What a long strange trip it’s been over the past eight season for Nancy Botwin and clan. From a young suburban widow and mother of two selling weed in her upper middle class neighborhood to pay the bills, to the wife of a Mexican politician/drug lord and back to a widow selling weed, the protagonist of the dark comedy Weeds was numbingly stupid with her decisions, but it made for…
This DVD has five episodes – Muddy Matters, Thomas and the Garbage Train, Don’t Bother Victor!, Whiff’s Wish, and Thomas Toots the Crows (Buzzy Bees is the bonus episode here). Each of the episodes will provide viewers with a moral while keeping them engaged. Muddy Matters has James transport sheep for a feature in the newspaper. The moral of this story is to always follow directions properly, as James…
Amazingly, the team behind HBO’s brilliant Game of Thrones managed to make the second season as thrilling as the first. The Stark family – the closest thing this series had to the Cleavers – is scattered across the territories with their patriarch now dead, and their frenemies the Lannisters are a little scattered as well, with war between kingdoms sending some off to fight. Meanwhile the creepy, little, evil boy King…
Girls perfectly blends comedy and drama in an always intense and compelling show. The first season of the show comprised 6 episodes, fictional retellings of Lena Dunham’s life in New York City. The cast clicks with Dunham perfectly, showcasing the ennui, brief victories, and overall unwieldiness of the second decade of life. I feel that the show’s presence on HBO allows Girls to be less restrained than it would…
The Peter Pan Diamond Edition is the definitive version of this Disney classic; the company has placed a great amount of additional features into this release. The stellar documentary that graced the DVD edition of Peter Pan has been re-issued, while there is a full 15 minutes of deleted scenes and songs pulled directly from the vault. The You Can Fly: The Making of Peter Pan showcases the different…
Beverly Hills Teens was a mid-eighties show that had a moderately successful run through the last few months of 1987. Beverly Hills Teens was odd in that new episodes of the show were released every day of the week. This DVD set captures the first half of the shows run, with 32 episodes captured in total. The show has had specific episodes released on the VHS format, but…
Thirty-three years after the made-up autobiography of the late Monty Python comedian Graham Chapman was first published, the movie adaption is finally out on DVD in Python’s trademark quirky style. The animated movie will be hilarious to Python fans, but likely little more head-scratchingly odd to those who never got into the troupe. It includes narration by Chapman himself (courtesy of a taped reading of his book prior to his…
The idea of February being “Black History Month” seems to be a great idea, until one considers that African-Americans receive the short end of the stick. Shukree Hassan Tilghman is a filmmaker-cum-comedian, and has created More Than A Month in the hopes of ending Black History Month. Tilghman’s point in this piece is that February is the shortest month, and the compartmentalizing of the entirety of Black accomplishments and contributions…
Disney has ensured that there are enough episodes for viewers; 12 episodes are present, along with a featurette, “Take Two With Phineas and Ferb”. The DVD also includes a spy kit, including a set of cards, binoculars, and an O.W.C.A. ID badge. This featurette provides viewers with a set of cameos made by a varied set of celebrities. Tying this Perry-heavy DVD into the source material (Phineas and Ferb)…
This is the definitive collection for anyone that is looking to introduce a friend or family member to musicals. The wide array of films (which collects classics like The Jazz Singer, 42nd Street, and The Wizard of Oz) with memorable modern releases (That’s Entertainment!, Little Shop of Horrors, and Hairspray) ensures that everyone will find something that they can appreciate. What will immediately hit viewers is the visual quality of…
Based off the raunchy, but equally hilarious, British series of the same name (and not the weak, watered-down American version on MTV) The Inbetweeners Movie proves this quartet of (almost) loveable losers can sustain the humor for the length of an entire feature film. Much like American Pie and Porky’s before that, but with a far cooler accent, the movie mines the well-trodden, but no less funny territory of young…
Abel’s Field is a heartwarming tale of brotherhood and inspiration; the title is able to succeed as it provides viewers with characters that are human, rather than approximations of humans. Abel’s Field focuses on Seth, a high school senior that is forced to fend for eir sisters. Along with this larger burden, Seth attempts to have a normal life. When the football term mercilessly bullies him, Seth snaps and is…
It’s hard to be a rebellious punk rock teen in the U.S. in 2013. When even suburban fourth graders have mohawks (courtesy of lame moms and dads who want everyone to say, “Man that kid must have cool parents”), you know a subculture has been tamed. But being a punk in Communist China, well that Punk Rock! As the rest of the world was tuned into the 2008 Olympics…
4 Assassins (also known as Far Away Eyes) is a Hong Kong-import that ratchets up the action by inserting hints of the mystery genre. The titular group is assembled without any sort of information regarding whom has contacted them or what they will have to do. Each of the 4 Assassins have history with each other, making the reveal that much more tense. Before that occurs,…
Yes, at times it can be as cheesy as it sound. But that doesn’t mean it’s not also highly addictive. Femme Fatales is the Cinemax anthology series (originally based on a magazine) that harkens back to old noir and pulp fiction, where knock out gorgeous woman were either the protagonists or led to someone’s downfall; That and a little bit of the old Twilight Zone series with the host introducing…
Bully has made its way from the festival circuit and onto home video formats. This documentary is directed by Lee Hirsch and is an intimate view into the impact that physical and mental bullying has on victims. While there is some level of antagonism that all school-aged children go through, the actions taken by some of the titular individuals here is shocking. Two different families have lost a child…
The Jazz Singer is a high point of cinema, and Warner Bros has crafted what may just be the definitive version of this Al Jolson title. This 1927 title has been mastered beautifully, with a crispness that few films from the decades following this movie could hope to achieve. The Jazz Singer shines as brightly in 2013 as it originally did 75 years before. The biggest inclusion for this Blu-Ray…
The Age of Czeslaw Milosz is an exhaustive documentary on the titular poet, a Nobel Prize-winner that experience tremendous trouble and strife during eir life. After leaving from the yoke of Nazi oppression, Milosz lived in Paris and the United States. Along the way, Milosz wrote perhaps eir magnum opus, The Captive Mind. This documentary paces itself well, providing viewers with ample information about Milosz’s formative years. The bulk…
Lady Antebellum is perhaps the most famous country act currently making music, and this is due not only because of their studio efforts. The band’s live performances blend together the perfect amount of pageantry and ability; Eagle Vision has released a concert DVD that showcases this inimitable style. The concert is filmed with television-quality video cameras and ensures that viewers are able to capture every guitar solo and line…
Southland: The Complete Second, Third and Fourth Seasons will get viewers caught up with Southland as the fifth season will begin on February 13th. For those that have not had the chance to watch the show up to this point, this DVD set is vital to understanding the motivation of the cast. The major switch-over in the cast occurs in the third and fourth seasons, as one of the focal…