The Brass Teapot features some great performances and fine writing and direction from an on-the-rise filmmaker in Ramaa Mosley. Even if the story doesn’t offer many surprises, there is enough here to entertain and at least keep one’s attention until the end. The DVD released by Magnolia has some OK features, although a minimalist ‘making-of’ featurette, while the audio/video transfers are at least serviceable.
“Pretty Little Liars” The Complete Third Season has plenty of surprises that thankfully overshadow some of the lamer moments or tedious storylines. The four leading ladies still share great friendship chemistry with one another while the supporting cast lend to being devious suspects and/or foils for the girls. The DVD offered by Warner isn’t anything spectacular with the features but the audio/video transfers are more than adequate for the home viewing audience.
This third and final season of “Body of Proof” has its hiccups, and the crimes themselves aren’t unique and could be transplanted to any number of shows but thanks to a brilliant cast led by Dana Delaney, it mostly succeeds. The DVD released by Buena Vista is pretty basic with the bonus materials while the audio/video transfers are merely adequate.
Despite its many flaws in the show, I still found “Rizzoli & Isles” to be enjoyable enough. Is it as engaging from episode to episode? Not quite, but the performances from the cast do at least make me want to see future episodes at some point. Hopefully season four will have improved things on the story front while still moving the characters forward. The DVD has some OK, one-time viewing, features while the audio/video transfers are more than adequate.
“Major Crimes” The Complete First Season starts off strong and finishes just as strong by the end. Mary McDonnell was the perfect choice to take over and along with the others characters we got to know and love from “The Closer”, it makes for a smooth transition. The DVD doesn’t have a whole lot to offer features-wise but the audio and picture transfers are both solid.
“Perry Mason” Season 9, Volume 1 certainly begins to show signs of fatigue for the long-running series but even so, each episode, as plug-and-play as they tend to be, are still entertaining. And with only the second part to go, the series will be complete to which point I hope CBS Entertainment will choose to release the TV movies onto DVD. But I digress, as with the other season sets, this is pricey given there are no features and it is only half of a season.
Sexy Evil Genius is a fun low budget film propelled primarily on the cast and their interactions with one another than anything else. The story itself, though, does at least keep you on edge just trying to figure out what the main character’s ultimate goal is. I wouldn’t say this was a memorable film or anything, but it is worth a one-off viewing at least. The DVD itself has acceptable video/audio transfers while the features are underwhelming, though the commentary is enjoyable.
This fourth and final volume of “Animaniacs” is full of funny episodes that are sure to satisfy fans and non-fans alike. The DVD however doesn’t offer any features which are a shame as it would’ve been nice to hear from the creators and/or writers but the audio and video transfers are good.
Death Race3: Inferno is your typical direct-to-video movie meaning a script with thin character development, poor acting even by the pros (at least Dougray Scott seemed to have fun with his cackling) and generic action which leaves this more or less forgettable.
The Words may not be as special of a film as it things it is, but there are many aspects which I did like from the multi-level story to some good performances including Zoe Saldana, Dennis Quaid, and especially, Jeremy Irons who deserves far more attention than he’s received. And despite any problems I had with the screenplay itself, I still found the film mostly compelling and at least worth a look if only once.
House at the End of the Street might not have been the worst of 2012 but it’s certainly forgettable. The screenplay is something that was more appropriate for a made-for-TV production and the performances are nothing special, even though Jennifer Lawrence will turn heads with her, ahem, wardrobe choices.
Looper is an inventive sci-fi action thriller with two solid performances from Willis and Gordon-Levitt. The DVD has some decent features though the Blu-ray apparently has more to offer. Unfortunately we were only provided a DVD screener, so I cannot state how much more there is or the quality of either the features or the audio/video transfers.
The Bourne Legacy is a fine entry in the series and while it’s not as good as the previous three or as well polished, it’s still a fun movie with solid action scenes that keeps good pace after the first 10-15 minutes. Even though Legacy is as well refined as the other movies in the series, the potential is there for another sequel and a finale that involves the title character again.
The Amazing Spider-Man certainly had opportunities to be a great movie and although I still enjoyed the film, sometimes even immensely, there are times the script could’ve been tweaked. Even so, the casting was pretty good starting with Andrew Garfield who will hopefully find more bearings with the sequel(s) while Emma Stone was a delight.
“The League” Season 3 DVD is an OK release and with only 13 episodes is relatively cheap, though I’d recommend the Blu-ray (which we were not supplied, unfortunately). The features aren’t anything amazing, though I guess if you’re a fan of the show, the extended episodes might be an interesting bonus.