Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show (NR)
Warner Home Video
Many people in their, ahem, mid-to-late 30s probably remember the animated incarnation of DC's Justice League as the goofy gadabouts that either featured sidekicks like The Wonder Twins (and their Space Monkey Gleek) or that Wondermutt atrocity. Luckily those in their late 20s had the Super Powers, which was an edgy update of the characters, adding the atomically charged Firestorm to the heroes' roster as well as villains like the unstoppable Darkseid and a newly revamped Brainiac. It was successful enough for a few years, with stories that often copied their comic counterparts. This DVD features all 16 episodes, as well as docs about the effects the toy industry had on the show, as well as the ethnic diversity of the Super Friends shows. Fun for comic-book fans, as well as today's fans of the classic characters. Louis Fowler
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Shadow Puppets (NR)
Starz Home Entertainment
The torture-horror hit Saw meets the existentialist Canadian sci-fi flick Cube in the low-budget Shadow Puppets. A group of your typically arguable stereotypes find themselves in a locked asylum, with no idea how they got there or even who they are. While they are trying to decipher the mystery, a supernatural force is offing them one-by-one, in quite surprisingly gory and inventive ways. As cheesy as it may sound, it's actually a highly effective little chiller, with geek faves James Marsters (Buffy) and Jolene Blalock (Star Trek: Enterprise) leading the cast, which also includes the Candyman himself, Tony Todd. It's the type of film you'd rent on a Saturday night, or maybe even catch on the Sci Fi channel, and walk away completely satisfied. Shadow Puppets is entertaining enough to work on that basic, visceral level of good-time, quick-fix entertainment. Louis Fowler
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H.O.T.S. (R)
Anchor Bay Entertainment
It was so much easier to get a film made in the '70s. All you needed was a faded TV star, a bevy of Playboy centerfolds and a college campus on which to let them run amok. A script really wasn't even necessary. And no film exemplifies that much-beloved formula like the drive-in classic H.O.T.S. Danny Bonaduce, in a career performance, does his horny-teen damndest to score with said Playmates, all of whom are bikinied sorority sisters who engage in one sporting challenge after another, usually topless. Even when fighting an escaped bear. It's utterly stupid and actually highly tame by today's standards, but it's classic moronicness that Hollywood, no matter how hard it tries, will never be able to exactly duplicate. The DVD is bare-bones, with no extras whatsoever, but if you're picking up H.O.T.S. , I guess extras are the least of your concerns. Louis Fowler
