Jean-Louis Trintignant (here dubbed into Italian) is a hard-boiled actor (!). Arriving at a night club to meet the proprietor, he instead finds the man dead, and the luscious Ewa Aulin standing over the corpse, protesting her innocence. Trintingnant believes her, and decides to help her out. The quest for the truth leads them though a series of encounters with various aspects of London nightlife and lowlife, 1967 vintage.

In writing a review of this shameless Da Vinci Code cash-in project (the tag line on the cover even trumpets “Only one can shatter the code”!), it would be easy to fall back on easy comparisons to the Dan Brown books, or the Indiana Jones movies, or even Tomb Raider. That, however, would be predictable and, considering how obvious such comparisons are, has probably been done many times over by other reviewers. For this reason, I have decided that for this review, I will focus on the things I discovered by watching The Last Templar. After all, a three-hour epic mini-series brimming with historical perspective and exotic locales is bound to leave some sort of impression. So here goes:

This is the second season of this prime time soap opera's fourteen season run. This show is the stories of three couples who all live in the same cul-de-sac, along the second season addition of single temptress Abby Cunnigham (played by Donna Mills), whose role inspires the packaging's amusing tag-line "Abby Cunnigham moves to Knots Landing. Do you know where your husband is?"

Belgian director Fabrice Du Welz burst onto the horror scene in 2004 with Calvaire, an unforgivingly black tale of a young man running afoul of a town whose exclusively male population would make Leatherface blanch and get the hell out of Dodge. A distinctly European concoction, it nevertheless paid tribute to Deliverance and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It was an attack on the audience as assured as it was original. Now, Du Welz has followed up with Vinyan, which is no less original, no less assured, and stakes out its own identity distinct from its predecessor, while still sharing many of Calvaire's thematic preoccupations. People, I think we have an auteur in our midst.

Dexter continues his jump to the world of high definition as the second season finally makes its way to Blu-ray. The show is killer, if you’ll pardon the expression. In the first season, Dexter pointed out the contradiction of a crime scene in sunny Miami. The aftermath of brutality appears somewhat surreal in such a colorful and bright surroundings. On Blu-ray you really get to understand what he was talking about. It almost feels like the show shouldn’t look so clean, so crisp, so bright. But, of course, it should, and it does in this release.

The Uninvited is yet another in a long string of Asian films that are translated and retooled for American audiences. It’s been a rather strong and long running trend that was kicked off with the wildly successful The Ring, from the Asian classic, Ringu. But, for every effective spooky thriller that comes out of this Asian pipeline, there appear to be a dozen or more complete failures. Some American directors think that all they need to do is throw fast moving creepy ghosts at us and often have them inhabit some modern electronic device. Presto! You have a horror movie for the purposes of generated cash. I’m happy to report that The Uninvited is a fresh approach

Citing personal history, I don’t do really well with horror films. As mentioned in other reviews, my parents let me see scary movies such as Exorcist & Poltergeist (as well as R-rated action films) when I was no more than ten years old. While, Poltergeist sits proudly in my DVD collection, I still have trouble to this day with Exorcist. Yes, I can be a scaredy cat at times. To be also perfectly honest, I was a bit worried when I received The Uninvited in the mail to review. After all, it proclaims proudly on the cover that it is made by the producers of the Ring(which I absolutely hated) & Disturbia. By the end of the movie, I was very pleasantly surprised.

“The legend began hundreds of years ago when the fierce warriors known as the Samurai served the warlords of Japan with absolute loyalty. The most fearsome of all were the ronin, the samurai who had lost his master, set adrift like a wave on the open sea. One ronin sought out the master swordmaker, Masermune. The legendary master agreed to forge the samurai a sword of great mystical power. But, it would take an entire year to complete the work. The master’s evil-minded apprentice, Masamas, offered to forge another sword, but in only half the time.”

Scooby Doo has spanned generations and over 40 years.

Hey Gang.... If you have the Star Trek Season 1 set on Blu-ray, you'll be able to catch some stuff from the huge convention in Germany. Check it out for more information.

“Super-toon extraordinaire Freakazoid! Freakazoid! Runs around in underwear Freakazoid! Freakazoid! Rescues Washington D.C .Freakazoid! Freakazoid!
Unless something better's on TV Freakazoid! Freakazoid! His brain's overloading. It has a chocolate coating. Textbook case for Sigmund Freud Freakazoid! Freakazoid!”

Only from the mind of Steven Spielberg and the gang that brought us Animaniacs could such a cartoon series and superhero be found. From 1995 to 1997 it could all be found as near as your television set,