Flashdance is at times cheesy — as many of these 1980s dramas tended to be — but it’s entertaining, features a great soundtrack and incredible performance from a phenomenal performance from Jennifer Beals.
Munster, Go Home is the feature film continuation of the original 1960s TV program, arriving for the first time on Blu-ray through Shout Factory.
Grand Isle is the latest direct-to-video thriller starring Nicolas Cage and also features Kadee Strickland and Kelsey Grammer and is now on Blu-ray.
Trapped is an adequate enough thriller but nothing terribly notable outside of a nice cast headlined by Charlize Theron and Kevin Bacon. This is the third time, at least those in my collection, released by Mill Creek.
Gunsmoke isn’t usually my cup of tea but I did find the series to be rather compelling and features a nice ensemble cast led way by James Arness and the show does harkens back to a simpler time, although for its time, probably was more real compared with other programming in the 1950s and 60s.
Tin Cup is a fun and charming romantic comedy with two charismatic performances from Costner and Russo, although it is a bit long running over two hours.
King Creole is a fun musical crime-drama with Elvis Presley obviously in his and the chemistry with Carolyn Jones was absolutely wonderful.
30 Rock is a hilarious show, probably the funniest one I’ve come across since Seinfeld and Frasier. The ensemble was pitch-perfectly cast headlined by Tina Fey and even Alec Baldwin, along with Jack McBrayer, Jane Krakowski and Tracy Morgan.
To Catch a Thief is a middle-of-the-road mystery-thriller from Alfred Hitchcock, which does say something about the filmmaker, that works because of the chemistry between Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.
Criminal Minds: The Final Season was certainly letdown and while this was limited to only 10 episodes, the writers didn’t give the cast a whole lot to do and the stories were not all that interesting.
Jamestown: The Complete Collection is now available on DVD from PBS, the three seasons contained in a single DVD case, nice for those looking for space-saving individuals.
Police Squad: The Complete Series might have only lasted six episodes, but it probably was ahead of its time and, for my money, was actually far funnier than the first season of Seinfeld which thankfully NBC stuck with, if only ABC had done the same…
The West Wing this is not, but Madam Secretary is a fine enough television series with a respectable cast, though some of the writing, and dialogue especially, wasn’t great.
The Passion of Darkly Noon is quite the interesting romance-drama with an unusual style with oversaturated colors and also features a good cast with Brendan Fraser, Ashley Judd and Viggo Mortensen.
Dark Waters is a well made, legal drama that’s in the same vein as 1999’s The Insider and while I don’t feel it’s as effectively directed by Todd Haynes, it is still well worth checking out.