Posts Tagged ‘Warner Archive’

DVD Review: Alice – The Complete Second Season

Posted: 22 February, 2013 in Movies/TV, TV
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DVD Review: Alice – The Complete Second Season

Article first published as DVD Review: Alice – The Complete Second Season on Blogcritics.

It always seems like it was just yesterday to me when I sat on my grandparent’s ugly green carpet night after night watching Alice on our already-archaic tube television set. When the Warner Archive Collection unleashed the first season of the barely recognizable spin-off of Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore last year, it enabled me — as well as millions of other viewers who fondly (or even uncaringly remembered the program) — to revisit our memories of the show, for better or for worse. A few short months later, Warner packaged together Alice: The Complete Second Season for us to enjoy. Or not, as the case may be for some. (more…)

Lili DVD Review: When Is a Musical Not a Musical?

Posted: 30 November, 2012 in Movies/TV
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Lili DVD Review: When Is a Musical Not a Musical?

Question: When is a musical motion picture actually not a musical, despite the fact that it contains every cinematic musical element contained within the confines of its short 81-minute runtime? Answer: When it’s Lili. One of many Technicolor MGM romantic dramas with singing added produced during that bodacious period of filmmaking when audiences actually craved such things, Lili tells the tale of a young naïve country French lass named Lili (Leslie Caron, still riding on the success of An American in Paris) who follows a handsome fellow (Jean-Pierre Aumont) around one afternoon after he saves her from a lecherous shopkeeper. Read the rest of this entry »

*DVD Review* The Heathcliff and Dingbat Show

Posted: 17 October, 2012 in Movies/TV, TV
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DVD Review: The Heathcliff and Dingbat Show

Article first published as DVD Review: The Heathcliff and Dingbat Show on Blogcritics.

As a kid, I had an almost unhealthy affection for Jim Davis’ Garfield. In fact, I was so taken in by the lazy, fat, comic strip (and later, cartoon) character that I felt a certain amount of animosity towards what I considered to be a lame Garfield rip-off: something called Heathcliff. Naturally, I was mistaken about which character came first, though by the time I hit puberty, I had reached that point where I really didn’t care one way or another for either creation. Here I am years later — still just as immature — but with a decidedly open mind towards the fictional feline I had once cast aside as inferior. (more…)

Confessions of an Opium Eater DVD Review: Would You Like a Side of Beef, or a Side of Man?

Posted: 15 October, 2012 in Movies/TV
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Confessions of an Opium Eater DVD Review: Would You Like a Side of Beef, or a Side of Man?

By 1962, motion picture producer Albert Zugsmith had been far removed from the Universal science fiction classics that he will forever be remembered for with “serious” moviegoers (i.e. The Incredible Shrinking Man) and returned to what was best at: making cheap, independent exploitation flicks. The Allied Artists release Confessions of an Opium Eater is a prime slice of beef (or is it a slice of man, to mock a corny philosophical conversation that takes place within the confines of the film) wherein we learn one truly important thing: casting Vincent Price as a “good guy” action hero was a sure sign of some drug use in itself.

[Read the rest at Cinema Sentries.]

Hercules, Samson and Ulysses [Ercole sfida Sansone] DVD Review: Sea Monsters! Lion Strangling! Hamstrings!

Posted: 19 August, 2012 in Movies/TV
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Hercules, Samson and Ulysses [Ercole sfida Sansone] DVD Review: Sea Monsters! Lion Strangling! Hamstrings!

Though filmed in 1963, Pietro Francisci’s final contribution to the peplum (sword and sandal) genre — a little ditty called Hercules, Samson and Ulysses (aka Ercole sfida Sansone) — didn’t make it to screens in the U.S. until 1965, by which time the macho muscleman movie craze had all but ended all over the globe. I suppose it’s not such a bad thing, though, since this offering probably seemed just as routine to audiences then as it does to me today. Of course, that’s not a bad thing, as we only watch these movies for one reason alone: prime Italian beef and cheese.

[Read the rest at Cinema Sentries.]

*DVD Review* Alice: The Complete First Season

Posted: 23 July, 2012 in Movies/TV, TV
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DVD Review: Alice – The Complete First Season

Article first published as DVD Review: Alice – The Complete First Season on Blogcritics.

Once again, the folks at the Warner Archive Collection have pulled out a relic from the past which — for one reason or another — meant something to me during my youth. In the case of Alice: The Complete First Season, I am reminded of sitting up during the later part of evenings with my grandparents watching television, laughing at the onscreen hijinks of the staff of Mel’s Diner. Of course, I have grown up significantly since then (well, a bit) when it comes to my taste and experience in the departments of film and television, so checking out Alice again after all these years had the potential of being a bittersweet experiment. (more…)

*DVD Review* The Journey (1959)

Posted: 23 July, 2012 in Movies/TV
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DVD Review: The Journey (1959)

Article first published as DVD Review: The Journey (1959) on Blogcritics.

In 1956, cinematic history was born as two very powerful leading performers — Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr — were united as The King and I. Three years later, MGM decided to bring these two commanding stars back together for another motion picture outing: a little ditty called The Journey. Sadly, the end-result does not appear to have been as productive as all who were involved in it probably would have hoped for, since the movie wound up falling in the cracks of time several years down the road — only now finding its way to home video in the United States as a Manufactured-on-Demand gem from the Warner Archive Collection. (more…)

The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan: The Complete Series DVD Review: Wham-Bam, They’re in a Jam!

Posted: 16 July, 2012 in Movies/TV, TV
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The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan: The Complete Series DVD Review: Wham-Bam, They’re in a Jam!

Ever since his very first moving picture appearance in the now-lost 1926 film The House Without a Key, Charlie Chan had only ever been portrayed by an actor of Chinese descent but once — and that was in the 1972 Hanna-Barbera cartoon, The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan. Veteran Hollywood actor Keye Luke — a character actor fondly remembered by many as Lee Chan, the Number One Son to Charlie Chan in several Fox and Monogram mysteries made between 1935 and 1948 — escalated up the ranks to portray Mr. Chan himself.

[Read the rest at Cinema Sentries.]

*DVD Review* Abbott And Costello Meet Captain Kidd

Posted: 7 May, 2011 in Movies/TV
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DVD Review: Abbott And Costello Meet Captain Kidd

Article first published as DVD Review: Abbott And Costello Meet Captain Kidd on Blogcritics.

In the late ‘90s, the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) came into power. It replaced the previous lordship, Vertical Helix Scan (better known as “VHS”) as the reigning king of the home video market, making the videocassette format as obsolete as an honest politician. Unfortunately for some, there were many titles that had been available on VHS that never made it to disc once the new resident of the throne took over. One such title was Abbott And Costello Meet Captain Kidd (known to some fans as “A&CMCK”), which later became something of a holy grail with Bud & Lou fans after VHS was superseded — with original videocassette copies reportedly selling for as much as $100 (or better) on sites such as eBay and Amazon amongst some very eager collectors.
(more…)

*DVD Review* The Learning Tree

Posted: 15 March, 2011 in Movies/TV
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DVD Review: The Learning Tree

Article first published as DVD Review: The Learning Tree on Blogcritics.

Making that awkward transition from a boy to a man isn’t easy for any member of the male species. For some, the changeover never fully occurs (if at all) — and a few lads go through life as manchildren, to wit they find easy employment in the field of comedy or politics. Other fellers, though, are forced to grow up all too quickly in life. Now, imagine going through that whole difficult evolution in life as a poor African American boy in rural Kansas in the 1920s, amid the racial intolerance that was lawfully permissible at that point in time.
(more…)

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