Delivery Man Blu-Ray Review

Mitchell Stein- When David Wozniak (Vince Vaughn) finds out he's the father to 533 children through donations he made to a fertility clinic twenty years earlier, he learns that a fraction of his children want to meet him. Against the will of his best friend and lawyer Brett (Chris Pratt) and while trying to mend the relationship that he has with his girlfriend Emma (Cobie Smulders), David decides to set out and see how his children turned out. Along the way he starts to find himself waist deep in the situation.

The Disney-owned film, under the Touchstone Pictures banner is based on the Quebec french film Starbuck, and adapted for an American film by director Ken Scott.
The film starts off with some nice comedic moments from Vince Vaughn's character playing the typical immature adult. However, it gradually shifts into a more sentimental film. As we watch David interact with his children, often ranging from some comical moments with them, but then we get the genuine and sincere moments where David begins to open his eyes to the world. From the outside, the film looks like another average comedy, but in the long run it runs so much deeper and sentimental. It is a major treat to see Vince Vaughn's character interact with younger actors who play his children and as he takes on a more serious role that we rarely see from the actor in his films. When Vaughn has to express his sentimental side, he really nails it.

Apart from the sentimental moments, Vaughn also has lots of fun chemistry with Chris Pratt (Parks and Rec, The Lego Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy) who plays his best friend and is the father of four children, who is constantly discouraging David to go after any of his 533 kids. The relationship between the two characters is brilliant and there's some good and funny moments together. Pratt delivers much of the film's comedy himself and easily steals the show in most of the scenes.

There's more fun to be found on the Blu-Ray with the bonus features, even though there's not many in number to be found. My favorite feature would have to be Building Family which takes a look at the casting of 142 different actors to play David's children in the film. Lots of behind the scenes looks, interviews and such are to be found. It's an interesting look at the behind the scenes work that went into this movie.
Then, there's Vince Vaughn: Off the Cuff where Vince Vaughn does improv. Really! Talk about great bonus features!

Then, there's Bloopers, and a Deleted Scene. As I said, not an enormous amount of bonus features to be found, but they're a lot of fun and it adds to the home release of the movie quite well.

Overall, Delivery Man earns the ranks as one of the surprise "feel-good" films of the year. It will have you laughing and by the end it can leave you with tears of joy and a smile on your face.



Touchstone's Delivery Man is now available on Blu-Ray and DVD. Rated PG-13. 

Retro Reviews: Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Mitchell Stein- Not exactly a Disney movie, per say, but worth the title of a Disney Classic by far.

Released under Disney's Touchstone Pictures banner, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, directed by Robert Zemeckis (who also directed my other favorite movie of-all time, Back To The Future) and produced by Stephen Spielberg, is a masterpiece which combined brilliant animation with the classic “film noir” 1940’s detective style and created something really unique which will live on forever.

When I saw this movie for the first time a few years ago, I don’t think I appreciated it as much as I did today. In traditional movies, like Mary Poppins, Pete’s Dragon, and Song of the South, the animation was a lot less sophisticated and usually was the animation pasted on to the already existing live action sequences, creating a flat looking 2D effect, but still cool. Who Framed Roger Rabbit created a highly sophisticated new style to animated-live action films. Every sequence had to be drawn over stand-in puppets, and some of the sequences call for some really wacky cartoon acts, and the Toons are usually holding an actual item, ( i.e. a gun, or handcuffs, cigar) so the animation must have taken them months to fill in and a lot of work as well. 

To ensure the effect of cartoons living in our world, the camera had to move as much as possible. 2D sequences barely exist in this movie, not to make it look like the characters were just pasted over the scene. Once you start paying attention to the small details in this movie, you’ll come to appreciate it a lot more than you already do. Every sequence had to be filmed with stand in puppets or costumes (depending on how big the character was) and in some scenes, the actors had to act a two-man scene with themselves since the animation hasn’t been filled in yet. The work that went into this movie was tremendous and was worth it all.

The film starts off with a classic style cartoon, with a familiar style opening, trademarked as the Warner Bros. cartoon openings. In this scene we are introduced to Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman who as you see until the director yells cut, work at a cartoon film industry. The transition from the first scene into the real world is incredibly brilliant. I can’t think of a better way to move that wacky cartoon-ish type scene into our real world. It also establishes the fact that characters actually exist in this movie, and are not actually drawn by anyone.

But don't be fooled by the cartoon-ish style of the film. This movie is by far not a kids movie. There's violence, language and other innuendo that might be considered a PG-13 rating in today's style of movies.  Be aware. The first scene when we're introduced to Judge Doom still creeps me out 'till today. 

Another one of the incredible feats that Who Framed Roger Rabbit accomplished was managing to be able to include not just original characters, such as Roger and Jessica Rabbit, Benny the Cab and Baby Herman, but rather to be able to include several well-known and copyrighted cartoons owned by several Disney companies. 

Managing to land these characters a spot in the movie created some of the most iconic sequences in Disney history. Only in Roger Rabbit will you see Warners Bros.’ Daffy Duck duel piano with Disney’s Donald Duck, Mickey and Bugs Bunny share a memorable scene, and include other characters like Droopy, Betty Boop, Woody Woodpecker, Dumbo, and much, much more.

Overall,  Who Framed Roger Rabbit is one of my favorite animated movies of all time. A true Disney classic and surprisingly, doesn't have a sequel. That’s probably a good thing anyway. 

Contest: Win a copy of The Fifth Estate on Blu-Ray Combo Pack, courtesy of The Mickey Mindset!

Mitchell Stein- We're super excited to announce another awesome contest! This time, we're giving away one copy of the Disney distributed Touchstone Pictures' film The Fifth Estate on an awesome Blu-Ray Combo Pack. Combo Pack includes one Blu-Ray, DVD as well as a digital copy to watch whenever and wherever you are.

In case you missed it, read my review of the movie  which I absoloutley loved. This movie is not to be missed, so before you forget, do yourself a favor and enter yourself in the contest below!

No purchase is necessary. Shipping only includes the U.S. and Canada only (No PO boxes) and winner must respond within 48 hours or a new winner will be picked.

Make sure to share this info to your friends! The more entries you refer, the better chance you have!

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Review: The Fifth Estate brings intense sequences telling the story of the infamous WikiLeaks Organization with brilliant acting and storytelling

Mitchell Stein- Fall is a great time for movies. With the annual Academy Awards drawing closer, every Hollywood film company rushes to make sure their movie is in the roster for the upcoming award ceremony and most of those films are placed in the fall schedule to ensure that it's still fresh on people's minds. One of these films is The Fifth Estate. Now, if it deserves the Best Picture award is unknown, but it deserves an honorable mention in the running.

The Disney-distributed film (under Disney's brand; Touchstone Pictures) The Fifth Estate tells the true-infamous story of Julian Assange's WikiLeaks leaking thousands of classified documents and secrets from all over the world. It takes you on a adventure around the world and through the sophisticated world of hacking and computers, something most of us will never understand but can only visualize.

The movie starts off with a brilliant video montage showcasing many legendary and infamous scenes in history including the Civil War, the Titanic, The Holocaust, Kennedy's Assassination, 9/11 and showcases how far we've come in terms of media and press news, first showcasing stamp-machines and typewriters and moving forward to today, with TVs and Internet.
It sets a fast-paced vibe that last throughout the entire movie, slowing down only for several moments to catch your breath before more intense thrilling scenes.

The movie's plot starts in 2010, with the famous leaks of classified US-Military information concerning the Afghanistan War courtesy of Bradley/Chelsea Manning. The rest of the movie flashes back to 2007 and tells the full-story leading up to the events in 2010. A style which is familiar, but never used quite as well as The Fifth Estate used it.

Some people called Assange a hero, and some oppose and call him a traitor to the American people and condemn him. The Fifth Estate captures both sides of that argument and delivers both those aspects of the story to a neutral point of view.

As an aspiring director and being a member of the media, this movie was incredible. Director Bill Condon pulled a lot of great visuals and directing techniques which had me floored throughout the movie. The sequences that imagine the online word of encryption and hacking and truly brilliant.
It also captures a lot of behind-the scenes at the media, showing some secrets and other things that happen on a daily basis at the press office.

The acting was fantastic as well. Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Star Trek: Into Darkness, The Hobbit) was brilliant was the movie's co-protagonist Julian Assange along with Daniel Bruhl as Daniel Berg who goes by the pseudonym Daniel Schmidt.
Also in the movie is David Thewlis (Harry Potter films, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who, Torchwood) Jamie Blackley (Snow White and the Huntsman) and
a whole lot more great actors. Plus, the main actors look almost exactly like the real Assange and Berg/Schdimt as seen on the
right.

The Blu-Ray Combo Pack also has a great lineup of bonus features, my favorite was The Submission Platform showing how they filmed some of the most iconic scenes in the movie. Also included was Scoring Secrets, where composer Carter Burwell showcases a full range of musical styles that were heard in the movie and a lot more great behind the scenes looks along with all the great TV spots and trailers that were seen before the movie was released.

Overall, I highly recommend this Blu-Ray release to anyone who enjoys the biopic style films. It's a great movie included with great bonus features. It's a true masterpiece on stunning high-def Blu-Ray.

The Fifth Estate is leaked to DVD and Blu-Ray January 28th. Be on the lookout for a special giveaway later this week! 

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com