Originally posted on 8/5/19   If you were watching CBS one night 50 years ago, chances are you saw the premiere of "The Carol Burnett Show." And if you were like me, you loved it and her, even though you probably didn't suspect that it would go on for another eleven years (1967-1978) and that 50 years later you'd be able to watch it all over again on DVD. Time-Life's 21-disc boxed DVD set THE BEST OF CAROL BURNETT: 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION allows us to do just that, with 60 episodes on 21 discs that also contain a wealth of bonus features, along with two illustrated menu booklets an ..read more

  Originally posted on 7/20/09   If you're trying to think of a grandiose name for two dullards trudging around in the wilderness for a couple of hours, then I guess SEVERED WAYS: THE NORSE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA (2007) is about as good as any. Orn (Tony Stone) is the lead singer for a hair-metal band, and Volnard (Fiore Tedesco) is the bass player. Okay, they aren't, but they certainly resemble that more than the badass Vikings from the year 1007 that they're supposed to be. After the rest of their party either get wiped out by the Skraelings (Native Americans) or hightail it bac ..read more

  Originally posted on 8/14/12   I was expecting the usual comic-book-level sword 'n' sandal yarn with DAMON AND PYTHIAS (1962), but this Italian/USA co-production--released by MGM--aims to be a sober, respectable historical tale and in its own relatively modest way manages to hit that mark pretty well. When the ruler of Athens dies, Pythias (Don Burnett) is sent to Syracuse to fetch his replacement, a missionary named Arcanos (Andrea Bosic) who is there preaching brotherhood and equality while being hunted by the guards of tyrannical emperor Dionysius (Arnoldo Foà).  Pythias ..read more

  Originally posted on 8/10/12   It's been a long time since I was a kid and my local TV station used to show Italian sword-and-sandal flicks on a weekly show called "Saturday Spectacular."  So I'm no expert on the genre but I can tell if an example of it is entertaining or not, and in its own blissfully hokey and cheapjack-"spectacular" way, 1963's HERCULES, SAMSON, AND ULYSSES is just that.  This briskly-paced Warner Archive Collection DVD release comes through with the action sequences we expect without too much lollygagging around in between.  It begins with Gre ..read more

(Note: this review originally appeared online in 2007.) Back in the 70s, there was this no-nonsense Tennessee lawman named Buford Pusser who got fed up with the rampant crime and corruption in his home of McNairy County and vowed to take decisive action against it, despite the cost--which eventually included his wife being killed and his jaw being shot off. Hollywood made a hit movie out of the story called WALKING TALL, which starred Joe Don Baker as Sheriff Pusser. Bo Svenson took over the role in two follow-ups, PART 2: WALKING TALL and FINAL CHAPTER: WALKING TALL, and in '04 the orig ..read more

Originally posted on 7/5/17   GAME CHANGERS (Candy Factory Films, 2016) is the story of two childhood friends, extrovert Bryan (Brian Bernys in a riveting performance) and introvert Scott (Jake Albarella), once world-famous gaming superstars in their youth but now settling into a relatively uneventful adulthood doing computer stuff in Bryan's family IT company. But after sort of a mid-youth crisis, Bryan decides to go all-out in an effort to get that old magic back, build up a young crew of hardcore gamers led by himself and Scott, and take on the gaming world again.  Can he suc ..read more

 What if the Death Star attack finale in "Star Wars"... ...had the classic James Horner countdown music from "Aliens"? This is what it might sound like. The Star Wars no-music segment used in this video was created as a sound editing experiment by YouTube user If Blank Directed Blank.   Originally posted on 4/29/21 I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!   ..read more

Originally posted on 6/27/17   If you took GROUNDHOG DAY, removed the comedy, and replaced Bill Murray with a young couple whose relationship is on its last legs and in need of some serious revising, you'd have something like the romantic drama LIFE OF SIGNIFICANT SOIL (2016). Charlotte Bydwell is Addison, an aspiring dancer whose aspirations have dissolved into the malaise that is her relationship with Conor (Alexis Mouyiaris), an irresponsible, self-centered manchild who takes her for granted. Con wants the stability of his life with Add, while maintaining a steady sex life with Ja ..read more

An interesting thing about documentaries is that you can like a documentary and think it's a good one even if you don't buy its message.  Which is the exactly the case with me and SAVING BANKSY (Candy Factory Films, 2017).  I like it and I think it's really good, but I think the message it's trying to convey is pretty much a load of hooey. Not that the film is too painfully one-sided in its portrayal of street art/graffiti as sort of a people's art form and Banksy, the mysterious, unknown maestro who reigns as its most celebrated purveyor, as a noble folk hero.  Yes, the cau ..read more

  Originally posted on 5/22/16   It looks like it's going to be one of those "predicament" stories like THE REEF or OPEN WATER, and more specifically like another go at Stephen King's "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" but with a grown-up girl lost in the woods this time instead of a little one. But it isn't.  Hoo boy, is it not. The aptly-titled GIRL IN WOODS (Candy Factory Films, 2016) is about Grace (Juliet Reeves, AUTOMATON TRANSFUSION, LAY THE FAVORITE), who probably doesn't even know who Tom Gordon is and wouldn't be out there in the first place if her boyfriend Jim (Ree ..read more