras, but the these arrangements and  Joohyun Park’s expert performance take these tracks to a new and interesting place.

Conceptually I love the concept of taking popular orchestral scores and arranging them for solo piano. Not only is it often very pleasant to listen too, but it also encourages people to show interesting in playing and eventually making music themselves. If one person, with practice and time, can play film and TV music all by themselves, you drastically increase the likelihood new talent will choose the life of a multimedia composer.

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To boldly be published in comic book format!

Star Trek #1 is an ongoing series by IDW Publishing. The new comic book series is based on J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek while telling stories that are “re-imaginings” of the adventures of the 1960′s classic Star Trek TV show. Basically, take the fun, hip crew you liked from the 2009 film, mix them with the classic, brilliant drama of the 1960′s TV show, and you have an intriguing concept that appeals to new and old Star Trek fans alike.

Based on the original series episode titled Where No Man Has Gone Before, Star Trek #1 begins with the Enterprise finding the distress beacon from the Valiant, a vessel thought to be lost. After crossing the galactic barrier, Enterprise crewman and one of Kirk’s best friends, Gary Mitchell gets sick and begins to display psychic and telekinetic powers. Gary is now temparmental and angry. Captain Kirk has decide what to do about his good friend before he harms himself or worse, the Enterprise.

The issue follows the same basic first act of the episode it is based on with minor changes. Spock and Uhura are still dating like in the movie, and Kirk is still very new to command. Gary Mitchell even makes a joke about how he was ahead of Kirk in the Academy, and now Kirk is his superior officer. Robert Orci, one of the screenwriters for the 2009 Star Trek, is listed as creative consultant on the issue which I believe is the reason why the story feels fresh and modern even though it’s based on an episode over 40 years old.

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Since its release back in 2006,  the Gears of War series has been met with both fanatic praise and scornful rejection. Some boast that it “redefined the third-person shooter,” while others claim it only furthers the stereotype of gamers as meat-headed blood junkies. Whatever your stance on the franchise is, the third and (possibly) final chapter of the trilogy is here – and credit must be given where it’s due.

The development team at Epic Games end the story of Marcus Fenix and the rest of Delta Squad with a bang – both in the single-player / co-op campaign and across the online battlefield. From graphic updates to fine-tuning combat controls to completely redesigning one of the most popular multiplayer modes in recent history, all of the pieces of this blood-spattered puzzle fall gloriously into place.

Keep reading to find out how Gears of War 3 stomps on the juicy insides of its predecessors, while also managing to deliver one of the most satisfying ends to a gaming franchise.

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