"I hold a grudge. I really do. Back to you. You did 25 years. You didn't rat, but you also didn't learn anything. You get out here. You move west. But the killing spree continues. Bikers. Chickies. We know everything. Everything you've been up to since you got out here. But as of right now I'm not going to charge you for mass murder ..." 

Maybe the heat has finally caught up with Dwight. It's Season 3, and where are we going from here? Let's back it up just a bit. Sylvester Stallone plays mob guy Dwight "The General" Manfredi. It's his first television role, and he couldn't have chosen better than to appear in a Taylor Sheridan show on Paramount+. Sheridan pretty much owns the streaming service, all of it except maybe the Star Trek shows. He knows how to create characters and to then put the right actor in that role. I've seen it happen a thousand times now, from Yellowstone to Mayor of Kingstown and a couple of Yellowstone spin-offs. The part appears made just for Sly, and he makes it worth everything he has, all the while making it look effortless. That's Sheridan's magic, of course. Create and cast well, and no one has to really work at all. Yeah, that's a bit of an oversimplification, but it sure looks that way, doesn't it? That ain't workin'. That's the way you do it.

"Dearest Rebecca, I know you have many questions. So do I. After all, life is a mystery. But if there's one answer to all of the riddles of the universe, one secret to happiness, I promise it would be simply this ... sheep. No, seriously, it really is sheep."

It really is. The Sheep Detectives is exactly what it sounds like. No. it's not detectives investigating sheep. OK, so it might not be exactly what it sounds like. It's the sheep that are doing the investigating here, so move over, Monk. Move over, Sherlock Holmes. Move over, Columbo. This one is going to be solved by the sheep. No, seriously. It's going to be solved by the sheep. It all started with a German book for the kids called Three Bags Full written by Leonie Swann in 2005. The screenplay is by Craig Mazin, and it was directed by Kyle Balda and is his first live-action film after directing popular animated titles like a few Minions films as well as being co-director of The Lorax. So now he's taking a stab at live action ... but that's not completely true. Yes, I'm talking about the ... sheep, which are all CGI. It's now out on Blu-ray from MGM/Amazon studios, and it's going to be a rare (these days) real family treat.

Well, this film features a pretty stacked cast of talents with the likes of Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Cate Blanchett, Mayam Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, and Indya Moore coming together in this triptych divided into chapters set in New Jersey, Dublin, and Paris. Not only is it a stacked cast, but it’s also a lot of repeat business, as this film marked the second collaboration between actress Cate Blanchett and director Jim Jarmusch after Coffee and Cigarettes, the third collaboration between actor Adam Driver and Jarmusch after Paterson and The Dead Don't Die, and the sixth collaboration between actor Tom Waits and Jarmusch after Down by Law, Mystery Train, Night on Earth (Waits composed it), Coffee and Cigarettes, and The Dead Don't Die. So obviously, Jarmusch has fostered some great relationships with impeccable group of actors and vice versa; the actors have found a creative storyteller with whom they wish to continue collaborations. This triptych is a example that creative storytelling, as the three chapters, or better known as movements, are narratively independent but thematically interconnected.

"Do you want to know if I'm innocent? The last time I was innocent was 15 years ago in court. Innocence doesn't exist in prison. It doesn't matter. Nobody cares. If you care, stay away from me. Don't ask me out to dinner. I get confused."

In January of 1992 at the Sundance Movie Festival the world was discovering a new filmmaker who brought his first effort, Reservoir Dogs, to the festival where it was highly celebrated and acclaimed. The world knew Quentin Tarantino. But that wasn't really his first film credit. Three months earlier at another film festival in Vancouver, Jan Eliasberg's Past Midnight with Rutger Hauer and Natasha Richardson was having its own place on the screen. So what's the connection? Screenwriter Frank Norwood was struggling with the film's script, and an unknown writer was brought in to give it some life. He was so unknown that he didn't even rate a writing credit, but the buzz is he wrote most of what appeared on the screen. Instead he gets a throwaway associate producer credit, and that might have been the end of a short career. Of course, it wasn't, and there are obvious Tarantino staples in the film, which might make a great drinking game if you're up for spotting them all.

"Solitude can be a little dangerous. So can being a Dutton. Violence has a way of finding the Duttons."

Hit television shows have a way of finding Taylor Sheridan, and Yellowstone became one of the biggest in recent years. He has an ability to attract major talent, and getting Kevin Costner for Yellowstone was a huge get and cemented Sheridan's hold on the modern drama by adding a little bit of the old frontier. Of course, his relationship with Costner soured over Costner's attempt to create the ultimate western epic four-part film series. He threw Sheridan under the bus to do it, and the result was a half season of Yellowstone that was rushed and built around the fallout and ultimately unfulfilling to the audience. But one relationship that hasn't soured is Sheridan's relationship with Paramount. He was ready to walk away until he set his sights on a huge ranch that was going to cost him $300 million. That love affair means that he's in for the long haul with Paramount, and we can continue to expect these shows for some time to come.

"Yeah, I'm old. So I know a thing or two about a thing or two."

Jack Reacher is a character found in a collection of novels by Lee Child, who is really British writer Jim Grant. We were introduced to Jack Reacher in the novel The Killing Floor. It would also provide the material for the first season of this Amazon streaming series. As the popularity of the books grew, it didn't take long for the character to reach the box office, and while he didn't resemble the literature character in any physical way, it was Tom Cruise who first brought him to life on the big screen. There have now been two feature films and 30 books released to carry on the exploits of Jack Reacher. Amazon and Paramount Studios have brought him to the smaller screen, and this time I think they did the character far better justice. The response has been quite positive, and now you can judge for yourself with release of Reacher: Season Three on Blu-ray. I had the opportunity to check out the Blu-ray, and it was a pretty good time, to be sure. Here's what I found out.