Filth (2013) – Jon S. Baird

  Releasing on DVD and Blu-Ray today is this adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel, and gives James McAvoy an opportunity to tear up the screen with a brilliant performance. He plays Bruce, a police officer in Scotland, who is a hard ass, a cynic, a bit of a racist, and fits right in with the…

Night Film (2013) – Marisha Pessl

  This week’s book shelf brought me a book that was dark, troubling, steeped in film, murder, the occult, interactive elements, and evil. I loved it! It came to me via my sister at Christmas, and reading the inside of the jacket, I was duly interested. Who doesn’t like a good mystery, especially when it’s…

True Detective – Season 1

Released today on Blu-Ray and DVD from HBO is the first season of the stellar police thriller, True Detective. Created and completely written by Nic Pizzolatto and starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey with the entire 8 episode series directed by Cary Fukunaga this show is intelligent, dark, captivating and gritty. Set in Louisiana, the series…

The Rockford Files (1976) – The No-Cut Contract & A Portrait of Elizabeth

This week private investigator Jim Rockford (James Garner) is in trouble again. The first episode, written by Cannell, himself is a lot of fun. It originally aired 16 January, 1976, and features Wayne Tippit, back as Agent Shore, Becker (Joe Santos), Angel (Stuart Margolin) and Beth (Gretchen Corbett). The phone gag is all in Spanish,…

Tales of the Gold Monkey (1983) – Cooked Goose & Last Chance Louie

This was the beginning of the end for Jake (Stephen Collins) and company. After a month off, the series came back in March of 1983, in a new time slot, Friday night at 10, hardly beneficial to the show’s target audience. Despite being a critical success, and garnering a growing fan base, the show was…