This Week in DVD

Cannon Season One Volume One: I'm a late bloomer as a member of the William Conrad Appreciation Society, and therefore I missed out on a lot of opportunities to watch hefty detective Frank Cannon take care of business. Now is my chance to catch up.

I do remember seeing CANNON (a QM Production) while getting my hair cut, as my childhood barber was fond of WOR-NY's weekday lineup of stuff like this and "Hawaii Five-0." I got a kick out of seeing how the portly Cannon would physically confront the bad guys. One time I remember he slammed the gate to a truck bed down to knock a gun out of a dude's hand, and for some reason, his LIGHTNING REFLEXES and dexterity cracked me up.

I haven't yet seen whether or not Paramount screwed around with music or anything on this series. Fingers crossed. I have, however, seen some negative comments about the picture quality and on-the-mark commentary at the Home Theater Forum that the studio could (should?) have lowered the price for this unrestored half-season worth of episodes. Given Paramount's supposed MSRP for the upcoming "My Three Sons" set, I guess they're proving definitively they're not in the bargain business.

Fastlane: The Complete Series: Like a bad series, this awful TV show keeps haunting me, bouncing from network to network and now in one "complete" DVD package but missing much of the original broadcast music. Wasn't the loud music part of the whole point?

Stop-Loss: I remember reading an "Entertainment Weekly" article about director Kimberly Peirce a few months back when this movie came out. I was interested in several things--like why her last name violates the "i before e" rule and why she hadn't make a film since "Boys Don't Cry." Yet even after I read the article, I couldn't get interested in "Stop-Loss."

Superhero Movie: May as well drop the pretense. I'll complain about how cheesy this looks, I'll rent it anyway--cheaply, perhaps, but still, I'll pay for it--and then I'll find it really IS as dumb as it looks in the commercials. Maybe I'll even write about it. Something for all of us to anticipate!

The Ruins: Did this one even hit theaters already? Apparently it did. Bad things happen to people--really bad things, man--in this adaptation of the bestselling novel.

The Mummy 75TH Anniversary Edition: Pardon my dereliction of duty here, but I know very little about this release, and since it's seemingly the umpteenth version of the movie and I already own one with which I am happy, I am not keen on pursuing it further. However, I have seen good things about this 2-discer, and it includes movie cash to see the latest Brendan Fraser mummy joint. So if any of that appeals to you, this'll be more exciting.