The TV Series:

So, it's come to this. The twilight of an epoch, a sea change for ABC and Aaron Spelling the year Tanya Roberts joined the fifth, final, and least fondly remembered season of Charlie's Angels.

Nearly a full decade after the disc release of the first season of this jiggle-TV icon, Charlie's Angels: Season Five has finally seen the light of day as part of the Sony Choice Collection line of made-to-order (m.o.d.) DVDs. The sixteen episodes of this shortened (due to a contentious writer's strike) 1980-81 season are spread across four discs, in this nice looking set.

The five-year run of Charlie's Angels neatly encapsulates the rise and fall of a typical, trendy TV series of yore. Year One was The Age of Farrah, a chee...Read the entire review

The Movie:

In 1940, Metro Goldwyn Mayer produced a short subject called Jack Pot as part of their gritty "Crime Does Not Pay" series. Viewable on Warner Archives' terrific Crime Does Not Pay set, the film matter-of-factly delved into the then-current epidemic of racketeers pressuring small business owners to stock slot machines for their customers to play, then hogging all the profits for themselves. Dated and sometimes funny though it was, Jack Pot followed the template of the other "Crime Does Not Pay" shorts by delving into a hot-button subject concisely and with little fuss.

What does all this have to do with Hoodlum Empire, a 1952 drama recently reissued on home video by Olive Films? Well, Hoodlum Empire is basically ...Read the entire review

The Movie:

With the perky 1935 musical Thanks A Million, Fox's Cinema Archives made-to-order DVD program unearths another "too good to be forgotten" flick from their holdings. Fox is going way back into the archives for this splashy production, among the earliest films released under the 20th Century Fox banner (the merging of the Fox Film Corporation and 20th Century Pictures took place over the summer of 1935; this came out the following November).

Belying its typical appearance, Thanks A Million stands out a bit by incorporating political satire with song and dance. Is it a pip, or all wet? Read on.

Our story revolves around a ragtag band of unemployed touring musicians, headed by Dick Powell's affable crooner, Eric L...Read the entire review

The Movie:

It ain't Pixar, that's for sure. Czech import Alois Nebel uses rotoscoped animation to tell a mournful, psychologically probing story involving a meek train dispatcher, a politically turbulent landscape, and memories that refuse to fade away.

The story of Alois Nebel originated in a trio of graphic novels by Jaroslav Rudis and Jaromir 99, who also adapted this unique work for the silver screen. Set in late 1989, the film concerns the title character, a middle-aged train dispatcher who has been working at the same isolated station on the Czech-Polish border for more than forty years. The unassuming Alois Nebel has conformed his life to the demands of his job: precisely and solitarily. Although he deals with other railway empl...Read the entire review

The Movies:

Nudity, premarital sex, violent crime, prostitution ... Hollywood could get away with most anything during the Pre-Code period. It's all in Warner Archives' recent m.o.d. collection, Forbidden Hollywood, Vol. 6.

A short history lesson: although the Hayes Code was established in 1930 as an agreed-upon set of guidelines between censorship boards and the Hollywood studios, at the time it was only loosely adhered to (after all, sex and violence sold tickets). It wasn't until the summer of 1934, when the Breen Office established a mandatory Production Code which stayed in place for more than thirty years. It is this pre-sanitized period that is celebrated in Warner Bros.' wonderful Forbidden Hollywood DVD series, currently at its seventh volume. As with all of volumes since last year's Read the entire review

The Movie:

Would you believe... an action-packed movie about public opinion polls?

The 1947 comedy Magic Town could best be described as "Capra Corn," only Frank Capra didn't handle the direction (improbably, it was helmed by "Wild Bill" Wellman), and the corn it serves up has been transmogrified into a sticky, unsubtle concoction. Enjoyable but subject to some bizarre choices, the film's "huckster in a small town" story unfolds as if Norman Rockwell decided to draw an EC horror comic.

Despite the iffy subject matter and execution, Magic Town does have one shining asset in that it stars James Stewart, who's at his most James Stewart-y playing the protagonist here. Stewart's Rip Smith is a cocksure yet genial big city pollster who journeys to the picture perfect Anywhere, U.S.A. that his character believes is the most statistically perfect town in America. Troubled times have ...Read the entire review

The Movie:

What were you doing on October 10th, 2010?

Aside from the numerical uniqueness of 10/10/10, chances are it was a day like any other for most people. You awoke, had a meal, possibly went to work, or worshiped the deity or football team of your choice (it was a Sunday, remember). That particular day was a memorable one for the participants in the documentary One Day on Earth, however, since it was chosen as the 24-hour period in which thousands of amateurs and professionals were instructed to turn their cameras on and document what they saw.

Billed as "the first film made in every country of the world on the same day," One Day on Earth packs a lot of imagery into a dazzling 104 minutes. For the project, director Kyle Ruddick winnowed 3,000 hours of footage into thematically similar segments on subjects like family life, industrialization, recreation, poverty and war...Read the entire review

Apartment for Peggy, a cheery wartime comedy-drama produced by 20th Century Fox in 1948, seems like the kind of low-key charmer that sucks you in after casually coming across it while channel surfing one night. While it may not boast an action-packed storyline, lavish musical numbers, or high wattage stars, it does the handy trick of being very evocative of the 1940s while being rooted in the timeless theme of people finding a common ground despite their differences. Ripe for rediscovery, the film has been put back into circulation via Fox's Cinema Archives made-to-order DVD program.

Starring Jeanne Crain, William Holden and Edmund Gwenn, Apartment for Peggy is fascinating just from a historic angle, as a relatively real...Read the entire review

A shorthand description of the 2011 comedy All Together would be this: it's The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, spoken in French. You have my permission to use that at your next cocktail party.

Summing up a film in a Twitter-sized morsel is cool and all, even though it does a disservice to something like All Together, a breezy, somewhat lightweight effort which dares to portray people in their sixties and seventies as vibrant human beings. That concept alone elevates the film above its episodic (but enjoyable) story and timid direction. The film also offers the chance to see non-French actresses Jane Fonda and Geraldine Chaplin speaking in a foreign language (and doing pretty well at it).

All Together, which was or...Read the entire review

The Movie:

When it comes to John Wayne, who do you see? The Duke, of course. Tall, powerful, quietly commanding. Ten gallon hat, red hankerchief. All-American icon of Western cinema, idol to Republicans and grannies alike.

John Wayne did several non-Westerns throughout his long career, however. Some (like The Quiet Man) were bona fide classics, while many others have become quirky footnotes in his vast filmography. If one were to find any commonality in the likes of Jet Pilot (1957), The Conqueror (1956), His Private Secretary (1933), Brannigan (1975), Reunion in France (1942), etc. - it would be that Wayne was not so ...Read the entire review

With his 2011 film Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness, documentarian Joseph Dorman plumbs into something that must be challenging for people in his field: making a Man of Letters whose work has passed into history look relevant and interesting.

The Russian-born Sholem Aleichem (1859-1916) is best known for his "Tevye" short stories, which formed the basis for the still revived musical warhorse Fiddler on the Roof. Although the film's packaging and marketing uses Fiddler as its hook, Dorman's documentary deals mostly with the man himself and how his writing served as an escape from the unimaginable pain that his audience - persecuted Eastern European Jews in the late 19th and early 20th century - endured.

La...Read the entire review

There's Always a Woman (1938) follows the "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" rulebook. The success of the Thin Man series in the '30s brought about a slew of competing series featuring lovers exchanging witty repartee while solving crimes. Warner Bros. jumped into the fray with its Torchy Blane series, while MGM supplemented their own Thin Man films with a short-lived series following a pair of married book dealers who sleuth on the side. What, you never heard of the Joel and Garda Sloane movies? Perhaps Warner Archive will remedy that, someday.

Columbia's effort at a Thin Man franchise kicked off with There's Always a Woman, starring solid Melvyn Douglas and vivacious Joan Blondell as a p...Read the entire review

Our Paradise is a French thriller packed with its fair share of nudity and violence, with a sensitively depicted love story between two men at its core. In contrast to its grisly subject matter (sort of a European gender-reversed version of 2003's Monster), director Ga l Morel guides the film with a wonderful atmosphere and tremendous amount of respect for its characters.

Foremost among the array of complexe, troubled characters in Our Paradise is Vassili (St phane Rideau), an aging Parisian hustler who continues to solicit tricks despite his somewhat doughy midsection. Vassili is also plagued with the deepening resentment he harbors towards both his clientele (older, wealthy, often times closeted men) and the ever-younge...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Ever hear of the child's book called The Little Engine That Could? 1953's surprise hit The Little Fugitive is The Little Film That Could. Kino's beautifully done blu ray edition serves as a great excuse to revisit this charming classic.

The film, which follows a little boy as he spends an eventful day and evening at New York's Coney Island (really - that's about it), has had an influence which stands in marked contrast with its humble concept and execution. Husband-and-wife photographers Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin, working with collaborator Ray Ashley, conceived The Little Fugitive as a slice-of-life look at the way children perceive things in an urban environment. The $30,000 film was shot with a single hand-held camera (constructed by Engel especially for this project), using a small cast of mostly non-professionals, and a script that made ample use of Cone...Read the entire review

The TV Series:

The dated, enjoyable yet frustratingly one-note '80s British sitcom Chance in a Million deals with your typical "boy meets girl, girl falls for boy's quirkiness, they shack up and marry" setup. Although there's a lot of absurd, tough-to-believe humor at play in each episode, the cozy rapport of the couple (appealingly played by Simon Callow and Brenda Blethyn) was the key to what made this show a modest hit in its home country.

For those used to the intricacies of modern TV, the premise of Chance in a Million's 18 episodes is simple to the point of being almost childish. Year one: the main couple meet-cute and her parents/coworkers adjust to him; year two: they get engaged; year three: we meet his family and they conclude the final ...Read the entire review

The Movie

As far as nature documentaries go, 2011's The Whale delves into issues that reach well beyond the "look at the cute penguins" stuff commonly seen on television.

Directed by journalists Suzanne Chisholm and Michael Parfitt, The Whale relives the joy and controversy that resulted when a playful orphaned killer whale appeared near a village on Canada's Western coast, and the efforts to reunite the stranded mammal with his family. While the film serves as a relatively straightforward chronicle of what happened, it also brings up some thorny questions dealing with humankind's interactions with animals - namely, when does helping out overlap into intrusion, and when should nature simply be allowed to run its course?

The events recounted in <...Read the entire review

The Movie

Note: the images accompanying this review are used for illustrative purposes only and do not reflect the contents of the Ministry of Fear Blu-ray.

Ministry of Fear's sturdily entertaining noir must have been as much of a "sure thing" as possible from the moment it first got the green light. After all, this handsomely mounted Paramount production was directed by Fritz Lang, adapted from a novel by Graham Greene, and starred the suave Ray Milland in a tense yarn suffused with plenty of wartime paranoia. And yet the film as released in 1944 was considered such a disappointment that both Lang and Greene spent years distancing themselves from it. Which begs the question: could it reall...Read the entire review

The Movie:

How to Survive a Plague may have barely missed out on nabbing the Best Documentary Oscar at this year's Academy Awards, but this chronicle of the early years of AIDS activists and their impact on public policy in treating the disease (saving untold lives in the process) is a solid, penetrating watch.

Through a mass of wobbly VHS footage of activist meetings and demonstrations, news footage, archival interviews and the occasional contemporary reflection, How to Survive a Plague ushers viewers through that tumultuous period in neatly organized, strictly chronological fashion. Sure, this unadorned method might seem like something of a cop-out, but the director understood that the footage in itself conveys enough power to basically carry th...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Twisted Romance, a 2008 indie drama from Argentinian writer-director Jos Campusano, deserves some kudos for going into the kind of uncomfortable-to-watch territory that many films of its ilk won't touch.

Seemingly made on a budget of three (maybe four, max) pesos, this modest production follows an earnest young man who engages in a flirtation with a "dangerous" older man; their sexual dalliance progresses with lightning speed into a casual cohabitation, but the older man's abusiveness ultimately ends in tragedy. It's an idea that deserves an "A" for effort, but sloppy mechanics, inexplicable character motivations, and abrupt shifts in tone renders it a solid "F" in execution.

Not that they didn't try, however - young actor Nehu n Zapata has...Read the entire review

The TV Show:

"There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them."

Naked City, based on the 1948 film noir staple and running on ABC in 1958-1963, is one vintage detective show that benefited greatly from being filmed on location throughout New York City. As with the cinematic effort it's based on, the setting is a much of a character in TV's Naked City as the central group of NYPD detectives who spend each episode uncovering those "eight million stories." There was another benefit to the series being an East coast-based production, as well. Having a New York-based police series shot right there in the neighborhoods where the stories took place was a nice enough advantage over their sterile, studio-bound...Read the entire review

The TV Show:

Amongst 1950s TV chestnuts, The Loretta Young Show was nothing if not consistent.

Sure, it may have undergone a title change (from Letter to Loretta) halfway through its first season, but most of the other elements for this anthology - hosted and performed by one of Classic Hollywood's great beauties - stayed firmly in place from the first episode (Trial Run, 1953) through to the last (Not In Our Stars, 1961). Fading in to an interior set, amidst a swirl of waltz-timed music, a door opens - and Loretta makes a grand entrance in a swanky, au courant gown. She does a little twirl, often tossing up the hemline of her dress with the flick of her left hand, and trots across the lavishly appointed living room before ann...Read the entire review

The Movie:

"To a handful of unforgettable motion picture triumphs, Elia Kazan now adds an event of the first magnitude... the powerful, smoldering story of the New South... of the wild river that captured the attention of the entire world... of the deep longings, churning passions, the sudden loves that blazed on its banks..." - from the trailer for Wild River.

Sandwiched between the more fondly remembered A Face in the Crowd and Splendor in the Grass in director Elia Kazan's filmography, the nuanced 1960 period drama Wild River definitely counts as a film that's overdue for a reassessment. If it doesn't live up to the hyperventilating prose from its ad campaign, the arrival of this 20th Century Fox production on Blu-ray will hopefully gain an appreciative audience for this meaty, worthwhile project - an ...Read the entire review

The Movie

Note: the screen captures accompanying this review are taken from the DVD edition of Tales of the Night.

A visually dazzling animated film from French writer-director Michel Ocelot, Tales of the Night explores the enduring appeal of classic verbal storytelling - the kind your mom employed to tuck you into bed (do moms even do that anymore?). The six short tales that comprise Tales are enacted in vibrant CGI, set in exotic lands, and told entirely in silhouette. If the varied segments tend to be hit-and-miss in content, the film's bold, inventive look gives it a consistency that places it alongside other recent acclaimed animated flicks such as Read the entire review

The Series:

I'll admit it, all of what I knew about the powerful female monarchs covered in the DVD She Wolves: England's Early Queens came from their fictionalized depictions on film: Eleanor of Aquitaine (The Lion in Winter); Elizabeth I (The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex and Elizabeth); Lady Jane Grey (Lady Jane). The trio of informative hour-long programs on She-Wolves certainly helps fill in what those movies glossed over, with the capable guidance of British historian Dr. Helen Castor.

Each She Wolves episode opens with footage from Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953, while Dr. Castor's concerned-sounding narration muses that the current long-lasting reign of a beloved monarch contrasts sharply...Read the entire review

The Documentary:

According to Birders: The Central Park Effect, Manhattan's Central Park plays host to several thousands of migrating birds a year; its 200 different kinds of birds number roughly a quarter of the flying species seen in all of America. With that many flying feathers, it's no wonder that the park attracts its fair share of people who go there to observe, take notes and geek out with fellow birders over the occasional rare bird sighting. The contemplative, beautifully photographed Birders chronicles a year's worth of Central Park's bird watching scene. In the film, viewers get acquainted with several interesting people whose passion for birds is infectious, yet one doesn't necessarily have to be into birds (or New York) to enjoy it.

<...Read the entire review

The Movies:

Since 2005, German DVD purveyor Edition Filmmuseum has been picking up on smaller, lesser known vintage films that might perhaps get passed on by Criterion for their Eclipse series. Their library contains not only silents, documentaries and short film collections, but sets devoted to contemporary filmmakers as well (most recently with a set containing work by American indie director James Benning). Like Criterion, their offerings are as nicely presented as possible with clean prints, good scores, multiple subtitle options and booklets containing informative essays on each film.

For Edition Filmmuseum's 77th release, they turn their attention towards the German director Gerhard Lamprecht (1897-1974) with a two-disc set that spotlights a pair of trenchant silent-...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Sitcom The Inbetweeners, something of a Sex in the City with horny suburban teen boys instead of fashionable Manhattanites, came to an end in 2010 after three hilarious seasons in the U.K. Don't despair, however, since the show's popularity prompted Will, Simon, Jay and Neil to return in their very own feature film (just like the Sex in the City gals!). The Inbetweeners Movie follows our favorite geeky quartet as they go on a hedonistic Greek holiday. It might be bigger, shinier and more expensive, but can it do that and still retain the simple charm of the series?

The opening of The Inbetweeners Movie finds its lead characters - persnickety Will (Simon Bird), lovelorn Simon (Joe Thomas), horndog Ja...Read the entire review

The Documentary:

"I'm going to become a huge rock star. Next time you see me, I'll be totally different."--David Bowie, 1971

David Bowie might very well be one of the few rock 'n roll veterans left who still has the ability to stay relevant and fresh. This was never so evident than just this past week, when the man released his first new single in a decade. The hoopla that greeted the majestic, introspective, perfectly appropriate for a 65-year-old dude "Where Are We Now?" had the internet abuzz in a way that puts the latest Ke$ha jam to shame.

Of course, the constant need for creativity and reinvention that defines Bowie's career goes all the way back to his roots, a subject comprehensively explored in the 65-minute documentary The C...Read the entire review

The TV Series:

The second season of Showtime's acclaimed comedy series Episodes has arrived on DVD - packaged with the first season, which came out on disc a scant seven months ago. Although one has good reason to quibble with Showtime's marketing practices (and, pray tell, where's the blu-ray?), this double-disc set serve as a good, concise helping of one of the funnier Hollywood-On-Hollywood sendups currently playing.

Episodes' m.o. comes in exposing Tinsel Town's long history of taking British television programs, tweaking them a little, and then putting them on American television. There was All in the Family, which origi...Read the entire review

The Movie:

The poster tagline for 2011's documentary Hollywood To Dollywood - "Twin brothers with a dream in an RV named Jolene..." - accurately captures the feel of this lightweight but thoroughly enjoyable little film. The project follows a pair of gay twin brothers - major fans of Country music icon Dolly Parton - as they embark on a 2,100 mile trip to give their idol a copy of the film script they've written especially for her.

The film's main subjects, 35 year-olds Gary and Larry Lane, are a pair of sweet, unpretentious North Carolina boys-turned-Hollywood scenesters. They've been situated in Los Angeles for most of their adult lives, sure, but there's still a whole lot of country in them. In the introductory scenes, the boyishly hands...Read the entire review

The Anime:

The arrival of the sweet, atmospheric anime series Ristorante Paradiso on DVD from RightStuf comes as a bit of a surprise, since it represents a slice of Japanese pop culture that isn't commonly exported to the U.S. This 11-part series is an example of josei, a genre of manga and anime that directs its slice-of-life stories toward an adult female audience.

Unlike the shonen (boys) and shojo (girls) anime and manga commonly exported here, josei focuses not so much on action and freakout gags than on establishing a dreamy, romantic mood dependent on subtly drawn characters - ones that generate sexual heat without actually getting into the nitty-gritty. The closest analogy to American entertainment I co...Read the entire review

The Movie:

The Joy Luck Club, the 1993 weepie following a group of Asian-American women across several generations, seems to have all the earmarks of a typical "Chick Flick." It's slick, it's manipulative, it knows how to push the viewer's buttons (imagine a domineering Chinese matron sitting behind you, saying "You laugh. Now you cry."). The arrival of this prestige production on blu-ray allows us to once again indulge in its Chick Flick-iness, but in all honesty the film is as thoughtfully crafted, moving and unique an experience as it must have been in 1993. Not only are the disparate stories in the film pulled together beautifully, the standout performances by a mostly Asian-American female cast make it a unique, unforgettable experience.

Based on Amy Tan's best selling novel, The Joy Luck Club weaves together several stories that revolve around a humble mah jong club start...Read the entire review

The TV Series:

The DVD release of the fifth and final season of UK sci-fi series The Sarah Jane Adventures unwittingly serves as a souvenir of that unique TV show quandary: you have a hit show and the star suddenly dies - what to do?

History serves up a few examples. Some shows (Petticoat Junction, Chico and the Man) worked their way around the death by having the late actors' characters venture off somewhere, never to be seen again. Others (NewsRadio, 8 Simple Rules) choose to incorporate their cast members' deaths into the shows themselves, which in the case of sitcoms makes for some strange shifts in tone.

Russel T Davies and the producers of the BBC's kid-oriented Doctor Who spinoff The Sarah Jan...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Warning: this review contains spoilers.

The Fighting Sullivans opens with the legend "This is a true story," which must have seemed redundant to the audience who first saw it in 1944. The tragedy of the Sullivans, five close-knit brothers who all enlisted in the Navy during World War II and perished while serving on the same ship, was a well-known, galvanizing event in its day. When 20th Century Fox opted to turn their tale into a film, it must have been a challenge. Playing to an audience of families still grieving from the loss of their own loved ones (or anxiously awaiting their return from service), the filmmakers ultimately chose to make it in a tastefully understated way. The final film plays ou...Read the entire review

The Movie:

If given the opportunity, would you make an effort to correct a past wrong - or is it better to just "live and learn" and move on?

The airy Korean romantic comedy Finding Mr. Destiny centers itself around that idea, which gives it a bit more universal appeal than the standard-issue cutesy rom-com that this DVD's packaging implies. Despite (or maybe because of) its quirkiness, the film's upbeat message and charming lead performers are enough to make it a good example of mainstream Asian cinema.

Adapted from the stage musical Finding Kim Jong-wook (the Korean Mamma Mia!?) that enjoyed a healthy run in its native country, Finding Mr. Destiny follows a workoholic, stubbornly single stage director as she embar...Read the entire review