Brent Lorentson

I think it would be safe to say that ever since Edward Stratemeyer penned The Hardy Boys he has garnered a legion of loyal fans of the popular young adult book series.  For many young readers these books are what planted the seeds for them to later become private investigators or join some form of law enforcement.  Then there were the casual readers like myself who became obsessed with the crime genre and would later move on to edgier writers.  Whatever direction readers may have taken, it’s safe to say that the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew deserve the same respect as other classic characters in fiction like Sherlock Holmes.
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The story about Finn, the human, and Jake, the Dog is something I’ve managed to come into without any knowledge of what is going on.  It’s not as though there is a complex plot built around the characters but I’m somewhat at a loss why the 12-13yrold boy lives with his talking dog with no parental unit to be seen.  I know it’s a cartoon and considering this takes place in the land of Ooo, hoping to find a plot thread that follows any real world logic is asking a bit much.
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From the opening title card, Mafia does its best to fit in with the blaxploitation films of the 70’s, and even with Pam Grier in one of the key roles the film just doesn’t hold up.  It seems a lot of filmmakers and fans have on rose-colored glasses to the exploitation era (I’ll lump myself in with this group as well), but the filmmakers who attempt these films forget a lot of these films of the past had a strong political or sociological message they were trying to send.  Just making a film set in the 70s and throwing on some filters doesn’t mean you made an exploitation film; it simply means you captured the cheap low quality of the pictures they made back then.
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I remember watching Heavenly Creatures and believing Melanie Lynskey would break out and become a star.  I never would have guessed her co-star Kate Winslet would be the one to emerge from the film and be the A-list actress she has become.  After all, when you watch Heavenly Creatures, it’s hard to believe this was the first role Lynskey had in front of a camera; I would have imagined she was destined to play some great roles through her career.  Unfortunately that’s not the case, but I’m glad to see at the very least she has a career up on the screen.
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When this DVD found its way into my hands, I felt  this could go one of two ways; either this is going to be awful, or this is going to be fun as hell.  I have to admit I had a little more concern when I saw that the show aired on Cinemax and had never even heard of the show.  Despite my concern, the idea of an anthology series inspired by pulp novels and film noir revolving around badass chicks simply sounded too good to resist.  The result is a late-night trashy blend between The Twilight Zone and The Red Shoe Diaries.
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What makes the horror genre so unique is that it doesn’t have any rules, but it has one goal: to scare us.  And the weirdest thing I find about horror is that so many people enjoy being scared, and, well, some of us have watched some pretty rotten things all in the name of a cheap thrill (my reasoning for watching A Serbian Film).  Lately the trend in horror is to be in the world where our heroes on the screen are put through some very “real” situations and it kind of poses the question: how far is too far? 
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When being handed this title to review I have to admit my expectations were rather low, but as with every other title I was going to give it a chance.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy cartoons or kid-friendly television; I was simply more concerned that perhaps I had reached an age where I simply wouldn’t be able to connect to the material I had to watch.  By the time the credits to the first episode rolled, I quickly moved on to the next episode. 
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Warwick Davis many may remember as the dwarf that played Wicket the ewok in Return of the Jedi or as the leprechaun in the Leprechaun franchise.  The role younger audiences may be more familiar with is that of Professor Flitwick in the Harry Potter franchise.  In the new HBO series Life’s Too Short, Davis steps away from the fantasy world and into a faux reality show about none other than Warwick Davis. I have to admit Davis is far from the top of my list of celebrities I’d like to see star in their own “reality” show.  Seeing the show is produced by and co-stars Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (both also worked together on Extras and The Office) did ignite my interest.
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Coming into the HBO animated series on its third season, I wasn’t sure what to expect from The Life & Times of Tim.  Even after a quick search on IMDB to see what else creator Steve Dildarian had worked on, it left me with little to go on concerning what to possibly expect. I got to go into season three with virgin eyes, and overall it was a good time. When we first meet Tim (Dildarian), his life is at a low point, lower than what most twenty-something graduates would be used to.  But on the bright side Tim has managed to find a job as the personal assistant to a women’s basketball player (Kym Whitley), though Tim is too ashamed to admit to his girlfriend Amy (M.J. Otto) what he really does.
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Back in 1964 a film was released about a reporter who wanted to know what it was like to be black in the deep south during the civil rights movement.  When I first heard this my initial reaction had me picturing some white guy in black face strolling the streets and then subsequently being beaten by both sides of the race coin.  It turns out this thankfully wasn’t the case, and the reporter, John Howard Griffin, underwent medical treatments, as well as hours under a sunlamp, to change the hue of his skin.  From the procedure on, the film explores a dark time in America seen through the eyes of both a white and a black man at the same time.
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The idea of traveling out into the middle of nowhere, surrounded by snow and with no running water or toilet around, is not my idea of a nice vacation.  In fact, being a former Eagle Scout, just hearing about camping is enough to recall nights of sleeping on the hard ground, in the cold with rocks and sticks being stabbed into my back while trying to sleep.  It’s not that I hate the outdoors; I’ve simply grown to appreciate the niceties of life, and if getting in touch with nature means mosquito bites, I’ll stick with the motel 8 and enjoy the view from my room. 
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This short-lived UK television series from 1995 is something I had never heard of, and after watching it, I consider it one of the best horror anthologies produced.  Tales from the Crypt, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits all hold their own place in what they brought to the small screen, each with episodes that are given the same reverence we would give a classic film.  What Chiller managed in five episodes left me wanting so much more; five episodes simply was not enough.
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“Everywhere you’ll go you’ll hear that slavery is a thing of the past.  Don’t believe it.”

When I got handed this disc to review I didn’t pay it much attention till I noticed it had Michael Caine in it.  Then after a search on IMDB well I started to get more and more excited.  Filling out the rest of cast there’s Peter Ustinov (Spartacus), Omar Sharif (Lawrence of Arabia), and William Holden (The Wild Bunch) all together in an African adventure film directed by Richard Fleischer (Tora! Tora! Tora! and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) I couldn’t believe I had never seen, much less even heard of this film. 
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