Herc’s Popular Pricing Pantry
Blu “Island,” $13.47 in June and $8.49 yesterday, just plummeted to $5.00!!
Blu “Fast Five,” $27.99 in 2011 and $16.66 in October, just plummeted to $9.99!!
Blu-ray “Infernal Affairs,” $16.99 in 2011 and $8.49 in February, just plummeted to $6.28!!
New This Week
If you’re buying this for Bill Murray, know that he’s barely in the first two hours of “Olive Kitteridge” and doesn’t return until the last 27 minutes of this four-hour miniseries.
Murray is key to bringing a surprisingly satisfying ending to this complex project, but viewers will enjoy following the emotional twists and turns that attend the tale as they wait for the erstwhile Ghostbuster to stumble in.
Based on the Pulitzer-winning book by Elizabeth Strout, “Kittridge” stars Frances McDormand (“Fargo”) as a Maine math teacher whose big brain frequently gets in the way of her own happiness. It’s directed by Lisa Cholodenko (the sperm-donor dramedy "The Kids Are All Right") from a teleplay by Jane Anderson (the 2003 transgender HBO movie "Normal”).
Even leaving aside Murray (whose role may remind some a tiny bit of the Jack Nicholson character from “Terms of Endearment”), the miniseries sports an solid supporting cast that includes Richard Jenkins (“Six Feet Under”), Zoe Kazan (“Ruby Sparks”), Peter Mullan (“Top of the Lake”), Rosemarie DeWitt (“Mad Men”), Ann Dowd (“The Leftovers”), Jesse Plemons (“Breaking Bad”), John Gallager Jr. (“The Newsroom”) and Cory Michael Smith (whom you’re not likely to recognize from his role as Ed Nygma over on “Gotham”).
The miniseries is always compelling, unusually thoughtful, and at times plenty moving as it undertakes its quarter-century journey.
... Olive is a fantastically complex character, and McDormand asks for no sympathy in her portrayal of the woman, and yet a lump rose in my throat more than once in the final hour of this four-hour miniseries. … She's not ashamed of her physical hungers, but her emotional ones frighten her. And yet she keeps going, honest and contrarian, caring and selfish, and it's impossible to look away. …
... as great as both McDormand and Jenkins are in the lead roles (both are early Emmy frontrunners), their story ultimately feels too repetitive — the miniseries plays as a collection of anecdotes designed to make the same point over and over and over again — to justify the running time. … Things liven up in the final hour, thanks to Bill Murray as a wealthy neighbor whom Olive gets to know late in life, but it's a mark of how dour the majority of the project is that Murray feels like a ray of sunshine even underplaying a depressed character. …
... a rare treasure, a measured, understated portrait of a marriage that finds poetry in the most prosaic of settings and circumstances …
... the only thing a person can do is stand amazed. Literally; when this lovely, ruthless, masterfully restrained two-night, four-hour contemplation of love, marriage, parenthood, mental illness and identity came to an end, I stood up. There was no one physically present to applaud and I felt I had to do something.
... a gloriously thoughtful wallow in the subtle and sometimes even insecure ways that families and friends relate to one another. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
... It takes some time to sink into the story — Olive (Frances McDormand, “Fargo”) herself is cold and aloof — but by Monday’s second part of the miniseries as viewers see the characters age through a 25-year period, there’s a relatability that starts to sink in as viewers come to recognize the damage one generation can inflict on the next. …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
... Olive Kitteridge, the character, is a difficult woman to like, but it’s impossible not to get hooked on “Olive Kitteridge” … explores Tolstoy’s notion that every family is unhappy in its own way, making the particular unhappiness of the Kitteridges universal through a magical combination of great direction, writing and performances. …
The story of Olive Kitteridge is an unlikely candidate for a TV miniseries. And that’s what makes it such a magnificent TV miniseries. ... …
... a fascinating, tragicomic study in human stubbornness, contrariness and contradiction. …
… a quietly captivating miniseries about a seldom-quiet woman.... The more you see of her, the more you want to see, in a film that — unlike so many on TV these days — seems precisely as long as it should be, without a moment wasted or another moment needed. …
... this finely crafted, wonderfully cast meller suggests a promising new life for the women’s-picture genre on nets willing to let such stories breathe. …
Given that “Walking Dead” is the most popular scripted series on American television, it may be fair to ask why there aren’t more zombie-apocalypse series shambling about.
And Syfy’s brainless, underfunded “Z Nation” may provide the answer to that question.
Dull, silly and devoid of interesting or relatable characters, “Z” has perhaps only one thing going for it: its zombies (like the ones in “World War Z” and James Gunn’s “Dawn of the Dead” remake) move fast enough to credibly take over the world.
Emanating from the producers of Syfy’s “Sharknado” series and the mind of writer Karl Schaefer – who also created the short-lived NBC sitcom “Eerie, Indiana” more than two decades ago – the “Z” pilot – which in its first hour provides suspense-free action sequences aplenty – proves more tedious than even the talkiest farm episodes of “The Walking Dead.”
Aware perhaps of the high bar set by some of the most recent “Walking Dead” episodes (“Look at the flowers, Lizzie!”), the witless “Z” pilot tries to compensate with dollops of lazy, poorly crafted humor.
The “Z” premise mirrors recent developments on “The Walking Dead,” with survivors of the zombie apocalypse engineering the cross-country transport of The One Man who may have the key to ending all the horror.
The “Z” cast is led by Tom Everett Scott (“That Thing You Do!” “Southland”) as a former national guardsman and D.J. Qualls (“Legit”) as an enlisted man who decides to turn his army communications equipment into a Top 40 station.
Caveat: I don’t find much entertainment value in “Sharknado” or any of the other Syfy original movies I’ve seen. If you do, you may very well enjoy “Z Nation.”
... The mundanely self-aware screenplay includes references to the zompocalypse and lines like “God, I hate moral dilemmas.” …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
... why does SyFy Channel waste so much time and money making junk like this? …
... The show’s creators have been taking notes and believe they can improve [“The Walking Dead’s”] terrifying world. That kind of thinking should be encouraged; this show, not so much. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
... There’s no question that “The Walking Dead” is more thoughtful than “Z Nation” with greater thematic and character depth. But ultra-low budget “Z Nation” – it cost less than $700,000 per episode versus at least $2.5 million per hour for most TV dramas – is a lot more fun in its series premiere …
... Unwilling to waste even a minute on plot or story ... …
TV-on-Disc Calendar
Last Week
Bad Judge: The Complete Series
The Bob Newhart Show 5.x
The Bob Newhart Show 6.x
Canterbury's Law: The Complete Series
Care Bears: Share Your Care
Gracepoint: The Complete Series
Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 2003
A Moveable Feast 2.x
Pound Puppies: Puppy Love
Sirens 1.x
The Wonder Years 2.x
This Week
Captain Scarlet: The Complete Series
King & Maxwell: The Complete Series NEW!!
LEGO: DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League vs. Bizarro League (Blu-ray) NEW!!
Olive Kitteridge: The Complete Miniseries
Olive Kitteridge: The Complete Miniseries (Blu-ray)
Power Rangers Super Megaforce - The Silver Warrior
Transformers Rescue Bots: Jurassic Adventure
Z Nation 1.x
Next Week
Action Man: The Complete Series
Breaking Amish: Los Angeles 1.x
The Chair 1.x
Doctor Who: Last Christmas
Doctor Who: Last Christmas (Blu-ray)
Dungeons & Dragons - Beginnings
Game of Thrones 4.x
Game Of Thrones 4.x (Blu-ray)
Godzilla: The Animated Series - The H.E.A.T. Is On!
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: 10 Episodes
Jumanji: The Complete Series
Power Rangers: Super Sentai Zyuranger: The Complete Series
The Sixties: The Complete Series
Starcom: The Complete Series
Wahlbergers 2.x
Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego - ACME's Most Wanted
WishKid: The Complete Series
February 24
The Carol Burnett Show: The Complete Series
Lego Super Sweet 2-Movie Collection
Midsomer Murders Vol. 25
Mountain Men 3.x
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: Adventures Of The Cutie Mark Crusaders
Sons of Anarchy 7.x
Sons of Anarchy: The Complete Series NEW!!
Sons of Anarchy: The Complete Series (Blu-ray) NEW!!
March 3
Adventure Time Vol. 9
Battlestar Galactica: The Definitive Collection (Blu-ray)
Battlestar Galactica: The Remastered Collection (Blu-ray)
CHiPs 3.x
DaVinci's Demons 2.x (Blu-ray)
Outlander 1.x Vol. 1 (Blu-ray)
A Place To Call Home 1.x
The Transporter 1.x NEW!!
March 10
Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Alvin Show
Fireball XL5: The Complete Series
Gomer Pyle: The Complete Series
The Legend of Korra 4.x
The Legend of Korra 4.x (Blu-ray)
Matlock's Greatest Cases
New Tricks 6.x-10.x
Pee-wee's Playhouse 3.x-5.x
Petticoat Junction: Family Favorite Episodes
Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy: The Complete Series
The Red Road 1.x NEW!!
The Red Tent: The Complete Miniseries
Quincy 8.x
Shane: The Complete Series
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3.x Vol. 1
The World God Only Knows: Goddesses: 12 Episodes (Blu-ray)
March 17
Bewitched 5.x/6.x
Dexter: The Most Shocking Episodes
The Ghost Whisperer: The Complete Series
Maude: The Complete Series
Star Trek: Captain Kirk's Boldest Missions
WKRP in Cincinnati 2.x
March 24
The Donna Reed Show 2.x
Hello Ladies 1.x
Mystery Science Theater 3000 XXXII
March 31
Lovejoy 5.x
Miss Marple Vol. 2
Silicon Valley 1.x
Silicon Valley 1.x (Blu-ray)
Veep 3.x
Veep 3.x (Blu-ray)
April 7
Barney Miller 7.x
The Brady Bunch: The Complete Series
Hack//Legend of the Twilight: The Complete Series
King of the Hill 10.x
Matlock: The Complete Series
MacGyver: The Complete Collection
Night Shift Nurses: Clinical Confessions
April 14
Batman Vs. Robin
Foyle's War Vol. 8 NEW!!
JAG: The Complete Series ($119.98) NEW!!
Joe 90: The Complete Series
Little House on the Prarie 5.x NEW!!
Little House on the Prarie 5.x (Blu-ray) NEW!!
Metal Hurlant Chronicles: The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
The Missing: The Complete Miniseries (Blu-ray)
Teen Titans Go! 2.x Vol. 1
April 21
The Musketeers 2.x (Blu-ray) NEW!!
April 28
Covert Affairs 5.x NEW!!
The Jeffersons 7.x
The Mentalist 7.x
My Little Pony Tales: The Complete Series
New Tricks 11.x
Royal Pains 6.x NEW!!
Sgt. Bilko 2.x
Suits 4.x NEW!!
May 5
Dalziel & Pascoe 11.x NEW!!
DCI Banks 3.x NEW!!
Death In Paradise 3.x NEW!!
Foyle's War Vol. 8
Scooby-Doo! 13 Spooky Tales: Surfs Up Scooby-Doo! NEW!!
Scott & Bailey 3.x NEW!!
Mr. Selfridge 3.x
Mr. Selfridge 3.x (Blu-ray)
White Collar 6.x NEW!!
May 12
The Colbys: The Complete Series NEW!!
Murder In The First 1.x NEW!!
May 26
Hill Street Blues 5.x NEW!!
Looney Tunes Musical Masterpieces
The Nanny: The Complete Series NEW!!
Welcome Back, Kotter 3.x NEW!!
September 8
Empire 1.x NEW!!