Mystery

Psych – The Complete First Season

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Psych – The Complete First Season
  • tv.com: link

psych-season-one-dvd

What do you say about a show where the main character pretends to be psychic just in order to use his highly observant skill set to solve crimes, all while acting like a complete jackass? If you’re me, you call it fun.

After falling into the role of a psychic detective, lifetime quitter Shawn Spencer (James Roday) and his much more buttoned-down best pal Gus (Dulé Hill) start their own psychic detective agency solving crimes. Those included in this First Season collection involve murder at a Civil War reenactment, a missing wedding ring, a trip to Comic-Con,  a retired police captain (Kurtwood Smith) with an unsolved murder, underground poker, the National Spelling Bee, a psychic cat (who Gus is jealous of, whether he’ll admit to it or not), and an urban legend (which Shawn and Gus inadvertently started as kids). One of my favorites involves Shawn, Gus and Juliet (Maggie Lawson) helping Lassiter (Timothy Omundson) solve a murder at the planetarium.

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Charming Light-Hearted Campy Fun

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Nancy Drew
  • IMDB: link

Nancy Drew

I never really read Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys.  I was more a Three Investigators fan as a kid (hint, Hollywood, hint).  Still, I like a good mystery and never had a problem with the concept of children solving mysteries better than adults.  The latest film version of Nancy Drew gets herself into a jam or two, but manages to pull through with style.  Good for her!

Nancy Drew (Emma Roberts) is the greatest detective in her home town of River Heights.  Even the local chief of police (Cliff Benis) relies on her insight and ability to solve crimes.  The trouble is she’s only a teenager and her father (Tate Donovan) wants her to stop her sleuthing before she gets into more trouble than she can handle.

Nancy journeys to Los Angeles with her father and makes s promise to act more normal and give up her mysteries.  Unknown to her father, however, Nancy has chosen to stay in the former home of a famous actresss (Laura Harring), who was mysteriously killed, and attempt to crack the unsolved case.

In L.A. Nancy makes a new friend (Josh Fitter) gets harassed by some uppity girls (Daniella Monet, Kelly Vitz), and tries to act normal.  The trouble is Nancy isn’t normal and soon with the help of a friend from back home (Max Thieriot) and her new freinds in L.A. Nancy is on the case trying to solve the murder of the famous actress.

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Tube Watch – Cable’s Detectives

/ / Essays, Television Reviews

It seems as though the game might, indeed, be afoot. Cable seems filled with great detectives lately. Monk and Psych both premiered their season openers last Friday, the Sci-fi Channel has just launched their newest series about a wizard detective titled The Dresden Files, and John Laroquette’s McBride appears to be back on the case.  Each brings their own unique style to solve mysteries, capture the bad guy, and entertain at the same time.

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Wilting Flower

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Black Dahlia
  • IMDb: link

black-dahlia-posterTwo cops, Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) and Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart), both former boxers, find themselves thrown together, first in the ring, and later on the street trying to solve the mysterious death of a young women who wanted nothing more than to be a Hollywood star.  The film centers around the relationship of the two cops and Lee’s girl, Kay (Scarlett Johansson).

One of the films plot threads involves the death of Elizabeth Short (Mira Kirshner) who the papers tab “The Black Dahlia.”  But that’s only one of several mysteries.  There’s the spoiled rich girl with secrets (Hilary Swank) and her dysfunctional family, the hidden reason behind Lee’s obsession with the case, a recent parolee (Richard Brake) who has it in for Lee and frightens Kay to death, the case of a child rapist and killer, and a dirty movie staring young Miss Short and another woman (Jemima Rooper).

There are also subplots including Bleichert’s throwing a boxing match for his adle-minded father (James Otis), office politics in the police station, and the love triangle between the three leads.

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So Dark, the Con of Man

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Da Vinci Code
  • IMDb: link

The Da Vinci CodeRon Howard probably wasn’t the best director for a vast conspiracy/thriller picture; off the top of my head Oliver Stone seems to be the more natural choice.  Neither was Akiva Goldsman (I, Robot, A Beautiful Mind) the right man to try and adapt Dan Brown’s novel to screen.  The final look of the film feels very much like a book stuffed into a movie.  The film really is a confusing jumble of odd choices and missed opportunities.

In case your one of twelve people who hasn’t read the novel the premise runs like this:  Scholar Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is on a book tour in Paris where he is summoned to the Louvre where a man (Jean_Pierre Marielle) who was scheduled to meet that afternoon has been murdered.  Captain Fache (Jean Reno) is certain Langdon is the killer while cryptographer (Audrey Tautou), who is also granddaughter of the murdered man, is certain he is innocent.  Neither one of their certainties is satisfactorily explained.

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