The Movie:

Directed by Armando Crispino, the man best known for Autopsy, The Dead Are Alive isn't the zombie picture that it was made out to be on its American theatrical release or that it's been made out to be on various home video releases. The film is actually a lot closer to a traditional Giallo film than anything else, and it's based on a short story by Bryan Edgar Wallace.

The story revolves around Jason Porter (Alex Cord), a hard drinking and hard living American archeologist visiting in Rome with the express purpose of digging up and exploring some ancient Etruscan tombs. For some reason he's staying with a short tempered composer named Nikos (John Marley) and his family - son Igor and hot young wife Myra (Samantha Eggar). Despite the fact that Jason and Myra share a romantic past, Nikos is fine with his hanging around the place in his spare time. Spare time is...Read the entire review

The Movie:

The Strangeness tells the story of a gang of explorers and entrepreneurial types who decide to open a creaky old mine that's lain dormant for years. The fact that it was closed because a group of miners were killed by an unknown supernatural force that calls the mine home doesn't intimidate them in the least, because there's rumored to be a fortune in gold somewhere in that mine and they intend to find it. As the group sets about excavating and then scouring the mine for the supposed loot, they bicker back and forth with one another and eventually start getting killed one at a time by the same unknown supernatural force that killed the miners years before.

And that's really about it as far as the plot goes. People go into the mine, and people get killed in the mine. Of course, a few make it to the end to battle the monster, which is completely rendered in primiti...Read the entire review

The Product:
Remember the first time you went to the drive-in. Of course, you have to be of a certain age, from a specific generation, and in some cases, a particular part of the country to remember when the local outdoor cinema was all the rage. Though many believe the "passion pit" hit its stride in the '50s and '60s, the '70s saw a major upswing in attendance, mostly due to the influx of late period grindhouse and exploitation fare. For many b-movie makers and certified schlock hounds, the drive-in was the only place they could show their lesser wares. And since most customers really didn't care about what was on the massive 50 ft screen, a title could rack up a nice collection of hormonally driven ticket sales. As part of an ongoing DVD box set compendium, BCI is bringing us what it considers to be the best/worst of the Drive-In Cult Classics. Of the eight movies offered, however,...Read the entire review

Quick!

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Take a peek at Hard Gun's slick, glossy cover art. What's your kneejerk reaction? A brutal, masterfully shot crime drama heavy on blood-spattered shoot-outs and elaborately choreographed martial arts? Before this Blu-ray disc washed up on my doorstep, its cover art was all I had to go on with H...Read the entire review

The past few years have been brutal for cult cinema labels. Panik House, Casa Negra, NoShame Films, Barrel Entertainment, and Subversive Cinema have all

Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33832 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:48:19 UTC Recommended The Movie: So what exactly is Superheroes Volume One? Good question! What it appears to be is the first two DVDs from BCI's The New Adventures Of Flash Gordon releases tossed into a boxed set alongside the first two double sided DVDs of BCI's Defenders Of The Earth collection. Granted, the series are related in a way in that both feature Flash Gordon and both were created by Hearst Entertainment, but it's a rather odd marketing decision on the part of BCI, who have released both series in their entirety on DVD already. Regardless, here's a look at what you get for the bargain price of $12.98... Flash Gordon: Created in 1934 by artist Alex Raymond, Flash Gordon was originally a young athletic American man who wound up getting kidnapped and thrust into the middle of an intergalactic war between the various strange inhabitants of the planet Mongo and the...Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33739 Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:51:41 UTC Rent It The Night of the Werewolf The first half of Deimos Entertainment's Spanish horror double feature is The Night of the Werewolf (El Retorno del Hombre Lobo), the eighth installment in Paul Naschy's long-running and loosely-connected series about the lycanthropic Count Waldemar Daninsky. Naschy himself stepped behind the camera as director to bring this mainstay of 1970s Eurohorror into the '80s, but in stark contrast to the post-modern take on the mythos in An American Werewolf in London and the darkly comedic Read the entire review ]]> Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33661 Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:41:31 UTC Recommended In a most welcome move, BCI has been quick to upgrade several of their Japanese action and European horror DVDs to Blu-ray format, and at bargain prices yet. This is particularly good news for fans of Japanese action films. BCI's double feature disc of Killing Machine and Shogun's Ninja retails for $22.98 but many online sights are selling it for around $15. That's an incredible deal when you consider neither film is presently available on Blu-ray in Japan, and there even the standard DVD of Killing Machine - without English subtitles - retails for more than twice the cost of both films together on BCI's Blu-ray. With Japan and the United States now in the same Blu-ray region (as opposed to standard DVD, which put them in regions 2 and 1, respectively), it will be interesting to see whether Japanese consumers start buying cheaper U.S.-manufactured Blu-ray discs of Japanese m...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33660 Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:50:44 UTC Highly Recommended The Movie: There aren't many classic films available in high definition. Yes, thereare some great films available, like the wonderful looking Casablanca,but for every Adventures of Robin Hood that is released, we get5 or 10 Fast and Furious-like action films. That's natural,since high--budget blockbusters sure look impressive in HD, but there aremany consumers prefer films made decades ago. BCI Eclipse came tothe rescue near the end of the format wars with two HD DVD releases ofold Bob Hope films, and both were double features too. One release,My Favorite Brunette and Son of Paleface is reviewed hereand the disc contains a pair of Bob Hope/Bing Crosby "Road" movies: The Road to Rio and The Road...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/31708 Sun, 16 Dec 2007 05:01:07 UTC Recommended For more than a quarter century, the horror films of Spaniard Paul Naschy (a.k.a. Jacinto Molina) were next to impossible to see in America, despite being written about extensively in books and magazines about horror cinema. Over the last decade, however, Naschy's films have been turning up on DVD, and in recent years Naschy himself has even flown to America to put in appearances at a few conventions. The result is that, somewhat belatedly, Naschy has become something a cult figure, deservedly so, among horror film fans. The actor-screenwriter and sometime director is incredibly likeable; he himself was a fan of Universal's horror films of the 1930s and '40s (especially Frankenstein meets the Wolfman, a major influence on his own career), and this affection was carried over into his productions, which now have fans of their own. Anchor Bay released several 16:9 enhanced Naschy titles about fi...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/31613 Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:37:44 UTC Recommended The Loreley's Grasp: Amando De Ossorio puts aside the galloping atmosphere and perceived misogyny of his Blind Dead series for this unusual love story with torn out hearts. Best known for shots of desiccated corpses searching for maidens to slowly kill while riding horses through the mist, Ossorio branches out with a bit of lyrical (bloody) heart and wink or two in the unusual The Loreley's Grasp. The movie will grasp you with its blend of old-fashioned horror, '70s-modern attitude and unexpected tenderness. The Loreley is an ancient legend, a watery seductress that lures to their deaths sailors on the river Rhine. Opening fleshy shots reveal a luscious marrying lass quickly and gruesomely dispatched by the worst rubber-glove monster you've ever seen. As the local priest becomes bored eulogizing girl after girl torn from life too soon, the townsfolk and faculty at a nearby girls boardin...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/31471 Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:52:11 UTC Recommended Bounty hunter Josh Randall (Steve McQueen) and his 1892 Winchester "Mare's Leg" are back for Wanted: Dead or Alive - Season Three, the show's last year. Just three years earlier the fledgling young actor bit the bullet by appearing in the infamous low-budget sci-fi thriller The Blob, but by the 1960-61 season McQueen's star was rising fast. He had received good notices for his supporting part in John Sturges' Never So Few (1960), and when that director invited McQueen to co-star in The Magnificent Seven the 29-year-old wanted that part, badly. The famous story is that he feigned an injury by deliberately crashing his car into a tree, and during his "sick leave" from Wanted: Dead or Alive snuck off to Mexico to shoot The Magnificent Seven. However, that film was in production during March-April 1960, about the time Wanted would presumably have been betwee...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/31377 Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:38:46 UTC Rent It King of the Cage is a third tier mixed martial arts promotion that has been running, mainly across the Southwest (CA, NM, etc.), usually putting on at least two fight cards a week for the past seven or eight years. At first it was a typical low rung cage fighting event but over the past few years they made strains to become a low rung ppv event. In the MMA world, KOTC is the equivalent of the amateurs, where you go to get some fights, experience, and just maybe enough of a name to move on to the bigger leagues and actually make a living at fighting. This five disc set has three "Knockout" volumes and two "Stars" volumes. First, the two "Stars" volumes could have been put on one disc. Each contains only four fights and runs under an hour, I do believe so they could fit them in a quickie, cheap ppv slots. They feature some fighters who were cast members of the first three seasons of Spike/UFC's "T...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/31214 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 21:26:19 UTC Rent It Quinton "Rampage" Jackson is the current UFC Light Heavyweight champ after knocking out UFC poster boy Chuck Liddell in May of this year, plus successfully defending the title against stalwart Dan Henderson in September. Now, for those that don't know, those whose concept of mixed martial arts is limited to UFC and probably run around calling it "Ultimate/Cage Fighting," King of the Cage is a long-running fight promotion, a small one, mainly seen as a feeder network for guys to develop their talents and build their records. All of the fights on this disc are from five (+) years ago, the first three from King of the Cage, the remaining three from Gladiator Challenge. Because the actual program doesn't give you the fights dates, I will. Quinton versus Sean Gray, 5/17/2002. " " Marvin Eastman, 6/24/2000. " " Rob Smith, 11/29/2000. " " Charlie West, 12/9/2000. " " Dave Taylor, 2/12/2001.Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/30949 Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:13:47 UTC Skip It The Film: Oh, the high hopes that I had for the direct-to-video film Ultimate Force. Here we have a film starring none other than Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic, the former cop from Croatia who went on to become an asskicking mixed martial artist in UFC and Pride. So how could I not be excited? This is, after all, a movie that Black Belt Magazine said is "Universal Soldier meets The Bourne Supremacy." I mean that's one helluva statement. Of course, let's not forget that Jean Claude Van Damme called Ultimate Force star Cro-Cop "a new Charles Bronson." And with the "Muscles from Brussels" giving you a ringing endorsement like that, you've got to be a special kind of talent! Well, let me tell you that I felt like some kind of fool for getting excited over Ultimate Force. I felt like a nubile high school cheerleader who gives up her virginity to the capta...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/30838 Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:39:02 UTC Skip It Fremantle Media has released the four-disc boxed set of Falcon Beach: The Complete First Season, a flat The O.C. and Laguna Beach rip-off (and that's pretty flat, then) that evidently didn't ignite too many sparks when it aired on the ABC Family Channel (it was canceled after 26 episodes). All the requisite elements of a modern teen soaper are here, including lots of buff, tanned young bodies in as few clothes as possible, various "forbidden" behaviors like drinking and drug taking, along with the usual summer hijinks, class warfare (between the rich kids and the townies), and of course, breaking up and making up among the interchangeable cast. At Falcon Beach, summer is just about to begin. And as the rich, oblivious tourists who rent cabins start ...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/30616 Sun, 23 Sep 2007 15:18:41 UTC Highly Recommended Fremantle Media has released Man About the House: The Complete First and Second Series, a two-disc, 13-episode collection of the first two series ("series" equals "season" in Brit TV lingo) of the beloved, hugely successful Thames Television sitcom from 1973. Here in the states, hard-core fans of the equally popular ABC sitcom Three's Company no doubt recognize the name Man About the House as the inspiration for the John Ritter/Suzanne Somers/Joyce DeWitt megahit, but I suspect most Americans have never seen the original. Pity, too, because Man About the House is a delightfully cheeky, risque (for the times) sitcom that holds up quite well today, due to the fun, light performances by Richard O'Sullivan, Paula Wilcox and Sally Thomsett. Man About t...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/30591 Sat, 22 Sep 2007 11:56:08 UTC Recommended The Show: The He-Man franchise has been a prominent force among fans and collectors even to this day. Whether it's Masters of the Universe, New Adventures of He-Man, or even She-Ra: Princess of Power, generations have flocked towards the "power of Grayskull". As is the case with most iconic shows from the 1980's each of these series have been released on DVD. In She-Ra's case the second season has finally hit store shelves. She-Ra tells the story of a girl named Adora who actually turns out to be He-Man's twin sister. She lives in a place called Etheria and fights with a band of rebels against the evil and mighty Hordak. With the Sword of Protection Adora can turn into She-Ra at a moment's notice and become nigh-invincible. She's not quite the one woman army that you'd think she would be though since she's accompanied by a group of fellow f...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/30236 Mon, 03 Sep 2007 19:01:32 UTC Recommended BCI's ever-growing "Welcome to the Grindhouse" line of double feature DVDs continues with a disc featuring "Sonny Chiba's Dragon Princess" and "Karate Warriors," which makes a perfect companion to their "The Bodyguard"/"Sister Street Fighter" two-fer under the same banner. "Sonny Chiba's Dragon Princess" (1981) Who can blame the American distributors for casually adding Chiba's name to the title (originally just "Dragon Princess")? Audiences now know exactly what they're going to get: serious, furious action, Chiba-style. Oh, but even without the title change, "Dragon Princess" would still be one hell of a ride, full of blood and guts and mighty fine fight sequences. Indeed, right from the start, we're treated to enough eye-gouging to last us for a month, including a shot of Chiba running around with one eye dangling from its socket, and that's just the start of the fun. Son...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/30193 Sat, 01 Sep 2007 14:42:41 UTC Rent It Though it starts out with an impressive, ghoulish bang, Amando de Ossorio's The Night of the Sorcerers (La noche de los brujos, 1973) rapidly falls back on tired jungle adventure cliches, while its horror elements get increasingly silly and repetitive. It's hard to take the film seriously when the monsters turn out to be vampire women in leopard-skin bikinis. The highly effective prologue is another matter. In Bumbasa (presumably Africa) circa 1910, a white woman (Barbara Rey?) is captured by a tribe of black African voodoo worshipers, who viciously whip her into nakedness, eventually raping her. They then carry her to their sacrificial altar as a party of Great White Hunters close in. Alas, they arrive moments too late - she's spectacularly beheaded - and th...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/30060 Mon, 27 Aug 2007 00:09:00 UTC Highly Recommended The Product: Sonny Chiba is a certified bad ass. You can see it everywhere - in his look, in his mannerisms, in his stellar martial artistry, in the very essence of his bravado being. Just one glance from this Japanese juggernaut and your blood turns to ice and your shorthairs shrivel and die. This dude means business and he will bust you up if you try and stop him. From his 1961 film debut in Invasion of the Neptune Men to his breakout hits in the 1970s, he stands as an example of machismo and magnetism fused into a regimented disciple of kung fu. For many moviegoers, their first experience with the actor was as a throwaway reference. Unless they were deep into Eastern action films, it was Clarence Worley's outright adoration of Chiba in True Romance that became a geek squad call to arms. While still a part of the subculture, he's a glorified God to those who know his work and ...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/30047 Sun, 26 Aug 2007 04:45:06 UTC Highly Recommended The Series: I'll try just about any British comedy that makes its way across thepond.  That's because a higher percentage of them are funny when comparedto what's shown on prime time TV in America.  Of course, a good partof the reason for that is the fact that lousy series generally don't getshown or released here in region one but for whatever the reason many Britishcomedies make me laugh.  Now a new sketch comedy series, Manstrokewoman,has made the leap from England to the US and it is hands-down the funniestskit comedy show that I've seen since Monty Python and the firstseasons of SNL.  The show was created by producer Ash Atallawho was behind the British version of The Office, and its brilliant. This creative and unique show is outrageously funny and has several bellylaugh...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/29842 Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:19:09 UTC Recommended If you're a fan of Euro-horror in general or Spanish genre star and screenwriter Paul Naschy in particular then Exorcism (Exorcismo, 1975), made during the stampede to cash in on the huge success of the William Friedkin/William Peter Blatty The Exorcist (1973), will likely appeal to your tastes; most everyone else will want to give this moody fantasy thriller a pass. Naschy claims to have come up with the story for the film long before the film of The Exorcist was released and there's little reason to doubt him: although its eventual production was clearly prompted by the Hollywood movie's success, until the last few minutes Exorcism and The Exorcist have very little in common. The last reel, however, is a lot like The Exorcist, though even that adds a few new wrinkles of its own. Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/29783 Mon, 13 Aug 2007 12:54:08 UTC Recommended Hard as it is to imagine today, during the 1959-60 television season there were 26 Western series airing in prime time, and that's not counting reruns of shows like Hopalong Cassidy, The Lone Ranger and Roy Rogers, in constant syndication during those days. Wanted: Dead or Alive, in its second season, aired on CBS Saturday nights at 9:30, an hour before Have Gun, Will Travel and Gunsmoke, while Bonanza and The Deputy aired just prior to and immediately after it on NBC. This glut of TV Westerns resulted in many short-lived series all but forgotten today, but the often fine writing on Gunsmoke in its early years, and the black sheep style of Have Gun, Will Travel still have its fans. Although Steve McQueen remains one of the iconic movie stars of the 1960s, his TV show was curiously MIA when I was growing up in Detroit, and as big a...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/29462 Mon, 30 Jul 2007 12:01:53 UTC Recommended The Movie This box set is comprised of three films, Karate Bull Fighter, Karate Bear Fighter and Karate For Life, each one focusing on a different part of the life of Matsutatsu Oyama, a great practitioner and teacher of karate. He's played here by Sonny Chiba, himself a student of Oyama's. Each of the films in question are worth a look, and this set offers a great deal for anyone who is interested in the particular charms of Japanese martial arts films. Karate Bull Fighter is the first film in the set. I suppose I should break the bad news to those of you who are unfamiliar with this movie: despite what the title implies, this is not about a professional bullfighter who uses martial arts to win his matches. There is, in fact, only one scene in which he fights a bull and it comes not at the climax but right square in the middle. The rest of the movie does...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/29416 Sat, 28 Jul 2007 05:53:01 UTC Highly Recommended Although I had heard about it before, the latest disc from BCI and Mondo Mini Shows, Happy Tree Friends: Season One TV, Volume 3 was my first exposure to this repulsive, disgusting, degenerate and utterly hilarious cartoon series. When my kids saw the cover (which looks deceptively safe), they immediately clamored to watch it; thank god I didn't let them (although I suspect they'd laugh at it the same way they laugh at Itchy and Scratchy on The Simpsons). These sick and twisted gore-fest takes on the hearts and bunnies genre of kiddie cartoons (think The Care Bears or My Little Pony) had me laughing out loud from start to finish. Incredibly inventive in their psychosis, the team behind these amoral animated slasher toons achieve a kind of dark, homicidal netherworld in the systematic slaughter of their cute-as-a-button little creatures, that had me convulsed wi...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/29334 Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:58:00 UTC Highly Recommended "Oh my Queen!" said the royal sorcerer to Hatshepsup, "With this amulet, you and your decedents are endowed by the goddess Isis with the powers of the animals and the elements. You will soar as the falcon soars. Run with the speed of gazelles. And command the elements of sky and earth!" 3,000 years later, a young science teacher dug up this lost treasure and found she was heir to: The Secrets of Isis. And so, unknown to even her closest friends Rick Mason and Cindy Lee, she became a dual person: Andrea Thomas, teacher, and Isis, dedicated foe of evil, defender of the weak, champion of truth and justice. Flat-out one of the most beloved Saturday morning TV shows ever produced, no kid who grew up during the mid-seventies ever forgot Joanna Cameron as the li...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/29294 Sun, 22 Jul 2007 18:58:37 UTC Recommended Now, unlike my esteemed colleague here at the offices of DVDTalk, Randy Miller III, who wrote a great piece on the first volume of Filmation's Ghostbusters, I didn't grow up on this particular animated Saturday morning cartoon; I was a little past watching such shows by 1985 (okay; I would occasionally sneak a look at a Looney Tunes here or there). However, I did grow up on the original live-action Filmation series, The Ghost Busters, starring Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch, that provided the inspiration for the 1985 animated series. That vaudeville-influenced slapstick fest from 1975 was fondly remembered by kids from my age group, so had I known about Filmation's continuation of the series into an animated one, I might have checked it out. Watching Filmation's Ghostbusters: The Animated Series, Volume 2 today, I didn't think it was all that bad, actually. W...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/29194 Tue, 17 Jul 2007 22:33:44 UTC Recommended The Movie: Tarantino and Rodriguez' ode to trashy seventies exploitation movies may not have set the box office on fire but it did manage to convince a few home video companies to follow in their footsteps by releasing some interesting 'grindhouse' themed releases. BCI Eclipse is one of those companies, and this entry in their Welcome To The Grindhouse double-feature line pairs up the notorious Black Candles with the lesser known Evil Eye. Euro-cult fans will definitely be more familiar with these films than the average Joe-on-the-street but hopefully the 'bang for the buck' factor will encourage the curious to check these releases out, which in turn will allow for BCI to continue the line as they're truly a treat for genre buffs and you really can't beat the price. Black Candles: This semi-notorious Spanish horror film tells the story of a woman nam...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/29165 Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:38:11 UTC Highly Recommended No doubt hoping to ride the anticipated Tarantino/Rodriguez Grindhouse wave (which never materialized), BCI has released Welcome to the Grindhouse Double Feature: Pick-Up and The Teacher, a nostalgic trip back to 1970s exploitation fare, complete with coming attraction bumpers and trailers. Welcome to the Grindhouse is certainly a misnomer, though; these relatively tame exploiters found acceptance at local drive-ins, not urban grindhouses, where hard-core audiences expected X-rated skin and gore. You won't find anything like that in The Teacher and Pick-Up, which barely earn their R ratings. But for anyone who remembers those great times at you local backwoods drive-in (I was fortunate to have creepy older brothers who took me to these kinds of flicks), Welcome to the Grindhouse Double Feature: Pick-Up and The Teacher will be a welcome addition to your...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/28799 Mon, 25 Jun 2007 01:13:24 UTC Recommended If you've read my previous reviews, you know that I'm a big fan of British TV. Frequently, the very best of the crop is sent over here on DVD to the States, so it's possible to get a lop-sided view of the country's total TV output: most of what we get here of British TV plays very well. Now I had never heard of Britain's longest-running cop show, The Bill (as far as I know, it's never played here), but something running twenty-three years in over fifty countries, and still going strong, must be working on some level. Unfortunately at first, I couldn't see the appeal of The Bill. In fact, it took me three separate tries at the four-disc, almost ten-hour box set The Bill: The Complete First Series before I could really get into it. It doesn't help t...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/28737 Fri, 22 Jun 2007 00:22:22 UTC Rent It The Series: One of the most influential and popular crime drama shows from Englandis The Sweeney. Airing from 1975-1978, this was the firstBritish TV show to portray the police as real people, flaws and all. Prior to this series, cops were always sterling and upright and their bosseswere kind and intelligent and always doing what was best for the publicgood. This series changes that. The main characters will bendthe law on occasion to get their man, and the upper management is moreinterested in managing interdepartmental politics than actually bringingcrooks to justice. Now all 13 episodes of this ground breaking seriesis available in a nice four disc set. Though the show is a littledated, and we've all seen programs that take this theme even farther, itis still worth checking out. Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/28346 Thu, 31 May 2007 03:03:46 UTC Recommended Make no mistake: filmmaker Dollan Cannell is not defending Fidel Castro's government in his documentary "638 Ways to Kill Castro." Instead, he looks with great fascination at the decades-long obsession with this single leader and his small island country. What is it about this man that has caught the eye of America for so long? And what is it about that obsession that led to such absurd reactions? As you can gather from the title, Cannell reports on a claim from Cuban Intelligence that there have been over 600 attempts (of varying degrees) on Castro's life since he took power in 1959. The film, produced for the UK's Channel 4, has fun recounting such far-fetched spy-flick ideas as a cyanide capsule hidden inside a fountain pen, poisoned face cream, and yes, even an exploding cigar. Yet this is only a portion of the story, the lighthearted icing atop more somber issues. Early in the film, ...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/28330 Wed, 30 May 2007 12:11:55 UTC Recommended A sequel, of sorts, to Filmation's Space Academy, Jason of Star Command (1978-80) was by Saturday morning kids' programming standards an unusually ambitious production. A throwback to the Republic and Columbia sci-fi serials of the 1940s and early '50s (Radar Men from the Moon, Captain Video), Jason audaciously aimed for a Star Wars-scale grandeur with state-of-the-art visual effects on a meager budget of something like $100,000 an episode. Aimed at kids, the series shouldn't be faulted for being more than a trifle silly - Solaris it's not - or that it trying to do so much with so little money, the result was often cheesy even by 1978 standards. As with many of Filmation's other shows (Fat Albert & the Cosby Kids, the animated Star Trek, and Flash Gordon),...Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/28076 Fri, 18 May 2007 13:03:53 UTC Rent It Background: For a lot longer than I've been around, kids have been fascinated with dinosaur movies. While some of them were more geared towards kids, adults also got in on the act with various shows like the 3 Jurassic Park Chronicles that started almost 15 years ago. This was a series of movies centering on a company trying to set up an upscale amusement park for the ultra rich that brought dinosaurs back to life via technological advances in cloning, creating conditions ripe for problems even if generally a bit intense for kids. In recent years, a number of television shows have tried to combine learning and the collective fascination with dinosaurs many of us have with shows like the award winning Walking With... series and lesser efforts like Dinosaur Planet that mak...Read the entire review ]]>