The Guild is an online series written by Felicia Day that premiered in July 2007. Season 4 episodes are currently being released weekly on MSN Video. Initially developed as a sitcom pilot, the show was instead produced to be shown online, with short episodes combining to tell a complete story. The Guild tells the story of the Knights of Good, an online-gaming guild who collaborate in an unnamed massively-multiplayer online role-playing game. We quickly learn from observing Codex (Day) that the game is the guild members’ alternate, preferred reality. The real world, though, has an annoying habit of intruding, and the first season begins when Zaboo (Sandeep Parikh) appears at Codex’s door under the impression that they’re dating. Things are really turned upside-down when Bladezz (Vincent Caso) behaves badly in-game, and the guild arranges an unprecedented real-world meeting at Cheesybeards to discuss the matter. The drama, tension, and abundant humor in the show develop as we watch the group attempt to function and interact to resolve their problems in the real world.

Originally produced as a web series, and released in six-minute online episodes, seasons one and two of the show are packaged together on DVD, with extras including audio commentaries, script PDFs, and interviews with the cast and crew. The production and marketing of The Guild has broken new ground, with Day and others using technology to forge direct connections with the audience. Felicia Day is active on Twitter (@FeliciaDay), and has produced a number of special videos to bring attention to the show, including Do You Want To Date My Avatar, a prelude to the release of season three. The Guild is one of the media highlights of the past couple of years — a can’t-miss experience! Watch seasons one and two on DVD and catch up with season three and the new season four online.

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

Layer Cake, directed by Matthew Vaughn, is a London gangland crime drama that begins with an ending. The unnamed protagonist (Daniel Craig) is a highly successful businessman whose business happens to be drugs. As we meet him, he’s making preparations to disappear and live the rest of his life on the right side of the law. He’s able to do this because he has a clear head, a code of conduct that has protected him, and a clear sense of the end game. He’s also surrounded himself with a small team of trusted associates, and cut off his activities from the outside as much as possible. Everything changes quickly, though, as a series of new developments throw our man off stride.

First, gangland boss Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) doesn’t want to let our man go, and keeps him busy by sending him to find the missing daughter of an old friend. Second, a loud-mouthed amateur crew led by The Duke (Jamie Foreman) ripped off a million ecstasy pills from a well-organized gang of Serbian smugglers, and dropped our man’s name in the process. The Serbians’ most dangerous operative, Dragan, is now hot on our man’s trail. Third, our man’s head is turned by a woman, Tammy (Sienna Miller), who is in a relationship with The Duke’s nephew, but sees the opportunity to upgrade as she meets his eye in a crowded nightclub.

Add to these shifts some uncharacteristically sloppy behavior by his right-hand man Morty (George Harris), and our man is forced to improvise, deciding who to trust as the world opens up, both for him and the audience. This classic caper is played for drama, not for laughs, and we the audience struggle to guess who has out-thought whom as the endgame plays out. Layer Cake has the cool factor of a Guy Ritchie film or Ocean’s Eleven, but ratchets up the tension mercilessly and refuses to show us a way out. Craig, pre-Bond, is perfect as the clear-eyed, focused anti-hero. We share his tension, and borderline desperation, as he struggles to make his way through the Layer Cake.

There are two alternate endings on DVD, and both make a significant change to the way that the story concludes. Be sure to watch them after you’ve watched the movie. You can also check out J.J. Connolly’s original novel.

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

Simple, sheer delight. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones provides the almost perfect fairy tale for readers of all ages. Wynne Jones’ graceful prose provides an easy transition into a world of magic of all sorts from mundane to the frighteningly bizarre.

Sophie is a young girl who works as a milliner in her stepmother’s shop. She seems content with her ordinary life — until she meets the handsome young wizard Howl, after which her life is never the same. She has a nasty encounter with the Witch of the Wastes that leaves her a young woman in an old woman’s body, flees town, becomes Howl’s housekeeper in his mobile castle, meets a strange scarecrow, corrals Howl’s apprentice, befriends the talking fire Calcifer, and her escapades have only just begun. At the end of her courageous quest, she discovers her true self and helps others do the same.

Howl apparently has two goals in life: 1) To be admired by as many people as possible, and 2) To stop a war. One is obviously a more worthy goal, but it’s amusing to see how the two intertwine. Howl is frightfully self-absorbed, and one of the most interesting characters in decades. He’s a vain and extremely talented wizard who wants to save the world. The book revolves around the mystery of Howl’s heart, and whether Sophie can save it.

Too often adapted screenplays don’t respect their literary origins. How often do you just know that the book is going to be better than the movie? Hayao Miyazaki’s animated feature not only respects the novel, but celebrates its playfulness and serious underlying themes. This is a beautiful and faithful rendition of the novel (even if the book is still better). It also relies on some great voice talent, including Lauren Bacall and Billy Crystal. So read the book, then watch the movie. This is a story I love in any format.

Kristen Blount – Administration Office

Terry Gilliam’s movie 12 Monkeys is the ultimate in time travel science-fiction, and tells the story of James Cole (Bruce Willis), a prisoner in an alternate near-future. Humanity has been decimated by a man-made plague, and Cole is sent through time to the 1990s in an effort to avert the disease’s release.

Gilliam puts a number of factors into play to keep us off balance. The future, of course, is a dystopian confusion of strange technology and abandoned cities. The past that Cole encounters during his time travels is not much easier to live with. He is institutionalized, socially isolated, and wanted by the police. The currents of time bring Cole into repeated contact with Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt) and psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeline Stowe) as he gathers information about the plague and relays it to the scientists in the future by means of voicemail. All is not what it seems, however, and the pitfalls associated with time travel become critical to the narrative.

In following James Cole’s time-bending quest, Gilliam creates a comprehensive fictional world within which he explores issues of science and technology, philosophy, and morality from a unique perspective. Keep one eye open for the Army of the 12 Monkeys. 

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

Stephen Ambrose’s 1992 book Band of Brothers tells the story of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, "from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest." Developing from Ambrose’s interest in Eisenhower and the pivotal events of D-Day (June 6th, 1944) Band of Brothers takes us away from the political decision makers and grand strategists, putting the reader alongside the fighting men on the front line. Ambrose’s book collects the memories of Easy Company’s members, allowing us to share their circumstances, delights and frustrations as they were deployed — and redeployed — across Europe in the final year of the war. Easy Company’s experience is both representative and extraordinary. It was this close-up first-person detail, in combination with Easy Company’s extraordinary range of battlefield experience, that made the book an ideal candidate for development as a television miniseries.

The HBO miniseries, produced with the involvement of Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, comprises a series of connected mini-feature films. Each episode focuses on a different member of the company, and has a different tone and feel.  We first encounter Easy Company in intensive training at Camp Toccoa, GA. Subsequently, the company parachutes into Normandy as part of the D-Day offensive, fights in Holland as part of Operation Market Garden, spends the winter at Bastogne in the Ardennes, and plays a significant role as allied forces push into Germany and Austria to bring the conflict to a close. The production pays great attention to detail and reveals a larger story by telling a specific — and personal — one in each episode.

The veterans themselves are interviewed in a companion documentary, We Stand Alone Together, and the success of Band of Brothers gave a number of them a wider audience for their remarkable stories. Richard Winters co-authored Beyond Band of Brothers with Cole Kingseed, and was profiled in Biggest Brother by Larry Alexander. Easy Company veterans Bill Guarnere and Babe Heffron collaborated to produce Brothers in Battle. Each of these books offers a different perspective and additional details about Easy Company’s experiences in Europe, providing a cumulative picture of Easy Company’s experience and a window into the larger conflict.

HBO’s companion series, The Pacific, premieres in mid-March 2010. The production is  based on Eugene B. Sledge’s With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa, Robert Leckie’s Helmet for My Pillow, and the experiences of John Basilone detailed in I’m Staying With My Boys. HBO’s new show presents an ideal opportunity to revisit the European Theater after D-Day with the Band of Brothers of Easy Company, 506th P.I.R.

John Jewitt – Savage 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

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

Come Early Morning opens with Lucy Fowler (an exceptional Ashley Judd) insisting on paying for the motel where she spent the night, after what we assume is yet another in a series of drunken one-night stands. As she begins the long drive home (and back to a sober reality), Malcolm Holcombe’s "Killing the Blues" plays over the credits. Close-ups show us Lucy’s feelings of guilt, shame, and regret as she drives, and by the time her green and white truck pulls into her driveway, we’re hooked. What’s going on with Lucy?

The movie answers that question by gradually revealing the details of Lucy’s life. Her roommate Kim (Laura Prepon), Lucy’s closest friend, lends a comic element in the movie, saying those things that only your closest friend can say. Kim also provides balance for Lucy’s more extreme behavior. As we get to explore Lucy’s situation in greater depth, we meet the many strands of her dysfunctional family — her boss at the construction company, and eventually Cal Percell, (Jeffrey Donovan, Burn Notice), who is new in town, and might see Lucy as a romantic prospect, rather than simply a conquest. Cal’s pursuit prompts Lucy to examine her life and to make some changes, although they may be different than expected.

Written and directed by Joey Lauren Adams and filmed in her hometown of North Little Rock, the movie feels authentic and respectful, which makes Lucy seem all the more real. This is a deliberate and brilliant film providing drama and a moving story, along with a close-up examination of an ordinary life. Check out a stellar characterization by Ashley Judd in Come Early Morning.

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

For most of us, buying tickets to a live performance of a major opera company is in the same league as buying a season pass to the Redskins. Actually it’s worse, since you can always watch the Redskins on TV — try finding a weekly opera on network television.

However, huge amounts of content are now being moved to DVDs, including a large number of operas. Some are good, while others are absolutely magnificent. So now DVDs give you an alternative to the NFL, and allow you to become a couch potato opera lover.

Mozart’s Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail is a solid example of what opera on DVD has to offer. For an 18th century work, its libretto is oddly topical (meaning "multicultural".) It’s all about a tenor named Belmonte who goes to rescue his love, a soprano named Konstanze, and his servants Pedrillo and Blonde. The three have been captured by pirates and are held captive in the palace of Selim, a Turkish Pasha.

Instead of sending her to the palace laundry or something, Selim has fallen in love with his beautiful captive. True to Belmonte though, Konstanze rejects him. Selim is too honorable to force himself on Konstanze; neither, though, is he inclined to set her free.

Enter the heavy, Osmin, Selim’s brutal but buffoonish palace thug. Osmin has a similar problem as he has fallen for Petrillo’s love Blonde. In Osmin’s case, though, it’s incompetence rather than honor that keeps him from abusing his position.

Naturally, Osmin detests both Belmonte and Pedrillo and wants them dead. One thing leads to another and Osmin finally captures the four lovers attempting to escape from Selim’s palace. In a position to have the lot of them executed, Osmin’s triumph is complete (he thinks). The world of opera, though, is rarely friendly to villains. In a surprise ending young love, aided by the virtue of the noble Selim, still manages to triumph.

This DVD dates to 1980 and is a recording of a live performance at the Bavarian State Opera. The sets and costumes are quite impressive, the direction is solid and the the cast ranges from good to excellent. As for the music, it’s by Mozart and what better endorsement can there be?

Joe McHugh – Administration

Season 4 of the new Doctor Who just hit the shelves. This long-running BBC science fiction show was recently re-imagined by producer Russell T. Davies. In its latest incarnation, the Doctor is the last of the Time-Lords, and a survivor of the most recent great time war. His experience makes him both more decisive and introspective than previous incarnations of the character. Season 1 gets the show off to a great restart with Christopher Eccleston in the title role, and Billie Piper as companion Rose Tyler. In seasons 2 and 3, David Tennant hits exactly the right note as the Doctor, who is mysterious, dangerous, powerful, and yet funny at the same time. He’s joined by Piper as Rose, Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, and Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones.

The format of the show has been updated. The four episode mini-arcs of my childhood, which ended with a cliffhanger each Saturday night, are gone. Instead, each season develops a story-arc that sheds some light on the Doctor’s situation and circumstances. Clues and evidence from each episode contribute in some small way to our understanding of the character.

The format and budget of the show have also been stretched to allow for stories that have different perspectives, and are ambitious in scope. "Turn Left" (Season 4, Disc 5) is particularly impressive. The sets and alien costumes are no longer constructed from recognizable household objects — no more cries of “That guy’s got an egg box on his head!” Instead we’re into big-budget special effects. 

So is it still Doctor Who? The answer is yes! The reinvention of the show has successfully integrated the history of the character, but taken the Doctor off in new and dramatic directions, revitalizing a great series. Although different in tone, Doctor Who is up there with Battlestar Galactica on the list of recent well-written, exceptionally well-produced TV science fiction. If you haven’t had chance to see it yet, take a look.

John Jewitt – Savage Branch