Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 14th, 2009
British comedy for me has always been big hit or big miss for me. There really is no between. Monty Python & The Holy Grail – big hit. This movie makes me laugh from the first second until the closing credits. But some of the Monty Python sketches or all of Meaning of Life – big miss. Same thing with television, the Black Adder is simply awesome. Absolutely Fabulous? I never got it and found it completely droll. So I was eager to see Gavin & Stacey and find another wonderful British hit. I was totally pleased.
Gavin (played by Mathew Horne) and Stacey (played by Joanna Page) quite like each other. There is one problem though, they haven’t really met each other in person. They have a budding phone romance and have decided that they finally need to meet. Each of them takes a bud along. Gavin takes Smithy (played by James Corden), a large friendly guy who loves beer and food. Stacey takes along Nessa (played by Ruth Jones), a large not so friendly girl who loves beer, food and apparently tattoos.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on May 11th, 2009
Based on a play by Wallace Shawn (who also co-wrote the screenplay), this film is a day in the life of an unhappily married couple, played by Juliane Moore and Matthew Broderick, who don't know what to do about said unhappiness. The story is simple but the paths each character take is not. After a bitter breakfast scene, they separately go about their day before meeting at a party in the evening where Marie may or may not leave Bruce once and for all.
The dialogue is very reminiscent of a meta-theatrical stage production as the characters are able to freely address the audience in narration or monologues. When speaking to each other, they are terribly open and leave no feeling hidden as they express every thought in a highly unnatural and stylized manner. This leads to some very biting humour as Marie explains her disdain without mercy towards either Bruce or anyone he associates with, while Bruce feels no qualms about detailing the state of is genitals after a one night stand he had 11 years prior. At the same time, this strange and often venomous dialogue is peppered with the persistent use of endearing terms such as “darling” when one of the two addresses the other, which turns into a nice device used by the writers to squeeze out more of a satirical view of decaying, modern couplehood.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 6th, 2009
Two And A Half Men reached their 100th episode in the 5th year. That’s the milestone when a series becomes viable in syndication to local market stations. That’s the kind of show you see once, twice, a hundred times a day on those local stations either just before primetime or late at night. This is also the year that the writers of CSI and Two And A Half Men switched shows for an episode. It’s one of those cross-over ideas that I don’t think had been done before. I’d love to see the South Park and Family Guy staffs do something like this. That would be pay per view worthy. So, here on 3 discs is that milestone season for you to enjoy at home.
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.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 5th, 2009
Dustin Hoffman is the titular Harvey, a morose jingle composer who, with his job hanging by a thread, arrives in London for his daughter's wedding. He is a complete outsider at the rehearsal dinner, and feels even more cut off when his daughter informs him that she wants her stepfather to give her away. Meanwhile, the scarcely more cheerful Emma Thompson spends her time being set up for disastrous blind dates and being constantly harangued on the phone by her mother. These two losers at the game of love meet, and something blossoms between them.
And that is really about it as far as plot goes. The script is so insubstantial that it threatens to waft away on the first gentle breeze. The film is quite watchable, however, and that is due to the sheer force of its leads. They make the enterprise seem considerably more substantive than it is, their pained expressions conveying worlds to us. The film is at its strongest when it sits back and lets the two banter, and the relationship that develops feels easy and natural. It is all the more disappointing, therefore, that writer/director Joel Hopkins feels it necessary to shoehorn in the obligatory Romantic Comedy Third Act Falling Out by the most contrived and Deus Ex Machina-like of means. This is a turn of events that is a poke in the eye to any viewer who thought his/her intelligence was going to be respected.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 4th, 2009
With the gigantic success that the Blue Collar Comedy Tour has accumulated, it was only a matter of time before each one of the comedians received their own HBO or Comedy Central special. Jeff Foxworthy is associated with the “Are you smarter than a 5th grader?” game-show. Larry the Cable guy is showcasing his acting range with box office phenomena (i.e. Witless Protection and Delta Farce). Bill Engvall has struggled to find his niche and seems to be on every sitcom pilot that has come out in the last two years. And then there’s Ron White, if you’re anything like myself, this is your next question, who?
Ron White is a stand up comedian that gained notoriety with his red neck self-deprecating genre of comedy. White did not want to be associated with Blue Collar TV because he was not interested in being typecast as a blue collar comedian. Unfortunately, his routine begs to differ. His set is riddled with low brow humor and a genre of observational comedy. There are still a few laughs and his recounting of his recent drug arrest is well told. However, multiple times throughout the set, his rants feel forced and the result is tiresome. There are similarities between this set and Lewis Black’s newer material. At least Black’s comedic performances take firm political and social stances. Any political or social stances that White takes are buried beneath piles of profanity, ethnic slurs and sexual humor. The high points of this set are when he struggles with his material. White stammers on his own words and laughs it off. The audience gets to see the natural, unforced side of his humor and these are true comedic moments. If low brow, uncouth and foul mouthed comedy is your interest, this DVD is for you.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 24th, 2009
“The best movies you totally forgot about”
That’s the marketing slogan for this Lionsgate collection of mostly 1980’s films that never really broke any ground in their box office releases. They are, for the most part, cheap comedies. A few have somewhat of a cult following. None of them ever really set the receipts on fire. At just under $15 each, likely less if you shop around, they are good for a couple of laughs, but little more than that.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 17th, 2009
Everybody who is old enough remembers Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. It was once one of the highest rated shows on television. On NBC it ran from 1963 until 1971. It would continue to run in syndication for decades. An elder Marlin Perkins would host the show, while a young Jim Fowler would be out in the field. Every week they would show us animals in the wild from all over the world. Long before there was a Crocodile Hunter or Nigel, there was Wild Kingdom. Strange Wilderness attempts to urinate all over our fond memories, all the while trying to tell us that it’s funny. As Terry Bradshaw is fond of saying, “That ain’t funny.” Say it again, Terry. “That ain’t funny at all”.
Peter (Zahn) is the son of a world renowned naturalist and star of the classic television show, Strange Wilderness. He’s gone now, and Peter has taken over the show. No longer an educational platform, Peter doesn’t let things like facts or work interfere with his version of the show. It doesn’t take long before he’s destroyed the show’s credibility and lost any following the show might still have. He’s been relegated to the 3 A.M. timeslot. He’s about to get cancelled when a rival nature show producer, Sky Pierson (Hamlin) pitches his program to the station. He has two weeks to turn the series around, or it’s gone. Enter Bill Calhoun (Baker) an old friend and colleague of Peter’s father. He claims to possess a map that reveals the lair of Bigfoot. So, in an entirely unlikely series of events, the incompetent crew heads off to South America to capture Bigfoot on video and save the show.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 16th, 2009
Raise your hand if you’re sick and tired of Lindsay Lohan. Fortunately I can type with one hand. Honestly. How did this girl get to be so big? Why is she dominating our entertainment news cycles? Are there more than a handful of folks out there who think she has any talent at all? She’s nothing close to hot. It’s that wonderful modern phenomenon of being famous for being famous. It really does tend to color one’s opinions when you watch her in a film. She’s so overexposed, in more ways than one, that it’s impossible to watch her play any character without seeing the spoiled bratty whiner she has become so perfect at. Here she is supposed to be playing the sympathetic character, but am I just incredibly nasty because I can’t help but take glee in any punishment her character’s given? I’m rooting for the bad guys, or the Mean Girls, as the case may be.
Mean Girls has all the earmarks of a Saturday Night Live skit that ran too long. It could have to do with the production team that includes Lorne Michaels and the writing team that includes Tina Fey. And, while I’m at it, you know, I’m getting sick and tired of Fey, as well. These efforts at times go remarkably well, but more often than not, go horribly awry. Can you guess what direction this one goes? Actually, you might be surprised. Mean Girls is actually quite watchable and at times even very entertaining. It makes you wonder what in the heck happened to Lindsay Lohan.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 16th, 2009
The curtain finally falls on Wings on DVD some 12 years after the show came in for its final approach on television in 1997. The end was a planned one so that the final episode was a fitting goodbye for the series and its collection of crazy characters. The final episode finds Joe and Helen off to Vienna to live while Helen studies cello. Brian is left alone to man the business. For us, we’ll get this one last chance to laugh it up with the clever and often hilarious television series.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 13th, 2009
Try this plot on for size: Gordo, an ape owned by carnival sideshow barker the Great Lampini (Paul Richichi), gets loose and rampages about Long Island, raping and killing and stealing cars (!). Meanwhile, the moronic detective in charge of the murder case dismisses the idea that an ape is the culprit, and casts his racist eye on the unfortunate Duane Jones (Christopher Hoskins, whose character is named after Night of the Living Dead's lead).
Though made in 1997, this shot-on-super-8 effort does its level best to come across as the Lost 70s Grindhouse Flick, and it has to be said that it does a pretty credible job in capturing that trash aesthetic. There is also wit on display, most prominently in Lampini's deliberately overwrought and baroque dialogue. The film does, though, take its time getting to the rampage: nearly half its 77-minute running time has elapsed before the attacks begin. That first thirty minutes consists largely of people arguing, which has varying entertainment value. The gore scenes have a charming DIY feel, but there is a nastiness to the attacks on women that, as with Blitzkrieg: Escape from Stalag 69 (director/co-writer Keith Crocker's other recently released effort), is in some ways more off-putting than those of its inspirations, given how much of the rest of the film works as a goofy comedy.
![Strange Wilderness [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/strange-wilderness-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Mean Girls [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/mean-girls-blu-ray-large.jpg)
