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The Flashpoint Paradox

  • Title: Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
  • IMDB: link

The Flashpoint ParadoxAlternate reality stories are nothing new in comics. Although not originally designed for that purpose, Flashpoint became a major storyline in DC Comics to help the publisher transition from the established DCU continuity to that of their New 52 reboot. Spanning more than 75 issues the story centered around the Flash finding himself trapped in a darker version of the world he knew with heroes similar, yet different, from those he called friends, and a war between Atlantis and Themyscira threatening to destroy the Earth.

The results of Flashpoint were mixed at best and I certainly wasn’t expecting much when I heard DC had chosen the project for their latest straight-to-DVD feature. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox is actually pretty good and arguably the best animated feature the company has put out over the last couple of years since Batman: Under the Red Hood.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Enter Shredder

  • Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Enter Shredder
  • wiki: link

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Enter ShredderDespite my initial distrust of a new CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, I have to say I’ve enjoyed the series. The single-disc set include a second-set of seven episodes from the series (the first seven are available in the Rise of the Turtles DVD): “Monkey Brains,” “Never Say Xever,” “The Gauntlet,” “Panic in the Sewers,” “Mousers Attack!,” “It Came From The Depths,” and “New Girl in Town.” For me “New Girl in Town” is the prize of the collection introducing The Shredder‘s (Kevin Michael Richardson) daughter as well as laying the groundwork for the complicated relationship between Karai (Kelly Hu) and Leonardo (Jason Biggs).

“The Gauntlet” is notable for the Turtles first face-to-face battle with The Shredder and gives us the first appearances of the mutated Dogpound (Clancy Brown) and Fishface (Christian Lanz), and “Mousers Attack!” offers plenty of the animated series’ version on the classic robot bad guys created by Dexter Speckman, I mean Baxter Stockman (Phil LaMarr).

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A (Not So) Good Day to Die Hard

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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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