Professional wrestler John Cena stars as Danny Fisher, a cop who, mostly by fluke, managed to run into and capture Miles Jackson, a master criminal. However, in the process, Miles' girlfriend is killed and he vows revenge. A year later, he escapes from prison, kidnaps Danny's girlfriend and forces him to take part in a series of 12 deadly tasks in order to secure her release. What follows is a pretty standard action movie, but is it at least entertaining?

A lot of reviewing movies is expectations. You must control your expectations, because sometimes if you think you will hate a movie, you will hate that movie regardless of the quality. Other times, having low expectations helps. This is one of those times. I'm not going to call this a high quality movie, because it's not, but it does have high energy, and it is fun in an 'empty calorie entertainment' kind of way. I don't think John Cena has the charisma to be a leading man, even in these action films; he's no Dwayne Johnson, for instance, and compared to most big-budget releases, the action is a little tame. But even so, if you are looking for a way to waste a Saturday afternoon, this is not a bad choice.

Extras on the DVD include two audio commentary tracks, the first with Renny Harlin, who is rather dull in his delivery, and the second with John Cena and Daniel Kunka, the writer. These two have a lot more energy and that helps the track movie by a lot smoother. Both tracks can only be heard on the Unrated version. There is a ten-minute featurette on the stunts, and there are five minutes of outtakes and two alternate endings, both with two audio commentary tracks.

Apparently the Blu-ray has a few more featurettes and is BD-Live enabled, all for 30% more, which is a good price.

Big, loud, and dumb... but fun. That's probably the best way to describe 12 Rounds and that adds up to a solid rental for fans of the genre. Those who really want to buy, the Blu-ray appears to be the better deal over the DVD, but I'm forced to make that call not having access to the Blu-ray.

A single-location suspense film where the claustrophobic feel should help build tension. But for a suspense movie, there's a surprising lack of... well... suspense. The movie is rather straightforward with no real twists that will surprise many who see the movie. There are two main 'twists' that stood for being obvious from a mile away that I can talk about. Firstly, it was clear from the first time we hear it that the song the husband sings with his son is the key to getting the money transferred. Also, as soon as we learn the husband killed the kidnapper's family, I knew he was paid to by their mutual boss. It just so obvious they way they are brought up in the movie and when they big 'reveal' finally happened, it was anti-climatic. This is a shame, as there are some good performances here, including Melissa George, but she deserves to give this performance in a better movie.

There are no extras on the DVD. None.

The Betrayed is the kind of movie that wants to build up the tension, but releases it too early and too often by giving away too much. Add in zero extras on the DVD and it is impossible for me to recommend buying. On the other hand, a rental is not out of the question.

A concert film showcasing the Burning Up Tour, as well as some documentary / behind-the-scenes aspects of the Jonas Brothers' life on tour. Joe, Nick, and Kevin might be heartthrobs to millions of 'Tweens, but do they have what it takes to win over this critic?

I went into reviewing this Blu-ray with the same mindset that I had when I reviewed the Best of Both Worlds Blu-ray. I was not expecting to be won over by the music, but I was more interested in judging this concert based on the energy and stage presence of the band. After all, I'm not part of the target audience here, and if you are not, then you have probably moved onto the next review. And if you are part of the target audience and love The Jonas Brothers, you don't care what I think about the movie. I was won over by Miley Cyrus; granted, her music is definitely pop, and that's not my usual musical choice, but it is well crafted pop, and her enthusiasm is infectious. This is not the case here. A lot of the critics complained that the music was rather generic sounding, and quite frankly I agree. Having just finished watching the movie one and a half times (once in 3D, and partially in 2D and on DVD to compare video and audio quality) and have to say that if I heard these songs on the radio right now I wouldn't be able to identify them. For the most part, they could have been playing the same song over and over again and I just didn't notice. The highlight of the concert for me was Taylor Swift; it's not a good sign when the special guest outshines the main act.

As for the documentary segments, they could have been completely removed and it would have improved the overall show. Totally superfluous.

I only have the Three-Disc Blu-ray, but I'm 90% sure I can figure out what's on the other versions.

The Single-Disc DVD has two bonus songs, "Love Bug" and "Shelf", as well as a 15-minute behind-the-scenes featurette.

The Two-Disc DVD has those extras, while the second disc is a digital copy of the movie.

The Three-Disc Blu-ray has all of those extras on the Blu-ray disc, and includes the Two-Disc DVD version of the movie. (The DVD version is only in 2D version. However, I think the only way to get the 3D version is to buy the Blu-ray.) Technically speaking, the audio was great, but that was too be expected since it was a concert film and it relies to heavily on the sound. As for the video, the 2D version looks a whole lot better than the 3D version, but that's just a result of the 3D technology. Some of the behind-the-scenes shots feel like they were not shot in true High Definition, but that could have been an editorial choice and not the fault of the transfer. As for the 3D effects, there were some shots that I will admit were really cool (including the drumstick throwing), but I'm still not a huge fan of the technology. Most of the time it feels like it is just a gimmick, and not intergral to the storytelling, not that there's a lot of storytelling in this type of movie. Finally, it is BD-Live enabled with the usual suite of extras (Movie Mail, Movie Chat, etc.) Comparing prices, it only costs 13% more to get the film in High Definition, which is a very, very reasonable upgrade for what you get. In fact, if you have not yet upgraded to High Definition, it might be worth buying the Blu-ray now, to avoid the extra cost of double-dipping when you do.

Jonas Brothers - The 3D Concert Experience is for fans only and won't win over any new converts. That said, the Three-Disc Blu-ray is likely worth picking up for such fans.

Pink Panther 2 - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
The Blu-ray arrived this week, but not the DVD, which likely won't arrive at all. But was it worth the wait?

No. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Steve Martin returns as Inspector Jacques Clouseau, who this time teams up with an international 'dream team' of police inspectors to catch The Tornado, a master criminal stealing some of the most priceless artifacts in the world, including the Pink Panther Diamond. He teams up with Jeno Reno and Emily Mortimer, who return from the first film, while he ruffles the feathers of his international cohorts, Andy Garcia, Alfred Molina, Aishwarya Rai, etc. while in search of The Tornado.

It's a thin, thin plot, but that's not what makes this movie practically unwatchable. Two things do that. Firstly, Steve Martin's accent is so bad that I couldn't understand what he was saying without the subtitles on. I know, at times it is intentionally unintelligible, but it was that way for most of the movie. And his is not the only accent in the movie I found troubling. I couldn't imagine seeing this movie in the theaters without the aid of subtitles. Even with subtitles I found the very sound of Steve Martin's accent grating and by the end wanted to turn the sound off, just to see if the movie would be more pleasant that way. ... It is.

Secondly, whoever made this movie doesn't know the first thing about humor. The essence of humor, as described my Isaac Asimov, is setting up one expectation, then delivering on another. If you can see all of the jokes coming a mile away, and they are delivered with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, they lose their effectiveness. Case in point, the group is driving up to the home of Avellaneda, a Spanish master criminal forced to live in exile in the Italian countryside. Inspector Clouseau goes on and on about this poor man's fate and how it shows that crime does not pay. So of course they pull up to a massive mansion. It was painfully obvious this was going to be the punch line, and to make matters worse, the set up took so long that it killed whatever little humor was left in the joke. And this is just one example of dozens similar problems I could mention.

This could have the worst quality to cast ratio of any movie I've reviewed. The cast is amazing, but by the time they are all introduced, I actively hated this movie.

It also struggled at the box office, which explains why the Blu-ray itself does not have a lot of extras on it. There are three-and-a-half minutes of outtakes, an eight-minute make of featurette, a fourteen-minute featurette on the cast, and a trivia game. Individually they are not bad, but combined they are not enough for a first run release like this.

There are two other discs in this release, the third one being a digital copy of the movie, and the second being a collection of 27 Pink Panther shorts. When I saw this, I flipped out. I was prepared to recommend this movie based on this disc alone... Then I saw it was a DVD. Had it been in High Definition with a good transfer, it would have been worth the price of the package by itself. As it is, you can buy these elsewhere without the horrible movie tagging along.

Speaking of High Definition, how's the audio and video on this Blu-ray? Better than the quality of the movie, but still just average for the format. There's nothing here that makes you want to put it on to show off your home theater system, while my rear speakers were underutilized.

Pink Panther 2 earned some of the worst reviews of the year, and some of the worst reviews of Steve Martin's career. Going into this movie, I thought to myself, 'It can't be that bad, can it?' It's worse. The only redeeming quality of the Blu-ray is the bonus disc of shorts, but buying the Cartoon Collection, or the massive Ultimate Collection is the better deal.

If you've seen many Disney TV movies, you can answer all of these questions, and more. Okay, originality is not this film's strong suit, then again, this is true of nearly every Disney TV movie made, so condemning it on that point seems a little harsh. I do think stars Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato have good chemistry together, and that adds a lot to the overall value of the movie. Also of note, Demi Lovato's acting in this movie is a step above her performance in Camp Rock, which I reviewed previously. Then again, here she is acting along side Selena Gomez, who has a lot more screen presence than whichever Jonas Brother was playing the male lead in that movie. (Quite frankly, I don't which Jonas brother is which, nor do I care to learn.) Overall, this isn't the best Disney TV movie I've seen, but it is probably in the top third. (Better than Camp Rock, but not as good as Cadet Kell, for instance.) If you are a fan of either of the two leads or of the genre in general, it is worth checking out.

But if you saw it when it debuted on TV on Friday, is it worth buying? That's where the extras come in. There are four main selling points. Firstly, there's the extended ending, which is basically a huge setup for a sequel, and there will be a sequel, as the movie was watched by 8.5 million people, making it the third highest rated Disney TV movie ever. (Only Camp Rock and High School Musical 2 beat it.) Secondly, there's a seven-and-a-half minute long behind-the-scenes featurette called Royal and Loyal BFFs, which highlights the chemistry between Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato. A Royal Reality talks to a real-life princess, and more of the cast and crew. Finally, there's a music video for "One and the Same", which is a duet by Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato. It's actually better than I was expecting. Certainly better than most Disney stars who are given a chance to sing. Then again, far too many Disney stars are given a chance to sing.

While I'm not part of the target audience ('Tween girls) I'm quite confident in saying that Princess Protection Program should please those who are. If you saw it on TV and liked it, the DVD has enough extras for this type of release that it is worth picking up. If you missed it, give it a rental.