Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 28th, 2006
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother has everything that Young Frankenstein had except Mel Brooks (although he does make a very brief vocal cameo). With the combined comedic genius of Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, and Marty Feldman, how could this film go wrong? Like Young Frankenstein, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes offers a rich classical mythology to mine for material. A wonderful supporting cast featuring the likes of Dom Deluise can’t miss, right? No so elementary, my dear Watson. Focus. ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 28th, 2006
Teddy Pendergrass, one of the lesser known soul rebels of the seventies, comes to DVD in this lackluster edition, which purports to be 80 minutes – but that’s only true if you factor into the running time the one bonus feature. This fact could be a detriment to fans of Teddy’s music. For me, however, it was a relief to discover the actual concert only ran about an hour. There was nothing here to justify the man’s status as some kind of legend, as his audience interactions and movements on stage were limited in scope ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 26th, 2006
I must first admit that I never saw The Sentinel when it originally aired in the 90’s. I guess this one never made my radar. It’s basically a cop show with a somewhat sci-fi or maybe paranormal twist. It seems that Jim Ellison’s (Burgi)plane went down in the jungles of South America. While the crash killed his crew, he not only survived, but somehow obtained strange super powers. The idea is that this ancient jungle tribe develops a “sentinel” to be their guardian. For years Ellison protected the village before his...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 26th, 2006
Synopsis
Not much to is. This is one larger film and a series of shorter ones (though they are all of a piece) extolling the virtues of contemplative prayer, which, it appears, consists in sitting quietly and listening to God, rather than speaking yourself. The whole thing drips in every “inspirational” cliché you can imagine (lots of shots of parks, clouds, sunsets, gentle spring rains, and so forth). Oddly, for a piece that’s supposed to help viewers practice being quiet, some of the speakers here ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 26th, 2006
Dr. Dolittle 3 is yet another unnecessary direct-to-DVD sequel of a film, whose glory has long since passed. Young actress Kyla Pratt takes center stage as the next generation of Dolittle to inherit the gift – or curse – of hearing animals speak. At the outset of the film, she is ashamed of her gift, and her lineage. But when she is sent to an old family friend’s ranch for the summer, she begins to see that a talent is what you make of it. Along with telegraphed comedy, lightweight rivalries, and a budding rom...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 25th, 2006
Dawson’s Creek follows the lives of Dawson Leery (James Van Der Beek) and his friends, as they struggle through their formative years and – in this final season – search for their places in the adult world. The first episode pulls a cruel tease in finally putting Joey (Katie Holmes) and Dawson together before the rug is pulled out from under their love affair the very next episode. Some might say it’s a decision from which the season never recovers – I say the show never had its footing to begin with. Plagued ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 24th, 2006
Say what you want about Robert Crumb, and his controversial cartoon funnies, but at least he’s found a healthy way of expressing not-so-healthy ideas – more than what can be said for his brothers, Maxon and Charles. Sony’s classic documentary Crumb (directed by Terry Zwigoff) demonstrates this in a beautifully ugly piece of filmmaking, now available in a new special edition to celebrate (albeit, a bit late) the film’s tenth anniversary. Maxon is the “molester” of the Crumb kids, and I say that hoping it’s an e...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 20th, 2006
posted by Kim Lee
UFC 1 is where it all began… in the OCTAGON! 8 deadly fighters go head to head in the octagon (steel cage) where two men enter but only one man leaves victorious. These fighters battle it out in a tournament style no holds barred, bare knuckle (no gloves allowed) combat. There are No Rules, No time limit, and No judges.
Fighter Profile
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 19th, 2006
The appearance of Mr. T as B.A. Baracus unfortunately overshadows the rest of this show. Why is that unfortunate? Because Mr. T’s appeal mostly comes from his performance as the show-stealing Clubber Lang from Rocky III, and not from any major importance he had on this series. While people certainly tuned in to see Baracus, they were often disappointed by the back seat he would frequently take to the other stars – disappointed because they wanted to see Clubber Lang on the A-Team, and not the back-seat charact...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 17th, 2006
It’s his show, he’s Andy Milonakis. That’s what the rap says to begin each and every idiotic entry to the first season of The Andy Milonakis Show. And as Andy himself points out in the commentary for episode six, the show is meant to be as stupid as humanly possible. With Milonakis at the helm, it reaches such high aspirations with ease. I’m still not sure of the merits of a program, whose only intention is to see how asinine it can be. Rest assured, there’s a huge difference between stupid-stupid and stupid-f...
