Disc Reviews

This fly on the wall experience follows Ray Romano and his friend and opening act Tom Caltabiano as they engage on an 8-day 7-city stand-up tour while driving from Miami to Atlanta.  This candid experience is filmed not with a giant production crew but with one intern Roger Lay Jr. who is just as much a character in this documentary that follows the highs and lows of touring.  What could easily have been a forgettable snooze-fest instead turns out to be an eye-opening glimpse into the life of TV star Ray Romano that has more than its fair share of laughs and enjoyable moments of awkwardness.

The film kicks off with Ray heading to the airport, and it’s along the way there he reveals his fear of flying which explains why once touching down in Florida they will be travelling by car through the duration of the tour.  It’s inside the car where a good portion of the documentary takes place and where from duct-taped dash cameras we watch Ray and Tom banter through such topics as Tom’s chronic tardiness, Ray’s insecurities with fame, how the production will come together as well as Ray’s “mind bets”.  The “mind bets” are best explained by Ray when watching the documentary, and it’s one of those little things that allows the viewer to not just see him as more than the character from his sitcom, but as a regular guy with a few quirks.

How many films are lost and forgotten over the years? It would be interesting to know how many films have been made since the advent of the movie industry. It is probably in the millions, and yet most of us would probably have trouble thinking of a thousand.  The Red House is probably a film that could be considered lost or forgotten. It stars Edward G. Robinson, who is someone who everyone probably knows and would consider to be a classic American actor. There use to an old expression, “There are 8 million stories in the Naked City, and this is one of them.”  This film fits well into the tradition of small human dramas of mystery and murder. It’s part of a well known genre in the history of cinema called Film Noir. Robinson’s career was launched by the famous gangster film of the Thirties called Little Caesar, and his resume is full of scary and threatening characters. Sometimes he would tweaked people’s expectations by playing characters who were more humorous or weak or full of inherent goodness that would belie the image that Robinson’s reputation represented. As Robinson continued acting, it would be interesting to see what twists in character would occur in an Edward G. Robinson movie. Double Indemnity is that kind of movie and made that same year; The Red House is also that kind of movie.

The main setting is an isolated farm where Edward G. Robinson lives with his wife and teenage daughter. The daughter is pining after a boy at the high school and gets him to work for her father. A very young and enticing Julie London plays another girl with her sights on the young man. A local young stud played by Rory Calhoun figures he’s much better match for someone as pretty as Julie London. But the biggest question in the film is what secret is hidden in the woods that Edward G. Robinson wants no one to discover. It becomes more and more obvious that Robinson will stop at nothing to keep what is in the woods secret.  Oscar winning actress Judith Anderson (Rebecca) plays the supportive mother figure, and her subtle and controlled expressions reveal little. The secret is clearly making Robinson live two lives. He is both a loving father and husband and clearly someone who did something dark and disturbing that he must hide from nearly everyone. The one person who might know something more is Rory Calhoun, who Robinson has given hunting rights to the woods where the secret lies. He has been told that anyone who trespasses there should be warned to stay away in no uncertain terms including warning shots that can whiz by an intruder’s skull. At one point Calhoun takes numerous sniper shots at the daughter as she wanders close to the mysterious red house in the woods. Clearly the potential for disaster looms over the story. Will the daughter get the boy, or will it be the fetching but manipulative rival? Will the daughter find out what’s in the red house? Will the reckless stud kill someone with his rifle? What is the secret, and what will it mean for Robinson if it is revealed? Will his safe little world unravel as he becomes more and more unraveled?

“LAPD Lt. Carter Shaw and his special undercover task force understand that to collar criminals, one must first get on their level. They also know that going undercover may require cutting ties with those who mean the most. Adrift, isolated, and frequently faced with situations that strain the line between right or wrong, these officers know that all that matters is loyalty to each other and to the task at hand: bringing down the bad guys.”

That pretty much sums up the best part of what makes Dark Blue such a compelling series. Fresh from the minds of Jerry Bruckheimer and Danny Cannon who brought us the CSI shows, it’s a much darker series that gives us the most intense look at undercover work I've seen on television. In fact, I almost wish this were an HBO show, because it's clear that the series already pushes even TNT's boundaries, and I'd like to see the handcuffs come off the show's creative team, not the bad guys.