Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 2nd, 2009
The Odd Couple began as a concept when playwright Neil Simon observed his recently divorced brother share an apartment with another divorced guy. He developed it into a very successful play. In the original play Walter Matthau played Oscar, but it was The Honeymooners star Art Carney who played Felix. Both actors were offered the parts for the film. Carney declined. It was because of the onscreen chemistry between Matthau and Jack Lemon on the film The Fortune Cookie that led to Lemmon being cast as Felix. The decision was a stroke of genius. If you look at it on its surface, there really isn’t much of a story here at all. It is the connection and relationship between these characters, and subsequently these actors, that made this film the classic that it is. Also returning from the play to reprise their roles were Monica Evans and Carole Shelley as the amusing Pigeon Sisters, roles they would actually repeat for the television series two years later.
When I watch this film, I will admit that it’s often a little hard to get the images of Jack Klugman and Tony Randall out of my mind. Most folks have had far more exposure to that 5 year television series than they have with the original film. To me, they will always be those characters. In fact Klugman replaced Matthau on the stage as Oscar before he took the role on television. Still, even with that bias, it is awfully hard not to get drawn into this film. For me characters and performances can be everything. That’s what makes this film have the lasting power it has enjoyed. Most of the film, as the play, takes place inside the apartment. There is a very limited cast, often just Felix and Oscar on the screen. Certainly there are some great moments with the poker buddies and the Pigeon Sisters, but most of the film takes place in a limited environment with just two actors. If you can make that work at all, let alone create a classic experience from it, that’s saying something. There were a few outside locations utilized in the film that were not part of the original play. These were placed there just to give the viewers a change of scenery but were totally unnecessary.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 2nd, 2009
A short time ago in a galaxy right in your own back yard….(cue music)
Star Wars Episode XXCV: The Clone Wars: A Galaxy Divided DVD Release:
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 2nd, 2009
A heavily armed group descends on a small-town supermarket. They gun down a customer, and announce that they are robbing the place. More killings ensue, but it soon becomes clear that this is no ordinary robbery. A strange form of triage is taking place that determines who is shot and who is allowed to live. Before long, only a handful of employees and customers remain, and it becomes clear that the attackers are not thieves at all, but in fact humanity's last hope against an insidious alien invasion.
The title is utterly generic. It might as well be “Sci-Fi Horror Thriller.” And sure, the flick has its share of scenes of people creeping around nondescript interiors in the dark. But while one would be understandably tempted, at first glance, to dismiss Alien Raiders as yet another bit of filler for the Sci-Fi Channel (oops, sorry, that should be SyFy Channel) and the like, it is, on the contrary, a most engaging and reasonably suspenseful exercise. The monster effects are (wisely) kept in the shadows, making a virtue out of low-budget necessity, and the performances and writing are both sharp, making a very familiar scenario fresh again. The conclusion is telegraphed a little clumsily, but in the end, that's a minor problem. There's a real aura of desperation surround the characters, and one can't help but root form them.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 1st, 2009
For first time screen writer Allen Loeb, Things We Lost In The Fire is quite an ambitious script. It relies almost completely on the writing and the performances that can be gotten from the acting leads. There’s really no place to hide in this story for anybody. And while I certainly found several elements of the story forced or contrived, there was an underlining emotion to the whole thing that carried through strong enough for the actors to find some very solid grounding. With that grounding Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro delivered what should have been award winning performances. Of course, I didn’t see all of the films released in 2007, but I find it hard to believe there were many, if any, better performances. These two had to carry the entire film, all the while manipulating the audience’s emotions, keeping them engaged with very little action or other stimulation. It’s the only thing that kept me watching, that and having to write this review.
Audrey Burke (Berry) has just lost her husband Brian (Duchovny) to an act of violence. She has two young children, and she’s having a very difficult time dealing with her loss. In a rather strange turn of events she turns to Brian’s best friend, Jerry (Del Toro) for some kind of comfort. What makes this so strange is that she, up to this point, hated Jerry and tried to convince Brian to stay away from him. Jerry is a drug addict, whom Audrey believed was just taking from Brian without giving anything back. She resented the fact that Brian was the only person that hadn’t completely given up on Jerry. Now she feels the need to connect with this man. She invites him to the funeral and finds herself fascinated with him. She asks him to stay at her house, and attempts to assist him in kicking his addiction. The two learn to explore their own emotions and deal with their grief. Together they find a way to improve themselves, by sharing this common bond.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 1st, 2009
Last year, Chris Rock hit the road with new material for Kill the Messenger, his latest comedy tour. HBO captured three of the performances – in London, Johannesburg and New York – and edited them together into one big comedy special. Now on DVD in this three-disc set, Rock fans can see the HBO special and the full-length shows at each of the locations above. If you love his stuff, that might be great news. But after more than a decade at the top, does Rock still have it? Read on.
The way HBO assembled the original comedy special is pretty unique. Running around 80 minutes, Kill the Messenger cuts mostly seamlessly between Rock’s performances in three different cities. So he might set up a joke in London, deliver the punch-line in Johannesburg and follow up in New York. This might sound really disjointed on paper, but in practice it works well because Rock is so consistent with his delivery. In fact, the precision with which he executes his material is downright impressive.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 1st, 2009
“Scooby-Dooby, Scooby-Dooby-Doo! There's a mystery in town, So call the coolest pup around, Call Scooby, A pup named Scooby-Doo! Join Shaggy, and the crew, Daphne, Freddie, Velma too! And Scooby! A pup named Scooby-Doo! When the ghostly ghoul attacks, Scooby eats a Scooby Snack! Scooby-Dooby-Doo! So come on, it's mystery time, You can help us solve the crime, With Scooby, a pup named Scooby, Scooby, a pup named Scooby-Doo!”
First there was Muppet Babies. Then there were Tiny Toons. It seems that every famous children’s cartoon series eventually turns back the clock to offer up pintsized versions of the same formula. That’s what you get in A Pup Named Scooby Doo. The show aired 1988 through 1991. It was on somewhat erratically so that, while the box claims this 2 disc set contains the complete 2,3, & 4 seasons, that really only adds up to 17 half hour episodes in all.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 1st, 2009
What would you get if you were to cross the films Dangerous Minds and Waiting for Guffman? Well, add a liberal helping of High School Musical and you might end up with Hamlet 2 (though it is difficult to imagine the High School Musical drones belting out songs like “Rock Me Sexy Jesus” and “Raped in the Face” with such gusto).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on March 31st, 2009
Open relationships have never really been in my repertoire. I’m a pretty committed guy. I find a girl or she finds me and we stick it out until one or both of us feel otherwise. Some people will argue that it is not natural to simply have one mate, instead we have to find multiple people to share relationships and intercourse with. In the movie Fling, it deals with an open relationship between Samantha & Mason. My money is on the fact that one of them goes too far in their openness and the relationship becomes strained. Let’s see how good my guesses are today.
Sam (played by Courtney Ford) and Mason (played by Steve Sandvoss) are in an open relationship. Sam is looking to open her own business while Mason writes trashy romance novels. They also find time to have relations with each other and anybody else they can shack up with. At a wedding, Sam rekindles a relationship with James (played by Brandon Routh), an old boyfriend. Mason, meanwhile finds out that his best friend Luke’s (played by Nick Wechsler) sister, Olivia (played by Shoshana Bush) is very taken with him.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on March 30th, 2009
Risk taking has never been my specialty. I tend to keep things pretty conservative and never really tried anything out of the ordinary, at least nothing I would consider dangerous. However, I have been interested by many forms of extreme sports. There is skateboarding, motocross, and of course, snowboarding. This beautiful sport combines flawless riders and picturesque snowy landscapes. So how would I take to a movie that tries to make a comedy out of snowboarding? Hopefully well. But then I saw that it included Tom Green and one of the guys from Jackass. This is not off to a good start.
Max (played by Dave England) and Eddy (played by Jason Bothe) are in charge of Team Shred. Team Shred consists of Chris, Tracy & Juice (played by Carlo Marks, Amber Borycki, & Alain Chanoine respectively). Chris is the breakout star of the team while Tracy & Juice are up and coming. However, Max and Eddy only focus on their breakout star as they arrange parties, videos and other events for Chris and only include the other two as a mere afterthought.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 28th, 2009
Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) have been friends since school, and are now terminally broke roommates. As their utilities are turned off one by one, and they face the prospect of eviction, Zack hits on the idea of shooting a porn flick to get out of debt. They gather together a motley collection of actors and crew, and, letting no setback stand in their way, start making their movie. But the real question is not whether they will succeed, but whether they will come to terms with their feeling for each other.
In his review of the film Roger Ebert writes, “'I don't know bleep about directing,' Smith once confided to me. 'But I'm a bleeping good writer.'” Smith is half-right. The direction here is very meat-and-potatoes, every shot serving little more than to get the actors decently framed. But I can't agree with his self-estimation as a writer. There are some funny lines here, but many of the laughs are due to Smith's stellar cast. Rogen does his usual shtick, but it's still funny, thanks to his appealing naive/cynic vibe and befuddled stoner delivery. Justin Long shows up for a single scene, and walks off with the movie. None of his lines are particularly stellar, but his cameo is hysterical, all of it due to voice and body language. The man could make the yellow pages side-splitting. This is not to say that Smith's script is that dry, but it veers between clumsy earnestness (I kept waiting for the punchline during the final emotional speeches, the clue that I wasn't really supposed to take this hackneyed dialogue seriously, and it never came) and a potty mouth approach that clearly finds naughty words to be funny in and of themselves. You know, like we all did in grade five. David Mamet this is not. But when all is said and done, there's the cast. Determined to save Smith from himself, they make the film a bizarrely endearing and sweet experience.
![Things We Lost in the Fire [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/things-we-lost-in-the-fire-blu-ray-large.jpg)
