• Truth or Square - It's the eleventy-seventh anniversary of the Krusty Krab and SpongeBob can't wait to celebrate. At the same time, it's the tenth anniversary of the Patchy the Pirate's SpongeBob Fanclub and he's trying to get the real SpongeBob to appear on his show, along with some celebrities. Things don't go quite as planned (for either group) with the gang getting trapped in the freezer, so they spend their time trying to get out, but mostly reminiscing.
• Porous Pockets - SpongeBob and Patrick find a massive pearl and they sell it for a small fortune. Will this money change SpongeBob? Of course it will.
• Choir Boys - Squidward tries out with the Bikini Bottom Men's Choir and SpongeBob wants to come along.
• Krusty Krushers - With a million dollar cash prize up for grabs, Krusty tricks SpongeBob and Patrick into wrestling the tag-team champions.
• The Card - SpongeBob spends all of his money trying to get a rare animated, holographic, talking Mermaidman and Barnacleboy trading card. But while he fails to get one, Patrick finds one in the first pack he buys. However, Patrick has no idea of its worth, so it is up to SpongeBob to make sure he keeps it safe.

Extras include a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the special opening for the anniversary show, which used various animation techniques. There is also a karaoke version of a few of the songs featured in the episodes on this DVD.

SpongeBob SquarePants - Truth or Square is worth picking up if you are a fan of the show. However, it is also likely worth waiting to grab as part of the full season DVD release, which won't be too far away.

Ashley Greene stars as the titular Summer whom we meet hitchhiking to the small town of Massey to find the father she never met. She has a brief run in with the law, but she is saved by the handsome handyman, Tom (Peter Mooney). After a couple of drinks, they share a night together, but the next morning he turns from prince charming to psycho, and not just a regular type of psycho, as it turns out he's got a garden in the basement where he not only grows plants, but keeps his garden angels -- women he's kidnapped. But this is a case of the nut not falling far from the tree and when his dad comes home, there will be one hell of a reunion.

This is a horror film with exactly one interesting idea, the concept of the human garden angels. However, this idea is never developed fully and is dropped halfway through the movie for a more conventional demented family plot. What you have instead is a very conventional movie with poor execution right from the start. Part of the problem is stupid characters; characters doing stupid things because they need to move the plot forward. We meet Summer hitchhiking and the first person we see pick her up turns out to be someone who only offers her a ride in exchange for sex. She's clearly not into this deal, so what does she do? She spends the night with the very next man that offers her a ride. It makes no sense. The big twist partway through the film is telegraphed almost from the beginning, while the ending is so abrupt that it felt like they forgot to film the real ending and just put out the movie as it was.

The only real extra on the DVD is a nine-minute behind-the-scenes / making of featurette.

Summer's Moon is a movie that is coming out mainly because of its tenuous connection to Twilight. This is not the first film I've reviewed where this is true, and it likely won't be the last. There's little here to set it apart from the crowded genre, while the DVD doesn't have enough extras to lift it to even the rental level.

Taxi - Season Four - Buy from Amazon
Thank goodness I got this review done this week, because it won't be that long until the final season comes out and I don't want to be a full season behind on the review.

We are up to season four of five. This is the first season without Jeff Conaway, whose character left to go to Hollywood at the end of season three. He does return for a guest spot this season, which is one of the highlight episodes of this season. Simka also returns partway through the season, which is great news for me, as I always liked her character, and her return is more permanent and her and Latka try to get married in a later episode. Other strong episodes include Vienna Waits where Alex and Elaine go on vacation together as platonic friends under the agreement that if one of them hooks up, the other won't get upset. Alex figures Elaine might get jealous over all the attention he receives, but it doesn't turn out that way. In Louie Goes Too Far, Louie spies on Elaine while she changes, but when he's caught, she gets him fired. The only way to get his job back is to convince Elaine that he's truly remorseful. Ernie Hudson has a guest spot as an up-and-coming boxer that Tony wants to train, but he has competition from The Syndicate, who are trying to steal him away.

Those are not the only hits, while there are a few of episodes I would say missed the mark. Overall I would say the hits outnumber the misses by a three to one ratio, which is an excellent ratio.

On the other hand, the only extras are episodic promos, which I don't consider real extras.

During its five year run, Taxi was nominated for 34 Emmys and 26 Golden Globes, and won 18 of the former and 5 of the later. There was not a single bad season during the show's entire run, and Season Four is no exception. Even without any real extras, it is still worth picking up.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Season 8 - Buy from Amazon
The oldest of the late DVDs I have to review, which means I'm completely caught up. ... Until the next batch of late DVDs show up.

Long time fans of the show will notice major changes in the show this season right from the beginning. Literally from the very beginning, as the theme song has been changed and the opening credits incorporate some of the live action shots from the movie. There is also a major change in the tone of the show, which is now darker, while some of the more, how to put this, clownish villains are seen no more. A lot of the time is still spend dealing with Kang and Shredder, who are trying to get back in contact with Dimension X, but other villains are here as well. This includes Titanus, the leader of Highly Advanced Variety Of Creatures, a.k.a. H.A.V.O.C., which is the focus of a three-part story arc in the middle of the season.

The darker tone of the series takes a bit of getting used to, and the new theme song just isn't as catchy, but the overall quality is as good as most of the earlier seasons. On the other hand, at only 8 episodes this is the shortest season since the first one, and there are no extras on this single-disc DVD.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Season 8 is the first of the "Red Sky" seasons, which represented a darker tone for the show and a greater emphasis on action over humor. This is either a welcome change for those who preferred the darker tone of the original comic book, or the end of a show they followed for nearly a decade. The lack of extras on the DVD is disappointing, but it is hard to argue with that price.

Up is this week's featured DVD Review. Click here to read the review.

X-Men - Buy from Amazon: Volume Three and Volume Four
Trying to catch up on all the late reviews. This one is easier than most, because I've reviewed the first two volumes here. It also helps that the X-Men are arguably the most famous super hero team on all of comic book history, which further reduces the amount of background information I need to give on this 1990s cartoon. Instead, I can jump right into the highlight episodes.

Like the previous releases, volume three has a balance of one-off episodes and multi-story arcs. However, unlike volume one, the balance is shifted to the one-off stories. The 2-disc set does start out with a two-part story with the X-Men traveling to the Savage Land, a land ruled by cavemen and dinosaurs, including the mutant known as Sauron. The main story on this set, however, is The Dark Phoenix, a four-part story that follows up on The Phoenix Saga from volume two. These four episodes will be enough to convince fans of the show to buy this DVD. That said, there are also stand out episodes including Obsession, which has Archangel continuing his quest to destroy the immortal Apocalypse. Wolverine leans more about his past in Weapon X, Lies, and Video Tape, while an alternate timeline version of Wolverine and Storm must stop an assassin from killing Professor X in the past in One Man's Worth - Part 1 and 2.

The highlight of Volume Four is Beyond Good and Evil, which is a four-part story with the return of Apocalypse. Other strong episodes include Sanctuary, where Magneto constructs an orbiting space station as a home for mutants, but betrayal from within threatens his paradise. All of disc two are single episodes, but almost all are merely average. The season finale, Family Ties, is the best of the second disc. In that episode Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch and Magneto are lured to Wundagore valley separately, but when there they will learn of a powerful connection between the three. It is important to note that while there are not as many great episodes, almost all are worth checking out and most have enough replay value that the two-disc set is worth picking up.

There are no extras on either disc, but both have play all buttons, subtitles, and proper chapter placements.

While I wish X-Men Volume Three and Volume Four were loaded with extras, they are loaded with quality episodes. For fans of the show, or of the comic in general, both are worth picking up, and I look forward to reviewing the fifth and final series soon.