05/22/2013  
COMMANDOTHE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP (BLU-RAY)A HAUNTING: THE 2012 SEASONBADLANDS (BLU-RAY)LIZ & DICKCHINA BEACH: THE COMPLETE SERIESTROUBLED TEENS

follow us on twitter

dOc on facebook

RR Rich Rosell

DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY/RACE WITH THE DEVIL (BLU-RAY)...
NAKED LUNCH (BLU-RAY)...
A WHISPER TO A ROAR...
ESCAPEE (BLU-RAY)...
WILFRED: THE COMPLETE SERIES...

NE News Editor

Dancing With the Stars Backstage Scoop: Kellie Pickler ...
Helen Mirren Fulfills Boy's Dying Wish When Real Queen ...
Nova: Mind of a Rampage Killer on DVD May 28...
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters on Blu-ray & DVD Jun 11...
From The Doors To X, Ray Manzarek's Legacy - In His Own...

CA Chuck Aliaga

COMMANDO...
A HAUNTING: THE 2012 SEASON...
BADLANDS (BLU-RAY)...
THE LONELIEST PLANET...
SANSHO THE BAILIFF (BLU-RAY)...

RJ Ross Johnson

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP (BLU-RAY)...
PURPLE NOON (BLU-RAY)...
WEEKEND (BLU-RAY)...
JUAN OF THE DEAD...
THE DEVIL'S NEEDLE AND OTHER TALES OF VICE AND REDEMPTI...

JB Joseph Burke

LIZ & DICK...
CHINA BEACH: THE COMPLETE SERIES...
PAUL SIMON: LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY...
The Problem with the #Olympics: It's Us....
The Newsroom: Cable News Media Played for Laughs and Cr...

JS Jesse Shanks

DOWNTON ABBEY SEASONS ONE & TWO LIMITED EDITION...
FLORENCE AND THE SPIRIT OF THE RENAISSANCE...
NAZI COLLABORATORS...
KATT WILLIAMS: KATTPACALYPSE...
BARACK OBAMA: FROM HIS CHILDHOOD TO THE PRESIDENCY...

MZ Mark Zimmer

STORAGE WARS: VOLUME THREE...
Take Part in a Film Restoration...
THE 39 STEPS (BLU-RAY)...
DARK SHADOWS: THE BEST OF BARNABAS...
STORAGE WARS: SEASON ONE...

JD Jon Danziger

SUNSET BOULEVARD...
SALO, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM...
TABLOID...
CUL-DE-SAC...
3 WOMEN...

JC Joel Cunningham

YOJIMBO/SANJURO...
SUMMER HOURS (L'heure d'ÈtÈ)...
WIZARD OF OZ...
WINGS OF DESIRE...
HORTON HEARS A WHO!...

DH Dan Heaton

REVANCHE...
LAST DAYS OF DISCO...
NIGHTS AND WEEKENDS...
STARGATE SG-1: CHILDREN OF THE GODS...
STARGATE ATLANTIS: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON...

MS Matt Serafini

THE STEPFATHER...
THE HILLS RUN RED...
MANAGEMENT...
NIGHT OF DEATH...
GNAW...

KC Kevin Clemons

Freddy Got Fingered...

JU Jeff Ulmer

Secure The Second Season of The Border on DVD August 25...
THE WALTONS: THE COMPLETE 9TH SEASON...
Dance Me Outside kicks onto DVD May 6, 2008...

DD Dale Dobson

Film-Fest 4: Sundance 2000 & Hawaii...

RM Robert Mandel

Saving Private Ryan...

Share: email   Print      Technorati.gif   StumbleUpon.gif   MySpace   digg.gif delicious.gif   google.gif   magnolia.gif   facebook.gif
Permalink: Permalink.gif

DVD Review: ANCIENT ALIENS: SEASON FOUR (BLU-RAY)

Studio: New Video
Year: 2012
Cast: various
Director: various
Release Date: November 20, 2012
Rating: Not Rated for (nothing objectionable)
Run Time: 07h:20m:0s
Genre(s): television

"Did ancient aliens really help shape our history?" - narrator (Robert Clotworthy)

ANCIENT ALIENS: SEASON FOUR   (BLU-RAY)

Buy Now @ Amazon

 
 

Series writers might be stretching sometimes to fill an hour on a topic occasionally, but pound-for-pound this is easily my favorite History Channel series. Mock it if you want, but this show always makes me think about the big picture just a little bit differently.

Movie Grade: B

DVD Grade: B

For now I won't speculate why The History Channel has only released season one and (now) season four of this thought-provoking series on Blu-Ray. leaving the two middle seasons dangling in the SD void. Instead I will take pleasure in the fact that this ten episode run from early 2012 is out on Blu and leave it at that. While this might not be consistently the best overall block of material in the show's catalog it does have more than a few standout installments (The Mystery of Puma Punku) that make the lesser ones (Aliens and Bigfoot) seem somehow tolerable.

Each episode runs about 42 minutes, and once again the series calls on its regular group of colorful experts - including Erich von Däniken, Philip Coppens, David Childress, Giorgio A. Tsoukalos - to appear throughout, offering dot-connecting "what if" notions, along with a large number of theme-specific contributors. These include archeologists, authors, radio hosts, theologians, professors, folklorists, meteorologists, astronauts, museum curators, physicists, etc., all of whom tow the company line of being pro-ancient-alien. The lack of a dissenting viewpoint remains the show's weak link, and just once I would love to see crazy-haired Giorgio A. Tsoukalos debate someone contrary to his ideas.

That would be some good television, my friend.

Plenty of enjoyably speculative material here, and naturally there are a couple of Mayan-centric "doomsday" eps here (Mayan Conspiracies and Doomsday Prophecies), which come 12/21/12 will either prove to be horrific fact or fantastic fiction. Regardless of the doomsday part the explorations of how advanced these "primitive" civilizations were is astounding, to say the least. But the two biggest gems here are The NASA Connection and the aforementioned The Mystery of Puma Punku, both of which represent what I feel are some of the best work done by this series during season four.

In the first conspiracy nuts (yes, I am one) will find much to ponder concerning our space program and its connections to ancient Egyptian beliefs, secret societies and what really happened during shuttle missions STS-48 and STS-80. The second travels to Peru, where on a 12,800 foot plateau lies a mass of enormous stone blocks resembling the letter H. The theorized concepts of who made the intricately carved stones and why - or how they got there - is ideal fodder for Ancient Aliens, and this would be the episode you would want to show to your skeptical friend.

The ten episodes for season four consist of:

DISC 1:
The Mayan Conspiracy
Original air date: 02/17/12

The Doomsday Prophecies
Original air date: 02/17/12

The Greys
Original air date: 02/24/12

Aliens and Mega-Disasters
Original air date: 03/02/12

The NASA Connection
Original air date: 03/09/12

DISC 2:
The Mystery of Puma Punku
Original air date: 03/16/12

Aliens and Bigfoot
Original air date: 03/23/12

The Da Vinci Conspiracy
Original air date: 04/06/12

The Time Travellers
Original air date: 04/27/12

Aliens and Dinosaurs
Original air date: 05/04/12

IMAGE/AUDIO
No complaints whatsoever with the 1.78:1 1080i transfer. Colors are quite vivid - man, those are some BLUE skies - and generally the entire presentation looks strong, even when enduring the excessive post-production trickery used to liven up what would be a dull static shot otherwise. Some of the archival material is a bit rough, but that is used sparingly. As expected the interview segments look the strongest - with solid facial details and warm fleshtones.

Audio is presented in a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix and the presentation delivers loud music cues/stingers and clean, rich voice quality during the interview segments. Naturally narrator Robert "I sound like Peter Coyote" Clotworthy comes across the best, with his trademark voice booming ominously.

EXTRAS
Once again no extras of any kind for an Ancient Aliens collection. Weird and disappointing.

Posted by: Rich Rosell - December 2, 2012, 9:00 am - DVD Review
Keywords: ancient aliens, ufos, bigfoot, mayans, doomsday, da vinci, time travel




Search 10,000+ titles:

or Advanced Search

DVD REVIEW ARCHIVE


Get FREE Shipping on all orders at TimeLife.com! - 120x90

 

Keywords

television, dancing with the stars, kellie pickler, derek hough, mirror-ball trophy, celebrity, helen mirren, queen elizabeth 2, the audence, oliver burton, cancer, documentary, horror, movie, hangover 3, goodbye, bradley cooper, zach galifianakis, ed helms, heather graham, justin bartha, music, the doors, ray manzarek, rock and roll hall of fame, jim morrison, live at the bowl '68, paranormal, kids, star wars rebels, disney channel, lucasfilm sources, dave filoni, simon kinberg, greg weisman, kathleen kennedy, billboard music awards, taylor swift, jennifer lopez, biography, movies, box office, thrilling, special-ops, dictator, drama, maude, golden girls, bea authur, john currin, nude, science-fiction, television series, scott bakula, bob bolivar, doug drexler, brannon braga, sci-fi, angelina jolie, brca1, ovarian and breast cancer, double mastectomy, preventive procedure, marcheline bertrand, the amazing spider-man 2, paul giamatti, marc webb, andrew garfield, jamie foxx, dane dehaan, sally field, brave, animated, merida, disney, merchandising changes, late night, jimmy fallon, the tonight show, seth meyers, saturday night live



Microsoft Store

On Kindle!
On Facbook!
digitallyOBSESSED!
digitallyOBSESSED!
Promote Your Page Too
Become a Reviewer | Search | Review Vault | Reviewers
Readers | Webmasters | Privacy | Contact