Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on October 1st, 2015
“Jane’s life was now the stuff of telenovelas.”
As someone who grew up in a Spanish-speaking household, I have a love-hate relationship with telenovelas. Most of the time, I can appreciate — and heartily laugh at — their inspired, over-the-top campiness. But sometimes I honestly feel a little embarrassed that this broad, ridiculous junk easily represents the most visible outlet for stories featuring Hispanic actors/characters. I’m also insulted by the implication that Hispanic audiences don’t want more nuanced TV options. The great thing about The CW’s Jane the Virgin is that it works both as an outrageous nighttime soap and a sharp, good-hearted satire.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on September 28th, 2015
“I just realized that having other people around is what makes life worth living.”
This lesson doesn’t come easily — or quickly — for Phil Miller, the Last Man on Earth. On the other hand, having other people around doesn’t do a heck of a lot for The Last Man on Earth, the dementedly inventive Fox comedy that becomes considerably less interesting the more people start to show up. That being said there’s plenty to like and admire here, starting with the show’s comedic, refreshingly non-bleak look at post-apocalyptic life.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 23rd, 2015
Finally a situation comedy for geeks. Ever since Urkel went from being a one-off character on Family Matters to the star of the show, the geeks have been looking for their own series. With The Big Bang Theory you get plenty of geek factor with a healthy dose of laughter. I honestly haven’t laughed this much at a situation comedy in decades. Meet Sheldon Cooper (Parsons). He’s a brilliant young scientist working at a Pasadena university. His field was string theory but now he's shifted to dark matter. He’s one of those young prodigy guys who likely graduated from college and then went home to get his diapers changed. Sheldon insists on tight structure and is uncomfortable outside of a highly structured environment. He’s insecure and can’t stand confrontation. He also, of course, believes he’s the smartest guy on the planet. He’s a huge comic and science fiction fan who envisions himself a young Lex Luthor. His girlfriend Amy (Bialik) is a behavior scientist. The two have a relationship based on a contract and have to negotiate even when they can kiss.
His roommate Leonard (Galecki) is also a gifted member of the school’s staff. Leonard is about the most normal one of the group and actually has a steady girl in next-door neighbor Penny (Cuoco). Penny now works as a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company and finds she's doing well. Unfortunately, they cut her hair off this year, and it isn't a good look at all. She’s not the sharpest tool in the box, but she can often teach the boys a thing or two about the real world.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 4th, 2015
The D Train was not what I expected...and thank goodness for that. The film boasts that it's from the “comedic geniuses who brought you Nacho Libre and Wayne's World,” although the only thing those two movies have in common is that they're both comedies with, um, people in them. Meanwhile, the glossy poster makes it look like an inspirational drama, which doesn't exactly mesh with the phallic-sounding title. In other words, there's nothing about The D Train that hints at the intriguing dramedy lurking underneath.
Dan Landsman (Jack Black) is the unpopular self-appointed chairman of his high school's alumni association. The group is struggling to lure former students to their upcoming reunion when Dan spots former cool kid Oliver Lawless (James Marsden) on TV in a Banana Boat sunscreen ad. (Given the comically inflated significance of the commercial, I assume/hope The D Train producers were handsomely compensated by Banana Boat.) The commercial is a light bulb moment for Dan: if he can get a “hot-shot” actor like Oliver to attend the reunion, more people will follow and Dan will be a hero to the committee colleagues who mock and shun him.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 24th, 2015
Today, the term “blue collar comedy” is likely to conjure images of rednecks and Larry the Cable Guy. However, this new double feature from Shout! Factory reminds us that wasn't always the case. The heroes of Easy Money and Men at Work are, respectively, a sleazy children's photographer and a pair of rebellious garbage men, so the label certainly applies. Let's see how these two blue collar comedies hold up in their Blu-ray debuts.
Rodney Dangerfield stars as Monty Capuletti, a charismatic slob of a children's photographer who loves to drink, smoke, and gamble. This puts him at odds with his rich, domineering mother-in-law Mrs. Monahan (Geraldine Fitzgerald), who never approved of Monty marrying her daughter Rose (Candy Azzara). When Monty and Rose are notified that Mrs. Monahan has died in a plane crash, they get an extra shock. The old lady has left Rose her $10 million fortune on one condition: Monty has to whip himself into shape and abstain from all his bad habits for an entire year. With support (sort of) from his best friend Nicky (Joe Pesci), Monty begrudgingly embarks on a healthier lifestyle. But is all that money really worth giving up who Monty really is?
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on August 17th, 2015
Everyone on TV has nicer clothes and a bigger home than you do. And I’m not just talking about fictional doctors or lawyers. Even small-screen characters with relatively modest incomes manage to live in palatial apartments. Need proof? The 2 Broke Girls in CBS’s hit sitcom have an apartment that is literally big enough to fit a horse. (Hi, Chestnut.) Season 4 even manages to squeeze in a gaggle of Victoria's Secret models (Ep. 6/“And the Model Apartment”), and the girls' building gets a new tenant when lewd line cook Oleg (Jonathan Kite) moves in with larger-than-life upstairs neighbor Sophie (Jennifer Coolidge), leading to the one-liner “the booty call is coming from inside the house.”
“You two are a combination of sugar and spice...and things not so nice.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 11th, 2015
I realized Hot Pursuit was in big trouble during the sequence when intensely by-the-book Officer Cooper (Reese Witherspoon) accidentally ingests cocaine. The joke is supposed to be that the drug sends Cooper into a comically manic, frenzied state; the problem is the way Witherspoon behaves during this sequence isn't all that different from the way she's played Cooper up to that point. And that's the problem with Hot Pursuit: it's the movie equivalent of someone who types in ALL CAPS all the time. Even worse, it's an unholy (and unfunny) mash-up of Midnight Run and Thelma & Louise that shines a blazing spotlight on its leading ladies' worst qualities.
As I mentioned before, Witherspoon stars as Cooper, who idolized her legendary cop father and always dreamed of following in his footsteps. When we meet Cooper, however, she's comically disgraced her father's good name — we're meant to believe no one ever told her what “calling shotgun” meant — and is stuck working as a glorified secretary in the evidence room of her Texas police department. She gets a stab at redemption when her captain (John Carroll Lynch) assigns her to accompany a U.S. Marshal (Richard T. Jones) to escort and protect a drug cartel informant and his wife Daniella (Sofia Vergara).
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on August 10th, 2015
“What's this? The Comeback comeback?”
The most unlikely program to air on HBO over the last year didn't feature dragons or detectives...it was the story of a diva. Obviously, The Comeback — the rare HBO show that wasn't granted a second season — isn't as lavish as Game of Thrones or as ambitious as True Detective. But even for a network with a sterling reputation for taking chances and thinking outside the box, the return of The Comeback as an 8-episode “limited series” was somewhat of a shock.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 4th, 2015
I Love Lucy changed the fledgling television industry in the 1950’s. This was a time when network television was less than a decade old. Most folks had never heard of television just 15 years earlier. I Love Lucy defined the concept of a sitcom. The show was driven by the very strong personalities of the cast. Desi Arnaz was considered a charismatic Latin lover by American women. Lucy played the perfect foil and found a mountain of gold to mine in strong physical comedy. So many modern shows owe their roots to this classic that it would be impossible to mention them all here. Now CBS and Paramount are bringing the show back in brand-new high-definition restored image that will delight even the pickiest fans of the show. We've now reached the second season of these efforts, and it is absolutely worth a look.
Even if you are not a particular fan of the show, it would be a mistake to dismiss the impact the series had both on the situation comedy and the television industry itself. The show's pioneering use of the three-camera format and shooting on film allows the material to be in a position to be restored at all. That setup has remained a staple of the television comedy since that time. Desi was also a marketing genius who was the first to take advantage of the promotional value of putting the show's name on everything from lunch boxes to sleepwear. It's an innovation that is exaggerated in a Red Skelton skit provided in the extras here. Desi changed the way television crew did their jobs and created the modern production methods still used today.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 4th, 2015
“Who would ever suspect a kid?”
When I glanced at the Blu-ray cover for Barely Lethal — with its groan-worthy pun of a title, girl power, and generous splashes of hot pink — I didn’t really expect it to be my thing. (Ok, fine…groan-worthy puns are *totally* my thing.) So while I may not be the intended audience for this independent action/comedy, I have to admit its charms snuck up on me the same way one of the film’s disarming young killers might catch a target by surprise.
