Dolby Digital 5.1 (English)

Every office has one. Peggy Spade (Shannon) is that co-worker who always seems to be up. You know the kind. Always smiling even when there are a lot of crappy things going on around her, she walks through life oblivious to it all. Now don’t get me wrong. These people do have their uses and can often relieve the stress of a particularly bad day. I mean, don’t you feel a little better after just a minute or two of putting your hands around their throat and squeezing just a little? Alas, I digress. What is the source of Peggy’s blissful nature? It’s none other than Pencil, her faithful pet dog. Pencil is her emotional center, leaving her quite awkward around most humans. Unfortunately for Peggy, Pencil gets out one night and into a bag of a “toxic poison” (Isn’t that redundant.) Quicker than you can say Michael Vick, Pencil is gone. When Pencil goes to that doggy pound in the sky, Peggy becomes depressed that is until she meets Valentine, a German shepherd with a maladjusted personality of his own. She also begins to relate to the man who introduces her to Valentine as well as a PETA-like pro-animal movement. Peggy becomes a radical, and it nearly destroys her life.

If you come to the film expecting a cozy little dog film you can cuddle up with, you will be disappointed. Having a stubborn Siberian Husky myself, I am almost always suckered into pretty much any film that has dogs in it. I even converted my wife. A long standing cat person, she fell in love with the puppy dog eyes of a pointer mix. That should tell you that I am predisposed to like most dog films. I wish I could tell you I liked Year Of The Dog.

Over the course of all of the reality shows out there, someone decided to want to do one with the goal of finding the next big stand up comedian of North America. But with every comic remotely worth something having done at least a stand up special for a television show of some sort, the search to find a decent stand up was a long one, to say the least. And after several “winners”, are any one of them really top shelf material? Of course not.

So enter Showtime, home of such quality shows like Weeds, attempting to promote culturally aware entertainment down the collective premium cable buying throats of America, with their show White Boyz in the Hood. Simply put, the show pulls together some stand up talent of the caucasion persuasion and puts them on stage in front of a mostly African-American crowd. In the spirit of Def Comedy Jam and similar shows of that ilk, it’s an interesting idea.

Written by Evan Braun

Most cartoons of the Saturday morning variety are written for kids and little else in mind, but every once in a while a show offers a little something extra. Pinky and the Brain is one such anomaly, providing plenty of great antics for kids, but even more for the grown-ups among us. It's full of parodies and Hollywood in-jokes that a 10-year-old could simply never appreciate. Strangely, as a 24-year-old, I felt very much within the target audience.

Right off the start Wild Hogs looks to be appealing simply because of the cast which includes John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence, William H. Macy, and Ray Liotta. However when you get numerous big names together, some of whom aren’t known for comedy, their meshing on screen becomes quite an issue. Regardless, I don’t anticipate this to become a problem with Wild Hogs.

Wild Hogs tells the story of four middle aged recreational bikers who are all going through a personal crisis. Doug (Tim Allen, Galaxy Quest) is a dentist stuck in a rut, he wants to relive his glory days but has too much responsibility and a kid who doesn’t respect him. Bobby (Martin Lawrence, Bad Boys) aspires to be a writer but is stuck in a job as a plumber, his wife wears the pants and he hardly does or says what he wants anymore. Dudley (William H. Macy, The Cooler) seems to suffer from an inferiority complex as he can’t seem to muster up the courage to talk to women, his life lacks excitement. Finally there’s Woody (John Travolta, Hairspray) he seems to have it all, a big house and a supermodel wife, that is until she leaves him and he looses all his money. Desperate to get a taste of life, on Woody’s suggestion the group embarks on a cross country motorcycle trip with no cell phones and no plan, just the west coast in mind. Of course along the way they run into their share of misadventures including a homosexual highway cop, a gang of bikers, and Dudley’s inability to balance on his motorcycle.

Although it arose from the talented minds behind The Muppet Show, this 1982 fantasy classic is no kids' film. While The Dark Crystal can be enjoyed by kids, it's a little too dark and a little too abstract for your average seven-year-old.

Set in "another world, in another time...in the age of wonder," The Dark Crystal represents a monumental creative undertaking, and the first live-action feature film to not have any humans appearing on screen. While this 25th Anniversary Edition release appears to be a quadruple-dip, it just might be worth your attention.

There was a time when break dancing was the hottest thing around. For this film, that time is 1986, when a talented young dancer goes too big in a dance contest, flips off the stage and winds up in a coma. He wakes up 20 years later, a grown man with the mind of a 12-year-old, an unhealthy passion for break dancing and a crush on the girlfriend he almost had two decades earlier.

With that premise, how can you go wrong? Plus, you know Kickin' It Old Skool is a righteous movie because it spells 'School' with a 'k.'

Are We Done Yet? That's not just the title of this film, it's a form of the question you'll be asking repeatedly during the film's runtime, until you eventually reach a climax of desperation and cry out for all to hear, "For the love all that is good and pure in this world, when will it end?" Not soon enough, my friend. Not soon enough.

Should you find yourself watching this torturously stupid sequel to 2005's Are We There Yet?, all I can say is, you should have known better. While opinions about movies are subjective, this one's a special case that allows me to say with 100% confidence: if you liked Are We Done Yet? you deserve a big ol' smack upside the head.

The heroes in a half shell are back, and looking better than ever. TMNT doesn't represent a revolutionary rebirth of the franchise, but it does breathe new life into once-loved characters who've been fading in our memory. Whatever your take on this film, kids, one thing's for certain: these ain't your daddy's turtles.

It has been more than 10 years since the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stunk up the big screen in their third film, which had them time-traveling back to ancient Japan for some schlocky, death-of-a-franchise action. With that disaster in mind, I say thank goodness for TMNT coming along to obliviate their ancient Japan adventure from our memory.

Written by Evan Braun

I came to the second season of The Closer with an interesting piece of baggage: I hadn't seen the first season. And still haven't. Seeing as I'm a bit of a completionist, this was initially driving me nuts. That said, by the time I finally gave the show a chance, I felt like I'd been in it my whole life.

Written by Evan Braun

I am both the perfect person to be reviewing Babylon 5 and exactly the wrong person. Being an irrationally devoted fan of the series, it's difficult for me to be objective about it. And it is therefore with this unique perspective that I sat down to watch this newest B5 release.