While the premiere of Patrick Swayze’s newest TV endeavor is likely to be overshadowed by his health woes of late, behind the news reports and interviews is an average cop drama with lots of room to grow, but a penchant for taking bits and pieces of successful films and TV shows and incorporating them into a half-full melting pot.

The Beast see Swayze as Charles Barker an off-the-map FBI agent who goes undercover to bring down the big-bads with a rookie, hand-picked partner in Ellis Dove (Travis Fimmel). Sound familiar? It’s basically the premise of Training Day with a few things changed, but the producers didn’t really go the extra mile to eliminate some of the comparisons that would undeniably be brought up. Similarities include: Dove being by the book, much like Ethan Hawk’s character in relation to the off-the-rails mentor, the protégé being forced to “prove” himself, ordered to do odd jobs for the quiet, sneaky mentor, etc.

The plot doesn’t really help the series evolve either, there’s the B-storylines about Barker protecting a women and her family (we later come to find this is his sister), Dove attempting a relationship with his neighbor, a shadowy figure at the FBI who helps them, Barker somehow, someway managing to get what he needs, when he needs it, and the possibility that he’s dirty and Dove is recruited to spy on him. Essences of other staples like The Shield, House, and the aforementioned Training Day just leave The Beast as something old and worn at times. All this culminates with a big reveal at the end that one of the most closely guarded secrets in the US government (a disk drive containing every undercover agent in the world) is sitting behind an unguarded rent-a-fence in FBI headquarters where one old, fat, balding guy is protecting it. When you see its gone at the end of the episode so is your suspension of disbelief.

It seems as though the series creators cobbled together everything they loved about difficult-to-work-with-human-dramas, adding in some cops and robbers gave everyone a super tough life and asked us to watch. The audience is just thrown in to the deep end in the beginning though, no introduction, and we’re forced to care for characters who have no life beyond the caricatures they represent from years upon years of exposition on the small and silver screen.

In the end it doesn’t really matter that Swayze does an admirable job as the clearly intelligent, but disturbed Barker, if you can’t get past the ludicrously lazy writing there isn’t much to enjoy in anyone’s performance. The Beast could evolve into something much more, but based on the pilot, you’ve seen all this done before.

There has been some trepidation on how Damages‘ creators Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler, Daniel Zelman were going to continue the multi-layered storyline of the first season of the show. Fans will know that we’re introduced to the series very near the end before being warped back in time and shown how we reached the point where a bloodied and distraught Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) would be running down a New York City street. While the season premiere offers up the future again, it isn’t the opening teaser that sets this episode in motion, it’s the final seconds that draw the audience right back in to the show’s comforting grasp.

Fresh off the destructive Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson) case, a haunted Patty Hewes (Emmy winner Glenn Close) is confronted by her associates into taking a new case. Ellen relays a set-up case provided by her new FBI friends as she strives to take down the women who tried to kill her, but Patty has been contacted by Daniel Purcell (William Hurt). The full scope of the help that Purcell needs isn’t immediately evident aside from a big corporation and chemical work that could be very harmful. Patty initially rebuffs Daniel, who we find out had a previous relationship of some sort, but in the closing moments of the premiere the tables turn dramatically.

Byrnes portrayal of a broken, revenge-driven Ellen is the highlight of the episode and her shut out from an Emmy nod last year is near criminal. While her story isn’t as integral to the “A” storyline, at least at this time, her vivid daydreams about shotgun blasting a-still-alive Frobisher add an element to her character full realized in the aforementioned closing seconds.

Three great things continue over from the first to the second season of the series. The A-list cast is a big part of just how great this series is, with award winners, cult favorites, and solid acting stripes abound, the series continues to compile the best cast on TV with additions like Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood), Marcia Gay Harden, and Hurt. The second and third go hand in hand, the astounding writing for the series is what made it so attractive to these actors and actresses and the premiere already begins the twisty-turny spiral we’ve come to expect. Lastly, its an intelligent series that keeps the watcher engaged, everything in the series has a purpose, and as we saw last season, everyone is connected, everyone is manipulating someone else, everyone is dirty in some way, but who comes out on top is a matter of great discussion once we’re able to see how everything shakes out.

For those worried about the second season of the series, don’t, everything that made Damages one of the best drama series on TV is still intact and just as good as ever. Will the writers be able to sustain the series again for 13 episodes and include as many twists as last year? That’s still to be determined, but if the initial batch of episodes is any indication its going to be a great ride.

As the first ever direct sequel in the 22 film James Bond franchise, and the second film in the reboot series that started with Daniel Craig’s debut as 007 in Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace both impresses and disappoints. The impressive parts far outweigh the disappointments, however both sides of the coin need to be examined to fully see the film for what it is.

On the base level QoS is a direct sequel, heavy in the continuing story of Bond’s revenge crusade against the organization that plotted against him and turned his true love, Vesper Lynd, against him in the closing moments of Royale. The film picks up in a high chase sequence through the Italian countryside with Bond escorting Mr. White (whom he shot in the final moment of CR) to a meeting with M (Judi Dench) where things don’t go as planned. The organization’s reach is far beyond anything MI6 had envisioned and as the swift one hour-forty-five-minute film concludes the audience is left with a satisfied feeling.

Quantum is one long action sequence as director Marc Forster (Finding Neverland) never lets up from the gas peddle from the teaser sequence until the fiery ending in the Bolivian desert. They are chases on land, sea, and in the air, shoot outs, more free-style running with nary a moment for Bond to catch his breath before he’s on a plane to another country and involved in another shoot-out. The rapid pace of the film makes its already abbreviated running time feel even shorter. This could also be one of the film’s biggest weaknesses as the runtime doesn’t provide a lot of time for the character to be explored anymore than what we saw in Casino Royale. Here Bond is vengeful, hell-bent on destroying the organization that claimed his glimmer of happiness and in a borrowing of plot lines from both Die Another Day and License to Kill, he goes semi-rogue, even though M knows what he is doing at all times.

Still without anytime for Bond’s development, he falls into a 2D character that constantly milking the franchise over the past 40 years has produced on occasion. Even worse off is the film’s supposed big baddie in Mr. Greene (Mathieu Amalric) who is even less developed and never imposing enough to be seen as a threat. Greene plays the political game and is very hand’s off, much like CR‘s Le Chiffre, however where the dearly departed villain could stand toe to toe with Bond, even going so far as to torture him, Greene looks like a school boy and never oozes the confidence we’d like to see in a Bond villain.

Aside from the never ending comparisons to the franchise reboot predecessor, to which this film doesn’t quite approach in quality, Quantum is a great entry into the franchise and as an extension of Casino Royale rather than a separate film, its unparalleled in its quality with a satisfying ending and the door open to continue along the development of Quantum (the organization) and its dealings in the world as MI6 is no where closer to unraveling what makes them work at the conclusion of this film.

Quantum of Solace is a must for any Bond, Bourne, or action-movie fan, and while die hard franchise skeptics who won’t watch anything sans-Connery will be keen to spout off against the film and its declining quality in comparison to other films in the series, after the spectacular show that was Casino Royale, it was going to take a miracle to really top that masterpiece.

In the current landscape of the comedy world where it seems everything is made by a small group of actors and directors its nice to see a film with some new faces, even if one is a adolescent boy with a mouth like a sailor and an old friend we nearly forgot about. This friend would be Seann William Scott, long missing from the comedy world after the American PieRole Models trilogy, the actor can pull off sweet and charming while channeling smarmy and pretentious and does it with ease here in paired up with Apatow-alumni Paul Rudd.

Rudd has long been known in genre films as the go-to-guy for supporting roles focusing on disenfranchised, sarcastic spouses looking to reinvent themselves in a younger generation (see Knocked Up) but he’s never had the opportunity to carry a film, even if he steals every scene he’s in. Role Models is Rudd’s breakthrough leading-man role and, along with Scott, the banter between the two energy drink salesmen sentenced to community service is believable and, most importantly, funny.

After crashing a Minotaur-skinned truck into a statue Danny (Rudd) and Wheeler (Scott) are sentenced to community service as “Bigs” who befriend a couple “Littles” in the form of Ronnie (Bobb’e J. Thompson) and Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). Ronnie constantly belittles and makes Wheeler’s life miserable as he trudges through 150 hours of service, but eventually the two bond as Wheeler passes on tips about how to stair at boobs without getting caught. Danny has a harder time connecting with Augie who constantly involves himself in LAIRE not to be confused with very similar LARP.

The script is by the numbers for the most part, each of the grown men come to realize the error of their ways after exiling themselves from each other and their Littles. Danny has a subplot about attempting to reconnect with his lawyer ex-girlfriend and Wheeler just has a love obsession with KISS which plays into the final act of the story.

The comedic timing of all those involved is excellent, which makes the, otherwise, average plot flow much more cohesively and stay interesting even after you can spot plot revelations a mile away. The jokes are fresh, for the most part, but its all about the delivery and Scott’s everyman, slacker attitude plays well with Rudd’s high-strung, sarcastic view on life.

While many will mistake and attribute the film to Judd Apatow due to his stable of capable actors being utilized here, the film never needs to devolve into gross out humor to get its point across, a rarity these days, but a welcomed change. Role Models won’t change the genre but it certainly doesn’t hurt it either.

Returning for a third season on History is Cities of the Underworld hosted by Don Wildman as there continues to be an abundance of deep, dark holes filled with secrets about civilizations’ past. The season premiere sees Don dive into the City of Blood aka London and seek out the demonic past of the city itself and the surrounding area.

The first thing you notice about the London is the massive amounts of devilish orgies taking place in the past, it seems everything and every secret society revolved around sexual exploits with multiple partners at once, leading to what many believe was devil worship and the construction of gateways to the underworld. When showing these gateways the program continues its use of computer-aided cross sections and 3D graphics.

In the typical fashion of the genre Wildman torridly runs around the city and countryside from location to location speaking with local experts and getting some hands on experience with the subject in focus. The most interesting, and shortened, section of the program is a look at the popular serial killers Sweeny Todd and Jack the Ripper, even going into the dank spaces of London’s putrid sewer system to offer theories on how Jack might have gotten around undetected from crime scene to crime scene.

While the subject matter is new, for the most part, the format is familiar to anyone who has seen an “on-the-job” show such as Dirty Jobs. What is really annoying is the constant use of the same sound effect and light bloom when transitioning between graphic cutaways and coming back to Don. The bloom and the “ting” sound repeat nearly 40-50 wipes throughout the entire 45 minute episode wears on your last nerve pretty fast. If you’re able to turn out this sound, the episode, and series, offers plenty of interesting information with upcoming episodes focused on Okinawa, Sicily, and Sin City itself, Las Vegas.

With the first 3D re-release of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in 2006 Disney was so kind to release the soundtrack featuring all of the songs from the film as well as a bonus disc with cover versions of some of the most famous. The highlights being Marilyn Manson’s excellent cover of “This is Halloween“; and Fall Out Boy’s cover of “What’s This?“; Taking the collection to the next level this year sees the release of Nightmare Revisited, an entire album of cover songs with many different artists presenting new interpretations on the classics from the film.

What we’re left with is a mixed back of tracks from the excellent (Manson’s aforementioned “This is Halloween“;) to the excruciating unbearable (Sparklehorse’s cover of “Jack’s Obsession“;) and everything else falls into the permissible but forgettable category. Danny Elfman’s orchestrated opening and closing are the highlights of the album only because we’ve heard Manson’s track before, but everything that made the bonus disc two years ago so memorable has been stripped away.

Special mention is made to “Jack’s Obsession“; due to it being one of the best songs in the entire movie, however Sparklehorse’s murdering of the song is so bad after an initial listen through of the entire album the track has been permanently removed from my iPod, its really that bad. Things don’t get better in the beginning as Flyleaf’s “What’s This?“; rendition pails into comparison to Fall Out Boy.

There’s going to be a lot of debate on just how good some of these tracks are, and depending on which one’s you hold near and dear to your heart you’ll have a different opinion. The artists best suited to these covers are the band’s already provoking dark overtones such as Korn (“Kidnap the Sandy Claws“;) and Amy Lee from Evanescence (“Sally’s Song“). Other standouts include Rise Against’s rendition of “Making Christmas“; and The Polyphonic Spree’s “Town Meeting Song“; one of the longest on the album and a huge part of the film at 9 minutes long.

While thinking outside the box is admirable, messing with classic songs such as this with little regard for quality might overstep the bounds of many fans. Those looking for the originals can share in the excitement as the 2006 soundtrack is still available, but those looking for something different, might want to take a look at buying just the good songs off this album from one of the many digital outlets available.

What Max Payne does right via the video game source material, and there’s very little, it does great, but when it strays too far off course and tries to reinvent the decade old mythology of the acclaimed Rockstar Games series, it falls virtually flat.

Fans of the video games are not going to be happy with this movie in any capacity, there just isn’t enough left of the original story, which, itself was based on the detective noir classics of the 1940’s and 1950’s. Characters have been removed, plot points have been changed, and while Max Payne escapes the virtual disembowelment that was Hitman, it still is unfaithful to its core audience and mediocre to the general public, another missed opportunity in a long run of missed opportunities.

The film centers around Max Payne, a cold case desk jockey looking for the men who killed his wife and baby girl. While in the games Max goes to work for the DEA after immediately learning about the drug Valkyr, here it takes a better part of the movie for him to discover the circumstances behind his wife’s death and the connection to Aesir Pharmaceuticals. There’s a deeper conspiracy (of course) involving double crosses, a mercenary for hire in Mona Sax (Mila Kunis), and the discrediting of Payne himself. Gone missing are the entire “secret society” subplot with government’s involvement in bringing down Aesir and using Payne to do it for them. Sure there’s a tease at the end of the film for a sequel, but anything they include should have been included here in order to move on to the much superior story following Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne.

Generally Mark Walberg portrays the titular hero with ease and his general disdain for anyone and everyone comes across faithfully to the gruff graphic novel counterpart we see in the series. The dramatically underused Kunis in the role of Mona Sax is going to have the most fan uproar with the character being relegated to a backup character that is never put in the moral dilemma in which to kill Payne (in the game she refuses and is “killed” for her betrayal to her employers). Alex Balder (Donal Logue) survives the translation but is disposed of almost immediately (different from the game). The only character the really survives intact is B.B. Hensley (Beau Bridges) but by the time he appears on screen you’ve just stopped caring.

As a general movie, forgetting the source material, Max Payne is hardly above average with a general revenge story focusing on one wronged man aiming to take on the world to get to the bottom and put his wife and children to rest. The Punisher did this much better and even that isn’t saying much.

Max Payne will go down as yet another video game property brought to the big screen in such a sloppy manner that no one is going to like the results. How long before Hollywood realizes that to capitalize on the popularity of these games, they need to actually hire someone who has played and loves them to write and direct?

The transition from mini-series to regular show seems to be an easy one for The Starter Wife, however when your source material is based on a book, the real challenge is bring that series to life while still appeasing fans of the original works, and keeping the characters true to themselves and the audience.

The premiere episode of the series, “The Forty-Year-Old Virgin Queen” starts off curiously enough with Debra Messing in her best Elizabeth get-up proclaiming she has sworn off men, this curious flash, and another later in the episode showcasing the Creature’s creation in Frankenstein seemed horribly out of place in the dramedy. However, besides these scripting decision, The Starter Wife settles in nicely with its established characters, but for newcomers there isn’t a whole lot of character recapping besides Molly Kagan (Messing).

One of the biggest standouts, for better or worse, is the recasting of Kenny Kagan previously played by Peter Jacobson who is now in a fellowship on House. The producers chose to cast David Alan Basche in the role, which would make sense, except everything physically about this Kenny and the former-Kenny are completely different. Jacobson fit into the roll much better, everything about him and the way the character was played screamed Hollywood exec, however Basche, in no part his fault, just seems miss-cast when you look at the way the character was portrayed in the mini-series.

The series continues it’s lampooning of the Hollywood elite upper class and the art of making movies and surviving in such a world as $5000 boots are nothing. Messing brings Molly to life as a woman shunned from her previous life and looking for something new and independent, a way to make a name for herself and not just as an ex-wife of a Hollywood big timer. She brings the right balance of comedy and drama to the role, where appropriate, which is helped by a script that produces a few laugh-out-loud moments, but overall keeps things more sly than coming right out and forcing an applause light to blink.

The episode sets in motion a few different sub-plots and B-story lines for the secondary characters, the most notable is Chris Diamantopoulos’ Rodney who is hired as an interior designer for a big star and immediately begins crushing on him. Sure he’s the token gay guy in the ensemble, but he steals most of the scenes he’s in.

Newcomers to the show are suggested to pick up the mini-series on DVD and give it a go before diving into the series as to not be too lost on whom these characters are and why we find them where we do. Fans of the mini-series are sure to latch right back on where they left off, and it isn’t a terrible thing to do.