Disc Reviews

Erle Stanley Gardner wrote crime fiction, and while many of his 100 or so works are unknown to most of us, he created a character who has become as identified with criminal lawyers as any other in fiction. It was in these crime novels that Perry Mason first faced a courtroom. He developed a style where he would investigate these terrible crimes his clients were on trial for. He would find the real killer, and in what has become a Hollywood cliché, reveal his findings in a crucial moment during the trial. While we may not remember the novels, we all remember the man in the persona of Raymond Burr.  Burr had a commanding presence on our screens and enjoyed a well-deserved 11-year run as the clever lawyer. What makes this run so amazing is that the show followed pretty much the same pattern the entire time. We always know what’s going to happen, but we wait eagerly for that gotcha moment when Perry faces the witness on the stand. We know when he’s got the guy squarely in his sights, and we can’t sit still waiting for him to pull the trigger. OK, so maybe that’s a little over the top, but so was Perry Mason. From the moment you heard that distinctive theme, the stage was set. To say that Perry Mason defined the lawyer show for decades would be an understatement. Folks like Matlock and shows like The Practice are strikingly similar to Perry Mason.

Perry Mason officially ended in May of 1966, but that wasn't going to be the end. Twenty years later the surviving cast members reunited for Perry Mason Returns. It was Perry and Della back together again. Both Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale returned to their roles. William Hopper had died in 1970, so William Katt joined the reunion as Paul Drake, Jr. Katt might not have really been Drake's son; he was Hale's son. When Katt left the films he was replaced by William R. Moses as Ken Malansky. Ken was a young law student helped by Perry once when he was framed in law school for a rival's murder. He ends up being both a legal assistant and investigator for Perry in the reunion films. Ken's girlfriend is Amy, played by Baywatch's Alexandra Hastings. Amy was a rich girl who had too much time on her hands. It led to her involving herself in Ken's investigations. The films also often starred James McEachin as Lt. Brock, the cop on many of the cases. The team would continue to do 30 television movies from 1985-1995. CBS has now begun to package these reunion films in collections like this. You get six films on three discs. The discs appear in a plastic case, and the cases are held by a cardboard slipcase.

“WARNING: The following program contains scenes of graphic stupidity among four friends who compete to embarrass each other…”

They’re back!!! Tru TV’s smash hit Impractical Jokers is back with a season two that continues to show you that no one embarrasses you quite like your closest friends.  The gang is all back; Q, Murr, Joe, and Sal, as they take their pranks to the next level. The stakes are the same: one infiltrates a prospective business such as dental office, movie theater, etc. and must do whatever the others order to push them out of their comfort zone; failure to comply results being subject to the consequences at the end of the episode.

"1968, I was twelve years old. A lot happened that year. Dennis McLain won 31 games, The Mod Squad hit the air, and I graduated from Hillcrest Elementary and entered junior high school...but we'll get to that. There's no pretty way to put this: I grew up in the suburbs. I guess most people think of the suburb as a place with all the disadvantages of the city, and none of the advantages of the country, and vice versa. But, in a way, those really were the wonder years for us there in the suburbs. It was kind of a golden age for kids."

With all of the television I've watched over the decades, it's more than a little surprising to me that I missed out on The Wonder Years. I heard a lot about the show, but it never looked interesting enough for me to try it out. The long delay in the DVD release was another good reason the show continued to escape my notice. Now that the show is out on DVD and I've had that inevitable encounter, I can't imagine what it was that kept me away for so long.

Just because an actor shares the same last name of their more popular sibling, the talent doesn’t necessarily carry over as well.  In the case of The Reckoning, the Australian thriller has two siblings with much more marketable star power. Jonathan LaPaglia comes into The Reckoning and ripping a few pages from his brother’s acting book in playing a detective whose partner is the victim of a heinous act of “random” violence. Also joining the film with famous siblings is Luke Hemsworth, whose brothers Liam and Chris Americans may be more familiar with.  Does the hereditary star power help this little Aussie film, or does it flounder down under?

Detective Green (LaPaglia) comes into a crime scene where his former partner, Detective Pearson (Hemsworth), has been found murdered.  What at first looks like a random shooting quickly gets more complicated upon the discovery of a digital drive that sets the stage for a more complicated case to unfold.  It is what is on the digital drive that is far more interesting to watch than the investigation that follows.  In the video we see Rachel (Hanna Mangan Lawrence) and her boyfriend AJ (Alex Williams) piece together the clues to who is responsible for her sister’s hit-and-run murder a year before.  Rachel isn’t just some young girl with a video camera making a documentary; instead, she’s a girl with an illness that she knows is going to kill her, and as we see it makes her a force to not be trifled with.
Rachel is out for blood and wants to avenge her sister; in the process as she comes across the drug dealers and crime bosses responsible for dealing drugs to her sister, a trail of bodies is left behind in her wake.