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Whistle Stopper - Futurama: Bender's Game
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List Price: $29.99
Our Price: $12.94
Your Save: $ 17.05 ( 57% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Starring: Billy West, Katey Sagal, John Di Maggio, Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche
Directed By: Dwayne Carey-Hill
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0024543541875
Format: AC-3
Label: 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2008-11-04
Running Time: 88
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Now that's more like it!
Comment: Well, that's much more like what I want from Futurama!
The last two direct-to-DVD releases, Bender's Big Score and The Beast With a Billion Backs were both ok, but nothing great. But this movie is much more like what I expect from the show.
The story centers around Mom and her efforts at controlling the market in dark matter. Dark matter is what powers all the starships and provides energy in 3008, so the parallels between dark matter and our current situation with oil are blatant and obvious.
The story's sub-plot centers around Bender learning how to play Dungeons and Dragons, and how to develop his imagination. Unfortunately he quickly finds himself unable to separate fantasy from reality and is sent to the HAL Institute for Insane Robots.
Eventually the stories intersect and our heroes end up in Bender's fantasy world, where Lela is a centaur, Zoidberg is a big monster and Fry starts turning into Gollum, lusting after a twelve-sided dice of power.
Along with the usual science fiction references (including a nice bit of fun where George Takei is shouting at Scott Bakula, "Way to kill the franchise, Bakula!"), there's plenty of references to D&D and to "The Lord of The Rings". Fans of both should be very amused.
The format of these direct-to-DVD releases is still something of a problem. The show works best in half-hour installments, not in one long story. I hope after the next one, Into the Wild Green Yonder, they go back to making standard episodes.
One last note: I really hope they stop using these awful cardboard packages! These things are terrible! I understand the desire to "be green" and all that, but most people who buy DVDs don't toss the cases into landfills; they keep them and use them. These cases are a joke, and I'll complain about them every time Fox, or any other studio, uses them. In the future, it might be a deciding point for me when debating a purchase.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Random
Comment: This release is okay. It has all the funny you would expect from Futurama but the way it is put together is not very good. Its like you will get a good funny story arc going and then it would end very abruptly and a whole new story arc would begin and end again. This happens for the entir length of the movie. The funny in all the story arcs is there but they never really finish the thought or end the punch line in all the random story arcs. This is very much like several episodes put together to make one move and it fails miserably at continuity with the regular series in many instances. Worth a buy if you can find it at half the price of its retail list price of $20-25. Full price, hell no, especially when you can get the one of the four volumes for the price of this one very random DVD. And one volume has an entire season of different episodes.
Customer Rating:
Summary: 3rd Time's the Charm
Comment: Well, the first 2 movies were pretty bad. Movie 1 decided to throw all cannon out the window and make previous episode connections meaningless. Movie 2 was a very long drawn out episode that left me confused and empty on the laughter.
However, this 3rd movie felt more like the show. The caracters were familiar in their personalities again and answered a few questions I had from the series. I don't play D & D, but I got the cultural references just fine. Let's just hope that the 4th movie only improves what the 3rd one has tried to fix.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not up to their usual 5-Star rating
Comment: I own all the episodes and movies. I will not do a long review since most people I feel like pithy ones. As a fan of Futurama I must say this is the least memorable of all the things they have done in my opinion. The movies are getting less entertaining as they come out. I hope this trend reverses on the next release.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Needs more Dark Energy!
Comment: As a long-term Futurama fan, who rejoiced when the films started to appear, and who has enjoyed the previous two while thinking they hadn't yet got back to the inventive genius of the series, it pains me to say it, but this is nowhere near as entertaining. The film's premise of a Lord of the Rings + Dungeons and Dragons type adventure promises much, and starts from a bizarre enough origin - the Dark Matter fuel market is in crisis. But in the series, this would have developed by means of weird but compelling logic. Here, though there is a series of sharp transitions and enough pointed allusions, the effect is one of randomness; it's as if the authors have thrown in every idea they could think of, without asking how it all holds together.
And, worst of all to say, every previous Futurama has provided plenty of laughs; this one didn't provoke so much as a single giggle.
I could admire all the invention and the skill; but that's a long way from being engaged and entertained.
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Editorial Reviews:
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With fuel prices skyrocketing, the Planet Express crew sets off on a dangerous mission: to infiltrate the world's only dark-matter mine, source of all spaceship fuel. But deep beneath the surface lies a far stranger place... a medieval land of dragons and sorcery and intoxicated knights who look suspiciously like Bender. So park your hover-car and saddle up your unicorn for Futurama's grandest adventure yet: BENDER'S GAME!
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