Action
Rod Lott
I love the character of Blade. I love the Blade comic books, starting with his debut in Marvel's Tomb of Dracula in the 1970s. I love all three Blade movies — yes, including that third one. Hell, I even love the short-lived Blade series Spike TV aired in 2006.

Horror
Rod Lott
Another camcorder film? Only in part, but at least Lovely Molly comes from the mind of Eduardo Sánchez, who helped kick-start the craze back on a mainstream scale with 1999's The Blair Witch Project, which he co-wrote and co-directed. So there's that, not to mention this must be the only one scored by avant-garde indie instrumental act Tortoise.

Thriller
Rod Lott
Penumbra is Spanish for "partly in the shadows," which is how we first find the fourth-floor apartment that Margarita Sanchez (Cristina Brondo, Dario Argento's Do You Like Hitchcock?) shows to Jorge Kepler (Berta Muñiz), representative for a prospective renter willing to pay four times the going rate, and for a full year in advance.

Comedy
Rod Lott
With one of those titles that doubles as a story summary, Jersey Shore Shark Attack is the rare made-for-Syfy film that has more to it than said title.

Sci-Fi
Rod Lott
My opinion means absolutely squat on The Hunger Games, a massive hit on a global scale. Even those who didn't see it in theaters will want to out of curiosity's sake, like I did, just to see what all the fuss is about. I completely understand.

Thriller
Rod Lott
Kill List is not your ordinary, average hit-man thriller — it’s an excellent one. The UK film skirts into areas of horror before plunging in at the end, but maintaining an uncompromising level of excellence throughout. It's a strong candidate for that year-end best list. That said, its subject matter will prove to be too much for most to take.

Documentary
Rod Lott
I'd say Peter Gabriel has aged wonderfully, judging from the concert film Secret World, but the performance is nearly two decades old, from 1993. Although far removed from his heyday as an MTV idol — the venue looks as if its audience were lifted from a BMW dealership super-sale — he still sounded great.

Action
Rod Lott
MGM's marketing campaign for 1972's Cool Breeze played up — if not centered around — a connection to Shaft. That connection? Both were blaxploitation films released by MGM. I guess audiences thought that wasn't enough of a lure, because Breeze is an obscure entry in the genre, just now seeing the light of DVD, courtesy of the Warner Archive archivists.

Action
Rod Lott
Fans of pure action cinema are apt to grow delirious with glee over The Raid: Redemption, an Indonesian crime thriller that relies so much upon the universal language of violence, one could enjoy it without subtitles.

Television series
Rod Lott
I don’t watch a ton of TV shows while they’re airing. With a few exceptions, I wait for the DVD and/or Blu-ray sets so I can go on marathons — the only kind of marathons in which I’ll ever participate. Here are capsule reviews of seven such recent tubular trips.

Television series
Rod Lott
As beloved as Lynda La Plante’s long-running crime series Prime Suspect is, her Above Suspicion deserves equal adoration. It’s another example of how the British leave viewers wanting more, rather than taking the American approach of burning them out, because the first two seasons — all seven episodes between them — come collected on Acorn Media’s two-disc Set 1. This leaves two more seasons as yet unreleased, so I pray we see a Set 2 soon down the pipe.

Western
Rod Lott
Two Westerns from the days when Hollywood relied on them pull into the DVD-R outpost from Warner Archive. Neither is essential, but its wide landscapes and reliable tropes make for comfortable-enough watching.

Drama
Rod Lott
My wife barely can stand — and sometimes refuses — to watch TV shows like The Office and Curb Your Enthusiasm because they make her too nervous. Therefore, she would hate Michael and Silver Tongues, two new-to-DVD entries in discomfort cinema. I recommend them both, while acknowledging they are far from the easiest of watches.

Thriller
Rod Lott
Straight out of South Korea, No Mercy shows exactly that. But too bad it's only for the first act.

Comedy
Rod Lott
I'm torn between whether the horror comedy Girls Gone Dead is misogynist or merely plays pretend. That it’s written by a woman boggles the mind.