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

Read the entire review

THE FILM

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

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

THE SHOW

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

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

The Series:

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

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

THE MOVIE:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Show:

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

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

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

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

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

THE GAME

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Shows

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

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

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

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

The Movie:
After having recently reviewed Operation Valkyrie for DVDTalk, I thought it might be interesting to get another take on the same subject. Killing Hitler, alas, is somewhat lackluster when compared to the other documentary, and indeed spends most of its time doing a creditable job giving history and background of Hitler's reign of terror for over a decade before the actual Stauffenberg plot was put into motion. While there's nothing really wrong with Killing Hitler, it has a certain amateurish quality that makes it my second choice in recently released DVDs about this infamous plot.

You know you're in for a bit of a rough road when Killing Hitler's British narrator pronounces Valkyrie "val-KIE-ree," and unfortunately that's a portent of things to come. As in Operation Valkyrie, we're presented both dramatic reenactments of events as well as in...Read the entire review

Guyver has a long history in the world of anime and beyond. It all started back in 1985 when Yoshiki Takaya created the Bio Boosted Armor Guyver manga. Since then the franchise has gone on to have an OVA and some live-action releases, but more recently Guyver: The Bioboosted Armor was released in 2005. This 26 episode was one of the titles originally released by ADV that was picked up by FUNimation during the latest licensing shift. Like most other titles of this manner released by FUNimation Guyver gets a complete boxed set rather than individual volumes.

There's no denying Guyver's popularity in Japan, but its celebrity status here in the States isn't quite as impressive. The live action offerings have left something to be desired and the original OVA is appreciated solely by lovers of the sci-fi genre who don't mind ample amoun...Read the entire review

The Beach Boys And The Satan:
I thought it, Don Was said it, and this hour-long German TV program had it in mind all along. What a bummer, man, is all I can say. Youngsters might not get this, except for my bro Felix, an old soul if ever I knew one, and I'm just a wannabe too, but many of my heroes lived it, and like HST saw that salty limning, where the high-cresting wave of the Summer of Love '60s broke and sucked back into the sea.

Something of a German version of VH1's Behind The Music, Pop Odyssey in 1997 put together Der Beach Boys Und Der Satan, (the German title) a programmatic version of a salt lick for you cows of '60s music (I'm one). It means if you like to ruminate on musical glories gone by, of a particularly surf-y variety, you'll giddily lap up this offering, no matter how schooled in the matter you are. Or maybe not; I've certainly heard or read plenty of what's presented i...Read the entire review

Meet Joe, the fastest gun in town. He'll outdraw you any day, any time. Using a single action revolver, he can take down two men before they even reach their triggers. He's born to be a gunslinger in the old west - but this ain't the old west, and Joe ain't no cowboy.

"Cowboy Smoke" bills itself as "a modern western," and just watch how writer/director Will Moore builds on such a premise. His hero, Joe (played by Mike Lutz), is a suburban rube, his quick draw honed from years of playing video games, his knowledge of the cowboy life culled from countless hours spent watching old Eastwood flicks. For a while, the film treats Joe's story with a lighthearted flair: fired from his convenience store job, the poor guy hoofs it to south Texas, where he dreams of landing a job as a real-life cowboy - only to discover he's not cut out for the mundane work of the modern rancher. Here, Moore takes the expec...Read the entire review

The Movie:

When Twisted Sister returned to play London, England in 2004 after not having graced those shores for over eighteen years, cameras were there to record the show for a pay per view event. The results? The aptly titled Twisted Sister - Live At The Astoria DVD, from Demolition Records.

Made up of all five members from the band's best known line up - Dee Snider, Jay Jay French, Mark 'The Animal' Mendoza, A.J. Pero and Eddie Ojeda - this concert proves that while the band is probably best known for their eighties hits like 'We're Not Gonna Take It' and 'You Can't Stop Rock N Roll' they're still a powerful live act, even if they're all into their fifties now. From the time they take the stage and open up with a fast and heavy rendition of 'What You Don't Know' to the time they walk of the stage after a tireless an anthemic rendition of 'S.M.F.' this concert serves as a...Read the entire review

Review:

A Disney Channel series that ran from 2005-2006 and was produced in Canada, "Life With Derek" most resembles a modern "Brady Bunch", taking the structure of the classic with a modern setting and attitudes - rather than making any sort of attempt to get along, the children constantly bicker with one another and try to set boundaries in a house that seems awfully small.

The series focuses on George (John Ralston) and Nora (Joy Tanner), two adults who get married and bring children to the table: he has Derek; Edwin and Marti, while Nora has two daughters - Casey and Lizzie - who aren't thrilled at the prospects of moving into George's now smaller house. While the children don't always get along, the battle is largely between Derek (Michael Seater) and Casey (Ashley Leggat). While the parents have never been happier, the oldest children who can't go a few minutes without a sq...Read the entire review

The Film:
There is an undeniable disparity between mainstream films (those films produced for a largely white audience), and those movies produced primarily for an African-American audience. That's not to say that mainstream movies aren't insipidly insulting the intelligence of the audience, because Hollywood certainly cranks out more than its fair share of stupid shit. But for every moronic movie catered to a mainstream audience, there are intelligent films to counterbalance the dumb garbage. In terms of holiday fare, for every The Santa Clause 3 there are films like It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street and Die Hard. But when it comes to lighthearted holiday fare targeted towards a black audience, for every steaming turd like The Perfect Holiday you have absolutely nothing.

Morris Chestnut stars as Benjamin Armstrong, a struggling song writer wo...Read the entire review

Never got into karaoke so much myself. I mean, screeching into a mic while some tinny, Muzak version of "Don't Stop Believin'" buzzes around in the background...? What's the fun in that? Punk Rock Karaoke isn't some goofy little TV and a thick booklet rattling off a bunch of keyboard instrumentals, though. The line-up's shuffled around since the whole thing was first thrown together back in '96, but the current group includes Eric Melvin (NOFX), Greg Hetson (Bad Religion), Steve Soto (The Adolescents), and Derek O'Brien (Social Distortion). Fans who hit the show dig through a list of sixty or so songs from '76 to '83, grab a mic, and scream the lyrics while the band tears through 'em.

So...yeah. This DVD/CD set is kind of the home game version. The CD features ten studio recordings with the Punk Rock Karaoke house band and a revolving door of punk singers, including the frontmen from Penn...Read the entire review

The Movie:

I'm not sure if he had this in mind, but releasing the complete early seasons of Saturday Night Live may have been the best thing producer Lorne Michaels could have done to bolster the reputation of his more recent casts. A golden haze has fallen over that original cast, based on the tremendous number of talented people within (Belushi, Aykroyd, Radner, Murray, Chase), the groundbreaking feel of those first seasons, and the fond memories of their explosively funny sketches.

The trouble with that theory is that we're remembering the original show on a highlight reel; it is easy (especially for those of us who were not yet old enough to watch) to think that every single sketch in every episode was a "Bass-O-Matic" or a "Samurai Delicatessen."

But the truth of the matter is, that simply wasn't the case. Most episodes have one or two great sketches, a couple of ...Read the entire review

Background: When most people think of anime, they seem to concentrate on shows with large robots clashing, humanized animals, supernatural or even science fiction themes but fans know it encompasses a lot more than that too. The trouble is that most media moguls or domestic companies involved with anime tend to play things conservatively, importing shows that already have large followings in order to maximize their profits. One company that has repeatedly bucked these trends is AnimEigo, sometimes referred to as the "Criterion of anime" or more accurately, "the best company for quality anime overlooked by the big boys". Needless to say, when they obtain a license for a show it becomes news all over the globe, their latest bo...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Director Ray Danton's 1975 Psychic Killer stars a strangely compelling Jim Hutton as a man named Arnold Masters, a man who prefers to be alone and lives the lonely life of a recluse. This makes him the perfect patsy and soon enough he's locked up inside a mental hospital for the murder of a doctor that he didn't commit. While he's imprisoned, his elderly mother dies (Diane Deininger), a victim of the neglect that would have been avoided had her son been able to care for her. This sends Arnold over the edge, and he soon teaches himself the mystic art of astral projection, thanks to a powerful medallion on that he inherits, which allows him to get revenge for his wrongful imprisonment and for his mother's death. Even when Arnold's been released after the real murderer has been found, his thirst for vengeance is strong, and his alibi always rock solid.

A pair of loc...Read the entire review

The Show:

The Ramones were arguably the greatest rock 'n' roll band of all time. At the very least, the four guys from Queens -- Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy (they all adopted the surname Ramone) -- injected a blast of desperately needed raucousness amid the artsy and easy-listening detritus that so pervaded Seventies-era radio. Sporting black leather jackets, bad haircuts and an all-around thuggish look, the Ramones helped launch the punk movement and its concomitant return to stripped-down, three-chord rock.

Unlike some of the punk outfits that emerged from London and Los Angeles, however, the Ramones were refreshingly pretension-free. Their music was energetic, humorous, self-effacing and (horror of horrors) fun, characterized by such title-says-it-all songs as "I Wanna Be Sedated," "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" and "Teenage Lobotomy" The group's legacy is commemorated in Too ...Read the entire review

Olivier Assayas' Irma Vep disappointed the people I saw it with. The poster showing Maggie Cheung in a black leather costume was enough to get us all interested, but the film turned out not to be a comic strip movie, or even an action picture. It's instead a portrait of Parisian filmmaking at a specific time and place. Francois Truffaut's Day for Night followed a film crew trying to shoot a romantic picture under trying circumstances. Assayas' picture is about the fragments of French filmmaking still remaining, and the filmmakers' attitude to their own heritage. A company comes together to shoot a remake of a pre-WW1 French serial called Les Vampires, a surrealist classic by Louis Feuillade. The idea sounds great, as one of the main characters in the story is Irma Vep,...Read the entire review