Happy Monday, dear readers, and -- much more importantly -- Happy Halloween!

Seriously, am I the only one who thinks it's a downright dirty shame that this holiday only comes once a year?  I love it when people play dress-up: the young, the old, the in-between.  Personally, I think it's the kind of thing that we could easily swing at least twice a year if not making it a quarterly event.  Yes, I realize that it might do horrible things to our blood sugar, and of course Hallmark and other companies (not to mention the candy manufacturers) would make a mint off such a predicament ... but wouldn't it give us a better world?

I spent several hours over the past week decorating the yard, so I'm ready for the kids to come a'knocking this evening.  I hope you and yours are prepared as well.

Wherever you are, have yourselves a wonderful day!  (And try not to eat too much.)

​As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

This morning, I noticed that Bluray.com is running the public service announcement heralding the future release of Syfy's hit drama 12 Monkeys is slated for home video release on January 17, 2017 (just in time for the new year!).  (NOTE: The DVD slipcase art featured above is for a different region, and that's because there was no accompanying artwork for the US release that I could find online.)

I don't know if you've been following the show, but I thought the second season was a marked improvement over the first, which wasn't all that bad when it found good pacing.  The second expanded on the mythology and brought in a few more smilers to the fold, so much so that I'm not sure how they're going to resolve all of the various plotlines amicably in the near future.

You can follow the link right here to check out Bluray.com's citation.

As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

I've always had a fondness for Time After Time (1979).  In my youth, it was one of the first movies to get released on a fledgling home pay cable network in my area, and I can remember watching this flick every single time it came on the channel.  I love it, and -- even today -- I think it boasts one of the best time travel yarns of its type: H.G. Wells pursues Jack the Ripper into what was then the present day in an attempt to stop the serial killer from continuing his handiwork in the modern era.

In any event, I noticed yesterday that Bluray.com is reporting that there's a new Blu-ray release of the title coming from the Warner Archive Collection.  (The link to the article is right here.)  That's great news for folks who haven't yet had to see the film, as its been out of production for some time.

As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

​As a people, we sure do love our time travel yarns.
 
Star Trek.  The Twilight Zone.  Planet of the Apes.  Quantum Leap.  You name it, and practically every Science Fiction franchise has dabbled in some way, shape, or form in traveling through time (with a few notable exceptions).  And … why not?  Isn’t there something that’s happened in our own lives that we’d love to go back and correct or – at the very least – change the outcome?  That alone is probably one of the reasons why even non-SciFi fans enjoy the occasional time trip, and it’s certainly one of the driving reason television executives are thrilled to put another commodity up for view on the ‘Boob Tube.’  This season has a few new entries into this unique sub-genre, but perhaps the most lauded is NBC’s Timeless.
 
Coming from Eric Kripke (The CW’s long-running Supernatural) and Shawn Ryan (FX Network’s explosive crooked cop drama, The Shield), Timeless is an action adventure focusing on an unlikely team of heroes – history professor Lucy Preston (the comely Abigail Spencer), Special Forces soldier Wyatt Logan (Matt Lanter), and resident science nerd and timepod pilot Rufus Carlin (the always likeable Malcolm Barrett given a character name that’s CLEARLY a nod to Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure).  They’re conscripted to a secret government agency and sent through time to stop a criminal mastermind – Garcia Flynn (Goran Visnjic) – who is curiously bent on destroying the past for reasons not quite clearly spelled out (thus far).
 
As of today’s date, I’ve seen the first three episodes (sadly, I’m not on any media moguls’ emailing list wherein I could receive complimentary advance streaming), and I wanted to sound-off briefly on the show’s prospects … which, at this point, I’d say aren’t all that grand.
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Where to begin?

Well, the pilot was good, certainly on par with most of what one can find on any television dial these days, but – given both Kripke and Ryan’s participation – I guess I expected something a bit more filling or a little different than what's evolved.  Chasing bad guys through time can only go on for so long until audiences start to question where it all can end given the fact that 'anywhere, any time' is an awfully daunting playing field.
 
Chiefly, the performances of the principles were more than a bit flat.

​Spencer’s a curious choice for a series lead: she’s certainly looks the part of a primetime starlet, but her delivery and timing have been inconsistent, some of which could be owed to predictable writing.  Lanter – as a leading man – really brings little to the role of Logan; he’s understandably committed like a good soldier to carrying out “the mission” (which kinda/sorta fluctuates a bit with each hour), but the premise has also saddled him with memories of a dead wife, and this gives him good reason to stray from the course.  Barrett is the program’s bright spot; he’s a bit of a comic genius -- one who cut his chops on ABC’s Better Off Ted, a sitcom which deserved better treatment from that network -- but he’s spent an awful lot of screen time either reminding us he’s black or maligning history’s overall treatment of “people of color” far too quickly and far too often.  Still, his is the only character I care about, so his being a third wheel to two other clunky leads with little to no chemistry opposite one another tests my patience.
 
In the pilot hour, the team don’t so much save history as they rewrite it to fit the purposes of the adventure (I’m guessing this will somehow be addressed as the program’s greater mythology develops -- there appear to be two agencies with conflicting agendas, but it's too early to tell): Visjnic’s Flynn villainously wants the Hindenburg to crash – just on a different day (relates to its passengers, the audience is led to believe) – but the team successfully gets the airship evacuated.  Still, that first hour concluded with a solid hook, the kind of thing audiences look for with smart writing: somehow, Lucy’s present has come undone, removing her kid sister entirely from existence.  No doubt, this fuels the woman’s fire to stay committed to putting things back the way they were.
 
The second hour – the group finds itself in Washington DC the day before President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated – was an improvement though much of the writing still dabbled in areas way too predictable for long term success: Preston stepped up her efforts to be a leader, Logan starts to grasp the bigger possibilities of time travel, and Carlin (sigh) finds himself a somewhat disgraced black Union soldier/imposter.  Once again (and perhaps way too soon), Flynn’s intent was to increase history’s body count, but the team thwarts every assassination attempt except that of the 16th President’s death.

The third hour?

​Meh.  It was a wildly convoluted trip to the early 1960’s involving President Kennedy’s mistress which also involved the theft of plutonium (a sad staple to too many time travel stories) with an open cliffhanger only promising more destruction needing to be averted.
​

Because the existential ‘do over’ offers extremely personal appeal, these stories need to be strongly tied in with characters who’s very being mean something.

Audiences have to not only care about these people but they have to want to care about them for it's that "connection" that allows them to willingly suspend disbelief on even trivial matters.  They'll accept time travel as a storytelling device if (and only if) they see things improved somehow as a consequence, and that's what's missing from Timeless.  For these fortunate few, things aren't improving; granted, they may not be getting progressively worse, but they're still not improving.

It isn't Lucy Preston so much as it is caring about Lucy's plight that's missing.

It isn't Wyatt Logan so much as it is caring about the man willing to do anything to turn back time and save his wife.

Similarly, it isn't so much listening to Rufus Carlin's incessant reminders about race and history as it is caring about how his world improves as a consequence of what he sees, learns, and does.

As I said, the only one I care about at this juncture is Rufus.  But as his circumstances aren't changing or improving, what really has been changed?  Where is the improvement?  What has been gained in taking this great adventure?  Removing the cause and effect relationship from storytelling on a personal level makes Timeless less of a time travel show and more of a conventional drama, albeit with still disappointing returns.

None of this is meant as a slight to the talents of Spencer or Lanter.  In fact, I'd say that they're doing just "fine" with what they've been provided.  It's just that their characters just aren’t as compelling as their narrative circumstances … so I’m hoping the writers have a bit more up their sleeves or this is going to get old real fast.

That's certainly no admirable position for a show dealing with time travel!

By my own admission, I'm not much of a Marvel guy.  Part of this is owed to the fact that I grew up reading far more DC Comics' titles than I ever did Marvel, and part of it ties to the fact I was never as much drawn in by Marvel's stories as I were with the characters.  Still, I have nothing but respect for Wolverine, and I think Hugh Jackman has done an incredible job bringing that particular mutant to life in each of the films he's appeared.

​Logan looks to be yet one more good outing for Wolvie, and even this DC guy is sad it'll be Jackman's last go'round.  Here's the trailer which dropped recently; enjoy it for what it is.
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This one looks solid, though I also try not to get all that wrapped up in quality trailers.  After all, their purpose is to get butts in the seats, not necessarily to tell a grand story.

​As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

Oh, my dear!  The Angels are creepy as anything!  Seriously, they creep me out.  The wifey, too.

In any event, I used to have a pretty great relationship with BBC Home Video, and occasionally they'd get in touch with me to offer complimentary discs for me to review.  Sadly, that's kinda/sorta fallen by the wayside (most outlets are now offering streaming links to review content, and I just don't have time to screen everything that gets offered my way), so I've let it lapse.  Still, I saw this title available today via The Digital Bits, and I immediately ordered me a copy from Amazon.com.  I generally love these Doctor Who 'theme collections' because they'll throw in classic episodes alongside the newer ones for fans of all Who.  No idea yet as to what's on here specifically (Amazon.com's citation is curiously empty of details), but I'll update once I receive my copy in the mail.

Here's the link to Amazon.com in case you're interested.

​As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

Yes, yes, yes, I know how some readers feel about my covering certain releases which they feel are more "horror" than legitimate Science Fiction, but the Re-Animator series is very near and dear to so much of what SciFi "of a certain era" looked like ... so any time one of the features of that franchise gets this kind of treatment then it deserves some attention, even modest plugs.

Arrow Video's latest home video release hits retailers today, and -- for those of you unaware -- Arrow does a MASSIVELY impressive job packing their discs with special features, something truly rewarding to fans of the films the company can squeeze into their fantastic catalogue.  And -- for the record -- not all of what they release gets "All Regions" exposure, so this one is probably worth a look for die-hard fans of the property if not fans of SciFi/Horror in general.

For those interested, here's the link to Amazon.com.  Check it out for all of the details.

As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

For those who missed Independence Day: Resurgence when it ran theatrically, the DVD arrives on home video today.

Meh.  I don't recall anything all that specific about my review (link).  It honestly "felt" like one of those flicks that audiences never asked for but producers felt was a good idea.  The performances were a bit tired and perhaps even a bit more predictable than the first feature, but I do recall that the ending has some nice action sequences and tied everything up in a bow (much in the same way its predecessor did).

If you interested in ordering from Amazon.com, then here you go!  (Reminder: no, unlike other sites, I have no relationship with the online retailing giant ... I simply do announcements of this nature as a Public Service Announcement for readers.)

As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!