Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on October 13th, 2010
Having been dropped by NBC, Medium finds a new home for its sixth season at CBS. The story of a psychic working for a Phoenix (I could have played off their location's name and used it as a metaphor for this show rising from the ashes onto a new network...but I'm a much classier and restrained writer than that) district attorney's office. Meanwhile, her husband struggles with a new job and when it comes to her daughters, there is evidence that there might be more than one psychic in her household.
I did not follow this show before, but had watched a few episodes previous to reviewing this season. Something I had always admired about this program was the dynamic the family has with each other. Driving the plot of each episode is a crime mystery, but instead of new evidence arriving as it might in a CSI or Law and Order, our hero would dream the truth, making for a supernatural side to things. Despite this, the writing would blend said supernatural elements into their daily bickering and family matters until it seemed utterly domestic. Now with a daughter showing powers the family is becoming significant in different ways but all the while never ignoring facts of life that occur and change over the six years that this show existed, such as the girls growing up, job changes, sickness etc. Perhaps what I admire about this is not only how the show does not hinge on the psychic aspect of things, but also creates an all the more believable family unit while doing so. Much credit for this goes to the more than capable leads Patricia Arquette and Jake Weber (who plays her husband) as well as the writing staff.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on October 2nd, 2010
Three friends, who have been close since grade school, are approaching their 40s and feeling like they are well past their prime. One friend had a 4.0 grade point average, works at a retail store. One was a star athlete bound for a scholarship, is 25K deep in gambling debt. The final of the three was a successful working rock musician, now drives a beer truck and lost his knack for song writing. As they all hit rock bottom, they venture on a road trip with a pair of tickets to a major College Football match and the hope of starting fresh...or end it all on a high note.
So much seems to happen in this film, as it plays out like a series of bits that have been sewn together. Things happen so quickly that it is hard to keep track of what is motivating these men. They seem to go back and forth between seeking a meaning, then redemption, then they want to kill themselves, and then the cycle starts over again. The “bits” (as I just called them) are amusing enough but it is hard to connect with characters when you're not sure how seriously to take them. They play for beer-fueled, road trip laughs more often then not, but then confuse you with a sudden heavy desire for catharsis (and overload of which comes at the end). One might assume that because so much happens so quickly in a movie that is 90 minutes long, that it has a good pace, but it doesn't. The funnier bits certainly pick things up but then we hit a grinding halt on more than several occasions with inexplicable scenes like this Ed Harris cameo at a carnival which has nothing in the way of exposition or character revelation, thus doesn't feed the film at all.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on September 30th, 2010
A young epileptic girl returns to her home in New York while on spring break. She stays with her mother and her best friend Al, whose room is now being rented out by his parents. While there she loses touch with her college boyfriend and reevaluates how she feels about her friend Al.
I wish I could say that opening paragraph was the launching point for the film's plot, when in fact it is a basically a summary of the entire film. This film is a very understated character study of our female lead and offers little by way of action or complex plot. Writer/Director Bradley Rust Gray's approach to this film is a sort-of casual, fly-on-the-wall approach to shooting the action (or lack thereof). Gray succeeds when using very long, uninterrupted shots, at very odd angles, as if the cameraman were spying on these these 20-somethings mumbling and fumbling through their awkward feelings and the lame parties they attend in order to capture their unadulterated actions. Whenever a typical shot-reverse-shot occurs (for those not up on film school lingo: an example is simply when the camera is watching one person speak, then cuts to a shot of the person they are speaking to and back again) it actually distracts from the moment for its artificiality removes us from the voyeuristic feel of the camera's positioning. The 'captured reality' approach to the presentation makes it so that I cannot tell if I should attribute the mishandling of situations (mainly some really lame and awkward dialogue) to the characters within the film, or to an awkward script. That is to say, I am able to buy into what is happening in such a way that I forget that there is a team of people working on this film that I cannot see and so I place all responsibility onto the characters.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on September 21st, 2010
The only difference between this collection of episodes and the one I reviewed on this site previously (https://upcomingdiscs.com/2010/07/20/madelines-great-adventures/ ) is the Halloween theme implied in the DVD's title. In fact, in terms of quality and material I could almost quote that review word for word. So feel free to refer to my previous review and I hope to avoid redundancies while writing this latest one.
There is no Halloween in Paris so most all of Madeline's adventures on this disc require her and her friends to travel elsewhere, mostly the United States. There are a couple that lead them to Madrid and Egypt but both are not directly about Halloween but some other “spooky” theme.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on September 20th, 2010
This documentary follows four different families as they await the date for a charter school lottery in Harlem. As the date approaches, we bear witness to the heated debates that go on between those that wish to implement more charter schools (a charter school being one similar to public schools but relies on stringent academic results and standards from its students and operates as an autonomous public school) into a “project” area, and members of the community who believe that their children would be excluded and object to the idea of closing public schools who have failed to produce positive results.
This film clearly has an agenda, and so comparisons to the likes of An Inconvenient Truth have been made. The key difference between this film and Al Gore's, aside from style and topic, is that The Lottery allows both sides to speak their minds and address their concerns. It is the difference between simply saying the other side is wrong versus allowing them to speak so that the folly in their arguments will present themselves naturally. Harlem Success Academy is the organization running the charter schools, and have proven their worth to both the neighbourhoods they exist in, and the nation as a whole. The debates they enter can be frustrating to watch as they are often vicious attempts to mudsling (politicians) or ignorant bravado (community members led by a hired protest group) versus reason (Harlem Success Academy) and endorsements (members of the Harlem community whose children have all been accepted into the schools despite parental history of prison, drugs, lack of money etc.). If they are not entered into unnecessary and hurtful debates, they are also bogged down by bureaucracy and challenges presented by the teacher's unions.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on September 18th, 2010
This documentary is a mainly a sea of praise for the late guitar legend, as it promises to not focus on “drudging up scandal and outworn hypothesis about his lifestyle and ultimate death.” historical footage tells the biographical portions while high-profile interviws with the likes of Lemmy Kilmister (Motorhead), Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones), Stephen Stills (Crosby, Stills & Nash) and moany more, plus narration by super-fan Slash (Guns N Roses).
As the early history of Hendrix is told, namely when he was brought to England, where he made a name for himself, a baffling series of celebrities' names are dropped as noted admirers. For example, one London club concert featured in its first few rows, all of the Beatles, most of the Rolling Stones, Cream, Steve Winwood, and The Who...all there to see Hendrix redefine the sound of the electric guitar. The filmmakers use this explosion of legendary names to gain interest in the audience, which is a fine tactic. They save biographical details for the second act but never let up on the limitless line of admirers, celebrity or otherwise. As a matter of fact, the amount of praise borders on being redundant for it seems relentless, but such a subject truly deserves every word the interviewees have to say.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on September 17th, 2010
Zeus' mighty bolt has been stolen, and whomever holds it may have the power to topple the king of the Gods. Zeus suspects Poseidon's estranged, half-human son is the Lighting Thief and threatens his wrath upon the entire realm if it is not returned. Percy Jackson is Poseidon's son, making him a Demi-God, but as far as he knows, he is a just a high school student living with Dyslexia, ADHD and struggling to live with his abusive step-father. As mythic monsters and Gods all start to threaten Percy's life, his best friend and his mother both reveal themselves to be protectors of his life, both with connections to Greek Mythology. Percy;s mother is taken to the underworld and so he sets out on a quest to discover the truth about his Demi-God heritage while fighting to get his mother back from the clutches of Hades, as well as discover who the true Lighting Thief is.
The story moves by at a fast pace, which helps keep the attention of younger, easy to bore audiences, but the conflict set-ups and exposition are a bit too been-there, see-that for my liking. We are meant to assume that Percy is an outsider, thus easier to relate to and sympathize with, because he has issues, but his Earthly problems (step-father, dyslexia) seem hastily tacked on and it doesn't take long before his super-human capabilities are revealed. This is especially aggravating during a wickedly illogical training scene where all of the demi-God children of Camp Half-Blood play capture the flag (fighting with real swords for no good reason!) and Percy earns the respect of the entire camp simply by being able to heal from any wound by touching water and inheriting a wondrous fighting ability from his father's side, without having picked up a sword before. The friends who join him on his quest also have amazing agility and skill, so we have a pack of kids with Superman syndrome, but none of them have enough have that 'Clark Kent' side to give them a mien of humility (do enough people reading this understand where I'm going with that analogy?).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on September 15th, 2010
This Blu Ray is the merging of two previously released concert DVDs. One taking place in Boston comes from their reunion tours of recent years, and the other is an extremely rare acoustic appearance at the Newport Folk Festival. By having these combined into one package makes for a nice compare and contrast for both fans and newcomers of this highly influential, alternative rock band. Both setlists are enormous and ensure that this is a must buy for longtime fans.
The Boston “electric” show is much truer to the Pixies sound, as always orchestrated by frontman Black Francis (aka Frank Black; aka Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV). This show demonstrates the band in top form as they ease into the frenetic punk energy they've had since their 1980s debut. Meanwhile the acoustic show makes for an interesting experiment but I have a feeling that only true fans will be able to listen past the new arrangements and strange lead guitar changes to hear what they are meaning to play in all of their “classic” tunes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on August 25th, 2010
Pauly Shore seems to be trying to steer his career from being a washed up b-lister to being a self-aware washed up b-lister. Pauly Shore is Dead was his first dabbling into mockumentaries about himself, and now he has followed it up with Adopted. This yarn is about Shore, following the trend set by Angelina Jolie and Madonna, of flying to Africa (and later Cambodia) to adopt a child, with the hopes that being a father would fill a void in his shallow Hollywood hills life.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on August 23rd, 2010
A robber tosses his loot onto a freeway and it lands on the hood of a random passerby. Said passerby decides to keep the $600,000+ and use it to buy brand new...everything, for him and his wife. While the robber gets incarcerated, he offers half the money to his twin brother if he can track it down. If the young couple flashes their money around and started paying cash for big ticket items, they will be hunted down...they do, and they are.
![Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/percy-jackson-the-olympians-the-large.jpg)
![The Pixies: Acoustic & Electric Live [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-pixies-acoustic-electric-liv-large.jpg)
