Dollhouse is a TV series about... Dollhouse is a TV series by Joss Whedon, which describes the show better than any plot synopsis ever could. The show stars Eliza Dushku as Echo, although that's not her real name. Due to some event in her life, she volunteered to join the Dollhouse and became a 'Doll' or 'Active'. This is an organization that caters to extremely rich clientele who are looking for people with specialized skills a lot of discretion. So much discretion that the 'Dolls' have custom personalities implanted before each mission, and their memories completely wiped afterward. They spend their downtime as blank slates, without personalities. Or at least that's what's supposed to happen, as this is a Joss Whedon won't be that simple, and it's not a simple plot to begin with.

The show starts a little on the slow side, which is to be expected given the huge mythology that needs to be described to the audience. The first disc sets up what the Dollhouse is for, what kind of clientele solicit their services, and what services they are. We also hear about a Doll that went rogue that is only referred to as Alpha. It isn't until the Man on the Street (which co-stars Patton Oswalt) that things really pick up, and from that point on, every episode is a must see. (Also, it makes you want to go back and check out the earlier episodes to see what you might have missed.) I can't wait till season two starts.

As for extras, there's a mixed bag. On the three discs I have, there are two audio commentary tracks, the first with Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku and the second with Joss Whedon flying solo. Both tracks have high replay value. On the other hand, if that's all the extras, it would be extremely disappointing. Hopefully the full retail version will arrive and I'll be able to update this review.

Also, hopefully the Blu-ray version will arrive, and I'll be able to talk about the differences. There better be something, because the Blu-ray costs 60% more.

For fans of Joss Whedon, Dollhouse - Season One presents a lot of cool concepts that take a few episodes to get together. I'm certainly glad season two is filming now, but unless there are more extras on the DVD or the Blu-ray, I'm not sure they are worth buying over just renting.

Dragonball Evolution is based on a popular Anime series that has lasted decades in Japan and several hundred episodes in various incarnations. Making the leap to live action is risky, in more than one way, especially for the stylized world these character inhabit. For instance, the hairstyle Goku sports in the anime / manga doesn't stand out compared to most other characters in that genre. But on the live action Goku, it just looks silly. Normally I would say complaining about a character's haircut in a movie is bad form, but here, this is just one of many, many complaints one could level at the film. Had the film worked overall, the hairstyle would not have bugged me.

Let's start with the plot, which is equal parts plot hole and unnecessary convolutions. We learn from a voiceover at the beginning that thousands of years ago an alien named Lord Piccolo and his henchmen named Oozaru nearly conquered the world. However, the world was saved by a group of brave warriors (Who?) imprisoned him (How?) and his henchman vanished (Why?) and balanced was restored to the world (Woohoo!). Now we flash to the present day, where Goku is sparring with his grandpa. Goku is your typical teenager dealing with bullies while pining for the unobtainable girl. However, his grandpa has superpowers, which Goku is trying to learn. The martial arts training is a lot more interesting than the bully / girl trouble, and it's not like the film doesn't have enough plot to last the entire movie. In fact, it has enough plot to last several movies.

Early in the film, Lord Piccolo returns having escaped from his prison (Again I ask how?) with a new henchman in tow looking for the seven dragon balls (The seven what?) that when gathered together will grant him a wish (Huh?) that he will use to bring back his first henchman (Why? Why not just wish for victory?). He finds one of which he finds in a Japanese town he destroys with the world's most useless weapon. (It's a small bomb he drops from his zeppelin that destroys a lot of buildings, but doesn't kill anyone.) He locates another in the possession of grandpa but he, grandpa, had just given it to Goku for his 18th birthday. Lord Piccolo kills grandpa, but , grandpa lives long enough to tell Goku to find Chow Yun-Fat and complete his training. It is about this time that Bulma arrives, who is also looking for the Dragon Balls, but as a source of unlimited green power (Hippy!) and another person, whose name escapes me and I don't want to go back and look it up (Please don't make me). The movie then proceeds from contrivance to contrivance while the audience grows bored.

I watched this movie with a group of people, all of whom were at least familiar with the source material. All of them agreed this movie was a failure at adapting said source material. One even went so far as to say, and this is a direct quote, "They are murdering my childhood." I think that's overstating things, but this film has real problems. This includes the convoluted storyline, the excess of uninteresting characters (even the main bad guy doesn't do nearly enough to warrant his inclusion in the movie), the action scenes are weak compared to others in this genre, even the special effects look cheap. If you had no idea what series / manga was about, you would be totally lost, and if you have seen the show, the number of changes to the show (the plot, the characters, the tone, etc.) would be too much to handle. Because of this, this is a movie without a target, as you could probably tell by its box office performance.

This weak box office performance explains the lack of substantial extras. There are eight deleted / extended scenes that run close to ten-and-a-half minutes. There's a five-minute workout featuring two of the fight coordinators. There are two-and-a-half minutes of outtakes, a music video, and a couple of Fox Movie Channel Presents making of featurettes. Nothing here had much substance, and therefore nothing here has much replay value.

I don't have the Blu-ray and I may or may not get a copy of it in the future, but there doesn't appear to be any exclusive extras offered.

I wanted to like Dragonball Evolution, but I was worried that the adaptation would be mishandled from the beginning. It turns out my fears were well founded. If you like the source material, the changes will drive you nuts; if you never seen the source material, the story will leave you confused. Neither the DVD nor the Blu-ray have enough extras to compensate for this, and overall I can't even rate it a rental.

Season Two very much keeps up the tone and quality of Season One. There are a few stumbling points, like the opening episode, Home. (Saving an orphanage from an evil land developer who wants to put up a parking lot is a little emotionally manipulative. And it wasn't even manipulative in an effective way. Might as well have the bad guy twirling his mustache while tying the damsel in distress to a train track.) That said, there are more hits than misses in season two; almost all of them are worth checking out, most as some level of replay value. On the other hand, this is a guest cast heavy show, and as I mentioned when I reviewed Hotel season one, this does sometimes have a negative effect on the emotional weight of the show. The vast majority of the people he helps, we will never see again. (It was fun seeing an 8-year old Caitlin Wachs kick Gary in the shin, but I really like seeing 'Before they were famous' guest spots.) However, at least the main cast members, including Fisher Stevens and Shanesia Davis-Williams, are interesting, and we occasionally get a few small pieces of information on the mythology behind the show. (Not enough, in my opinion, but some.)

Sadly, the only extras on the DVD are the episode promos, if you want to have a bit of the plot spoiled just before watching the episode.

Early Edition is a great show and one that I was disappointed to see end back in 2000. Watching Season Two for the first time in roughly a decade, I'm happy to say my fond memories of the show were accurate and if you haven't seen it, it is worth checking out. Lack of substantial extras limits its value and it is right on the border between rental and purchase. Call it a solid rental, leaning toward a purchase.

Jim Breuer talks about a lot of rather normal subjects during his routine, including his reputation being a pothead, which he says is unfounded. He's not stoned all of the time, he just looks like he's stoned all of the time. He also talks about his early career, tells a few stories about celebrities he's known, his family, being a father, etc. It's all pretty standard stuff. The early career / celebrity jokes feel like excuses to either drop names of do his impressions. A lot of his family jokes boil down to, 'I don't want to grow up.' Nothing revolutionary about that either. Since his material is so standard, his delivery needs to be exceptional, but it's not. It too is just average as well. Also, on a more annoying note, no one laughs more at Jim Breuer's jokes than Jim Breuer. "Hehehehehe." I could have done without hearing that at the end of what felt like most of his jokes. I did laugh more than a few times, but there were no gut-busters, and a lot of the bits fell flat.

As for extras, there's a very short behind-the-scenes look at his photo shoot, and a 6-minute interview with his dad, who plays a role in a couple of jokes on the special. That's not a lot, and neither has much in the way of replay value.

This was a rather disappointing stand-up concert. For fans of Jim Breuer - Clear the Air is worth checking out, but that's it. If you are not a fan, this set won't win you over.

The Middleman stars Natalie Morales as Wendy Watson, an artist trying to make a living as a secretary at a genetics lab when an accident creates a horrible mutant. However, she keeps her head, and by that I mean she keeps her wits, which allows her to remain physically attached to her head. In the middle of her struggle, she is rescued by a man, Matt Keeslar, who seems to have walked out of the 1950s. It turns out he's part of a secret organization dedicated to fighting trans-dimensional, pan-dimensional... and other dimensional threats, and he's decided Wendy Watson should be his next sidekick. Over the course of the all-too-short series, they battle threats like zombie fish, super-smart Mafia apes, Mexican Wrestlers, Boy Bands, Tubas, Vampire Puppets, Mirror Universes, and more. All while spouting witty, pop-culture laden dialogue at a break-neck pace. Even pop-culture junkies will miss a lot of the references in this show, because some are just a little to obscure, while others fly by so fast it's hard to keep up with them all. This adds a level of replay value to the show that is hard to top. It's has a style that prevents it from being firmly attached to reality, even the simple character relations between Wendy Watson and her roommate Lacey Thornfield (Brit Morgan). The way they talk is not the way normal humans talk, but it helps give the show its sense of style. Little jokes, little recurring jokes (like the way they flash the location on time on the screen ("Bullet Time" "Past Your Bedtime") add to the overall atmosphere, and had this show been given a chance, it could have been a major cult hit.

Extras on the three-disc set include audio commentary tracks on four of the show's twelve episodes, which features the creators, director, and several of the cast members. Good energy and plenty of information. The rest of extras are found on disc four, starting with 18 minutes of Webisodes, which are making of / behind-the-scenes featurettes. Javi-Casts are Q&A with the Javier Grillo-Marxuach, the creator. There are nearly 80 minutes of Q&A here, so nearly every question you could want answered, is answered. Next up is 8-minute of outtakes, two alternate scenes (in less than finished form), audition footage for four of the five main cast (only Matt Keeslar is left out). There are three versions of the opening title sequence (I like the third one, but I have a thing for the Emma Peel suit (Don't judge me.)) there's a 5-minute featurette / compilation on the Wilhelm Scream. We have a complete table read for The Palindrome Reversal Palindrome episode, The Middleman-ager has five preview clips from show, which were used to advertise it. There are five PSAs, a music videos, and an image gallery. That's a lot of extras for a show that didn't last one full season.

Why was this show on ABC Family? This is a show made for Kevin Smith / Comic Book Nerds / Pop-Culture Addicts, not the people who watch ABC Family. There's even swearing in the show (it is bleeped). Had it had the support needed, The Middleman could have been a cult hit. As it is, The Complete Series is a great way to celebrate the show, and a worthy contender for DVD Pick of the Week.

Race to Witch Mountain - Buy from Amazon: DVD, Two-Disc DVD, or Blu-ray
First of all, I only have the Blu-ray and I won't be getting either of the other versions. However, since the Blu-ray contains the DVD and the Digital Copy, there's no reason for Disney to send out anything more to critics like me.

The movie stars Dwayne Johnson as Jack Bruno, and ex-con who used to be a driver for some organized crime boss name Mr. Wolfe but is now clean driving a taxi. One day, during the Sci-fi convention, he picks up two kids (AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig) who pay him way too much money to drive to a strange abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. After recovering an item, the trio are attacked by an alien assassin, and all hell breaks loose. That's when Jack learns he's wandered into a whole mountain of trouble involving aliens, an immanent invasion, a government conspiracy, and his life just became a lot more complicated. Now he has to find people who will help him, or at least believe him, as he tries to protect his two young passengers.

There are a few main issues that hurt this film when compared to the original. Firstly, it stars Dwayne Johnson, which was not supposed to come out as an insult when I first wrote it. It stars Dwayne Johnson, but it should star AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig; the alien kids should be the star of the movie, not the human trying to rescue them. Secondly, there's too much action that starts too fast. We don't have enough time to really become emotionally invested in these characters, especially the aliens, before the action starts. That said, this is still a good movie, better than its overall reviews would indicate. It's a fun chase movie that should please its target audience while adult should at least have some fun watching it with their kids.

Extras on the DVDstart with nine deleted scenes running just over 23 minutes, including introductions from the director, Andy Fickman. Next up are three-and-a-half minutes of outtakes, which have some cute moments.

The Two-Disc DVD has those extras, and the Digital Copy of the movie.

The Blu-ray has the all of the above, including the movie on DVD. The only exclusive extra is an 8-minute featurette on all of the homages to the original movie, and a few other movies they gave nods to. It is also the only extra that is in High Definition.

Looking at the special features, I'm rather disappointed. Granted, the movie wasn't a huge hit, but it did make more than twice its reported budget worldwide, so it will show a profit during its initial run on the home market, so I was expecting more. The total running time is only around 35 minutes, which is not enough for a first run release like this.

Race to Witch Mountain suffers in comparison to the original, but that is not surprising. It is still worth checking out for many, and I think kids will like it enough that it is worth buying. As for which version is worth buying the most, the Blu-ray costs 75% more than the DVD, which is way too much, but only 22% more than the Two-Disc DVD, which is an excellent deal. If you like digital copies, which make sense for kids movies, the Blu-ray is obviously the way to go, even if you haven't yet made the upgrade to High Definition. Black Friday is only a few months away, and Blu-ray prices should be below $100 by then, and buying the Blu-ray now will save double-dipping later.