Disc Reviews

It appears that Kevin Sorbo has shed his heroic image for that of the direct-to-video family film. Back in 2009 we interviewed the actor for another horse film called Tommy And The Cool Mule. Interestingly enough, Storm Rider also involves a mule. He appears quite comfortable with the change. And while he's not playing the kind of heroes he did in Hercules or Andromeda, he has been working quite a bit in these smaller productions. I'm sure that the fans would love to see him once again in the larger-than-life roles that made him famous. For now you'll have to settle for heartwarming and small-budget. For now, you'll need to settle for Storm Rider.

Dani (Churchran) is used to getting what she wants. Her family is filthy rich, and she gets to ride thoroughbred horses in competitions. As the movie begins, we see she has a rather huge collection of blue ribbons for such a young teenage girl. It all comes tumbling down when her father (Howell) is busted by the Feds for security fraud. Now we know how they got so rich. Her stepmother (Sorbo) jumps ship as soon as things go bad. That's no big loss, but she takes Dani's younger half-brother with her. She's forced to sell her favorite horse Admiral to her rival. Since Dad's on his way up the river, she has to move in with her Uncle Sam (Sorbo).

The right honorable 5^th Baron Haden-Guest is a well known multi-hyphenate. He is probably best known as Nigel Tufnel who likes to turn things up to 11.  He is also renowned as Count Tyrone Rugen, the evil six-fingered man.  He has also been called Corky St. Claire, Herb Minkman, Rajeev Vindaloo, Senor Cosa and Harlan Pepper, but only when he has the appropriate costume. He is married to Jamie Lee Curtis, and she likes to be called the baroness. I should say that the hyphens I mentioned are used to divide his many tasks like screenwriter/director/composer/actor/comedian/musician/American/Brit (with official dual citizenship), and he holds a hereditary British peerage and was active in the House of Lords until the House of Lords Act of 1999. He was part of the early days of National Lampoon with Chevy Chase and John Belushi but didn't follow them to Saturday Night Live until much later, pairing up with Billy Crystal on the show. He also guest-starred on All In The Family as a friend who in a flashback episode set Mike(Rob Reiner) and Gloria on their first date. Rob Reiner and Billy Crystal would reunite with Guest in two subsequent films, This is Spinal Tap and The Princess Bride. This led him to making a series of films that many consider the finest examples of “mockumentaries”, but Guest would say that he mocks no one but has respect and love for the various groups he has essayed and displayed.  These films are Waiting For Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration, and now the HBO series Family Tree starring Chris O'Dowd.

Family Tree is different than the films because it is more a journey by one person through his own heritage than the joining of a crew of like-minded individuals as in the other films. O'Dowd (Tom Chadwick) is best known for his charming supporting appearance in the film Bridesmaids, but he is the anchor here. It is his journey initiated by the inheritance of a trunk of junk that seems to unlock the secrets of his family's history. He is recently heartbroken and unemployed, so he has nothing better to do than hunt down clues from the trunk. In the first season it leads him from various towns in England to halfway across the globe in California where he uncovers many, many surprises. Three of the surprises include relatives like a Jewish movie cowboy, a grandfather that may have fought on both sides of the Civil War, and a genuine great-grand- Indian squaw. Tom's perpetually horny best friend and his sister with a surly, cheeky, foul-mouthed monkey puppet always by her side are his support system and wind up joining him in California (because they are both so messed up). Guest regulars Ed Begley Jr., Bob Balaban, Kevin Pollack, Fred Willard and Michael McKean make required appearances in the first season.

"There's nothing like good wine and friends. Or cheap wine and relatives."

No one is going to get you closer to Mama for the holidays than Time-Life and Star Vista. It's the moment that fans have waited for over 20 years to arrive. The complete series of Mama's Family is finally out on DVD, and that means there's a lot to talk about. No one is trying to say that Mama's Family was the best sit-com to hit television. I'm not even sure I'd put it in the top ten. But it's the little show that could and survived six years on television and even longer in reruns. Few shows have beaten the odds this many times and come out on top. Mama's Family did just that, and here's how it happened.

The Furious 5 are back in the new collection of episodes from the Nickelodeon hit show, inspired by the film Kung Fu Panda.  It wasn’t too long ago that I reviewed the first batch of episodes in the collection Good Croc, Bad Croc, and I had a good time with that set.  Now with the new collection, would it fare as well as the first, or will it blow my mind with its kung fu awesomeness?  Well, why waste any more time, and get right to it. For those unfamiliar with the show or movies, that is fine, because the opening credit music does a good job catching you up to speed telling Po’s story from working at his father’s restaurant to becoming the great dragon warrior and defender of the village.  In the feature films, Po was voiced by Jack Black, but for the animated series Mick Wingert takes over the voice work duties, and he nails it.

In this DVD release we are given seven exciting episodes that the entire family can enjoy.  The first episodes Scorpions Sting and Love Stings focus on the female villain Scorpion; though small, she makes up for it with her cunning ways and ability to create dangerous potions.  Whether it’s Scorpion using her abilities to turn Monkey into a mind-controlled zombie or brainwashing Po’s father into falling in love with her, she always manages to have a trick up her pincher.  Love Stings actually has one of my favorite moments in the set, where Po and Monkey practice in the new art of Dizzy Kung Fu; it’s silly and fun and seems to be a wink to Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master.

The Three Stooges might well be one of the most famous comedy teams in American entertainment history. What started as a Vaudeville act in the early 1920's would take theater audiences by surprise in the Depression years of the early 1930's in the famous shorts for Columbia Pictures. The shorts featured brothers Moe and Curly Howard with Moe's vaudeville partner Larry Fine. The shorts found them in all manner of situations from plumbers to Civil War soldiers. Moe was the domineering leader of the trio who ruled with an iron fist, usually slammed against Curly's head or Larry's jaw. The boys took slapstick rather literally, and before long their routines became part of the pop culture. The shorts appear violent even today. Moe wouldn't think twice about slamming a sledgehammer into Curly's head. The show's sound effects would become iconic as well.

In the 1960's and 1970's the Stooges found new fame when their shorts showed up on television. A brand new generation was introduced to the Stooges, who had gone through a few line-up changes over the years. When Curly became too ill to go on, brother Shemp joined the gang. Other incarnations included Joe Besser and finally Joe DeRita as Curly Joe. Moe and Larry remained for the entire run. It's these television airings that first introduced me to the boys.

I can recall with perfectly clarity my first encounter with this television series: it was rainy day and I was extremely bored; my vast collection of DVDs held no appeal, and I was eager for something new. I was in Target, browsing for something to fit the bill, and I came across the first season on sale. At this point I had heard of the show, but the only thing I knew about it was that NPH (for those not in the know, N.P.H. are the initials of Neil Patrick Harris) was involved. Now what started as a way to alleviate a boring day has spawned to watching all 184 episodes (that count does not include the season currently airing) and still being just as captivated as I was with the series as when I watched the pilot.

When the series left off last season, Barney had become engaged to Quinn (his stripper girlfriend), Marshall and Lily are now parents of a little boy that they named after Marshall’s dad, Robin is dating someone; however, the news of Barney’s upcoming nuptials hits her hard though she does her best not to show it, and as for Ted, he has been reunited with Victoria, his girlfriend from the first season. She has just run away from her own wedding and made her way to Ted and proposed that the two run off into the sunset together. The final shot of the season showed the pair doing just that.