DVD

“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.

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).

For anyone not familiar with here! TV’s series The Lair, let me bring you up to speed. The setting is a picturesque little town on an island somewhere on the East Coast. What makes this town so picturesque? Well, there’s its lush greenery, its sweeping ocean views, its many gorgeous houses, and there is also the fact that it seems to be entirely populated by attractive young gay men (the lone straight guy in town was culled in season one when he was murdered by his girlfriend who is now in jail – oh, and he was a bad man who abused her, so he had it coming I guess). Of these gay men, several are played by actors from gay porn (in an uncanny twist, the dead straight guy was played by an actor from straight porn). In fact, the local sheriff looks like he may have played the lead in the gay porn version of Sylvester Stallone’s Copland. And if he hasn’t he should think about it. I even have the perfect title for it, though it is unprintable here.

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.

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.

"Chicano" is a term for a Mexican American (US born with Mexican ancestry).

El Chicano was and is a band that started in the late 60s as club players called The V.I.Ps (playing after hours at a Japanese restaurant in East Los Angeles) who became popular because of their jazzy approach to Latin rock. This musical approach was really defined by this band, as well as by Santana who started about the same time, and their songs became the anthems for the "Chicano Movement" around the late sixties and early seventies.

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.

Barbra Streisand’s 1983 Historical Epic/Fable/Musical/Vanity Project comes to DVD for the first time ever in this deluxe release. Exciting news for a large chunk of our population, though in this instance it’s a case of “good news/bad news” for rabid Barbra fans. With Yentl, Streisand is in full-on quadruple threat mode, as director, producer, co-writer, and Star (yes, the capital ‘s’ is necessary), and her Herculean labours in getting this film made are probably as well known as the film itself. Her obvious passion for the project and the fact that she had a hand in it at every level gives access to a wealth of incredibly detailed information in the special features, including “Materials from Barbra’s Archive”. However, there are some technical shortcomings in this volume that will lessen the experience, even for fans.

Frankly, if you need any information beyond the title of this release, then it probably isn't for you. It's The Sinful Dwarf, man! But if you really must know more, be it on your head. Mind-bogglingly stupid and broke newlyweds Mary and Peter (Anne Sparrow and Tony Eades, actors of an ineptitude that passeth all understanding) check in to the boarding house of retired (and scarred) burlesque performer Lila Lash (Clara Keller) her son Olaf (children's show host Torben Bille), the titular sinful dwarf. Mary hears noises in the attic, but Peter won't listen to her. He should, as Lila and Olaf keep a harem of women up there as prostitutes, ensuring their submission through forced injections of heroin. Now they have their sights set on Mary...

"She was working in a bridal shop in Flushing, Queens 'Til her boyfriend kicked her out in one of those crushing scenes. What was she to do? Where was she to go? She was out on her fanny... So over the bridge from Flushing to the Sheffield's door. She was there to sell makeup, but father saw more. She had style! She had flair! She was there. That's how she became the Nanny! Who would have guessed that the girl we've described Was just exactly what the doctor prescribed? Now the father finds her beguiling. And the kids are actually smiling. She's the lady in red when everybody else is wearing tan... The flashy girl from Flushing, the Nanny named Fran!"

Not exactly Mary Poppins.