Disc Reviews

Here is an instance where there was so much promise going into this film, but because of its lack of restraint, it blew an opportunity to be a good film.  The Midnight Man offers up a fun premise, a good cast, and high production values, but what plagues this film is a script that is filled with so much bad dialog you’ll wish you were watching a silent film.  Quick lesson in screenwriting: don’t try to be Shane Black or Quentin Tarantino; they are a class of their own, and to try to copy them only shines a light on how bad your dialog really is.  I’m being hard on this film, because had this film shown some restraint and kept the dialog simple, this could have been a really cool film.

Back in October I wrote about The Facts of Life: Season 7 in which I dealt with the general history and overall dynamics of the show. I suggest you go back and check that out so I don’t cover the same ground twice. The big addition that year was George Clooney. Not many series have as long and healthy a run as The Facts of Life, but as they age changes are forced on them. One of those changes that occurred in the opening episodes of Season 8 is Charlotte Rae’s (Mrs. Edna Garrett) decision to leave the show. The transition is handled gracefully with Edna’s marriage to a doctor who is leaving to help those in the third world by serving in the Peace Corps.

The premise itself is relatively simple and requires no real past knowledge to get on board. Unit 15 is the elite unit of an unnamed Canadian metropolitan police force. The unit is led by Staff Sergeant Oliver Shaw (Gordon). Each episode begins with his roll call. Apparently in Canada it's called parade. He does the usual job of giving out riding partners and assignments and providing the general "hot" information for the shift turn-out. The show focuses on a group of rookie cops assigned here. This is where it gets tricky.

If there is a television series in the history of the industry as American or timeless as The Andy Griffith Show, I haven't seen it. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone with strong negative feelings about the series. It was one of those organic and comfortable productions that reached deep into the core of rural America. Even if we lived in a bustling city, there were aspects of the show that still rang true. It was populated with the kind of familiar faces that it wasn't hard for anyone in the audience to smile in remembrance of a character they've known in real life.

“Let’s go get those stinkin’ hyenas.”

For many years The Lion King was the highest grossing animated film of all time. It remains one of the most beloved films in history. It marked the last of the Disney classic animation triumphs. Combined with the Elton John and Tim Rice songs, it is one of those generational films. While there has never been a feature film follow-up at the box office, there have been a few attempts to keep the franchise alive, and why not?

“Peering out from the dark shadows of America’s death row are the faces of evil. The faces of murderers. Men and women who commot the most heinous of crimes. Some elude capture for years, even decades. But eventually, these lowest forms of humanity find themselves on death row awaiting their final fate… execution.”

There appears to be a lot of controversy when it comes to the death penalty in the United States. I say appears, because even with all of the debate the polls show that Americans overwhelmingly support capital punishment. In fact, only 37% of Americans were opposed in the Gallup 2015 poll.