12/31/2011

Monkey Monkey Bottle of Beer, How Many Monkeys Have We Here? (Broadway Theatre Archive) (1974) Review

Monkey Monkey Bottle of Beer, How Many Monkeys Have We Here (Broadway Theatre Archive)  (1974)
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The title for this play originates from a counting nursery rhyme that indicates who is "it" or "out", so, it may seem apropropriate for the theme of the play. Five women arrive separately to the basement of a hospital to learn the results of an experiment conducted on their mentally challenged 8-year olds. Little is known to the women regarding the experiment, except that it is "needle to the brain with no pain." So, no one knows how the experiment turned out, which of their sons could be improved or worse. Therefore, the title of counting rhyme may indicate one or another's son may have a different outcome.
The setting is the basement of a hospital, and we listen as the five woman sit in a circle, taking her place, and waiting to be called for the doctor. As they wait in closeness, the women's personalities are soon revealed, why they are in the program, their personal issues, attitudes, doubts, finances, fears, etc. There is some dramatic confrontation. So, the gist of the play is mostly that, sitting, chatting, confronting, while waiting.
The character roles are well-defined in the short time we learn about them, and, the acting is well-done. Toward the end, one woman meets with her 8-year old, and realizes he is changed. However, the kid, about 8 years old is not a good actor and unfortunately he had more than enough lines. His acting was so forced and on the brink of noticeable and irritating. It was highly distracting to the work.
Other than that, the play was nothing too memorable. Playwright Marsha Steiness, who has written about 5 plays, is new to me. ........Rizzo.


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Stage Fright (1987) Review

Stage Fright (1987)
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This is the debut film of Michele Soavi, director of the classic Cemetery Man. Soavi, who worked as assistant director to Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava among others, has crafted an intense and stylish slasher about an escaped homicidal maniac stalking the cast and crew of a musical that have decided to base their play on him. With brutally gory scares and an overpowering claustrophobic atmosphere, this has some stunning sequences that outshine many of its American counterparts that came out in the 80's (especially in a scene where one of the castmembers must retrieve a key, in order to escape, from underneath the killers feet!). Look for John Morghen (Gates Of Hell, Make Them Die Slowly) in a small role. This release from Anchor Bay is a great transfer (restored from original Rome vault materials) and is totally uncut.
On a side note- Director Terry Gilliam met Soavi at the Brussels Fantasy Film Festival where Stagefright was being shown.He liked this film so much that he made Soavi a 2nd unit director on his next film-The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen.

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Oedipus Rex (1957) Review

Oedipus Rex (1957)
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This version of "Oedipus Rex" is Sir Tyrone Guthrie's famous 1957 production, which had the actors wearing masks just as the ancient Greeks did when first performing this classic tragedy by Sophocles. The masks, designed by Tanya Moisewitsch and Jacqueline Cundall, are slightly oversized and quite stylized: Oedipus (Douglas Campbell) wears a gold mask with a crown atop and a golden cloak; blind Tiresias (Donald Davis) appears entirely in white; each of the members of the chorus has a distinctive mask as one of the old men of Thebes. As befits the masks and costumes, there is a stylized formality to the acting. No one would argue that this is how the play was first performed in ancient Athens but it does suggest the general approach to Greek tragedy.
The story is well known to most audience, but attention should still be paid because the key to the Sophocles version of the tale is that the prophecy from Delphi that was told to the king and queen of Thebes is not the same that was told to Oedipus years later. A plague has come to Thebes and Creon (Douglas Rain) has returned from Delphi with word from Apollo. Creon is the brother to Jocasta (Eleanor Stuart), wife of Oedipus the king as she had been the wife of king Laius before him. He reports that the gods are angry that the murderer of Laius has not been brought to justice. Oedipus vows to do so and utters a curse upon the unknown killer. But when Oedipus demands that Tiresias reveal the identity of the killer, the blind prophet of Thebes says the king is the very man he seeks. Thus the primal crime of the man who killed his father and married his mother is reveal step by tragic step.
The English translation is by the poet William Butler Yeats, which provides its own touch of the classical for the language of the play, which has been cut down to 90 minutes for this filmed version (which is essentially of the stage production); there is also so additional dialogue, primarily an introduction by the Chorus that provides an introduction to Oedipus as the hero who bested the Sphinx and saved Thebes. There is also an introduction by an actor before the play that explains the basic idea of Greek tragedy and also draws a connection between the story of Oedipus and the Christian sacrament of communion. I like a more naturalistic approach, even with Greek tragedies, but there is something compelling about this particular production. Because this is a streamlined version of "Oedipus Rex," viewers will get a good idea of the basic structure of a Greek play, and at 90-minutes in length you can show the film in two standard class periods.
Final Note: The part of the Priest in this Canadian production is played by a very young William Shatner, not that you can tell because he is wearing a mask. This is rather ironic given that the world would come full circle when a painted William Shatner/Captain Kirk mask was used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" film, which would sort of be a contemporary Greek tragedy in a lot of ways.

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12/30/2011

Farewell to Harry Review

Farewell to Harry
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This movie has all the hallmarks of a well-acted, well-produced indie film, but it missed its target for me somehow. I was distracted by its slight anachronistic feel; the film almost had a 1940s texture to it, but appeared to be taking place in more modern times -- it was difficult to tell. Regardless, Joe Flanigan as the writer Nick charms with a pitch-perfect performance, so for that alone, the film is worth a viewing.

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This award-winning film is a sweetly nostalgic small town drama in the tradition of The Majestic. Nick (Joe Flanigan) returns to his Pacific Northwest hometown to write a novel. He finds the story of a lifetime when he forms an unexpected friendship with Harry (William Hall, Jr.). A local legend, Harry is the owner of a run-down hat factory, where he passes his days mired in the past and drowning in whiskey. Nick, who works part-time as the projectionist at the town's old fashioned movie palace, is determined to restore the factory, and offers Harry one last, precious chance at redemption .

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Muppet Show - Monster Laughs with Vincent Price (1976) Review

Muppet Show - Monster Laughs with Vincent Price  (1976)
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I saw this episode when it originally aired in the states. Although Vincent Price does appear, the real guest for this one was Alice Cooper. Setting aside the shock-effect of his concerts, Alice and crew went for truly monster-laughs. Using Alice's "Welcome to My Nightmare" to set the mood, Jim Henson and company had the perfect opportunity to go wild with the camp-scare monsters. This must be the most fun episode of the Muppet Show ever done. Alice Cooper fans have been tracking this one down wherever possible. When it's available again, don't miss it! (PS: Save a CASE for me)

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The Duchess of Duke Street - Series 2 (1979) Review

The Duchess of Duke Street - Series 2 (1979)
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Excellent chance to watch again a programme that truley shows the 2 tier system of victorian england.It is remarkable the indifference shown to those consisdered to be in the poorer classes and how they were manipluted,but with Louisa Trotter there was a difference,she plays the game to her on benefit,but never dening her past.Inter woven in these video's is a remarkable love story that if it were to happen to day,the ending would have been very different.Louisa Trotter is an example of what makes a hotel/cafe/restaurant a sucess,it is not just the product,but the charactor behind it that makes the difference. I have watched this several times and the attention to detail is excellent,even down to the cooking style that is true Victorian. Enjoy,perfect for a rainy afternoon.

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Mrs. Trotter, born Louisa Leyton, has already proven that she can take whatever life dishes out and remain in a class all her own. Having made her reputation as the best cook in London and proprietress of the city's most elegant and discreet hotel, Louisa now faces even bigger challenges. When World War I breaks out, she opens the Bentinck's doors to soldiers but never cashes their checks. Driven almost to ruin and facing unbearable loss, she survives to usher in the giddy post-war age. Based on the true story of Rosa Lewis, a culinary genius and owner of London's venerable Cavendish Hotel, this acclaimed BBC series dramatizes the life of an indomitable woman in stories full of humor and heart. Created by John Hawkesworth (Upstairs, Downstairs) and starring Gemma Jones (Bridget Jones's Diary, Sense and Sensibility) as Louisa, and Christopher Cazenove (A Knight's Tale, TV's Dynasty) as Charlie, the dashing love of her life. As seen on Masterpiece Theatre.

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12/29/2011

Live Facelift (1991) Review

Live Facelift  (1991)
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As of 2002, in the wake of Jerry Cantrell's continuing solo career, Sean Kinney and Mike Inez's new band, Mike Starr's book, and Layne Staley's endless drug problems, it is clear that Alice in Chains is history. It's a shame, considering their music was the most personal and harrowing of the Seattle Big Four. Even worse is the fact that music "historians" will center the grunge movement around Nirvana and Pearl Jam in years to come.
That being said, there's no denying what a devastating band Alice was. Thus, this video is an absolutely essential addition to even the most casual Alice fan. The video is even more essential since the band has not launched a proper tour since 1993, and half-hearted performing and Staley?s increasingly frail singing voice highlighted their final live performances in 1996.
Live Facelift captures the band in all their glory, showing how powerful the band was in their younger days, before drug addiction put serious limitations on the band's capabilities. Staley's voice is in full force in this video, and Cantrell's guitar playing is among his most expressive.
Unfortunately the performance is far too short (the band only knocks out about 5 songs on stage, followed by 3 music videos), and the black and white provides a rather grainy quality on what is an otherwise exceptional live performance. The video also could've benefited from some backstage features, as anyone who has seen the Nona Tapes knows that behind the drug-addled music lies a band with a huge sense of humor.
All in all, Live Facelift is a must-have for Alice fans, an essential footnote in the career of a band that was probably Seattle's most unfulfilled talent.

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As Is (1986) Review

As Is  (1986)
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Although Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart is listed as the first Broadway production about AIDS, William M Hoffman's As Is was produced on Broadway the same year and won the 1995 Desk Drama Award for best new play and an Obie for Distinguished Playwriting. But whilst The Normal Heart is, to date, yet to be filmed (a version to be directed by Barbra Streisand was aborted after a public falling out between Streisand and Kramer), As Is was made for TV. In his introduction to OutFront, a collection of contemporary gay and lesbian plays, Don Shewer claims that As Is is the best play written about AIDS yet, since it looks at the disease from a social and personal point of view (as opposed to Kramer's political part self-serving autobiography, part jeremiad), and unlike Kramer's unrelenting despondence, Hoffman insists that where there is life, there is hope. The theatrical origins of the play are still in evidence in this cable production, from Colleen Dewhurst's opening and closing one-take monologues to camera as a hospice worker, and the shorthand dialogue style that Hoffman often employs. Director Michael Lindsay-Hogg seems so terrified of the Masterpiece Theatre brand of filmed play that he misguidedly utilises staccato editing and pseudo-documentary confessions, which only make the dialogue seem more theatrical. And the level at which he pitches the score by Peter Matz doesn't help. The studio sets also reveal how underpopulated (and presumably underbudgeted) the project is, and when we get a street scene it's like a breath of air. However with all this said, it is the eloquence of Hoffman's text that rises above the director's misteps. The depth of the play comes from the observed detail of gay lifestyle. The premise is that Rich has returned to his ex-lover Saul after being diagnosed with AIDS, and this returning allows for both a re-examination of the relationship and also the climate that made gay men so susceptible to the virus (though we do see a woman in Rich's therapy group who has been infected by her IV drug-user husband). Adapting his own play, Hoffman has made minor cuts and lost a hotline sequence that I didn't like anyway. In spite of the blackness of the subject matter, he easily interjects humour. The bar scenes are particularly funny in their self-consciousness, and we get the gallows humour of the gay men. Jonathan Hadary originated the role of Saul on stage and here he is magnificent. It's the kind of performance that an actor can easily be defined by, with subtleties and emotion concealed under the guise of a stereotype. Robert Carradine's Rich is less assured. Perhaps these kind of martyr roles are impossible to play, or perhaps it is that the carers of those facing death have the meatier parts since they get to stay. Plus Saul is the one to explain the title. Carradine's face is too much a reminder of his relatives, he isn't believable as a gay man, and his rage seems constricted. Saul's big reaction to Rich's "selfishness" in hospital seems therefore unprovoked. The staging of a fall in the hospital is also reminiscent of the final scene in Camille, which I would like to think is intentional, though I have my doubts. My favourite scene is the one where Rich's shamed brother visits him. The expectation of gay moral superiority is not met and we are touched by the brother's efforts to empathise with someone he realises he does not want to lose. Joanna Miles as Rich's actress friend is warm but has little to do except introduce him to her cousin Chet, (gorgeous Doug Annear) who will break up the relationship, though Hoffman gives short shift to explaining Chet's fate. Lindsay-Hogg lingers on Miles' farewell to Rich in hospital, in the same way he pauses after more than once we are told how gay men have abandoned their infected partners, making a cinematic judgment. Thankfully Dewhurst's appearances let us hear her throaty chuckle.

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Tom Brown's Schooldays (1973) Review

Tom Brown's Schooldays (1973)
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I was excited to see this title being released on DVD, as I have fond memories of watching it as an 11-year-old with my father when it first aired on "Masterpiece Theatre" in 1973. I was also concerned about how well it would hold up, having been frequently disappointed upon revisiting some of my favorite childhood films as an adult. Well, this one held up just fine, not only for me but for my own 11- and 9-year-old children.
The story is your average Victorian potboiler: young Tom foils the nefarious doings of a wealthy landowner, who tasks his son Gerald Flashman (a schoolmate of Tom's) with obtaining revenge by any means necessary. A parallel and related plot thread deals with the reform efforts of new school headmaster Dr. Arnold, who earns Tom's trust. My kids enjoyed, as I did on that long-ago first viewing, finding out whether Tom would triumph over the bully Flashman, and insisted on watching all five episodes in one day. (As avid "Harry Potter" fans, they found parallels between the characters and relationships of Tom/Flashman/Dr. Arnold and Harry/Draco/Professor Dumbledore. I have to agree that J.K. Rowling might have read Tom Brown once or twice.) I focused more this time on the production values, the performances (young Anthony Murphy won a deserved Emmy as Tom), and of course the memories that were brought back to me.
On the downside, some of the other child performances are pretty awful, and the back-and-forth jumps between film (for exterior scenes) and videotape (for interiors), which was common to "Masterpiece Theatre," are irritating. Still, this miniseries is highly recommended, particularly if you're a sucker for British period pieces (as I am).


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In an upper-class Victorian boarding school, a loveable schoolboy suffers at the hands of a vicious bully and is inspired by a forward-thinking headmaster. This Masterpiece Theatre classic is a fascinating portrait of the times and a heartwarming story of courage and friendship. Though a son of privilege in a rigidly class-conscious society, Tom Brown is a born egalitarian. What he learns at the famous Rugby School is that breeding really does determine character and scoundrels exist in every part of society. Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Thomas Hughes, who studied at Rugby in the 1830s under the educational reformer Dr. Thomas Arnold, this family drama stars Anthony Murphy in an Emmy®-winning debut as Tom with Iain Cuthbertson (Gorillas in the Mist) as Dr. Arnold.

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12/28/2011

The Projectionist (1970) Review

The Projectionist (1970)
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a wonderful fantasy that shows a pure love of film. an interesting artistic journey that holds up after all these years.

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Charlie Rose with Russell Baker; Tom Petty; John Feinstein (April 19, 1999) Review

Charlie Rose with Russell Baker; Tom Petty; John Feinstein (April 19, 1999)
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This was a Great Inteview with Tom Petty and Charlie Rose. With the
Release at the time--"Echo". w/the Heartbreakers. **This would be
the last Cd/album with Howie Epstein. The Inteview is only just 10/12
Because of other guest. But still Great if your a Big Petty Fan.
Plus they showed a clip of "Walls"--from the "She's the One"-Soundtrack.
This Cd is Better than the Movie. ---Maybe that's why I never had seen a Clip from
That Cd. Anyway--Again--if your a Petty Fan--this is a pretty cool item to seek out.
You will Enjoy it. Got this in the Mail pretty quick. Everyone else--Enjoy.
Happy Hunting. Troy

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Recording "The Producers" - A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks (2001) Review

Recording The Producers - A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks  (2001)
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Originally shown on PBS, this is a documentary of the recording of "The Producers" cast album. "The Producers," the hit Broadway show that made a sweep at the Tony's, and continues to do so at the box office, has a lot of funny people involved - Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, and Mel Brooks - and this movie captures them in some candid moment. Fortunately, the editors are not the MTV music video-type; we get to see whole songs being recorded, which is often not the case in these behind-the-scenes videos. Many songs are included, as well as interviews with Mel Brooks, who talks about how the show came about, the plot, and the cast members. One can see what a warm person Brooks is. And for those who cannot afford tickets to the Broadway show, or have to wait for months for availability, this is the next best thing. This video contains footage of Broderick doing a Marlon Brando impression, Susan Stroman praising the cast members, and more. We also get to see Lane getting a little nervous in the recording studio - at one point, he complains of not being able to hear himself, and gets snippy (or is he just being funny?) with a woman working the equipment. An extremely enlightening look at the hectic recording (Mr. Brooks keeps remarking, astonished, "I can't believe we only get one day" - every hour of overtime means thousands of more dollars) of a cast album.

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The exuberant atmosphere of the Broadway blockbuster is captured in "Recording The Producers: A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks," a new 85-minute film from the Emmy Award-winning director Susan Froemke and Maysles Films. The documentary candidly captures the excitement of translating the show into a complete experience for the recording's audience.

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12/27/2011

Lord Peter Wimsey - Five Red Herrings (1976) Review

Lord Peter Wimsey - Five Red Herrings (1976)
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I was delighted to see Acorn Media re-release Five Red Herrings. This is one of the best British mysteries ever by the greatest British mystery writer ever (in my opinion). While the DVD version is excellent, the print quality, as other reviewers have said, is not the greatest. BBC, in the mid 70s, used videotape for a lot of their productions instead of film with the result the picture quality suffered. But, this is a small point. The Wimsey series, first broadcast between 1974-77 in America and Canada on PBS Masterpiece Theatre, has been too long unavailable. Ian Carmichael is a perfect Wimsey and the Scottish countryside around Kirkcudbright makes this period piece a real charmer.
In most of Sayers novels, the villain rarely gets served up justice by the police as he/she/they do in Agatha Christie. Five Red Herrings is an exception, but suicide or some tragic cicumstance usually settles the score as it does in the other three released Wimsey series (to date). Not the hangman's noose for Dorothy's villains. Wimsey is a remarkable creation, very similar to Wodehouse's Wooster, but Sayers put Wimsey (and Bunter) through the hell of the Great War with the result there is a deeper side to the appearance of the "foppish Lord Peter". Five Red Herrings is a finely crafted story brought to the screen to perfection in this DVD
Top marks to Amazon and Acorn and I hope the creme de la creme of the 5 productions, The Nine Tailors, is soon to be released. The Nine Tailors is Sayers' finest work and, I think, the finest mystery novel ever written. The BBC production is outstanding and of five star quality. My recommendation to fellow viewers is to ask Amazon to complete the set and if you think the videos/DVDs are great, the novels are even better. Sayers was a classical scholar of international reputation who translated Dante's Inferno (still in print) and one of the finest writers of the early 20th century and nowhere is this talent better illustrated in The Nine Tailors and the other novels represented by this outstanding BBC series. "I say, well done Bunter!!"

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Ian Carmichael stars in this BBC adaption of Dorothy L. Sayers classic detective novel. Wimsey's fishing holiday in Scotland becomes a sport of a different nature when he is called to catch more than trout after a local artist is found dead. With six likely suspects, Wimsey must use his prize skills to determine the five red herrings and expose the murderer.

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Broadway's Lost Treasures III - The Best of the Tony Awards Review

Broadway's Lost Treasures III - The Best of the Tony Awards
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As thankful as I am to see any footage of Broadway performers released, the Broadway Lost Treasures series is really -- it must be said -- a botched opportunity. There is little rhyme or reason in how the clips are chosen and assembled. The performances are good, bad and everything in between, and this latest installment has one of the weakest selections yet.
First, I wish that the lip-synched numbers would just be omitted altogether -- to me, they don't qualify as a performance. So don't get your hopes up for Gwen Verdon's "Whatever Lola Wants" (unless you only care about the dancing) or Angela Lansbury's "Everything's Coming Up Roses." They both fall in this category.
Now, let's move on to the highlights of this DVD:
The best segments are those that give glimpses of golden-age musicals not captured on film and unlikely to appear on stage again.
It's great to see Jerry Orbach doing a song from Burt Bacharach's "Promises, Promises." Although it's a bad night vocally for him, the energy is there. The segment from "The Happy Time" is definitely one of the disc's highlights, with Robert Goulet attractive and charming. And the number from the largely forgotten "How Now, Dow Jones" is very enjoyable too.
In addition, three titans of Broadway's peak years are captured -- well after their own peaks, but better late than never.
Ethel Merman is absolutely wonderful in a truncated medley -- amazingly, about 42 years after her stage debut. In the bit from "Call Me Madam," Merman essentially uses her co-star, Larry Blyden, as a stage prop, to hilarious effect. And the "Gypsy" number is both electrifying and moving. That's Broadway, folks, with a capital M. The crime is that the medley was very crudely cut for this DVD -- according to Broadway expert Ken Mandelbaum, three songs were removed. That's close to unforgivable.
Alfred Drake, in a number from "Kiss Me Kate," is also quite good, although the last note is a little rough.
And Julie Andrews is beautiful and luminous, if a bit cautious vocally, in her medley from "My Fair Lady" and "Camelot."
Also worthwhile are Chita Rivera, exhibiting tremendous career-comeback talent in "Kiss of the Spider Woman," and Zero Mostel mugging his way (as usual) through "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum."
With a few exceptions, the rest of the disc is expendable. But buy it for the above alone. Hopefully, it will encourage others with rights to historical footage of Broadway performers to release DVDs of their own treasures (e.g., more from the Ed Sullivan show) and do a better job of it.

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Broadway royalty and Tony-winners Tommy Tune, Carol Channing, Robert Goulet, and Harvey Fierstein are your hosts for this third compilation of great musical performances from the archives of the Tony Award® broadcasts. Legendary stars from legendary shows strut their stuff in 23 performances that have become part of Broadway history.

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Mike Fenton's Actors Workshop Review

Mike Fenton's Actors Workshop
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I came to Hollywood unprepared and naive. I had no idea how the system worked. Most videos and books written about how Hollywood works are written by failed wannabes. Not this one- Mike Fenton has worked on some of the biggest films of all time. I'd say about half of the movies I loved growing up were cast by Mike over the years. This DVD helped me see how the world of Hollywood worked, and it has saved me an enormous amount of time. I now have a much more realistic view of "the industry", and I'm making headway.

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12/26/2011

The Ultimate 3-D Horror Collection (Includes H3D Viewing System) Review

The Ultimate 3-D Horror Collection (Includes H3D Viewing System)
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THE ULTIMATE 3-D HORROR COLLECTION
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Soundtrack: Mono
CAMP BLOOD (USA - 1999): Whilst hiking in woodland near the deserted Camp Blackwood - site of an unsolved murder ten years earlier - four young city-dwellers are targeted by a masked psychopath who kills their guide (Courtney Harris) and stalks them through the woods with murderous intent...
HUNTING SEASON (USA - 2000): A woman (Cindy Pena) arms herself with an arsenal of lethal weapons and heads into the woods to take revenge against four masked hunters who beat her boyfriend (Michael Walker) to a bloody pulp and subjected her to a brutal sexual assault.
THE ZOMBIE CHRONICLES (USA - 2001): Whilst searching for an isolated town with a history of strange occurrences, a young reporter (Emmy Smith) picks up a grizzled hitchhiker (Joseph Haggerty) who tells her two stories involving flesh-eating zombies which are reputed to haunt the area.
Billed as 'campy, horror-filled fun', the three movies which make up Slingshot Entertainment's 'Ultimate 3-D Horror Collection' were filmed on camcorder utilizing the Nu-View field sequential 3-D format, with no attempt to disguise their microscopic budgets or their origins as bona fide video productions. In a word, they're dreadful. In interviews, Brad Sykes - director of CAMP BLOOD and THE ZOMBIE CHRONICLES - cites the early works of George A. Romero and Sam Raimi as key influences on his career, but while those filmmakers used their lack of adequate funding to challenge the mainstream with cutting-edge works which substituted imagination and energy for glossy aesthetics, Sykes and his cohorts have used video technology merely to imitate their cinematic counterparts, resulting in (literal) home movies with delusions of grandeur...
CAMP BLOOD has the strongest narrative, but Sykes' script adheres closely to an established blueprint (with obvious nods to the likes of FRIDAY THE 13th, THE BURNING and THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, which the director readily acknowledges) without adding anything even remotely new or interesting to the formula. THE ZOMBIE CHRONICLES is a complete waste of time, hobbled from the outset by Haggerty's painfully amateurish performance in a key role, and the two stories which make up the bulk of the running time are utterly routine, made worse by indifferent performances and lackluster direction. HUNTING SEASON - directed by Jeff Leroy (editor on all three productions) - is marginally superior, featuring a spirited performance by Amazonian beauty Pena as the vengeful, leather-clad harpy seeking revenge on four irredeemable slimeballs, leading to a genuine twist in the tale. However, while Leroy's direction is lively and competent (including a fair number of off-the-screen 3-D effects), the rock-bottom production values and unflattering camcorder photography conspire against any and all good intentions. These aren't 'fun' movies in the sense that Ed Wood's movies are 'fun' (he, at least, believed in what he was doing and was sincere in his efforts, despite a lack of talent); they are, in fact, aggravating, boring and almost completely devoid of any redeeming virtue, and most viewers will feel justifiably angry and cheated by such unimaginative, badly-conceived junk.
And yet, this release amounts to a dual-edged sword: The movies are packaged here with a video transmitter and wired glasses - almost twice as expensive if purchased separately - which allows viewers to experience 3-D movies in the field sequential format, and Slingshot has sensibly included both 3-D AND 2-D versions of the films on each disc. Whereas anaglyphic presentations (using red-blue glasses) tend to distort colors and obscure dimensional effects, the field sequential process (polarized glasses) offers a near-perfect reproduction of 3-D images, preserving all the color and resolution inherent in the material. Some flicker is evident during brightly-lit sequences, but this is reduced markedly when viewed in a darkened room (ideally, the lights should be turned off altogether). However, while all of the titles under discussion generate an extraordinary illusion of depth (particularly HUNTING SEASON, which features a number of eye-popping landscape shots), the visuals are often afflicted by crosstalk (that is, left-eye images retain residual imagery from right-eye images and vice versa, leading to ghosting and eye-strain), and the image flattens out whenever the filmmakers resort to slow motion or speeded-up action. Often, background details are reduced to an indistinct blur which defy all attempts to resolve them into a dimensional image, and foreground details (grass, hanging branches, etc.) are often similarly unfocussed. However, these problems are not insurmountable, and the field sequential format is tailor-made for the reproduction on DVD of any 3-D movie photographed with truly professional polarizing equipment (HOUSE OF WAX, FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN, etc.).
Sadly, while 'The Ultimate 3-D Horror Collection' keeps the field sequential process in the public eye and paves the way for GENUINE 3-D movies on DVD (with 'flat' and 3-D versions on the same disc), the technology is tainted by association with this kind of direct-to-video garbage, thereby hindering its acceptance within the mainstream.

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Secret Service (Broadway Theatre Archive) (1977) Review

Secret Service (Broadway Theatre Archive)  (1977)
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Many years ago I had the pleasure of seeing this filmed stage play on PBS and am delighted to see it was finally released on video. Based on the William Gillette play, this Civil War spy story features (VERY young) John Lithgow, Meryl Streep, and Charles Kimbrough (best known for his work in 'Murphy Brown') in the lead roles. (Look quickly for Jeffrey Jones of 'Ferris Buller' fame in a bit as a Southern soldier.)
Lithgow is especially wonderful as the Northern spy passing for Southern officer who loves Southern belle, Streep, but cannot (or can he/) let that interfere with his work. Kimbrough plays the rather smarmy suitor to Streep with great panache.
The old-fashioned plot offers no surprises, but just sit back and enjoy. I think you'll find this one is worth it.

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Featuring Meryl Streep, John Lithgow, and Mary Beth Hurt in one of their earliest television appearances, this 1895 thriller by William Gillette tells the tale of a Union spy working to seize control of the telegraph office in Richmond, Virginia in 1864. Posing as a wounded Confederate captain named Thorne, the spy's false orders to a Confederate Army commander raise the suspicions of a southern agent, who uses a local girl in love with Thorne as his reluctant accomplice to set a trap. "...more turns then a corps de ballet in frenzied heat." --The New York Times

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