Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 20th, 2005
Synopsis
For awhile, the jokes made by people like Chris Rock were geared towards HBO being a naked channel, with 38 different versions of the Real Sex show that they would air on their 12 channels (my numbers may be off, but not by much, which is scary) were pretty dead on. But, as part of their documentary series America Undercover, an hour of time was spent discussing the happiest place on Earth, the Moonlight Bunny Ranch in Nevada, where prostitution is legal and the party never ends.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 1st, 2005
As I always say when I review HBO television sets… you gotta love HBO. Entourage cannot be placed in the same family as Six Feet Under or The Sopranos, but it still can hold its own against the offerings from other networks. Not only do you get a good show, but you also get the benefits of a cable broadcast… adult language and nudity. Who could ask for more from a TV show?
Produced by “Marky” Mark Wahlberg, this is the story of a guy from Jersey who make his way to Hollywood to make ...t big in the movie biz, and his entourage of friends that follow him to live off of his success. Vince is a hot new actor, who just released his first big film in which he costars with Jessica Alba. Vince’s best friend, Eric, manages his career, even though he has no other experience then common sense. Turtle is another friend of Vince who seems to be there to run monotonous errands and provide comic relief. Lastly, Drama is Vince’s half-brother, a fellow actor who is now a has-been trying to get his career back on track. All four of these fools live together in a rented mansion, looking for girls and a way to burn through Vince’s cash.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 26th, 2005
Synopsis
The life and career of Peter Sellers (Geoffrey Rush) is chronicled here, from the height of the Goon Show’s popularity to his penultimate, Oscar-nominated role in Being There. Along the way, we see the collapse of his first marriage to Anne (Emily Watson), his second to Britt Ekland (Charlize Theron), and his fractious working relationships with such directors as Stanley Kubrick (Stanley Tucci) and Blake Edwards (John Lithgow).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 27th, 2005
The movie’s tagline is “Ordinary Life is Pretty Complex Stuff.” And the movie itself, with Paul Giamatti (Sideways) as Harvey Pekar, a file clerk at a Cleveland Veterans’ Hospital, is very good. Harvey creates a comic book based on his life, and he and his book hit a stride of popularity, which includes several appearances on Late Night with David Letterman. Things manage to take a downturn when he is diagnosed with testicular cancer. So he and his wife Joyce (Hope Davis, About Schmidt) decide to...write his plight into the comic as well. Harvey manages to beat the cancer into remission, and the movie ends with a party celebrating Harvey’s retirement from the hospital, surrounded by family and friends.
That’s it. That’s the movie. But there are so many creative accents added to the film that it really turns conventional filmmaking on its head. When Joyce decides to go to Ohio and meet Harvey, she gets to the train station, and in her anticipation, we see what she’s been seeing; his comic book interpretations. She (and we) experience 3 different illustrated interpretations of Harvey before she meets him in person. And his first words to her are some of the most memorable ones you’ll hear, they make a girl swoon! Or maybe not. The movie incorporates comic book storyboards into the film frame, reminiscent of what was done in Hulk, but in a much more obvious and, consequently, greater effect. The real Harvey provides narration through the movie. Harvey also provides detail and explains some of the scenes. Footage of Harvey’s appearances on the Letterman show is edited into the film, and we see it in between Giamatti both before and after his first appearance.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 22nd, 2005
To put it succinctly, HBO has done it again. The network simply has no fear. It prides itself on bringing groundbreaking programming to the masses, laughing in the face of such cookie-cutter faire as American Idol and Two And A Half Men. First there was Sex and the City, then the behemoth that is The Soprano’s, and now we have Carnivale.
I love TV shows that feel they don’t have to explain themselves, and this series is certainly that. Think “David Lynch vs. the Jim Rose C...rcus Sideshow”. The setting of the series is a traveling carnival in the dust bowl of the 1930’s. The plot is, well… let’s just say that magic, the battle between good and evil, and giving people with no hope something to believe in are all involved, though none of that quite fits. Like I said before, it’s HBO. You just have to see it to believe it.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 3rd, 2004
For four seasons, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, along with a group of writers and comedians, served up comedy skits, parodies, and more, in the underrated but hilarious HBO late-night sketch comedy series Mr. Show.
Mr. Show is a smart comedy show, at least from what I can gather from the fourth season. The first thing to point out is every skit is somehow related to the next one by way of introducing a certain product, idea, or interstitial video. It's as if each skit is part of one big narra...ive structure. I guess it's the editing that makes the transition seamless, and if it is then it works great. There's not much else I can say here except to say anyone who likes to laugh should check out Mr. Show. Before the funny Chappelle's Show and other sketch comedy series of late, there was Mr. Show, where the writing was inventive and original, and the performances were dead on, and then some! This show is not to be missed.
Posted in: 1.33:1 Fullscreen, Box Set, Disc Reviews, Dolby Digital 2.0 (English), Dolby Digital 2.0 (French), Dolby Digital 2.0 (Spanish), Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), DVD, HBO, Television by David Annandale on October 13th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 20th, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 2nd, 2004
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 28th, 2004
Chris Rock is quite possibly the most important comic of all time. There are quite a few entertainers that have shown up in the public spotlight over the past few years that have blurred the lines between comic, social satirist and political lecturer. Bill Maher and Dennis Miller come to mind. However, Chris Rock is a special comedian, due to his masterful knowledge of how to manipulate an audience. Anybody can make wise cracks about racial differences, but it takes a special person to be able to change the minds of ...is audience with a single joke.
Rock has discovered that you can be as honest and brutal about any topic that you want to breach, so long as your comments are funny. Lucky for him, he’s very, very funny. This particular program, his fourth for HBO, is not as purely comical as his previous efforts, but that doesn’t mean that it is any less entertaining. In fact, I believe that this may be the best one of the four, as Rock feels more comfortable saying exactly what he wants to say, and is less concerned with confronting subjects that can easily divide an audience, such as abortion and politics.
