DVD Talk DVD Reviews
Charlie's Angels - Season 5
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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 Three Stooges: Rare Treasures From The Columbia Pictures Vault
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Completes the picture for all those early Stooge supporters. Columbia Pictures and Sony have released The Three Stooges: Rare Treasures from the Columbia Pictures Vault, a three-disc collection of rare indeed Stooge-related material that was first released as bonus material on their massive 2012 The Three Stooges: The Ultimate Collection boxed set. Included here are impossible-to-see comedy two-reelers starring Shemp Howard, Joe Besser, and Joe DeRita, the never-before-released-to-DVD feature films, Rockin' in the Rockies and Have Rocket, Will Travel, and three early Columbia cartoons with appearances by the animated Stooges. Rabid Stooge fans who purchased the earlier 8 individual Stooge sets (which were distressingly bare-bones) went ape when that box set came out loaded down with these goodies (and at a lower overall price, to add insult to injury). Now, you may carp a...Read the entire review
Silent Souls
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THE FILM 
Essentially the story of one Russian woman's untimely death and the effort of the two men in her life to honor her passing by adhering to the traditions of their shared, threatened culture, Aleksey Fedorchenko's Silent Souls presents itself as a modern-day folk fable that becomes an act of tragic mythology and melancholy cultural preservation. Its fable-likeness derives from its seeming simplicity but actually complex, unfathomable pockets of mystery and irony; the story it tells has meanings and resonances that seem to lie just beyond our ability to rationally comprehend or literally interpret them. Its mythological aspect comes from the unfamiliar, nearly lost folkways -- one of which is t...Read the entire review
Maverick - The Complete Second Season
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Riverboat, ring your bell,
Fare thee well, Annabel.
Luck is the lady that he loves the best.
Natchez to New Orleans
Livin' on jacks and queens
Maverick is a legend of the West.Inexplicably late to the party, the popular, even cult Western seriocomic series Maverick (1957-62) seemed to take forever to get released to DVD. Warner Home Video issued a piddly three-episode "Best of" set in 2005, but didn't get around to The Complete First Season until just last year. Now comes Maverick - The Complete Second Season, the best and most interesting of the program's extraordinarily bumpy five-years.
I must preface this review by stating up front that James Garner's other hit/cult TV series, The Rockford Files (1974-80, plus later TV movies) remains one of my all-time personal favorites. That series crystalized Garner's unique, irreplaceable charm as...Read the entire review
Kristen Schaal: Live at the Fillmore
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THE SHOW:
Discerning fans of comedy already know who Kristen Schaal is. They've seen her be hilariously creepy in Flight of the Conchords. They've witnessed her control of cutting satire as a Daily Show correspondent. For the last few seasons of 30 Rock she kept Kenneth Parcell's heart in a state of constant confusion. She's even left her mark in the animated world with Bob's Burgers. When she isn't busy stealing the scene in whatever project she's involved with, she finds time to be a fixture on the alternative comedy scene bringing her blend of oddness and absurdity to the masses. For a comedienne who has done so much (and all of it so well), it's kind of surprising to note that Live at the Fillmore marks her first hour-long special for Comedy Central.
I know I've already called Schaal's style of comedy odd and absurd but it bears repeating m...Read the entire review
Angels Brigade
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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 filmsThe 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
A Fine Romance: Complete Collection
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THE PROGRAM"A Fine Romance" is, pardon the awful and obvious pun, a fine example of relatively safe, if wholly uninspired sitcom television managing to establish a lasting place in the consciousness of viewers through two lead actors, to put it bluntly, working far beneath their talents and skills. Running a mere 26-episodes from 1981 to 1984 on British television, "A Fine Romance" took the classic sitcom convention of the trials and tribulations of a new and unexpected romantic pairing and offer viewers something far more magical than one might expect by filling two sitcom roles with two esteemed, classically trained actors: Judi Dench and Michael Williams, who just happened to be married in real life. While Dench would go on a decade later to revisit the formula in a farm more sentimental, more soundly produced and often semi-dramatic series, "As Time Goes By," the actual on-screen ch...Read the entire review
Eaters
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The Movie:
Ordinarily, having Uwe Boll's name attached to a movie, especially a zombie movie, is a sure marker that the film in question is a big puddle of mediocrity and failure. So, when I saw that Italian zombie film Eaters was "presented by Uwe Boll", I was hesitant, and expected something ridiculous and awful. What I got instead was a very well crafted, original and fun movie.Eaters dispenses as quickly as possible with context setting, using short snatches of news broadcasts to get the viewer up to speed. A global flu-like pandemic has killed most of the people on the earth, striking women more quickly than men, and transforming its victims into shambling zombies. Our heroes, such as they are, are two soldiers: wise cracking, cynical Igor (Alex Lucchesi) and laid back Alen (Guglielmo Favilla). They work out of a decaying compound, capturing live zombie specimens for u...Read the entire review
Thale
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THE MOVIE:
Fantasy edges its way into the modern world with director Aleksander Nordaas' Thale. He builds his film around a bit of Norwegian folklore and makes it stick by allowing the tale's gentle pacing to slowly lay out its mystery in a manner that completely takes a hold of one's imagination. That he does so with a tiny cast and limited resources makes it even more impressive.
When we first meet our protagonists Leo (Jon Sigve Skard) and Elvis (Erlend Nervold), they are knee-deep in quite the mess. I mean that quite literally since they are crime scene cleaners (No Shit Cleaning Service is as great a business name as I've ever heard) who are currently taking care of a little old lady's mostly liquefied remains. Well, Leo is taking care of her remains while Elvis pukes his guts out in a corner. It's a grisly application of less-is-more (who needs to see the remain...Read the entire review
Swimming To Cambodia
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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 GrayThe 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
Stand Off
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Director: Terry George
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Colm Meaney, Martin McCann
Year: 2011I'm a strong believer that there is a difference between a "film" and a "movie". A film is artistic, it's a statement, it relies heavily on great acting and great directing. A film has deeper meaning than what you see on screen, and it's tailor made to be discussed and picked apart. A movie is entertaining, it's a fun time, it relies on mostly action, either comedic or intense. A movie can be taken at face value, and the less you critique it the more enjoyable it is. Now, some actors can switch back and forth between films and movies with little effort; Tom Hanks, for example, can move from funny to dramatic, heavy to lighthearted. Others se...Read the entire review
You Can't Do That on Film
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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 watchThe 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
''Ninja: The Mission Force'': The Complete Second Season
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Reading a short online synopsis, "Ninja: The Mission Force" sounds like it could be decent. This Telly Award-winning series takes footage from public domain ninja flicks and splices it in with new footage shot by comedians, with new voice-over tracks to match the revised story. Done well, the show could find a funny medium between What's Up, Tiger Lily? and The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra; sadly, this second season doesn't do much for me as a newcomer to the series. Despite some chintzy charm, the jokes are pretty limp, and the integration of the film footage plays out more like a budget booster than a source of creative comedy.Bruce (Brad Jones), villainous ninja from the first season of "Ninja: The Mission Force", is not as dead as he ought to be. Rising from the grave with a desire for vengeance, he once again sets out in his quest for take over the world. This time, his master sch...Read the entire review
The Aquabats! Super Show! Season One
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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 skaThe 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
Thanks A Million
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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
Fast Company/Fast and Loose/Fast and Furious-Triple Feature
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The Movies:
I have really been enjoying the B-movies that WarnerArchives has been bringing to DVD. Iloved the
The Grand Duel
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THE PROGRAMThe average moviegoer has likely never heard of "The Grand Duel" and even those with more of an interest in film, may likely be more familiar with it's masterfully composed title theme, through its usage in "Kill Bill Vol. 1." The truth about "The Grand Duel" though, is, it's a near masterpiece of the spaghetti western genre and until now, is a film that's never had a fair shake in terms of a proper home video treatment. Produced in 1972, "The Grand Duel" (also known under the title of "Storm Rider") gives perennial western icon, Lee Van Cleef as the steely eyed (honestly, would we expect any less from Van Cleef), Clayton, a sheriff turned bounty hunter who begins the film on the trail of outlaw Phillipp Wermeer.
The film itself is impressive en...Read the entire review
13 Eerie
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THE MOVIE:
Nobody typically accuses modern slasher films of putting much thought into the setup. It's usually all about getting a group of pretty young things into a nondescript location and finding new ways to dismantle their bodies. 13 Eerie rises above its low-budget roots and bucks this trend by staging its mayhem against a fairly imaginative backdrop. The fact that it can't keep the creativity alive for its entire running time speaks to its slavish devotion to zombie and slasher film clich s. As it stands, it's a fun little diversion but based on the promise of its first half-hour, it could have been so much more.
Pay no attention to CSI and its many variants. Take away the stylized visuals and throbbing electronic score and you see forensic work for what it really is: an investigator alone with a mass of something that used to be alive. This is the blea...Read the entire review
Howdy Kids!! A Saturday Afternoon Western Roundup (Lone Ranger, Sky King, Cisco Kid, Roy Rogers, Champion, Fury, and More!)
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A fun sampler for fans of vintage TV oaters. Shout! Factory has released Howdy, Kids!! A Saturday Afternoon Western Roundup, a 3-disc, 24-episode collection of "children's television" Westerns (as the disc cover describes them) that were either syndicated or network broadcasted in the 1950s. Titles included here are: The Lone Ranger, The Range Rider, The Rifleman, The Adventures of Rick O'Shay, Fury, The Roy Rogers Show, Annie Oakley, The Adventures of Kit Carson, The Adventures of Champion, The Cisco Kid, Sergeant Preston of The Yukon, Sky King, Red Ryder (really just a pilot, not an actual series), and Buffalo Bill, Jr.. Almost all of the episodes featured here have what look to be proper run times (except for The Lone Ranger), while the transfers (no doubt taken from syndication pr...Read the entire review
Nick Carter Mysteries Triple Feature
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The Movies:
Warner Archives continues to release some great low budgetdetective flicks on DVD, and one of their latest releases, the
Nick Carter has a long history. Thedetective first appeared in a dime novelin 1886 and since that time he's had his own pulp magazine, a radioshow thatran for over a decade, a series of novels that lasted even longer,comic books,Columbia ma...Read the entire review
Oasis of the Zombies: Remastered Edition
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Director: Jesus Franco
Starring: Manuel Gelin, Antonio Mayans
Year: 1982If you're interested in 80s zombie movies, do yourself a favor and check out my review of Zombie Lake. It's a staple of the genre, and is worth a watch if that's your thing. Also, reading about/seeing that will set the table for this, my review of the very similar Oasis of the Zombies. Also known as The Treasure of the Living Dead, it has a lot of connections to Jean Rollin's 1981 horror click, as both were written by Jesus Franco, the Spanish actor, director, writer, producer, you name...Read the entire review
Babes in Toyland (1954 & 1955 TV versions)
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Another rare glimpse into early live television's ghostly past. Video Artists International (who specialize in this type of fare) has released Babes in Toyland, a single disc offering that features black & white kinescopes of two live TV stagings of Victor Herbert's beloved operetta, originally aired on NBC in 1954 and 1955. Produced and directed by Max Liebman, and starring Dave Garroway, Dennis Day, Wally Cox, Jack E. Leonard, Karin Wolfe, Ellen Barrie, the Baird Marionettes, Bambi Linn, Rod Alexander, and Jo Sullivan ('54) and Barbara Cook ('55) as ing nue Jane Piper, these two holiday-themed "spectaculars," as they were known then on NBC, are certainly invaluable historical records for anyone interested in that particularly fascinating period. They're also quite charming little entertainments for the small fry this holiday season (that would be six months late or early, depending o...Read the entire review
Only The Young / Tchoupitoulas
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Oscilloscope brings us an interesting double-feature of documentaries: one about White kids in California, the other about Black kids in Louisiana, both directed by duos, running 80-odd minutes and shot on video.
"Only the Young" is the first of the two, focusing on teenage skateboarders Kevin Conway and Garrison Saenz in Santa Clarita, CA just outside Los Angeles, although directors Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims portray it as a more isolated community- we get a distant glimpse of the Magic Mountain amusement park in one shot, but for the most part the atmosphere is like that of any other small town. Kevin and Garrison are long-time best buds who skateboard any place they can (such as tunnels, large concrete pipes left out in empty spaces, and of course skateparks) and take...Read the entire review
Quentin Tarantino's Rolling Thunder Pictures Triple Feature DVD
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The Movies:
Quentin Tarantino's short lived foray into the world of DVD releasing may not have lasted too long but while it was still alive, Rolling Thunder Pictures did manage to put out some pretty cool releases. Three of those releases - The Mighty Peking Man, Detroit 9000 and Switchblade Sisters are now collected for reissue on this new single disc release from Lionsgate under the title Quentin Tarantino's Rolling Thunder Pictures Triple Feature. Here's what you'll find on this DVD...
The Mighty Peking Man:
This 1977 Shaw Brothers production, also known as Goliathon, introduces us to a young man named Johnny (Danny Lee). When he finds out that his lady friend has been making the rounds with other guys, he decides to accompany an entrepreneurial type named Lu Tiem (Feng Ku) to India. Their plan is to find The Mighty Peking Man, a ...Read the entire review
Shroud - Independent Gothic Western
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The Movie:
Most independent, super low budget films tend to be in the horror genre, with their built in audiences more amenable to such fare, and forgiving of its shortcomings. Shroud is no exception to this, with the addition of an old west motif to the proceedings.Victoria Celestine (Nicole Leigh) is a young Dutch woman who has lost her husband Jonathan (Tyler Mason). Jonathan had gone to America in his work for the shadowy Nine Sabers Authority, a secret society which travels the globe fighting evil. When Victoria reads a letter from Jonathan to her father, who has died, asking for his help, she resolves to travel to the U.S. to aid her husband herself, taking along her young brother Abraham (Dylan Barth).
Their search takes them to the tiny, out of the way town of Shroud, Arizona, so small and insignificant that it's not even on the map. The town is mostly depopulated, all o...Read the entire review
Alois Nebel
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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
Wilson (Fox Cinema Archives)
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"The Declaration of Independence did not mention the questions of our day. It is of no consequence to us...."
Boring, stuffy, and disingenuous biopic of the 28th President. 20th Century-Fox's Cinema Archives, their specialty vault of hard-to-find library and cult titles, has released Wilson, the elephantine 1944 bio-epic of Woodrow Wilson, shepherded personally by Fox studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck in a haze of delirious, idealistic love (the movie's only laugh comes during the opening credits when Zanuck's name is superimposed first over the Presidential Seal), and starring Alexander Knox, Charles Coburn, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Thomas Mitchell, Ruth Nelson, Cedric Hardwicke, and Vincent Price. Directed by genial Fox hack Henry King, Wilson certainly shares one aspect with most other Hollywood biopics of that time: its on-screen creation bears little rese...Read the entire review
French Masterworks: Russian Emigres in Paris 1923-1929 - 5 Iconic Films Albatros Productions
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The Films:
In February of 1920, a group of seasoned Russian filmmakersarrived in
Mel Brooks: Make A Noise
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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 hereThe 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
LUV
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The Film:
Let's begin with the simple belief that all movies are good, except for the bad parts. Some times these bad parts are trivial and inconsequential, and don't really get in the way of enjoying a movie. Some times, however, the bad parts are big and cumbersome, and nearly impossible to overlook because they are so...well...big...and cumbersome. It's when the bad parts of a movie become so unwieldy that everything that is good about a movie--and remember, all movies are good, except for the bad parts--actually comes close to being bad. And that's kind of what's going on with Luv, an otherwise good movie that suffers from a single bad part. Unfortunately, that bad part is the story itself.Rapper-turned-actor Common stars as Vincent, an ex-convict recently released from prison, looking to go on the straight and narrow by opening his own restaurant/nightclub. Vincent is idolized...Read the entire review
30 Rock: Season Seven
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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 longThe 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
A Certain Magical Index: Season One (Part One)
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THE PROGRAMPoorly plotted, dimly animated, horribly dubbed, and ultimately giving of a feeling of pointlessness, the first half of the debut season of "A Certain Magical Index" contains all the elements of anime that turned me off the genre for years. Based on the light novel of the same name, "A Certain Magical Index" throws viewers abruptly into a hodgepodge of a world that operates on modern conventions, archaic imagery, fantastic technology, and good old fashioned occultism, often simultaneously, but lacking any real cohesiveness to the stylistic choices...at least not in time to possibly alienate viewers from investing further time into the series. The audience surrogate is Toma Kamijo, whose life as an somewhat awkward high school student gets thrown into disarray upon meeting Index, a nun whose brain, is used as a storage device (remember "Johnny Mnemonic?!") for over a hundred-t...Read the entire review
Childrens Hospital: The Complete Fourth Season
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Surprise!Well, this DVD kind of snuck up on me, anyway. But yeah...! Childrens Hospital. Season four. I guess this review is supposed to say more than that, though, so I'll keep going.
Don't be scared off by the "fourth" in the title up there. Sure, by the time shows like Archer and The Venture Bros. make it to season four, they revel in their sprawling character mythologies and backstories they've built over the years, rewarding fanatics but being kind of impenetrable to the uninitiated in the process. I mean, yeah, newcomers can still get something out of 'em and figure out a lot of the important stuff along the way, but those episodes aren't gonna play anything close to the way they do...Read the entire review
Clive of India (Fox Cinema Archives)
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More romance than action in this once well-regarded early "epic." 20th Century-Fox's Cinema Archives, their specialty vault of hard-to-find library and cult titles, has released Clive of India, the 1935 biopic from Joseph M. Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck's 20th Century Pictures, starring Ronald Colman, Loretta Young, Colin Clive (yes, a direct descendent of the movie's real-life hero), Francis Lister, C. Aubrey Smith, and Caesar Romero. Simplified, pro-British Empire history to be sure, with a not uncommon-for-the-time emphasis on studio-bound romance rather than hard-charging action, Clive of India works best today as a chance to see icons Colman and Young doing what they did best: be movie stars. No extras for this sub-par black and white transfer.
Read the entire review
Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (Sony Choice Collection)
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THE MOVIE:
Two troubled souls running from lives they'd rather not face find each other out in the world and fall in love. Such is the stuff of great romance, as well as the clich s upon which many a tepid love story fizzles. Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing, a 1973 film from writer Alvin Sargent (Ordinary People) and director Alan J. Pakula (All the President's Men) gets it about half right. They manage to fluff up their cinematic souffl long enough to whet the audience's appetite, only to have it deflate before we get a chance to dig in.