Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 5th, 2005
Not to be confused with the current film of the same name, Taxi was one of the funniest shows in television history. There simply hasn’t been a sitcom to feature so many cast members who would go on to bigger but perhaps not better things. Christopher Lloyd’s Reverend Jim has to be one of the best characters television has known. In its third year Jim would finally be around for an entire season. The show simply swept the Emmys in its third year with statues going to Judd Hirsch, Danny DeVito, and Christopher Lloyd (oddly enough, for a script he penned for the series). This is the year Andy Kaufman delivered Vic Ferrari to the show’s mythology. Taxi was hitting its stride on all fronts in season three. This is the show at its peak.
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 28th, 2005
Synopsis
It’s the Brady Bunch. What, exactly, by way of synopsis are you hoping for? At any rate, among the notable episodes is one with guest star Davy Jones of the Monkees. Plus, there’s the epic start to the season: a three-parter that has the family hitting the road with a tent trailer and running into misadventures on the way to the Grand Canyon (such as encountering a hostile prospector or Cindy and Bobby getting lost). The other ongoing thread is Jan’s inferiority complex with regards to Marci..., and her attempts to crawl out from her sister’s shadow. The show is what it is. Nostalgia for Gen X viewers, I suppose, though it does have value as something of a pop culture icon. In purely objective terms, this is television at its most innocuous and disposable.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 27th, 2005
Synopsis
And here we go again with some 37 stories of inspired stupidity. Among the crazed storylines we find the classic sitcom scenario of Plankton swapping lives with Mr. Krabs and discovering he can’t take the heat, Squidward being drawn willy-nilly into a plastic conch shell-worshipping club of SpongeBob and Patrick, the non-swimmer SpongeBob becoming a lifeguard with disastrous consequences, and so on. It’s all bright, cheerful, unobtrusively self-aware, and refreshingly silly in a way that har...ens back to classic cartoons of yore. A vital part of this generation’s cultural heritage.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 25th, 2005
Synopsis
In better days, the Disney company helped shape a lot of young minds back in the day. They released a lot of short films based on established fairy tales and fables. The animation was groundbreaking in its day, long before computers ruled the land, and some of the work really is great. As part of the movement to bring some of the tales to DVD, Disney has released two titles of Timeless Tales to reacquaint fans of the old work, and to bring new fans into the fold.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 24th, 2005
All good things must come to an end, and so it is with Kung Fu. It is always better for a show to go out at the top of its game than to overstay its welcome, fizzle, and fade away. Season One of this show was excellent in its storytelling, as the characters and themes were firmly established. Season Two was mostly about maintaining the themes that were set forth in the first year. Season Three, however, is where the whole thing comes together. Without giving too much away, it is safe to say that this season en...s with Caine completing his quest in the west, and finally locating his ever-elusive brother; a brother who's intentions for his brother are a surprise to everyone.
I have said it about previous seasons, and I will say it again here; this is an excellent show that may have come along ahead of its time. Why this series is not more widely regarded as one of the better hour long dramas to ever air on network television, I will never understand. Carradine's supurb acting, compelling storylines and an intriguing mix of western and eastern cultures make this a must-watch show.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 23rd, 2005
I Love Lucy changed the fledgling television industry in the 1950’s. This was a time when network television was less than a decade old. Most folks had never heard of television just 15 years earlier. I Love Lucy defined the concept of a sitcom. The show was driven by the very strong personalities of the cast. Desi Arnaz was considered a charismatic Latin lover by American women. Lucy played the perfect foil and found a mountain of gold to mine in strong physical comedy. So many modern shows owe their roots to this classic that it would be impossible to mention them all here. With that said, the fifth season was a letdown. The simple truth is they were running out of ideas in the simplistic environment of this once very funny comedy. All of this season is spent taking the cast on a whirlwind tour of Europe with its forced situations. The lack of perceived spontaneity was gone. Lucy was no longer the fly in Ricky’s ointment. Oddly enough, the season does begin with one of the funniest stories of the series: Lucy stealing John Wayne’s footprints, and of course, his feet. If only that quality could have been maintained instead of a hokey tour of the Old Country.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 15th, 2005
The classics become the classics for a reason. True, this may be a collection of classic cartoons, but they are classics all the same. This disc contains four different cartoons that introduce children to the stories of “The Ugly Duckling”, “Ferdinand the Bull”, “The Country Cousin” and “The Wind in the Willows”. Parents can rest easy by putting their children in front of something like this for an hour, as children will not only be be entertained, but they will learn a little something along the way as well. These s...orts are from the golden age of Disney animation, back when everything was drawn by hand, and the true creative artists practiced their craft. This is animation as an art form.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 14th, 2005
I am a foreign film fan, so I was quite excited to find this disc in my queue of DVDs to review. From the cover, this looked like just the kind of thing that I typically enjoy. Unfortunately, as the saying goes, you shouldn't judge a DVD by it's cover... or something like that. The plot of this film sounds reasonable enough; a couple of documentary filmmakers set out on a quest to try to find out what happened to a beautiful missing girl. Now, this is not a film shot in a “mocumentary” style, it is just a fictional f...lm that happens to feature documentary filmmakers.
Only it's not, really. This is a film that seems to be suffering from multiple personality syndrome. On the one hand, it presents itself as a movie about the filmmakers' search for the truth. On the other hand, so much of the film includes scenes presented “flashback style”, that the segments with the documentarians are the ones that seem out of place. This is a story that would have worked much better if it had followed a more basic storytelling style, instead of dragging extraneous characters into the mix.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 11th, 2005
In a future (or alternate) New York City plague by mutations and acid rain, a young man (Adam Plotch) falls for a strange woman (Talia Rubel). They begin a fractious relationship, and then it turns out that she's his sister, whom he thought had died ten years earlier. The relationship continues, however, and there are hints that their family is somehow connected to the problems besetting the city.Shot on video, this is the feature debut of director Miguel Coyula, and shows great promise. Viewers expecting Matrix-style thrillers will be disappointed, but the adventurous will be rewarded by a dark psychological drama played out against an SF backdrop, surprisingly well rendered given the non-existent budget.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 11th, 2005
Synopsis
With all due respect to The Kids in the Hall, Saturday Night Live has an uncontested place in television history as one of the most influential shows ever to air on a small box of cathode ray tubes and circuit boards. Over the years, the show has launched the careers of Will Ferrell (Anchorman), Eddie Murphy (Beverly Hills Cop), Adam Sandler (The Waterboy) and a host of other notable actors. The talent that creator Lorne Michaels has put together for over a quarte... century is astounding.
