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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Comedy > Suburbs > Sex > Addiction > Mystery > Detective > Murder > Telefilms > Californication - The Final Season (2014 aka Season Seven/Showtime/CBS)/Perry Mason Movie Collection: Volume 3 (1990 - 1991/CBS DVDs)

Californication - The Final Season (2014 aka Season Seven/Showtime/CBS)/Perry Mason Movie Collection: Volume 3 (1990 - 1991/CBS DVDs)



Californication - The Final Season (aka Season Seven/2014)


Picture: B Sound: B Extras: C- Episodes: C



David Duchovny (The X-Files) returns in this seventh and final season of Californication. The show follows New Yorker Hank Moody (Duchovny), a troubled novelist who moves to California and suffers from writer's block. His drinking, womanizing and drug abuse complicate his relationships with his longtime lover Karen (Natascha McElhone) and their daughter Becca (Madeleine Martin). The show isn't half bad - a few of the episodes are pretty funny and there are some pretty good cameos including Oliver Cooper (Project X) plays Levon, Hank's son from a previous relationship; Heather Graham (Boogie Nights) plays Levon's mother, Comedian Jim Florentine plays a pimp, and Rob Lowe reprises his role as the movie star Eddie.


Episodes on the two disc DVD release are: Levon, Julia, Like Father Like Son, Dicks, Getting The Poison Out, Kickoff, Smile, and 30 Minutes or Less on disc one.


Disc two features the episodes Faith, Hope, Love, Dinner With Friends, Daughter, and Grace. Also on the disc two are the first two episodes of Penny Dreadful.


The transfer and sound on the disc are pretty standard for DVD. The show is presented in standard definition anamorphic 16 X 9/1.78 X 1 anamorphically enhanced widescreen with a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track - both of which are fine for the format, but I'm sure a Blu-ray upgrade would do the show more justice.


Extras on the disc aside from the Penny Dreadful episodes is a way to unlock additional features on your PC via eBridge Technology - if you can crack that code then you get two episodes of Ray Donovan and The Affair: Episodes one and two - whoopee. Not too impressed with the lack of extras here.



Perry Mason Movie Collection: Volume 3 (1990 - 1991)


Picture: B Sound: B Extras: D Telefilms: C


Perry Mason (Raymond Burr), America's favorite defense attorney, is back in action once again! Employing the skills of Della Street (Barbara Hale) and Ken Malansky (William R. Moses), Perry once more attempts to exonerate the accused. From Las Vegas to Paris, France, Mason and his team travel to the scene of the crime, crossing paths with mobsters, war criminals, and demanding divas at almost every turn in this riveting 6-movie set in an Amazon exclusive release. (Volumes 1 and 2 are also available on Amazon, reviewed elsewhere on this site.)


Thirty Perry Mason telefilms were made, though the last four are without Burr, the actor having died in 1993, shortly before his last one aired. (Paul Sorvino and, later, Hal Holbrook replaced him, playing different characters.)


Perry Mason Movie Collection, Volume 3 contains the thirteenth through eighteenth of these thirty films: The Case of the Poisoned Pen, The Case of the Desperate Deception, The Case of the Silenced Singer, The Case of the Defiant Daughter (all 1990), The Case of the Ruthless Reporter, and The Case of the Maligned Mobster (both 1991).


As for the sounds great but looks pretty terrible, especially compared with the crisp black-and-white transfers of the original series. Likewise shot on 35mm film but finished on tape, these 4:3 shows look soft and smeary, visually at odds with their lively and imaginative use of early television stereo sound, presented here in a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 format. Optional English SDH are included and the discs are Region 1 encoded.


The set features three double feature DVDs (three separate DVD cases) and each contains but a single disc with two each of these 95-minute shows.


No Extra Features... A mystery not even Perry Mason can solve!



- James Harland Lockhart V

https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv


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