Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 2nd, 2008
What kind of woman could possibly make the oh-so-tough Arthur Fonzarelli fall hopelessly in love? We find out in the three-part opener of Happy Days – The Complete Fourth Season in one of the great names of the small screen, Pinky Tuscadero. Pinky (a stunning Roz Kelly) shows spunk as a female version of Fonzy (Henry Winkler in his career-making role), and it’s surprising she wasn’t used more in the series run. Perhaps CBS felt fettering Fonzy with a regular gal-pal took away from his enigmatic qualities, which he would eventually lose anyway in the show’s eleven seasons.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 2nd, 2008
Another cheery bit of nonsense in this release, consisting of a half-dozen SpongeBob cartoons. The disc gets its title from the first episode, “What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?” In this story, our hero, rejected by all his friends for his consistent screw-ups winds up, after an amnesia-inducing bonk on the head, becoming the hero of a crime-ridden metropolis. Weird and funny stuff, and the same is true for the other pieces. That said, there's even less of a connection than usual between the pieces, not even a hint of a thematic commonality that has usually been the case with these releases. What we have are six apparently randomly chosen episodes, adding up to 78 minutes of silliness.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 1st, 2008
My experience with the UFC is more of a classic one. I remember watching various pay per views on DVD and VHS of the old matches back when they had 1 night tournaments and everybody was either talking about Gracie, Shamrock or Severn. Recently, I had started watching random fights on the Spike Network to pass the time when I wasn’t interested in WWE or TNA wrestling. However, the one thing that got me most interested in UFC or MMA as of late is one man. No, not Kimbo Slice. That man would be Brock Lesnar. The man who would came to UFC to prove he was a true fighter and put away of those rumors that existed about wrestlers and not really being able to compete. UFC 87 featured Brock vs Heath Herring and a Welterweight championship fight among 8 other matches on the card. Was it time for the “Next Big Thing”?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on December 1st, 2008
TNA Wrestling is currently a very exciting place in the world of wrestling. Two factions have formed: Main Event Mafia and the Frontline. MEM is five former & current world champions and they are a deadly combination not seen since the heyday of the NWO. They want to teach respect to the other faction known as the Frontline, composed of TNA Originals and young upstarts who have worked their tail off and believe that the MEM should step aside and pass the torch to them. However, one forgets what led to these two factions forming. Three pay-per-views that happened from July 2008 to September 2008 laid the groundwork of the current state of affairs in TNA. Victory Road, Hard Justice and No Surrender.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 26th, 2008
No, this isn't the Patrick Swayze vehicle. Instead, it's another golden opportunity for Richard Widmark to unleash his patented psycho act. Here he plays Jefty, playboy owner of the titular establishment. His right-hand man is Pete (Cornel Wilde), who is the serious-minded half of the partnership. Said partnership is strained when Jefty brings back the latest singer for the club, one Lily (Ida Lupino, in superb hard-boiled form). Pete thinks she's bad news, and she is, only not in the way any of the three suspect. Jefty decides he's in love with her, but she only has eyes for Pete, and he, despite misgivings, reciprocates. Jefty doesn't take rejection well. Not well at all...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 26th, 2008
It’s the final roll call for everyone’s favorite Marine. 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.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 24th, 2008
Jean Gabin, in his American debut, plays Bobo, a French sailor who has been knocking around the States for quite some time in the company of Tiny (Thomas Mitchell). Their wandering comes to a stop when, the day after a night of drunken excess that he cannot remember, Bobo sees Anna (Ida Lupino) wading into the waves to commit suicide. He rescues her, and before long the two are living together on the bait barge where he is working, and fall in love. Dark clouds are on the horizon, however. A local man was murdered, and Tiny, resentful that his meal ticket has been taken from him, darkly hints to Anna that Bobo might be responsible, even though he doesn't know it himself.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 21st, 2008
There have been many films about the Vietnam War. Some have been epic. Some have been emotional. Some have even been very bad, but now comes one that is absolutely funny. Are we ready for this kind of a send up? That might be the overriding question, but I think that we are. Tropic Thunder took the chance that the public was ready to accept such a film and be able to enjoy it. To soften the blow, it was likely a good idea that the film doesn’t address the war in itself. The film takes aim at movies about the war, and in an extension of that theme it pokes a lot of fun at
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 18th, 2008
"Space...The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 18th, 2008
Jack Black stars as a Panda named Po who works in his family’s noodle shop. His dreams, however, aren’t of noodles and broth, but of Kung Fu. He fantasizes of hanging out with the famous furious five, the living legends of Kung Fu. The five are made up of the actual animal poses in Kung Fu. You have Tigress (Jolie), Crane (Cross), Monkey (Chan), Mantis (Rogen), and Viper (Liu). Together they have been training with the Master Shifu (Hoffman). Under the guidance of Grand Master Oogway (Duk Kim) they are preparing for one of them to take on the mantle of Dragon Warrior.
