DVD Reviews

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Transhcan Sinatras - Midnight at the Troubadour
21 Jan 2007 at 10:50pm
Highly Recommended

THE SHOW:

Scottish quintet the Trashcan Sinatras has been one of my favorite bands since their first album came out in 1990. I lived in Southern California at the time, and their singles “Obscurity Knocks” and “Only Tongue Can Tell” were in regular rotation on KROQ and were even getting some airtime on MTV. Their music was beautifully melodic and the lyrics inspired debates among fans trying to untangle their clever, twisted wordplay. Sassy Magazine at the time even put them in their Cute Band Alert. Unfortunately, despite the artistic growth of their next two albums, they suffered from diminishing commercial returns. Their 1996 album never got released in the United States, and most people thought the band faded. I was among a small group of loyalists on the …Read the entire review

I Dream of Jeannie - The Complete Third Season
21 Jan 2007 at 10:50pm
Recommended

Always thought of as the slightly declasse cousin of tony, glamorous Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie was a bright, bouncy, colorful little comedy on NBC from 1965 to 1970, that told the story of astronaut Major Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman) and his real-life genie in a bottle, Jeannie (Barbara Eden). While Bewitched grabbed the critical and public acclaim for dreamy, romantic Elizabeth Montgomery’s trials and tribulations as a married witch living in the suburbs (with a husband who didn’t like her witchcraft), I Dream of Jeannie was often belittled for being a crude, blatant knock-off of the more successful witch sitcom (even though it was more closely based on the feature film, The Brass Bottle, with Tony Randall, Burl Ives, and Barbara Eden). I Dream of Jeannie never had the intial public adoration that Bewitched enjoyed during its network run (…Read the entire review

Captain N The Game Master - The Complete Series
21 Jan 2007 at 8:32pm
Rent It

The Show:

When gamers say that Nintendo dominated the late 1980’s and early 90’s they aren’t kidding. The Super Mario Brothers and Legend of Zelda got their own TV shows and The Wizard was released as a glorified commercial for Super Mario Brothers 3. It’s pretty hard to deny Nintendo’s ownership of the gaming industry (during that time period anyway) and as further proof of that today we’re looking at Captain N: The Game Master.

Running for a mere 34 episodes, Captain N wasn’t the smash hit that the producers were hoping for I’m sure. It began airing in September of 1989 and ended in 1991 with a total of three seasons under its Power Belt. Like many cartoons from this era this one was a 22 minute advertisement from start to finish. It was as if somebody took all of Nintendo’s hottest titles and paraphernalia, tossed them into a blender and pressed star…Read the entire review

Bob Dylan: Don’t Look Back - 65 Tour Deluxe Edition
21 Jan 2007 at 7:07pm
DVD Talk Collector Series

THE MOVIE:

D.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back, a profile of Bob Dylan on his 1965 British tour, is arguably the most influential rock ‘n’ roll documentary of all time, predating even the Maysles’ Gimme Shelter and Michael Wadleigh’s Woodstock. Thirty years later, Grant Gee pretty much orchestrated his Radiohead feature, Meeting People is Easy, note for note from Pennebaker. Ironically, given the movie’s title, Don’t Look Back is a film that deserves to be revisited every couple of years. While the movie has been on DVD since 1999, this new 65 Tour Deluxe Edition is a welcome upgrade in packaging and transfer.

Make no mistake, Bob Dylan in 1965 was one cool cat. Th…Read the entire review

I Trust You to Kill Me
21 Jan 2007 at 4:41pm
Recommended

The Movie

Musicians and actors have long drifted into and out of one another’s lives — the glare of Hollywood lights mingle with the intense heat of the nightclub spotlight, sometimes with good results (Kris Kristofferson has bounced between Tinseltown and the music industry successfully for decades) and sometimes with not-so-good results (30 Seconds to Mars, anyone?). I Trust You to Kill Me is a documentary with a few things on its mind, following “24″ actor Kiefer Sutherland around Europe for a couple weeks as he serves as tour manager for up-and-coming Los Angeles rock band Rocco DeLuca and the Burden, whose professional lives are also detailed, but with an almost detached air.

After wrapping up filming on the fifth season of “24,” Sutherland and his musical proteges packed up and jetted off for a series of dates in Europe over the Christmas holiday. From drunken par…Read the entire review

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DVD Reviews

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Deal
19 Jan 2007 at 5:07am
Recommended

A provocative quote in the Atlantic Monthly stating “You can learn more about America watching one half-hour of Let’s Make a Deal than watching [CBS Evening News anchorman] Walter Cronkite for a month” probably was the inspiration for Deal (1978), a feature-length documentary on the iconically ’70s game show, where contestants dressed in wild costumes hoping for a chance to trade innocuous items (”from aardvarks to zithers”) for valuable merchandise hidden behind three curtains while avoiding “zonks” of worthless junk.*

Directed by E.J. Vaughn and John Schott, in collaboration with cinematographer Robert Young, Deal was described by Film Comment’s Amos Vogel as “hilarious, horrifying, apoplectic, bizarre, [it] attempts nothing less t…Read the entire review

Spacemen & Go-Go Girls Double Feature
19 Jan 2007 at 5:07am
Recommended

The Product:
You have to give Canadian filmmaker Brett Kelly credit. It’s not every struggling artist who would allow his less than successful efforts to see the light of day, let alone permit them to be marketed as clever, campy comedies. As a director, Kelly conforms to the 50/50 school of cinematic savants. On the one hand, he has made some excellent outsider efforts (My Dead Girlfriend, The Feral Man). But then there are those films that should have stayed under wraps (the rather weak Bonesetter series), viewed only by those with a real passion for the man’s past catalog. In this regard, Tempe has released The Spacemen and Go-Go Girls Double Feature, a DVD showcasing two of Kelly’s short schlock homages. While weak in execution, there is still something strangely likable about this pair of peculiar efforts.

The Plot:
When the planet Uranus runs out…Read the entire review

The Giant Majin Collection
18 Jan 2007 at 9:04pm
Recommended

The Movies:

The three Daimajin films that came out of Daiei’s studio in the late sixties are an interesting mix of period samurai drama and the type of monster mash mayhem that Kaiju fans enjoy. Unique in that they play around with Japanese folk legends rather than opt for a sci-fi style creature feature, the trilogy was set in feudal times and as such they were period films shot mostly on soundstages and sets. Although each of the movies would introduce various human elements, the real reason to watch these films was for the final act where inevitably the Daimajin or Giant Majin, would come to live and smite those who angered him.

AIP’s television department bought the American broadcast rights to the first two films in the series in the late sixties and had the films dubbed into English by professional voice actors so that they’d appeal to their target demographic kids. They were…Read the entire review

Wanderlust
18 Jan 2007 at 9:04pm
Rent It

Wanderlust, an IFC/Netflix documentary chronicling the “road picture” genre in movies, works in fits and starts, particularly when it sticks to letting actual clips from celebrated road films speak for themselves. But gradually, the documentary becomes less and less interesting as the generalities and cliches pile up, bogging down in its own one-sided aesthetic and political viewpoints.

Wanderlust works best when it lets the films discussed, speak for themselves. Generous clips from movies as diverse as The Grapes of Wrath, Detour and Vanishing Point more than get across their own points about America’s restless love affair with the road, with freedom, and with speed. Unfortunately, the directors of Wanderlust, Robert Pulcini and Shari S…Read the entire review

The Red Skulls
18 Jan 2007 at 4:36pm
Highly Recommended

The Product:
It’s about time that the mainstream recognizes the efforts of Luke and Andy Campbell. Since the late ’90s, these Ohio adolescents, working with a gang of pals under the Splatter Rampage Productions moniker (now Compound Films), have created some of the cleverest, most endearing homemade horror/comedy mash-ups in all of the outsider oeuvre. Beginning with their pro wrestling homage (the truly insane Splatter Rampage Wrestling) and working through a hilarious serial killer spoof (Midnight Skater) and a slightly more serious teen melodrama monster movie (Demon Summer), the boys have benefited from smart scripting, appealing amateur performances, and a real feel for how movies are made. Now comes their most ambitious project yet, the gang vs. zombie spectacle called The Red Skulls. Representing a real growth in the guy’s cinematic language, there is still …Read the entire review

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The Librarian - Return to King Solomon’s Mines
17 Jan 2007 at 9:38pm
Recommended

The nerve of TNT to produce a cheese-heavy action-adventure movie franchise and actually have it work.

“The Librarian” is the header for two made-for-basic-cable films now, and both of them have been wonderful surprises despite an inherent corniness that would make any sane viewer assume the worst. These movies are unabashedly fun, a breezy cocktail of dopey action and broad laughs, topped off with special effects that would have looked lame on an episode of “Xena: Warrior Princess,” but, you know, in a good way.

Both the original film, “The Librarian: Quest for the Spear,” and now its sequel, “The Librarian: Return to King Solomon’s Mines,” stars Noah Wyle as Flynn Carsen, a bumbling bookworm chosen to defend the world with his combination of bravado and smarts - a sort of Indiana Geek. He works for “The Library,” where hidden behind the stacks of reference volumes and Dan Brown novels i…Read the entire review

Memron
17 Jan 2007 at 9:38pm
Skip It

Nancy Hower’s “Memron” wants to be both a biting satire gnawing at corporate scandals and a showcase for its cast of improv comics. It fails to be either.

As you can guess from the title, “Memron” stabs at the Enron mess - here, the fictional megacorp of the title has laid off some 60,000 employees while the CEOs play golf at a minimum security prison. (The main CEO is named “Ken Clay,” which, along with the title, should clue you in on the filmmakers’ lack of parody prowess.) The ensuing mockumentary follows a support group for ex-employees as they bicker, whine, and then decide to start up their own business, selling clean air, ha ha. Meanwhile, after spending his couple of months in prison, Clay laments his house arrest-imposed ankle bracelet and argues with his trophy wife.

The complete lack of social satire is disappointing, making the title and set-up completely useless. This isn’t …Read the entire review

Lunacy
17 Jan 2007 at 8:11pm
Recommended

In his video introduction to his 2004 film Lunacy, Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer declares that he has made a horror film, not an art film, because art is all but dead. He also states that it is nothing more than an “infantile tribute” to the works of Edgar Allen Poe and the Marquis de Sade. He is, of course, in the best surrealist fashion, playing with half truths and being a bit tongue cheek, and if you haven’t seen Svankmajer’s work before, it is a perfect set-up for his black sense of wit.

I entered Lunacy with a little trepidation. I, like most people, discovered Svankmajer via his stop-motion shorts. It was actually a long time before I discovered he’d made the leap to feature films in 1987 with Alice. While I enjoyed Conspirators of Pleasure, Alice, Faust, and Little Otik were long form films that left me a little cold. Particularly Otik, his…Read the entire review

Where Angels Fear to Tread
17 Jan 2007 at 5:07pm
Recommended

Cast: Rupert Graves, Judy Davis, Helena Bonham Carter, Helen Mirren, Barbara Jefford, Giovanni Guidelli.
Director: Charles Sturridge
1992, 112 minutes, PG

Like Henry James, E.M. Forster took the clash of cultures as an abiding theme, be it Brits wreaking havoc on the Continent or the Subcontinent, or upper-class English lording it over their less privileged countrymen. If James’ chief concern was psychological, Forster’s was social; he came on the scene a few decades after the Master at a time of thunderous industrial and economic change, and trained his gently searing eye on the essential insidiousness of the class system and the British sense of entitlement.

Forster’s elegant novels, written in the first quarter of the 20th century, went largely unfilmed until the 1980s, when he suddenly became a source as hot as Stephen King (albeit for a different audience). David Lean’s “A Pas…Read the entire review

Street Fight
17 Jan 2007 at 11:54am
Recommended

It’s no secret that politics is a dirty game, but Marshall Curry’s Street Fight (2005) offers us front row seats as a reminder. Our two combatants, Cory Booker and Sharpe James, were both running for mayor of Newark, New Jersey in 2002; unfortunately for the 32 year-old Booker, his opponent held the position for the past 16 years. Needless to say, James (”The Real Deal”, seen above) earned Newark’s trust over the years; at least enough to grant himself numerous pay raises while the city’s crime rates remained high…and if that weren’t enough, his “second job” as a senator pushed James’ salary closer to $300K. Booker saw this as one problem of many, so the young community activist and City Council member pushed for change from the ground up. Shaking hands, kissing babies and going door-to-door thro…Read the entire review

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Brokeback Mountain - 2-Disc Collector’s Edition
16 Jan 2007 at 6:40am
Highly Recommended

THE MOVIE:

It’s been about a year now since the Brokeback Mountain phenomenon. A year since the success, the hype, the awards and the backlash, and, of course, the endless string of punch lines. (The definitive reason I decided once and for all not to see Night at the Museum: the new commercial with Owen Wilson making a “Why can’t I quit you?” joke. Suddenly the backdated pop-culture humor in the Shrek movies feels timely.) To cap it all off, Focus Features is releasing a new two-disc special edition DVD, which forces one to ponder, has the movie survived it all?

Having watched Brokeback Mountain again last night, I’d have to say yes. The movie’s quality was more than enough to withstand the whirlwind of publicity that swirled around it,…Read the entire review

Yojimbo & Sanjuro: Two Samurai films by Akira Kurosawa
16 Jan 2007 at 12:01am
Recommended

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Criterion doubles back into its library to bring a pair of earlier releases ‘up to code’: Back in the first years of DVD they were re-purposing older transfers just like everyone else, and along with Fox and Paramount were late to commit to enhanced (squeezed) transfers. I wouldn’t call this double dipping, as seven years have elapsed since the first no-extras edition of Yojimbo, and the movie is certainly worth the special attention.

Criterion has retooled a number of its initial disc offerings, such as Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast, H. G. Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear, Fritz Lang’s “M” and Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. Hopefu…Read the entire review

Cannibal Campout
16 Jan 2007 at 12:00am
Skip It

The Movie

Back in 1987, self-proclaimed filmmaker Jon McBride gathered a bunch of enthusiastic — yet talent-free — pals into the woods to make a few movies. A few weeks back I saw one of these flicks (called Woodchipper Massacre) and I was amazed that something so outrageously amateurish could earn itself a nationwide video distribution — but then I remembered that back in the late ’80s you could have put out your own movie if you had a handycam, some willing friends, a few buckets of homemade gore, and a salacious title like Cannibal Campout.

Plot: A bunch of idiots go into the woods, butt heads with a ridiculous trio of sleazy cannibals, wander around a whole lot, get killed and get eaten. If there’s more to Cannibal Campout than that, I’ll have to take your word for it. Because there’s no way I could sit through even five seconds of it over again. Cheap and chintzy…Read the entire review

Unknown
16 Jan 2007 at 12:00am
Recommended

The Movie

If you are like me (and God bless you if you are), when you popped in the Clerks II DVD, you were confronted with the trailer for Unknown, and you thought to yourself, “Wow, that title sure is right! How have I not heard about this movie?” The film has a cast of instantly recognizable faces and the premise sounds very interesting — it seems as if it should have received more publicity. But, then again, this movie is from the Weinsteins, who, when they were with Miramax, were notorious for making movies only to have them released years later with little fanfare. Typically, once these films see the light of day, it’s clear why they were hidden. In the case of Unknown, which is making its way to DVD, the answers aren’t so obvious.

As Unknown opens, five men awaken in an industrial building. Unfortunately, due to a chemical leak, they have n…Read the entire review

Good Morning, World
15 Jan 2007 at 11:59pm
Recommended

I love vintage TV, but to be honest, after the second episode of Good Morning, World, I was ready to bail. There was something wrong with it that I just couldn’t put my finger on, but frankly, I was too bored to care about figuring it out. But, pressing on, after the fourth or fifth episode, I found myself perking up a little, with the characters starting to grow on me. The sitcom plots, while a tad silly, were aided by some clever lines, as well. While by no means a forgotten classic, Good Morning, World is a good, solid little show that deserved a few more years on TV — it was canceled after just one season.

Dave Lewis (Joby Baker) and Larry Clarke (Ronnie Schell) are smart, funny morning DJ’s for a small AM radio station in the Los Angeles area. Their act con…Read the entire review

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A Dead Calling
13 Jan 2007 at 7:12pm
Skip It

The Movie

It’s important for a movie to make at least as much sense as its title, and Mike Feifer’s A Dead Calling certainly accomplishes that task.

Noteworthy to horror fans in that it features some (rather unimpressive) work from Sid Haig, Bill Moseley and Leslie Easterbrook (reunited from The Devil’s Rejects, don’t forget) and for very little else, A Dead Calling is a schizophrenic little cheapie that has a possesses a few surprisingly good components — but not nearly enough to keep the thing afloat.

Alexandra Holden plays Elizabeth, a TV news-woman who’s only six months removed from the horrific murder of her boyfriend and just now ready to get her life back on track. Her mom and dad (Easterbrook and Haig) are sweet and supportive, but it turns out they also have a few skeletons hidden in the closet.

Anyway, the “dead boyfriend” stuff doesn’t really have a whole…Read the entire review

Spirit Trap
13 Jan 2007 at 6:24pm
Skip It

The Movie

According to Dictionary.com, the word “conventional” means “based on or in accordance with general agreement, use, or practice; customary; conforming to established practice or accepted standards; devoted to or bound by conventions to the point of artificiality; unimaginative; conformist. (I italicized the most important ones.)

If I told you that the British horror flick Spirit Trap was about five college kids who move into a disgusting old house, your first reaction would be “OK, so what’s the hook? Co-eds and a creepy house? That’s it? You gotta be kidding me.” And yet I’m not kidding. Basically, Spirit Trap is the cinematic equivalent of a glass half-filled with lukewarm water: You can swallow it with very little effort, but it sure isn’t very tasty — nor is it very memorable.

Frankly movies this basic make it pretty hard for a reviewer to expound upon th…Read the entire review

WWE - the Spectacular Legacy Of the AWA
13 Jan 2007 at 4:05pm
Highly Recommended

Believe it or not, there are some people who think Vince McMahon is responsible for professional wrestling - sorry, sports entertainment. However, the Spectacular Legacy Of the AWA will give viewers a brief lesson on a promotion that was responsible for some of the greatest wrestlers the sport, or the WWE, has ever seen.

When I started watching wrestling in the 70’s, I knew nothing about “territories”, “shoots/works”, “heels” or “kayfabes”. I was just a kid that enjoyed watching the nearly seven foot tall Andre the Giant demolish opponents. Since this was before the internet, the world was still a big place and I was blissfully unaware of the backstage politics, shenanigans and backstabbing …Read the entire review

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Volume 6
13 Jan 2007 at 10:53am
Recommended

The Movie:
I was too old and, at the age of thirteen (where I thought I knew absolutely everything), far too cool for the first incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so I never understood the big deal about them at the time, but like the Power Rangers, the Care Bears, and Strawberry Shortcake, the Turtles continue to delight each subsequent generation. Having stood the test of time, it is only fitting that the original cartoon series, which premiered two decades (!!) ago and ran for an impressive ten years and close to 200 episodes, is given a DVD release.

The “heroes in a half shell” fight to save the universe from the evil Shredder and his bumbling band of henchmen while at the same time celebrating with their favorite pizza dinner and managing to sound like cast members of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. They have human friends, like Zack, April…Read the entire review

Men Behaving Badly: The Complete Series
13 Jan 2007 at 10:25am
Highly Recommended

Yes, yes, yes. Finally, the 1996 NBC cult-classic sitcom, Men Behaving Badly: The Complete Season has been released on DVD. Never, ever in the Nielsen Top Thirty (while pallid, “safe” crap like Suddenly Susan, The Naked Truth, Fired Up, The Single Guy, and Ellen sat comfortably up there for 1996), Men Behaving Badly was one of those series that the few people who watched it, loved. It was like our little secret. And while we were dismayed that fewer people didn’t tune in (all the while knowing its low ratings doomed the show), we felt kind of proud of that fact. After all, isn’t that the innate appeal of cult TV? Its exclusiveness? That feeling that you’ve discovered something that other people (draw a box in the air and mouth the word, “squares”) just don’t get? And when the series started to generate bad publicity from the sta…Read the entire review

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Space Academy: The Complete Series
12 Jan 2007 at 1:03am
Recommended

The Series:

Continuing to dig deep and release semi-forgotten gems from the Filmation vaults, BCI’s Ink & Paint sub-label has rescued from obscurity the complete run of Space Academy. Running for two seasons on CBS between 1977 through 1979 (when sci-fi mania was at its peak thanks to Star Wars), the show only stuck around for fifteen episodes in total but in a sense, it was ahead of its time as it was on television long before the concept was borrowed for Space Camp and Star Trek: Star Fleet Academy.

Set in the year 3732, the series revolved around a three hundred year old man named Commander Isaac Gampu (played by the rather manic Jonathan Harris of Lost In Space) who was in charge of an elite school built into an asteroid in space. The purpose of this school was to gather the brightest young people in the galaxy so that they could be trained …Read the entire review

Coyote Ragtime Show, Vol. 1 - Fox Trot
12 Jan 2007 at 1:02am
Highly Recommended

The Show:

Coyote Ragtime Show is an interesting name isn’t it? When I first heard of it I had no idea what to expect though part of me for some reason was thinking it was going to be a comedy that include a bunch of random insanity. Fortunately that wasn’t the case. This is a futuristic space outlaw show that sticks to the formula and really draws inspiration from other popular titles.

On one hand this series reminded me so much of Cowboy Bebop. Sure the cast of characters were entirely different and the atmosphere was a little more juvenile but there was just something about it that did so. Maybe it was the way the crew of the Coyote worked together as outlaws or perhaps it was a particular scene where Pirate King Bruce points his finger upwards at the camera ala Spike. On the other hand there were elements of Outlaw Star tossed in here. Despite the fee…Read the entire review

Loving Annabelle
12 Jan 2007 at 1:02am
Highly Recommended

The Movie:
Simone is a teacher at a stuffy Catholic boarding school for girls. Annabelle is a rebellious, cocky Senator’s daughter. When she arrives on campus and enters Simone’s class, Annabelle is instantly attracted to Simone, however Simone resists due to the power imbalance she is after all, Annabelle’s teacher and the strict rules of the school that forbid a close relationship between teachers and students. Regardless, the two spend increasing amounts of time together as their attraction for each other builds, culminating on one rainy night that results in each woman’s life changing forever.

It’s difficult to know where to start with this film, as it works on so many levels. First of all, it is an absolute visual treat. Such care has been taken in filming, from the set design, to costuming, to the magnificent lighting, which helps to create a sense of hope and melanc…Read the entire review

A Dirty Carnival Special Limited Edition
12 Jan 2007 at 1:02am
Recommended

The Movie:

NOTE: Please be aware that this DVD is a Korean import and is coded for Region 3 DVD players. In order to view this DVD, you’ll have to have either a Region 3 coded or Region Free DVD player. [Recommended Region Free Players] It will not play in standard Region 1 North American DVD players.

Ha Yu’s A Dirty Carnival is an interesting take on what is essentially a fairly standard and straight forward rise and fall gangster story. The central plot focuses on Byung-du (Jo In-seong who won a Best Actor prize at the 2006 South Korean Film Awards), a man fast approaching his thirtieth birthday who has, for the last few years of his adult life, been working for a thug named Sang-chul (Yoon Jae-Moon of Antarctic Journal). When he’s not obliging his employer, Byung-du spe…Read the entire review

Joseph Campbell - The Hero’s Journey
12 Jan 2007 at 1:02am
Recommended

I haven’t read anything written by Joseph Campbell since college (right when he was at his height of popularity which, unfortunately, peaked after his death), and quite frankly, I had forgotten most of it. So the 1987 documentary The Hero’s Journey: A Biographical Portrait was a welcome reintroduction to the scholar and writer whose studies and works on universal myths captured the imagination of readers all over the world. Produced just prior to Campbell’s death, The Hero’s Journey: A Biographical Portrait incorporates footage of Campbell speaking with students and admirers, as well as archival material such as stills and paintings, to not only give a general bio of Campbell’s life, but also a sign-post overview of some of his major philosophical tenets.

Joseph Cam…Read the entire review

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Last Dispatch
9 Jan 2007 at 6:29am
Recommended

Fan of the band Dispatch? Then this’ll undoubtedly be enjoyable.

Never heard of Dispatch? That’s even better. The story of Dispatch’s rise and fall is an entertaining and inspiring story, whether a fan or not. Told through Helmut Schleppi’s documentary The Last Dispatch, this journey illustrates the band’s last week and a half leading up to their final concert, also known to be the largest independent film performance in history with well over 100,000 people attending. But this is more than a documentary; The Last Dispatch is a great portrayal of very well-defined personalities and how they mesh with one another. With fantastic stints of pure music for aural pleasure and terrifically personal conversations with the band members, The Last Dispatch raises above the typical documentary style chronology of events.


The Film:

Dispatch’s flavor of music embodies a …Read the entire review

Love Circles
9 Jan 2007 at 6:29am
Rent It

The Film:

There was a time in the early 80s when made-for-cable TV erotic features started pushing the envelope just enough so that they could look intriguing to the working male yet stay away from the risky XXX-zone. Looking back at these films, some thirty years later, I can not but smile.

The story behind Love Circles (1985), a cable production directed by Gerard Kikoine, is rather simple. A pack of cigarettes is being exchanged amongst a group of people until they finally return to the person who initiated its journey. Along the way a rather edgy orgy scene with sex idol Sophie Berger (Emmanuelle 4) and a less provocative but steamy enough rendezvous with former miss Bahamas Josephine Jacqueline Jones (Black Venus) become the focus of attention as they offer the bulk of what this picture was intended to deliver: passionate sex.

How successful …Read the entire review

Christina
9 Jan 2007 at 6:29am
Skip It

The Film:

The second installment from the Private Screening Collection, a little seen late-night cable-feature titled Christina (1984), offers a storyline that can quickly give you a headache of paramount proportions:

Christina Von Belle (Jewel Shephard) is a wealthy young heiress known as “The Playgirl Of The Western World”. She is also beautiful to look at and as we soon discover with a ferocious sex appetite. (Un)fortunately she is kidnapped by an evil gang of lesbian-commandos (!), led by no other than ex-mainstream-turned-adult starlet Karin Schubert (Black Emmanuelle), who take on the difficult task of satisfying Christina’s carnal yearnings. In the meantime the kidnappers also demand a large amount of money from their victim’s family.

After a series of steamy action scenes Christina finally manages to escape the lesbian-commandos only…Read the entire review

MI-5: Volume 4
9 Jan 2007 at 12:23am
Skip It

Known as Spooks in England, MI-5: Volume 4 (or perhaps more accurately: How I Learned to Start Hating America and Love the Terrorists) is a glossy, hollow, morally wishy-washy, politically correct spy series from the U.K. that’s been getting some notice here on the BBC America cable channel. Comparisons to Fox’s 24 are inevitable (24 premiered in 2001, seven months before MI-5), but MI-5: Volume 4 pales next to that super-charged rollercoaster ride. Whereas 24’s emphasis has always been on moving the story forward, and never letting its foot off the accelerator, MI-5: Volume 4 can’t seem to shake up its relatively pokey, predictable espionage plots. Equally disconcerting, at least for this reviewer, is the series’ almost pathological need to slam the United States of America every five minutes during an episode.

Read the entire review

Martin - The Complete First Season
8 Jan 2007 at 11:06pm
Recommended

THE SHOW:

Martin Lawrence’s self-titled sitcom, Martin, is best remembered as one of the strongest entries in the early days of the Fox Network. Debuting in 1992, Martin helped solidify the bawdy reputation the network had been earning since its debut in 1987, as well as continuing to blaze a trail for more opportunities for African Americans on network television (In Living Color started a few years prior, and Living Single would join Martin in the following season). Martin Lawrence had begun to create a name for himself with supporting parts in the House Party movies and Boomerang, but this was his first real showcase and would kickstart a successful film career that would continue on through the 1990s. …Read the entire review

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King and The Clown Special Limited Edition DTS
7 Jan 2007 at 8:57pm
Highly Recommended

THE MOVIE:

Wang-ui namja, a.k.a. The King and the Clown, was a sensation upon its release in Korea in 2005, becoming the country’s highest grossing film that year. In viewing the region 3 limited edition release of the movie, it’s easy to see why. This gripping costume drama is brimming with a unique charm, with original characters and a special setting that will likely be new to most viewers. Art Service has put together a three-disc DVD package that capitalizes on The King and the Clown’s popularity while also giving the movie the appropriate red carpet treatment.

The story concerns itself with two performers, Jang-sang (Woo-seong Kam, Spider Forest) and Gong-gil (Jung-gi Lee, My Girl), who are forced to leave their traveling tr…Read the entire review

Extras - The Complete First Season
7 Jan 2007 at 8:57pm
Highly Recommended

THE SHOW:

On the DVD for Extras - The Complete First Season, series creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant refer to the show as their “difficult second album.” It’s a music term, also called the “sophomore jinx.” It refers to how bands often step forward with a stunning debut full of material that was road-tested over years of struggle, whereas their follow-up record is created post-success, under the gun, and with the full expectations of an audience hungry for more. In the case of Gervais and Merchant, they are creating their first television effort since the conclusion of their highly successful UK series, The Office. That show became such a phenomenon, cleaning up at awards shows and spawning an equally successful US version (which Gervais and …Read the entire review

Two-A-Days - Hoover High - The Complete First Season
7 Jan 2007 at 8:57pm
Recommended

The Movie:

MTV has taken some hits over the past few years for the channel’s change in focus from music videos to reality television. However, the channel’s reality programming has reached new lows recently with shows like “My Super Sweet 16″ and “Yo Momma” (as for the later, nothing against star Wilmer Valderrama, but when a channel devotes entire half hours to “Yo Momma” jokes, it leads one to believe that they’ve run out of ideas.)

“Two-A-Days” doesn’t turn its focus on something that we haven’t seen before recently in films (”Varsity Blues”, more recently in the film and TV versions of “Friday Night Lights”), but its look at Hoover - a small town in Alabama whose entire focus (we see stores close up as everyone heads to the game) is on the local football team - is honest, occasionally tough and usually, pretty engaging.

“Two-A-Days” (named because players have to go thr…Read the entire review

Gridiron Gang
7 Jan 2007 at 8:57pm
Recommended

The Product:
It used to be one of the more meaningful motion picture metaphors: sports as a microcosm of life. All throughout the early days of cinema, when motion and action were mandatory to keep audiences interested in the fledgling artform, through the glory days of classic studio system films, athletes and the games they play have provided the backdrop for discussions of courage, leadership, discipline and self-discovery. But in the post-modern era, all that has changed. Championing the underdog, rooting for the good guys, using competition as a moralizing mannerism to determine the superior from the sad has become the order of the day. Without some adversity to overcome, a last act challenge to rise up to, and a god-like leader who provides tough love and selfless motivation within a context of team and trying, the current sports film is lost. These are the clich d confines that somethi…Read the entire review

Curse of the Fly
7 Jan 2007 at 12:51pm
Recommended

The third of three loosely-connected films based on George Langelaan’s famous short story, Curse of the Fly (1965) has gotten a bad rap over the years. The modestly-produced first picture, The Fly (1958), had been an unexpected hit for 20th Century-Fox, so much so that it spawned vastly inferior imitators like The Alligator People (1959) and The Wasp Woman (1960), as well as a quickie sequel of its own, Return of the Fly (1959). Where the first two pictures were shot on Fox’s lot in Beverly Hills, the unjustly maligned Curse of the Fly was produced in England for very little money (less than $100,000) and stylistically looks nothing like its predecessors.

All three movies deal with efforts to develop a machine that will transmit matter electronically, the ultimate aim to instantly teleport (a la the transporters on Star Trek) people and resourc…Read the entire review

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Factotum
5 Jan 2007 at 8:06pm
Recommended

THE MOVIE:

Watching Matt Dillon walk across a desolate city backstreet as the hulking Hank Chinaski early in Factotum, I was struck by the realization that this is the type of guy we see every day. Here in the city, there are multitudes of Hanks, all trodding along in an existence that most of us will never see. I’ve wondered before what these men (and women) do with their time, where they go. These are people who, by outward appearances, look like they could be right in the middle, just about as average as can be, and yet, maybe they aren’t. They are people who know things and see things others don’t, who can tell you every bar that is around every corner. Stop one of them some time and ask. I bet you there is a watering hole in your neighborhood that you nev…Read the entire review

The Cave of the Silken Web
5 Jan 2007 at 2:07am
Recommended

The Movie:

The third part in a series of four films that Shaw Brothers Studios produced based on the legends of the Monkey King from the book Journey To The West, The Cave Of The Silken Web is never the less a self contained story that shouldn’t be too inaccessible to those who haven’t seen the other entries.

The story for the film isn’t very complex in short, a trio of adventurers made up of Monkey (who looks like a monkey), Pig (who looks like a pig) and Monk Sandy are wandering around doing their thing when a monk is captured by some foxy spider ladies. Pig decides to move in and rescue the monk but he messes up and he too winds up being taken by the ladies who take their latest prize back to their home in the titular cave of the silken web.

Monkey, with the aid of Monk Sandy, know that if they don’t act quickly that the spider ladies will make a meal out of …Read the entire review

Silent Scream
5 Jan 2007 at 2:07am
Skip It

The Movie:

Originally titled The Retreat until the marketing wizards at Lion’s Gate bought the rights and the changed the title to Silent Scream for reasons that are only known to those who made the decision, this movie proves to be as uninspired and predictable as a bottom of the barrel slasher movie can get.

At any rate, the movie begins when Professor Barren (Peter Carey) invites a few of the students from his psychology class up to his cabin in the middle of nowhere for reasons that are never really properly explained. Let’s just assume it’s to get them away from school for a while to relax, because pretty much as soon as they arrive they all start humping one another. Once they’re done humping, they get knocked off one at a time by a mysterious killer in a big, puffy winter jacket in various moderately grisly murder set pieces.

Once the first batch of dumb te…Read the entire review

The Man Eater
4 Jan 2007 at 6:26pm
Rent It

Man-Eater (2004) is a Thai film based on a supposed true case of a serial killer who preyed on children back in the late 1940’s. When it comes to tales of killers, I don’t mind a film that tries to go deep and probe into the darker depths (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer), and I don’t mind it when they aim straight for the pulp, the fanciful, the exploitative (Hannibal), or even healthy mix the two (The Untold Story). However, Man-Eater just treads shallow ground which results in a film that lacks both dramatic insight and exploitative thrills.

Li Hui (Long Duan) is a Chinese emigrant to Thailand. Literally fresh off the boat he stowed away on, Li Hui gets an unfriendly greeting, including a new name, Zee Qui, an Thai-i-fied version of his Chinese name. He’s deloused and placed in a dank, cramped holding cell while he is processed by belligerent, uncaring off…Read the entire review

The Impressionists
4 Jan 2007 at 4:13pm
Recommended

The Film:

The Impressionists arrives to North America advertised as the lavish BBC production seen on Public Television. And indeed this much-talked about 3-part mini series shown on cable networks throughout the United Kingdom is one surprisingly well-executed and for the most part convincing semi-documentary that sheds plenty of light on the impressionist movement.

The film opens up with Claude Monet’s (Julian Glover) recollections of the events that led to the rise of the artistic movement, those who were associated with it, and finally the works that symbolized the creative ideas behind it. In 19th century Paris Monet, Renoir, and Bazille are all friends sharing the same creative vision.

Their advanced ideas however prove difficult, at times even impossible, to justify in front of Parisian critics. Monet’s early sketches for example offer something that…Read the entire review

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Father Brown: Set 1
3 Jan 2007 at 11:44am
Recommended

Acorn Media’s two-disc set, Father Brown: Set 1, features the 1974 ATV series adaptations of the famous G. K. Chesterton detective, Father Brown. Starring Kenneth More as the taciturn, watchful, crime-solving Catholic priest, Father Brown: Set 1 is a solid offering of British mysteries, as well as an entertaining look back at 1970s British TV.

Chesterton, the early 20th century British poet, biographer, mystery writer, fantasist, literary critic, lecturer (and numerous other labels) has always intrigued me. I would imagine that his Father Brown stories are still widely read, but he had an incredibly prodigious and varied output of literary work. The contemporary of Shaw, Russell, and Wells, Chesterton’s personal beliefs in the spiritual worl…Read the entire review

Iluminados por el Fuego (Spanish Release)
3 Jan 2007 at 6:32am
Highly Recommended

The Film:

The Falkland Islands, 1982…

Argentine soldiers have landed on the islands and are preparing to defend what they consider to be an integral part of their country: the Malvinas. Men are running around, hectic orders are being followed, final preparations are being made.

Off the coast of Argentina Royal Navy ships are carrying British fighter jets that will soon enter the Malvinas air space. Backed by NATO and a neutral US government the British are poised to defend what they consider an invasion of British territory. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her ministers have given green light to the use of military force.

Back on the Malvinas three friends - Vargas (Pablo Ribba), Esteban (Gaston Pauls), and Juan (Cesar Albarracin) - are longing for the days when they made love to their wives. This is not their war! They are scared, cold, and u…Read the entire review

Drive-In Double Feature: Assassination in Rome / Espionage in Tangiers
3 Jan 2007 at 1:50am
Rent It

Dark Sky Films is such a fun label, and their Drive-In Double Feature line does a terrific job capturing the nostalgic flavor of that nearly-kaput form of movie exhibition that their titles in this line are hard to resist. You might, however, want to make an exception in this case. You might say Dark Sky did their job a little too well: drive-ins often played the worst films imaginable and this collection’s woe begotten pair of Euro-thrillers made in Italy makes for one especially dull night at the movies, much like real drive-ins often were. That both transfers are letterboxed but unenhanced doesn’t help.

In the 1960s and ’70s, the Italian film industry cranked out genre films with great abandon. When they stumbled upon an international hit in Hercules (1957), they churned out what seemed like hundreds of similar, usually bland peplum (pepla?), only to shift everything …Read the entire review

The Weeping Meadow
3 Jan 2007 at 1:50am
Rent It

The Film:

There is hardly another director in the annals of Modern Greek cinema as prolific and well-respected as Athens-native Theo Angelopoulos. Considered one of the last true European visionaries alongside Bernardo Bertolucci and Ingmar Bergman this remarkably gifted director is practically unknown in North America. Angelopoulos’ work has been accessible mostly through overused and second-hand VHS relics often either dubbed or severely pan-scanned for the viewing (dis)pleasure of the few brave enough souls willing to seek out his films.

With Trilogia I: To Livadi pou dakryzei a.k.a Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow (2004), the first installment of an ambitious trilogy which is meant to cover the history of contemporary Greece, Theo Angelopoulos …Read the entire review

To the Left of the Father
3 Jan 2007 at 1:49am
Highly Recommended

The Film:

Luiz Fernando Carvalho’s Lavoura Arcaica a.k.a To the Left of the Father (2001) retells the tragic story of a Lebanese-Brazilian family where a past incestuous relationship has forced Andre (Selton Mello) to run away from his parents. Determined to have his brother back Pedro (Leonardo Medeiros) embarks on a controversial journey with plenty of unknowns.

Based on the acclaimed book by Raduan Nassar To the Left of the Father is a long and heavy yet visually stunning picture that delves deep into Brazilian culture providing a look at a country with a rich history. Carvalho’s camera compliments Nassar’s story with the necessary emphasis on detail and the dialog hardly interferes with the picture’s desired indolent tempo.

Clocking in at approximately 3 hours however for some To the Left of the Father might prove rat…Read the entire review

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Metallica - The Videos 1989-2004
2 Jan 2007 at 2:15am
Recommended

The Videos

It’s something that’s happened to most of us and it’s never very pleasant. I’m talking about friends growing apart. Sometimes people who were once close simply find themselves seeing each other or communicating less and less until the friendship somehow dissolves. I’ve had similar dissolutions with musical groups such as R.E.M. and U2. There was a time when I would wait with baited breath for their new releases, but as time went on, it got to where I didn’t want to hear from them any longer (the new stuff at least). But, one of the most difficult relationships to break was with Metallica. In the late 80s and early 90s, I was a huge Metallica fan, and couldn’t wait to hear more from this group. However, with the release of “Load”, this devotion ended. Still, as someone who loves music videos, I wasn’t against checking out their compilation, Metallica: The Videos 1989-…Read the entire review

George Reeves Double Feature: Thunder in the Pines / Jungle Goddess
2 Jan 2007 at 2:15am
Recommended

Shrewdly cashing in on renewed interest in the life and death of George Reeves, the tragic actor who played the Man of Steel on Adventures of Superman and the subject of last year’s Hollywoodland, Kit Parker Films and VCI have paired two low-budget features starring Reeves, Thunder in the Pines and Jungle Goddess (both 1948) with a heaping helping of featurettes about the actor. Though there’s a minor issue with the audio on one of the features, both otherwise look terrific and Reeves’ likeable, breezy manner - soon to be carried over into the Superman show - is on display in both films, which are well-paced with running times scarcely more than an hour.

Jungle Goddess is a very routine, cliche-ridden jungle melodrama made palatabl…Read the entire review

Walt Disney Treasures - The Mickey Mouse Club Featuring the Hardy Boys: 1956…
1 Jan 2007 at 6:39pm
Highly Recommended

As part of the latest wave of Disney’s celebrated DVD line, the Walt Disney Treasures, The Hardy Boys The Mickey Mouse Club: 1956 - 1957 showcases the popular mystery serial, The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure from the M. M. Club’s second season, along with a few extras to fill out the backstory on this well-remembered adaptation.

I’m not sure where The Hardy Boys series of books stand with young readers today, but when I was a boy, most everybody I knew had a few on their bedroom bookshelf. They were fairly obligatory Christmas and birthday gifts from parents and grandparents who wanted to pass along their own cherished memories of the stories, and school librarians always prominently featured them along the library book cases as …Read the entire review

Chestnut
1 Jan 2007 at 6:39pm
Rent It

The Movie:

From the producers of “Air Bud” comes this sugary sweet little feature starring Abigail Breslin (”Little Miss Sunshine”) and Makenzie Vega (”Family Man”, “Sin City”) as Ray and Sal, two orphaned sisters who, early in the film, spy a couple of thieves stopped on the side of the road. When the crooks dump a cute little puppy that happened to be in one of the boxes, the girls save it and sneak it back to their little orphanage in the country.

After having to experience watching many of their friends get adopted, Ray and Sal are finally taken in by a kind couple, Laura and Matt Tomley (Christine Tucci and Justin Lewis), who live in a giant apartment in New York City. The only problem is that their new father is allergic to dogs and the building has strict rules against them.

So, it’s no surprise that the girls get into all sorts of hijinks trying to keep their little …Read the entire review

Step Up
1 Jan 2007 at 6:39pm
Skip It

The Movie:

Let me say upfront that I am not the target audience for Step Up. I’m over the age of 16 (by a long shot), I’m male and I don’t think of Save the Last Dance as an art film. That said, however, I’d like to think I can appreciate even a teeny bopper dance flick if it’s done well.

But Step Up isn’t so much done well as well-done, as in overcooked. Its recipe is straightforward enough: Add two parts The Cutting Edge, two parts Dirty Dancing, one part Fame and stir briskly. The result is flavorless gristle. Being that this is the kind of movie where you know within the first 10 minutes every plot point that will follow, any subsequent entertainment value is going to come from appreciating the mechanics of how it’s done. How’s the chemistry of the leads? How’s the danc…Read the entire review

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The Simpsons - The Complete Ninth Season
30 Dec 2006 at 10:46am
Highly Recommended

The Series:

The Simpsons is a huge part of our collective pop culture. The longest running animated sit-com of all time has gone on to become as identifiable as The Flintstones or The Jetsons and the clever writing and interesting cast of characters ensures that the series is just as vital and popular today as it was when it first began to air a decade and a half ago. This ninth season was important for a few reasons, some of which did go on to impact the long-term continuity of the series the marriage of Apu to Manjula, for one but it also marked a departure into wackier territory. The earlier seasons had stronger characterization and more detailed family dynamics, and here we start to notice these qualities fading in place of crazier plotlines and more obvious, slapstick humor. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as far as most fans are concerned and the ratings w…Read the entire review

SpongeBob SquarePants - Season 4, Vol. 2
30 Dec 2006 at 10:46am
Highly Recommended

Writing a review for SpongeBob SquarePants: Season 4, Volume 2 is about the easiest assignment I’ve had all year. You see, I wrote the review for the first volume of Season Four, and this second collection of animated adventures is just as funny, just as silly, and just as addictive as the first volume. When the menus popped up, with pictures from the individual episodes, my kids immediately started screaming, “Oh that’s a great one!” “Let’s watch that one first!” “And that one is hysterical; let’s watch that one!” It’s amazing, but they knew every one by heart. It’s pretty clear that this little cartoon about a plucky little sponge is going to become a universal pop culture touchstone for people in the coming years, in the same way the brilliant Looney Tunes cartoons were for my generation. What I had to say about SpongeBob in my first review of this particular season still goe…Read the entire review

Putting It Together: A Musical Review
30 Dec 2006 at 10:46am
Recommended

Putting it Together: A Musical Review is a videotaped performance of the 1999 Broadway revival of lyricist and composer Stephen Sondheim’s compilation of over thirty of his songs, taken from previous stage works. It stars Carol Burnett, George Hearn, Ruthie Henshall, John Barrowman, and Bronson Pinchot. This particular revival was taken from the 1998 Los Angeles production, which had also starred Burnett, Barrowman, and Pinchot. Originally, the review had been staged in 1992 in England, starring Diana Rigg, and was brought to New York City in 1993, starring Julie Andrews.

For someone versed almost exclusively in movies, I’ll be the first to admit that the thought of watching a videotaped version of a Broadway musical revue left me a little cold. I claim …Read the entire review

The Great Yokai War
30 Dec 2006 at 10:46am
Recommended

The blending of childhood innocence and mystical powers in an unknown realm should probably be a genre all on its own. For the majority, these films all bring something fresh and innovative to the table. With The Great Yokai War, this fresh element is the director, Takashi Miike. While Miike brings his resounded signature style and inane ability to craft wonderful performance from his players, this story is too familiar to maintain interest. Set amidst some stunning costume work and unusually appealing special effects, The Great Yokai War follows along a paint-by-numbers plot and dialogue that relies so heavily on Miike’s talent that the film doesn’t embody the heart and soul of its lessen-produced counterparts. Even with its faults, this film is a dazzling spectacle to behold.


The Film:

Set amidst the backdrop of a small Japanese town, Tadashi lives the typi…Read the entire review

Psychopathia Sexualis
30 Dec 2006 at 10:46am
Rent It

The Film:

I am not quite so sure what to make of Bret Wood’s latest Psychopathia Sexualis (2006). Here’s why:

Attempting to deconstruct the legacy of renowned psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing and his controversial studies on the nature of sexual perversity Pshychopathia Sexualis is certainly a film unlike anything you’ve seen this year. Sexual repression, vampirism, hypnosis, sadomasochism, lesbianism, and necrophilia are in the center of a fractured storyline where the only common element is the desire to explain the unexplainable.

Set amidst a sea of lush Victorian decors however and plenty of questionable sex scenes Pshychopathia Sexualis quickly becomes more of a softcore, late-night, extra-zesty soap opera than a worthy look at the work of a scientist and his findings. The too careful but sensationalist approach to Krafft-Ebin…Read the entire review

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Walt Disney Treasures - More Silly Symphonies
28 Dec 2006 at 3:05am
Highly Recommended

THE SHOW:

In the early years of the Walt Disney animation studios, while part of the company was focusing on building up the iconic characters that would earn Disney his reputation, another part of the studio was cranking out the Silly Symphonies series. These are short cartoons (generally about six minutes, but sometimes nearing ten) that are exactly what they sound like: humorous narratives set to music. Though these cartoons did not focus on recurring characters, some of the more famous Disney institutions sprang from them. Donald Duck got his start here, and the Silly Symphonies version of the Three Little Pigs still endures in the public consciousness as one of the more dominant renditions of the story.

There were seventy-five Silly Symphonies in all. This is …Read the entire review

The Slaughter of the Vampires
28 Dec 2006 at 3:05am
Recommended

The Slaughter of the Vampires (La Strage dei vampire, 1962) is a handsomely-made Italian vampire film whose first two-thirds is closely modeled after Hammer Films’ seminal Gothic, Horror of Dracula (1958). Energetically directed by screenwriter Roberto Mauri (The Invincible Gladiators, King of Kong Island), it adds little to the genre but is entertaining nonetheless. Dark Sky’s all-region presentation is excellent, and includes an “Interview with the Vampire” himself, German actor Dieter Eppler, featured in many krimi films, including Hand of the Gallows, The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse).

Walter Brandi stars as Wolfgang, a happily married man living with wife Louise (Graziella Granata) in a renovated castle, where the unnamed vampire-on-the-lam (Eppler) is hiding out in a wine cellar. Soon after the film begins, Louise falls under the vampire’s sexu…Read the entire review

The Illusionist
27 Dec 2006 at 7:45pm
Highly Recommended

The Product:
It was the year of magic at the movies, and not just the on screen, cinematic kind. Hollywood reconnected with prestidigitation in a big way, releasing two competing looks at slight of hand and the fine art of fooling an audience. One was Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to his critically acclaimed and wildly popular take on the Batman mythos, the other was an under the radar effort by an unknown filmmaker responsible for a well received docu-drama on the JFK assassination. When the box office figures were finalized, and all the journalistic opinions were tallied, one effort clearly came out on top. And it’s not the one you’d think. Indeed, while The Prestige raked in $52 million in receipts, it was offset by a $40 million budget. The Illusionist, on the other hand, seemed to get better notices (the Rotten Tomato ranking difference between the two is negligible however…Read the entire review

Rocco and His Brothers (Remastered Italian Release)
27 Dec 2006 at 7:45pm
Highly Recommended

The Film:

Determined to put an end to the misery that has been tormenting the Parondi family in the Sourthern village of Lucania Rosaria (Katina Paxinou) and her sons Rocco (Alain Delon), Simone (Renato Salvatori), Ciro (Max Cartier), Luca (Rocco Vidollazi) pack their belongings and head to Milan. There they will meet the only Parondi who has been living away from the family: Vincenzo (Spiros Focas).

Upon arrival in Milan, however, the Parondis quickly discover that making ends meet will be just as difficult. There are no jobs, housing is expensive, cold winter has seized the North. But Milan is a big city, a rich city! Someone, somewhere, must need an extra pair of hands!

Simone is the fist one to land a job. A local scammer offers the southerner a deal he can not resist: boxing for cash. Without thinking much the proud Parondi accepts and soon money start coming his way. And…Read the entire review

I For India
27 Dec 2006 at 12:41pm
Recommended

The Movie

I realize I’m probably setting myself up for a fair amount of crap by opening a review with a quote from Garden State, but for all of the not-so-transparent emotional manipulation director Zach Braff indulges in, there was one line of dialogue that’s stuck with me ever since I saw the film two years ago and not so coincidentally spoken by Braff’s character, Andrew Largeman: “You know that point in your life when you realize that the house you grew up in isn’t really your home anymore … all of a sudden, even though you have some place to put your shit, that idea of home is gone … or maybe it’s like this rite of passage … you will never have that feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, for your kids, for the family you start; it’s like a cycle or something … maybe that’s what family really is … a group of people that miss the same imagin…Read the entire review

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NHL: Philadelphia Flyers Greatest Games Set
26 Dec 2006 at 7:41pm
Recommended

The Games

Philadelphia’s pretty well-known as a town that loves its sports teams. Those fans are also known to be pretty raving, rabid and raucous on occasion, but hey, who goes to a football game and pretends it’s a ballet? Growing up the son on a Philadelphia firefighter, my youth was fairly coated with a non-stop deluge of Phillies, Flyers, 76ers and Flyers. I grew up to focus more on the football/baseball side of the equation, but for most Philadelphia sports families, the Flyers are like a religion. Seriously.

So it was with much enthusiasm that I sat down with WB’s new Philadelphia Flyers: 10 Greatest Games collection, a 10-disc set that’ll bring a tear to the eye of any old-school Orange & Black fan. No frills, no extras, just one classic hockey game per disc. Here’s what we get:

05/09/74 - Bobby Clarke scores an overtime goal to win a playoff game in Boston. (Flyers at B…Read the entire review

Dane Cook’s Tourgasm
26 Dec 2006 at 7:41pm
Rent It

The Series

“Reality TV” always seems to find a fresh “bottom of the barrel” whenever a new season rolls around, and if Dane Cook’s Tourgasm isn’t one of the very worst — it surely is one of the most disappointing. It’s as if HBO found themselves with the rights to the whole of Dane Cook, and instead of simply delivering a rock-solid comedy concert, they decided to stretch a generally worthless concept into a 9-episode series. They really, really shouldn’t have.

Full disclosure: I think Dane Cook is a pretty damn hilarious comedian. Based only on his comedy CDs and a handful of TV appearances, I definitely consider myself a fan of the guy’s work. So when I got a hold of the 3-disc Tourgasm set, I figured I was in for a pretty good time. Yikes.

Here’s what Tourgasm is: Dane Cook brings three old pals (all of whom fancy themselves professional comedians) on a tour of col…Read the entire review

Altered
26 Dec 2006 at 7:41pm
Rent It

The Movie

It’s been about six years since the “love it or hate it” sensation that is The Blair Witch Project hit the scene, but we haven’t seen a whole lot of directors Dan Myrick and Ed Sanchez since that time. Myrick’s follow-up (The Strand) hit video shelves last year, and he has a pair of horror flicks (Solstice and Believers) in the works. Sanchez’s second feature has taken equally long to get off the ground. It’s a sci-fi / horror indie called Altered and it’s kind of a mixed bag: Half chintzy and raw, half interesting and semi-creepy.

The flick opens with a decidedly different approach to the “alien abduction” idea: A pair of guys are seen high-tailing it out of the woods with lump buried inside a blanket. When they arrive at the house of an unhappy old friend, we learn what the blanket contains: an unconscious alien creature! One of the bastards who…Read the entire review

American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile
26 Dec 2006 at 3:42pm
Skip It

The Movie

It really is amazing how terrible a movie can be and yet still earn a big enthusiastic DVD release as if it were an actual piece of filmed entertainment that’s worthy of your time, money and effort.

Trust me on this one, people, and this is coming from a guy who lived through/survived the Wretched Teen-Sex Comedy Flood of the Mid-’80s: The Naked Mile is one of the lamest, laziest and most shockingly amateurish comedies I’ve ever seen. The fact that Universal wants to keep riding the “American Pie” gravy train is no big shock; that they put so little effort or creativity into these video sequels, well, it’s kind of a slap in the face. Just because someone’s looking for a mindless college comedy, that doesn’t mean that person is a mentally-deficient moron — but that’s precisely what The Naked Mile (and its equally pathetic predecessor, Band Camp) is: witless, wo…Read the entire review

Gunbuster
26 Dec 2006 at 11:33am
Highly Recommended

Background: Fans of anime are often grouped into a limited number of sub-categories based on their favorite shows and viewing habits. I tend to like a lot of different types of anime so my own tastes are difficult to define (having been raised on Americanized versions until the 1980’s; with Astro Boy, Speed Racer, Star Blazers, and Force Five, being among the titles I enjoyed over the years until then). Still, as the market expands, marketing niches make it easy for companies and reviewers alike to describe some of the tenants of a particular title in an easier form, noting that your mileage may vary considerably. One of my favorite mech-robot titles from the mid-1990’s was Neon Genesis Evangelion, a series that explored a darker version of anime, one where not only were things not as they seemed but even the good guys had serious inst…Read the entire review

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Searching for Bobby D
24 Dec 2006 at 11:01pm
Rent It

The Movie:

Low budget films truly are the backbone of the movie industry. Each year indie features are released that are greeted with one degree of success or another. 2005’s Searching for Bobby D is an example of one that connects with moderate success in what it attempts to do but for all intense and purposes falls short in the end.

The movie features a plot about an aspiring filmmaker getting his name out there and attempting to put together his opus. It’s supposed to be a comedy that showcases the plight of a struggling script writer with the backdrop of a mob-like atmosphere. It’s fun, sometimes witty, and entertains in spurts but ultimately the script feels shallow and the acting, even more so.

Johnny Argano (William DeMeo) spends his days and nights dreaming about starring in a film with Robert DeNiro. He wrote a script but hasn’t been able to make any conn…Read the entire review

The Black Dahlia
24 Dec 2006 at 4:34pm
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The Movie:

Brian De Palma is proof that being a great moviemaker doesn’t necessarily entail being a great storyteller. Ever since his ascent in the Seventies as a kind of Hitchcock Lite, De Palma consistently does his best work when he isn’t expected to make too much sense. But give the guy a big, juicy story to tell, and he winds up charred in a bonfire of his own bravado. The Black Dahlia, adapted from James Ellroy’s acclaimed crime novel and involving perhaps the most infamous unsolved murder in California history, ought to thrill and amaze.

Sadly, it mainly just disappoints.

Set in post-World War II Los Angeles, the saga follows straight-arrow police officer Dwight “Bucky” Bleichert (Josh Hartnett), an ex-prizefighter who is paired up with another boxer-turned-cop, Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart). The two become friends after an exhibition match to benefit the polic…Read the entire review

The Descent: Original Unrated Cut
24 Dec 2006 at 2:27pm
Highly Recommended

The Product:
It happens so rarely that, when it actually does, it is definitely worth noting. Critics rarely change their mind at least not a mere four months after their initial contact with an entertainment. No, it usually takes decades of differing opinions and considered scholarship before a hated movie becomes acceptable, or visa versa. But in this case, there is something about The Descent that rubbed this reviewer the wrong way back in August. Maybe it was the loud and obnoxious teens in the audience who were too busy text messaging each other to pay attention to the film. Perhaps it was the lousy projection levels, which rendering most of the movie’s cave scenes dark and indistinguishable. It could have been the unbearable hype, a machine that made the film out to be the second coming of horror. Whatever the circumstance, he came out unimpressed and angry at those who would p…Read the entire review

2006 Ghent-Wevelgem & Het Volk
23 Dec 2006 at 6:54pm
Highly Recommended

The movie

World Cycling Productions’ 2006Spring Classics series of professional bicycle racing kicks off withthe two-race set of Ghent-Wevelgem and Het Volk. These early-seasonraces are interesting not just for their own sake, but also as aglimpse of what the field looks like after the winter season oftrades, training, and team reorganization. The 2006 edition of theseraces turns out to be quite interesting, with some surprises in storefor riders and viewers alike.

While Ghent-Wevelgem gets topbilling in the set, it makes more sense to watch the Het Volk discfirst, as Het Volk is the earliest of the races on the calendar. This”semi-classic” race gets started in the chilly Belgianweather on February 25, with all the riders eyeing each other to seewho looks strongest. It’s not the first race of the year, but it’sthe first big …Read the entire review

Stained Glass (SBS TV Series)
23 Dec 2006 at 6:53pm
Highly Recommended

The Mini-Series

The 2004 Seoul Broadcasting System television series Stained Glass is a love story about three individuals who were connected on an emotional level at a very young age. Over the course of eighteen hour long episodes, their story is told. It has dramatic, romantic, and somber elements. It is a true K-drama and delivers an engaging story that is slow at times but nonetheless hard to put down. The characters are all likeable and their melodramatic situation will have you on the edge of your sit wanting more.

Stained Glass’s main plotline deals with three individuals and the sordid love triangle that ensues as two best friends pine over the same girl, who also feels conflicted about her relationship with each of them. Han Dong-Joo (Lee Dong-G…Read the entire review

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The Best Of Hootenanny
22 Dec 2006 at 6:28pm
Recommended

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

When Elvis entered the Army and left the airwaves to novelty songs, other Rock ‘n’ Roll holdovers and young Italian men from Philadelphia, a gap opened up in pop music. Before this vacuum could be filled with the surfin’ sound and the English invasion, America had a resurgence of folk music. Old folk-tradition hands such as the Weavers were joined by new voices Joan Baez and eventually Bob Dylan. Dozens of collegiate duos, trios, foursomes and entire families burst forward for recognition. The college circuit became a hot ticket for traveling singers. Not all offered renditions of Michael, Row the Boat Ashore …. only most of them.

Many of the new singing groups were young clean-cut types that sported clean short haircuts and ties, an image our parents would try to impose on us teens in the later longhair ’60s. By and large, the folk mu…Read the entire review

Pucker Up: The Fine Art of Whistling
22 Dec 2006 at 6:28pm
Recommended

It’s not often that I’m given a chance to see a whistling documentary, but Pucker Up: The Fine Art of Whistling (2005) is as catchy and entertaining as the subject it pays tribute to. Directed by the team of Kate Davis and David Heilbroner (who also helmed a segment of 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America), Pucker Up is a relatively straightforward but charming tale that revolves around the annual International Whistling Competition in Louisburg, NC. Our story introduces us to several colorful competitors from all walks of life, including an investment banker, a turkey hauler and a Dutch social worker. All share a passion for whistling, employing a number of unique styles to share their music with all w…Read the entire review

Time
22 Dec 2006 at 6:28pm
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The Movie:

NOTE: Please be aware that this DVD is a Korean import and is coded for Region 3 DVD players. In order to view this DVD, you’ll have to have either a Region 3 coded or Region Free DVD player. [Recommended Region Free Players] It will not play in standard Region 1 North American DVD players.

While Korean director Kim Ki-duk isn’t all that popular in his native land, he’s quickly becoming quite renowned abroad for his dark dramas and twisted human interest stories. His latest film, Time, finds him returning once again to the bleak, misanthropic world view that has been so integral to many of his better known pictures, but this time he takes a much quieter approach to the subject matter. The results are, sadly, rather middle of the road.

Pretty Seh-hee (Seong Hyeon-…Read the entire review

Moscow Elegy
22 Dec 2006 at 6:28pm
Rent It

THE MOVIE:

The final image of Moscow Elegy ( l gie de Moscou), Alexander Sokurov’s 1987 tribute to Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, is of a tree that Tarkovsky planted. It’s a fitting way for this documentary to close, as the movie itself is the cinematic equivalent of that tree, the product of a seed one artist had sown, the fruit it produced being the inspiration of another.

Tarkovsky is famous for such films as Andrei Rublev, Solaris, and Stalker, though Moscow Elegy largely concerns itself with his later work, after he left Russia to film in Europe, drawing most heavily from Nostalghia and The Sacrifice. Sokurov is best known in the U.S. as the director of Russian Ark. The influence of his subjec…Read the entire review

The Ripper Blood Pack
22 Dec 2006 at 6:28pm
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The Movie:
In a few of my reviews I’ve made mention of the direct to video titles that were prevalent in the eighties and early nineties. Some of them turned out ok, JR Bookwalter’s The Dead Next Door and Carlton Albright’s Luther the Geek come to mind. Most of them turned out to be horrible, the only redeeming quality being the video box art. One such example of this is The Ripper, a straight to video title that I remember seeing first in a drug store remember when you could rent titles at drugstores? They had the frames holding the flattened cases inside so you could flip through and see what you wanted? Anyone? Wow I’m old. So to move on, I first saw this title there and later on found it at a K-Mart for five bucks. I was elated; the cover was fairly cool, the back showed stills of gorily graphic kills, and it “starred” Tom Savini!!! I need see no more and I parted …Read the entire review

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Who can resist another run of Jackass with Jackass 2 with it’s frat boy humor you are going to be laughing until new years day.  
Jackass Number Two
20 Dec 2006 at 10:58pm
Highly Recommended The Movie:

When Jackass: The Movie did big numbers at the box office, it only made sense that the guys would get back together for a sequel. While spin off television shows like The Wildboyz and Viva La Bam are decent enough, the chemistry and insanity of Jackass has ensured that it’s still popular even if the series itself is no longer with us. Jackass Number Two, once again directed by long time Jackass alumni Jeff Tremaine (