CliqueClack

Return to Cougar Town on DVD February 5

In anticipation of the new season of Cougar Town on its new network (TBS), catch up on the previous season this week on DVD. The first two seasons are also getting a re-release. Also hitting DVD this week are the second, third and fourth seasons of the critically acclaimed Southland. For kids of all ages, the Animaniacs return to DVD, along with Spider-Man and Ben 10. The excellent British series House of Cards gets a remaster for DVD and Blu-ray, and classic TV fans can own their favorite episodes of Naked City, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Bonanza. Have a look at our shopper’s guide to see these and more new releases for February 5, and click on a link to make a purchase or to get more information.

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Take flight with Denzel Washington and Peter Pan on home video

This week’s home video releases showcase Denzel Washington’s Oscar nominated performance in Flight, and several films covered by our crack team of writers here at CliqueClack. Check out our reviews of Alex Cross, Deadfall, and Celeste and Jesse Forever (and Jeremy Fogelman‘s interview with the film’s stars). Disney is releasing the classic Peter Pan from the vaults for a limited time (and it looks spectacular on Blu-ray), Keanu Reeves brings us a documentary on the issue of film versus video, and we learn that Paul Williams is indeed Still Alive. Classics getting the Blu-ray treatment include the Oscar winning Cabaret, the Oscar winning A Star is Born remake, and the Oscar winning Laura. More classics come to DVD and a collection of smaller films that may have bypassed your local cinema will also be available on February 5. Check out our shopper’s guide to see all the new releases, and click on a link to make a purchase or to get more information.

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Retirement and crime collide in the very average Stand Up Guys

Sometimes you have to make difficult decisions in life — prioritizing between work and home, friends and family, happiness and prosperity. And maybe you’ll look back and wonder if you really made the right choice after all. What would it take to just give up — or are you really capable of such an act? Apparently even criminals sometimes have problems too.

In Stand Up Guys, Val (Al Pacino) was just paroled after serving nearly thirty years in prison, taking the rap for a murder charge. He has nobody on the outside other than his old friend Doc (Christopher Walken), who picks him up and gives him a place to stay for the night. But although it starts with Val just wanting to cut loose, hit a few bars and brothels, soon the sinister plot picks up. Val has a hit on his head from the still living mobster who was the father of the fellow gang member that died, and somebody will have to pull the trigger. So the two spring their only other friend, Hirsch (Alan Arkin), and head out for one last night. Then it’s time for musings on life, mistakes, family, and a lot of mugging to the camera.

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Warm Bodies is as slow as a zombie attack should be

In the past several months, I’ve become a very big fan of Nicholas Hoult. Over the winter hiatus, I targeted the UK version of Skins as one of those shows I would finally watch. Hoult starred as Tony Stonem in the first two seasons of the show, and was phenomenal. His star is on the rise now, with roles in X-Men: First Class and the upcoming Jack the Giant Slayer. When I recognized him in the Warm Bodies trailer, I instantly identified the latest zombie-apocalypse/Romeo and Juliet send-up as one to look out for. Sadly, Warm Bodies never lived up to the expectations the marketing push created for it.

If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve got a very good grasp of what the film is all about – on the other hand, if you’ve not seen the trailer, go out of your way to avoid it. Hoult plays R, a zombie just trying to get through his repetitive, boring day. He’s got a pal – Warm Bodies diverges from established zombie lore in several fun ways – M (Rob Corddry), whom he has daily conversations with that sometimes – just sometimes – might include one barely recognizable word in a sea of grunts. They spend their days looking for humans to eat while steering clear of Bonies, zombies that have devolved into adversarial skeletal monsters.

Things change when R and M’s pack comes across a team of humans foraging for medical supplies, lead by Julie (Teresa Palmer), Nora (Analeigh Tipton) and Perry (Dave Franco). R immediately sees something in Julie that he doesn’t understand, and secrets her back to the abandoned airplane he calls home. The emotions he develops for her start a slow chain reaction that seems to be curing R, and eventually M and others, of their zombie infection.

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Kate Upton isn’t all that in one of the new Mercedes-Benz spots

Let it be said up front: Comment-wise, I’m well aware I’m (probably) going to get lambasted for this edition of CommercialClack. But that doesn’t scare me. I have big shoulders … I can take it. Besides, I’m just callin’em as I see’em.

Yes, the annual Super Bowl Commercial Frenzy is upon us, ready to invade our television sets between seemingly endless 1st downs and time outs. Lucky for us (such that that luck is) a select few are available for preview prior to Sunday’s main event. And I’ve decided to feature a couple of them for your (chicken wing) dining and (end zone) dancing pleasure.

Honestly: I don’t know what Mercedes-Benz was thinking with the approval of this “Kate Upton Washes …” spot. It’s a substandard piece of advertising at best and on quite a few different levels … the “mockery” level definitely being one of them.

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A journey into The Cave is worth the price of admission

In recent years there has been a modest renaissance in the old school side-scrolling video game genre. Today’s modern side-scrollers harken back memories of the original Super Mario Bros. or Sonic the Hedgehog but can now can sport impressive high definition 3D graphics and push the technical specs of the hardware to limits a Nintendo Entertainment System or Sega Genesis could never dream of — all while delivering the usual pomp and circumstance side-scrollers are known and loved for.

Double Fine Studios, the developers behind Psychonauts and the equally eccentric Brutal Legend, managed to capture that same nostalgic blend of magic that made the classic side-scrollers great and put it in their newest side-scrolling platforming-adventure title The Cave.

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Are Beauty and the Beast and Person of Interest kissing cousins?

Beauty and the Beast (B&B) is basically the young adult version of Person of Interest (POI). I never expected to love Beauty and the Beast as much as I do. But, it hit its stride after that terrible pilot. While watching this week’s episode, I looked beyond the romantic angst to notice how much it parallels my other favorite show, Person of Interest. So, why aren’t their fandoms watching each other shows?

The premises are the same

Think about it. Both premises surround men, inspired by 9/11, who leave the woman they love to protect the United States through international operations. Of course, their capabilities become too dangerous for their handlers. They’re sent on suicide missions, presumed dead, return to the country secretly and live in isolation until a bespectacled geek takes them to a secret lair and helps them along. Now they live in New York and eventually stalk an uber-moral cop, who initially studied to be a lawyer, and who lives with her younger family member. Drawn to the cop who isolates herself, deals with office sexism, is a woman of color and has a partner who always has her back, they pull her into their secret. While they run around town hiding from uber-secret government forces, they work  to solve crime with the help of their spectacles-wearing science friends and salt of the earth cop acquaintances. Sure Beauty and the Beast dwells more on the romance than the government conspiracy, but how could I NOT notice the similarities sooner?

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The three (other) faces of Boris Karloff

When you say, hear, or think of the name Boris Karloff, you immediately think of his classic Universal monster movies: Frankenstein (where he was billed as “?”), The Bride of Frankenstein, and The Mummy. You surely know his voice as the narrator of the Christmas classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas or as the Baron in Mad Monster Party, as the host of the anthology series Thriller, or as the co-star of the notoriously muddled The Terror starring Jack Nicholson. He made a series of thrillers at Columbia, worked with Roger Corman, Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone and Peter Lorre, and appeared on such TV shows as The Wild, Wild West, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. and The Name of the Game.

But after his success at Universal, Karloff moved over to Warner Brothers for a brief period of time to participate in three films that stretch the meaning of the words “feature length.” Perhaps hoping to break out of the horror cycle Universal had become famous for, Karloff was cast in three films of varying quality that allowed him to showcase his versatility. Now, thanks to the Warner Archive Collection, these mostly forgotten films are available on a new DVD collection, Boris Karloff Triple Feature. With running times averaging about an hour each, the Archive Collection has easily fit three films onto a single DVD for your viewing pleasure.

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The Americans will have you rooting for the bad spies

It’s been a while since the Cold War ended, since the days when the Russians were the evil monolithic shadow of evil and the US was the only pure bastion of purity and truth. Or so it seemed. Enough time has passed that maybe we can realize that perhaps it wasn’t so simple. Maybe we are all just … people. People with connections to family and country, more alike than dissimilar.

In The Americans, the fascinating new show on the FX Network debuting this week on Wednesday (10 PM EST), we follow two Russian spies hiding in plain sight. Set in the early 1980s in the Washington DC suburbs (always a point in a show’s favor, because I’m biased about locations I’m familiar with), these two secret agents, under the assumed names of Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Phil Jennings (Matthew Rhys), must live like a typical American family. They only speak English — even to each other — never talk about their lives before, and pretend to be married; but they also have two classic American kids, a young boy and a teen girl. It’s almost too obvious as an American family archetype which, of course, is the entire point. Each week, a new spy assignment or complication must be dealt with. But instead of just obviously evil people, sometimes they must hurt innocent or decent Americans to complete the job. So it’s… not simple.

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Where has Justina Machado been hiding?

You know, one of the things that I enjoy about watching television is discovering hidden gems — actors and actresses that possess immense talent but, for some bizarre reason, aren’t the stars of their own programs. I think we’ve all seen these capable individuals pop up in sitcoms or dramas, and we wonder to ourselves who, what, when, and where the hell they came from. Well, this week’s Clacking in Color is about one of those enigmatic performers — Justina Machado.

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