Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 30th, 2010
The review you are about to read is true. Nothing has been changed. These are the actual people who performed in this great movie and this is exactly the way it really happened. I truly believe this. Signed, Michael Durr also known as Kedrix. Trust me on this one, I couldn’t make up what I’m about to write for this review. If I were to brainstorm for the next twenty years, there would be absolutely nothing to lead me to this movie. (well except for the boobs).
(*warning* The following review might contain salty language, bad jokes and gushing about the female naked anatomy. The writer of this review bares no responsibility for this work and the director, Fred Olen Ray would have wanted it that way.)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 30th, 2010
Tenure revolves around Charlie Thurber (Luke Wilson) an insecure college professor who is up for a tenure position in his English department. Charlie has an ongoing problem getting his work published and to add a further complication, the university decides to hire another applicant, Elaine Grasso (Gretchen Mol) for the position. Through the competing for the job, Charlie begins to have feelings for Elaine. As their relationship emerges, Charlie needs to make a decision about what his passions are.
The film blends comedy and drama fairly efficiently. The comedy is hammered home with Charlie’s friend Jay (David Koechner). Whether its herbal enhancements or a fruitless pursuit of Bigfoot, no comedic stone is left unturned. The drama is left for the dark and charming Charlie Thurber. Luke Wilson’s performance is bland. He doesn’t showcase much of a range. Even after his deciding moment in the film, audiences are left feeling shortchanged. However, his comedic moments in the film are timed well and his chemistry with Koechner is undeniable.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 30th, 2010
A young girl, who is obsessed with purity, appears on a “Chicks Go Crazy” video (a parody of Girls Gone Wild) and gets a group of rowdy (by comparison to her) friends to go on a road trip to track down the dvd and its maker (played by an easy paycheck receiving Rob Schneider), all the while resisting the temptations of drinking and sex.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 28th, 2010
Spectacular Spider-Man is back with his eighth volume and the final one for the 2nd season. As we saw in the last few episodes, it appears that Green Goblin is again rearing his ugly head and looking to get rid of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Furthermore, there are other super villains chomping at the bit to get back at Spider-Man for being put behind bars. Can Spidey survive this onslaught? Let’s find out.
Episode 24 opens up with Spider-Man in a battle with Molten Man at a local pool hall while Liz Allan (Peter Parker’s girlfriend at this point) and Mary Jane Watson are trapped behind the bar. We later find out that Molten Man is Liz’s brother: Mark who has a severe gambling problem. Somehow you know that Green Goblin is the cause of what is going on. Is Spiderman all-in or will he bust?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 27th, 2010
Lucille Ball was originally a radio personality starring in a popular comedy, My Favorite Husband. It was here that she began to develop the character she would continue to play for decades in television through several shows, all bearing her name in one form or another: I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy, and Life With Lucy. See the pattern? Anyone who was a fan of the radio show would instantly recognize the red-haired actress even though they had never actually seen her on the radio. That exaggerated cry was already a staple of her physical comedy, even when she couldn't be seen. She had also toured for many years with her real-life husband Desi Arnaz. When they could not convince a network to film a pilot of a show featuring both of them, they made it on their own dime. CBS was so impressed with the pilot they reimbursed the couple, and in 1951 I Love Lucy hit the airwaves.
Lucy played the character she had already perfected on radio and on the stage. Desi played her husband, a Cuban bandleader who headlined at the Tropicana. Lucy was always trying to find a way to get into Ricky's act. She had no talent, but that never stopped her, usually embarrassing Ricky along the way. The couple lived in an apartment owned by the Mertzes, Fred (Frawley) and Ethel (Vance). They were not only the Ricardo's landlords but also their closest friends. Ethel would often find herself talked into one of Lucy's crazy schemes. The show also found comedy fodder in Ricky's thick Cuban accent. Sometimes his mispronunciations caused hilarious misunderstandings. William Frawley as Fred had the job of playing straight man most of the time. It was a thankless job, to be sure, but he was perfect at it. He didn't talk as much as the others, but he had some golden moments over the show's very successful six year run. During that time the series never once fell below number three for the entire year in ratings.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 27th, 2010
A time of change is descending on the America and the men and women of the Sterling Cooper ad agency. The civil rights movement is underway, and (at the end of the season), President Kennedy is assassinated. Personal lives are also undergoing upheaval. Peggy is learning to express her sexuality, while the closeted Stan wrestles with some painful reckonings involving his own. And Don's marriage hits a crisis thanks to his serial philandering and a huge secret from his past.
Easily one of the most acclaimed shows of recent memory, Mad Men hardly needs me to point out how strong its performances are, how intelligent its scripting is, and how beautifully it's shot. But at the risk of being branded a heretic, I would point out a few gaps in the emperor's clothes. The series is highly inaccessible to new viewers, assuming as it seems to that everyone watching has been doing so from the first. I had only seen a couple of episodes prior to plunging into this set, and was often frustrated by the plethora of significant glances between characters that clearly spoke volumes about past events. Not only did I have trouble figuring out what was going on, I wasn't always certain that anything was. Yes, the writing is very smart, but it can, at times, wear that intelligence a little too ostentatiously – little bits of business involving a child reading Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire to her grandfather, or executives trading quips about Balzac feel show-offy to me. (And while we're on the topic, be wary of the knowledge you're going to parade. At one point in Episode 1, we are informed that London no longer has fogs. That is true now, but is a very anachronistic statement to be making in 1963, as my parents can attest to.) Finally, there is a certain coldness to the affair that I found made it hard to particularly care about any of the characters. Again, none of this is to deny the program's manifold and great qualities, but for my money, it isn't quite in the same stratospheric heights as something like The Wire.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 27th, 2010
An extremely talented young break-dancer from New York, who goes by “Angel,” and her best friend are attacked in an alley. Both are stabbed and only Angel survives. She moves with her mother to Los Angeles and begins a quest to return to Brooklyn on her own. In the meantime, she is rehabilitating from her stabbing injury and is prompted to rekindle her love of dance. Before long she finds a crew and is set to find a new life in LA and display her talents once more.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 26th, 2010
"No young man, no matter how great, can know his destiny. He cannot glimpse his part in the great story that is about to unfold. Like everyone, he must live and learn. And so it will be for the young warlock arriving at the gates of Camelot. A boy that will, in time, father a legend. His name ... Merlin."
Merlin. You know the name. It conjures up images of a white-haired old man with a long gray beard and a long pointed hat. His story is indeed legend. In the myths of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, he is destined to be the mentor to the King of Camelot. We've all heard the stories of the Sword in the Stone and the Age of Chivalry. Perhaps it is totally appropriate that this telling of Merlin come from British television. England is, after all, the origin of the fanciful legends.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 26th, 2010
The year is 2003. The War in Iraq is just underway, and its ripples are felt even in the small town of Port Gamble, Washington. Take, for instance, Frida (Janette Armand). Her father is Iranian, which is the same thing as Iraqi as far as everyone else is concerned, and furthermore her skin tone and ethnic background mean she is not a “real American” (to quote her numbskulled boyfriend) even though she was born in Port Gamble. Tom (Doug Fahl), meanwhile, has concerns less related to world affairs: he has returned to his home town, in the company of his boyfriend Lance (Cooper Hopkins), to come out to his mother, a prospect that fills him with dread. Then, just to complicate everybody's life, a zombie plague breaks out, bringing out the best and worst of everyone in town.
Zombies have been fodder for socio-political allegory all the way back to their first cinematic appearance (in their pre-flesh-eating days) in White Zombie (1932), where they were the exploited workers of Bela Lugosi's sugar cane mill. Director Kevin Hamedani and his co-writer Ramon Isao go into satirical overdrive with this effort. There is some very funny stuff here, along with plenty of over-the-top gore FX and likable protagonists. Unlike Dawn of the Dead and Shaun of the Dead, however, whose commentary emerges naturally from the story and characters, here the personalities and story have clearly been designed to fit the political points being made. Thus, though Frida, Tom and Lance are very engaging characters (if almost entirely defined by their ethnic or sexual minority identities), their non-zombified opponents are caricatures of conservatism, as hissable as they are stupid. Now, satire is, by its very nature, a savage art, and I'm all for both savagery and movies that aren't afraid to take a stand, but Hamedani and Isao run the risk of preaching to the choir here. With almost every line of dialogue slaved to the film's political points, we are entering the realm of the editorial cartoon. And though there's nothing wrong with that, it does mean that there isn't much to the film beyond those political points. Thus, one faction of the audience will simply have its views confirmed, while the other will be completely alienated, and it is doubtful that much thought will be provoked. As well, some of the gags are arguably a bit misjudged. The scene where Tom's mother eats her own eye owes its funny/nauseating vibe to Peter Jackson's Dead/Alive, and works well enough, but the moment where a little girl Frida is trying to help is splattered by a car is more problematic, depending on your tolerance for extreme splatstick. All that said, there's still plenty of sharp work from all concerned here.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 26th, 2010
A first-year film student named Yannick crosses paths with a black cat (literally) and crashes his bicycle, then knocks on the door of a family home in a nice neighborhood looking for assistance. A few minutes later he is held captive by a psychotic family, led by a patriarch who is convinced it is his life's duty to rid the world of those who are “not righteous.” As our hero Yannick slips between clawing desperation and clever tact in his attempts to escape he is offered a chance at freedom. Jacques, the head of the household, is an undefeated, nation-wide renowned Chess champion, and if Yannick can beat him once, he will be released.
This French-Canadian thriller grips you immediately and holds your attention captive throughout its duration. This film relies heavily on the performances of its leads and they deliver splendidly. Jacques does not appear strange in his psychosis, but calm for his character is convinced of his self-righteousness and his mission. His daughter, whom he is grooming to take over his work, acts out violently when her family is threatened but cannot bring herself to kill in the name of God. The mother has a soft-spot for their prisoner for he displayed great kindness to the youngest child, a small mute girl who quietly loathes her father.
