Long before Clint Eastwood was making our day as Dirty Harry or even roaming the badlands without a name for Sergio Leone, he was working the cattle drive on Rawhide. Rawhide was created to take advantage of the huge Western film and television wave that Hollywood had been riding for nearly a decade. With huge ratings for Gunsmoke and Bonanza among others, Rawhide was a bit of an unlikely success. Here the show explored the West on an endless cattle drive to get a few thousand steer to market. Along the way the crew would find themselves involved in someone else’s troubles or meet trouble head on themselves. The cattle drive theme would rely on the changing landscape to distinguish the show from other more sedentary westerns. More like Wagon Train, the constant movement always gave a sense of action even when there wasn’t much. Of course, there was a large number of changing support players along on the drive. Every operation needs cooks, ropers, and red shirts.

A very young Clint Eastwood played Rowdy Yates. Unlike any cowboy you ever saw, Rowdy had slicked up hair and looked more like a biker than a cowhand. He was the greenhorn in the bunch, usually finding each experience a learning opportunity. He had an almost naïve charm that made him popular. Eric Fleming was Gil, the trail boss. The third main character was Pete Nolan, played by Sheb Wooley. Sheb formed a good relationship with Eastwood that would be rewarded years later when Eastwood created a role for him in The Outlaw Josey Wales. I didn’t really watch the show even in its limited syndication run, so knew most of it by reputation only. Of course, I knew the Frankie Laine theme that has been used for everything from selling cars to western spoofs. The tune was also a moderate radio and record hit in the day.

The key to making any good romance work is that you have to be able to root for the couple, that no matter what these characters may face, you have to be on board and believe this cinematic love affair is meant to be.  In the case of Twice Born, I have to say it does such a good job at getting me to root for this couple that I want to punch the film in the face for what it puts them through.  Yes, you read that correctly.  This film managed to get me so wrapped up in the characters that I found myself cursing at the screen simply because what Gemma (Penelope Cruz) and Diego (Emile Hirsch) endure is heart-wrenching to the extremes.  This isn’t simply a love story but a brutal example of what it is to endure tragedy for the love of a soulmate.

When we first meet Gemma, she is a caring mother of a teenager whom she wishes to take back home to Sarajevo so he can see where he was born.  This is an understandable experience she’d like to share with her son, Pietro (Pietro Castellitto).  The story then jumps into the past, when we see a younger Gemma setting off to travel, and it is in her travels she meets Diego, a charming American freelance photographer.  Though back home Gemma has a relationship, it doesn’t prevent her from her brief yet torrid romance with Diego which in turn brings about her first pregnancy, though the child never comes to full term.

There is something charming and irresistible when it comes to the characters of Mordecai and Rigby.  The slacker duo that consists of an oversized blue-jay and a raccoon have a charm about them that seems to appeal to all ages, but for me I find them to be the most relatable of animated characters.  Perhaps not so much now but back in my teen years these two sadly remind me a lot of myself, the obsession with film, slacking off about work, and most notably the awkwardness around girls. With this DVD release we get a collection of episodes that explore the love lives of not just Mordecai but Rigby and even Muscle Man as well.

With 16 episodes together in the pack and coming in just under three hours of content, for fans of the show there are plenty of episodes to sit back and enjoy.  Muscle Woman would be the first in the collection that I’d consider really follows the “romantic” theme of the collection.  Rigby and Mordecai have to work together to help get Muscle Man out of the depressed funk he’s in since his girlfriend Muscle Woman has broken up with him.  This isn’t so much something they are doing out of the kindness of the hearts, but rather to get Muscle Man back to work.  Unfortunately the plan that seems to work is getting Muscle Woman to go out with Mordecai, only he needs to break her heart in order for her to see what she had with Muscle Man.  Sadly Mordecai gets nothing but the bad end of the stick in this episode, though it does have its sweet moments.  The Muscle Man and Muscle Woman relationship is followed up in the episode Fancy Restaurant where Muscle Man is asked by his girlfriend to meet her parents and to do it at some place that is fancy.  Once again it’s up to Rigby and Mordecai to help make this date go off without a hitch, but there is only so much that can be expected of a character like Muscle Man who enjoys ripping off his shirt and having a punch line that tends to end “…like my mom”.  When the date goes bad and Muscle Man and the gang have to take on the stuffy wait staff, well, that’s the kind of fun you come to expect from the show.

Let’s be honest, anytime you hear about a SyFy original movie, expectations are lowered, and you settle in for what is most likely going to be a forgettable, cheesy film.  But sometimes a film comes along, and it manages to take you by surprise, and you just have a good time with it, and not at the film’s expense (Sharknado, I’m looking at you).  When it comes to where Scarecrow falls, well, this is one of those fun little films that captures the spirit of some great 80’s monster films; Pumpkinhead continually came to mind while watching this.

It’s almost time for the town’s annual Scarecrow Festival where everyone gathers around to celebrate the tale of an urban legend that goes back over a hundred years.  Unfortunately for a few students who are in detention, they get to spend their time helping clean up an old farm.  Stuck looking after the students is Aaron Harris (Robin Dunne) who just so happens to have dated Kristen (Lacey Chabert), the current owner of the farm he and the students are going to work on.