Tag Archives: TV

Heroes: Season 1

Loyal readers should not be surprised that I would like this series.  After all, it has to do with superheroes.  But not the type you would typically find in comic books.

Heroes is done in the vein of Unbreakable, where ordinary people discover they have powers.  Tim Kring does a great job of setting up a universe within our existing world where it seems logical and possible for these things to happen.

The box set has the entire first season, plus the original pilot that was never aired.

My advice: If you are not watching the show now, get caught up with this set and then get caught up with the second season.

The Rat Pack

Joey Bishop’s passing this week influenced my choice for a DVD that you might have seen originally, but have forgotten about.

In the 90’s, HBO decided to start making movies instead of just showing them.  In 1998, HBO released The Rat Pack.  This was a movie that highlighted the height of popularity of Sinatra and his crew, as well his association with JFK and the mob.  After its release, there was a lot of controversy that it painted Sinatra in a bad light and that it was sensational.  It is unfortunate that the movie was caught up in all of this, because it was a much deeper film than that.

The Rat Pack can be seen as really three stories: the pressures of Sinatra, the racism that Sammy Davis, Jr., faced, and the election of JFK and how that impacted the young president’s actions.  Each story is blended well and given the right amount of room to flourish.

As with most movies I like, casting plays a big key here.  The men playing Sinatra, Martin, and Davis were born to play these roles.  Don Cheadle won a Golden Globe for his performance as Sammy Davis, Jr., and I have to say that it is because of this role that I look for him in other films.  Ray Liotta was simply perfect in displaying the range of emotions and demons that tormented Sinatra; the only role he might have been better in was in Goodfellas.  Joe Mantegna made it seem as if Deano had come back to life (Side Note: soon after this movie, there was talk of having Joe do a bio-pic of Dean Martin — too bad it never happened).  William Peterson played a President before running to Vegas to play a CSI detective.

Unfortunately, the DVD has no extras to speak of — Maybe HBO will do something special next year for a tenth anniversary release.

My advice: Do not put off seeing this movie.  The music will take you back, and the stories will keep you engaged.  Curl up with your favorite dame and spend an evening with The Rat Pack…

The New Animated Adventures of Bat-Man

When I did my review of Looney Tunes: Back in Action, I discussed my Saturday morning ritual cartoon watching.  From 1977-1980, one of my absolute favorites was the Filmation series of Batman cartoons.  So imagine my happiness now to see them released in a box set on DVD.

I bought them the first week out and watched some of the episodes.  While the flaws are more visible to me now, there was a sense of nostalgia  that enveloped me while watching them.  Of course the biggest annoyance then and now was the introduction of Bat-Mite, a poor man’s Great Kazoo.

The key to remember is that this is the Batman of the 70’s — Frank Miller and Tim Burton had not yet created their dark versions of the Dark Knight.  In this series, the villains are shown as buffoons out for some fun.

Not a lot of extras on thise set — Warners did this set cheaply.

My advice:  If you grew up on this, let your inner child out some and catch a couple of episodes…

To Thumb or Not To Thumb…

For anyone born in the 70’s, you grew up, as I did, knowing what “Two Thumbs Up” meant. Siskel and Ebert, along with Joel Siegel and the guy on Crook and Chase (whose name escapes me and IMDB is not helping with), helped form a broad spectrum of reviewers I trusted. Like many others, I was saddened when Gene Siskel passed away, but was glad that Roger Ebert chose to carry on.

Lately, Roger has been sidelined due to medical reasons, but the show continues. It was with sadness that I saw mention on Ain’t It Cool News and Roger Moore’s blog about the removal of the thumbs from the show.

Here is the statement from Roger Ebert’s site regarding the issue:

Ebert’s Statement re: Thumbs™

/ / / August 24, 2007

Roger Ebert’s statement in response to a recent Disney press release:

I am discussing with Disney my association with the show that Gene Siskel and I started more than 30 years ago. In addition to my personal involvement, we are discussing the continued use of our Thumbs™ trademarks, owned by myself and the Siskel family.

Contrary to Disney’s press release, I did not demand the removal of the Thumbs™. They made a first offer on Friday which I considered offensively low. I responded with a counter-offer. They did not reply to this, and on Monday ordered the Thumbs™ removed from the show. This is not something I expected after an association of over 22 years. I had made it clear the Thumbs™ could remain during good-faith negotiations.

During my absence from the balcony, I have been excited to participate in the show in ways other than being on the set. I love the show and I love the Thumbs™ and I hope we will all be reunited soon.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070824/EDITOR/70825001

I agree with Roger’s last line — “I hope we will all be reunited soon.”

Serenity

In a previous review, I discussed the television series Firefly.  Serenity is the movie that was made two years after Fox canceled the series.

Joss Whedon had an interesting dilemma — create a movie that anyone could see without having to see the TV series, while adding new stuff for those who did see the show. Given that task, I think he did a decent balancing job.

He brought back the original actors, some with slightly different situations.  He did a good job of wrapping up some loose ends from the show and the ending was satisfactory.  I may not have liked where some characters ended up, but then it was not my story to tell — that may be because I watched the series immediately before watching the movie.

The DVD includes:

  • deleted scenes
  • audio commentaries
  • documentaries

My advice:  enjoyable.  If you are wanting something that is not your typical sci-fi movie, then check this one out…