DVD Talk DVD Reviews

Warner Bros. and the Homefront Collection

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:08:54 PST

Highly Recommended

The height of World War II would see the rise of a particular new musical subgenre: the wartime all-star revue. These were breezy efforts built to boost morale with the boys overseas and with their families back home, where studios would gather all their biggest names for thinly-plotted comedies carrying a series of wildly entertaining variety acts and musical numbers. In these films, audiences could see Bette Davis sing, Ida Lupino dance, Humphrey Bogart poke fun of his tough guy image. Better still, these films would double as fundraisers, earning money for various for-the-boys charities (and, of course, audiences could also buy war bonds, right in the lobby of this very theater!).

Warner Bros. has now packaged three of its top movies from this genre - "This is the Army," "Thank Your Lucky Stars," and "Hollywood Canteen" - together in their new three-disc box set "Warner Bros. and the Homefron...Read the entire review

24: Redemption

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:08:54 PST

Recommended

The TV Movie

FOX's hit drama 24 (review of seasons: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) was one of many television series affected by the 2007 Writers' Guild Strike. Due to the strike, 24 was unable to produce a full season of episodes. Instead of airing a short season, season seven was postponed. While on hiatus, 24: Redemption was put together to prepare viewers for the upcoming season. "Redemption" is a two...Read the entire review

Chris Isaak Christmas

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:08:54 PST

Rent It

A Chris Isaak Christmas? What's that, fourteen songs about how Chris got dumped during the holidays? "Mrs. Claus Did a Bad, Bad Thing"?

But I kid Mr. Forever Blue. And I'm not too far off, either, as his concert special "Chris Isaak Christmas" features several carols about loneliness, including that old standby, "Blue Christmas," in which the singer lets loose his inner Heartbreak Hotel.

Really, though, it's a rocking, rollicking hour of musical fun from the unclassifiable singer-songwriter. With his band decked out in tuxedos and himself done up in a series of Elvis-inspired sequin-covered suits, Isaak lends his distinctive swagger to eleven holiday classics and five new songs. The concert was produced in 2004 by PBS for their "Soundstage" series, just in time for that year's release of Isaak's Christmas album. (Fifteen of that album's songs appear here; for those keeping score, t...Read the entire review

Paul Simon: Live From Philadelphia (Greatest Hits Live)

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:08:54 PST

Rent It

THE SHOW:

This 1980 recording of Paul Simon running through his repertoire captures a solid performance from the former folk troubadour, though a highly subdued one with an all-too-brief set list. Before the singer had shifted into his full "world music mode," it appears he was vying for pole position in the adult contemporary raceway. Any jagged edges have been long since shorn off in favor of organ tinkling so soft it would make Michael McDonald blush and saxophone solos the likes of which have probably soothed you once or twice in a dentist's office. In other words, this is "wuss rock" Paul Simon, not the dark and sensitive poet of the Simon & Garfunkel years or the revitalized elder statesmen that would emerge on Graceland.

Oh, the 1980s, so mu...Read the entire review

Coyote Ragtime Show: Complete Box Set

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:04:51 PST

Highly Recommended

The Series: 
While I love the long, sprawling epic anime series like DragonballZ and Naruto, there's something to be said for the short and sweet showstoo.  The 12-episode programs that have a simple story to tell, tellit, and then end.  There aren't a lot of filler episodes in thoseshows and the action is pretty constant.  That's why I enjoyed CoyoteRagtime so much.  There's not a lot of wasted action.  Whileit borrows from a lot of other shows, the program has a style all its ownand some fun characters that make it worth watching.

Angelica has been trailing the famous space pirate, or Coyote as theyare known in this series, known only as "Mister" for years.  Thereare no pictures o...Read the entire review

Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:52:50 PST

DVD Talk Collector Series

In attractive packaging resembling a steamer trunk, the kind of thing one imagines Burlesque comedians lugged around the country with while on tour, Abbott & Costello - The Complete Universal Pictures Collection is a handsome set of the duo's entire output at Universal Studios, some 28 full-length features released between 1940 and 1955, as well as the 1965 compilation film The World of Abbott & Costello. The set also comes with a batch of previously-released featurettes, including Abbott and Costello meet the Monsters and an enormously disappointing TV special, Abbott and Costello meet Jerry Seinfeld.

For fans of the team, the release of the set is both exciting and exasperating. The good news is that it includes It Ain't Hay (1943), the only Universal-produced Abbott & Costello film heretofore never released to home video, in any format. It was...Read the entire review

Halloween (2007) - 3-Disc Unrated Collector's Edition

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:52:50 PST

Recommended

"Michael Myers as a character had become so iconic that I thought they'd stopped even paying attention to him in the movies. What I set out to do was take back a character that was once terrifying and make it terrifying again."
- Rob Zombie

The Movie
When it was announced that Rob Zombie would be "reimagining" John Carpenter's 1978 classic, a large contingent of horror fans cried foul. It was a polarizing film long before it was even made (much less seen), exciting and angering fans in equal amounts. When it was finally released, plenty of naysayers continued their whining, claiming Zombie had made a mess of the movie and tarnished the legacy of Michael Myers.

Personally, I don't mind remakes. Sure, Hollywood horror has become an uninspiring industry, but I loved ...Read the entire review

Law and Order: The Sixth Year

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:56:01 PST

Highly Recommended

The Sixth Season

Dick Wolf's Law & Order has been one of the most popular running television dramas. It is a crime drama that focuses on a unique balance of criminal investigations and the legal proceedings that follow. The case detectives apprehend suspects and the district attorney's office prosecute them. This standard format takes on a few variations throughout the series, but on the whole, it stays pretty consistent. Despite the formulaic approach, there is enough difference in detail, in regards to the characters and events, to keep the stories exciting. For more details about this series, please refer to DVD Talk's reviews of season one, season two, season three, Read the entire review

The Sopranos - The Complete Series

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:56:01 PST

Highly Recommended

Sifting through all the crap on television can get tiresome in a hurry. Every channel offers different renditions of similar ideas that have been done to death. Certain parts of the year, it's all about reality shows. Other parts of the year, you could be struggling with a bombardment of cheesy sitcoms that never seem to leave you satisfied. Once in a while however, once in a great while, a series comes along that carries its own unique voice, one that you know will never be replicated. HBO gave the world such a show back in the beginning of 1999, The Sopranos.

Although the mafia had already been exploited by Hollywood, there wasn't anything that was out there keeping tabs on 'family' life in current times. Sure, films like Goodfellas and C...Read the entire review

Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian -- 3-Disc Collector's Edition

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:56:01 PST

Recommended

The Film:

It's not much of a shock that Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe popped up in such close proximity to the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I mean, people's appetites for the grand, computer-generated fantasy spectacle had been lit by Christmas after Christmas of J.R.R. Tolkien's massive opus. It also didn't hurt that a children's series of books, the Harry Potter flicks, seemed to also find their niche both during and after Peter Jackson's box office and Academy-award reign. People wanted more, and what better to give them than the world-famous tale of four children who traveled in, around, and through time to a magical realm -- all the while carrying religious over and under tones. Bam -- there's ...Read the entire review

Passenger

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:54:24 PST

Highly Recommended

Few films are as marked by the circumstances of their creation as the 1963 Polish cinema classic Passenger (Pasażerka). The film was the third iteration of the story of a chance encounter aboard a luxury liner between an Auschwitz concentration camp survivor and her former camp overseer. Previously adapted for radio and television plays, the film was midway through principal shooting when thirty-nine-year-old director Andrzej Munk was fatally injured in a car accident. Following Munk's untimely death, Passenger was completed by a circle of collaborators and friends led by Witold Lesiewicz. Supremely respectful of Munk's vision, Lesiewicz filmed only those remaining scenes for which Munk had left a screenplay or had otherwise detailed his intentions. For portions of the story about which Munk's intentions were unknown, Lesiewicz merely highlights some of the questions ...Read the entire review

Step Brothers: Two-Disc Unrated Edition

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:53:14 PST

Highly Recommended

The Movie:

Man-boys are all the rage at the multiplex these days. From The 40 Year Old Virgin to Role Models, Hollywood comedies these days feature more arrested adolescents than summer camp. Four of the people most responsible for the increase -- producer Judd Apatow, director Adam McKay and stars Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly -- take things to an extreme in the riotously funny and patently absurd Step Brothers.

Unlike most man-boy flicks, Step Brothers makes no obligatory tug at the heartstrings. There are no overtures to sentimentality or emotional resonance. We're not even asked to feel much sympathy for the protagonists, although their sheer helplessness does elicit some fondness. Fans of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Read the entire review

Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Snow Princess

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:53:14 PST

Rent It

In 10 Words or Less
Dora and friends try to save winter

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Animation
Likes: Noggin
Dislikes: "Dora the Explorer"
Hates: The free reign Swiper gets

The Show
Of all the television my daughter watches, few are as equally loved by her and disliked by me as Dora the Explorer. While my feeling that my little girl should have a nice solid grip on English before branching out into other tongues is a big part of my issue with Dora, it's certainly not the only one, as she's also a pushy little bugger who teaches that if you want someone to do something, all you need to do is incessantly berate them about it. (On a different note, did anyone else catch the fact that in the show only animals and inanimate...Read the entire review

Medium - The Fourth Season

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 04:55:57 PST

Recommended

The Fourth Season

Medium is a television series based upon Allison DuBois. DuBois is a psychic, a medium, who has the ability to communicate with the dead. She has used her paranormal abilities to assist law enforcement agencies and legal bodies to put bad guys in jail, and even on death row. This television series, which first aired in 2005, is based upon DuBois' life, portrayed by Patricia Arquette, and focuses on her interaction with the local police department and district attorney's office in Phoenix, Arizona. For more details about this series, refer to DVD Talk's reviews of season one, season two, and season three.

During Medium's fourth season, the 2007 Writer's Guild Association strike...Read the entire review

Wanted

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 04:55:57 PST

Skip It

The Film:
For the record, just so there is no misunderstanding whatsoever, I don't have a problem with over-the-top action films that deliver excessive violence while shortchanging the audience on anything that even resembles intelligence. In fact, I really like those movies, as evidenced by my fondness for the first Transporter, Shoot 'Em Up and a whole host of other flicks that go heavy with the action, but exceptionally light on the brains. But even I have my limits, and have found myself throwing my hands up in frustration when something is simply too stupid. Yes, I know, these movies are supposed to be fun. But sometimes these movies aren't fun. Sometimes they are painful experiences that fail to entertain, while managing to infuriate and rob you of the precious moments you spent watching this insipid bullshit. And that's what Wanted is.

Based on the comic book by...Read the entire review

42nd Street Forever, Volume 4: Cooled by Refrigeration

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:21:46 PST

Highly Recommended

You don't have to be a fan of the exploitation film genre to appreciate the anthologies of vintage trailers released on DVD by Synapse Films. Entitled 42nd Street Forever, Volume 4: Cooled by Refrigeration, this latest release packs in more than two hours of trailers from the 1970s and '80s originally created to entice audiences of young adults into returning to the theater with promises of outrageous comedy, lurid violence, nudity, extreme action and special effects, and spine-tingling chills.

Packed with nearly every special effect in the film and exposing nearly every plot twist, these trailers were super-concentrated films in their own rights often far better than the feature films they were intended to promote. Free of the eighty minutes of bad expository, lame j...Read the entire review

Sanford and Son - The Complete Series

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:20:21 PST

Highly Recommended

Oh, yeah. I watched every episode. And I loved it. Sony gets down and dirty with their cheapskate customers (something junkman Fred Sanford would no doubt appreciate) by offering up Sanford and Son: The Complete Series, which puts all 136 episodes (over 55 hours) from the smash NBC series' six (really five and a half) seasons on 17 discs. Bundled up in what has to be the cheapest packaging job I've ever seen (more about that way down in the review), you have to hand it to Sony: if you really want this series, they've cut the presentation down to the absolute bone, with each episode coming out to about .33 cents per. Now that's a junkman's special. Anyone who bought the previously released season sets won't need to double dip (they're the same, exact discs), and extras are criminally non-existent, but seriously: who can say, "no" to that price?

Read the entire review

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - 2-Disc Deluxe Edition

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:45:29 PST

Skip It

THE FILM

The latest "Mummy" film, coming a full and unforgiving seven years after the last "Mummy" film, is actually not much of a film at all: it's a deafening, blinding department store Blu-ray demo reel that's spun wildly out of control. It takes a herculean effort to be known as the least appetizing entry in the "Mummy" franchise, but then again, a studio isn't exactly fishing for quality when they hire Rob Cohen to direct.

Now retired from their adventuring days, Rick (Brendan Fraser) and Evelyn O'Connell (Maria Bello, replacing Rachael Weisz) watch as their son Alex (Luke Ford) continues on their reckless, globe-trotting ways. When Alex uncovers the lost tomb of Emperor Han (Jet Li) and his Terracotta Army, it reawakens the fierce ruler from ...Read the entire review

Cinematic Titanic - Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:44:27 PST

Highly Recommended

THE SHOW

In an effort to provide a thrilling new twist to their legacy, Cinematic Titanic decided to plunge into the cherished vaults of their forefather "Mystery Science Theater 3000" to pluck a feature film to riff anew. Sounds a little strange, doesn't it? I'm sure eye-bleeding sacrilege to some. However, the results snuff out the initial unsettling vibes, with Cinematic Titanic adding another energetic brew of laughs to their flourishing library.

The film stained here is the 1964 holiday spectacular "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians," considered by many message board mavens to be one of the all-time finest episodes of "MST," while also reserving a spot as one of the all-time worst films ever made. Both titles are heartily earned. A cheap-looking family ma...Read the entire review

Freaks & Geeks: Yearbook Edition

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:42:03 PST

DVD Talk Collector Series

The Series:

A confession: the first time I saw Freaks and Geeks, I just didn't get it. This was in 1999, when it originally aired on NBC; the network hadn't exactly gone overboard in its promotional efforts, and the spots it did run played up the 1980s nostalgia angle instead of the timeliness of its themes. This was a show that should have been targeted as much at teenagers (like its protagonists) than at those looking back; by scheduling the show in the graveyard of Saturday prime time, the network assured pretty much nobody under the age of 50 would be watching.

But back to my initial impression. Poor promotion notwithstanding, Freaks had the best pre-season buzz of any new series--the critics were going gaga for it, so I set my VCR (remember VCRs?) and took a look at it the next afternoon. Frankly, I wasn't sure what to make of it. It wasn't that it was bad, ...Read the entire review

Generation Kill

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:44:08 PST

Highly Recommended

THE MOVIE:

Given how politically charged the debate over the Iraq War has been, making a television show that depicts the soldiers in the field without lapsing into polemics would seem like quite a challenge, but the seven-part HBO drama Generation Kill manages to do just that. The show aired earlier this year, and despite being the brainchild of The Wire maestros David Simon and Ed Burns and based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Evan Wright, the series seemed to land with little hype and quiet critical applause. Hopefully now with all seven episodes being released as a 3-DVD boxed set, this excellent program will find an audience.

Generation Kill starts with the beginning of the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and follows the Marines...Read the entire review

Silence of The Sea

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:44:08 PST

Skip It

As a straightforward character drama, Vahid Mousaian's Silence of the Sea (Khamushiye Darya, 2003) is a relatively impressive effort. Our story revolves around Sia (Masoud Rayegany), an Iranian citizen who illegally left his country several years ago. Currently living in Sweden with his wife and children, Sia ponders a return visit to his home---and though it might be dangerous, his nostalgia has already gotten the better of him. Plotting the best course involves going through a port where no visa is needed; even so, his personal safety isn't guaranteed, especially when he dares to venture further inland. As the packaging succinctly describes Silence of the Sea, it's basically a struggle to decide whether the past or present is more essential.

As expected, this relatively bri...Read the entire review

Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy - Season 2 Set

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:14:19 PST

Highly Recommended

The Show:

Created by Kosuke Fujishima, Ah! My Goddess is one of the most celebrated anime franchise from the past 20 years. It originated as a manga, then it made a debut as a novel, was turned into an OVA, had a movie, and ultimately enjoyed two seasons of a new show back in 2005. You can't scoff at those facts, and chances are very good you have at least heard of this heralded harem series, even if you haven't seen it.

The first season of the show was handled by Media Blasters and can be found in individual volumes and a full boxed set with all 24 episodes. The second season was licensed by ADV, but during the recent shift in licensing here in the States, the show's release has been turned over to the good folks at FUNimation. With the individual releases by ADV already on the market, FUNimation has packed the entire second season together in a box set. All 24 epis...Read the entire review

Black Metal Satanica

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 07:44:48 PST

Highly Recommended

The Product:
All artforms have their specific subcategories. Horror has its comedies and torture porn, while R&B can claim soul, funk, New Jack Swing, and hip-hop, just to name a few. So it's not surprising to see heavy metal mutate from its Black Sabbath/Led Zeppelin formative years through the British reinterpretation (Iron Maiden, Judas Priest), speed, thrash, and the ever-puzzling fusion known as "nu". Now we have a documentary, partially pitched by recording label Cleopatra Records, which hopes to uncover the truth behind the most odd and sinister of all musical subgenres. Inspired by a hatred of Christianity and love of Nordic mythology, the Scandinavian driven Black Metal scene has become more infamous for issues outside the music than anything contained on any record. And as the intriguing film makes clear, conviction and strong beliefs are not the only reasons why murder and mayh...Read the entire review

Mister Peepers: Season 2

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 07:44:21 PST

Highly Recommended

The Movie:
I started watching this new boxed set of the second season of Mister Peepers on "Black Friday," the mad shopping day which incredibly ended with the death of one store clerk and the shooting deaths of two shoppers, news interspersed with horrifying scenes of terror in Mumbai, India. My thought was that everyone everywhere needs to take a really deep breath and step back from the everyday insanity that seems to overpopulate our lives in 2008. And what better way to do that than with this unassuming and quietly charming series from the early 1950s? If Mister Peepers seems slow and virtually catatonic at times, at least when compared to today's quick-cut, joke every four second gestalt, maybe that's exactly what's needed to calm everybody down and to get us all back to a kinder, gentler time when not everything had to be based in raucousness. In fact it's inst...Read the entire review

Yu Yu Hakusho: Season Three Set

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 07:44:01 PST

Recommended

The Show:

You know, it's really a shame that some anime never really latches on to the American audiences like it does in Japan. There are so many long-running series around that for whatever reason just never made it to American television or into the hearts of our youth. One prime example of this was Yu Yu Hakusho, a show that was simply overshadowed by the likes of Dragon Ball Z and others of the era. Fortunately FUNimation has the license in its catalogue and all 100 episodes of the series are coming down the pipeline for those of you who may have missed it.

If you're checking out this review for the third season of Yu Yu Hakusho I'm going to assume you already know something about the series and are familiar with FUNimation's release structure. Rather than go through a diatribe about how the show was released on DVD and what it's about, I'll just ...Read the entire review

The New Adventures of Old Christine - The Complete Second Season

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 07:44:01 PST

Recommended

The Show:

There is always a difficult balancing act when it comes to reviewing the work of an actor or actress that you dislike. How much of your opinion is based on their performance, and how much of it is based solely on them? What issues can be chalked up to poor writing or producing, and what problems are the result of an unavoidable bias? In the end, it is the inevitable issue plaguing any work that requires any semblance of an opinion - where does the in-depth analysis stop, and the innermost opinion begin? But this issue is not reserved exclusively for the works of performers a given reviewer loathes, but also finds itself strikingly true for those that a reviewer unabashedly adores. Which leads me to a confession that I should just get out of ...Read the entire review

Burke's Law: Season One Volume Two

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:47:29 PST

Highly Recommended

The Movie:
Burke's Law is one of those mid-60s cop shows that never was a gigantic hit, but which was successful enough to eke out two and a half seasons (its last half-season as the retooled Amos Burke, Secret Agent). The interesting thing is that Burke's Law, despite its relatively short run, has several elements which have nonetheless implanted themselves in the collective television unconscious--the sultry female voice delivering the show's title each week, that sporty theme by Herschel Burke Gilbert, obviously modeled somewhat on Ron Goodwin's then-popular music for the Rutherford Miss Marple films, and, probably most iconic of all, Burke's luxurious Rolls Royce, not exactly standard fare for a Los Angeles Chief of Detectives. That Rolls Royce is endemic of what is strongest about Burke's Law--this early Aaron Spelling production is long on style, pre...Read the entire review

Anamorph

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:47:29 PST

Recommended

The Film
The similarities between film and painting are profound. In each, two-dimensional space is used as a canvas, and the illusion of depth is created with light and shadow. This comparison is explored in the 2007 IFC film Anamorph from first-time director HS Miller. It functions as a cop movie and a mystery, and its quality and unique subject matter set it apart as somewhat of a hidden gem. It has received a good treatment on its DVD release.

Willem Dafoe plays NYPD Detective Stan Aubray, a single man who spends most of his time alone when he isn't teaching courses at the academy, which he would rather do than work on cases. Aubray is haunted by a case he helped solve five years ago in which a killer nicknamed Uncle Eddie killed people and arranged their bodies as works of art. Aubray blames himself for one of the victims, a prostitute named Crystal (Samantha MacIvor), who...Read the entire review

Orchestra of Piazza Vittorio

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:47:29 PST

Rent It

The Movie:
World Music is a term that gets bandied about for just about anything outside of the prefab pop-rock mold these days, although World Music as a genre itself has become increasingly prefab at times. The term gets an actual literal reading with The Orchestra of Piazza Vittorio, an engaging if too long documentary that would have been better had it focused less on the trials and tribulations of putting together a mostly amateur troupe of musicians from all over the world, and more upon the actual music.

The Orchestra's story starts in 2002, when this documentary shows Rome's then-decrepit Apollo Theater in the heart of the Esquilino neighborhood, where the Piazza Vittorio is the heart and soul of community life (it's a neighborhood made famous in de Sica's iconic neorealist film The Bicycle Thieves). The theater was about to become a bingo hall, something that future...Read the entire review

High School Musical: The DVD Game

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:46:45 PST

Recommended

THE GAME

I imagined much for my moviegoing life in the hectic year of 2008, but I never anticipated sitting down voluntarily with all three "High School Musical" pictures, only to come out impressed and exhaustively entertained by their expansive energy and cheery demeanor. It's weird enough to actually enjoy a creation that started life on the demonic Disney Channel cable network, but if anyone told me I would close out the year spending substantial time with the "HSM" DVD game, I would've laughed directly in their face.

The "HSM" world has slithered its way into all forms of merchandising, so this peculiar DVD game isn't completely unexpected. In fact, it's perhaps the most even-tempered of the "HSM" media ephemera, utilizing the trivia potential of the franchise to offer fans a challenge; a series of pussycat tests that will reduce the average slumber party to a series of excit...Read the entire review

The New Adventures of Old Christine - The Complete Second Season

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 06:55:43 PST

Recommended

A funny if inconsistent sitcom, The New Adventures of Old Christine (2006-present) is the closest any member of the cast of the great Seinfeld has come to appearing in a popular and critically successful show. Like Seinfeld the series has a general continuity with regular and semi-regular characters growing (or not) over the course of the series. Those new to the program should probably start with the First Season but, if for some reason you want to begin here fear not - the show's basic premise is helpfully restated in the new season's first episode.

Christine Campbell (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is a neurotic, heavy-drinking divorced mother and owner of a Los Angeles-area women's gym. Ex-husband Richard (Clark Gregg) is a constant presence, partly becau...Read the entire review

White Dog - Criterion Collection

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 19:33:37 PST

Highly Recommended

The Film:
If there was ever a film I thought would never see the light of day on DVD, it would have to be director Sam Fuller's White Dog. Regarded by many as one of the most controversial films of all time--unwarranted hyperbolic exaggeration if there ever was any--White Dog has languished, practically unreleased since its production in 1982. Since that time it has had a relatively insignificant theatrical release overseas, while never enjoying a legitimate home video release in the United States. It has also become something of an urban myth, creating around it a sense of cinematic taboo usually reserved for films like Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust or Michael and Roberta Findlay's Snuff.

Kristy McNichol co-stars as Julie Sawyer, a struggling actress who accidentally hits a white German shepherd with her car. Rather than leaving the dog to die on the sid...Read the entire review

Comedy Central Salutes George W. Bush: Thanks For the Memories!

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 19:33:37 PST

Recommended

The Shows

As soon as president-elect Barack Obama had finished his acceptance speech, pundits of all stripes began to wonder aloud, "What will happen to comedy once the gold mine that is George W. Bush leaves office?" It's a fair question and one that is arguably being asked too soon. While Obama and his Vice President-elect Joe Biden will doubtless do something worthy of mockery sooner or later, there are many, many comics who've used the two-term presidency of George W. Bush as a steady stream of inspiration.

To that end, Comedy Central -- which has provided a platform for many of the funny folks taking shots at the Bush administration -- has pulled together a compilation DVD that doesn't have too much focus beyond simply taking swings at the outgoing president. While most of the included footage is available elsewhere, it is, if nothing else, a concise glimpse at the range ...Read the entire review

The Familiar of Zero: Box Set

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 19:33:37 PST

Recommended

The Show:

If you've read any of our anime reviews recently chances are very good you have stumbled upon John or I going on about how Geneon bit the dust and how FUNimation saved many titles from their catalogue. While most of these are rather mainstream in the anime world, The Familiar of Zero is not, at least not here in the States. It's not a show I know much about and it's definitely not one of the most hyped releases you're going to find on the market. However, in Japan the franchise has spawned multiple light novels, manga, games, and a few seasons of animation. With that in mind it's time to give this 13 episode series from J.C. Staff its fair shake.

Once the first episode gets going, the show wastes very little time introducing you to its main character. Louise Fran oise de la Valli re, Louise for short, is a noble who attends the Tristain Academy of Magic....Read the entire review