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Category:    Home > Reviews > Thriller > Mystery > Drama > Serial Killer > Comedy > TV Mini-Series > Capture Of The Green River Killer (2008/Lifetime DVD Set) + New Tricks – Season Three (2006/Acorn Media DVD Set) + Killing Jar (2010/Image Entertainment DVD)

Capture Of The Green River Killer (2008/Lifetime DVD Set) + New Tricks – Season Three (2006/Acorn Media DVD Set) + Killing Jar (2010/Image Entertainment DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+/B-/C+     Extras: D/C/D     Main Programs: C-/C/C-

 

 

As I was writing this piece about recent thriller works that don’t work, I saw that the Green River Killer has admitted to a 49th (!!!) killing.  The madness never ends.  Unfortunately, Lifetime Network took on the subject in the mini-series Capture Of The Green River Killer (2008) and made it as boring as they usually make everything.

 

When it is not a predictable formula work, it wants to be Silence Of The Lambs, every police procedural you have ever heard of and a drama that plays it safe despite the grim nature of the material… a contradictory thing.  Once again, a true story is rendered dull.

 

We join New Tricks in a Season Three set.  This send-up of police procedurals (which did have a second season DVD set in the U.S. from BBC we never saw and first season no one seems to have seen here) is late as the real thing became silly just before this aired.  The four main detectives are retired and back in action, something we have seen often (from the feature Red to any other “one last job” bit that has become played out beyond belief).  Unless you were entertainingly subjected to the real thing, you will find this as dull as I did and even if you were, should still be bored.  This set has 8 hour-long shows over 3 DVDs.

 

Finally there is The Killing Jar (2010), with Michael Madsen once again playing another cold killer trapping people in a diner.  Here we go with another stuck-in-a script!  Director Mark Young wants to add all kinds of twists as if everyone here is a clever con artist or he is that clever behind the camera.  It is never too smug, but Usual Suspects it is not and it just goes on and on and on.  Even with a fair cast including Danny Trejo and a boring Jake Busey, there is nothing to see here.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is very soft in all cases with gutted color and motion blur, which is another sign of the bad, tired trend they all follow. All have Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo save Jar with a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix that is shockingly lite, but Tricks actually has the best recording with healthy Pro Logic surrounds.  River has no extras, Jar only has a trailer and Tricks includes text cast filmographies and a 20 minutes long behind-the-scenes featurette.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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