Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 29th, 2007
Kelsey Grammer reprises his role as Dr. Frasier Crane in the ninth season of Frasier. Spanning eleven seasons, winning 39 Emmy Awards, and being one of the most critically acclaimed shows of its time, these are just a few of the achievements Frasier amounted during its eleven year run. So there’s no denying that Frasier has quite a following and for any of us who have watched can admit that it has its moments, and its more ‘sophisticated’ humor can be quite funny at times.
For those of y...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 29th, 2007
Moral Orel airs on Adult Swim, and like a lot of programs on Swim, each episode is about 12 minutes long. After watching only a few episodes, I just knew this show must face a lot of criticism. A lot of the subject matters are pretty touchy - from the eleven year old Orel smoking crack to him impregnating the neighborhoods mothers. Although pretty much all races and denominations take a shot throughout this show, the blunt of all jokes are taken by Protestants. Without getting into a whole religious tirade, I’...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 27th, 2007
Synopsis
Steven Soderbergh has done a successful job of leveraging his reputation through the years in order to experiment with various directorial techniques and styles. With mainstream successes like Erin Brockovich and Traffic, he’s managed to keep in the spirit of anindependent film, producing stellar, less visible works like Bubble and a remake of Tarkovsky’s Solaris. Many of his works over the last few years have been with George Clooney, who starred in Solaris and < ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 25th, 2007
Synopsis
Gary Cooper and seven colleagues are introverted academics working on a new encyclopedia. When Cooper realizes this his slang entry is hopelessly out of date, he bravely ventures outside the ivory tower to learn what the new lingo actually is. The most fluent slang speaker he encounters is nightclub performer Barbara Stanwyck. When her gangster boyfriend (Dana Andrews) is wanted for murder, she hides from the police by moving in on the professors, ostensibly to help them with their project. ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 25th, 2007
Portions of this review have been "borrowed" from Brendan Surpless' recent review of the HD-DVD version of the disc, which can also be found on the site.
Synopsis
Since Steve Carell broke into the comedic world with the film Anchorman, audiences have seemingly labeled him the new comedic genius with some comparing him to Jim Carrey. While I don't completely agree with such a comment, Carell can definitely carry a film by himself, which is evident here with The 40-Year Old Virgin.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 25th, 2007
Synopsis
When I was reviewing Season One of Martin, I was actually on a business trip in New Jersey, fondly recalling the early ‘90s and the huge popularity of the show that bore comedian Martin Lawrence’s name. Since that time, I’m no longer going to New Jersey on business, I’m working better hours, and a movie with Lawrence called Wild Hogs came out. It grossed over $150 million, and starred him, John Travolta and Tim Allen as aging adults who do the Easy Rider road trip. The only thi...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 25th, 2007
OK, it's difficult to talk about Season Three of NCIS without talking about what happened in Season Two of the show, so I'd suggest anyone reading this who hasn't seen it to skip ahead to the next paragraph. OK, done. Season Two of NCIS brought in a cast change that virtually nobody saw coming, let alone the cast member who indicated they wanted to leave anyway. Agent Todd (Sasha Alexander, Mission Impossible: III) had been shot and killed by a terrorist, and her comrades made concerted attempt to avenge her death at the beginning of Season Three.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 23rd, 2007
Thieves Like Us was never one of Robert Altman’s better known films. It did rather poorly at the box office in 1974, and I suspect it will fare little better on DVD. Certainly there is a bit more interest in Altman’s films with his recent passing, but Thieves Like Us is not a great representation of his work. It is a wonderful period piece, but there isn’t anything worthwhile happening inside that marvelously created world. Altman admits there were extreme cuts, over 45 minutes, made to the film. Perhaps that foota...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 22nd, 2007
Synopsis
Cord (Jeff Cooper) is a martial arts expert in a mythical land who competes for the right to go on a quest to confront a legendary master (Christopher Lee) who protects a mystical book. Cord cheats and is disqualified, but heads out on the quest all the same. Along the way he encounters various threats (all played by David Carradine) and a supernaturally talented blind man (also Carradine), not to mention oddities such as Eli Wallach sitting in a barrel of oil as part of long-term project to...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 21st, 2007
Synopsis
To Catch a Thief has a lot going for it. For starters, two of the most marketable faces of their time playing opposite one another, in a film directed by one of the greats of cinematic history. What’s so wrong about that? John Michael Hayes (Peyton Place) adapted David Dodge’s novel, which Alfred Hitchcock (Psycho) directed.
John Robie (Cary Grant, North by Northwest) is a well-known cat burglar who lives in the French Riviera. However, he had left the business...
