Jake and the Never Land Pirates: The Battle For The Book
Studio: Walt Disney Home Entertainment
Release Date: January 6, 2015
Retail: $19.99
ASIN: B00OCUYC0I
Running Time: 141 minutes
Rated: TV-Y
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Now available on DVD from Walt Disney Home Entertainment is Jake and the Never Land Pirates: Battle For The Book, featuring 8 exciting adventures along with 10 "Jake's Neverland Pirate School" Cartoon Shorts. Each DVD come with a a "free" Checkerboard Bandana Game.

Jake and the Never Land Pirates first premiered on Disney Junior in 2011 and has won the hearts of critics and young fans. The series is set in the world of Disney's Peter Pan and centers on three pirate children Jake, Izzy and Cubby. They spend their days with their parrot Skully aboard their live ship named Bucky as they set off a new adventure. Of course Captain Hook and his crew are never too far behind them.

The episodes on this single-disc DVD are:

Battle For The Book - Parts 1 & 2 - After Captain Hook and his crew goes to London and steals Wendy's magical book, Wendy and her brothers begin to lose their memories, so she sends a message to Peter Pan for help. Peter Pan is sort of tied up at the moment, so he sends Jake and the Never Land Pirates to save the day!

Treasure Of The Pirate Mummy's Tomb/Mystery Of The Missing Treasure! - Jake his pals must find the Never Land ankh that is located inside the Mummy's Tomb. Then Jake and his crew are on the hunt to find the thief that stole their Team Treasure Chest.

Learn To Dance: Merengue - Beginning and Intermediate
Studio: DanceCrazy.com
Release Date: April 24, 2007
Retail: $39.95
ASIN: B000P28UFU
Running Time: 102 minutes
Rating: NR
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

With all the dancing reality series on television, it is a no-brainer why learning to dance and other dancing workout DVDs are so popular today. These types of DVDs are an easy way for an individual or couple to learn how to dance in the comfort of their own home.

Recently, I have been trying out several of these types of programs from DancyCrazy and the latest one I have been experimenting with is called Learn To Dance: Merengue - Beginning and Intermediate.

Merengue is a blend of dance and music from the Dominican Republic. Of course eventually this style of music reached the United States and continued to be popular with dancers.

This DVD has a male and a female instructor who gives you a step-by-step guide on how to learn the basic moves for the Merengue. You'll learn the Basics, Beginning Patterns and Intermediate Patterns.

At Death's Door: 13 Fright-Filled Films
Starring: Vincent Price, John Carradine, Barbara Steele, Jack Nicholson
Studio: Mill Creek Entertainment
Release Date: January 13, 2015
Retail: $9.98
ASIN: B00OU4MT6U
Running Time: 18 hours 8 minutes
Rating: Not Rated / R
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Arriving on a 3-disc DVD set tomorrow from Mill Creek Entertainment is At Death's Door: 13 Fright-Filled Films starring Leslie Den Doven, Alan Scarfe, Kay Hawtrey, Christine Moore, Rosie Holotik, Barbara Steele, John Caradine, Evelyn Stewart, Richard Carlson, John Hudson, Vincent Price, Jack Nicholson and Walter Brandi.

Yes, this type of horror collection will find it's way into the $5 bin at Walmart and if you already own a few of them, then you've probably have seen most of the films in this set. Most of these movies are in the public domain, except for a few that are from Crown International Pictures, Inc., so the picture quality of the films aren't exactly the best.

A major highlight in this set is the underrated 1980 horror flick Funeral Home (93 mins; Rated R) about a young woman spending the summer at her grandmother's to help turn the farmhouse into a bed & breakfast, but then a few of the guests turn up dead. The young woman starts to investigate the strange sounds coming from the basement and discovers a family secret. Despite an R rating, the film's violence isn't very bloody compared to other horror movies from that era.

The weird Luckers (1988; 94 mins; Rated R) is about a woman who has been tormented ever since her mother killed her father when she was a just a young girl. She starts having strange dreams and starts to believe that something from the supernatural world is coming to get her. This has some of the worst acting I have ever seen and despite the slow pacing, I actually liked it.

Well, it looks like for once I'm finally going to get this post published in the actual morning. I'm a little worn out from my new workout routines last week. I have been exercising late at night with the intention to move it into the early mornings, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I probably wait until tonight to do today's workout. There are days when I don't even want to exercise, but I somehow find a way to force myself. The good news is that I have lost 4 pounds since January 1st!

I did something I wasn't ever planning on doing - I shaved off my beard. I grew my beard around 14 or 15 years ago with the intention of never shaving it as my skin has a habit of breaking out when I shave. I can't explain it - I guess I just wanted to try something new, so I shaved it off. I have to admit that I do look a bit younger without my beard. Last week, I charged up my two old electric razors and used them, but they don't give a close shave. Today, I used a throwaway razor, which I didn't care for too much. However, I ordered a new electric razor on Friday, which I hope to receive sometime this week.

I plan on doing some personal reading this year; you know the books that I don't have to review on here. I went ahead and read 10 pages in Shakespeare's Champion by Charlaine Harris, one of the books I picked up at the thrift store over the weekend. Yeah, I know that 10 pages isn't a whole lot, but I only had about five minutes of free time to read yesterday. I do hope to read the entire book this week.

Yes, I do love a good cup of coffee every morning, so it should be no surprise that I wanted to try the Wave 3 Smooth Dark Roast Organic Whole Beans. Now I prefer to use coffee beans that I grind at home as it makes the coffee taste even more fresher.

Since everyone likes to be green these days, the Wave 3 coffee is USDA Certified Organic (Fair Trade & sustainably-grown). Each bean is hand selected and dark roasted the very same day via "third wave coffee roaster," which gives each batch an unique flavor.

Typically, your average cup of coffee would have just caffeine in it, but the Wave 3 has more than just caffeine. Actually, it is considered a superfood as it contains Riboflavin, Pantothenic Acid, Manganese, Potassium, Magnesium and Niacin as well as antioxidants! Unlike other coffee brands that can leave you feeling a bit edgy, the Wave 3 leaves you with a nice wave of energy.

Scared Silly: 13 Classic Horror Comedies
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Ava Gardner, Bela Lugosi, Jack Haley
Studio: Mill Creek Entertainment
Release Date: January 13, 2015
Retail: $9.98
ASIN: B00OU4MTD8
Running Time: 15 hours 27 minutes
Rating: PG / NR / R
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

To kickoff the 2015, Mill Creek Entertainment is releasing a 3-disc set Scared Silly: 13 Classic Horror Comedies on Tuesday January 13, 2015, featuring Bela Lugosi, Jack Haley, Dick Miller, The Ritz Brothers, Dick Purrcell, John McCafferty and many other great actors.

The BoxTrolls
Directors: Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi
Voice Cast: Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Elle Fanning, Ben Kingsley, Toni Collette, Jared Harris, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade, Tracy Morgan
Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Release Date: January 20, 2015
Retail: $49.98
ASIN: B00NFZ367Q
Running Time: 97 minutes
Rating: PG
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Arriving on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD on January 20th from Universal Studios Home Entertainment is last year  3D stop motion animated fantasy-comedy film "The BoxTrolls." Bonus Features include Dare to the Square: Behind the Scenes of the Boxtrolls, 5 Featurettes that Take You Inside the Magical World of The Boxtrolls, Feature Commentary with Directors Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi and the Blu-ray Exclusive - Preliminary Animatics Sequences.

Based on the children book  Here Be Monsters! by Alan Snow, The BoxTrolls is set in 1809 in the fictional town of Cheesebridge and centers on a group of subterranean trolls whom live underneath the streets. The outside word believes that the trolls kidnaps and kills little children, but in reality they are kind and shy creatures that wouldn't hurt a fly. They wear boxes and draw pictures on the boxes to represent their name.

Years ago, the trolls came across a human baby and they have been raising him ever since, naming him Eggs. Like the trolls, Eggs wheres a box and crawls out of the sewers at night to find goodies  that humans leave behind in their trash cans and on the street.

The Pest exterminator Archibald Snatcher (voiced by Ben Kingsley) has been obsessed with getting a white hat as only a member of the high society receives one. He finally makes a deal with the mayor that he will receive a white hat if  he catches all of the Boxtrolls, so one by one he begins catching the trolls, including Fish, the gentle troll who is Egg's best friend.

Eggs (voiced by Isaac Hempstead-Wright) is now a young boy and begins to explore the outside world, which is where he befriends the mayor's daughter, Winnie (voiced by Elle Fanning). He unravels Snatcher's plans on destroying the trolls and sets out to find where Snatcher is keeping Fish and the other Trolls at. Somehow Eggs is going to come up with a plan to save the trolls and show the town that trolls are not the villains.