Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 22nd, 2010
Eddie Sutton (Russell Hornsby) is an idealistic police officer, dreaming of making a real difference. His family (nurse wife and three kids) is currently living in a too-small apartment. The chance to kill two birds with one stone comes up with a program that encourages officers to buy homes in depressed neighbourhoods, and so Eddie moves his family into a spacious former crack house in the titular LA district. Things, as one might expect, are not easy. Eddie discovers (to his unaccountable surprise) that his new neighbours are suspicious of the police. His son is bullied in school. The girls have their own problems fitting in. And crime keeps rearing its ugly head. But as the series progresses, Eddie and his family make of their new house, and its neighbourhood, a real home.
Back in 2007, Variety reviewed this series, and compared it unfavorably to The Wire. Given that show's status as one of the best series EVER to grace American television, just about anything would look back in comparison. But Lincoln Heights doesn't do itself any favours by yoking together (with violence) gritty urban drama and Hallmark-style sentimentality. The latter makes the former hollow, while the former shows up the latter for the lie that it is. The show has stars in its eyes, and its heart may perhaps be in the right place, but that does, unfortunately, make it good, despite the best efforts of its able cast. The characters remain familiar mainstream TV types, and so when Eddie warns that their new neighbourhood “isn't Disneyland,” he is, in fact, wrong. He simply moves his family from one area of the amusement park to the other, from Cosbyland to Gangstaland, and there is no more authenticity than at Disneyland. I won't even get started on the action scenes, which feature the most gratuitous use of splitscreen this side of CSI: Miami.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 16th, 2010
Anyone who has come here long enough to get to know my likes and dislikes probably knows what a Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse fan I am. The man and the character opened the road for so much of what we have today, from Pixar to Tom and Jerry. But, if you're looking for the kind of cartoons you and I have grown to expect, this one is bound to disappoint you. It's an episode of the current television series Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It's an animated Sesame Street, however, and not really a cartoon adventure.
While I use the term Sesame Street, I don't mean it literally. You'll find the traditional Disney characters, to be sure. There's Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Pluto, and even Professor Von Drake. You won't find a Cookie Monster or a Big Bird anywhere. What you will find is that strictly educational style. The characters talk directly to the children watching. They ask questions geared toward teaching such basic concepts as identifying colors and shapes to basic math problems. There's a great deal of shouting encouragement as well. You should be prepared for your young one to answer Mickey's questions and join him in some hollering. There's a particularly annoying repetition as the gang calls for a character named Toodles. Toodles carries objects that the characters need to accomplish various tasks. Whenever they find they are in the need of one of these tools Mickey encourages everyone, including your child, to yell “Oh Toodles”, to bring the character to them with the needed item.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 15th, 2010
What we have here is, essentially, a great, heaping collection of public domain material from the classic comedy duo. The menu is as follows:
17 episodes of their radio show: The Abbott & Costello Show (1942-1949);
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 13th, 2010
"My old man calls space travel a fool's game. He says human beings are 60 percent water; they eat, sleep, defecate, can't follow directions, and explode like piñata when exposed to the vacuum in space. Lately, I've been wondering if he is right."
Houston, this is Canaveral. Initiating prelaunch checklist. Please respond go/no go:
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on February 11th, 2010
Most people who call themselves friends of mine know that I absolutely adore the combination of John Carpenter and Kurt Russell. Escape from New York is my favorite movie of all time and I even liked Escape from L.A. as well. Now that my credibility is probably ruined, I was delighted to receive Elvis, a mini-series produced in the seventies that brought together this amazing duo for the first time. Kurt Russell is the King of Rock n Roll and I can’t help to enjoy watching.
The year is 1969. Elvis Aaron Presley (played by Kurt Russell) sits in a hotel room in Las Vegas with his friend and roadie Red West (played by Robert Gray). He is about to make one of the biggest comebacks of all time. However, there is a news report on the television about him that questions whether or not he can make the comeback. Elvis doesn’t quite like that. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pistol and aims it directly at the television.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 9th, 2010
"Look sharp, act sharp, be sharp. These guys coming out of prison? They're buff, been on drugs. You do what they teach you in the academy, you will die. Knucklehead wants to take your gun. So if it's you or some 300-pound naked guy on PCP, you take his ass down any way you can. You ride with me, you back your badge."
There probably isn't a group of people who have been profiled more than the men and women serving in the LAPD. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why. It's a large city with an incredibly diverse population. Oh, and it doesn't hurt any that Hollywood's a part of this particular asphalt jungle. So we get to see a lot of L.A. or New York cops on television. Even long before Jack Webb was asking for the facts and only the facts, the cops of L.A. have had more than their fair share of screen time in film and television. With that in mind, it is awfully difficult to do anything new with the LAPD.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 9th, 2010
What if you took the Desperate Housewives and placed them on an Army base? If that thought has been keeping you awake at night, sleep tight, gentle reader. You can find out simply by picking up a copy of Army Wives on DVD. I’m not exaggerating about this at all. Army Wives has the very same soap opera plotting and tone as the ABC hit does. You gotta really be into that sort of thing if you have any hope at all of keeping up with the antics of these four friends, or of having any desire to. I’m afraid I have to confess that I am not in that group and so found the 19 episodes to be very trying indeed.
The series follows the trials and tribulations of four wives of enlisted Army personnel. They call themselves “The Tribe”. Claudia Joy (Delaney) is the unofficial head of the group. The other women are Denise Sherwood (Bell), Pamela Moran (Brannaugh), and Roxy LaBlanc (Pressman). The show often focuses on their rather emotional situations and makes a center for itself in the idea that these women are there for each other. In this second season the Army life aspect of the show was intentionally held back somewhat, and the stories dealt more intimately with the wives. Likely a good move for the target audience that would have very little interest in the military aspects of the setting.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 9th, 2010
Just as JAG closes out its 10th and final year I really think the show was peaking. Most regular readers to the site will remember I was not much of a fan when I started with the 5th season set. I thought the stories failed to work on the action or courtroom levels. As the show evolved, or I did, I was drawn in with the clever and unique types of stories the series began to explore. By the time it ended here I was ready for more, but no more will be forthcoming. Of course, it lives on in the two NCIS spin-off shows currently on the air.
Most of each episode is dedicated to the investigation of the particular case. For action junkies, this often means flying some sweet high tech aircraft. The show’s primary character, Commander Harmon “Harm” Rabb (Elliott) does a lot of the high flying investigations. He was once an ace pilot who developed night blindness, which essentially grounded him.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 9th, 2010
By 1978 the television detective model had been nearly complete and possibly already a cliché. Dan Tanna might have well been the complete model as far as the formula goes. It was almost as if you could go down a checklist and, like Dr. Frankenstein creating a monster, you would check off the necessary elements. The scripts could then almost write themselves, and you let the show fly on autopilot for three seasons or so until someone decides to look behind the curtain.
So let’s go down that checklist, shall we?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 6th, 2010
"One year ago, the MOD test system at Eskmeals confirmed radioactivity of above normal background levels at the Corry Reservoir, Craigmills, Yorkshire. The usual emergency procedurals were activated under NAIR arrangements, and the reservoir was shut down. An independent inquiry was set up under the chairmanship of Dr. Anthony Marsh."
