Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 14th, 2007
Lando Buzzanca plays Senator Puppis, a telegenic young politician on track to become Italy’s next president. He’s been groomed for the part practically from birth by the Vatican, which plans to re-exert social control over the country through its presidential puppet. But plans go badly awry as Puppis suddenly develops an uncontrollable urge to fondle women’s buttocks (Stephen Thrower has aptly described the character as a “repressed heterosexual”). Even as he seeks help for his condition, various parties around him begin to panic, as the police think Puppis is planning a coup without telling them, the military think they are being left out of the loop by the police, and the Vatican, along with its Mafia catspaws, starts whacking everyone in sight in a desperate attempt to keep everything from completely unravelling.
How’s that for a sex comedy plot? Not exactly of the been-there-done-that variety, is it now? Behind the nonsensical UK release title is one of the most interesting Lucio Fulci films to reach these shores. Fans wanting the Fulci gore will have to look elsewhere, but those open to something new will encounter a level of filmmaking absent in too much of his later work. The sex gags are rather dated (though the moment of the Puppi’s first goose is a bit of wonderful deftness I’ve never seen in Fulci), but the black political satire, which makes up the bulk of the film, while being very tied to the specific Italian context, has lost none of its bite. This is an angry film, one that builds to an utterly appalling resolution, all the more sour for its comic framing. Without going so far as to compare Fulci’s filmmaking skills to Kubrick’s, one might think of this film as Fulci’s Dr. Strangelove – a bitter, hopeless indictment that can only fully express its venom in the form of farce.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 14th, 2007
Gomer Pyle began life as a one of the down home residents of Mayberry, where Andy Griffith held court as the sheriff and Don Knotts blundered his way to fame and fortune. It’s no small task indeed to find a way to shine as a minor character who wasn’t even there from the beginning; he replaced Floyd after the second year. But shine he did. Much of the character’s charm and success has to be given to Jim Nabors. The shy naive Gomer worked as an auto mechanic in Mayberry, but for his own series he appeared in one of the most unlikeliest of places, the U.S. Marine Corp. There Nabors found the perfect comedic partner in Frank Sutton, who played his superior Sgt. Vince Carter. The chemistry and remarkable timing these two brought to the Andy Griffith spin-off made it an instant hit. Critics at the time were very skeptical of the move, and most of the predictions called for a swift end to Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. But before you can say “surprise, surprise, surprise”, the series became as popular, if not more so, than the parent series, at least for a time. In syndication the show was always a hit.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 14th, 2007
Frasier was another one of those unlikely hits. Frasier started as an intended one-off character on the hugely popular Cheers. Kelsey Grammer made the most out of it, and before long he was one of the regular barflies inhabiting a stool at Sam’s. In Cheers the wit worked because Frasier was so unlike his fellow characters. He was a sophisticated, almost snobbish psychiatrist with a taste for fine art and high class entertainment. Instead of a ballgame, Frasier was more at home at the opera or an art opening. The humor was to be found in his attempts to blend in with his crass companions or even make a run at enriching their lives with his cultured tastes. My favorite Frasier moment will always be his plan to expose the bar patrons to Charles Dickens, but instead of his changing them they eventually had him reinventing the brilliant author in his reading of David And The Coppers In The Field. Soon Cheers had run its course, and everyone was expecting a spin-off. There was too much rich material to be found here to let it just die with the closing of Sam’s bar. While Norm or Cliff were the natural choices, it was Frasier who would move on. While most fans were a little confused by the move, the show would go on for 11 seasons that were arguably far funnier than Cheers ever was.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 12th, 2007
There is a certain audience that really gets into what I call "mythic combat". Zena and Hercules on TV, and movies like Reign of Fire, Conan and Dragonslayer all fit into this category for me. While I typically don't enjoy this type of faire, I am a sucker for the more popular versions, such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and 300. After seeing a very promising trailer in the theater, I had high hopes for Pathfinder. Unfortunately, the final film did not live up to the potential of its marketing.
Pathfinder tells a story set in North America, 300 years before Columbus "discovered" the new world. When a band of ruthless Vikings attacks a small native village, a Viking boy shows his true colors, and refuses to kill a defenseless family. Disgraced, the boy is left to die. The natives, however, take him in and raise them as one of their own. When the boy is grown, the Vikings return, and the boy must fight his original kinsmen to defend the only family he has ever known.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 12th, 2007
When Lost began its third season last fall I was beginning to feel a lot like the castaways must have felt; namely I was getting pretty lost watching Lost. There’s been a lot of mostly fair criticism about how ABC has handled the show last year. The first mistake was to air a small portion of episodes in the first couple of months and finish the season after the New Year. While this broken season plan works well for some cable shows like Monk, it does a serious disservice to Lost. I was so confused and burned out with the show after these first episodes, I never did return in February to see how it all played out. After reviewing the ratings numbers for the show, it seems I was not alone in leaving the island. Now with the release of the complete third season on DVD, there was renewed hope that I might be able to piece something coherent together by watching episodes in large chunks of marathon sittings. The result was the show was a little easier to follow but not much. Now don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the complicated plots and long detailed stories the show has been able to tell. Like the rest of the show’s fans, I enjoyed following the sparse trail of breadcrumbs and reveled in each new discovery in spite of the fact that each new answer also brought along five new questions as companions. Still, the third season of Lost was arguably its worst.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 11th, 2007
Belgian filmmaker Olivier Smolders, after a successful run of gorgeous and disturbing shorts, here makes a feature debut that is just as gorgeous and disturbing. Strongly reminiscent of the works of David Lynch, but far darker overall, the film is set at a time when the world is shrouded in the night of a perpetual eclipse. Day only comes for 15 seconds at 12:23 pm each day. Oscar (Fabrice Rodriguez) is a museum entomologist haunted by traumatic dreams involving the death of a sister who might or might not have every existed. He returns home one night to find a dying and pregnant African woman in his bed, a woman who is somehow linked to his father’s colonial past.
Trying to summarize the film’s plot is like trying to describe a dream: either case involves imposing linearity where none exists. Don’t try to figure out exactly what is going on here. Think of it as fevered nightmare inflected by guilt of Belgium’s gruesome colonial history, served up as a stunningly beautiful meditation on death, sex and insects.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 10th, 2007
So in a summer where a film directed by Judd Apatow and starring Seth Rogen made a truckload of money, another film released a couple months later where Apatow produced and Rogen co-wrote made almost the same truckload of money, yet both films were funny for different reasons.
In Superbad, Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Da Ali G Show) wrote the script that Greg Mottola (Undeclared) directed, and the film’s premise is simple enough. Seth (Jonah Hill, Knocked Up) and Evan (Michael Cera, Arrested Development) are high school seniors who are attending one last party, with the help of their friend Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and his fake ID and subsequent new name ‘McLovin’. The trio’s night takes a dramatic turn, as Fogell is assaulted at the liquor store and Seth and Evan presume that he’s been taken to jail for the fake ID. So Seth and Evan try to get liquor for a party that Seth’s friend Jules (Emma Stone, Drive) is throwing, and Evan wants to get some vodka for Becca (Martha MacIssac, Ice Princess), and the boys desperately want to get with the girls before the boys go to their respective colleges. In the meantime, Fogell isn’t taken to jail, but is taken on a wild ride and a wild night by Officers Slater (Bill Hader, You, Me and Dupree) and Michaels (Rogen), who take him through various twists and turns in the city.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 10th, 2007
Will Ferrell, arguably the last funny member of Saturday Night Live has picked some strange movies to be in since leaving the sketch comedy show. Appearing first as a co-star in Old School and then later in the kid-friendly (but cute) Elf, Ferrell took his time in getting to what fans wanted, a good PG-13 or better comedy for him to stretch his comedic talent.
By and large, Anchorman delivers on that, though occasionally Ferrell himself isn’t the one causing the laughs. As 1970s San Diego newsman Ron Burgundy, Ferrell is the one everyone in town trusts, along with his newsteam. The chemistry is broken when female newscaster Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate, Married With Children) is hired. Ron has to resolve the conflicts between himself, his team and his new interest in Veronica…
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 9th, 2007
I must be one of the few people who despite hearing positive things, did not see Transformers in the theatre this past summer. The main reason being I’m just not interested in transformers, but then again so were most of the people I know who loved the movie. Regardless, here I find myself holding a copy of this summer blockbuster on HD DVD, I’m sure it’s going to blow me away, but only time will tell.
I couldn’t tell you how the film compares to the original cartoon, but from what I have gathered the premise is quite similar. I’ll give you the simplistic version; Cybertron is a very distant planet which is home to the transformers, but like all living beings war has erupted. The planet is eventually destroyed at the hands of Megatron who wanted to use the power of the All Spark for evil and domination. Meanwhile his main opposition Optimus Prime wants to use the All Spark for good. At the end of the day the All Spark end up on Earth, where Megatron followed it, but crash landed and became frozen in the Arctic Circle. Here explorer Captain Archibald Witwicky stumbles upon his body in 1897 and accidentally has the coordinates of the All Spark embedded into his glasses. Over a hundred years later Archibald’s great grandson Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf, Disturbia) is in possession of these glasses, not knowing the power it holds, trying to sell them on eBay. After his 1976 Camaro comes alive before his eyes, he learns that there are a group of transformers called the Decepticons that are out to get the glasses from him. Sam allies with the good group of transformers called Autobots and eventually fights to save the world.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 7th, 2007
Dr. Mark Sloan first appeared in The It Never Entered My Mind episode of Jake And The Fat Man. In that episode Sloan was accused of a murder, and it was up to Jake and Jason to prove his innocence. The character had a certain charm that appeared to carry with audiences, and two years later Sloan had his own show, Diagnosis Murder. Dick Van Dyke did for doctors what his good friend Andy Griffith did for lawyers as Matlock. Both traded on their earlier careers in trademark comedies to reimagine dramatic roles in their twilight years. For Dick Van Dyke, Diagnosis Murder was more like a family affair. Almost every member of the Van Dyke clan arrived to play characters on the show that mirrored their real life connections. Jerry Van Dyke made numerous appearances as Sloan’s brother, while all of his children at one time or another played children of Sloan’s. Most notable, of course, was Barry Van Dyke, who costarred along with father. He played an L.A. Detective who often went to his father with his vast medical knowledge to solve crimes. Dr. Sloan had his own group of helpers who often either helped solve the crime or got themselves into danger, requiring doctor and son to rescue them, of course, just in the nick of time. Charlie Schlatter played Dr. Jesse Travis. Travis was a young ambitious resident who looked up to Sloan and would do almost anything for him. Victoria Rowell was Dr. Amanda Bentley who played the hospital’s real-life
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