Joss Whedon’s Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog introduces us, via the medium of song, to Billy a.k.a. Dr Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris), a wannabe super-villain. Billy’s goal is to be admitted to the ultimate fraternity of criminals, the Evil League of Evil. Along with his henchman Moist, (Simon Helberg), Dr. Horrible is motivated to plan and perpetrate a large scale, newsworthy crime in order to gain the attention of the League and their leader Bad Horse.

Two things stand in Billy’s way. First, there’s his nemesis Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion), an arrogant, pompous, and overblown superhero figure without even an ounce of modesty or tact. Secondly, Billy might not be quite as horrible as his title suggests, especially once he meets and falls for Penny (Felicia Day) –  the girl he’s seen around the neighborhood but has been too shy to approach. Of course, these two stories come together pretty quickly, as Hammer steps in to save Penny’s life, and turns her head in the process. Will Billy get into the Evil League of Evil? Is that what he really wants? Maybe, despite his protestations, he’s not as evil as we thought.

Look for trademark Whedon word play throughout the lyrics. “It’s not enough to bash in heads, you’ve got to bash in minds” sums up Hammer’s single-minded approach to crime fighting. The Hammer groupies (including co-writer Maurissa Tancharoen) pop up to steal the show with the best line in track 10, “So They Say.” I won’t spoil it for you.

While you have this DVD checked out, take a look at all the extras and easter eggs that are hidden on the disc. The musical takes a routine DVD extra to the next level and gives the cast an opportunity to sing about the making of the show. There are additional goodies to find and enjoy.

Based on his takeover of the Emmy telecast, we can assume that we haven’t heard the last of Dr Horrible, so acquaint yourself with his effort to gain admission to the Evil League of Evil today!

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

Rushmore presents a comedic slice of the life of protagonist Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) as he learns to leave the world of private school behind and stand on his own two feet. At Rushmore, Fischer is the king of the extracurricular activity. Among his many commitments, he is Debate Team Captain, Lacrosse Team Manager, Calligraphy Club President and Astronomy Society Founder. Because Rushmore benefits from his organizational skills, Max is tolerated, but no one at school particularly likes him. More significantly, with all his time spent on clubs and societies, Fischer is not what you could call an academic success.

In spite of these difficulties, Fischer forges a friendship with local businessman Herman Blume (Bill Murray), who sees some potential in Max’s drive. Blume becomes Max’s friend, mentor, and ultimately competitor for the affections of elementary school teacher Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams). Cross is a likely candidate for Max’s first serious crush. She’s beautiful, sophisticated, educated, and compassionate. Of course, he falls in love. Complications arise when Max introduces Miss Cross to Blume, and finds that he may have sabotaged his own (non-existent) prospects for a relationship. To cope and keep hold of what is important to him, he must come to grips with reality outside the ivy-covered walls of Rushmore.

Director Wes Anderson and co-writer Owen Wilson blend the real and the surreal seamlessly, creating a movie that is both ridiculously exaggerated and completely universal. You’ll laugh as soon as you see Fischer’s yearbook, and the war between Blume and Fischer over Miss Cross is a comedy highlight. Settle in for a good laugh, and watch Rushmore today!

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

Burn Notice is the story of an ex-spy now private eye and his quest to find the people who turned his life upside down. Michael Weston (Jeffrey Donovan) was in the middle of Africa, trying to negotiate with a gang member when he was given a burn notice (a spy term for "your services are no longer required"). After escaping from Africa, he finds himself in Miami with no money and no job. He’s able to make a living using his spy skills to assist others, while trying to figure out who issued the burn notice. Michael enlists the help of Sam (Bruce Campbell), an FBI agent who used to work with him, and Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar), Michael’s gun-toting Irish ex-girlfriend.

Watching Burn Notice is a little like attending espionage school. As Michael explains the situation to the viewer, he lets us in on the trade secrets that make him a good spy. Using his knowledge and a few common items, Michael repeatedly saves the day. Each episode is action-packed, as he attempts to outsmart the bad guys.

Conversely, Chuck is the story of computer geek turned spy, but not of his own free will. On his birthday Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) opens an email from his college nemesis, and all government secrets are uploaded to his brain. Trying to go about his mundane life, he suddenly finds himself involved in harrowing situations, as a sinister organization attempts to obtain the secrets. The resulting activity causes the CIA and NSA to send agents to monitor Chuck. CIA agent Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) poses as his girlfriend. And Casey (Adam Baldwin), from the NSA, joins Chuck to work at the Buy More (think Best Buy) much to the stress of Morgan, Chuck’s best friend.

As opposed to Michael Weston, Chuck skips espionage school and is thrown right into the mix. He finds himself equipped with all of the spy secrets, but none of the technical know-how necessary to perform the job. He tries to go about his normal life, while hiding his new skills from friends and family. Complicating matters even further is that although Sarah is not really Chuck’s girlfriend, he begins to wish for a real relationship with her. In each episode we watch Chuck try to extricate himself from dangerous situations, armed only with limited knowledge and a lot of luck.

Robert Bates – Glenwood Branch

When the nights get long and chilly, my family loves to huddle together in the dark and watch a scary movie. Finding one that we can all watch together can be tricky, but we recently discovered a gem in Disney’s Escape to Witch Mountain (G), which has just the right mix of mystery and adventure. In it, two orphans possessing extraordinary powers find a home with the wealthy Aristotle Bolt (Ray Milland). Bolt doesn’t have their best interests at heart, however, resulting in a game of cat and mouse as the children flee to Witch Mountain. You’ll be on the edge of your seat as the kids try to find their way home. The DVD is a re-release of the 1975 original, and has bonus features including pop-up fun facts, commentary by director John Hough, and information about the making of the movie.

With the children safely tucked in bed, I recently watched Pan’s Labyrinth (R), directed by Guillermo del Torro. Pan’s Labyrinth is a dark adult fairy tale, in which 12 year-old Ofelia begins a new chapter of life with a pregnant mother, a brutal stepfather, and a nurturing housekeeper. At her "new" home (a creaky abandoned mill), an insect/fairy leads Ofelia to an overgrown labyrinth. The labyrinth is the gateway to an underworld inhabited by a faun who gives Ofelia a mysterious book instructing her to complete three arduous tasks. As she begins to act in defiance to the adults around her, the viewer wonders whether Ofelia is actually experiencing her mystical world or if she has created an incredibly detailed fantasy paralleling the atrocities of her daily life. Only you can decide, which makes this movie so memorable. The dialogue is in Spanish with English subtitles, but you become so engrossed in the story that you won’t even notice.

And saving the best for last, my all-time favorite scary movie is The Shining (R) — a film based on the Stephen King novel — directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. The other star of the movie is the stately Overlook Hotel, which becomes home to caretaker Jack Torrence and his family during the off-season. However, this hotel is not the place most families would want to spend a long snowy winter, especially after discovering that the former caretaker murdered his family there. Add a son with strange communication abilities and a creepy imaginary friend, Jack’s decent into madness, and an eerie soundtrack, and you have a psychological thriller that makes you wish you left the lights on when you started the DVD.

So, which movies make you jump when things go bump in the night?

Andrea Misner – Administration Office

On a trip to the Gettysburg battlefield with his family, author Michael Shaara was inspired to write about the men who fought there. The resulting historical novel Killer Angels — for which Shaara was awarded the Pultizer Prize in 1975 — takes place over three days in July and is told from the point of view of Generals Lee, Longstreet and Armistead, and Colonel Chamberlain.

Shaara does an admirable job of balancing fact with fiction. Much of his research came from the writings of various soldiers present at the battle, including Longstreet’s From Manassas to Appomattax. Successfully embellishing history with believable dialogue and the soldiers’ thoughts and feelings, Killer Angels is an enthralling accomplishment. Shaara’s son Jeff continued his father’s work by finishing the Civil War series.

I became familiar with Killer Angels after watching the movie Gettysburg, based on Sharra’s novel. Starring Jeff Daniels as Chamberlain, Martin Sheen as Lee, Tom Berenger as Longstreet, and Richard Jordan as Armistead, the movie at 261 minutes was intended to be a television miniseries, but instead was released in theaters. Thanks to the many civil war reenactors who took part in the filming, the battle scenes vividly come to life.

Killer Angels and Gettysburg are about more than the Civil War; they capture the essence of everyday heroes who fought a hellish battle.

Robert Bates – Glenwood Branch

Teens getting killed. They have been making movies with that very premise for over 30 years. A main character (a female, usually being played by that actress you kind of recognize) and her group of friends (a jock, a nerd, a cheerleader, etc.) are picked off one at a time by a killer in a costume or mask who will reveal his or her identity and motive during the last 20 minutes of the film.

In all honesty, Scream’s plot really isn’t much different than all slasher film plots. The heroine this time is the damaged Sidney Prescot, played by Neve Campbell, whose mother was murdered one year prior to when the movie begins. And while she and her friends fit the typical slasher film archetypes, there is one difference between them and virtually every other character who has ever been written into a horror movie: they have seen horror movies. They know the cliches; they know what not to do; they know the "rules one must abide by in order to successfully survive a scary movie." Screenwriter Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven cram so much wit, humor, and blood into this simple story that you are guaranteed to have a blast.

Scream was one of the defining movies of the 90s. It was a phenomenon reinventing a genre that hadn’t been marketable since the mid-80s. It spawned two sequels and endless rip-offs. An intelligent spoof on horror movies that is still extremely scary, Scream is one of my all time favorites.

Mike Dwyre – East Columbia Branch

Every once in a while you discover a horror film that makes you wrestle with the ending for days afterwards. It seeps into you and causes restless sleep, and not just because it’s scary. Based on the Stephen King novella of the same name, The Mist mixes the unimaginable with the all-too-familiar and may very well make you feel uncomfortable and unnerved. And like so many of Stephen King’s works, this film takes you somewhere you think of as safe — in this case, the grocery store — and makes it the creepiest place around.

The incredible cast (including Thomas Jane and Andre Braugher playing neighbors pitted against each other) couldn’t have done a better job…though maybe Marcia Gay Harden might have toned it down JUST a tad. She plays a religious fanatic the way it’s been played in countless horror films before (think Piper Laurie in Carrie, but slightly less bitter).  I love it though, when a man she’s trying to preach to responds with: "I do believe in God, I just don’t think He’s the vengeful, bloodthirsty (replace curse word with family friendly word here) you make him out to be."

Whereas I don’t remember the book being so deep…the movie really captures the current cultural divide and the absolutes people cling to so desperately, often causing them to lash out at others who politely disagree.

I won’t ruin the ending, but let’s just say it blindsides you. It throws out so much that really gets to you: nail-biting suspense…humanity…inhumanity (a lot of the people are far worse than the supernatural creatures they battle inside the grocery store), emotions…tough, protective women…sensitive, protective men…

The Mist is an intense experience and never quite the film you’re expecting, a combination making it a cut above (way above!) all the other horror films you’ve seen until now.

Angie Engles – Central Library

My life has been irreversibly shaped by Bill Waterson’s Calvin & Hobbes. One of the comic’s most imaginative recurring elements was Calvin’s cardboard box, which, when set upside down was a Transmogrifier, and when set on its side was a Duplicator. Step inside the Duplicator, wait a couple minutes, and when you walk out, you are accompanied by an exact duplicate of yourself.

Primer, a low-budget film that milked every dollar director Shane Carruth had, brought me back to the wonder of Calvin’s Duplicator box, mingled with the horror of human selfishness. This is a time-travel movie that isn’t about time travel. It’s about human relationships and motivations, and it uses the vehicle of time travel to reveal aspects of human nature that we may have taken for granted.

Primer works for a number of reasons, the least of which is that it’s about normal guys who have normal jobs and normal families. This is not Back to the Future (which I love). It is about jealousy, greed, friendship, betrayal, love, and hate. It also works because it doesn’t try to make sense. The characters use technical jargon that, for the most part, went well over my head, but isn’t that what we would expect real engineers to say? Even with all the twists and turns, and all the questions of who, what, and when, I was able to follow it well enough to still get the final twist (I think!). Subsequent viewings have helped me understand the time line, but the time line isn’t nearly as interesting, or as important, as the brilliant character development. Highly recommended viewing!

Dan Curry – Savage Branch

Clatterford, written by Jennifer Saunders, centers on the members of the Women’s Guild in the fictional west-country town of Clatterford St. Mary. This is ambitious television — both funny and tragic at the same time. Saunders and her cast manage to simultaneously celebrate and lampoon English rural life, and carry the audience along as they swing from comedy to drama and back again.

Clatterford stars Sue Johnston as Sal, the local family practice nurse, whose life changes when her husband, the town’s doctor, passes away. Pauline McLynn plays her colleague and best friend Tippi. It is through their friendship that we meet the other residents of Clatterford and the members of the Clatterford St. Mary Women’s Guild. Sal’s daughter Tash is back in town and drifting through life. Meanwhile, her son James and his squeamish wife Yasmeen have taken over the medical practice, pushing her aside and making her life even more difficult. As an escape from the family drama, Sal finally decides to accept a long-standing invitation to join the Women’s Guild, an institution that she’s always considered out of touch, stuffy, and ridiculous.

Saunders has assembled a great cast, including long-standing collaborators Dawn French and Joanna Lumley, and there’s a part for everyone. Watch in particular for Lumley’s unexpected and hysterical cameos as tricycle-riding Delilah Stagg, and for Saunders‘ own performance as rock star mother Caroline, who visits Madonna’s country estate for the weekend and has breakfast with the latest bands.

Clatterford defies pigeonholing as a sitcom or drama, crossing between the two, scene by scene. The tone of the show is set perfectly by the theme music, Kate Rusby’s version of The Kinks’ The Village Green Preservation Society — which you can find as track 12 on Rusby’s excellent 2007 release Awkward Annie. 

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

With football season soon upon us, I would like to recommend two movies based on true events. Even those who are not football fans will be inspired by the odds that teams must overcome to be winners, both on and off the field.

The first of these inspiring football films is We Are Marshall. On November 14, 1970, the Marshall University football team was flying back to Huntington, West Virginia, when the plane crashed, killing everyone on board. We Are Marshall depicts how the university and the town of Huntington try to rebuild and move on after the tragedy. From the college of Wooster, new coach Jake Lengyl is willing to take on the program no one else wanted. With the help of one of the original assistant coaches, Lengyel battles to save the football team and bring a town hope when all seems lost.

The second DVD is Remember The Titans. In 1971 African-American coach Herman Boone takes over the Alexandria, Virginia high school football team after the school system is integrated. Bill Yoast, the coach of the previously all-white school, was favored to be the head coach, so there are hard feelings accompanying an already tense situation. Under Boone, the football team learns to work together, despite racial differences. Remember the Titans is told from the point of view of Yoast’s daughter, who reminisces about the team while standing by a grave. On the surface the film is about football, but the underlying story involves a young girl who idolizes her father while living through the turbulent times of the early seventies.

Both movies are ostensibly about football, but really concern more than the sport. We are Marshall shows us how to move on in the face of tragedy. In Remember the Titans, we realize that we can win if we all learn to play together. In both movies the viewer realizes there is something special about a game called football and the folks who play it.

Robert Bates – Glenwood Branch