Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 16th, 2007
Synopsis
The show that started out as basically a Cops parody (which is pretty funny on its own trailer trash merits) has become a holy grail of sorts for the Comedy Channel. The show has now spanned four seasons and a major motion picture. Reno 911 can be best described as a faux reality show with a good deal of improvisational comedy performed by some very capable actors and actresses. It loosely has a plot from season to season. This season focused on the pregnancy of Depu...y Wiegel. However, it is not critical or necessary to focus on the plot and you can watch most of the episodes out of order and still get the desired effect. Episodes include incidents from Carrot Top trashing a hotel suite to a Citizens Patrol member (great cameo performance by Paul Ruebens)keeping one step ahead of the police on a murder case.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 15th, 2007
Synopsis
Is it wrong that I kinda sorta liked The Powerpuff Girls? Don’t get me wrong, I’ll join the scores of those older male online reviewers who feel a bit of guilt in that statement, and wonder when Chris Hanson and the Dateline NBC crew will come barreling down my door, but God help me, I found it charming.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 15th, 2007
Synopsis
I’ve gotta say that when the first Die Hard was released, I was in a position where I hated, absolutely despised Bruce Willis. In my opinion, the world honestly didn’t need another loudmouthed movie star who was from New Jersey and didn’t hesitate to say so, and that whole schtick about him and the Bruno persona would allow him to release music albums reeking of self-promotion and another money grab. And when he hooked up with Demi Moore, my initial reaction was “good, they’ll have mongoloid...babies and divorce after a couple years”. And since 1985 or so, there’s only one part of my opinion that held true for the most part.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 15th, 2007
Synopsis
It’s no big secret that I enjoy Extras, and found my way to it through the first episode of the second season, which included a guest appearance by Orlando Bloom (of Pirates of the Caribbean lore). And now that I’ve seen the first season, and rabidly followed the second season on HBO, while it’s a bummer to see Extras fade away after a dozen episodes, and just like The Office, it’s not going to soon forgotten.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 15th, 2007
Synopsis
Try to wrap your mind around this one. Take the guy who was the center of attention and played the role in Being John Malkovich, and have him play a role as a guy who impersonates the film auteur Stanley Kubrick, of 2001 fame in a story that may or may not be true.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 15th, 2007
Synopsis
The Watcher is a groundbreaking piece of cinema. It takes the crime thriller film genre, employs a few recognizable stars, and proceeds to waste them by boring the absolute beejeezus out of me with performances and a story that is so holistically unoriginal that I didn’t feel good about myself after watching the film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 10th, 2007
Although romantic comedies aren’t my forte, I have admitted to liking a few in the past, and surprisingly a good number of the ones I have found tolerable or even likeable star Hugh Grant. So I go into watching this film with an open mind and hopefully we’ll see some results out of Music and Lyrics.
Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant, Nine Months) is a founding member of the hit 80’s pop group appropriately named PoP! And although he surmounted to a considerable amount of fame during his prime, he is no... contempt as being a has-been. Still Alex gets the opportunity of a career revival when current chart toping diva Cora Corman (Haley Bennett) offers to perform with him in a duet, which he must compose in a short period of time. Having not written anything in quite some time, Alex decides to enlist the help of a lyricist to get the ball rolling. After some convincing Alex convinces the unsure Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore, Charlie’s Angles) collaborate with him, and while getting places with their music there is obvious signs of an attraction from both parties. But things get more complicated as the two submit their song to Cora Corman. Although initially loving it she changes some things around pitting Alex and Sophie in awkward positions, at the same time the two try to deal with the feelings for each other.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 8th, 2007
Synopsis
Stephen King wrote, in Danse Macabre, back in 1981, something to the effect that horror on TV ranged in quality from the ridiculous to the workmanlike. This was, of course, before he became rather too involved with the medium himself. Things have improved since the, of course, but horror has yet to achieve the truly sublime on television, and this series certainly wasn’t that. It was, however, on the upmarket end of workmanlike, and some of these 15 episodes are pretty neat little eff...rts. The standout is, arguably, “You, Murderer.” Directed by Robert Zemeckis, its opening intro is a parody of the director’s Forrest Gump, and it then has the gall to cast Humphrey Bogart in the lead of a humorous murder tale. The whole thing is done in first-person perspective, à la Lady in the Lake, and co-stars John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini and Sherilynn Fenn. Everybody has fun with the piece, including the audience, and, from beyond the grave, Bogart himself.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 8th, 2007
Synopsis
Whoah. MGM if really digging into the vaults to bring us these. Xaviera Hollander is not much more than the answer to a trivia question today, but for a while in the 70s, she had enough profile to warrant three films based first on her book, then more generally on her persona. Lynn Redgrave (!) plays her in The Happy Hooker (1975), which follows her arrival in the States and cheerful discovery of the life she was born, it seems, to lead. Mysteriously rated R, this is a film that could...have played without cuts on prime time TV twenty years ago. A film all about sex with no sex in it. Makes you long for Joe D’Amato and Laura Gemser to arrive and save the day.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 6th, 2007
Synopsis
Robin of Locksley returns to England from the Crusades to find the home he had left behind has taken a drastic turn for the worse under the tyrannical Sheriff of Nottingham. He is forced to take up an outlaw life, fighting for justice for the common man. Marian, fending off the advances of Guy of Gisborne, is his mole in the houses of power.