Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 11th, 2010
Charlie Sheen is an unlikely actor to star in a television sit-com. Even after watching the show, I’m not sure how anyone came up with the idea in the first place. He has little to no comedic timing, and he’s about as funny as a funeral. The thing that works here, however, is that he really doesn’t need to be all that funny to make this show work. Sheen pretty much deadpans his entire performance, which generously enough works rather well teamed with the more manic comedy of Jon Cryer. Throw into the mix a rather extraordinary young child actor in Angus T. Jones, and suddenly a show that looks terrible on paper turns out to be pretty dang funny. We’re not talking Fred Sanford funny, but I caught myself laughing far more often than I expected to. I had only caught the show before in bits and pieces and was never all that fond of what I saw. Watching these DVD episodes from the third season shed some new light on the show for me.
Charlie Harper (Sheen) is your typical womanizing bachelor. He’s got plenty of coin because he writes those annoying jingles you hear on commercials. He also happens to go through plenty of women. He’s got a swank place on the beach, and life is pretty much one big party until his brother Alan (Cryer) shows up on his doorstep along with his son Jake (Jones). In typical Felix Unger/Oscar Madison style, Alan’s been kicked out by his wife of 12 years and needs a place to stay for “just a little while”. Of course, Alan’s lifestyle is drastically different from Charlie’s. He’s got the responsibility of raising his son, and he’s rather obsessive-compulsive. As I’ve already mentioned, there is no escaping the obvious Odd Couple revival at work here, down to the slob vs. the neat-freak mentalities. Here we add the presence of an impressionable child. Most of the best laughs come when Charlie is trying to educate young Jake to his own philosophies of life. Naturally Alan considers him a bad influence, but then again, he is a guest in Charlie’s house. Helping to spread the humor out a bit, we get some great supporting work by Holland Taylor, who plays the boys’ smothering mother. Every good sit-com needs the nosy or pesky next door neighbor, and Melanie Lynskey fits the bill as the rapid staler, Rose. Some ethnic humor is provided by bossy housekeeper Berta, played by sit-com veteran Conchata Ferrell. New to the cast in season three is April Bowlby as the brainless Kandi dating Alan. As a particular treat, we get a visit from Charlie’s real life padre; Martin Sheen is an extremely off-the-wall character, the guys’s… what else… dad. If all of this sounds a bit complicated, it really isn’t. My best advice is not to ask too many questions, and enjoy the ride.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 7th, 2010
"Every government has its secret service branch. In America it's CIA, England MI5. A messy job? Well, that's when they call on me, or someone like me. Oh yes. My name is Drake, John Drake."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 5th, 2010
For somebody who does a lot of the cartoon reviews on this website, I often miss many new cartoons that crop up on Saturday mornings, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, etc. One such animated show cropped up on my review slab. In the spirit of Halloween, (but not an official Nights of Terror post), it is my pleasure to take a look at Ugly Americans, the newest animation from Comedy Central.
Mark Lilly is a newcomer to Manhattan. He moves into his first apartment that he found on Craiglist, a nice two-bedroom with a roommate. One little problem, his roommate is a flesh-eating zombie named Randall Skeffington. Randall became a zombie in an attempt to win over a hot girl who was into zombies. The only issue is that the hot girl had moved on to warlocks by the time Randall had turned.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 4th, 2010
Eddie Murphy was at his best when he did Saturday Night Live and his own stand up comedy. I would even say that some of his earlier films were okay. He is far better when given the opportunity to be himself, and improvise a little. I miss the days of Delirious and Saturday Night Live. Now at most we get Dr. Dolittle and Shrek. I miss the vulgar side. So let's take a trip down memory lane, and have a few laughs.
We interrupt this review to bring you this special report. Good evening, Teh Noms reporting, we have just received word that Buckwheat has been shot. Brought to you by Texxon, Life goes on, and Texxon is there. *cough* You have to have this set of sketches in order for this to be a "Best of". It goes on and on and on... With them showing the video of Buckwheat being shot at least 10 times. It doesn't start to get funny till the 4th or 5th time of seeing the video. The funniest thing is how they repeat the lines. Heeelarious.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 3rd, 2010
Written by Diane Tillis
Paranormal State is a paranormal reality documentary television series that premiered on the A&E network in 2007. The series follows a group of students from Pennsylvania State University who formed the Paranormal Research Society (PRS) under the guidance of leader Ryan Buell. The students travel across the country investigating instances of paranormal activity at the behest of people looking for answers.
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 Gino Sassani on September 30th, 2010
In 1987 Kenny G had released three albums already, but most of the world still didn't know who he was. He was already an accomplished musician who had played as part of Barry White's orchestra. He had dreams of taking his talents a bit further than that. But it's incredibly hard to get on the pop charts with instrumental music. It doesn't happen very often. That's not to say that it's unheard of. There have been a few instrumental pieces and musicians that have found huge success riding the international pop charts. Up until now Kenny G could not be counted as one of them.
All of that changed with the release of Duotones and the single Songbird. Both captivated the mainstream audiences and began to garner serious attention for the sax player. One of the results of that new-found recognition was an introduction to the world famous Montreux Jazz Festival. You had to show something to be invited to that stage. Kenny G appeared there in both 1987 and 1988. This DVD captures both of those performances. Fans won't need much of an inducement to pick up the release. It was an historic moment for the musician and his mostly Seattle-based band. It was the introduction of Kenny G to the world stage.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 23rd, 2010
Written by Diane Tillis
Broken Lizard is the comedy group composed of Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske. I recognized the group as the minds behind the films Super Troopers (2002) and Beerfest (2006). They decided to return to their comedic roots and go on tour in this DVD comedic show at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles, California. The five men would take turns to perform a solo sketch. It allowed the audience to distinguish them as individuals. In between each solo, anywhere from two to all five of the comedians would perform a group sketch. The sketches would be related to a shared experience or be a re-creation of a social event such as Susan Boyle’s introduction on Britain’s Got Talent.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 21st, 2010
When Jim Henson had finally finished up with The Muppet Show, it was time to take his puppet creations in a slightly different direction. Fraggle Rock, like The Muppet Show before it, was originally produced and aired outside of the United States. With the Muppets it was England that gave the guys their break. This time it was CBS in Canada. The show did quickly find a home in the United States, this time on cable. HBO was just beginning to stretch its legs and break out of its reputation as merely a place to watch movies after their box office run was completed. The network also had a bit of a reputation as more of an adult network. Fraggle Rock was the perfect opportunity to expand on both fronts. The show developed a cult following, but never achieved quite the reputation and numbers that the Muppets had done. Still, it was a staple on the cable network for 5 years.
Fraggles are furry little animals that live underground. Each Fraggle is unique in many ways. They all have their own color and look. They pretty much live a simple life of socializing and having fun. In the world of the Fraggles, there is also a family of giant troll-like creatures called Gorgs. The Ma and Pa Gorgs considered themselves the King and Queen of the land, but Junior was the only other Gorg in the kingdom. He loved to try and catch the Fraggles, who would often raid his garden for their favorite food, radishes. There was also an entrance to Fraggle Rock in the workshop of Doc and his dog Sprockett. Doc was blissfully unaware of the Fraggles living under his home. But, Sprocket was always trying to alert him to their presence. In the final episode, Doc finally learned of the existence of the creatures.
