In 10 Words or Less
A hilarious road trip remains a classic

The Story So Far...
Adapted by John Hughes from his story in National Lampoon and directed by Harold Ramis following his debut on Caddyshack, National Lampoon's Vacation tells the story of the Griswolds, an unfortunate family of four who set out from Chicago for a trip to California, only to find a rough road ahead of them, largely thanks to their dopey patriarch Clark (Chevy Chase.) A favorite for decades, the film has seen many home video releases, includi...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Exploitation silliness with Jack Palance and scantily-clad ladies

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Mystery Science Theater 3000
Likes: Silly exploitation flicks
Dislikes: Timid exploitation flicks
Hates: Simply awful films

The Film
It's never a good sign when a film has been featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Maybe there's one, but I can't think of a film that's legitimately worth watching that's been given the Satellite of Love treatment. Sorry to tell you, director Greydon Clark's Angels Brigade is the rule, not the exception. The story of seven well-proportioned women on a mission to take down drug smugglers, this movie is cheesy through and through, from the ridicul...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Spalding Gray takes the film stage for the first time

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Good monologues,
Likes: Spalding Gray, The Killing Fields
Dislikes: International politics
Hates: The loss of Gray

The Story So Far
Monologist Spalding Gray committed several of his one-man performances to film, but his first was Swimming to Cambodia, constructed around the story of his role in the film The Killing Fields and brought to the screen by director Jonathan Demme. It was originally released on DVD in Canada in June of 2002, and DVDTalk has a review of that release.

The Film
Gray's Gray...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Looking back at the origin of the slime

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Old-school Nickelodeon, Canada
Likes: You Can't Do That on Television
Dislikes: Drama-less documentaries
Hates: How some shows just aren't available to watch

The Film
As a kid who grew up on Nickelodeon, both literally and figuratively (having appeared in commercials and shows on the network as a child,) I have very fond memories of the network's early days, and shows like Today's Special, Pinwheel, Mr. WIzard's World and, of course, You Can't Do That On Television. A sketch show for kids, the series, created in Canada, featured a large cast of everyday kids interacting wit...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Positive, high-energy, musical superhero fun

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: The Aquabats!, ska
Likes: Yo Gabba Gabba!
Dislikes: Tokusatsu shows
Hates: The current state of ska

The Show
I'm not going to be one of those cool guys and claim I've been a fan of The Aquabats! from way back, since the band's been active since the early 90s in various permutations. Though I was (and still am) a big ska fan, they never really got onto my radar until they appeared on Yo Gabba Gabba!, one of my daughter's favorite kids shows, which was created in part by the lead Aquabat, the MC Bat Commander (Christian Jacobs.) Dressed in superhero garb, the group plays fun surf/punk/ska/rock music, while...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
An efficient look at a comedy legend

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Learning Something New, Blazing Saddles, History of the World, Part I
Likes: High Anxiety, Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Dislikes: Not having new Brooks films to enjoy, lacking historical context
Hates: Not a damn thing here

The Film
I recently had the privilege to review Shout! Factory's excellent Mel Brooks retrospective set, "The Incredible Mel Brooks," and it opened my eyes to a whole side of the man I, mainly a fan of his films, was never really aware of. However, the wealth of archival materia...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
The end of the hilarious road

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Likes: Tracy Morgan, SNL, Jane Krakowski, when Bravo aired operas
Dislikes: When my favorite shows end/get cancelled
Hates: When shows I enjoy hang on too long

The Story So Far...
Tina Fey's 30 Rock went behind the scenes at an SNL-style sketch comedy show, headlined by a likely insane Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) and an equally-insane diva (Jane Krakowski), operating under the corporate oversight of Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin). Surreal and hugely clever, the show developed into a critical hit, earning a load of awards during its seven seasons it ran on NBC. The first season wa...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
The circle of life was never like this

The Movie
As the official Shane Carruth film reviewer here at DVDTalk, it was exciting to hear that his new film, Upstream Color, was making a quick transition to home video. I had limited my exposure to the discussion surrounding the movie, hoping to approach this film as blank as possible in terms of knowledge and expectations. But as anyone who was fascinated by Carruth's previous film, Primer, knows, that's a lofty task, since the community, dis...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Sex and the Double Senior Citizens

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Adult-themed documentaries
Likes: Quirky subjects
Dislikes: Miserable old people
Hates: Old sex workers

The Movie
You know that weird thing where two movies about the same subjects are developed and released around the same time, like Antz and A Bug's Life or No Strings Attached and Friends with Benefits? Well, I got to experience a similar phenomenon, reviewing two documentaries with similar themes close together. After taking a look at the senior-citizen stripper at the heart of Satan's Angel: Queen of the Fire Tassels, this time I've got two of the oldest women working in the world's oldest p...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
A man on a m-f'ing mission

The Movie
Anyone who has seen me write (or has seen my office) can attest to the fact that I am a multitasker. You won't normally find me focused on just one activity, as normally I'll have a hockey game on one screen, music playing, Food Network or some other TV wallpaper playing and a blank sheet waiting to be filled. So it was not strange for this to be the setting as I started in on my first viewing of Django Unchained. However, the hockey and the music and the TV melted...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Man's ego versus nature's uncontrollable power

The Movie
I remember anticipating the release of Jurassic Park as a young teen, thinking that this movie could potentially change the world of moviemaking. When I sat down in that seat in the theater, in the days before the internet, yet in the prime of blockbuster movie hype, I don't know if I could have been more excited. As the theater speakers in the walls of the old UA Sunrise Mall 9 rumbled to life with the sound of long-extinct and suddenly alive di...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Brilliant '80s time capsule in cult-classic form

The Movie
Unlike many fans of Repo Man, I discovered the film a bit later in life. I was always aware of the film, even if I did sometimes confuse it with another Emilio Estevez favorite, Men at Work, but it took some time before I gave it a good look. I feel like most of the film's fans first saw it at an age where they could identify with Estevez' Otto, an angry young man without much direction, clinging to whatever gave him some sense of place or purpose, be it punk rock or the car repossession wo...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
The Queen of Quirk's first comedy hour

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Kristen Schaal, stand-up comedy
Likes: Kurt Braunohler, Andy Kaufman
Dislikes: performance art
Hates: Missing Mel

The Show
Sure, they may call Zooey Deschanel "adorkable" but the true quirky distaff comedy superstar is Kristen Schaal. Whereas Deschanel is at best a bit offbeat, Schaal, with her unconventional looks, dark sense of humor and willingness to break the rules of comedy, is an oddball beyond compare. After breaking out as the creepily obsessive fan Mel on Flight of the Conchord, it seems like she's been everywhere you can find a good laugh, but one place most people haven't seen her is behind the microphone o...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Unpredictable horror/comedy is perfectly ridiculous

The Movie
There's only so much that can be said about John Dies at the End without ruining something for anyone who hasn't seen it, despite it coming at you right from the start with the most spoilerific title in film history (right up there with George Lucas' original idea, Luke and Dad Darth.) The best thing to say about it is you've probably seen nothing like it before. Actually...if you've watched Army of Darkness, you've seen its spiritual ancestor, though that should be no surprise to...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
The history of burlesque via a pair of twirling tassels

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Documentaries
Likes: adult-themed documentaries
Dislikes: The general concept of burlesque
Hates: People who make good money and blow it

The Movie
Documentaries with adult themes are often quite interesting, because the world of adult-entertainment is inaccessible to most of us, its citizens live by a very different set of rules and mores and, of course, where they live, there's often a good deal of nudity nearby. That's certainly the case with the story of Satan's Angel, a well-known burlesque performer who got her start in the '60s, and who continues to perform today in her 60s. It's a story of bad c...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Beautiful visuals and beautiful music, but middling story

The Movie
Animation has to be the genre where the separation between the big-budget studio output and the small indie productions is the greatest. If your animated movie doesn't have the Disney or Dreamworks label on it, your chances are severely limited, no matter how high the quality. That goes double if you're a foreign film, or if you don't have a big star to help push the movie. So from the outset A Monster in Paris (originally Un Monstre a Paris) had the deck stacked ...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Get to know Francois Sagat's sad story

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Documentaries
Likes: Adult film documentaries
Dislikes: Gay porn
Hates: Getting depressed by documentaries

The Movie
Upon learning about this film, I found it unusual that Sagat would be selected as a documentary subject. Of all the Street Fighter characters, you'd think that they'd first go with maybe Ryu or Ken, as the long-time stars of the series, or perhaps the mysterious Blanka, but instead the powerful Muay Thai fighter gets... (Ed. Note: please hold while I explain something to Francis.)

...Really? Are you sure? Ok. Apparently the Sagat who stars in this documentary is not the eyepatch-wearing fighting-game villain ...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Inside the world of all-lady '80s pro wrestling

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Documentaries
Likes: Pro wrestling (when I was a kid), G.L.O.W. (when I was a kid)
Dislikes: My disturbing memories of G.L.O.W.
Hates: Pro wrestling (now)

The Show
When I was a kid, Saturday mornings were all about the Saturday morning cartoons on network TV. When they would do the prime-time fall cartoon previews, and you got to see all the new shows coming, it was like a second Christmas. But when the clock turned 12, I would flip over to WPIX on channel 11 and wrap up my morning with G.L.O.W, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. As a hardcore wrestling fan, this mid-day helping of grappling was like manna from heaven...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
All-porn star rock band mockumentary

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Good mockumentaries
Likes: Adult movies
Dislikes: Poor acting
Hates: Reality TV

The Show
Mockumentaries are much harder to get right than they seem. After all, you've got to have a really good team to make fiction seem like reality, especially when it comes to the acting. Of course, you could just say "Fudge it," and shoot a feature-length episode of reality television instead, full of all the manufactured scenarios, drama and women yelling that make me avoid that genre like the plague. That certainly seems to be the tactic chosen by the makers of Tight, the story of the first all-female, all-porn star rock band and thei...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
The road continues on to the Emerald Isle

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Many of Kevin Smith's movies, comedy podcasts
Likes: Kevin Smith, Jay Mewes, Jay & Silent Bob Get Old
Dislikes: Repetitive stories
Hates: The effects of drugs

The Story So Far...
Kevin Smith's popular podcasting network features several shows hosted by the talkative filmmaker, but few of them are focused less on him than Jay & Silent Bob Get Old, a weekly series created mainly as a way to keep his wayward pal Jason Mewes from falling off the wagon after years of drug abuse. Telling stories and adding up the days sober, Mewes and his hetero lifemate take their show on the road frequently, including a s...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
A sampler of Cirque

The Movie
When I was researching Cirque du Soleil shows in preparation for this review, I learned that Iris, the Los Angeles-based Cirque show devoted to the movies had closed after just two years of performances. Though there's been talk that it could become a touring show, it was another example of what I've always considered to be a problem when it comes to the performing arts: the lack of easily-accessible recorded archives. While I may live an hour or so away from the Great White Way, for most people a trip t...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
An underrated animated classic and its weak follow-up

The Movie
Until only recently, The Hunchback of Notre Dame was a mostly unknown quantity to me. It came out at a time when I'd lost interest in Disney's somewhat by-the-book Broadway musicals masquerading as animated movies, and I never felt the need to revisit it, as it came during Pixar's rise to prominence as Hollywood's preeminent animation house. However, one...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
As entertaining as watching someone playing video games can be

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Old video games
Likes: Weird Japanese TV
Dislikes: Watching others play games
Hates: Bad dubs

The Show
I've never thought much of the idea of watching someone else play a video game. Whether standing at a cabinet in an arcade or watching a console game from a basement couch, I'd much rather have the controls in my hands than someone else's. Apparently I'm in the minority though, as YouTube and other streaming sites are flooded with gameplay videos, and the recently-announced PlayStation 4 counts sharing gameplay as a core selling point. Japan seems even more enamored with the concept. as they have a po...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Heart-touching, adult-entertaining kids animation...and it's not Pixar

The Movie
My own view of Wreck-It Ralph is forever biased by the way I first experienced it. On a rare weekday where myself and my daughter were both free, I surprised her by taking her to see Wreck-It Ralph toward the end of it's theatrical run. To our surprise though, we found we were the only ones in the theater as the trailers rolled, and we enjoyed a private screening of t...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Blue-ribbon comedy

The Movie
It was late one night in college when Ricky Roxburgh changed my life. As we were hanging with friends in a dorm room, he produced a pair of VHS tapes I had never seen before. One was Clerks, which would introduce me to Kevin Smith, the writer/director I would grow to idolize as a fellow hockey-loving, Prince-enjoying chronicler of suburban life. The other, Waiting for Guffman, reconnected me with a longtime favorite, Christopher Guest, star of This is Spinal T...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Save the princess, crack some jokes

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Cult comedy, old video games
Likes: Felicia Day, The Guild
Dislikes: Most web series
Hates: Cheesy production values

The Show
I don't watch a lot of web series, for the simple fact that there's a ton of really good content pumped through that big screen in my living room (and yes, I know I can watch web shows on that big screen, but until my DVR can record off YouTube, old-school television will remain my primary dealer.) The web series I do watch either feature people I adore, come highly recommended by people I trust or are about things I really like. Thus I was a longtime viewer of Felicia Day's great MMO comedy Th...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Back on Blu, empty on extras

The Story So Far...
The Monster Squad is an underrated late-'80s action/horror-comedy pitting a team of kid horror-movie buffs against the classic Universal monsters, with the fate of the world at stake. Written by Shane Black (Iron Man 3) and genre veteran Fred Dekker (who also directed), the film finally made it to digital home video when Lionsgate released it on DVD in July of 2007 and on Blu-Ray in November 2009, but it went out of print when the studio l...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Back in space with the Red Dwarf crew

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Great sitcoms
Likes: Red Dwarf, Britcoms
Dislikes: Multi-camera sitcoms
Hates: Laugh tracks

The Show
When your humble reviewer was a teen, he didn't live the most adventurous life. While his classmates were off experimenting with any number of illicit activities on a Friday night, he was most likely doing one of two things: watching original-series episodes of Star Trek on a PBS station out of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania or watching Britcoms on the local PBS affiliate. Combining those two interests were the occasional broadcasts of Red Dwarf, a sci-fi Britcom about Dave Lister (Craig Charles), the last ...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
It's time for Animaniacs...for one last time

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: "Animaniacs," Wakko Warner, cartoons, "Freakazoid"
Likes: Rita and Runt. Minerva Mink, Katie Ka-Boom
Dislikes: Mindy
Hates: The Hip Hippos, Elmyra

The Story So Far
"Lost" creations of Warner Brothers' classic animation department, Yakko, Wakko and Dot Warner were too wild for the company to control, so they were locked in the water tower on the studio lot. Eventually though, they escaped to spread their "Looney Tunes"-inspired madness, along with the adventures of their many animated pals. Produced by Steven Spielberg, the show ran for five years, led to a spin-off series, and earned a loyal following no...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Kind of like a grown-up The Wizard

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Video Games
Likes: Jason Mewes, Jon Gries
Dislikes: Stereotypical gamers
Hates: Single-serving DVDs

The Movie
The core audience for Noobz (which, if you didn't know, is gamer insult for newcomers or beginners) is most certainly evident in the intersection of a Venn diagram featuring Kevin Smith fans and video-game players, which is likely one of the largest overlaps you're likely to find in such illustrations. Making a movie about a quartet of road-tripping gamers seeking to compete in one of the world's largest tournaments and having one of them played by Jason Mewes, Jay to Smith's Silent Bob, may not result in the...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Confused dramedy is a disappointment

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Patton Oswalt
Likes: Johnny Knoxville, Patrice O'Neill
Dislikes: The state of scouting
Hates: Wasted potential

The Movie
No matter what movie-going audiences say with their box-office dollars, I'm a big fan of comic actors doing serious work. The general public may feel like Jim Carrey should stick to the yuk-yuks, but he's turned in some quality performances in dramas. Patton Oswalt, on the other hand, has been pretty successful in making the crossover from comedy, getting positive responses for his turns in the very dark Big Fan and Young Adult. Part of it is probably the difference in their comedic output, ...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Classic adult-video ridiculousness

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Dave's Old Porn, Boogie Nights
Likes: Bad old-school adult flicks
Dislikes: Thinking about how old these people are now
Hates: Zero extras

The Movie
Have you ever watched Dave's Old Porn? It's a fun little Showtime series where comedian Dave Attell is joined by another comedian pal and an old-school porn star, and they watch an old porno flick and crack jokes. If there was ever a movie tailor-made for that show, it's Same Time Every Year. Released in 1981, and featuring some of the most legendary male actors in adult cinema, it's a cornucopia of bad porn cliches; the kind of movie they were making at th...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
A fake look at the making of the London Olympics

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Mockumentaries
Likes: The Office, Britcoms
Dislikes: British politics
Hates: Idiots in charge

The Show
It's kind of amazing that an event as big as the Olympics is the work of an organization of people. Most anyone knows, if you get more than one or two people together to work on a project, its chances of failing rise exponentially, so if you multiply that by the sheer size and complexity of the Olympic Games, its a miracle they happen at all, no less every four years. Add in the likelihood that a good percentage of the people involved will be at least slightly incompetent, and you arrive at the concept of ...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Friends without benefits

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg
Likes: Romantic comedies, Ari Graynor, character studies
Dislikes: Bad relationships
Hates: Divorce

The Movie
In my lifetime, the number of women I have been involved with romantically at one time and are still in my life is a nice round zero. I'm a big believer in the clean split, and can honestly say, once the relationships ended, so did any and all contact with that woman. It's not like they were pursuing me and I gave them the cold shoulder, but I was more than happy to say goodbye. Maybe I don't believe in second chances, but I definitely know when I'm not wanted and if so, I don't hang around. As such,...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
A short, yet amusing holiday special

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Animation
Likes: Madagascar
Dislikes: Most non-Christmas holiday specials
Hates: Single-serving DVDs

The Show
Whomever at Dreamworks thought up the idea of creating holiday specials out of their popular animated movie franchises hopefully has been rewarded well, as it obviously has been a successful venture. After all, why would we keep getting them on a regular basis if they weren't making the studio money? The latest brings back the now-seemingly ubiquitous animal empire of Madagascar, to celebrate the somewhat less-exploited holiday of Valentine's Day with an original animated special.

Set before the days of ...Read the entire review