It was something of a children’s-oriented broadcast TV event: The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar on the Disney Channel. Of course, the original 1994 The Lion King remains one of the most cherished of all Walt Disney Animated Classics. That blockbuster has spawned a pair of direct-to-video sequels (The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride in ’98 and The Lion...
Blu-ray Review: Togetherness: The Complete First Season
HBO’s series Togetherness debuted in January of 2015, garnering enough of a following to justify a second season. With the second season set to debut on the premium cable network on February 21, HBO has issued Togetherness: The Complete First Season on Blu-ray on February 16. With only eight 29(ish)-minute episodes, it wouldn’t be too challenging to binge on the...
Blu-ray Review: The Last Detail – Twilight Time Limited Edition
The only thing that really dates director Hal Ashby’s 1973 character study The Last Detail is the era’s lack of cell phones. Otherwise, the Oscar-nominated Robert Towne screenplay, a portrait of a pair of Navy lifers tasked with escorting a young sailor to military prison, works as perfectly today as it did 40-plus years ago. The film contained, for its...
DVD Review: He Named Me Malala
Malala Yousafzai is the focus of He Named Me Malala, a documentary currently available on DVD and Digital HD via Fox Home Entertainment. The now-18-year-old Yousafzai, a Pakistan native, became a global representative for female education rights in 2012 when the Taliban shot and nearly killed her. During the years leading up to the assassination attempt, Yousafzai had risen to...
Album Review: Fleetwood Mac – Tusk (Deluxe Edition)
Though Tusk received generally positive reviews when it appeared in 1979, the prevailing view seems to be that it paled alongside its huge-selling immediate predecessors, 1975’s Fleetwood Mac and 1977’s Rumours. The consensus was that Lindsey Buckingham had taken over the group and buried its shimmering pop under layers of less-accessible experimental music. Fleetwood Mac’s label was reportedly not happy...
Bentley’s Bandstand: December 2015
Terry Adams, Talk Thelonious. Would anyone in their right mind take on Thelonious Monk for an entire album? Well, “right mind” and Terry Adams sometimes seem mutually exclusive, which is all the better for those committed to hearing great music. This album’s subtitle says it all: “NRBQ + plays Terry Adams arrangements of Thelonious Monk songs.” The pianist/founder of NRBQ...
Album Reviews: Frank Sinatra – A Voice on Air (1935-1955) and Lost & Found: The Radio Years
Until now, there have arguably been four essential box sets for Sinatra fans: The Song Is You, covering his early work with Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra; The Best of the Columbia Years, which documents his first great period as a soloist from 1943 to 1952; The Capitol Years, which showcases his superb work with arranger/composer Nelson Riddle and others;...
Blu-ray Review: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Extended Edition
As someone who’s always been a bit indifferent to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, I can go out on a very thin limb and say that—for pure entertainment value—I enjoy watching The Hobbit films more than the adventures of Frodo. There. Got that off my chest. The Lord of the Rings trilogy strikes me as pompous, overly serious,...
Gadget Review: Oyen Digital’s MiniPro USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive for Nintendo’s Wii U
Anyone who has a Wii U will know that it doesn’t come with much storage space by big console standards. By the time you’ve downloaded a couple of games from the Nintendo eStore, most of the space has been eaten up. While it’s possible to add external storage, that’s a bit of a crap shoot because Nintendo names only a...
Game of Thrones Gets More Awesomeness with Steelbook BD Releases
Games of Thrones fans have been given something to get excited about just in time for the gift-getting season in the form of limited edition steelbook releases of the HBO series’ first and season seasons. The new Steelbook Collectors Sets from HBO Home Entertainment have box art designed by Elastic, the agency responsible for the show’s opening credits. The art...