Dark Blue: The Complete First Season (DVD)

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I wish I could have loved “Dark Blue,” I really do, but as I’ve learned over the many many years of television addiction, finding an entertaining show about police officers working against the conventions of the law is often about as fun as watching paint dry. “Dark Blue” truly tries for grit and edge but is often much too polished to buy such a pitch. TNT has pretty much banked on creating television series that are just branches off of more successful franchises and “Dark Blue” is a mix of “The Shield” with some “CSI” for good measure. While it does make its money on being a procedural, it also manages to have an actual arc to it.

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Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010)

batman-under-the-red-hood-oYou really do have to give Warner Brothers credit for putting together rather fantastic all star casts for Direct to DVD feature films that will never get the same treatment as their theatrical properties. For films that are obviously just there to keep the cash flowing, the Batman titles have been consistently top notch; especially “Under the Red Hood,” a movie that’s slightly flawed, but still very entertaining. I’ve never actually read the mini-series from the comic books, but word of mouth indicates it was all one big build up leading to a massive cop out, so “Under the Red Hood” compiles all of the best moments and brings it together for a ninety minute action flick that involves a brand new quasi-crime boss in the city named the Red Hood. I had about one reason to see this: Jensen Ackles, the star of the best show on television at the moment “Supernatural.”

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The Raven (2010)

ravenWhat with Hollywood running out of ideas and turning literally anything in to a movie including novelty toys we’ve long forgotten about (ahem–Magic 8 Ball), the studios are doing what we’ve been telling them to do for years now: they’re seeking out independent filmmakers for ideas. So now what with the surge of independent filmmakers retreating to Youtube to post their ambitious projects for free viewing, studios are snatching up these properties in hopes of coming up with the next big blockbuster. I mean… it turned out pretty well for “Paranormal Activity” and “District 9,” didn’t it?

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Paint Shaker (2008)

MV5BMjAxNTI1NjEzNV5BMl5BanBIt’s getting to where whenever director Patrick Rea or anyone from Senoreality releases a new short from their company, we’re ecstatic to see what they have in store for us, because there’s always a guaranteed surprise in store whether we enjoy the film or not. Patrick Rea’s “Paint Shaker” is not a horror film as it is an examination on life and a dark comedy based around monotony propelling in to all out chaos thanks to a misunderstanding and a manipulative co-worker. “Paint Shaker” is very much in the vein of films where there’s always seething rage and aggression boiling underneath our characters where they’re doomed to burst at any second and such is never made more apparent than in “Paint Shaker.”

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The Punisher Meets Archie

Around the time “Archie Meets the Punisher” was released in 1994, I was about eleven years old. I bought Wizard magazine and would buy just about every comic that came out at the time. I bought “Super Pro” and “Dark hawk” and even at the impressionable age of eleven I looked at the cover of “The Punisher Meets Archie” and thought to myself “Are you effing kidding me?” In all of the comic characters in all of the world to cross over they decided to cross over the most violent psychopathic anti-hero in the comics universe with the most inoffensive yet addictive cult comic book of all time to meet for a storyline that’s too heavy for an Archie comic book and too light hearted for a Punisher comic book.

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You Have to See This! Dobermann (1997)

600px-Dobermann_01Dobermann follows the title character (Vincent Cassel) and his group of bank robbers as they evade the law and particularly a maniacal cop, Cristini (Tcheky Karyo). The tone of the movie is set right away with the opening sequence, at the end of which a gun is given to a baby at his Baptism. The rest of the story, based on cop novel, is fairly simple; bad guys versus good guys, or is it?

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Death Wish (1974)

Death_Wish_1974Before “The Punisher” ever graced the big screen director Michael winner’s 1974 revenge flick brought to screen a psychotic man armed with a hand gun avenging his family who suffered a wicked fate by the hands of senseless crime. In a time where violence and rape was rampant in New York City, “Death Wish” is still a surprising little thriller that not only puts on display the grim and grimy depths of the Big Apple in the seventies, but the descent in to sheer lunacy one mild mannered man takes when his wife and daughter are attacked and raped in their apartment. The thugs get away but protagonist Paul Kersey’s wife dies and he’s forced to bear witness to his daughter lose her sanity due to the severity of the attack she and her mother endured.

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