Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 18th, 2004
Everyone’s favorite television psychiatrist is back for his third go around. Frasier and his emmy award winning cast return for one of the better seasons that the series produced. The third season sees more wackiness, more Eddie jokes, and more shenanigans at the radio station. The biggest story shift this year is Niles' (David Hyde Pierce) separation from the still unseen Maris, leaving him more free time to moon over Daphne (Jane Leeves). In a half-season arc, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) finds himself at odds with, an...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 16th, 2004
Synopsis
If ever an actor mastered the double-take, it was Cary Grant, and his hilariously flabbergastedlook gets a full workout in My Favorite Wife (1940). Seven years ago, he lost wife IreneDunne in a shipwreck. Now he has just remarried to Gail Patrick, and Dunne, who spent the lastseven years marooned on an island, suddenly shows up again. We follow the comicmisadventures that will lead Grant to reuniting with Dunne and parting with cold-fish Patrick.Grant’s flustered att...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 15th, 2004
Synopsis
Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) follows the safari of Jane Parker (Maureen O’Sullivan)and her father into the jungle world of Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller). Searching for the elephantgraveyard and the wealth of ivory it would contain, the safari meets all sorts of peril and climbs aforbidding escarpment before they encounter Tarzan. He makes off with Jane, who falls in lovewith him before the movie is out. This film had all the elements that would recur in the rest of theser...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 12th, 2004
Synopsis
Made between 1991 and 2000, these disparate documentaries, complete with British narrator,cover different aspects of the Second World War. Their titles are largely self-explanatory:History of World War II is the big picture disc, with a special emphasis on the Europeantheatre. For those interested in the war with Japan, Pearl Harbor and Kamikaze/Warin the Pacific will address those needs. The Occult History of the Third Reich is evenmore speciali...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 10th, 2004
Joe Queenan is one of my favorite writers. He is the author of wonderfully amusing essays and books dealing with the subject of film. In his book Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler, he is bold enough to take on the challenge of watching every Merchant Ivory film, back-to-back. At one point late in the narrative, he has this to say:
As I sat there in my reclining chair with my kids lighting matches to my feet, I realized that God had created Merchant and Ivory for only one reason: because otherwise ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 9th, 2004
Synopsis
Abandoned street kid Punky Brewster (Soleil Moon Frye) lives in an empty apartment withher dog Brandon until the building supervisor (George Gaynes) discovers her. Gruff old sort thathe is, he takes her in. Subsequent episodes see Punky’s adventures with friends, in school, and soforth.
Take Diff’rent Strokes, dump Willis, replace Gary Coleman with Soleil Moon Frye,and voilà, instant sitcom. Don’t worry about coming up with new jokes, however. In fact, youb...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 8th, 2004
Synopsis
Dylan Walsh and Julian McMahon are Sean McNamara and Christian Troy, plastic surgeons.Sean is the suave ladies’ man, who has ethics only when convenient and/or profitable. Christianis the better surgeon and the (by no means perfect) family man. Neither man is a prize (they areplastic surgeons, after all), but Christian at least tries to be better than he is. Models, gangsters,porn stars, and transsexuals are but a few of the characters whose live intersect with thesurgeons.
...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 8th, 2004
Synopsis
Larry David (playing himself) has never met a good situation that he couldn’t turn into adisaster. Though his friends and relations have his best interests at heart, the creator ofSeinfeld he sabotages them at every turn, and manages to alienate just about everyone heencounters.
The series is not unlike a cross between The Larry Sanders Show (with its causticityand plethora of actors and other Hollywood players appearing as themselves) and the mundane-...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 2nd, 2004
Synopsis
It might have seemed like it was never going to happen, but SCTV is finally getting the DVDtreatment. According to the accompanying booklet, legal rights involving the music is what heldthings up for so long. At any rate, this first release is not Season 1 -- it represents a fairly lateperiod in the ensemble’s history. Here are the 90-minute NBC episodes that began broadcastingin 1981. A lot of the material is repackaged older fare, but that’s just fine. All your favouritec...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 2nd, 2004
Synopsis
Tony Danza packs up daughter Alyssa Milano and leaves New York to become thehousekeeper in the suburban home of executive Judith Light. Living with her are smart-alec kidDanny Pintauro and sexually aggressive mother Katherine Helmond. Sparks (or something)ensue between Danza and Light.
Oh, the humanity! Did ever a series more perfectly embody the American sitcom at its mostmind-destroyingly mediocre? The jokes are only recognizable as such because of the strainedl...
