Disc Type

The 12th season of Criminal Minds would be one of great change. Some were expected and some were not. There had been incidents behind the scenes that had drawn red flags among the cast. Thomas Gibson was known to have a temper and had been reprimanded for it in the past. But as the Season 12 shooting began, he crossed the line again by allegedly kicking a writer. It was the last straw, and he was quickly fired from the series. So while the season begins with his character, it only lasts a short time. This is also the first season without Shemar Moore as Derek. That exit was planned and dealt with at the end of the previous season. And while everyone else returned, there was an unexpected return to the cast. Paget Brewster returned as Prentiss in what was originally intended as a short run. The sudden loss of Gibson created an opportunity to promote the character into his spot. Of course Brewster isn't the first to leave and return later. Jennifer Jareau had left for a while and returned to the fold. And while Moore does make a cameo this season and could return, don't expect to see Thomas Gibson on the show again.

As some doors close, others open. Adam Rodriquez from CSI: Miami joins the cast as Agent Luke Alves.  The character comes over from a fugitive task force and has a bit more of an aggressive style than the team is used to. He's a loner who lives alone with his dog. So we also get a rather pretty dark German shepherd in a recurring role this season. His addition certainly shakes things up in the character front. Another new face is Damon Gupton, who plays Agent Stephen Walker. He's the direct opposite of Luke. Stephen has a wife and kids and winds down by playing the trombone. To say he jazzes up the cast would be an understatement. But how well do these new characters fit in?

What happens when a group of friends decide they want to get together and make a horror movie? I’d imagine the result would be something close to Granny of the Dead. I’m not sure what kind of budget they had to make the film, but I’d imagine it wasn’t very much, and the talent on the screen doesn’t really scream the next box office star, but the film has charm, the kind of charm that they did the film not because of the paycheck but instead they just wanted to have fun and make a movie.  I’m hoping that is the case with the film; if so, then I can forgive a lot. For instance, have you ever seen the fan film that is a shot-for-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark? Is it great? No, but it has so much charm, and you can see how much fun they had making it that you want to watch more. That’s the vibe I got from this film, and again, if that’s the case, bravo for simply getting a movie done and into the hands of critics across the pond.

The set up is simple; a strange supernatural force has seemed to take hold of the elderly individuals of the small Welsh town and in the process has created a zombie outbreak. Ed (Marcus Carroll) wakes up to find his grandmother has turned, and is cooking up his cat but turns her hungry eyes onto him.  He escapes to his room and calls up his friend who seems excited by the zombie outbreak and enjoys dispensing his “how to survive the zombie apocalypse” advice.

There have been a lot of changes at NCIS over its 14 season run to date. Over time people have come and gone, but rarely has the series had to deal with so much change going into a new season. The most obvious of these has been the departure of Michael Weatherly as beloved character Tony DiNozzo. Tony was one of the still many remaining characters from the show's premier season a decade and a half ago. He's the kind of character who couldn't be replaced by just one new character. NCIS starts the 14th season with three new characters on board. But Weatherly wasn't the only big loss to the series. The unexpected death of showrunner Gary Glasberg hit the cast and crew pretty hard. He passed without warning or obvious illness just as the season's shooting was beginning. He had been with the series since 2009 and left a pretty big impact on the show. His loss might not be as obvious to the people who watch the show, but it was as big as that of Michael Weatherly. In many ways the 14th season marks a turning point in the long life of the NCIS franchise.

As the season opens, we discover that Gibbs (Harmon) has been going through prospective replacement agents at an alarming pace. It's gotten so bad that the NCIS training officer in charge of sending those agents arrives to find out just what it is Gibbs wants. That training officer is Agent Alex Quinn, played by Jennifer Esposito. He suggests Quinn stick around a bit to find out what he wants. I don't think it's much of a spoiler to reveal that it was Quinn Gibbs was trying to get all along. But she won't be the only new agent. The first episode has the team looking into an undercover agent who has failed to check in for six months and may be in trouble. There's the possibility he's gone "native". That agent turns out to be Agent Nick Torres, played by Wilmer Valderrama. He also ends up being invited to stay with the team. Torres offers a bit of a higher tension wildcard that shakes the team up a bit. He's used to going it alone and has trouble learning to depend on others. With Quinn there is the added element that she trained the other agents, except for Gibbs, and knows things about them that maybe the rest of the team doesn't. But that's not the end. NCIS goes for the hat trick by turning recurring character Clayton Reeves into a part of the team. Reeves is a British liaison agent much the way Ziva was for Israel. He's played by Duane Henry and is a loner but of a different sort than Torres. He doesn't have much in the way of family or friends and volunteers for dangerous assignments as a result.

"It's a beautiful day outside. The streets are all packed with tourists. They're drinking beers. They're chasing beads, headed out on the vampire walking tour of New Orleans. They think it's just a myth, just part of the city's charm. Well... we know better. Just like we know there's a storm coming..."

Are you ready to do the Time Warp again? Ready or not here it comes. It's been five years since we last left the New Orleans setting for The Originals. Klaus (Morgan) has been locked up in the catacombs by Marcel (Davis), who is once again ruling as the supernatural king of New Orleans. Hayley (Tonkin) is taking care of her growing daughter Hope by never staying in the same place twice. She's not packing light, however, as she's got four coffins to watch over that hold Elijah (Gillies), Kol (Buzolic), Rebekah (Holt), and Freya (Voelkel). Wait a minute, you say. Who is this Klaus of which you write? Why are their four characters in coffins? Sounds like you have a little bit of catching up to do before you can sink your teeth into this vampire drama. You really can't just pick up with the fourth season of The Originals and have any chance of keeping up. I suggest you check out the first three season and our reviews Here before you continue along this sordid tale.

I grew up on the Peanuts creations of Charles M. Schulz. Most of us have, in some way or another. His newspaper comic strip is one of the longest running and most successful strips of all time. The work has been translated into every language currently spoken on the planet. The images of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, and the rest of the Peanuts gang have appeared on just about any kind of product imaginable. Our pop culture contains too many references to the strip to mention briefly. For me, it was the television specials starting in the mid 1960’s that brought the gang into my life. The classics are running annually, still after nearly 50 years. A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown are the most mentioned and certainly beloved by generations of children and adults. I thought I never missed an airing.

A couple of years ago the cartoons were resurrected in, of all places, France. A French company wrangled the rights and went directly to the actual strips for the animated shorts. The series eventually landed here in the States on Boomerang and Cartoon Network but didn't air for more than a season. Now Warner Brothers has put together a collection of school-related portions of the series and released it on DVD. There are 29 episodes on two discs with no extras. The episodes average about seven minutes. The style remains close to the specials and cartoons that have been made here in the last 50 years. The notable difference is that colors don't extend to the borders, and the music is decidedly different. Instead of the jazzy piano that I most associate with the franchise you get the more French-inspired mandolin and a bit of an annoying vocal chorus. Frames are often begun unfinished, and a certain item like a hat or a chair will be drawn in as we watch. Obviously, the changes reflect a more art-stylish presentation that I attribute mostly to the French origin of the cartoons.

A Blast just might be one of the ‘smartest’ movies I have ever seen. Unfortunately, I am not the smartest person to watch it. Heavily soaked in allegories about Greece’s recent financial crisis, the film begs to be understood, but if you do not have any background knowledge about the crisis, you are lost from the start. The film feels it was made specifically for Greek viewers, as all of the allegorical elements feel poignant and intentional, but not knowing anything about contemporary Greek society leaves you with the feeling of “this means something; I just don’t know what it is.”

Maria lives a seemingly great life. We learn she has succeeded in grad school, keeps up with her health, has the most sensual relationship with her husband, and has raised two young children. Behind all of this, Maria’s role as a “dutiful daughter” puts her close to her family’s business and its failing finances. The story is told through flashbacks as a distraught Maria barrels down the highway, reflecting on the older good times being hijacked by the recent traumatic memories of her family crisis.