This disc has four or five episodes, depending on how you count them.

• Cowman - The Uddered Avenger
  Usually there are two stories per episode, but things start off with a story that is two episodes long. Cowman ignores the usual continuity of the show and has Otis and the rest of the barnyard animals dressing up as Superheroes to battle the evil Mertin Fargleman who wants to steal a Jurassic corn kernel so he can use it to win first prize and the county fair.
• Hypno-a-Go-Go
  Otis amuses himself by hypnotizing all of his friends by making them believe they are a cheerleader, kung fu rivals, pirate, parrot, ballerina, and a microwave. (Huh?) But the fun and games ends when he accidentally hypnotizes himself into trying to destroy farmer.
• Fowl Play
  After a strange night, Freddy the ferret wakes up covered in Peck's feathers. But would he really eat his best friend? On a side note, how many kids watching this show are going to get the Law & Order reverences in this episode?
• Barnyard Games
  Otis and Abby compete in the Barnyard Games, but their competitive natures get the best of them and they look for a way to win at all costs.
• War of the Pranks
  Otis tries his hardest to prank Bessy, but as the pranks get more elaborate, it is only a matter of time before someone gets over their head.

Granted, I'm not in the target audience for Back at the Barnyard, but I've seen enough shows like this that I can tell when one is working, and this isn't. The Uddered Avenger was a complete bust, while at best the rest of the episodes only offered one or two genuine laughs. Back at the Barnyard is simply not as funny as Steve Oedekerk's previous creature, Jimmy Neutron. This is no surprise as the original movie was much better as source material. Additionally, the extras on Cowman - The Uddered Avenger are rather weak, and for most fans a rental will be enough.

This story, which is based on real life events, is emotionally powerful, but sadly it falls flat here. When we first witness war crimes being committed, there is a scene where a crowd of Chinese are lined up and shot with machine guns. The scene ends with a slow motion shot of one of the victims falling onto the muddy ground. This struck me as emotionally manipulative, and this scene set the tone for the rest of the movie. What's worse is, it was unnecessary. After that, each beat of the story felt less authentic and it felt too common to be as effective as it could be. We see George Hogg struggle to win over his charges, slowly build trust, calm them emotional trauma, and even fall in love, it feels like the filmmakers were simply checking off boxes in a list they needed to complete before the film's 2-hour running time was over.

The film never really found an audience during its limited release, which explains why the only extra on the DVD is a 12-minute making of featurette.

The story that is the basis for The Children of Huang Shi has all of the elements needed to be great, but the film doesn't do enough with them to be more than a melodramatic misfire. Add in a DVD that has nearly no extras, as it equals no more than a rental.

City of Ember is a Steampunk adventure movie set in an underground city founded 200 years before the beginning of the movie. The city was built to house humanity underground because of an unnamed disaster that took place above, however, by the time the movie starts, the people of Ember no longer remember why they live there. Worse yet, the generator that powers their city and helps grow their food is breaking down, and soon their storerooms will run out. However, there is hope as Lina Mayfleet and her friend Doon Harrow may have found something left by the Builders, and the builders may have left instructions on how to get back to the surface. But most of the citizens of Ember have lost any inquisitive nature and are convinced the Builders will return to their city to rescue them when the time comes. And they are more than content to wait for that to happen, instead of trying to solve the problems themselves.

This movie earned mixed reviews when it debut theatrically, with even most of the negative reviews complimenting the film on its visuals. And I certainly concur there. I've always been a fan of the Steampunk motif, and it is put to great use here. However, while most critics felt the story was too slight to justify the sets, I was drawn into the film. Granted, at times it did feel like a theme park ride (especially during the end boat ride) but for the most part I enjoyed the puzzles presented.

Sadly, I only have a burned screener, and not the final product to review. What I do have has absolutely no extras, and I think this is true of the final product as well. If I get the final DVD to review later, I will update this review.

City of Ember became the latest in a long line of Fantasy / Adventure movies with kids as their main characters that flopped at the box office. It seems too many are trying to recreate Harry Potter success, but I don't think that's going to happen for a long, long time. In the meantime, films that would otherwise be decent hits are being killed because of the competition and the recent losing streak. City of Ember is one such box office failure. This is a shame, as it deserved to be seen by more; however, with a featureless DVD, for most a rental will be enough.

Disaster Movie - Unrated Blu-ray - Buy from Amazon
The latest, and hopefully last film from the writing / directing team of Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg. The duo have made four movies to date: Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, and now Disaster Movie. Combined these four films have earned a total of eight positive review on Rotten Tomatoes. Eight. This particular installment earned one positive review. One. Quite frankly, That's one more positive review than this film deserves.

Usually this is the part of the spotlight review where I describe the plot. But there's no point with this movie, because the movie really has no plot worth talking about. It is merely a collection of reverences to other movies, many of which were not even out in theaters while this movie was being made. So essentially, they were spoofing movie trailers. And given that issue, they still made the film feel shallow in comparison. The writing was awful, with every single attempts at humor falling flat. What's worse, most of these jokes are usually then held for a beat too long, which turns a lame joke into something that was painful to experience. This, however, was expected. What I found that was shocking was how poorly the film looked. The special effects were terrible, especially the parody of Alvin and the Chipmunks. They didn't have the budget for computer animation, so they instead used puppets. Cheap looking puppets. I've seen YouTube videos with better production values than this movie. It reportedly only cost $20 million to make, but even that seems at least $10 million too high.

I don't have the DVD to compare it to, but the extras on the Blu-ray are better than the movie deserves, at least in quantity. Things start off with the Picture-in-Picture commentary track with the producer and the two writer / directors, who don't say much, and the three main members of the cast, who don't add anything of substance. There are six featurettes starting with Straight from the Ladies, which has three of the female cast members in character talking about the movie. Mostly annoying, but still funnier than G-Thang's Tour of the set. This is How We Do It spends 9-minutes talking about the making of the movie, with pop-up trivia. Girl Fight runs just under 2 minutes, which will disappoint the target audience. Sitting Down With a Stand-Up is 8 minutes with G-Thang, who is not funny, but very talkative. This is a deadly combination. Who's Spoofing Who? spends 4 minutes talking about how many of the people in the movie have been spoofed. The final two extras are Sing Alongs for the two main songs in the movie. Neither of which are funny, and neither of which do I want to hear again. Technically, the movie neither looks nor sounds particularly good for a High Definition release. No bad, but just average.

On a side note, when you movie around the menu, it screams at you. Loudly. This is annoying and I question why it was done.

When Meet the Spartans didn't live up to expectations at the box office, Fox dropped the series only to have Lionsgate pick it up. This was a huge mistake, not only creatively, but also financially. Disaster Movie is one of the worst movies I have ever seen, and I can't recommend the Buy from Amazon for buying, renting, watching for free. Or standing too close to. Run. Run away from the movie and don't stop.

A movie about a man without faith surrounded by true believers could work either as an edgy comedy or as a philosophical drama. What it doesn't work as is a preachy, maudlin mess, which is exactly what we have here. It's a movie about faith where the evidence is presented in a ham-fisted way destroying any ambiguity. It doesn't take faith to accept valid evidence, so this hurt the cause of the filmmakers. At one point Patience, the nearsighted grocery clerk, touches the face of God and suddenly she has perfect 20/20 vision. When she describes the event as a miracle, Henry Poole recoils from that word, but she says, "Come on, Mr. Poole, what else could this be?" Bad writing. That's what this is. Also, this bad writing was too often delivered in a clumsy way, usually with close-ups of a character's face while they delivered an emotional speech, complete with tears. (Also, you should only have one scene with a character wandering around while the audience listens to a lyrically appropriate song. One. Anymore and they lose their effectiveness and quickly turn to self-parody.) This is a shame, because with a more deft touch, and a lot less predictability, it could have a good movie. I certainly liked some of the performances. For instance, newcomer Rachel Seiferth was great in the film, and I hope she has a long career ahead of her.

Extras start with two audio commentary tracks, both with the director. In the first he is joined by the writer and they talk about story elements, while in the second he is joined by the D.P. and they talk about the more technical aspects of making the movie. There are 31 minutes of deleted scenes (with audio commentary track), much of which deals with the life of Henry Poole that he had before he found out he had a terminal disease. There is a 16-minute long making of featurette and a music video. The Blu-ray is BD-Live enabled; however, there are nothing online at the moment. Also, currently on Amazon the Blu-ray is actually cheaper than the DVD by a significant margin.

Henry Poole is Here is a movie with a lot of flaws from the heavy-handed script to the overuse of music video like music sequences. Extras on the DVD and the Blu-ray are better than expected, but I can't rate this one past a rental. Even a rental is being very generous here.