April's DVD Reviews,
Part II
Quick reviews from my Netflix queue and/or
the library.
Desperate Housewives: Season 3, Disc
6
Nice season wrap-up this time
around. Decent closure mixed with enough cliff-hangers to string
you along much in the way token gifts on anniversaries do for actual housewives.
Grey's Anatomy:
Season 2, Disc 1
Not really all that good.
Or great, I suppose if you liked the first season a whole lot. For
me, it's getting old faster than I can watch them in FFwd.
Diggers,
2006
Not so great, and this is coming
from Paul Rudd's biggest cheerleader who isn't a fat girl. It's okay,
but I saw potential in the material that the rest of the crew ironically
didn't dig for.
Turk 182!,
1985
From the director of Porkys
and
Porkys II, the idea here was a socially conscious take on Porkys.
It ends up being an series of improbable and not-terribly-imaginative pranks
to no conceivable political effect whatsoever. Oh, and no nudity,
so that's two strikes for a Bob Clark movie featuring Kim Cattrall.
Umberto D.,
1952
Hailed as one of the greatest
movies of the 20th century, it's one of the most forgettable movies of
the 20th century. I saw it about five years ago and blanked on it.
Dexter: Season
1: Disc 4, 2006
I have almost as many issues with
this series as the title character has about, well, everything, but I have
to admit that it has a quality to it that rises above most of my criticisms
and makes it more engrossing than it should be, possibly because the chick
who plays Dex's sister is hot.
Penn & Teller:
Bullsh*t!: Season 2: Disc 1, 2004
Piled higher and deeper.
It's nice to hear them publicly rip on those who most deserve it.
(Most of you and Diana in particular will enjoy the bit in here where they
go off on the Men Are From Mars guy.)
Battlestar Galactica:
Season 3: Disc 1, 2006
You know how I'm always right?
Well, I hadn't seen this show in a while, so I had some trepidation about
whether they still had the momentum to lift off from the emotional dregs
of last season. Guess what? They did and I'm still always right.
They should just change the name of the show to Battlestar Fucking Galactica
to avoid any confusion that it's COMPLETELY FUCKING AWESOME.
Tom Green: Inside
& Outside the Box: Disc 2, 1997
More of the desperate antics of
an unoriginal comic. Truth is, the desperation took him places on
stage and on the streets and wherever else there was a camera that few
were willing to attempt.
Under the Cherry
Moon, 1986
The much-maligned Prince movie
that almost no one ever saw, it's commercially unviable in that it's the
exact opposite of Purple Rain in every way: It's in black &
white; With only a couple exceptions, the songs are all but buried as background
or source music; Instead of being a tragically misunderstood introverted
character, he's an over-the-top blend of every comic film character from
the '20s through the '50s. And you know what? It's a pretty
damned good movie for all that. The one criticism I have is that
the screenplay is a bit all over the place so you can't see the story arc,
but I'm okay with that because I like not knowing where a filmmaker is
trying to take me. If nothing else, the cinematography is at least
as gorgeous as Prince thinks he is.
Knute Rockne
All American, 1940
Enjoyable enough even if you're
me and don't like football or Ronald Reagan (who's only in it for his very
famous 5 minutes, don't worry).
Ultimate Avengers:
The Movie, 2006
Animated film that follows the
re-envisioned comic book series so closely that I'd recommend just reading
the source material instead unless you're in that much of a hurry that
you're waiting for the film adaptations instead. Geez.
Cars, 2007
Remarkably awesome. I'm
not much of a Pixar fan, but this is actually good on just about every
level.
PICKS OF THE
LITTER: I rarely agree with The Office's Dwight Schrute about
anything, but if you aren't watching Battlestar Fucking Galactica,
then you're a complete idiot. Also Cars rocks and Under
the Cherry Moon deserves a chance that you never gave it the first
time you passed on watching it.
Copyright 2008
Ale[x]plorer.