Embrace of the Vampire (1995) is simply a bad movie made only for a child star in Alyssa Milano trying to strip (figuratively and literally) that persona. The story is lacking, and the performances are bland and the movie as a whole is downright boring leading to something with nothing to offer (even Ms. Milano’s breasts aren’t worth the sludge you have to wade through).
Internal Affairs is a bit of a forgotten crime-drama overshadowed a few years later by Heat and even only 3 years earlier with The Untouchables. Even so, Richard Gere turns in an incredible performance and playing opposite, Andy Garcia is also top notch. I don’t think it’s a perfect movie and I think it had potential to be better, but director Mike Figgis has a good eye and at least makes an above average genre film.
Idle Hands is a film I initially didn’t care much for but have grown a bit fonder of over the years. The cast is great headlined by Devon Sawa and Seth Green, with Jessica Alba making an impressive appearance early in her career and serves wonderfully as eye candy.
Shiver is a weak psychological horror-thriller with poor performances outside of the delightful Danielle Harris who seemingly continues to over-perform some of the dreck horror films. Although she is pretty good in this one, everything else is low-rent and cheap looking to go along with a story which never quite clicks. The DVD doesn’t have a whole lot to offer with no bonus material and average audio/video transfers.
The Colony actually isn’t too bad of a suspense-thriller. It’s a low budget utilizing SyFy-like sets and visual effects (well, perhaps a bit better) but the performances are very good headlined by Kevin Zegers and Laurence Fishburne (in a limited role).
“The Mentalist” is a rare show that takes off from the pilot episode and keeps the high quality until the season finale, thanks to Simon Baker and an ensemble cast that works well together. Now six seasons in, it’s interesting to look back at this first and I still enjoy it as much as I did the first go around.
Mindwarp is an apt title but still a fun little movie with a solid performance from Mr. B-Movie Bruce Campbell and a nice introduction to Marta Alicia, although her career has since been comprised on guest appearances on a variety of television shows.
“American Horror Story: Asylum”: The Complete Second Season is another triumph for FX and although on the whole I liked the first season better, this one has a lot to offer including some excellent performances headlined by Zachary Quinto and Jessica Lange amongst others.
“90210” was never a great show, or even a good one for that matter, but it still was a guilty pleasure if only for the eye candy and flashy sets. This final season DVD set comes with a decent amount of features including a 30-minute+ retrospective featurette while the audio/video transfers are adequate enough.
Airplane II: The Sequel is the perfect reminder of why not every surprise hit should get a sequel. While a few of the jokes work here, most do not and it’s pretty forgettable even if it’s not a bad time-waster.
Volcano isn’t exactly a memorable disaster movie as it utilizes every cliché in the book but Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche and, to a lesser extent, Don Cheadle, each give admirable performances slugging through stilted dialogue and utterly laughable situations. Still, it’s passable entertainment but don’t go in, or leave, with anything more than what it is.
The Amityville Horror Trilogy set released by Shout Factory has one semi-classic movie, a serviceable sequel and a third movie that is downright silly. The set also has a good amount of features to keep you occupied and the first two movies have good audio/video transfers while the third, at least the video, was awful.
To be honest I’ve never been the biggest fan of “Glee” but there are some good moments here and there and the musical covers tend to be reasonably good all things considered.
The Little Mermaid makes a triumphant debut with this “Diamond Edition” Blu-ray containing a fair amount of features and fantastic audio/video transfers making it the best this film has ever looked and sounded.
“Leverage” might not be remembered that well but I sure enjoyed the series despite some less than stellar episodes. Still, the cast shares wonderful chemistry and some of the season-long storylines were at least compelling. This final season, granted only 15 episodes, have some solid episodes and the series finale gives nice closure for the fans. The DVD doesn’t have a whole lot regarding features though having a commentary with each episode does provide insight from the creators and others.