Imagine if in the not too distant future you could have the opportunity to be young again, and for the right price you could possibly never have to worry about ever growing old ever again.  RPG looks into this possibility and the chances people are willing to take for this chance to indulge their youth once again.  But like with anything that seems too good to be true, there is a catch, and in this game there are actually two catches.  First you need to have the millions of dollars in your bank account to even play the game, and the second catch is that you have to be the lone survivor of the game to receive the award of lasting youth. 

“Why are you so hateful, Olive?”

Olive Kitteridge — Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel —has been adapted into a four-hour HBO miniseries. It's probably the best possible outcome for Strout's story, which deals with the legacy of depression, along with several other box office-unfriendly themes that would almost certainly prevent any proper Kitteridge adaptation from sniffing a multiplex. The miniseries is well-made, and the acting is top-notch. The problem for me was that, even with that four-hour running time, we don't get a ton of insight into why the title character is so hateful.

I hope you have your fuzzy cuffs ready. Not only is this weekend Valentine’s Day, but it is also the release of the highly anticipated film Fifty Shades of Grey.  It’s just about impossible to have not heard of the enormously successful book series that women across the globe have devoured and obsessed over since the books first hit the shelves.  It’s a phenomenon that has sparked interest in women to think of new and creative ways to spice things up in the bedroom.  On the other hand, since the announcement of the book being made for the big screen, men across the globe have dreaded the day that their wives and girlfriends would drag them to the theaters.

"Did you see the movie Trading Places?"

Well, this isn't that movie. It can be as funny as Trading Places, though. There aren't any shades of gray here either. It's good old fashioned “good guys and evil genius” stuff all the way. It's a thrill ride that we won't have to wait in long lines to get on. This is like going to a summer movie and trudging through the snow to get there. Depending on where you live, of course. I'm talking about Kingsmen: The Secret Service. 

The days of Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff are long gone, but Hollywood refuses to give up on the classic monsters these men and others once brought to live on the big screen.  Despite how many years have passed since these monsters of the night first terrified audiences, filmgoers continue to fork over their cash to see these stories rehashed again and again. In the new release of Frankenstein vs The Mumny, we see the revival of two classic monsters and the opportunity to see them battle head to head.  Without the big budget to support this monster smackdown, is it still worth watching, or is this a battle that should have remained dead?

As far as I’m concerned, a filmmaker has to work pretty hard to screw up a poker game. (And for the record, I feel the same way about cinematic sniper fights and train heists.) It’s an inherently high-stakes situation that is both familiar and unpredictable, and in the hands of the right director a poker game can be either thrilling or funny. At various points, Poker Night manages to be both. But even though I certainly wouldn’t say writer/director Greg Francis screwed up this stylish horror-crime thriller, the movie is flush with flashbacks and subplots that distract from the really good stuff.

This being the first foreign series that I’ve covered for the site, I couldn’t be happier with the results. Knowing nothing about Nicolas Le Floch, I naturally had a few reservations about the series.  It wasn’t in English, so how was I intended to comprehend what the characters were saying (knew I should have taken French in college)? Being that I’m ignorant of the laws and traditions of their government, how difficult would it be to follow the storyline? Of course these reservations were in vain as the series proved its worth with great ease, displaying all the great characteristics of the mysteries I love.

Athena here. That’s right, I’m the Siberian Husky that kind of runs things here at Gino’s house. Since I did such a great job doing the review on Snow Dogs, I decided to step in when I saw Gino watching yet another dog film. This time it was Walt Disney’s classic 101 Dalmatians. Naturally the film would have been better if it had been called 101 Siberian Huskies, but unfortunately the film was based on a popular children’s book by Dodie Smith who happened to have Dalmatians herself, so let’s not blame her; she didn’t know any better. Walt Disney himself discovered the story and took a personal interest in having it made into an animated film. 

“I see the crime a bit differently.”

American television hasn't quite cornered the worldwide market on unconventional, endearingly quirky investigators. MHz Networks has just released a hearty helping of German cop drama in the form of Marie's Mind for Murder. Despite the violent crimes being investigated, the show would've fit snugly alongside lighthearted whodunnits like USA Network's Monk or Psych. You get to sample plenty of Murder with this DVD set, considering there are 10 episodes that each clock in at a shade under 90 minutes.

Anchor Bay is releasing Fear Clinic today. It stars Robert Englund and Thomas Dekker. While we didn't get a chance to have an encounter with Freddy Kruger himself, we did catch up with Thomas Dekker. You might remember him as Picard's young son in Star Trek: Generations. I loved him as the iconic John Connor in The Sarah Connor Chronicles television follow-up to the Terminator films. We had a great time talking about all of these cool projects. You won't want to miss Fear Clinic on Blu-ray or DVD, and you sure won't want to miss my conversation with Thomas Dekker. So, bang it here to listen to my chat with Thomas Dekker.