Tyler Perry can do mediocre all by himself. Is Tyler Perry the male Oprah? While he hasn’t started a talk show (yet), the entrepreneurial playwright, actor, director, screenwriter and producer seems poised to give Ms. Winfrey a run for her literal money. Perhaps even more so than Winfrey, Perry has been able to tap into the cultural zeitgeist of the modern black American, in the process managing to rake in several hundreds of millions of dollars... 

“Thou art a subject of the divine, created in the image of man, by the masses, for the masses.” CG killed the filmmaker. At least in the case of George Lucas. Watching THX 1138 , Lucas’s 1971 feature-length film debut, it’s clear that character and story were once far more important to the Maker than Gungan land wars and Kaminoan clone facilities. Lucas has always fancied himself a world-weaver, but a long time ago, in a... 

Is Season 13 a Lucky Strike? TV critics and pop-culture pundits have slagged The Simpsons in recent years—well, the past decade—for favoring out-of-left-field non sequiturs over character-driven stories, for never re-reaching the savage satirical highs of its first nine seasons, and, in short, for losing much of its banana-yellow luster. Newer, flashier, wackier shows, like The Family Guy and South Park , have since unseated The Simpsons from... 

One of Verdi’s lesser known operas receives a largely excellent production on this new Blu-ray. It’s perhaps too bad that Charles Dickens never wrote a libretto for an opera, though several of his works have become musicals, including megahits ( Oliver! ), well respected long running semi-hits ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood , based upon Dickens’ unfinished novel) and out and out flops ( Pickwick , which was a big hit on the West End, produced... 

Walter Hill’s “Red Heat” (1988) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Optimum Home Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include the featurettes “Arnold Schwarzenegger – The Man Who Raised Hollywood” and “The Politic Context of Red Heat”, as well as the film’s original theatrical trailer. In English, with imposed English subtitles only for the Russian dialog spoken... 

The series’ latest video transfer is less problematic, but the whole of the release is still a letdown… For the last two years we had to protect Chuck from the world, but now we need to protect the world from Chuck. That’s right, Chuck is back and badder than ever. Hardwired with the Intersect 2.0, our beloved, bumbling CIA upstart gets his River Tam on with new skills, new abilities and new missions. But Fulcrum is no longer... 

Love hurts. Sexual taboos in film have fallen by the wayside with such alarming rapidity over the past several decades that one would think there couldn’t possibly be any left. One would be wrong, as Secretary makes so daringly clear in its opening sequence. When was the last time a film had either the courage or insanity, or perhaps both, to open with its star adorned in a bondage metal crucifix of sorts, traipsing around …  Read More →

It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine… Think about it. Michael, the big brother, loyal to an absent father. And Lucifer, the little brother, rebellious of Daddy’s plan. You two were born to this, boys! It’s your destiny. It was always you. As it is in Heaven, so it must be on Earth. Sam and Dean Winchester have been to hell and back. Literally. But in Supernatural ’s fifth gripping season, the Brothers... 

Blood, blood, blood, blood, blood, blood, blood. Haven’t you seen enough boobs? Hatchet is billed as “old school American Horror.” If by that fans are led to expect plenty of bare-chested girls, an unforgivingly dark atmosphere, and a typical array of characters killed off one-by-one by a deranged and deformed psychopath living off the land (and the good folks) around the outlying swamps of New Orleans, then yup, Hatchet delivers... 

The same great audio, extras, and movie: now with vastly improved picture quality. Unleash hell . It was a time unparalleled in human history. One of the great Empires of modern civilization ruled much of the globe, and despite a landscape littered with primitive technology and a knowledge base far less impressive than that of today, the same ideas, emotions, deceptions, loves, and hates influenced every decision, every waking hour, every breath,... 

Screened at the Chicago International Film Festival, Yu Ha’s “A Dirty Carnival” (2006) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Korean distributors CJ Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include two audio commentaries; behind the scenes featurette; multiple making of featurettes; deleted and extended scenes with optional commentary by director Yu Ha; interviews; footage from the film’s premiere; and theatrical trailers.... 

Harvey Keitel is unforgettable in this disturbing film from Abel Ferrara. Is redemption possible for someone like Adolf Hitler? Isn’t it part and parcel of at least some branches of Christianity that if a sinner sincerely repents before his death all is forgiven and an entrance to heaven is assured? How does that philosophy sit with you? Does it make you slightly uneasy, thinking of sharing cloud space with the likes of the most evil man of the... 

Winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Park Chan-wook’s “Bakjwi” a.k.a “Thirst” (2009) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Korean distributors CJ Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include two audio commentaries; behind the scenes featurette; making of featurette; interviews; gag reel; and theatrical trailers. In Korean, with optional English and Korean subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.... 

National Geographic does its own take on The Universe, or at least our corner of it, in this excellent new series. Television viewers and Blu-ray aficionados have had a rare chance to compare how two different networks approach much the same material, as History Channel has just released The Universe: Our Solar System , a compendium of episodes of that long running series mostly focusing on our little neck of the woods, universally speaking, and... 

Is ‘Stardust’ worth sprinkling into your Blu-ray collection? People aren’t what they may seem. When it comes right down to it, the “happily-ever-after” Fairy Tale might be the most reliable basis for a story that ever was. No matter whether it’s in literature, oral tradition, song, or film, there’s something to be said for that basic “character comes from meager origins to find his or her destiny,...