Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 17th, 2011
Dog the Bounty Hunter: This Family Means Business is a six episode DVD special release. The series chronicles the Chapman family as they chase down fugitives in scenic Hawaii. The show has been on A&E for seven years now and has become a flagship series for the network. The show introduces a fugitive, investigates the fugitive, and catches the fugitive. The show has a strict formula that it adheres to and rarely differs from. This particular special release arrives to celebrate the show crossing the two hundred episode threshold.
I will say that I was never a huge fan of this series. However, I find Dog Chapman to be a compelling figure. His family is very interesting with their outfits and colorful language. Dog wears his hair long (mullet) and his clothing is usually always trailer park chic. However, much like his tan, his schtick never fades. Dog recently went through some legal trouble which I found problematic as he continues to preach to fugitives the importance of being law abiding. However, the success of the show is undeniable. There is no series that runs for seven seasons that does not have a rabid fan base.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on July 16th, 2011
Somewhere between Spike TV and the Discovery Channel lies the History Channel's take on nature programs. Underwater Universe is the collision of sensationalist and informative television. 5 episodes profiling the deadliest attributes of the Oceans, all told with melodramatic statements, fast editing but still plenty of experts offering scientific analyses to the “hows” and “whys” of what each episode is featuring.
Each episode is a compilation of CGI recreations, interviews with experts and those that have encountered deadly animals or elements, and stock footage of those same animals and elements at work. The subjects (and episode titles) are “Killer Shockwaves,” “Predators of the Deep,” “Fatal Pressure,” “Tides and Currents of Death.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 13th, 2011
Courtesy of the website of the same name (check it out at http://trailersfromhell.com/index.php) comes this collection of trailers of horror, SF and exploitation films. The collection is eclectic, following no particular theme (though there are several Hammer films present), and the era covered ranges from 1941 (The Invisible Ghost with Bela Lugosi) to 1998 (Trauma’s Terror Firmer). Present are the likes of The Devil-Ship Pirates, Gorgo, Donovan’s Brain, Deep Red, Flesh Gordon, and so on. Twenty altogether.
Normally, commentaries would be dealt with below, but this case is an exception. Not only does the disc default to playing the introductions and commentaries, but these are the primary attraction of the release. The commentators are a high-powered lot: Roger Corman, Guillermo del Toro (who discusses Deep Red in both English and Spanish), John Landis, Joe Dante, Lloyd Kaufman, Jack Hill, and more. There are a couple of weaker moments here – Mary Lambert’s musings on Mothra vs Godzilla are disappointingly inarticulate, and she talks about Godzilla as a nuclear metaphor as if this were news; John Landis has a rather supercilious approach to the excellent Gorgo – but these are more than offset by the strengths. Brian Trenchard-Smith, Del Toro and Dante essentially give entire film courses in two minutes – no mean feat. This is a great, informative collection.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 12th, 2011
My childhood was full of cartoons from all walks of life. There are classics such as the Jetsons and Daffy Duck (notice I did not say Bugs Bunny) and then more recent products of my time period like Transformers and X-Men. But I always had an eye out for those cartoons that were anything but conventional. I recently got the chance to review Thundercats and I hoped that my childhood memories would hold up. Thundercats, HOOOO!
We are aboard a spaceship flying away from a planet. Jaga, an elder tells a younger Thundercat, Lion-O to watch as their home planet, Thundera explodes and is no more. The spaceship represents the last of the creatures as they try to find a planet that is like theirs in air quality. Jaga also introduces the young cat to the Sword of Omens which contains the legendary Eye of Thundera.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 11th, 2011
It sounds like nothing new. Hard-boiled detective uses computers and other forms of technology to solve cases. It isn’t anything new, except the detective in question is Joe Mannix, and the series started in 1967. The computer that Mannix used took up an entire room and was queried using cardboard punch cards. This wasn’t science fiction. We’re not talking some newly discovered Irwin Allen series. Mannix didn’t go after aliens or robots. This was a down-to-earth gritty detective show. Mike Connors played the tough-as-nails detective. He was perfect for the part and blended into the role seamlessly for 8 years.
The show was created by the team of Link and Levinson, who later gave us the detective in the rumpled raincoat, Columbo. It was groundbreaking in so many areas. While it might not be remembered today as one of the top detective shows, there can be no argument about the impact Mannix had on the genre. A decade later one of my favorite television detectives, Jim Rockford, would borrow rather heavily from Mannix. Like Rockford, Mannix was getting beat up a lot. They both had the same sense of style, wearing rather ugly sport jackets. Neither was afraid to bend the rules, or the law, when necessary. Again like Rockford, Mannix often falls for the wrong girl at the wrong time. Mannix was good with a gun and equally adept with his fists. The show received a ton of controversy from the start for the amount of violence it employed. Tame by today’s standards, Mannix was quite aggressive for its time. The joke was that the show’s producers mandated a fight or car chase every 15 minutes whether it was needed or not. I’m sure that wasn’t true, but nonetheless the show opened the floodgates for the detective shows that followed. In this first season, Mannix worked for the enigmatic detective agency, Intertect. They supplied him with the latest in modern technology and with his cases. His main company contact was Lou Wickersham, played by Joseph Campanella. Now Mannix is on his own and begins to resemble more and more these detectives that would eventually follow in his tire tracks.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 11th, 2011
Oh, how the rich can get into mischief. This DVD set is smack dab in the middle of Dynasty’s successful nine season run. The mudslinging, both literal and figurative, was at its height in this fifth season, and no $200 haircut or $1000 outfit was left unruffled by the various scandals and plots set into the web of these wealthy Denver residents. In fact, this season was the one and only time this series won a Golden Globe for best TV drama.
Both my age and lack of interest from the time I was between the ages of 1 to 5, when this show originally aired, betray any memories I may have of this program. Approaching it these days, I can clearly see how it was derivative of Dallas, its CBS rival (Dynasty having aired on ABC). If these wealthy folk are not in each other’s faces, they’re in each other’s beds.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 5th, 2011
Dear John centers around a soldier, John Tyree (Channing Tatum) who falls in love with a college student, Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried) while he is back home on leave. This film is adapted from the Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name and directed by the melodramatic romance aficionado Lasse Hallstrom. If you are looking for a romance tale that offers very little surprises, look no further.
Hallstrom and Sparks seems to be a match made in heaven. For the better part of a decade, Hallstrom has entirely dedicated himself to romantic films: Chocolat, The Shipping News and Casanova. These films do not really demonstrate a form of versatility. Usually, I am fascinated with directors or writers that stay in their proverbial lane. They are not interested in writing or directing anything other than the genre that has garnered them any form of success. Sparks churns out the same romance novels because there is an appetite for them. Hallstrom provides the same service with romance films. Therefore, from a studio’s perspective, why wouldn’t you want to make film with these two?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on July 4th, 2011
The story begins with the immediate validation of superstition. Anesi Gebara is the head of an illegal lottery and so numbers are crucially linked to his life, both in his work and in the aforementioned superstitions that haunt his life.
The first episode features Gebara's dearest son, Anesinho, killing himself, and the rest of the series follows his remaining 3 sons as they vie to take Anesinho's respected place. As seems to be customary with the majority of HBO programs, dark secrets about each character's past come to light before our eyes. Said secrets often involving lurid sex and death (again, staples in the HBO realm).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 3rd, 2011
Capadocia: Un Lugar Sin Perdon is an HBO Latin America Original that showcases both the political and social angles of an experimental penitentiary in Mexico City. The penitentiary exploits the inmates as a form of cheap labor for the government. A riot begins that uncovers the violent truths behind the experimental prison and viewers are thrust into the lives of these female inmates. This series depicts the complexities of prison life as well as the political posturing that takes place. There is plenty of emotion in this series and it is executed at a very high
level.
The performances in this series are brilliant. Much like the HBO original series Oz, there is a proliferation of important characters. With a series such as this, each character needs to be both written and performed exceptionally well. Oz achieved transcendence as a series because it had its share of memorable characters. This series uses a similar template by engaging its audience with a range of interesting personalities. For example, Lorena Guerra (Ana De La Reguera) is a common housewife that commits a crime of passion when she walks in on her husband with her best friend. Once she enters the prison, her performance becomes exceptional as she reacts to the brutality of the violence. A character comparison to Oz would be Tobias Beecher. Guerra and Beecher both are introduced as wide eyed optimists and the system chews them into tougher individuals.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 1st, 2011
And now we enter the final year of The Medium. The final season has several bright spots. On Bring Your Daughter To Work Day, Paulie Walnuts, Tony Sirico, plays a mob guy ghost that keeps haunting Allison. It's a rather nice episode, and Sirico gets to provide some wonderful moments that remind us of his days with The Sopranos. Scanlon gets to be a ghost, for a short time. Allison has a vision of the future. John Glover even gets to play a devilish character that reminds us of his short-lived days on Brimstone. The final episode is a fitting send-off for the series.
Medium was based on a real person with alleged psychic powers who apparently has helped out various law enforcement agencies in some actual cases. If you’ve seen the series, you might find that hard to believe, and the episodes are obviously fictional adventures and not based on the real Allison Dubois’s experiences. At first glance it might be easy to lump Medium in with Ghost Whisperer or The Dead Zone. Actually, there are almost no similarities to any of those shows. Allison does not gain any understanding through touching, and while she does see ghosts at times, that aspect of the show has been made to play in only a small percentage of the episodes. Allison accesses her powers through dreams. These nightmares are usually vague and often provide additional clues with each recurring dream. The formula for the show is that she must interpret these images and signs in time to do whatever it is she needs to do. Now that her secret is out, she’s not able to continue her work at the DA’s office. Joe’s career is also in jeopardy, so the show is going through some changes here. The strike likely did some damage, so we may never know exactly what was in store.
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