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A (Not So) Good Day to Die Hard

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  • Title: A Good Day to Die Hard
  • IMDB: link

A (Not So) Good Day to Die HardThe latest installment resembles the original Die Hard only in that it stars Bruce Willis and things blow up from time to time. To call Skip Woods‘ screenplay idiotic and ill-conceived would be an understatement. I’ve actually enjoyed every other Die Hard film so far, but the latest one chooses to put John McClane (Willis) in the role of comic relief while centering the movie around John’s thoroughly uninteresting son (Jai Courtney).

The plot, such as it is, involves evil Russian scientists and billionaires (Sebastian Koch, Sergei Kolesnikov) who caused Chernobyl (on purpose). I swear I’m not making this up; somebody actually thought this was a good idea for a movie. Throw in McClane catching a plane to Russia to see his estranged son who has been arrested (but is really part of a super-secret CIA mission) and you’ve got a complicated mess of a story involving uninspired twists, shifting loyalties, and betrayal.

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Fairly Legal – Season Two

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  • Title: Fairly Legal – The Complete Second Season
  • tv.com: link

Fairly Legal - Season TwoAfter a limited release on DVD to select sellers a few months back, the final season of USA’s Fairly Legal got a full release last week. The show starred Sarah Shahi as the lovable but impossible to get along with Kate, a former lawyer turned negotiator who had more success in resolving other people’s problems than her own. The show’s Second Season introduced Ryan Johnson as Ben, the the ambulance chaser turned partner at Reed & Reed, creating a love triangle between Kate, Ben, and Kate’s ex-husband Justin (Michael Trucco).

The Second Season’s highlights include Kate meeting Ben in the season premiere, a job for Judge Nicastro (Gerald McRaney), the mediation between an engineer trying to expose his former company’s dangerous new engine designs, saving an apartment owner from loosing his building because of a single rowdy tenant, investigating the true reasons a young girl (Jonna Walsh) was expelled from a prestigious private school, mediating a prison hunger strike, and the season’s (and show’s) final episode.

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Burn Notice – Season Six

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  • Title: Burn Notice – The Complete Sixth Season
  • tv.com: link

Burn Notice - Season SixThe Sixth Season of Burn Notice begins with Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) in prison and Michael (Jeffrey Donovan) provisionally back to work with the CIA chasing down Anson (Jere Burns) and trying to earn Fi her freedom. By the season ends Michael will be presented with the opportunity he would have killed for in the show’s First Season but here it will cost him dearly.

Highlights of the season include an out of control Michael in the season premiere, the return of Kristanna Loken as Anson’s stooge Rebecca, the return of Barry (Paul Tei) and the death of Michael’s brother, and Michael working with Card (John C. McGinley) and the CIA to find Tyler Gray (Kenny Johnson). The second-half of the season puts Michael, Fi, Sam (Bruce Campbell), and Jesse (Coby Bell) on the run from Olivia Riley (Sonja Sohn) after Card’s death and forced to crash with smuggler Calvin Schmidt (Patton Oswalt), Sam getting shot, and the season finale where the fallout of Michaels actions force him to accept a deal to keep his friends and family out of prison.

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The Shadow

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  • Title: The Shadow
  • IMDb: link

The Shadow

Available on Blu-ray for the first time, 1994’s The Shadow starred Alec Baldwin as Lamont Cranston and his shadowy alter-ego with the ability to cloud men’s minds to make himself invisible. Based on the pulp hero who made his appearance more than 80 years-ago, the screenplay by Walter Koepp may be a little too cheesy for some, but Baldwin and some nice period set design help sell a film that’s far more entertaining than it has any right to be.

After the brief origin for Cranston’s brutal time in the Far East as the muderous opium warlord Ying-Ko, and his training to fight the evil in his past and learn the mystic arts which will serve him well in the coming years, the movie picks up years later with The Shadow dispensing justice in New York City. Helping The Shadow is an organization of those he’s saved over the years and a little mind control that Cranston uses to make sure his uncle (Jonathan Winters) doesn’t allow the police to look to closely into the vigilante’s heroics.

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The Newsroom – Season One

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  • Title: The Newsroom – The Complete First Season
  • tv.com: link

The Newsroom - Season OnePolitics and television have both been staples of Aaron Sorkin‘s previous television series. With The Newsroom the show’s creator examines both simultaneously. The HBO original series centers around moderate Republican news anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) whose eruption about America’s shortcomings during a debate is used by his boss Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston) to move the show to a more traditional news program whose main objective is to inform its viewers.

The change causes friction with the news program’s corporate owner (Jane Fonda) and a complete overhaul of the staff beginning with Skinner hiring Will’s ex-girlfriend MacKenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer) to produce. Also on board for the ride are Mac’s right-hand man Jim (John Gallagher Jr.), the often erratic Maggie (Alison Pill), and the other behind-the-scenes members of the news program (including Dev Patel, Adina Porter, and Margaret Judson).

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