A short time ago I had the unexpected pleasure of watching and then reviewing Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself. I say unexpected, because I was looking for the typical Madea antics and ended up drawn into a compelling gospel musical that was inspirational and entertaining without ever feeling like I was sitting in mass listening to a long homily. Now I've just had the opportunity to see Stan Foster's The Preacher's Kid. There's no doubt that Foster has been inspired by the Black Theater productions of guys like Perry.

I grew up on Bill Cosby. He was everywhere when I was a kid. Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids were on my television every Saturday morning. My parents had all of his records, and I can remember borrowing them when I finally got a player of my own. I played Chicken Heart so often I think I wore away the grooves on the track. Of course, you youngsters out there have no idea what I'm talking about when I mention grooves and wearing them out. That also means that you remember a very different Bill Cosby show.

Pulse:

Plenty of Japanese horror films have storylines that vary from the oblique to the opaque. Pulse is no exception, so forgive me if this synopsis is a bit confusing (or confused). An internet website offers visitors the chance to see actual ghosts. Viewing the footage seems to make one vulnerable to an actual visitation, and when someone encounters a ghost, that person withdraws from others, shunning all society, and becomes consumed by loneliness to the point of suicide or something even more bizarre.

During the chaos of a mutiny, three British officers in India get their hands on a great treasure. They do not do so honorably, however, and, mistrustful of each other, make a blood pact, which cannot be broken without suffering a terrible curse. Decades later, the three have experienced very different fortunes, and vengeance has come to call. Irene (Susannah Harker), the daughter of one of these men, seeks the help of Sherlock Holmes (Charlton Heston!) and Dr. Watson (Richard Johnson). There are many dark deeds to unravel, and along the way, Watson and Irene fall in love.

Having accidentally blinded a singer during a contract killing, hit man extraordinaire Chow Yun-Fat, consumed with guilt, becomes the woman's protector, and seeks redemption by finding some way to restore her sight. Meanwhile, Danny Lee is the plays-by-his-own-rules cop on his trail, and inevitably the two men will find themselves as unlikely allies in gigantically operatic gunfights.

We are in the midst of the Great War. Michael Dunne (Paul Gross) is a Canadian solider recovering from physical and psychological wounds. He falls in love with his nurse (Carline Dhavernas), and when her asthmatic brother enlists, Dunne heads back to the trenches to protect him, and the two men wind up at the gigantic, murderous battle that gives the film its name.

Volume Five of the Animated Series known as X-Men is now upon us. Included here are the last fourteen episodes that haven't been put on disc for the masses. There is a lot going on in these twenty one minute chunks. There are some good things, bad things, funny things and more confusing things than probably should be in a children's animated show. So let us spend some time, the final time with our beloved mutant friendly superhero group.

Robert Kurtzman is known mostly for his exceptional makeup and other special f/x. He's worked with both Freddy and Jason, and he helped to form one of the best f/x houses in the industry. He found considerable cult success with the quirky but exceptional The Rage. Again it is those technical abilities that stand out. So I was a little bit more than curious when I was discovered that his recent film, Deadly Impact, was something quite different from anything I had associated with the name in the past. I was even more drawn to the project when I was told I had an opportunity to interview the man about the movie.

Most people don't know or remember that Andy Griffith had a career before his television classic reached the airwaves. He had a pretty distinctive stand-up routine going for many years that included recordings like most stand-ups of the day. He had quite a famous bit about a country farm boy seeing his very first football game. It was called “I Think They Call It Football”, and it's a priceless classic. Andy also found his way into a couple of movies in the days before he became Sheriff Andy Taylor. One of those movies was No Time For Sergeants. It wasn't a stretch for this country boy

"Most of the world's population has been wiped out by a virus. Civilization, as we know it, has come to an end. For the few survivors, every day is a fight for life. But sinister forces threaten their future."

Right from the opening credits, you can see that a lot has changed since 1975 and the original series. I'm guessing that my watching them back to back allows for even more dramatic notice of the changes. Everything is cleaner here. The production values are light-years away from what they were. Even the disc menus reflect the higher-tech edge of the 21st century production values.