With the market on fairy tale princesses seemingly cornered by the House of Mouse, it is nothing short of a miracle that Sony managed to be the first to snag the story of "Swan Lake" for an animated musical adaptation. Now, twenty-five years later, THE SWAN PRINCESS makes a dazzling appearance on Blu-ray, just in time for the holidays.

It took six episodes, but BATWOMAN has delivered a one-and-done murder mystery that was both compelling and character elevating.

There's a new villain in town, who wears an executioner's mask and carries an axe. When he electrocutes a prominent Gotham City prosecutor, whose most famous case was the conviction of Jack Napier, aka The Joker, the GCPD fire up the Bat-signal, seeking help from the city's new bearer of the mantle. This infuriates Jake Kane (DOUGRAY SCOTT), leader of the Crows, and he vows to capture this killer before Batwoman (RUBY ROSE).

Kate (EMILIA CLARKE) is a professional elf in the employ of Santa. No, she's not at the North Pole; Santa is her grouchy Asian boss, played by MICHELLE YEOH. Kate's a bit of a cock-up, going from flat to flat, wherever she can find a friend who will let her flop for the night. Her parents live in town, but she can't stand being around her overprotective mother. Kate's attitude also carries over into her job, which she treats with apathy and carelessness, being more focused on getting the big audition that will launch her music career.

When she encounters Tom (HENRY GOLDING), her life begins to slowly change. She finds him weird at first, and she continues dating other people (if we define dating as "sleeping around"). But the more she bumps into him, the more she is drawn to this blissfully zen-like man, who is always "looking up" and finding new things to appreciate.

Before we talk about Knives Out, the new film written, produced and directed by Rian Johnson, I feel it's important to mention that I went into this movie fully intending to hate it. Is that unprofessional for a movie critic? Sure, probably, but I still get intensely angry during any discussion of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The original trilogy is as much a part of me as my lungs, spleen and heart. Are we clear on this? The Hulk rage was simmering just below my skin (it's all Disney now, so I can mix pop culture references with reckless abandon, right?), and I was sure I would explode in my seat within the first ten minutes.

I sat. I watched. At times I stroked my chin as I do when I'm really concentrating. And I watched. I chuckled. I nodded. I liked it. I liked it a lot!

Damn you, Rian Johnson!

PLAYING WITH FIRE is the kind of family comedy we've seen before: kids vs. adults, with the kids safely maneuvering around dangerous situations, while formerly unflappable adults are suddenly incapable of handling themselves because they are new to dealing with children.

That's the setup for when a crew of smokejumpers go to a cabin fire, where they find three kids -- Brynn (DEADPOOL's BRIANNA HILDEBRAND), Will (CHRISTIAN CONVERY, DESCENDENTS 3), and Zoey (FINLEY ROSE SLATER in her acting debut) -- huddled under a piece of debris. Superintendent "Supe" Jake Carson (JOHN CENA, BUMBLEBEE) pulls them out of harm's way, and almost immediately comic incompetence ensues.

At the end of the previous episode, the AIMS Team had done something they had never done before: caught something in one of their elaborate traps. Granted, it wasn't a Bigfoot. In fact, it was just some guy in a black cloak, carrying a torch through the woods.

But the guy must have been David Copperfield, because by the time they got to the trap, all that was there was the torch. The cloaked figure had apparently tossed out some Floo Powder and apparated on them. They open the trap and test the floor, which crumbles at the slightest pressure, which tells them this cloaked figure doesn't touch the ground when he walks.

Confused, bewildered, and bumfuzzled, the team decides to get some advice from Merlin.. or rather, what we get is...

As the Crisis looms, Barry (GRANT GUSTIN) has been preparing the members of Team Flash for life without him. And key to doing that is...

...taking a beach vacation with Iris (CANDICE PATTON). Which means it's time for another episode of Everybody But Flash.

Realizing he will have to make difficult decisions as future team leader, Cisco (CARLOS VALDES) had developed the B.A.R.I. -- an AI system that thinks like Barry Allen to help him know the right thing to do. (Because a computer system that knows what The Flash would do in any given situation could never be used for ill intent in the wrong hands.) 

With the focus on Vibe and his new girlfriend, Kamilla (VICTORIA PARK), we learn something new about Cisco: that he hasn't told her he loves her, even though he's sleeping with her. Oh, that, and he's been sleepwalking lately.

If you haven't been giving BATWOMAN a fair shake, then you've missed out on what is a bone-chilling and disturbing episode, as we get the origin behind the death of Beth Kane -- and her rebirth as Alice. RACHEL SKARSTEN gets a chance to really shine as her character has a clandestine meeting with her sister, Kate Kane (RUBY ROSE), and we are taken back to how Beth survived the car accident -- fished out of the river but then kept captive by a sociopath and his young son with a preternatural gift for vocal mimicry.

The young boy is now a man, of course, and he is the "Mouse" (SAM LITTLEFIELD) that Alice has been looking for, freeing him from Arkham to participate in whatever plan it is she has concocted. They're friends, even though he's partly responsible for her captivity as a child, forced to use his gifts under duress in order to throw Beth's father (DOUGRAY SCOTT) off her trail.

Over the past several years, the broadcast bands get more and more flooded with sentimental holiday romance films. From Hallmark to Lifetime, from the occasional theatrical release to the annually repeated standards, the plethora of yuletide romance flicks are thick enough to drown in your own pile of tissues. They blend into each other, become predictable. Often you can recognize the plot from another movie and see they've merely changed the names, or the career, or made the single mom with a too-cute son a single dad with a precocious daughter. So it takes a lot for a new Christmas feature to stand out from the pack.

CHRISTMAS JARS, from Director Jonathan Wright, does more than stand out -- it stands apart, wasting no time at all in grabbing the viewer by the heart and squeezing.

Disney is on a roll when it comes to producing "live action" versions of their animated classics, and their release of THE LION KING is no exception. Now, with Christmas on a collision course with all of us, the House of Mouse has released this CGI masterpiece to the home video market, including Blu-ray and Digital.

There have been a few moments in the Batman mythos that have been truly memorable, have truly changed the landscape for the fans. (If you ask Robert Greenberger, there are at least 100 of these, but that's a review for later this week.) 

One such moment came in 1999, when a new animated series took Batman into the near-future; where Bruce Wayne (KEVIN CONROY) is a retired octogenarian, and Terry McGinnis (WILL FRIEDLE) as the latest heir to the mantle, in a New Gotham that has a whole new set of problems.

When we are introduced to the series, Bruce is wearing the jet-black, tricked-out costume. But his age is catching up with him, and his heart isn't holding up. When he finds himself grabbing a dropped gun to defend himself against a common thug, he's horrified at what he's doing, and seals up the Batcave for good.

Every month the staff at Critical Blast combs the cosplay community for up and coming cosplayers who deserve to have a broader audience for their work, taking into account not only costuming skills and spirit, but also how they use that ability in service to others. Through this, we've not only met some talented cosplayers, but also some fine human beings.

Just because Halloween has become a pile of empty chocolate bar wrappers on the kitchen table doesn't mean that dress-up time is over. As we move into a season of gratitude for all good things, we are thankful for all the Bombshells we have encountered this year, and none less than this month's versatile costumer  Ladies and gentlement, it is our distinct privilege to now present to you our...

"Halloween" is perhaps the spookiest episode of RIVERDALE to come down the pike, hitting on just about every urban legend trope and pulling off a number of shot recreations. But before we get into all that, can I just say that it was worth the past three years to finally get a live-action Pureheart the Powerful and The Shield? Who wants to see these characters make a split-second cameo appearance in CW's upcoming CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS? Show of hands?

When we last saw the team, they were chasing the Cherokee Death Cat, and had come upon a barn with a giant grapevine wreath, that must have cost at least $200 at Hobby Lobby, framing the entrance to a door stenciled with the visage of the Death Cat. The door is free standing -- like it just grew up out of the ground, they note. As they investigate this structure, off in the weeds, they spot a little girl. And so the team does what they seem to repeatedly do best: they chase a little girl through the woods in the dark. Honestly, people are going to start to talk.

She runs off as Buck and Jeff give chase, while Huck goes around the back of the barn to investigate a noise. Much growling is heard, and when they get close to the girl, she stops -- back to them -- and points off into the distance with a bloody arm. Then, another growl, and while they're distracted, she disappears.

In tonight's Halloween episode, the title is "There Will Be Blood" and there's a bio-restorative formula at play. What an opportunity to get an cameo from Swamp Thing that we... don't get. But, moving onward.

Flash (GRANT GUSTIN) is still resigned to the fact that he is fated to die in the upcoming Crisis in order for the universe to survive. In the previous episode, Flash tried to prepare the team for his inevitable passing by taking Killer Frost (DANIELLE PANABAKER) under his wing to teach her to be a better hero. This week, he decides to spend some one-on-one time with Cisco Ramon (CARLOS VALDES), the former Vibe, because he's picked him to be the team leader when he's gone. Which, I suppose, will be Team Frozen Stretch, without the speedster around.

Has it really been twenty years since TIM ALLEN, SIGOURNEY WEAVER, ALAN RICKMAN, TONY SHALHOUB, SAM ROCKWELL and DARYL MITCHELL took off aboard the NSEA Protector to explore the farthest corners of the galaxy -- only to have their voyage cancelled on a cliffhanger? See, GALAXY QUEST was just a television show, a science fiction classic beloved by fans and made into the centerpiece of conventions, much to the chagrin of the actors of the series -- Jason Nesmith, Gwen DeMarco, Alexander Dane, Fred Kwan, Guy Fleegman, and Tommy Webber -- who found themselves typecast into their roles and condemned to make a living through special appearances and autographing photos. The only one really into it is Nesmith (ALLEN), but when he overhears two teens talking about how pathetic his life must be, it shakes his confidence.

The story of Alice (RACHEL SKARSTEN) deepens as Kate (RUBY ROSE) learns just what it means personally to take on the mantle of the bat.

Gotham City has a new supervillain problem -- a catburglar who likes to steal shiny objects. No, it's not Selina Kyle. It's Magpie (RACHEL MATTHEWS), a thief with a bird-motif, who steals expensive baubles and uses small grenades as her getaway weapon. In the comics, Magpie was a bit deeper than that -- her psychosis caused her to leave something in trade for the objects she stole, which would explode when moved. After a string of robberies -- one in which she escapes Batwoman, whose miss of a returning batarang causes expensive collateral damage -- Magpie sets her sights on a special piece of jewelry: the pearls worn by Martha Wayne the night she was murdered. Visually, they're not much of a display, but historically they carry a provenance special to Gothamites.

In 1998, director Hideo Nakata (Dark Water) unleashed a chilling tale of technological terror on unsuspecting audiences, which redefined the horror genre, launched the J-horror boom in the West and introduced a generation of moviegoers to a creepy, dark-haired girl called Sadako. The film s success spawned a slew of remakes, reimaginations and imitators, but none could quite boast the power of Nakata s original masterpiece, which melded traditional Japanese folklore with contemporary anxieties about the spread of technology.

I've been at this gig of reviewing movies for a while now; enough to call it a career. And it's always good when something pops up to remind you that this industry has been going on a lot longer than your little blip on the radar, and produced things of a caliber that 3D CGI multip-part franchise stunt casting will never attain.

Case in point: MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES. This two-hour biopic presents the life of Lon Chaney, an icon of the industry known for his commitment to parts, but moreso for his ability to portray any role, no matter how foreign or grotesque.

Dear Even Hansen made its St. Louis debut at the Fabulous Fox theatre as part of their first North American Tour, which runs October 22 to November 3, 2019. It’s a favorite of the Broadway set and a critical darling, winning six Tony Awards in 2017 including Best Musical. It’s even made waves in the music industry, garnering a 2018 Grammy for Best Musical Theatre album, and a #1 song on Billboard’s Dance Chart with the remix of “Waving Through a Window,” the first musical theatre song to achieve the feat and only the second song from a cast act as opposed to a dedicated musical group (the first being “Stomp”” by Quincy Jones and The Cast of Stomp). Are you excited yet? Are you ready for a rip-roaring good time?