Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 26th, 2005
Synopsis
Despite the upside of pro wrestling-being on worldwide TV and having people from ages 6 to 60 buy a shirt with your face on it, and cheer (or boo) you in the ring until they become hoarse, there is still a downside. A wrestler can be on the road for 250 days out of the year. The pay is comfortable, but there is the risk of injury, or worse, addictions to drugs to overcome the pain you can suffer from while on the road. And unlike John Q. Businessman, a lot of the wrestlers out there either don’t ha...e a health or pension plan, or can’t even afford either or both to begin with. Numerous wrestlers over the years have been incapacitated from the life, and at least that many have committed suicide, including several well known (to fans) wrestlers in the recent months. The upside can be great though, and a wrestler’s character can have a lasting impact on the public, long enough to maybe make them lifelong fans. I’m still watching it, off and on for (damn!) 20 years, and Barry Blaustein has the same identification with it, and uses it to help focus on several different people who have, and are, making their livelihood in the business, in Beyond the Mat.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 26th, 2005
Four Brothers starts off as a solid drama about a group of orphans (Marky Mark, Tyrese Gibson, Andre Benjamin, and Garrett Hedlund) who were raised by a sympathetic woman (Fionnula Flanigan) in downtown Detroit. When she is murdered, the brothers reunite and stay in their mother’s old house. They sit at the dinner table and stare at her now empty seat. They horse around with one another in her living room. And in some cases they even wear her old clothes. In scenes like these, the actors do a good job of makin... their characters feel real -- a rare feat in movies these days. Then the action starts. And that’s where Four Brothers goes downhill.
What starts as a serious toned film about coming together to bury a loved one, Four Brothers transforms into an unintentionally funny action movie. The characters don’t just shoot at one another, they make corny quips while doing it. Marky Mark, yeah I know he’s Mark Wahlberg and all, but after this performance, he’s Marky Mark again. He’s lost the right to be taken seriously. Anyway, Marky Mark actually says the line, “Grab the gun and bust some shots” to Tyrese Gibson while chasing some bad guys down a street. I don’t know... the line might sound perfectly normal to some people. I guess they are the intended audience for this film. But it made me laugh. Many lines like that one made me laugh.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 24th, 2005
Season Four of The West Wing was the series' final season with the show's creator, Aaron Sorkin. This left quite a bit of trepidation among the show's faithful followers. What would happen with the series left in the hands of new writers, and without Rob Lowe's portrayal of Sam Seaborn? After all, Sorkin's original plans for the show were for it to focus on Sam, and now everything seems to be falling apart.
With one notable exception, I am proud to announce that the show is still rolling along at a s...rong pace in Season Five. It is hard to write about the show without giving away any spoilers, but I can pretty safely say that the cliffhanger from the end of Season Four is resolved within the first few episodes, some appointments are made, some decisions from the President's past come back to haunt him, and in the end, yet another White House staffer's life hangs in the balance.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 23rd, 2005
Synopsis
So after a somewhat shaky 4 episode run for Season 1 and a 6 episode showing of Season 2, the powers that be at HBO, apparently in between editing sessions of "Real Taxicab Divas," or whatever, answered Bob and David’s pleas for an increased budget for Season 3. But they also wanted a 10 episode season, something that brought them to new heights of stardom, neuroses and some real good comedy. Saturday Night Live had started to see their stars leave for TV shows, movies, or they were just tir...d of the weekly grind of the show. Their then-new cast members (Will Ferrell, Tracy Morgan and Darrell Hammond, to name a few) were still pretty hit or miss at that time. I’d started to watch Mr. Show during Season 2, and was hooked in Season 3. For my money, they arguably put together some of the funniest sketches in recent memory in Season 3. Every episode comes up with a gem, the Oh, You Men episode being the funniest of the series’ run, in my opinion. The East Coast/West Coast Ventriloquist Feud is required viewing, along with the Sid and Marty Krofft parody Druggachusettes, two of the funniest comedy sketches in awhile. As funny as Christopher Walken demanding a cowbell may be, the sketches on Mr. Show were smarter, more inventive, and yes, didn’t have the restriction of being on network TV. This was the comedy show to watch in the late 90’s. Here’s the listing for Season 3 (with help from the book “Mr. Show, What Happened?!”) with major sketches included:
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 20th, 2005
It was an excitable time for this young 13 year old boy. No matter where you were in the house, the sound came to you. No matter what you were doing, it drew you to the living room television. No matter how bad things were going, that sound brought a smile to your face. Mike Post’s opening theme for The Rockford Files has to be one of the best in television history, and it lingers in my mind as a precious anthem of days gone by.
He was every young boy’s hero. How could you resist James Rockford? He had the toughness of Dirty Harry. Yet, beneath it all, he was terribly flawed and even a little naive. Why is it that after the hundreds of TV detectives that have crossed our paths a small handful endear themselves to the pop culture? The answer is simple. Every once in a while an actor combines with strong writers and creates a character with incredible heart and soul. We can’t imagine anyone else playing the part. Peter Falk accomplished it with Columbo. In recent years Tony Shalhoub has graced us with Monk. You can’t complete such a list without James Garner and his alter ego, Rockford.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 19th, 2005
Synopsis
A prehistoric crocodile is genetically resurrected (using the Jurassic Park treatment, one assumes, though one is never told), supposedly because its growth hormone will solve world hunger (more or less the scenario that led to giant grasshoppers in Beginning of the End, and that was 1957). Anyway, the titular dinocroc gets loose from the sinister corporation’s lab, and starts gobbling up the nearby population. It’s up to Aussic crocodile hunter Costas Mandylor (Your Guide To Quality ...ilm) along with the local animal control officer and her welder/artist boyfriend to stop the beast.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 18th, 2005
Synopsis
After years of answering questions running along the lines of "When are you guys going to make a movie?" X-Files creator Chris Carter and stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson decided, in lieu of taking the time off between TV seasons 4 and 5, to go ahead and start production on a feature-length movie and a place in the summer blockbuster arena.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 16th, 2005
Just in time for the mega release of Peter Jackson’s King Kong comes a slew of Kong-related merchandise determined to cash in on the hoopla. Like long lost relatives only interested in you after that big lottery win, these forgettable items are giving it one desperate shot on DVD. Among this sub-par schedule of releases is the new feature-length cartoon Kong – King of Atlantis. In this outing, Kong is a new gorilla descended from the original King Kong. He has inherited the size, but is still struggling...to find his way into mental maturity. Hampering his journey is a trio of mostly clueless human allies that really bog down the action in spite of the elements that are actually there to recommend it. While most children will delight at the sight of Kong, his speechless bear cub friend, and a friendly overgrown tiger (reminiscent of He-Man’s Battle Cat), the human element will stop any further interest flat in its tracks.
Rather than bringing kids into the action through relatable human involvement, the creators have conjured up three whiny, obnoxious caricatures that will leave all children young and old begging for another shot of Kong and his animal friends. Not helping the likeability factor among the three human stars is a lurid opening musical number – to the best of my knowledge, it’s called “De-cide Now” – which will make even the most open-minded fan of family entertainment cringe in despair until it’s finally over.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 14th, 2005
The spoof film means something different to audiences today than it did in the early 80's. Anything, if done enough times over, starts to become stale. For instance, the first Scary Movie, while having a couple of really lame scenes, was actually pretty funny overall. With each sequel, however, came diminished returns. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to see a film that spoofs spoof films (though I'm not sure how one would do that).
Airplane!, however, was the first of the genre. Not onl... that, but the argument could also be made that it is the best. This film, from the people responsible for the hilarious Kentucky Fried Movie, was a send-up of the popular airplane disaster films of the 60's and 70's. At the time, nobody really knew how to do a film like this, or even how to describe it. In fact, it was pitched to the studio as "Animal House on an airplane", which of course it was not. However, the studio bought in to the idea, and a comedy classic was born.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 10th, 2005
Every now and then, a film comes along that I really think is something special, but for whatever reason, the movie-going public doesn't agree. For me, The Truman Show is one of those films. Maybe it was because this was Jim Carrey's first serious role. Maybe it was because it felt too gimmicky with the popularity of The Real World at the time, and being released around the same time as the similarly-themed film EdTV. Maybe it was because the premise was just a little too far outside of the norma... summer box office fare.
The fact is, the reasons that I like this movie are pretty similar to the reasons that others may not have. Jim Carrey was simply fantastic in this film, and his bold performance proved my theory that it is much more difficult to be a great comedic actor than most people believe. Carrey was handed the unenviable task of being made to carry a film that was about a lot of things at once. This is a film about big government. About secrets and lies, what it means to love someone and discovering who we are as humans. This is a film about limits, about control, and about the media. It's about knowing what to believe, what not to believe, and how to tell the two apart. It is about the importance of being the same person at work, in the home and everywhere in between.
