Dante’s Inferno is an unusual direct-to-DVD release for two reasons: it’s only the second film tie-in to a videogame released the same day, and both adapt [very freely] Dante Alighieri’s epic poem of the same name. In the poem, Dante, more of a scholar than a fighter, finds his way into hell to save the […]
Category: DVD
DVD REVIEW: Becker: The Third Season – Before House, There Was Becker!
I have no idea if David Shore was influenced by Becker when he was creating Dr. Gregory House, but as I screened the third season of Becker, I couldn’t help but think that it wouldn’t have taken much to turn Ted Danson’s second hit series [six seasons] into a drama.
DVD REVIEW: Aziz Ansari: Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening – Sorry, Dude, Vulgarity Requires More Than Volume!
Lenny Bruce went to jail for taking street language onstage and giving it a context. Richard Pryor went to jail for drugs – and giving vulgarity music. George Carlin took a more philosophical approach but still got arrested. By the time that David Milch’s Deadwood gave vulgarity a Shakespearean poetry, the days of jail time […]
Glee Season 1, Volume 1: Road to Sectionals DVD is Awesome, Michelle’s Review
I’ll admit I’m a late with my review of Glee Season 1, Volume 1: The Road To Sectionals. I was actually afraid to watch it, Glee was my favorite show of the fall and I honestly didn’t think it’d hold up to repeat viewing, I’m glad to be wrong. I watched a few minutes of […]
DVD REVIEW: The House of the Devil – Old School Thriller!
The House of the Devil opens with a graphic card that claims seventy per cent of American adults in the ‘80s believed that there were Satanic cults that abducted and sacrificed people – and that thirty per cent believed that we didn’t hear about because of a government cover up. So, we know going that […]
DVD REVIEW: Trucker – Michelle Monaghan Powers Indie Fractured Family Drama!
Diane Ford [Michelle Monaghan] is a truck driver, who has a reputation for always delivering early. She’s just paid off her big rig when she gets what seems to be a nasty surprise: her ex-husband’s current flame drops of her eleven-year old son. Neither Diane nor Peter [Jimmy Bennett] is particularly thrilled by this. What […]
TVonDVD: Callan – Set 2: British Cold War Spy Series is Chilling!
Beginning in 1967, Callan, starring Edward Woodward – best known for The Equalizer and the original The Wicker Man – portrayed David Callan on a spy series that was as dark as the Cold War. Callan was, as he puts it, “a sergeant who was promoted to private,” before he was forced out of the […]
DVD REVIEW: Ghost in the Shell 2.0 – Enhanced Original Is Entertaining But Is It Really Necessary?
I love Ghost in the Shell, its sequel, Ghost in the Shell: Innocence and the two seasons of the GitS TV series [all available here on DVD]. The original Ghost in the Shell was filled with great ideas and set in a world that, other than the cyber-technology, looked a lot like this one. Part […]
DVD Review: Taxi: The Final Season – The Sunshine Cab Co. Lives On…
Over the course of its five-year run, Taxi was one of the best-loved sitcoms in North America because its comedy was derived from the creation and development of characters who were fleshed out and felt real – even [or maybe especially] the burnt out, but warm-hearted “Reverend Jim” Ignatowski [Christopher Lloyd] and the Gravases, Latka […]
TVonDVD: United States of Tara: the FIRST season; Great Show; Lacklustre Features!
Tara Gregson [Toni Collette] is a struggling artist/designer with a charming husband, Max [John Corbett] and two kids – studious Marshall [Kier Gilchrist] and uber-brat Kate [Brie Larson]. She also has four more personalities [slutty teen, T; macho redneck Buck; super Betty Crocker, Alice, and a more primal figure, Gimme] – and a sister, Charmaine […]
DVD: Paranormal Activity Is Just As Creepy On The Small Scream; I Mean, Screen!
By now, pretty much the entire North American population is aware that Paranormal Activity – the little movie that could – was shot on a budget of $15,000. College and midnight screenings were packed and the response was almost universally good, so Paramount Pictures – after kudos by people like Steven Spielberg – decided to […]