This is a low-budget independent film made in Virginia, but set in Mexico about a father's quest to rescue his daughter from the people who kidnapped her. No one will claim this is a unique plot for a movie; in fact, it's very much like Taken, which I reviewed not too long ago. This movie in nowhere in the same league in terms of budget, and you can really tell. It takes the same route a lot of similar films have taken recently and is filmed on video using green screen backgrounds. This gives it a style that helps set a tone, but does make it feel like a low budget movie. I am not a film snob, and I do believe that if you take the best video has to offer and compare it to the best film has to offer, video comes out on top. Even the lower end of the scale is alluring to independent filmmakers, since it is easier to set up shots, therefore faster, and cheaper. This is a very powerful selling point to a director with a limited budget and a tight filming schedule. Then again, while this movie uses the same green screen style that a lot of low-budget movies are using, it does look twice as good as Feast II at less than half the budget.

As for the less technical aspects of the movie, as I stated above, no one will be surprised where this movie goes. It is a simple and rather predictable story of rescue and revenge with some good action scenes. The performances are mostly good, especially for inexperienced actors. (For a lot of the main cast, this is their first, or among their first credited performances.) Some of the dialogue can be a little cheesy, but for fans of the genre, the entertainment value is here.

I only have a promotional screener, which has no extras; in fact, it doesn't even have a menu. However, the retail DVD has an interview featurette, and a making-of featurette. That's solid for a direct-to-DVD release.

Border Town is a movie that most likely would have slipped beneath my radar had it not arrived at my door to review. I'm glad it did. Check out the official site and give the DVD a rental. I think most who do will enjoy it, and many will enjoy it enough to buy it.

Elsewhere - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray
First a note. I only have the Blu-ray and won't be able to compare it directly to the DVD. However, it's easy to figure out which format is the better deal.

The film stars Anna Kendrick (Twilight) and Tania Raymonde (Lost) as two best friends living in a small town in the midwest. Anna Kendrick is Sarah, the good girl who gets good grades, is part of her high school track team, and has a future. Tania Raymonde plays Jillian, who is the exact opposite; she desperately wants to get out of the town, but her prospects are much weaker. One day she agrees to meet with a Mr.X she met online, which Sarah warns her against, and that night is the last time she is seen. No one seems to care about where she's gone, and even after Sarah gets a cryptic video message from Jillian, she can't get the police to help her find her best friend.

This film appears to have been overlooked by most critics, which is a shame. It's a good movie, if a bit slow-moving at times. (You could call it "deliberately paced.") It builds on a creepy atmosphere more than gore or violence. (In fact, I'm totally stunned it earned an R rating and I would not have given it anything more than PG-13. I would go so far as to say if this wasn't an independent film, it would have earned a PG-13 rating, if This Movie is Not Yet Rated is any indication.) There's no sex, no nudity, no "torture porn," good acting, a script that is perhaps a little predictable, but effective. Certainly worth checking out, and by itself a borderline purchase.

Extras are strong for a direct-to-DVD release starting with an audio commentary track with Nathan Hope and Vincent Palomino (the writer / director and the producer). Good chemistry together helps keep the energy up, while there's more than enough information to keep you listening all the way through. There is a 12-minute making of featurette, and six deleted / extended scenes with a total running time of close to 23 minutes. Finally, there's a 4-minute slideshow of images.

There are no additional extras on the Blu-ray, nor are the extras presented in High Definition. The video and audio is also just average for High Definition, but it is a low budget independent movie, so I'm not surprised. I am surprised at the price. The list price for the Blu-ray is the same as the DVD, which is nice. However, over on Amazon.com, going High Definition costs 30% less. That's awesome. And at just $13.99, it is easily worth picking up for the movie and the extras.

Elsewhere is a solid suspense film that should be seen by more. The DVD is good value and certainly worth buying. However, the Blu-ray is an amazing deal and worth a blind buy for fans of the genre. After all, at $14 for a new release, it's hard to find a better deal than that.

Season three was a year of change for this series, some good, some bad. On the good side, it marks the reunion of Andy Griffith and Don Knotts, as the latter appears on the first episode of the season as Matlock's new neighbor, who immediately requires a good lawyer after being accused of killing a used car dealer who sold him a lemon. (A DeLorean!) On the other hand, it is also the last season with Kene Holliday, who left the show for "personal reasons." Of the 20 episodes on this 5-disc set, all are worth checking out, and most have good replay value. (The murder-mystery genre does limit replay value, but they are still fun to see a second time.) Highlights include The Thief, a two-part story where Matlock is forced to hire a private investigator who has important evidence that is required to defend his client, much to the dismay of Tyler. The Other Woman features Nana Visitor in one of three appearances on the show. On the other end of the spectrum, The Thoroughbred is thoroughly skippable.

Sadly, there are no extras on the DVD, nor are there any subtitles. There are "Play All" buttons and proper chapter placements, but that's it in terms of DVD authoring.

Matlock is the kind of show that you can watch repeatedly, but not necessarily the kind of show you need to see on DVD. After all, you could catch random episodes on syndication and it would be just fine. Because of that, I really wish there were extras on the DVD releases, as it would make it a lot easier to recommend purchasing. The quality of the show is enough to say Season Three is worth buying over just renting, but I can't be enthusiastic as I would like.

The film starts with a train pulling up to a remote station with Miles and another conductor getting out to check on the it. Inside one of the cars a medical student, Chloe, reads over her textbook, while a salesman, Peter, sleeps off the aftereffects of his Christmas party. Just before the train departs, a man comes running up in the snowy night looking for a ride. He doesn't appear to speak English and is acting rather suspiciously (especially concerning a package he is carrying) but Miles lets him on without paying, expecting to get his money before the next stop. But before that can happen, he overdoses on pills and suffers a fatal heart attack. Miles goes to report this death to the authorities, but before he can, Peter peaks inside the mysterious package and sees gems worth at least $5 million. The three decide to dispose of the body and split the gems, but this becomes more complicated when they try to make sure the rest of the passengers don't find out. And this becomes much more complicated when they find out some of the passengers are not what they seem, and are on the train specifically to retrieve this mysterious package.

This is a film that has a very Noir style to it and it borrows heavily from such films as Maltese Falcon and the works of Alfred Hitchcock. These are not bad places to go if you are looking for inspiration. Additionally, the movie feels very much like a play with its limited sets and cast, so much so that I thought the screenplay might be based on a play. This could be intentional as a way of making the film seem "off" and therefore enhancing the atmosphere and the mood. Or it could be bad writing. There is also an otherworldly aspect to much of the story, including a supernatural aspect to this package everyone is willing to kill for, which could explain some of the less plausible aspects of the plot. Or again, it could be bad writing. The acting is also "otherworldly," for lack of a better word. The film is populated with characters that act weird, but as reveals are made, some of this weirdness is explained. Or maybe I'm being too generous to the film, and the characters are just too shallow and poorly conceived. I flat out refuse to believe this was all the result of mistakes made by the cast and crew, but could it all be part of a master plan? Probably not. The real answer is most likely somewhere in the middle. As for the end result, it is something that some will want to watch over and over again, but others will have trouble getting through just once. For that reason, I recommend renting, but maybe bring a back-up, just in case.

Extras on the DVD are a little on the light side with just a 23-minute making-of featurette and 28-minutes of interviews.

I do not have the Blu-ray, but a little of bit of research shows there are no exclusive extras, nor are the extras presented in High Definition. That said, the Blu-ray costs less, substantially less, and it is the better deal.

Night Train is a movie that has to be seen to be judged accurately, which makes this review rather pointless. (At least I can admit when I'm stumped as a critic.) I definitely recommend renting, and if you are really interested in buying, the Blu-ray is the better deal.

(On a side note, Amazon currently has this DVD coming out on January 7th, 2001. This is obviously a mistake. Hopefully it will be corrected soon.)

As noted in the lyrics to the theme song, Petticoat Junction is a show about the residents of the Shady Rest Inn, which is at the Petticoat Junction in a town called Hooterville. The inn is run by a widow named Kate, who has help from her uncle, Uncle Joe. He doesn't help out as much as he plans his next scheme / scam while trying to avoid work. Also noted in the lyrics, there are lots of curves, mostly supplied by Kate's three daughters: Billie Jo (Jeannine Riley), Bobbie Jo (Pat Woodell), and Betty Jo (Linda Kaye). Billie Jo is the eldest, and entering the workplace (much to the horror of her mother, especially when she becomes the typist to an author who writes "risqué" novels). Bobbie Jo is the middle child and the most academic, although she wants to be a singer. Betty Jo is the youngest and the most athletic; in fact, she's a bit of a tomboy. New this season what a canine actor named Higgins, who also played the original Benji. In this show he plays a dog named... well... Dog. An extremely intelligent dog who plays as a rival for Uncle Joe. On the other hand, this was the last season for both Jeannine Riley and Pat Woodell; in fact, they don't make an appearance in a number of episodes this season.

There are several excellent episodes on this 5-disc collection, including Bedloe's Nightmare, in which Homer Bedloe's attempts to shut down the Hooterville Cannonball, the train that services the Shady Rest and practically nothing else, drives him to nightmares. His therapist says he needs to learn to love the train if he is to ever get a good night's sleep. In Hooterville Crime Wave Uncle Joe gets his first chance to use his bounty hunter's license when two escaped prisoners come to Hooterville and hide out at the Shady Rest. The two-part Bedloe's Most Fiendish Scheme and Bedloe Gets His Comeuppance has Homer Bedloe trying to foreclose on the Shady Rest inn, which means Uncle Joe and the girls have to get outside jobs to raise the money for the mortgage. In Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Jinx? Uncle Joe develops a reputation as a jinx, but instead of letting this get him down, he decides it's a great way to make money. Finally, there's The Umquaw Strip, which has Homer Bedloe trying to shut down the Hooterville Cannonball after he finds out part of the train tracks are on Indian land. This could have been a really horrible episode with really racist stereotypes of Native Americans. The portrayal of the father and son Indian duo is really stereotypical at first, but we learn that it is all just an act, and that the son is a university grad and is just trying to help his tribe earn some money so they can be self-sufficient. Granted, the two "Indians" are not played by Native American actors, but this was the 1960s, so that's not surprising.

Extras on the 5-disc set include... Wow! There are actually extras. Usually CBS releases like this have nothing. Here we get intros to all 38 episodes by Pat Woodell and / or Linda Kaye, as well as an interview featurette with the two actresses. It's not a huge amount, but it is much more than expected.

The two Black & White seasons of Petticoat Junction are public domain and have been released on DVD a number of times. However, they have never looked as good as they do on The Official Season Two DVD, nor have they had any extras. If you are a fan of the show, it is worth picking up. If you have never seen the show, check it out.

The first thing to note is the cast changes from last season. Three officers did not return this year: Deputy Clementine Johnson, Deputy James Garcia, and Deputy Cherisha Kimball. Two officers joined the cast: Sergeant Jack Declan and Deputy Frank Rizzo. The show is not quite the same, as the chemistry is a little off. This is made worse by the fact that they are pushing the new characters at the expense of the established ones. Most of the episodes still have funny bits to them, and a lot of the recurring characters are back (including Patton Oswald). The hit to miss ratio has taken a hit this season, and if it turns out to be the last, I won't be that surprised. After all, they've been expecting the show to be canceled at the end of every season so far.

Extras on the 2-disc set include audio commentary tracks on eight of the 15 episodes. There are also uncut scenes, profiles on the two new characters, and a couple of commercials featured in the series.

A lot of long-term fans of Reno - 911! were not happy with the changes that happened in Season Six and this could spell the end of the show. That said, if you have purchased the previous five seasons, it makes sense to complete the collection. The drop-off in quality is there, but it is not catastrophic and it is still funny enough to be worth picking up.