Buy This DVD Set Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!
Buy This DVD Set Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!
Title:
Cleopatra 2525: The Complete Series
Region:
One
Genre:
Sci-Fi Action
Episodes Disc 1: “Quest For Firepower”, “Creegan”, “Flying Lessons”, “Mind Games”, “Rescue”, “Run Cleo Run”, “Choices”, “Perceptions”, “Trial And Error”, “Double”, “Last Stand”, “Hel And High Water Part 1”, “Hel And High Water Part 2”
Episodes
Disc 2: “The Watch”, “Baby Boom”, “Brain Drain”, “Mauser’s Day
Out”, “Reality Check”, “The Pod Whisperer”, “Out Of Body”,
“Juggernaut Down”, “Truth Be Told”, “In Your Boots”, “The Soldier
Who Fell From Grace”, “No Thanks For The Memories”
Episodes Disc 3: “Noir Or Never”, “The Voice”
Stars:
Gina Torres, Victoria Pratt, and Jennifer Sky
Writers:
R.J. Stewart, Carl Ellsworth, Hillary Bader, Adam Armus, Nora Key Foster, Chris
Black, T.J. Scott, Tom O’Neill, Jessica Scott, and Mike Wollenger
Created
By: Rob Tapert and R.J. Stewart
Directors:
Greg Yaitanes, Andrew Merrifield, Rick Jacobson, T.J. Scott, and Wayne Rose
Executive
Producers: Rob Tapert, Sam Raimi, and R.J. Stewart
Feature
length: 12 hours and 37 minutes
Extras:
“Episode Of Earth 2: The Man
Who Fell To Earth (Two)”, Deleted Scenes, Outtakes, Special Effects/Stunts,
Trailers
Languages:
English Dolby Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Three-Disc Digipack Gatefold Within A Cardboard Slipcase
Chapter
Stops: 4 Per Episode/102 Total
Sound:
Dolby Surround Sound
Years
of Television Broadcast: 2000-2001/DVD Release: 2005
Home
Video Distributor: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Following
the departure of “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” from what was called on
American syndicated broadcast television as the “Action Pack” two new shows
were produced by Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi to fill in the void before the final
season of “Xena: Warrior Princess” aired. The shows were approximately 30
minutes each with commercials and were made up of the sci-fi action series
“Cleopatra 2525” and “Jack Of All Trades,” which starred Bruce Campbell.
“Jack Of All Trades” did not go on to a second season, but “Cleopatra
2525” did with the episodes now expanded to a full hour in an attempt to
maintain the “Action Pack” franchise that had done so well in the 1990s. In
New York City these shows aired on what is now The WB 11, but “Hercules” and
“Xena” were immensely popular and successful. They benefited each other
since “Xena” was a spin-off of “Hercules” so TV viewers got a full two
hours to enjoy the fantasy action mixed in with a bit of humor in this campy
universe Tapert and Raimi brought to television. Those shows also benefited from
having the strong lead-in of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” for their early
seasons because “Deep Space Nine,” which was also a first-run syndicated TV
series, aired at 7pm thus giving viewers of all ages three solid hours of genre
entertainment.
The
syndicated television market for first run shows on non-cable and satellite
broadcast television shrank greatly between the time when “Hercules” first
aired and “Xena” ended. Unfortunately neither “Cleopatra 2525” nor
“Jack Of All Trades” spawned new franchises for genre television fans though
there is a strong cult interest in both shows that exists to this day. Both
shows were essentially spoofs of their respective genres, but “Cleopatra
2525” had more action and three sexy women to watch kicking butt with
futuristic “Girl Power” week after week. The show featured Gina Torres, who
is married to Laurence Fishburne and has appeared in “The Matrix Reloaded”
and “The Matrix Revolutions” as well as the hit ABC TV series “Alias” in
a recurring villainous role. Victoria Pratt would go on to appear on the
syndicated TV series “Mutant X.” The series also introduced Jennifer Sky as
“Cleopatra,” a stripper who fell into a coma in the year 2000 while getting
breast augmentation and was cryogenically frozen and then subsequently thawed in
the year 2525 when the surface of the Earth is ruled by a race of robots known
as the “Baileys.” Greg Yaitanes (Frank Herbert’s Children Of Dune)
directed the premiere episodes. The series was shot in New Zealand like the
previous Tapert and Raimi produced TV programs.
Cleopatra
finds herself thrust into a world where humanity now survives in a vast
underground labyrinth along side various mutants. She ends up falling in with
Hel (Gina Torres) and Sarge (Victoria Pratt). Hel is one of several humans
guided by “The Voice” to lead a force of freedom fighters to retake the
surface of the Earth from the Baileys. As a result sometimes her sanity is
called into question and even Hel’s faith the crusade is at times called into
question by her. The trio works with a humanoid robot called “Mauser,” a
former infiltration android sent by the Baileys to exterminate humanity. Mauser
now provides a receptor for the Voice and knowledge of the resistance. While the
Voice’s agents works on adapting Bailey technology to end the war, the women
must fight threats above and below the surface, chiefly from Creegan, a human
with clown like features that has knowledge of the past and the Baileys as well
as a relationship with the Voice the women do not know about. Cleopatra wins
their trust by employing 20th century euphemisms as well as sex
appeal to help save the day.
“Cleopatra
2525” liberally takes from so many sci-fi features that include both “The
Terminator” series as well as the wire antics from
“The Matrix,” which was being copied by everyone when the series
first aired, and tries with some success to incorporate it into the series.
Since the show is purposely campy if not cheesy the blatant “borrowing” of
ideas might not have gone over so well otherwise. The makeup effects as well as
the CGI are not up to the quality set by both “Hercules” and “Xena,”
which might have been another reason why the show only lasted two seasons.
Region 2 DVD users have had access to the series on DVD since 2001, but the
series was sold separately in two season box sets with no extra value materials,
at least for the first season set anyway. I don’t know about the second season
set. The new Region 1 DVD set from Universal Studios Home Entertainment presents
the entire series on three discs within a Digipack gatefold and packaged within
a cardboard slipcase that is ironically the same size as the Region 2 season one
DVD set and the Region One box set offers a few bonus features too.
The
first season is contained on the first double-sided DVD while the second season
episodes are contained on the second double-sided disc and third single sided
disc. Please note that the episodes and bonus features found on disc three are
on the labeled side of the disc so make sure the side that has no little ring
with the series title and running time is facing up when you place the disc in
your player. There is no recorded information on the clear-sided part of the
third disc. The approximate running length of the first season episodes is 22
minutes while the second season minutes usually run around 44 minutes or so. All
of the episodes are presented in their original (1.33:1) broadcast television
aspect ratio and the picture quality is considerably sharper with little to no
shimmering or any form of compression artifacts at all and these episodes on DVD
actually look much better than the episodes of “Hercules” and “Xena” on
DVD that I have reviewed in the past. A clear English Dolby ProLogic Surround
Soundtrack is provided for all 28 episodes along with optional English Captions
for the hearing impaired and Spanish Language Subtitles. Though the packaging
states differently, the captioning and subtitle options are available for
certain bonus features.
These
extra value materials are on disc three and include a reel of eight letterboxed
deleted scenes (9:09) from the episodes “Run Cleo Run”, “Trial And
Error”, “Last Stand”, “Brain Drain”, “Out Of Body”, “In Your
Boots”, “The Soldier Who Fell From Grace”, and “The Voice.” Reels of
letterboxed outtakes (4:19) as well as special effects and explosions to
completed scenes comparisons (1:55) are also included on the third disc. If the
series was shot with widescreen television viewing in mind, I do not know why
Universal Studios Home Entertainment decided to release the series in a 4 by 3
screen size. For the record the Region 2 first season DVD set is not widescreen
either so there is no reason to feel as though someone is seeing something on
DVD overseas that you are not.
A
smart move on the part of Universal Studios Home Entertainment is including a
complete bonus episode from the “Earth 2: The Complete Series” DVD set. The
episode features Tim Curry as a guest star. There is also a reel of previews
(2:03) highlighting the day and date DVD set releases of “Cleopatra 2525: The
Complete Series”, “Earth 2: The Complete Series”, and “Sliders: The
Third Season” as well as the “Revelations” miniseries on DVD. A synopsis
for each episode, including the bonus episode from “Earth 2” appears on
screen before one activates the play option. Episodes can be viewed individually
or utilizing a “Play All” feature on each disc. The menus are standard
interactive still fames that are easy to navigate.
Considering
the good picture and sound quality, never-before-seen series related extras, the
bonus episode from “Earth 2” and the fact the entire series is included
within one DVD set, instead of sold separately in two, I think “Cleopatra
2525: The Complete Series” is a great value for any fan of the series and well
worth checking out for anyone who wants to see a little escapist popcorn
television. “Cleopatra 2525: The Complete Series” is available on DVD-Video
now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Universal Studios Home
Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2005 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
Buy This DVD Box Set Now By Clicking On
The Icon Below!