Cheri - Buy from Amazon
If this film were coming out right now, I would assume it would be a player for Awards Season. First of all, it's a period piece, which is a sub-genre that Awards Season voters tend to love. Also, it has an impressive amount of talent on both sides of the camera. For instance, it stars Michelle Pfeiffer, who has been nominated for three Oscars; Kathy Bates, who has also been nominated for three Oscars and won one of them; and the third star is Rupert Friend, who is an up and comer. It was written by Christopher Hampton, who was been nominated for two Oscars and won one, and it was directed by Stephen Frears, who has been nominated for two Oscars. So its pedigree is impressive, but does it live up to its breeding?

The film is set early in the 20th century in the years before World War I, which was a time of high power courtesans. The film focuses on one such courtesan, Lea de Lonval, played by Michelle Pfeiffer. One of her associates is Madame Peloux, who asks Lea to help her deal with her son, Cheri. Cheri is a neglected child and a spoiled brat, to be frank. Madame Peloux asks Lea to take Cheri under her wing; however, the two fall for the biggest peril in their world: they fall in love. But when Madame Peloux arranges a marriage between Cheri and another offspring of a courtesan and their relationship has to end, it causes a great deal of trouble to both of them.

As I mentioned above, this film has an impressive pedigree; however, this may have worked against it as the reviews were only mixed. If you go in expecting an Oscar-worthy film, then you might be disappointed. Michelle Pfeiffer is magnificent, but no other character is as meaty a role as Lea. For instance, Cheri simply floats through life; it is almost like he is not an active participant in his own life and that makes the character less than compelling. The only other character with significant screen time is Madame Peloux, who has some fun lines that Kathy Bates delivers with sharp wit, but doesn't have enough impact to be a major selling point. There is also a narrator that helps with exposition in a way that does more good than harm, which is not always the case when it comes to voiceovers. So overall the cast is a little underutilized, which is disappointing. Additionally, not enough happens in the plot and the "love story" between a spoiled brat and a rich prostitute didn't draw me in. I did like the scene at the "old folks home" for courtesans. Just seeing these women in retirement is a side of the world's oldest profession that you normally don't see. But overall there is not enough here to grab your attention and keep it.

On a side note, a couple of times I lost track of the chronology of the narrative. Specifically, it is revealed that the relationship between Lea and Cheri lasted six years: he was 19 when they started and 25 when he got married and that's six years, but I didn't get that impressive from the movie. It felt like the time passed without enough significance, or even simple change. In six years there should have been some character development involved, but there was none. Perhaps that was the point. Perhaps we were to learn that these characters were incapable of change no matter how much time passes.

Extras on the DVD were disappointingly thin with just a short making-of featurette and an even shorter collection of deleted scenes. Collection? There were two deleted scenes, one of which was only 17 seconds long.

Cheri is Michelle Pfeiffer's film. Her character is the only one in the movie that is developed enough to draw you in and her performance is the best part of the movie. Enough of the rest works that the DVD is worth renting, but the replay value is low enough and there are not enough extras to lift it to a purchase.

Greg Giraldo - Midlife Vices - Buy from Amazon
Greg Giraldo is arguably best known for his appearances on the Comedy Central Roasts, a number of which I've reviewed, but I haven't been really impressed with any of them. He was also the most frequent guest's advocate on Lewis Black's Root of All Evil, but that wasn't a very good show, and Greg Giraldo wasn't even a standout on that show. So it was with a lot of trepidation that I went into this review. Let's hope it can top meager expectations.

Greg Giraldo uses an observational style of comedy to talk about a wide variety of subjects, mostly with an adult edge. He starts out talking about New York City and the people who live there. He discusses politics and how race played a part in 2008 presidential election. And how racism in general is still a factor. And prejudices in general. There are a lot of subjects in that general area, and I think he touched on them all, not always in the most unique and fresh way, but he generally was able to connect solidly on most jokes. Other topics include his marriage, his upcoming divorce, texting, etc. (I 100% agree with his opinion that "LOL" is over-used. As soon as I see that term in an e-mail, blog post, political discussion (I'm not kidding about that last one) my opinion of the person drops by about 37%.) It's a very strong set and it does not really ever lose steam, but by there are a few lulls in the humor, but that is to be expected for a set that lasts more than an hour. The hit ratio is close to 90%, which is excellent.

Extras include Greg Giraldo's appearance on Comedy Central Presents and an unaired pilot for his proposed series Adult Content. Both have their share of laughs, but I can see why the pilot wasn't picked up. I don't think the idea was fully formed at the time, but I think it had potential. It's only two items, but both are substantial and the total running time is about 45 minutes. This is a massive amount of extras compared to most stand up concert DVDs.

Greg Giraldo - Midlife Vices is one of the better stand up concert DVDs I've reviewed in the past six months or so. If you are a fan of Greg Giraldo, he's brought his A-game here and this is definitely worth picking up. Even if you are just a fan of stand up in general, this is worth picking up.

Hawaii 5-O - Season Seven - Buy from Amazon
This is the first season that aired after I was born. It is impressive that a show can hold up so many years later. I guess that's the benefit of being a cop show that doesn't rely on gimmicks to get by.

This season, as in seasons past, has Detective Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord) leading the cops at the Five-O division, an elite group that includes Detective Danny "Danno" Williams (James MacArthur), Detective Chin Ho Kelly (Kam Fong) and others. They deal with a number of tough cases, including a group of radicals who kill random people as an initiation rite. There's an extortionist that threatens to set off a volcano unless the governor gives him half a million dollars. (This probably sounded like a massive amount of money back then, but now I assume most of the houses in that area cost close to that amount.) McGarrett has a fan, the kind that no cop wants, the kind that wants to recreate some of the Five-O's biggest murder cases. There are major crimes like when Wo Fat attempts to assassinate a Chinese diplomat, and smaller crimes, like a couple of cases of art theft. Highlight episodes include, well, most of the season, but a couple really stood out including Welcome to Our Branch Office, which is a story of a massive con where a group tries to shake down businessmen that are new to Hawaii by pretending to be McGarrett, Williams, etc. and setting up an identical office. It's too much effort for too little pay-out, but it makes for a great episode. Computer Killer has a computer expert offering his services to a rich businessman whose son murdered his estranged wife. Looking 35 years back at the computer technology is just great. Diary of a Gun shows the journey of the same gun as it travels from crime to crime leaving a wake of death. It's a different kind of episode, but very effective.

Also of note are the number of guest stars in this season, including Leslie Nielsen, Vic Tayback (Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore), Bruce Boxleitner in two different roles, Ossie Davis, and more.

On the other hand, the extras on the DVD are limited only to episodic promos, which I hate. I consider them little more than spoilers. The DVD does have subtitles and proper chapter placements, but no play all buttons.

Season seven is very often the last year a show is on the air. For most shows, this is the point where producing more episodes is more expensive and less profitable than simply letting the show slip into syndication. It is also often the case where even the best shows really start to get stale. That is not the case here. Hawaii 5-O - Season Seven is wall to wall hits with only a couple of episodes that would be ranked below excellent. Even the lack of extras isn't enough to prevent me from ranking this 6-disc set a solid purchase.

It's Garry Sandling's Show - The Complete Series - Buy from Amazon
In 1986 Garry Shandling was a rising star in the world of stand up and was thought to be one of the leading contenders to be the permanent guest host for Johnny Carson. At the same time, Showtime was a cable network that was working on starting more original programming to compete with HBO and they decided to approach Garry Shandling and he agreed, but on one condition, he would have free reign on the show. You can really tell. This is a show that is overflowing with creativity, which at the time probably prevented it from becoming a mainstream success. (It didn't help that Showtime, and cable in general, wasn't a major force on TV.)

The basic plot is simple. Garry Shandling stars as... Garry Shandling, that is to say a more neurotic, narcissistic version of himself. God I hope he is just playing a more neurotic, narcissistic version of himself, because if this is a 100% accurate depiction of himself, he's in trouble. In the show, like real life, he plays a stand up comedian, but the show is mostly about the interactions with his friends and neighbors. His friends on the show include his platonic friend, Nancy Bancroft, and his neighbors, the Schumachers. The show broke a lot of rules that normal sitcoms had. For instance, Garry Shandling understood he was in a sitcom and would talk directly to the audience, comment on what was happening in the story, comment on the theme song, and more. He would even change the time; in the pilot he fast forwards time by 20 minutes to get the police there because his apartment was robbed, but in one episode, he skips ahead by a few years. Or sometimes he would walk between sets, because it was faster than driving there. It's just such a surreal show and that's one of the reasons it was one of the funniest shows on TV during its day. Too bad it was on Showtime (with an edited version on FOX). I think there are very few people who watched the show back then, but those who do will remember it to this day.

Extras on the 16-disc Complete Series Megaset include audio commentary tracks on 18 episodes. Participants include Garry Shandling, obviously, as well as Alan Zweibel, who was the co-creator. Writers Ed Solomon, Tom Gammill, and Max Pross make appearances, as do writer / producers Al Jean and Michael Reiss. A few of the tracks suffer from the "I don't remember what happens next" syndrome, but there's still plenty of information given out. There are also outtakes on 18 episodes. Each season takes up two discs with the rest of the extras on the second disc. There are four major featurettes, one for each season, called Getting There, Being There, Still There, and Try to Remember. The first three talk about Garry Shandling and Alan Zweibel's entrance into show business, the creation of the show, and the writing staff on the show, while Try to Remember is an interview with Garry Shandling and Alan Zweibel. Other smaller extras include Television Parts, which are a couple of sketches that pre-date the show but is obviously part of the same lineage. (They are almost "test of concept" shorts.) There are five minutes of promos that aired on Fox. Show & Tell with Tom & Max is an interview with Tom Gammill, and Max Pross, who are a writing team who have been writing together for 30 years. In this interview they mention The Sand-line, the newsleader the put together, and there are several installments that you can read.

When it comes to TV on DVD, full series sets are usually very hard to recommend. After all, most of the time fans of the show will have already picked up the individual seasons as they were released on DVD. However, with It's Garry Sandling's Show, The Complete Series is the first time it has appeared on DVD. Because of this, it is an easy recommendation and an obvious contender for DVD Pick of the Week.

This is the theme to Garry’s show,
The theme to Garry’s show.
Garry called me up and asked if I would write his theme song.

Love that song.

Jon Reep - Metro Jethro - Buy from Amazon: DVD or CD/DVD
Jon Reep is best known as the winner of the fifth season of Last Comic Standing, as well as his commercial work. (He's the "That thing got a Hemi?" guy.) This is the first time I've seen his work, so I went into the hour-long set with no preconceived notions. This is probably for the best, as it makes it easier to review this material and not his past work.

Jon Reep was born in a small town in the south, specifically Hickory, North Carolina, and this upbringing plays a large role in his performance. He has bits about growing up in a small town, the differences between a small town and the big city, entertainment in a small town (which according to him consists of the river and the fair). He also spends a lot of time talking about his marriage, including their wedding in Hawaii, how his wife gets her way, mostly. The third major topic is the dumb things his dad has done. There are other, smaller topics touched on, like "nake-etiqutte", a.k.a. rules you must follow while being naked, but most of the set is taken up by those three subjects: Small Towns, Married Life, His Dad. Almost all of the jokes about the latter two hit their mark, but the first one is hit and miss. Unfortunately, it is the subject he tackles first, so the show takes a little bit to really get going, which means it doesn't set a good first impression. Overall enough jokes hit that you can forgive the ones that don't, but it would have been better has it started stronger and lost steam.

Extras on the DVD include eleven bonus bits, some of which are just bits cut from his set, including interacting with the crowd. Others are interviews with his dad, whom he gives a chance to defend himself against some of the jokes. There is also a snippet from his press tour in his hometown and two skits. The total running time is 43 minutes, which is a lot for a DVD like this.

As for the CD/DVD, it has the DVD and the CD, which has the entire set of the show, plus the full version of the Metro Jethro song, all for just $1 more. There's no reason not to grab this one over the DVD by itself.

(On a side note, he talks about being a "Metro Jethro," which is to say someone who bridges big city and small city cultures. "I like sushi, I just deep fry it first." Practically every sushi place I've ordered from has at least one roll on the menu that is battered and deep-fried. If you have a deep-fat fryer for tempura, might as well fry up a California roll every once and a while.)

After a dry spell in this front, we have two stand up concert DVDs coming out this week that are worth checking out. Jon Reep - Metro Jethro hits stores on DVD and CD/DVD and the former is a solid rental, while the latter is leaning toward a purchase.

Numb3rs - Season Five - Buy from Amazon
This show has been on the air for five years, which is about as long as I've worked here. It's a TV show that has the same name as our site, yet this is the first time I've gotten a chance to review the show.

In the show David Krumholtz and Rob Morrow stars as two brothers, Charlie and Don. The former is a brilliant mathematician while the latter is a member of the FBI. A while back, four seasons back to be precise, Charlie was able to convince Don that he could help him crack a case. For the next 100 or so episodes they come together to solve a lot of complex crimes.

Last season ended with Charlie losing his security clearance after sending some classified, but utterly harmless, information overseas as a form of protest after a friend is hit by an investigation into a Muslim charity he is involved with. This season starts with the ramification of those events, as Carl McGowan tries to use Charlie's actions to take down his brother, whom he thinks is taking too many risks and bending too many rules, all in the name getting their man. (The other main ramification of the end of season four events was Diane Farr leaving the cast, which sucked, because I really liked her character. I liked her character almost as much as Sabrina Lloyd's character, who left after season one.)

Cases for this season include a lot of major crimes, like possible terrorist attacks, kidnappings, major thefts, etc. (There's also an episode dealing with the theft of a pair of sneakers. Granted, they were $250,000 collector's sneakers, but is still seems trivial. Arguably the weakest episode of the season.) Some of the highlights this season include Jack of All Trades, which has a guest shot by Henry Winkler, who returns for Greatest Hits. Fisher Stevens does guest duty on Jacked. There's a two-parter of sorts called The Fifth Man and Disturbed that has Don injured after a miscalculation by Charlie and the next episode has Charlie trying to redeem himself. Also of note, a couple Joss Whedon alumni show up this season. Morena Baccarin shows up in Blowback as a potential witness who might be more involved in the case, while James Marsters is the main villain in Guilt Trip.

Overall there are far more hits than misses, and I like the attempt to use mathematics to solve crimes, even if at times it is treated about as seriously as the "pixie dust" from Tinker Bell.

There are several extras on the six-disc set including audio commentary tracks on three of the episodes, one of which has deleted scenes as well. Over on disc six, we find a featurette on the show's 100th episode and another featurette on the overview of season five. Finally, there are outtakes. Granted, the two featurettes are a combined 45 minutes and this is good, but not great for a concurrent show. Also, there are no subtitles, which I consider unacceptable for a concurrent show. There are play-all buttons, while the opening credits are too short to matter when it comes to proper chapter placements.

Fans of police procedural shows should enjoy Numb3rs and Season Five is great from start to finish. Even the weakest episode is still worth watching. Extras are good, but not amazing, and the six-disc set is a solid purchase.

Vega$ - Season One - Volume One - Buy from Amazon
Robert Urich stars as Dan Tanna, a P.I. working the Las Vegas beat. The series starts with a two-part episode / TV movie when he gets hired for a trio of jobs, the central one being tracking down a missing girl. He finds her right away working as a prostitute, but the job gets complicated, really complicated when she winds up dead and his life is threatened. Other storylines for the first part of season one include a model being blackmailed because of racy photographs, a anti-porn crusading politician in the same situation, there are also jewel thieves, con men, etc. The show's best when it has a light touch and is fun, but not all of the episodes maintain that vibe. Also, "fun" is about as good as it gets. Robert Urich brings a lot to the role, as the mysteries are not as compelling as other shows from the era. It's a lot of style, not as much substance, sadly.

As usual when it comes to shows from this era, guest star hunting is ripe here. Guest stars include Abe Vigoda and Vic Tayback, both of whom also appeared on season seven of Hawaii 5-O, which I reviewed above. Fun coincidence. Besides those two, there are major guest stars in nearly every episode. There are also much bigger names seen in the show, including Bob Newhart, Wayne Newton, and Bernadette Peters. And that's all you'll see of them, their names. (It's Vegas, so you see tons of names on Marquees throughout the show. And yes, I stole that joke from Rocky and Bullwinkle.)

Extras on the 3-disc set are limited to episodic promos. There are also no subtitles, no play all buttons, but there are proper chapter placements. Finally, I'm not happy with splitting the season into two, especially since the show could have easily fit on a six-disc set, which is hardly unusual for a TV on DVD release. It feels like it is purely a price grab.

Vega$ started more than 30 years ago and for some seeing Season One - Volume One in the stores will be a real hit of nostalgia. However, for most they won't remember the show at all. Fans of the P.I. sub-genre will want to check it out, but the split-set and nearly featureless DVD limits its value to a rental.

Yo Gabba Gabba - Meet My Family - Buy from Amazon
The latest DVD from Yo Gabba Gabba, the chemically fueled kids show. Like the previous releases, there are four episodes on this DVD, starting with...

• Family - Muno's family comes to visit him in Gabbaland, but Foofa and Brobee are too nervous to talk when they meet them. Can Plex help them meet new people?
• Games - It's games day and DJ Lance Rock and the group all have games they want to play. They play "DJ Lance Says," "Freeze Tag," and other games.
• Together - This episode starts with the group singing about faces and how everyone had eyes, a nose, and a mouth. It's a strange song for them to sing, as Muno only has one eye and he and Brobee don't have noses.
• Imagine - An episode about what you can do with your imagination starting with DJ Lance imagining Foofa and Toodee imagining that they are swimming with the Dolphins. In fact, the whole episode might just be in DJ Lance's imagination. It's kind of meta-Gabba in that way.

Unfortunately, there are no extras on this DVD.

Yo Gabba Gabba - Meet My Family is good value for the money compared to similar releases. If your kids are fans of the show, then this DVD is worth picking up.