Cool News
FUTURAMA II!! HEROES!! MST3K!! ROBOT CHICKEN!! SPACE ANGEL!! FREAKS AND GEEKS!! HercVault!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
I am – Hercules!!
Futurama: The Beast With A Billion Backs,
starring the voice of David Cross, finally hits DVD shelves. If you missed our June 9 review from “Orwellseyes,” here it is again:
The story is pretty standard for Futurama. A crack in the universe, leading the people of earth to panic, as usual. The Planet Express crew ends up checking this fissure in space-time out, as usual. Bender ends up damaged and gets some cheering up from his hero, the robot soap star Calculon. Amy and Kiff get alien-married. It involves a swamp and mud and Kiff's weird-ass alien life cycle. The professor and his rival Dr. Wernstrum have their usual arguments. Fry has woman woes, his girlfriend (voiced by Brittany Murphy) has four other boyfriends. He tries to make it work by moving in, with all of them. It's too much for him and he ends up leaving her. He mopes around for a bit and ends up stowing away on a military ship captained by Zap Brannigan bound for the rip in reality. They're going to attack it.
Fry throws himself into the rift and ends up meeting Tobias Funke. Well, actually it's a huge mass of tentacles, named YIVO, voiced by David Cross, but the way he plays it kept reminding me of his "Arrested Development" character. Yivo enters our universe and covers earth in purple tentacles. Then Fry reappears, with a tentacle in his neck, preaching a gospel of love...love for YIVO.
The whole world gets taken over, save for Leela who eventually exposes YIVO. See, those tentacles are actually, "Genticals". Yep, Yivo is mating with the whole darn universe
Might sound like the end of the story but this is about the half-way point actually. The whole universe starts dating YIVO. In a really funny sequence pretty much every character to ever appear in Futurama is seen going to dinner, talking with and kissing one of the purple tentacles of YIVO.
Meanwhile, the robots have their own little storyline. Calculon inducts Bender into the "League of Robots" a secret society of robots who generally sit around, bitch about humans and drink. Perfect for Bender. This plot is basically there to give the robots, who don't get tentacle lovin', something to do. There are some clever moments here. Calculon and Bender become mortal foes over the tiniest possible slights and end up battled with "Planetary Annihilators" which are some of the funniest weapons I've seen on Futurama.
The movie has some serious flaws. The plot is wonky, even for Futurama. This is a show where a lead once drank the emperor of a planet, silliness is part and parcel. But the the final act, which involves Robot Hell, Robot Pirates and Heaven is just nonsense. Much like the first Futurama flick "Bender's Big Score" the creators dump alot of visual energy into the last third of the film and bypass characters and even their own crazy Futurama logic.
Another issue I had was how Fry and Leela have not even a second of chemistry. It's one of the long running plots of the series and here, nothing.
A number of the jokes just fall flat and die, everything on Kiff's home world is just bland and dull, but thankfully there are no musical numbers, something that nearly drove me mad in "Bender's Big Score". The Fry as tentacle pope and "heaven" gags try to take the piss out of religion a bit but don't have much follow-through. Zap Brannigan continues to make me miss Phil Hartman all these years later. To think how funny that character could have been.
You can almost see where they're going to slice this into individual episodes, which makes some of the pacing tor wards the middle a little awkward, but over all it flows nicely.
It's definitely not for people who aren't already big fans of the series. There's no real catch-up for the non-fan.
I'd say it's worth renting, though I wouldn't shell our lucre to buy it. One viewing is more than enough.
Herc’s Popular Pricing Pantry
Can’t get enough Willow, Faith, Anya, Cordelia and Jenny Calendar? All Buffy seasons have been momentarily re-encheapened to $19.99
Other Vastly Encheapened Fox Sets!!
$15.49 The Bob Newhart Show 1.x-4.x
$15.49 Hill Street Blues 1.x-2.x
$19.99 Simpsons 1.x-6.x
$19.99 St. Elsewhere 1.x
54% Off!!
The Funniest Cartoons Ever Forged!!
$29.99: Volumes One, Two and Four!!
55% Off Belushi-era SNL!!
The first two seasons are $31.49, pricing likely triggered by the new release of season three.
TV-on-DVD Calendar
Last Week
The All-New Popeye Hour Vol. 1
Brenner: Best Of
Burn Notice 1.x
Californication 1.x
Dynasty 3.x Vol. 1
ER 9.x
Galaxy High School: The Collection
Get Smart: The Nude Bomb
The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show: The Complete Series
Inspector Gadget: Big Little Problem
Jericho 2.x
Meerkat Manor 3.x
Naked Brothers Band: Polar Bears
Popeye Vol. 2 (1938-1940)
The Real McCoys 3.x
Sabrina The Teenage Witch 4.x
Sabrina The Teenage Witch: Four Season Pack
Sonic Underground: Vol. 2
The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: Lip Synchin'
Transformers: The Animated Movie (2008)
Wanted Dead or Alive: Best Of
This Week
The Big Easy 1.x
Criss Angel Mindfreak: Best Of 1.x/2.x
Dogfights 2.x
Dogfights: The Complete Series
Early Edition 1.x
Futurama Movie II: Beast With A Billion Backs
Ice Road Truckers: On and Off The Ice
The New Adventures of Old Christine 2.x
Ruth Rendell Mysteries Vol. 3
Tak and the Power of Juju: Trouble With Magic
The Vice 2.x
Next Week
Anglo Saxon Attitudes: The Complete Series
Batman: The Movie (1966)
Batman: The Movie (1966) (Blu-ray)
The Closer 3.x
The Legend of BraveStarr Vol. 2
Ganges: The Complete Series
Ganges: The Complete Series [Blu-ray]
The Legend of BraveStarr Vol. 2
Mad Men 1.x
Mad Men 1.x (Blu-ray)
Rebus Vol. 3
The Streets of San Francisco 2.x Vol. 1
30 Days 2.x
Till Death Do Us Part 1.x
Tori & Dean Inn Love 1.x
Tyler Perry's House of Payne Vol. 2
Walker Texas Ranger 5.x
Walker Texas Ranger: Six-Season Pack
July 8
The Batman 5.x
Batman: Gotham Knight (1-Disc)
Batman: Gotham Knight (2-Disc)
Batman: Gotham Knight (Blu-ray)
Bump! Australia
Bump! Massachusetts
Cannon 1.x Vol. 1
The Dog Whisperer 3.x
Fastlane: The Complete Series
I Dream of Jeannie 5.x
Jake and the Fatman 1.x Vol. 1
Monk 6.x
Ozzie & Harriet: Best Of Ricky & Dave
Psych 2.x
Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get A Clue Vol. 2
Soul Food 3.x
Stargate Atlantis 4.x
Teen Titans 5.x
Wire in the Blood 5.x
X-Files: Revelations
July 15
Birds of Prey: The Complete Series
B.L. Stryker 2.x
Dallas 9.x
Eureka 2.x
Evening Shade 1.x
Jupiter Moon Vol. 4
Manswers: Best of 1.x
The New Adventures Of The Lone Ranger/Zorro Vol. 2
Reno 911! 5.x
Saving Grace 1.x
Swamp Thing: The Series Vol. 2
July 22
The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin Vol. 3
BBC Hi-Def Natural History Collection (Blu-ray)
Earth: The Biography
Earth: The Biography (Blu-ray)
L.A. Ink 1.x
Las Vegas 5.x
Masters of Horror 2.x
Robot Chicken: Star Wars
Spaced: The Complete Series
Strange But True <--- NEW!!
Transformers Cybertron: Ultimate Collection
TV Funhouse: The Complete Series
July 29
Avatar: The Last Airbender 3.x Vol. 4
Baldwin Hills 1.x
Beverly Hills 90210 5.x
Centennial: The Complete Miniseries
Dark Shadows: The Beginning Vol. 5
Eli Stone 1.x
Freakazoid 1.x
Girlfriends 4.x
The Hills 3.x
The Human Body: Pushing the Limits
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit 7.x
Parking Wars: Best Of 1.x
Phineas & Ferb: The Fast and the Phineas
The Princes of Malibu: The Complete Series
Robin Hood 2.x
Robin Hood 1.x (Blu-ray)
Robin of Sherwood: The Complete Series
Space Angel Vol. 1 <--- NEW!!
Stargate SG1: Continuum
Stargate SG1: Continuum (Blu-ray)
Tiny Toon Adventures 1.x Vol. 1
Fry throws himself into the rift and ends up meeting Tobias Funke. Well, actually it's a huge mass of tentacles, named YIVO, voiced by David Cross, but the way he plays it kept reminding me of his "Arrested Development" character. Yivo enters our universe and covers earth in purple tentacles. Then Fry reappears, with a tentacle in his neck, preaching a gospel of love...love for YIVO.
The whole world gets taken over, save for Leela who eventually exposes YIVO. See, those tentacles are actually, "Genticals". Yep, Yivo is mating with the whole darn universe
Might sound like the end of the story but this is about the half-way point actually. The whole universe starts dating YIVO. In a really funny sequence pretty much every character to ever appear in Futurama is seen going to dinner, talking with and kissing one of the purple tentacles of YIVO.
Meanwhile, the robots have their own little storyline. Calculon inducts Bender into the "League of Robots" a secret society of robots who generally sit around, bitch about humans and drink. Perfect for Bender. This plot is basically there to give the robots, who don't get tentacle lovin', something to do. There are some clever moments here. Calculon and Bender become mortal foes over the tiniest possible slights and end up battled with "Planetary Annihilators" which are some of the funniest weapons I've seen on Futurama.
The movie has some serious flaws. The plot is wonky, even for Futurama. This is a show where a lead once drank the emperor of a planet, silliness is part and parcel. But the the final act, which involves Robot Hell, Robot Pirates and Heaven is just nonsense. Much like the first Futurama flick "Bender's Big Score" the creators dump alot of visual energy into the last third of the film and bypass characters and even their own crazy Futurama logic.
Another issue I had was how Fry and Leela have not even a second of chemistry. It's one of the long running plots of the series and here, nothing.
A number of the jokes just fall flat and die, everything on Kiff's home world is just bland and dull, but thankfully there are no musical numbers, something that nearly drove me mad in "Bender's Big Score". The Fry as tentacle pope and "heaven" gags try to take the piss out of religion a bit but don't have much follow-through. Zap Brannigan continues to make me miss Phil Hartman all these years later. To think how funny that character could have been.
You can almost see where they're going to slice this into individual episodes, which makes some of the pacing tor wards the middle a little awkward, but over all it flows nicely.
It's definitely not for people who aren't already big fans of the series. There's no real catch-up for the non-fan.
I'd say it's worth renting, though I wouldn't shell our lucre to buy it. One viewing is more than enough.
-
+ Expand All
-
..hail robot nixon. First btw.
-
Lots of links of stuff I do not want!
Where is ICarly and High School Musical? I really want to know where I can buy Hip Hop Harry! -
why is the non-DC on the release calendar? hasn't it been out for a couple years?
-
I loved Beast with a Billion Backs, really. Not as much as Bender's Big Score, but imho, as a diehard fan, I loved it. So did my wife.
-
or you get beat up at a Neil Diamond concert by a guy named Scrunchine. But as other have said before, subpar Futurama is better than no Futurama.
-
Jesus Christ, why the scene by scene book report? Let us be surprised. You're like the kid who gives the book report in school (e.g., "And then this happened. And then this happened.").
-
No it's not. Mediocrity should never be welcome.
-
I swear it seems like we've been seeing the garish cover art for that thing for five years here. Does it keep getting pushed back or was it actually announced five years ago?
-
Goddamn, if I'd known Herc would pick THAT review for TBWABB, I'd written my own spoiler-free one.
I loved the movie... Felt it was more confident than BBS, as all the jokes for the fans (we're back!) were out of the way. It expands its universe, we get to see more of Kif's world, and the plot is HUGE, involving all earthicans. I loved the "monster movie" part of it, and the whole Yivo thing was very clever and funny to me. I've already seen it three times, and everybody in my house loved it. Seriously, anyone not recommending this movie is wrong. Like this "reviewer". -
Anyone? Anyone?
(Sad that the cover of the DVD set is cooler than 2/3rds of the season -- excluding Murray the K, of course) -
That usually increases the nerd and decreases the coherence and funny factor in a Futurama episode. As for "The Best of Criss Angel MINDFREAK Seasons 1 and 2," I have several questions: (a) what do any of those words mean? (b) is the DVD 12 minutes of static? (c) can you get ahead in business by shouting MINDFREAK at people?
-
'Decreases the funny'. He wrote "Xmas Story", one of the funniest fucking episodes EVER.
-
When will this come down in price already? Hook a brother up, Herc.
-
It's a 4-disc set, so hopefully that means a fair representation across the entire series, but I'm afraid this will turn out to be another set with one good Joel episode and a shitload of not-nearly-as-good Mike episodes.
-
just to support the show so it can return as a series but i thought the first one was better.
-
Will they include all the stuff they cut or changed due to the strike? If so, I might rent the extras disc.
-
Anyone know if it's in any way different from the current set from Shout Factory? Damn I love that show...
-
I was told that it is the limited one thats been oop for a bit now
-
fox or cc need to bring it back. and what ever happened to the Beavis and Butt-head relanuch?
-
... He also wrote Lisa the Vegeterian, which is one of my favorite Simpsons episodes ("When I graduate, I'm going to Bovine University!"). My only problem with some of his episodes is when obscure science/math gags take precedence over story, which is then supplanted with sappy narwhal metaphors. I get the feeling the first one suffered because of some obscurantist obsession with time-travel continuity.
-
Don't get me wrong, I do love Futurama but Duckman is SERIOUSLY underrated. There is a God!!!!
-
http://www.dvdinmypants.com/reviews/A-G/futurama_beast_billion_backs.php
-
I enjoyed in immensely more than the first. I thought the jokes were more or less spot on. And the no-musical was nice. Plus, kittens being chucked out windows is gold in my book.
-
Every time I see the cover for the Old Christine set I always wonder how it is she's so much hotter now than she was during most of the Seinfeld years.
-
She's incredibly hot now. Her and Mary Louise Parker should team up.
-
is the shit. Totally worth whatever the markup is between that and the standard edition. I don't think I could imagine a better DVD set.
-
Seeing as how I bought it fresh off the shelves for 3x that price. Libe n llurn.
-
I love me some Duckman, big fan of this wonderful show, but $45?! Wow. And Julia Louis-Dreyfus is so hot right now. Total hottie, especially with that sexy coy smile that she does.
-
they plan on announcing the actual movies to be released in the new set at comic-con in july.
-
Is way off. This movie is funny as hell. I cringed through the first five minutes just because of some of the negative douche-bag reviews out there and I waited and waited and it never sucked. Not once. I defy anyone to not laugh at Bender's first born. I'm still mopping up my own urine, urine that I urinated on myself during that scene, I laughed so f***ing hard. Definitely worth buying, definitely worth watching at least three times per week to supplant all the shitty "more broadcast worthy" programming on Fox now.
-
Finally coming out in October!
-
I agree she's really hot now, but I thought that back in the 90s she was so much hotter on Seinfeld than she was on SNL. She have a picture in her attic or something?
-
Thematically it all kind of comes together in the end and was pretty clever for that, but it wasn't as emotionally involving and not all the gags worked. In fact some felt repetitive. I did lose it, however, when Bender reconciled with his first born son. Hilarious.
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 325 total posts 322 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 106 total posts 106 posts
- HANNA's Saoirse Ronan to boss around seven little people -- 63 total posts 60 posts
- Does ‘SNL’ Rhyme With ‘Deschanel’?? Learn Which SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Vet Hosts After Sexy Zooey!! -- 74 total posts 58 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 159 total posts 51 posts
- If the Behind the Scenes Pics of the Day drops her pen, pick it up, but don’t look at her legs or else it will be on your record. -- 47 total posts 41 posts
- AVENGERS enemy revealed as pink boardgame pieces... You might suffer some form of elation... SPOILERS!!! -- 161 total posts 34 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 488 total posts 33 posts
- Friday Brings SWEEPS DAY NINE!! Gab Here About Tonight’s FRINGE!! Plus Einstein on TIM, Wiig On PORTLANDIA, MAHER, CLONE, GIFTED, GRIMM, SPARTACUS, SUPERNATURAL, GOLD RUSH And More!! -- 121 total posts 23 posts
- Here's The Red Band Trailer For Drafthouse Films' THE FP! -- 70 total posts 20 posts