The more Hollywood turns to comic books, board games, and Disneyland rides for story material, the more we need filmmakers like Henry Jaglom. Beginning with A Safe Face (1971), Jaglom carved a niche making smallish independent movies uniquely his. He's probably best known for his ensemble, female-dominated films revolving around a particular subject: women's relationship with food in Eating (1990), biological clock-ticking in Babyfever (1995), being single in Someone to Love (1987), recognizing a turning point and moving on with New Year's Day (1989). His movies famously allow actors the freedom to improvise, drawing from their own lives and emotions, sometimes intensely personal raw material buried deep. Yes, they're still working from scripts that define character arcs and move their fictional characters from one place to another, but most of Jaglom's actors find wo...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Pete Holmes makes it weird

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Pete Holmes, Stand-Up Comedy
Likes: You Made it Weird/
Dislikes: Being single
Hates: Homophobia

The Show
Most people know Pete Holmes from one of two things, and they probably don't even know they know him from the one. Holmes is the host of a brilliant conversational postcast on the Nerdist network, You Made it Weird, where he talks to funny and/or interesting people about a variety of subjects and sometimes/often gets rather deep. But he's also the voice of the e-Trade baby, so he is something of a renaissance manbaby. I'd never really checked out his stand-up before, but knew he was hilarious, so this new special was the ...Read the entire review

The (Final) Season:

The Movies:

Scorpion Releasing, as part of their Katarina's Nightmare Theater line, release a double feature of Australian cult/thriller movies

The Dreaming:

Directed by Mario Andreacchio and released theatrically in 1988, The Dreaming was originally put out on DVD years back by Elite Entertainment and now it lives again. This is an odd one. Four hundred years ago, a group of whale fisherman lands ashore the sandy beaches of Australia and lay waste to a few aboriginal types. Skip to the present day, well 1988 at least, an Australian archeologist named Professor Bernard Thornton (Arthur Dignam) out on an expedition opens up a tomb and unleashes the spirits of the now long dead fisherman who quickly possess her body.

When a few of the artifacts from the tomb find their way into a local museum, distant relatives of the aboriginal people killed at the begi...Read the entire review

The Show:

For all of the comedies on HBO that I am aware of and/or watch, not only did I not know about the animated incarnation titled The Life & Times of Tim, but that it ran for several seasons, with the last completing its three season run in early 2012. The show includes an amalgamation of voices new and familiar in the show's brief history. With the final episodes now on video, we can take one final stroll through Tim's stories.

For those unfamiliar with the show, Tim is voiced by Steve Dildarian, whose animated Angry Unpaid Hooker short was the inspiration for the show. Tim works in New York and has a girlfriend named Amy (M.J. Otto), and Tim tends make really dumb decisions, sprinkles on some lies and bravado and eventually winds up in some Gervais-like situations that easily make one cringe. Tim's friends are Stu (Nick Kroll, Read the entire review

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

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

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

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

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

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 films

The 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

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

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

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

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 Gray

The 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

I'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

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 watch

The 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

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

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 ska

The 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