Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 6th, 2006
What is it about The Roman Empire that fascinates us so? The answer is far too complicated to address in this forum, if you can pardon the pun. The influences of Rome are all around us. From the very form of government we practice to the grand arenas we watch our ballgames in, Rome can be found literally around every corner. Hollywood has recognized the allure since the early days of filmmaking. Classics like Ben Hur and Spartacus eventually gave way to the more modern epic Gladiator.
It is 52 BC and...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 5th, 2006
Synopsis
Maybe it’s because of their funny accents, or maybe it’s because of the natural desire to see ancient history relived, but the British sure have a knack for their period piece dramas and making everyone want to watch. And when Elizabeth I aired on HBO over a two-part miniseries during the spring of 2006, it won a truckload of Emmy awards, not only for the production, but also for the title character, played by Helen Mirren (Excalibur) and one of the supporting actors (Jeremy Irons, <b ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 15th, 2006
There is a little more Tracey to go around with Tracey Takes On: The Complete Second Season, so fans of the show shouldn't be disappointed. However, I find her humor quaint and dry in an inescapably British way. No one can deny her talent. But it's hard to like a show when none of the laughs are connecting. Of course, humor - like beauty - is certainly in the eye of the beholder. With that said, I am not one of the lucky ones that can look at this raw oyster of a show and see the pearl. This season, Ullman inc...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 15th, 2006
Tristram Shandy is the oddest and most entertaining sort of film. It is a film about the making of the film that you are watching, hosted by the fictional main character. It is sort-of like American Splendor, and sort-of like Spinal Tap. The film is the story of the life of Tristram Shandy, an 18th century Englishman of particularly stately means. The man's life is of note and worthy of such a film because... well, now that I think of it... I don't really know. You see, there are so many interruptions and different takes during the film that the actors are trying to make, that the viewer never really learns anything.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 30th, 2006
This is a really odd idea for a DVD release. In Bill Maher's HBO television show, Real Time with Bill Maher, he does a short segment called New Rules. This segment is mostly made up of one-liner jokes that take shots at celebrities and the Bush administration. Each segment runs less than a minute, and this disc contains every one of them from the show's three seasons.
The jokes themselves are funny enough, but my big complaint is that this entire disc just plays like one big overblown special feature.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 28th, 2006
Synopsis
For the longest time, Dennis Miller was known as the guy who could subreference unlike any other comedian, with tactical precision and timing long before anyone had heard of the Gilmore Girls. While some of the material may have been a bit redundant, he certainly put a spin to it unlike any other.
Then the events of September 11 happened, and the predominant opinion is that Miller went for smart comic (and a failed stint on Monday Night Football) to a Fox News loving, Democratic/liberal l...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 26th, 2006
The truth may never come out as to why HBO cancelled Carnivale after the show's second season. They claim that it was a combination of decreased ratings and rising production costs equaling $2 million an episode. What doesn't make sense, however, is that the network also admits that they received as many as 50,000 emails in a single weekend following the cancellation announcement. The facts also show that they followed up this show that was “too expensive to be profitable” with Rome, a show that has been widely recognized as the most expensive television series ever produced.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 28th, 2006
I’m a lucky guy. I was able to witness the game of baseball before we all became so jaded. While I wasn’t born early enough to have enjoyed Mantle, The Babe, or Joltin’ Joe, I was fortunate enough to watch the likes of Mike Schmidt. Mike stayed 18 years with one team. He never held out and was always responsible in his public persona. Oh, and he ended up being considered the best 3rd baseman of all time in nearly every millennium poll conducted. It is this experience growing up with Schmitty and his like that make these stories feel much closer to home than younger kids are likely to feel.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 8th, 2006
Synopsis
Photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders decided to do a series of portraits of some 30 porn stars. Two pictures of each, one clothed, one not, the same pose in both pictures. This is his documentary of that shoot. Scenes of the studio process are intercut with interviews with the various stars and talking-head moments from the likes of Karen Finley, Gore Vidal, John Waters and Whitley Streiber (!). We are at the other end of the porn spectrum from Dag Yngvesson’s Rated X – these are t...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 30th, 2006
Everybody Loves Raymond - The Complete Sixth Season comes to DVD in an impressive 5-disc edition. As a newbie to this fine series, I was surprised - and thrilled - to see the widescreen presentation. It is a nicety not often given to TV shows, and it looks spectacular, but I'm getting a little ahead of myself here. The show, as a lot of you know, is about sports writer Ray Barone, and his nut-job parents, who live directly across the street. One must either appreciate Ray Romano's humor, or experience the same...
