Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 31st, 2008
Cult Epics continues its erotic archival work with these two collections of short films. Volume 1 consists of pieces from the 1940s (with at least one from 1938 thrown in), while Volume 2 deals with the 50s. The former has such amusing “documentary” shorts as “They Wear No Clothes” (*gasp*) and various comedy routines. The latter has the inevitable Irving Klaw shorts. None of these films are by any definition “good,” but they are fascinating records of the state of American sexuality at that time. Watching all of these at one sitting would be quite the chore, but then, when was the last time you read an encyclopaedia straight through? There is a similar documentary value here.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 23rd, 2008
Think of it as Coach meets Newhart. That’s about the best way I know how to describe this somewhat quirky sitcom from CBS. It was mostly intended as a television project for its star, Burt Reynolds. The character would echo Reynolds’ own life somewhat. His character, Wood Newton, was a running back who had moderate success, just as Reynolds himself had. In the show he retired to his rural hometown of Evening Shade. He ends up coaching the local high school football squad which had a propensity for getting blown out in their games. The show was filled with the usual small town hick kind of characters, most notably the show’s narrator and owner of the local barbecue joint, Ponder Blue (Davis). Wood’s family consisted of his wife, Ava (Henner) who was much younger than Wood was. She was a young attorney who gets elected the town’s prosecuting attorney. There was a ton of comedic material to be found in his rather dimwitted intelligence and her more formal education. In this first season she was pregnant with their third child. Wood’s dad was played by Hal Holbrook, and he owned the local newspaper. Wood’s assistant coach was Harlan Elldridge, played by Charles Durning. Eldridge was really a math teacher and pretty much a geek, which offered plenty of comedy fodder for Reynolds. The relationship was very much like that of Craig Nelson and Jerry Van Dyke on Coach.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 19th, 2008
To be bloody honest, I was never a huge fan of Speed Racer. Actually I spent most half hours watching the cartoon (in college) poking fun at it and wondering how many drinking games could be compiled by just analyzing various components. It was a serious cartoon with some brief comedic relief that did not come off as funny, what was funny was all of the seriousness of driving the Mach 5 and figuring out who this Racer X character was (it was Speed's Older Brother, sorry if I spoiled it). Anyhow, it's 2008. Speed Racer has experienced a resurgence including a movie and a new cartoon series. The movie hasn't done very well but many times the cartoon can be the saving grace. It was supposed to follow a new Speed, with a mysterious past. Ooooo, well as long as no Chim-Chim or Spritle is around, we'll be okay.
In the not too distant future, a hopeful racer who goes by the name of Speed wants to attend the Racer Academy founded by the original Racer bunch. However he knows nothing of his past and finds that his name & lack of friends is a source of much teasing and criticism as he tries to ascend to the top of his class. There are other major players such as Headmaster Spritle (he grew up? I thought he would have gotten run over by the Mach 5 by now), X who is Speed Racer's son and X's girlfriend Annalise, both of which try to thwart the young Speed. Annalise's father, Zile Zazic is the main funder for the school and serves as the evil mastermind and antagonist to Speedy.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 16th, 2008
If it's Wednesday, that must mean another batch of SpongeBob cartoons. The lead-off here is the is title episode, a 22-minute piece that recounts the adventures of SpongeBuck SquarePants, our hero's 19th-Century ancestor. The rest of the episodes are an eclectic bunch, and the thematic consistency is less than that of some other collections (there is a vague adventure link that runs through several of the stories). At any rate, the silliness is just as engaging and bizarre as ever, and there are plenty of quick absurdist sight gags to keep you chuckling.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 15th, 2008
Some years back, I reviewed Elite's Millennium Edition of the NOTLD. That was certainly the most definitive edition at that time. So now we have another deluxe edition. How does it stack up? Before we get to that, a few (largely unnecessary) words about the film. There's a blurb on the box that calls this “the most influential horror film since Psycho,” and there is a great deal of truth to that. As has been pointed out before, the film single-handedly transformed the mythology of the zombie, changing the monster from mindless slave to flesh-eating ghoul. I can't think of any other instance where a mythology was changed so completely and with such finality. And there are plenty of reasons why it had such impact. Sure, there's the gore. And while the intestine-gobbling was pretty intense for 1968, H.G. Lewis had been pumping out gore films just as (if not more) excessive for half a decade. Unlike Lewis' films, George Romero's picture is extremely well made. The pace is lightning-fast (we have our heroine pursued by a zombie less than ten minutes into the film); the cinematography is imaginative, with plenty of energetic editing and lively camera work; and the lighting is dramatic exercise in stark high contrast. I haven't even mentioned the intelligence of the script. So let's just place this among the greatest horror films ever made and leave it at that.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 14th, 2008
It’s not that these fantasy-epic films that feature a young child in the starring roles bore me, it goes to the larger notion that Hollywood will remake every child’s fantasy novel into some sort of cinematic product, so a buck or two can be made. For every Harry Potter, there’s a Golden Compass or even Spiderwick Chronicles. The well is rapidly running dry, and you needn’t look much further than The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, a film about a young lonely boy who finds himself in circumstances and an adventure beyond what he might initially suspect. Wait, doesn’t that sound like EVERY children’s movie lately?
The novel was written by Susan Cooper and edited by John Hodge, who did Trainspotting, of all films, and was directed by David Cunningham (To End All Wars). In this, Will (Alexander Ludwig, Race to Witch Mountain) plays the youngest in a family of six Americans who have moved to London for their father’s job. He soon finds out about his real roots, continuing a lineage of warriors, protected by the old ones in Miss Greythorne (Frances Conroy, Six Feet Under) and Merriman Lyon (Ian McShane, Deadwood). No other performers from HBO television series were involved in the making of the production.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 12th, 2008
They say that it isn’t over until the Fat Lady sings. Did you ever wonder what “it” was or who the heck this Fat Lady is they keep talking about? I can’t help you there, but I do know who the Fat Man is. It’s William Conrad, who came back to television in 1987 as J.L. McCabe, better known as “the Fatman”. McCabe was one of those tough as nails district attorneys. He was actually an ex-cop, so had great criminal instincts. McCabe wasn’t above bending the law to put away the bad guy, and he wasn’t considered a very friendly type of fellow. He majored in stubbornness and plain speaking. He relied on Jake Styles, his private investigator, to do much of the leg work for the office. Jake was a bit of a flashy playboy, but he always delivered the goods for his boss. Again, Styles wasn’t against breaking a few rules to get what he needed. Styles was played by Joe Penny. McCabe also served as a mentor, of sorts, to young District Attorney Derek Mitchell, played by Alan Campbell. Mitchell was quite wet behind the ears and a little too eager sometimes. His ambition often got the better of him, and it was the gruff McCabe who kept him out of trouble. Finally, the team was completed by Gertrude, McCabe’s loyal and trusty secretary, played by Lu Leonard. While The Fatman put crooks away instead of defending innocent defendants, there could be no mistaking the parallels between Jake And The Fatman and Perry Mason. The two shows were from different times and the styles might not have been the same, but the dynamic was very much the same. You can see a lot of
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 12th, 2008
William Conrad was no stranger to audiences when Cannon joined the Quinn Martin stable of television dramas. In fact, most folks knew his voice before they got to know his trademark girth. Conrad was the original Matt Dillon when Gunsmoke was a radio drama. When the drama entered the visual medium of television, even Conrad admitted later that the audience, who thought of him as tall and handsome, would have been disappointed. His voice lent authority to any role he played, and on radio his size was never an issue. He was famous as the voice of the stern narrator in the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons who often crossed the laws of the trade and interacted with the titular characters. He was also the voice that narrated the struggles of Dr. Richard Kimble on The Fugitive, another Quinn Martin Production. He continued to narrate series intros even after his own success. He gave us the informative opening dialog in Buck Rogers In The 25th Century. As a voice, Conrad, was one of the bes, but when CBS approached Quinn Martin asking for a television vehicle for Conrad, it was a huge gamble. The gamble, of course, paid off… well… huge, and Cannon became an iconic figure in television. Cannon was so popular he was showing up on other shows as well. He appeared on the pilot for Barnaby Jones. The show ran 5 seasons and returned with appropriately enough The Return Of Frank Cannon tele-film in 1980. It is also interesting to note that Conrad, while greatly overweight, lived to be 74.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 1st, 2008
If you’ve followed my reviews, you know that I love Stargate. SG-1 or Atlantis; I can’t get enough of them. When the collection of Stargate Infinity discs arrived at my doorstep, I tore into them like a Wraith into a red shirt. Now the Stargate might be an incredible mystery that delights a legion of fans. What is not much of a mystery is why this children’s cartoon version of the franchise only lasted one year. I missed the original broadcast window and having watched these DVD’s I’m glad I did. I found the series to be an insult to Stargate fans. I understand that the show has been dumbed down and is geared toward the very young, but there’s no excuse for the preachy nature of the stories and the lack of respect shown toward the original material. Unfortunately, even the animation is sub par looking like an early 1980’s Saturday morning cartoon.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 1st, 2008
Inspectors 81 are back on the tough streets of
