Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 4th, 2006
For those Flintstones collectors out there, the ride is almost over. Season five of this show's six season runis now available on DVD. Of course, this show will never completely go away, and for good reason. The Flintstones was quite progressive for its day. Not only was it the first prime time cartoon program to develop a following, but it also has other things in common with modern animated sitcoms. It is easy to see traces of the characters of Homer Simpson and even Peter Griffin in these episodes. F...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 4th, 2006
Synopsis
I have to write an open letter to those who are (deep breath) fans of teen idol used-to-bes Scott Baio and Willie Aames. What the hell is wrong with you people? Did the online petition have THAT many signatures that it had to be recognized and acted upon? Did you really need to have the theme song to Charles in Charge on DVD? I admit, it’s a little bit catchy, but if you watch all 22 episodes in one setting, you need to up your lithium dosage. I know and understand that Universal is catering...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 3rd, 2006
When it absolutely positively has to be there by next month.
ABC made an effort to bring back the western in 1989. But The Young Riders was more of an extension of the popular Young Guns films than the traditions of Gunsmoke or Bonanza. I didn’t catch this show on its original run, so the DVD’s were a particular treat. A chance to see something new. Still, I never could shake the feeling that I’d seen it all before. Give ABC credit for a decent cast of upcomers. The production values were also far great...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 2nd, 2006
There may have never been a more aptly-named television show in history than Jackass. For those who don't know, this show is comprised of a collection of short clips of “stunts” that push the limits of common sense and decency. While the majority of these stunts amount to little more than idiots with a camcorder, and some are just downright disgusting (do I really need to see some guy throw up a goldfish?), some of the segments honestly are quite funny. Giving your buddy a Billy Ray Cyrus haircut will always b...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 2nd, 2006
Synopsis
Music journalist Tre (Andre Royo) arrives at the Hamptons home of his cousin Sky (Chenoa Maxwell) and her cad of a husband (Blair Underwood). Tre is here to interview Summer G (Richard T. Jones), megastar rapper, who has just bought a home in the area. Sky and G have past, and old embers flare to life when they see each other.
If any of this sounds familiar, it should. As O was to Othello, G is to The Great Gatsby. The transposition comes off as rather a...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 31st, 2006
Synopsis
Lie With Me is proclaimed in its trailer to be a film in the tradition of Y Tu Mama Tambien and Sex, Lies and Videotape. But at its core, it’s more along the lines of another one of director Clement Virgo’s film influences, Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris. The characters in Lie With Me experience each other rather provocatively at the start of their relationship, and work their way outwards.
Based on a book by Tamara Berger, the film tells a story of Le...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 31st, 2006
Synopsis
An item of secret desire for geeks like me was to get Spike Jonze’s videos on DVD. In the mid ‘90s, Jonze arguably was THE director to go to if you wanted your MTV submission to be memorable, talked about, and perhaps most importantly, spur record sales. If you remember the wacky video you saw on MTV that one time, chances are Spike directed it. Even after the critical success in Hollywood with an Oscar nomination for directing Being John Malkovich and before working on Adaptation, he...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 31st, 2006
“Who you gonna call?” By now everyone knows the answer. Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson are the Ghostbusters. As their ad proclaims, they’re ready to believe you. Ghostbusters was originally conceived by Aykroyd as a vehicle for John Belushi and himself. When Belushi died, reportedly from a drug overdose, the project sat on the shelf a few years. Harold Ramis would eventually team up with Aykroyd and finish the script. It’s been said that “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” Leave it to these ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 31st, 2006
Arnold Clasen reenters society after time away in a Nazi prison camp, and returns to Hamburg and a life of quiet solitary resistance, in the 1981 war-time drama Your Unknown Brother. Clasen immediately reconnects with his old love Renate, and embarks on a turbulent, dangerous friendship with resistance leader Walter, a man of ulterior motives, who is also in bed with the Nazi regime. Clasen starts to suspect Walter when many of his old comrades are seized by authorities. It seems everyone in the resistance, wh...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 29th, 2006
John Carpenter can be hit or miss on some of the things he’s done in his career. Vampires may be a good case in point. In his version of The Thing, remade from Howard Hawks’ 1950’s classic, he doesn’t focus on the creature as much as the relationship between the men in the camp, and how the paranoia starts to creep in the group, as they try to figure out who may or may not be infected by the creature. I might have jumped ahead of some people who haven’t seen it, but just to briefly recap for those few w...
