The 8th Annual DVDTalk Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Discussion Thread March 2019
03-27-19, 07:21 PM
#101
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: The 8th Annual DVDTalk Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Discussion Thread March 2019
The last Law & Order crossover:
7.12 “The Same Coin” Sheppard is back in the rotation but Lewis swaps a case with Falsone so she gets a slam dunk. It’s clear he doesn’t want to partner with her anymore. Munch and Mike investigate a hit-and-run and Gharty helps ID the victim based on a knife he was carrying that was standard issue in Vietnam. Munch gets it in his head to look up Gharty’s military file and all hell breaks loose. There’s an entire story about how Gharty tried to prevent a massacre but was ordered to stand down. That led to a general discharge for disobeying an order. The hit-and-run was an accident caused by a teenage joyrider changing the radio station.
7.13 “Homicide.com” In the early days of the Internet, NBC created a web series Homicide: Second Shift. Apparently, it was graphic novel format – I don’t remember ever checking out the site and NBC took it down. This episode was the second of a three-part crossover with the web series and it was self-contained. In the episode a woman’s murder is live-streamed and the killer sends evites to a second killing. The old school computer graphics and methods of accessing the Internet make me feel kinda old. This is Sheppard’s first red ball and her first major case since the beatdown, so she’s nervous and everyone has opinions. Gharty explains BBS and Stivers expressed surprise that her info is floating around without her permission. Her belief in privacy is so cute. The system crashed before the second murder because too many people signed on – sounds like what happened to me when I tried to by Hamilton tickets on Ticketmaster. The killer taunting Sheppard makes things worse but she signs onto the BBS and taunts him back. We even got the familiar sound of dial-up. The killer pulls a wild card and wants to post a third murder on Bayliss’ website. What galls me is that the number of views goes up each time as people know it’s real. That peek into humanity’s psyche feels real and unfortunate.
7.14 “A Case of Do or Die” Bayliss and Ballard get the death of a bride the day before her wedding. Neither they nor the ME can determine if it was an accident, suicide, or a robbery gone wrong. Sheppard and Mike investigate the death of a guy found dead in his seat at the movie theater. Turns out he was that guy who yelled out quotes and spoilers during the movie. The beloved Wallace Shawn plays the theater manager who spiked his popcorn because the obnoxious moviegoer was bad for business. G becomes a grandfather.
7.15 “Sideshow Pt 2” The last of the Law & Order crossovers and this was an overt reference to Independent Council Ken Starr. A woman is killed in Baltimore and dumped in NY. Turns out she was a lesbian and was having an affair with a white house staffer. The Indie Council is supposed to be looking into business corruption but suddenly gets very interested in the sex lives of every staffer. He strong arms McCoy and Danvers, even threatens the latter, sabotages their murder cases, and uses Mike to get information on the case. The case itself gets extremely convoluted and I won’t even try to explain it. Toward the beginning of the episode we get two conversations: one between Stivers and Ballard and one between Lewis and Falsone talking about Sheppard’s beatdown. Then Stivers confronts Sheppard about it and all of this feel like these scenes should have happened four episodes ago. Maybe they put it in for the Law & Order audience to explain why G asked her how it felt taking a door. As far as the threat toward Danvers, it turns out that when he was 14, he was a member of a gang and they beat up a black man. It should have been sealed as part of his juvie record, but the Council dug it up. G contacts the victim and it turns out that Danvers was the only one to apologize and make restitution. G also gathers the black police hierarchy to get them to support him but his aspirations to be a judge are dead.
7.12 “The Same Coin” Sheppard is back in the rotation but Lewis swaps a case with Falsone so she gets a slam dunk. It’s clear he doesn’t want to partner with her anymore. Munch and Mike investigate a hit-and-run and Gharty helps ID the victim based on a knife he was carrying that was standard issue in Vietnam. Munch gets it in his head to look up Gharty’s military file and all hell breaks loose. There’s an entire story about how Gharty tried to prevent a massacre but was ordered to stand down. That led to a general discharge for disobeying an order. The hit-and-run was an accident caused by a teenage joyrider changing the radio station.
7.13 “Homicide.com” In the early days of the Internet, NBC created a web series Homicide: Second Shift. Apparently, it was graphic novel format – I don’t remember ever checking out the site and NBC took it down. This episode was the second of a three-part crossover with the web series and it was self-contained. In the episode a woman’s murder is live-streamed and the killer sends evites to a second killing. The old school computer graphics and methods of accessing the Internet make me feel kinda old. This is Sheppard’s first red ball and her first major case since the beatdown, so she’s nervous and everyone has opinions. Gharty explains BBS and Stivers expressed surprise that her info is floating around without her permission. Her belief in privacy is so cute. The system crashed before the second murder because too many people signed on – sounds like what happened to me when I tried to by Hamilton tickets on Ticketmaster. The killer taunting Sheppard makes things worse but she signs onto the BBS and taunts him back. We even got the familiar sound of dial-up. The killer pulls a wild card and wants to post a third murder on Bayliss’ website. What galls me is that the number of views goes up each time as people know it’s real. That peek into humanity’s psyche feels real and unfortunate.
7.14 “A Case of Do or Die” Bayliss and Ballard get the death of a bride the day before her wedding. Neither they nor the ME can determine if it was an accident, suicide, or a robbery gone wrong. Sheppard and Mike investigate the death of a guy found dead in his seat at the movie theater. Turns out he was that guy who yelled out quotes and spoilers during the movie. The beloved Wallace Shawn plays the theater manager who spiked his popcorn because the obnoxious moviegoer was bad for business. G becomes a grandfather.
7.15 “Sideshow Pt 2” The last of the Law & Order crossovers and this was an overt reference to Independent Council Ken Starr. A woman is killed in Baltimore and dumped in NY. Turns out she was a lesbian and was having an affair with a white house staffer. The Indie Council is supposed to be looking into business corruption but suddenly gets very interested in the sex lives of every staffer. He strong arms McCoy and Danvers, even threatens the latter, sabotages their murder cases, and uses Mike to get information on the case. The case itself gets extremely convoluted and I won’t even try to explain it. Toward the beginning of the episode we get two conversations: one between Stivers and Ballard and one between Lewis and Falsone talking about Sheppard’s beatdown. Then Stivers confronts Sheppard about it and all of this feel like these scenes should have happened four episodes ago. Maybe they put it in for the Law & Order audience to explain why G asked her how it felt taking a door. As far as the threat toward Danvers, it turns out that when he was 14, he was a member of a gang and they beat up a black man. It should have been sealed as part of his juvie record, but the Council dug it up. G contacts the victim and it turns out that Danvers was the only one to apologize and make restitution. G also gathers the black police hierarchy to get them to support him but his aspirations to be a judge are dead.
03-30-19, 04:09 PM
#102
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: The 8th Annual DVDTalk Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Discussion Thread March 2019
My Homicide journey is officially finished:
7.16 “Truth Will Out” A woman comes into the squad and says she killed her baby brother 25 years ago. It was G’s first murdered child and he remembers the case. Falsone and Stivers exhume the body and it turns out that the mom killed the baby and blamed her daughter. Everyone has seen Bayliss’ website and the brass ask him to take it down. G tells him that but both agree that the request is unconstitutional on a couple different grounds. Everyone is giving Bayliss the cold shoulder and throwing out homophobic remarks. Sheppard rightfully shuts it down.
7.17 “Zen and the Art of Murder” Lewis continues to be a dick to just about everyone. A Buddhist monk is murdered and G asks Bayliss to help since he knows some of the people involved. He cuts Bayliss off, doesn’t listen to his suggestions, and tells Bayliss he can’t work cases when he is emotionally involved. Turns out that the suspect Lewis dismissed not only committed the crime but takes two shots at Bayliss. Bayliss kills the suspect and is emotionally wrecked over the shooting which was clearly justified. Ballard and Gharty investigate a shooting with three witnesses but they have conflicting identifications. The storyline does a halfway decent job of dealing with cross-racial identifications.
7.18 “Self Defense” Stivers and Falsone investigate a man who was murdered in his own bed. Turns out the killer is a US Attorney which causes Danvers and Mike to get very protective. She uses battered wife syndrome as a defense and there is a documented history of abuse but Stivers and Falsone have doubts. In other Lewis is still being a dick news, he originally tries to go out on a case by himself but reluctantly partners with Ballard. He then ditches her partway through the investigation. So he won’t work with women and won’t work with Bayliss; he’s running out of options. G is up for a captain’s position and Barnfather says no strings attached. When G can’t get the battered wife case tossed, his promotion goes up in smoke. Mike found evidence that the crime was premeditated but he sat on it to protect G. When G finds out, they go straight to Danvers. Yaphet Kotto wrote the teleplay.
7.20 “Lines of Fire” Kathryn Bigelow directed this episode. Mike negotiates with a man who has taken his two kids hostage and threatens to blow the building. When the mom arrives, mentally unstable dad shoots out the window and kills her. In the end, everything goes sideways: the dad releases the daughter because she isn’t his but he kills his son and himself. Great performance by Esposito.
7.21 “The Why Chromosome” Sheppard and Ballard investigate the murder of a high school student. It’s apparently a big deal to have two female detectives work a case; however, in “Bones of Contention,” Stivers and Ballard go out on a case together. We have a female victim, female suspects, female witnesses, female detectives and two female murderers. Equal opportunity craziness. We have another actor from The Wire: JD Williams makes an appearance and gets a much-deserved manhandling by Sheppard. Munch and Billie Lou are abstaining until the wedding and their nuptials are postponed when the latter is assaulted.
7.19 “Identity Crisis” Falsone and Lewis investigate the murder of a man whose nose was removed. The killers are in witness protection and haven’t adjusted to life in the suburbs. Mike quits the Bureau after they burned him again. The ME calls Bayliss and Munch to the morgue because they have one too many bodies in the freezer. Some poor guy was stabbed in the freezer. Ballard has a conversation with Gharty about his drinking as they investigate a crossdresser whose robbing and murdering folks. The high heels and the fact that he wrote the bank robbery note on the back of a check that had his name on it gives the game away.
7.22 Forgive Us Our Trespasses” The Internet killer from “Homicide.com” is released due to a technicality: after 184 days without a trial, his charges are dismissed. This in hindsight, this storyline is a mess given that in the real world, Kalief Browder was held for three years, two of them in solitary, without a trial for allegedly stealing a backpack. Bayliss got so pissed that he pushed Danvers down the stairs. G asks Bayliss to apologize, on the occasion of his promotion and then orders him to apologize. Bayliss balks. G’s promotion would require him to move to property crimes and at the 11th hour, he declines the promotion. He realizes his heart isn’t in administration. We finally meet his second daughter played by the incomparable Audra McDonald. Munch and Billie Lou get married. Munch ends up at the bar and admits that he came a little too soon as they were consummating their marriage. Bayliss confronts the Internet killer and he basically admits he’s moving to New Orleans to kill more women. The next day Bayliss packs up his desk and leaves without saying goodbye telling anyone that’s he’s quitting. There’s a cool montage of the series’ as he walks at the door. Lewis continues to be an ass and rub Sheppard’s face in the beatdown. He continues to forget the fact that his dirt with Mahoney led to multiple cops getting killed and everyone getting shot at. He finally gets over himself and partners with Sheppard. Turns out, it’s the Internet killer. The show ends as it begins: with Lewis saying if he could just find the shell casing he could go home and the fact that this job has nothing to do with life. Full circle.
Homicide: The Movie We open with the fact that G is running for mayor, is the favorite going into the last week of the campaign and is holding a press conference at the harbor where he will discuss the legalization of drugs. Timely topic in 2019. He takes the stage and is shot before he says a word. Now I don’t mind that they shot G. The writers knew they needed a big enough case to get the entire cast back and that really was the only thing that would bring everyone together. We get a montage of scenes showing how each person reacts to the news of the shooting. Lewis and Falsone arrive at a crime scene and we find Mike in a uniform: he’s working on his detective shield. Gharty is the Lt of the squad and he breaks the news to Ballard, Sheppard and Stivers; Howard is arresting a fugitive and runs at the news; Kellerman’s taking dirty pictures and hears the news on his scanner; Munch is in NY and gets a cell phone call. Bolander is home drinking a beer and sees it on TV; Bayliss is fishing in a stream and gets the call; Pembleton is teaching a religion class and a priest breaks the news. Russert shows up at the hospital and so does Brodie. Some dumb ass reporter confronts Mike as he enters the hospital and shoves a mic in his face asking how he feels. WTF? Gharty briefs the squad and we have a new detective played by Jason Priestley. Priestley loses it with a potential suspect and Gharty has to restrain them both. Apparently, he is Gaffney’s boy because Gaffney comes down and forces Gharty to apologize. Gaffney kicks Pembleton out so he leaves to do his own investigation and takes Bayliss with him. Bayliss jumps at seeing the Internet killer’s name on the board and Pembleton calls him on it as Lewis fills him in on the lack of details. They go back over old cases and talk to suspects which leads the viewers down episode memory lane. As the doctors are operating, a man comes in and starts shooting: this guy REALLY wants G dead. Ed Begley Jr. is the surgeon who works on G. Cox and Grissom admire his work later and Kellerman contributes by watching Mike beat up potential suspects. Turns out the shooter is a grieving father who lost his son to drugs and he is pissed about G’s legalization proposal. Pembleton and Bayliss get the guy who is eager to confess and basically turns himself in when they knock on his door. Pembleton tells Bayliss that the reason he left Homicide was because he couldn’t handle hearing one more confession. Of course, despite this, Bayliss confesses to Pembleton that he murdered the Internet killer and he wants/needs Pembleton to bring him in so Pembleton’s last act is turning Bayliss in. The episode ends with everyone at The Waterfront celebrating until Brodie comes in and tells them that G died. G walks into the squad room with the ghost of all the murder victims, including Adena Watson, and is greeted by Felton and Crosetti playing cards. We get a montage of G’s interactions with the various characters. My anger toward this movie after all these years has not dissipated. Not because it’s bad; it’s quite good but I can’t forgive the writers for killing G.
7.16 “Truth Will Out” A woman comes into the squad and says she killed her baby brother 25 years ago. It was G’s first murdered child and he remembers the case. Falsone and Stivers exhume the body and it turns out that the mom killed the baby and blamed her daughter. Everyone has seen Bayliss’ website and the brass ask him to take it down. G tells him that but both agree that the request is unconstitutional on a couple different grounds. Everyone is giving Bayliss the cold shoulder and throwing out homophobic remarks. Sheppard rightfully shuts it down.
7.17 “Zen and the Art of Murder” Lewis continues to be a dick to just about everyone. A Buddhist monk is murdered and G asks Bayliss to help since he knows some of the people involved. He cuts Bayliss off, doesn’t listen to his suggestions, and tells Bayliss he can’t work cases when he is emotionally involved. Turns out that the suspect Lewis dismissed not only committed the crime but takes two shots at Bayliss. Bayliss kills the suspect and is emotionally wrecked over the shooting which was clearly justified. Ballard and Gharty investigate a shooting with three witnesses but they have conflicting identifications. The storyline does a halfway decent job of dealing with cross-racial identifications.
7.18 “Self Defense” Stivers and Falsone investigate a man who was murdered in his own bed. Turns out the killer is a US Attorney which causes Danvers and Mike to get very protective. She uses battered wife syndrome as a defense and there is a documented history of abuse but Stivers and Falsone have doubts. In other Lewis is still being a dick news, he originally tries to go out on a case by himself but reluctantly partners with Ballard. He then ditches her partway through the investigation. So he won’t work with women and won’t work with Bayliss; he’s running out of options. G is up for a captain’s position and Barnfather says no strings attached. When G can’t get the battered wife case tossed, his promotion goes up in smoke. Mike found evidence that the crime was premeditated but he sat on it to protect G. When G finds out, they go straight to Danvers. Yaphet Kotto wrote the teleplay.
7.20 “Lines of Fire” Kathryn Bigelow directed this episode. Mike negotiates with a man who has taken his two kids hostage and threatens to blow the building. When the mom arrives, mentally unstable dad shoots out the window and kills her. In the end, everything goes sideways: the dad releases the daughter because she isn’t his but he kills his son and himself. Great performance by Esposito.
7.21 “The Why Chromosome” Sheppard and Ballard investigate the murder of a high school student. It’s apparently a big deal to have two female detectives work a case; however, in “Bones of Contention,” Stivers and Ballard go out on a case together. We have a female victim, female suspects, female witnesses, female detectives and two female murderers. Equal opportunity craziness. We have another actor from The Wire: JD Williams makes an appearance and gets a much-deserved manhandling by Sheppard. Munch and Billie Lou are abstaining until the wedding and their nuptials are postponed when the latter is assaulted.
7.19 “Identity Crisis” Falsone and Lewis investigate the murder of a man whose nose was removed. The killers are in witness protection and haven’t adjusted to life in the suburbs. Mike quits the Bureau after they burned him again. The ME calls Bayliss and Munch to the morgue because they have one too many bodies in the freezer. Some poor guy was stabbed in the freezer. Ballard has a conversation with Gharty about his drinking as they investigate a crossdresser whose robbing and murdering folks. The high heels and the fact that he wrote the bank robbery note on the back of a check that had his name on it gives the game away.
7.22 Forgive Us Our Trespasses” The Internet killer from “Homicide.com” is released due to a technicality: after 184 days without a trial, his charges are dismissed. This in hindsight, this storyline is a mess given that in the real world, Kalief Browder was held for three years, two of them in solitary, without a trial for allegedly stealing a backpack. Bayliss got so pissed that he pushed Danvers down the stairs. G asks Bayliss to apologize, on the occasion of his promotion and then orders him to apologize. Bayliss balks. G’s promotion would require him to move to property crimes and at the 11th hour, he declines the promotion. He realizes his heart isn’t in administration. We finally meet his second daughter played by the incomparable Audra McDonald. Munch and Billie Lou get married. Munch ends up at the bar and admits that he came a little too soon as they were consummating their marriage. Bayliss confronts the Internet killer and he basically admits he’s moving to New Orleans to kill more women. The next day Bayliss packs up his desk and leaves without saying goodbye telling anyone that’s he’s quitting. There’s a cool montage of the series’ as he walks at the door. Lewis continues to be an ass and rub Sheppard’s face in the beatdown. He continues to forget the fact that his dirt with Mahoney led to multiple cops getting killed and everyone getting shot at. He finally gets over himself and partners with Sheppard. Turns out, it’s the Internet killer. The show ends as it begins: with Lewis saying if he could just find the shell casing he could go home and the fact that this job has nothing to do with life. Full circle.
Homicide: The Movie We open with the fact that G is running for mayor, is the favorite going into the last week of the campaign and is holding a press conference at the harbor where he will discuss the legalization of drugs. Timely topic in 2019. He takes the stage and is shot before he says a word. Now I don’t mind that they shot G. The writers knew they needed a big enough case to get the entire cast back and that really was the only thing that would bring everyone together. We get a montage of scenes showing how each person reacts to the news of the shooting. Lewis and Falsone arrive at a crime scene and we find Mike in a uniform: he’s working on his detective shield. Gharty is the Lt of the squad and he breaks the news to Ballard, Sheppard and Stivers; Howard is arresting a fugitive and runs at the news; Kellerman’s taking dirty pictures and hears the news on his scanner; Munch is in NY and gets a cell phone call. Bolander is home drinking a beer and sees it on TV; Bayliss is fishing in a stream and gets the call; Pembleton is teaching a religion class and a priest breaks the news. Russert shows up at the hospital and so does Brodie. Some dumb ass reporter confronts Mike as he enters the hospital and shoves a mic in his face asking how he feels. WTF? Gharty briefs the squad and we have a new detective played by Jason Priestley. Priestley loses it with a potential suspect and Gharty has to restrain them both. Apparently, he is Gaffney’s boy because Gaffney comes down and forces Gharty to apologize. Gaffney kicks Pembleton out so he leaves to do his own investigation and takes Bayliss with him. Bayliss jumps at seeing the Internet killer’s name on the board and Pembleton calls him on it as Lewis fills him in on the lack of details. They go back over old cases and talk to suspects which leads the viewers down episode memory lane. As the doctors are operating, a man comes in and starts shooting: this guy REALLY wants G dead. Ed Begley Jr. is the surgeon who works on G. Cox and Grissom admire his work later and Kellerman contributes by watching Mike beat up potential suspects. Turns out the shooter is a grieving father who lost his son to drugs and he is pissed about G’s legalization proposal. Pembleton and Bayliss get the guy who is eager to confess and basically turns himself in when they knock on his door. Pembleton tells Bayliss that the reason he left Homicide was because he couldn’t handle hearing one more confession. Of course, despite this, Bayliss confesses to Pembleton that he murdered the Internet killer and he wants/needs Pembleton to bring him in so Pembleton’s last act is turning Bayliss in. The episode ends with everyone at The Waterfront celebrating until Brodie comes in and tells them that G died. G walks into the squad room with the ghost of all the murder victims, including Adena Watson, and is greeted by Felton and Crosetti playing cards. We get a montage of G’s interactions with the various characters. My anger toward this movie after all these years has not dissipated. Not because it’s bad; it’s quite good but I can’t forgive the writers for killing G.
03-30-19, 06:43 PM
#103
Re: The 8th Annual DVDTalk Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Discussion Thread March 2019
After decades of putting it off I finally saw The French Connection this afternoon. I don't get why this is supposed to be a "good" movie, much less a Best Picture Oscar winner (but I think that about the majority of "Best Picture" winners). It has a decent chase sequence and that's about it. Even for the time in which it was made it feels rather lackluster (yes, I could have seen it during the original release had I chosen to do so). I'll take any 30s/40s gangster or noir movie any day over this one.
03-30-19, 10:24 PM
#105
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
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Re: The 8th Annual DVDTalk Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Discussion Thread March 2019
After decades of putting it off I finally saw The French Connection this afternoon. I don't get why this is supposed to be a "good" movie, much less a Best Picture Oscar winner (but I think that about the majority of "Best Picture" winners). It has a decent chase sequence and that's about it. Even for the time in which it was made it feels rather lackluster (yes, I could have seen it during the original release had I chosen to do so). I'll take any 30s/40s gangster or noir movie any day over this one.
03-31-19, 11:46 PM
#107
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
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Re: The 8th Annual DVDTalk Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Discussion Thread March 2019
As the challenge winds down, I just want to thank everyone for participating. Remember, the April B-movie challenge is also starting so you will have a few more hours to get double credit depending on what you watch.
I am going to be turning in in a bit. Just finished a viewing of Zhang Yimou's Hero, which I don't think I have seen in about 15 years. Really breathtaking stuff.
Hope everyone had fun this month and watched some good stuff. Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions for next year's challenge.
I am going to be turning in in a bit. Just finished a viewing of Zhang Yimou's Hero, which I don't think I have seen in about 15 years. Really breathtaking stuff.
Hope everyone had fun this month and watched some good stuff. Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions for next year's challenge.
04-01-19, 01:50 PM
#108
Re: The 8th Annual DVDTalk Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Discussion Thread March 2019
I finished by watching S7 of Game of Thrones. I had a few other movies I'd wanted to get in but they just didn't make it. Most qualify for other challenges so it's not a big deal...
I had a good year and watched lots of content.
Thanks for running things Greg!
I had a good year and watched lots of content.
Thanks for running things Greg!
04-01-19, 05:15 PM
#109
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: The 8th Annual DVDTalk Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Discussion Thread March 2019
I enjoyed my Homicide re-watch so thanks Greg for hosting this challenge. Now I'm hoping over to the TV Forum to begin my re-watch of The Wire
04-01-19, 05:53 PM
#110
DVD Talk Legend
Re: The 8th Annual DVDTalk Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Discussion Thread March 2019
Thanks for hosting Greg! I still need to make my write up on my last viewings for this challenge.
04-02-19, 10:28 AM
#111
Moderator
Re: The 8th Annual DVDTalk Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Discussion Thread March 2019
even thought I didn't see a lot of movies for this challenge, I paced myself really well and manage to watch every subgenre of this challenge, mixing some animation with live action, a documentary, a couple of TV shows: Travel Channel's new series Mysteries Declassified is fascinating and highly recommended.
