There not many films that deserve a high definition upgrade, but when it comes to classics like To Kill a Mockingbird, there should be no hesitation. Universal has digitally remastered and fully restored the film for its 50th birthday, making it pristine both in picture and sound. They even through in 3 and a half hours of bonus material, including footage of the actor receiving his Oscar for best actor in To Kill a Mockingbird and his acceptance speech for the AFI Lifetime Achievement award. There are interviews with actress Mary Badham, who played Scout in the film, and recollections from his daughter at the Tribute to Gregory Peck that took place after he died in 2003. And if you’re a fan of Peck or Mockingbird, the feature length documentary, Fearful Symmetry, on the making of the film and a Conversation with Gregory Peck are not to be missed.

One other item that I have to mention that is not directly associated with the film itself is a feature on Universal’s efforts to restore their massive classic film library, improving both picture and sound quality, so that these treasures will not be lost to the ravages of time. From To Kill a Mockingbird to Dracula to Jaws and hundreds more, the caretakers of Universal’s film library go over the painstaking steps they take to keep these classics alive. I’m sure it’s going to appear on all of their Universal 100th Anniversary releases, but I’m mentioning it now as it’s the first I’ve seen it. If you’re a movie buff, especially when it comes to behind-the-scenes stuff and classic film preservation, this is definitely worth checking out.

Honestly, while quiet at times and riveting at others, this movie would probably bore some kids to death today, but it’s the type of movie schools should be showing students on those days that they decide to not teach (Too many kids are coming home with stories of seeing Cars 2 instead of learning something – no offense to Pixar). This is the type of film that would open their eyes to an era we hope is long gone, but should also be seen and understood so that it stays gone. And while there isn’t much on this DVD/Blu-Ray/Digital Copy combo set that adds to the educational aspect (yes, I know, even mentioning the educational impact makes it sound boring), it’s the film itself that needs to be seen by every man, woman, and child for that very reason. That said, I’m really not sure why the movie required a Digital Copy version, but I suppose it’s the thing to do these days. I just can’t imagine someone clutching their iPod on the bus to watch and rewatch To Kill a Mockingbird. However, if they have the means to digitally present it on their home big screen tv, then that’s definitely the better option. Mockingbird is meant to be savored in a big moviehouse with a packed audience of equally enthralled movie lovers. And, if possible, at home curled up on the couch with your family. This 50th Anniversary Edition goes a long way to making that possible, breathing new life into a still very relevant American classic for everyone to enjoy…

To Kill a Mockingbird is available online and in stores on January 31st from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

What’s cool about the YA genre exploring imagined government controlled societies is it’s paired with coming-of-age themes and younger characters’ developing worldviews. It’s inspiring to read about teenagers who challenge what they’ve been raised to believe and their struggle in making decisions that affect the rest of their lives. Teenagers are pressured to make good decisions, while at the same time many facets of their life are beyond their control. It’s what makes YA an exciting genre that has increasing crossover appeal to adult readers.

Here are three recent dystopian genre stand-outs:

Legend by Marie Lu incorporates a few familiar elements from The Hunger Games and Lauren Oliver’s Delirium, another top YA title. In Legend, the United States is divided into the Republic of Los Angeles and the Colonies, who are at war with each other. L.A. is divided into sectors, and former downtown L.A. is partially submerged underwater after years of damaging hurricanes. Imagine the desolation from the Fallout video game series and the scavengers who exist within them.

As with many dystopian scenarios, the government in Legend is military-led and severe. June is an orphaned 15-year-old savant who lives with her older brother Metais, a Republic soldier, in a wealthy district. All kids are administered a test called The Trial at age 10 which evaluates intelligence, education, physique and physical strengths. June is the only person so far to attain a perfect 1500 score, and she’s advanced to college-level military traning. When her brother is killed by a rogue dissenter, a boy nicknamed Day whose various property destruction pranks are splashed across giant Republic Jumbo Trons throughout the city, June is recruited early to a military post to help search for her brother’s killer. She finds Day while undercover as a vagabond, and pieces together that he might not be the notorious criminal the Republic makes him out to be. June’s unlikely alliance with Day shows her that the government she believed protected its citizens has dark secrets, and she needs to decide who to trust. This is the first book in a trilogy.

In Ashes by Ilsa Bick, the story is more post-apocalyptic than dystopian (if you want to get specific about categorization) and toys with the idea of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that wipes out use of all electronics, and in turn kills a huge segment of the population. Alex, a 17-year-old orphan (of course) with a brain tumor is out on a solo survivalist camping trip when the event happens. She’s essentially given up on cancer treatments, but soon comes to believe the tumor saved her from the EMP. She encounters other survivors who are divided into two groups: those spared, and others who changed into savage cannibals. Yup, cannibals. If you dig the idea of being alone in the woods and finding a couple of people feasting on a camper, this is the book for you. The author’s military background and fascination with survival tactics keep the story detailed and believable. Alex eventually ends up in a cultish community which protects her but seems more than a bit shady. The story feels a little disjointed, almost like it’s two different books, and it abruptly ends leaving you to wait for book #2. I should mention, just about every new YA book is a trilogy. Be forewarned!

Divergent by Veronica Roth was just named the 2011 Favorite Book on Goodreads, a social networking site for book lovers. Taking the similar concept of dividing a current city (Chicago) into factions and testing kids at a pivotal age (16), Divergent further pushes dystopian society rules by categorizing the factions by virtues: Candor, Abnegation, Dauntless, Amity, and Erudite. How’s that for a vocabulary challenge. It sounds lofty, but the pacing and action keep the story moving. Beatrice ‘Tris’ chooses the Dauntless faction, which is a surprise to her more passive family (Abnegation = selfless). Tris must endure violent trials and an initiation to prove her worth and loyalty to her new faction. If she fails, she will be shunned by pretty much everyone. Again, as with other stories in this genre, things are not as they seem, and Tris must decide who to trust. Divergent is also the first in a trilogy (what did I tell you?) and it’s worth picking up.

Legend is Marie Lu‘s debut novel and just released on November 29th. Ashes and Divergent published earlier in 2011 and are currently available.

Unfortunately, “picturing this” is all we could really do; as Interwave gave us a single ticket to a multiplayer party. We could not get the competitive play to even start until we had at least 4 players in our game – and the online servers last weekend were either empty or secured. So it was difficult to enjoy features like command view without shelling out for additional licenses… something were remiss to do (not for any principle really, just that 25 bucks per license can also feed us all ramen and cereal for a week).

Still, the levels we played (well… wandered really) we’re beautifully designed and rendered. Play is set in post-apocalyptic imagined cityscapes of UK, Japan, Dubai and elsewhere. The terrain is littered with torched cars, waste and bodies – as the vast majority of humankind is gone (except soldiers… and those exclusive radiation-resistant workers who keep the electricity on). Except for the specific controls of the game (like resource centers), there’s little interaction with props, like vehicles; “Damn, why would they put a tricked-out snowmobile here if I can’t fire it up?”

Here are some cool vehicles I can't seem to ride.

Your team is pitted against another, in an attempt to take each others flag… er… command center – assisted by one uber-player who can coordinate your movements and grant supplies from above, via isometric map view. The description claims “Nuclear Dawn is the first game to offer a full FPS and RTS experience…”, which kinda spits in the faces of the old Battlefield 2 development team.

Taking a page from Team Fortress and others, you pick your solder from a list of career types, to match your style (lurk and snipe vs. stand and deliver, vs. perhaps fix some things). Experienced players can unlock weapons and premiums to enhance game play, and industrious players can create their own maps too.

Powered by Valve‘s Source, the experience is as good as Half-Life 2, Portal, Left4Dead and the others which use this engine. My Alienware M15X laptop has a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M and Windows 7 64 – and had no problem giving me smooth action and beautiful imagery. Some maps and gameplay devices – like the command centers, spawn points and recharging resource units – are even reminiscent of the Half-Life’s Combine. The way the secondary resource unit activated itself and started doing little “mechanized push-ups” had me thinking that it was scaring away City 17′s Antlions, rather than pumping out numbers to recharge me. Ah, memories…

This game would be a blast at an old fashioned LAN party – or perhaps a sponsored expo competition. But like I said at the start: we need 4 live solders for the challenge to even begin. This is possibly because someone at Interwave decided you needed 2 to control some resource points, times the two teams it takes to tango.

Without a lower threshold to entry (not just price – but something to DO until you can herd the requisite quantity of players, like a single player campaign – or some bots to play) this game might become a victim of bad timing: Some heavy hitters with huge promo budgets are hitting the market this winter (MW3 for example), and Team Fortress 2 is free now. Events like these are likely to siphon away the same “team theme” players this game sorely needs to build market momentum.

UPDATE: I just checked the Nuclear Dawn server community recently, and it looks like the lower Valve price – perhaps combined with Free Weekend promos and other giveaways – has drummed up a fair community of (likely Counter Strike ex-pat) players, and servers to host them. Interwave has just released a nice update as well!

Or maybe I’m just no good at playing it. Available on the iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone for $9.99 in the App Store, you would have to be a hardcore basketball gaming fan to get something out of this version. I think these games look and feel amazing on the high end platforms, but I can’t see a need to take it with you on the iPad just yet. Maybe in 2K13.

So when I found out that Jason Segel was working with Disney to create an all-new Muppet movie that would remain faithful to the spirit of the original tv series and film, I was ecstatic! For me, it’s been the most anticipated movie of the fall, if not the year. So far, it’s gotten lots of rave reviews, but can it possibly live up to the hype and expectations of its most ardent, lifelong fans?

To give you an idea of just how big of a lifelong fan I am, check out my video review below…

As a bonus, here’s Luis Calderon’s Living After Midnight review for the Muppets:

For longtime fans, this set has got to be the holy grail of Farscape goodness. This complete series Blu-Ray set is comprised of 20 discs packed with all 4 seasons and more than 15 hours of extras, including 31 audio commentaries, 3 archival documentaries, 90 minutes of deleted scenes, video profiles and behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew of Farscape. But the crown jewels of bonus features has to be Farscape Undressed, the rarely seen behind-the-scenes special, and Memories of Maya: An Epic Journey Explored, a brand new documentary that revisits the cast and crew as the reminisce on their experiences and the legacy of this sci-fi cult classic series.

Unfortunately, there are parts of this set (In the Beginning: A Look Back with Brian Henson) that I dared not watch, because they contained spoilers for the entire series (which, again, I haven’t watched entirely yet). A big thanks goes to A+E Networks Home Entertainment for putting that spoiler warning right on the disc packaging or I would have been severely pissed off (I hate spoilers).

Yes, some of the characters look a bit “puppety”, but I don’t mind that a bit. They ARE puppets, after all. I grew up on the works of Brian Henson‘s father, Jim, and even though Farscape is more along the lines of Dark Crystal puppet technology than Sesame Street (oh so very far from Sesame Street!), it is still amazing to see the actors performing against actual physical creatures. But most of all, for me, it’s FUN! For example, I don’t recall any of the Muppets farting helium (well, maybe that one time).

But how does it look all cleaned up and highly defined for modern television viewing? It may only be less than 10 years since it went off the air, but that’s eons in technology years. The people behind the visual upgrade took painstaking measures to give the series the best look possible, using the highest quality source materials available to them and polishing it until it could live up to their fans’ high expectations. It may not be widescreen, but it’s definitely clean. If you’re still suffering along with rough VHS copies, you’re due for an upgrade.

Whether you’re a die-hard fan or brand new to the series like me, I expect you, me, and John Crichton are in for the interstellar ride of their lives. Farscape: the Complete Series Blu-Ray is available now in stores and online.

At the time of this post, Amazon currently has the complete series on Blu-Ray for only $96.99, which is more than $100 off the MSRP for a limited time. Get it while you can by clicking below!

I could spend a ton of time going over the stuff you already know. If you’re a Halo devotee, then you know what to expect. It’s just… better looking. The detail of the maps, while maybe not as graphically intense as many of the games we’re used to these days, is so good, it’s almost distracting as you move through them as if with new eyes. Yes, many of the flat surfaces are covered with new details are simply shrink-wrapped with that detail, but with no physical depth of texture, but they are still nice to look at. I almost didn’t want to shoot. I wanted to take a stroll and explore. It was like going home, only to find your old hometown got a makeover with shiny new lampposts and sexy new sidewalks (if sidewalks can at all be sexy).

As for gameplay, they made a conscious decision to keep the same movement and weight to the characters and foes when they made the upgrade. However, with it comes some of the bugginess, some frame-rate issues, of the old days. Again, what we get is a really sexy wrapper that 343 has put on Bungie‘s classic game; it’s not a rebuild from the ground up. It’s the original core game. To prove it, they give you the ability to jump back to the original game’s look with the push of a button, mid-game. Instant gaming time travel. Nice. But you’ll also notice that the sound effects and music that get a considerable upgrade, warranting the use of a surround sound system or at least some kickass headphones so you don’t annoy the neighbors at 3am with your all-night gaming binges.

Among the upgrades you’ll find:

• 6 classic maps remade with lush new details and a brand new Firefight map, developed in collaboration with Certain Affinity.
• All-new backstories that foreshadow mysteries from Halo 4.
• Immersive Stereoscopic 3D gaming for those of you with 3D TVs.
• Integration with Kinect lets gamers reload weapons and throw grenades using only their voices.
• “Analyze Mode” lets gamers explore the world of Halo in amazing detail by allowing them to scan items and add them to the Library.
• Unlock up to 1000 Achievement points within the campaign and battling online.

But the big question remains… Is Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary worthwhile buying AGAIN if you already owned the game 10 years ago?

The short answer is yes, especially if you grew up with and love the original Halo, even if you spent years of your life in front of your Xbox. However, if you’re looking for something on par graphically and gameplay-wise with the most recent Halo games and you’re not interested in retreading old ground, no matter how pretty it looks or sounds, then you might find yourself a little frustrated. I can’t imagine who those people might be, but I’m sure there are some out there.

At its core, no matter how you dress it up or strip it down, there’s a reason why Halo spawned (and respawned) so many imitators: it’s a helluva lotta fun to play again and again… even 10 years later. No amount of graphical upgrades can change that.

This, to me, feels a bit like cheating on Adult Swim. So, to make it feel less weird, I am watching the as-yet unaired episodes at night, under the covers in my bed, with my pants off/boots on, as usual. No, not weird at all.

However, to up the weird quotient, I dug into the DVD extras to find it chock full of goodies, including some ditched sketches still in animatic format, a bunch of promos that include a series of top 10 episode intros made by Seth Green, Matt Senreich, and Tom Root for New Zealand Comedy Central, and lots of behind-the-scenes footage from the voice-over sessions. There’s even a teeny little extra featuring Mr Nathan Fillion and his wacko conspiracy theories on how Robot Chicken gets all of these amazing people to lend their voices to this creepy little stop-motion puppet show.

One thing to note is that this entire 2 disc DVD collection is very uncensored, so if you’re sensitive to such things, well, you’re probably not much of a fan of this show, because they censor very little. But if you don’t like naughty words, you might want to cover your ears when you watch this or just mute the whole thing. Of course, that would be sad because a lot of good people worked hard to swear on this show for your amusement, including Kevin Bacon, Elijah Wood, Megan Fox, Jon Hamm, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mila Kunis, Bryan Cranston, Christopher Lloyd, Katee Sackhoff, the aforementioned Captain Tightpants, Jeremy Renner, Brian Austin Green, JK Simmons, Jena Malone, Macaulay Culkin, and tons more that will shock and surprise and possibly even make you shrug your shoulders with indifference and/or confusion.

I won’t spoil any of the surprises, but here are a few teases on the skits that stood out.

• Ever wanted to see Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Veronica Mars team up and/or beat the holy hell out of each other? Robot Chicken‘s got that. Except it looks more like a bake off gone bad.
• Marty McFly figures out a better option than going back to the future.
• The first thing you learn at Hogwarts should be enunciation.
• Precious Gone Wild (this sentence was not meant to sound sexy in any way).
• Loving a vampire and a werewolf is not a game (thank god).
• The Nerd and the talking car of his dreams.
• Thank God Clark Kent never became an EMT.
• Babies are jerks.
• Hal Jordan and Frodo choose to accessorize in fun new ways.
• The true secret origin of the Robot Chicken with a toy battle royale to end all toy battle royaleseses!

The 2nd half of Robot Chicken season 5 premieres this Sunday, October 23rd at 11:30pm on Adult Swim.
The complete Robot Chicken season 5 is available on DVD and Blu-Ray in stores October 25th.